Why do Russians continue put up with being ruled by Vladimir Putin, asks Gwynne Dyer, when there are alternatives available?

Before leaving for home after the Group of 20 summit, President Barack Obama sat down with Russian civil society activists to assure them that he would keep pressing Moscow to respect human rights.

They're supposed to be talking about growth and money, but the threat of war in Syria is creeping into nearly every conversation as the leaders of the world's 20 top economies huddle in Russia this week.

The Russian village of Oymyakon is generally known as the world's coldest permanently inhabited place.

The Russian village of Oymyakon is generally known as the world's coldest permanently inhabited place. Photos by Amos Chapple.

A number of celebrities have taken to Twitter to show their support Wentworth Miller after he revealed he is gay.

Last week, Alexei Navalny, the recently convicted Russian opposition blogger, lawyer and candidate for the post of mayor of Moscow, posted a provocative item on his site.

Gay competitors in next year's Winter Olympics risk arrest by Russian police if they engage in "propaganda" for their homosexuality, Russia's Sports Minister has confirmed.

Russia's Bolshoi Theatre is mourning a new tragedy after a senior violinist died after falling into the orchestra pit.

Russian President Vladimir Putin must have been a very angry man when he sanctioned the posthumous trial of Sergei Magnitsky, who died in March 2009, for tax evasion.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has made an attempt to bounce Russia into supporting a future for Syria without President Bashar al-Assad.

Lyudmila Putin once described her husband as a vampire.

The Russian Parliament is preparing to pass a bill that would outlaw "homosexual propaganda", which has prompted fears of a rise in homophobic violence, in a society that has little tolerance of gay people.

A US diplomat disguised in a blond wig was caught trying to recruit a Russian counterintelligence officer in Moscow, Russia's security services say.

As a new generation of Russian It-girls cause a kerfuffle on the international catwalks, we take a look at Moscow's fashion revolution.

Liz Light spends 24 hours in Novgorod.

Sub-audible infrasonic waves from the meteor which exploded over a remote region of Russia last week were recorded 15,000km away in Antarctica.

With a blinding flash and a booming shock wave, a meteor blazed across the sky over Russia's Ural Mountains region Friday and exploded with the force of an atomic bomb, injuring more than 1,000 people as it blasted out windows and spread panic in a city of 1 million.