A Russian court gave Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny a suspended sentence on Tuesday for embezzling money but jailed his brother for three and a half years in a case seen as part of a campaign to stifle dissent.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Ukraine's pursuit of NATO membership posed a danger to European security and that the West was using Kiev's bid to join the Atlantic alliance as a way to fuel confrontation between Russia and Ukraine.
Russia will not be intimidated over its actions in Ukraine and Crimea, President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday as his foreign ministry warned that it was preparing to retaliate against fresh Western sanctions.
Since 2001 the United States has tried virtually every strategy available to persuade Pakistan's army to take the threat of militancy more seriously, but 12 years and $28 billion in aid later, all the American approaches are widely viewed as having failed.
Russia will take counter measures if Washington imposes new sanctions on Moscow over the Ukraine crisis, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Saturday.
U.S. lawmakers were expected on Friday to approve new sanctions on Russian weapons companies and investors in the country's high-tech oil projects, putting more U.S. pressure on President Vladimir Putin for interference in eastern Ukraine.
The leader of Crimea, the former Ukrainian territory annexed by Russia, visited India on Thursday as a member of President Vladimir Putin's annual summit delegation, and the United States said it found the reports troubling.
Divisions among the veto-wielding powers of the U.N. Security Council are harming the world's children and sowing the seeds of future conflicts, the head of the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Monday.
Ukraine plans a "Day of Silence" on Tuesday to try to rebuild a ceasefire with pro-Russian separatists that has all but disintegrated, but accompanying peace talks -- the first in three months -- look likely to be delayed.
French President Francois Hollande said after an impromptu visit to Russia for crisis talks with Vladimir Putin on Saturday that a ceasefire could take hold in eastern Ukraine in the next few days.
Britain's Catherine Ashton will continue to play a key coordinating role in negotiations over Iran's disputed nuclear program despite stepping down as the European Union's foreign policy chief.
The flags of Russia, Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists flutter over a water tower building on one of the few stretches of the frontline in eastern Ukraine where peace has broken out.
The mother of a German woman killed when Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was downed over eastern Ukraine in July is suing the Ukrainian authorities at the European Court of Human Rights for failing to close their airspace, a German paper reported.
The European Union has imposed sanctions on the organizers of rebel elections in eastern Ukraine this month, the bloc said on Saturday, hitting the separatists and their organizations with asset freezes and travel bans.
NATO's planned new fast-reaction force, centerpiece of its response to Russia's annexation of Crimea, is proving harder to set up than expected because of shortages of vital equipment and arguments over funding, diplomats say.
After nine months of non-stop German diplomacy to defuse the crisis in Ukraine, Chancellor Angela Merkel decided in mid-November that a change of tack was needed.
President Vladimir Putin blamed the West for worsening relations with Russia since the Ukraine crisis and said Moscow would not allow itself to become internationally isolated behind another 'Iron Curtain'.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Friday condemned Russia's behaviour in Ukraine as "unacceptable" and said Moscow should abide by a September peace deal and pull its military forces out of the country.
Russia warned the United States on Thursday against supplying arms to Ukrainian forces fighting pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, hours before U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden was due to arrive in Kiev.
It may have looked in the West like Russian President Vladimir Putin fled this weekend's G20 summit early with his tail between his legs after being berated over Ukraine.
The end of communist rule in Europe, which began 25 years ago this month, was not all positive for Christianity because it brought tensions between Rome and Russia back to the surface, a senior Vatican official said on Monday.
