Latest from Russia

Sweden confirms second submarine search

The super-rich got a lot richer in 2014

The richest people on Earth got richer in 2014, adding US$92 billion ($118 billion) to their collective fortune in the face of falling energy prices and geopolitical turmoil incited by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Editorial: Govt comes out on top in colourful year

Looking back on 2014 New Zealand's historians will see an unremarkable election. The economy was booming, the Government stable, the Prime Minister popular and opinion polls giving his party every prospect of a comfortable re-election.

Kremlin denies deaths in undeclared war

Anton Tumanov gave up his life for his country, but his country won't say where and it won't say how.

Editorial: Putin's gamble shows how bad his economy is

The perception for more than a decade has been of a state ridding itself of a reliance on oil and gas exports and diversifying in a manner befitting a high-tech, modern economy.

West can't rely on a White Knight

There is a scene in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass in which Alice meets the White Knight who is wearing full armour and riding a horse which he keeps falling off.

Putin scraps holidays

Russia's economy will shrink by around 4 per cent next year as a result of falling oil prices and ongoing financial turmoil, its finance minister has warned.

Ordinary Russians secret to Putin survival

All politicians like to have props, and in Vladimir Putin's case, some are taken from the box marked Macho and others from the box marked Mother Russia.

Russia aids ruble with big rate rise + video

Russia took its biggest step yet to shore up the ruble and defuse the currency crisis threatening its stricken economy.

Tycoon's death mafia work?

Friends of Scot Young, the tycoon who died in a fall from his fourth-storey London flat, have claimed that he owed millions of pounds to the Russian and Turkish mafia.

Church gets city's 'Eye of Sauron' cut

Russia faces spectre of recession

Russia's economic crisis deepened as the Govt acknowledged it's heading for recession and "panic" crept into the financial system as oil prices plunged.

Super young - but supermodel

Russian supermodel Natalia Vodianova needs to watch out, there's a very young pretender on her modelling back.

Woman with pacemaker dies after scan at airport

A woman fitted with a pacemaker has died after passing through an airport scanner in the southern Russian town of Ulan-Ude.

Mysterious satellite likely on a mission

A mysterious Russian object is being tracked by space agencies, giving new life to fears about the increase of space weapons.

Exploiting Russia sanctions 'a bad look'

John Key says major companies have been asked not to exploit the gap left by other countries' trade sanctions on Russia because to do so would be a "terrible look" for NZ.