COMMENT: The announcement makes it explicit that Putin has no interest in giving Assad the support he'd need to take on the forces of Isis.

Putin's announcement that Russia will begin withdrawing the "main part" of its military from Syria is a surprise potential end to a six-month intervention.

Russia's surprise military withdrawal from Syria does not mean free-trade talks are back on the table, Prime Minister John Key says.

A Russian man is being prosecuted for writing a post on social media that equated the Bible to a "collection of Jewish fairytales".

Russian's plan is "the best opportunity the Syrian people have had over the past five years for lasting peace and stability".

Vladimir Putin is purposefully creating a refugee crisis in order to "overwhelm" and "break" Europe, Nato's military commander in Europe has warned.

More material branding the US president as a mass killer has shown up in Moscow.

Putin sell-off likely to be a flop, writes Ben Wright.

A leading member of a Russian opposition party has told how he believes he was poisoned in a "politically motivated" attack.

China and Russia promote a restrictive "sovereignty" model.

The Turkish leader has two goals: to ensure the destruction of Assad's regime, and to prevent the creation of a new Kurdish state in Syria, writes Gwynne Dyer.

Russia and Ukraine sank further into a widening trade war yesterday, as Russia halted all gas deliveries to Ukraine.

Bomber's downing has split two obstinate strongmen deeply involved in Syria's increasingly crowded civil war.

For days, Russian jets had been roaring along the Turkish border, bombing hills on the Syrian side in support of a regime attack on rebel forces.

COMMENT: Russia's President has been taught a lesson with the shooting of a warplane over Turkish air space.

The head of Russia's anti-doping laboratory resigned hours after his lab was suspended over accusations it was part of a state-sponsored doping program

Maids, porters and other hotel staff in Sharm el-Sheikh are being questioned to discover if one of them hid a bomb in the luggage of a passenger on board the doomed Russian holiday flight.

Russia's doped athletes "sabotaged" the 2012 Olympics and should be banned from future competitions until the country cleans up its act, a bombshell report has said.

Investigators of the Russian plane crash are pursuing the theory that a bomb could have been placed inside a passenger's luggage by hotel staff.

The decision by several airlines to avoid the airspace over the Sinai Peninsula following the break-up of a Russian passenger jet was only the latest addition to a list of official and self-selected....

Suspicions that foul play caused the passenger jet crash in Egypt were growing as the Russian airline's owners said the plane could only have been brought down by "external factors".

If there were a rule book setting out how to handle a disaster that has claimed hundreds of innocent lives, Egypt and Russia on Saturday contrived to ignore every page.

Three major airlines announced yesterday that they would no longer fly over the Sinai Peninsula after a Russian passenger plane crashed in the area.

Former KGB major claims Russian hitmen murdered MI6 spy.

Passenger airliners could be at risk from long-range Russian cruise missiles being fired at Syria, international air safety agencies have warned.