Putin continues his blitz round of Mideast diplomacy by hosting the Iranian president

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Iran’s president Thursday as part of a blitz round of Middle East diplomacy that also included visits to United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in efforts to raise Moscow’s profile as a power broker in the region. Putin has...

UK says Russia's intelligence service behind sustained attempts to meddle in British democracy

LONDON (AP) — Russia's intelligence services have targeted high-profile British politicians, civil servants and journalists with cyberespionage as part of years-long attempts to interfere in U.K. politics, Britain's government said Thursday. The Foreign Office said Russia's FSB...

Putin moves a step closer to a fifth term as president after Russia sets 2024 election date

Lawmakers in Russia set the country’s 2024 presidential election for March 17, moving Vladimir Putin a step closer to a fifth term in office. Members of the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament, voted unanimously to approve a decree setting the date. ...

Japan pledges $4.5B more in aid for Ukraine, including $1B in humanitarian funds

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged $4.5 billion to Ukraine, including $1 billion in humanitarian aid to help support the war-torn country's recovery effort in an online summit of leading industrial nations. Kishida made the announcement late Wednesday in...

Russian girl shoots several classmates, leaving 1 dead, before killing herself

MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian girl shot several classmates at school Thursday, killing one person and wounding five others before killing herself, state news agencies and authorities said. The shooting happened at a school in Bryansk, a city in a region of the same name that borders...

Russian lawmakers set the country's presidential election for March 17, 2024, clearing way for Putin to seek a 5th term

A former Ukrainian lawmaker who fled to Russia found shot dead outside of Moscow

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A renegade Ukrainian lawmaker who fled to Russia shortly after Moscow's invasion was found dead on Wednesday near Moscow. The Ukrainian military intelligence lauded the killing, warning that other “traitors of Ukraine” would share the same fate. Illia...

Russia's Putin is visiting the UAE and Saudi Arabia, seeking to bolster Moscow's Mideast clout

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday in a lightning tour intended to raise Moscow's profile as a Middle East power broker, even as his war in Ukraine grinds on. Putin landed in Abu Dhabi,...

US files war crime charges against Russians accused of torturing an American in the Ukraine invasion

WASHINGTON (AP) — Four Russian men accused of torturing an American during the invasion of Ukraine have been charged with war crimes in a first-of-its-kind case, the Justice Department announced on Wednesday. It is the first prosecution against members of the Russian armed forces...

Under Putin, the uber-wealthy Russians known as 'oligarchs' are still rich but far less powerful

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — When Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, the outside world viewed those Russians known as “oligarchs” as men who whose vast wealth, ruthlessly amassed, made them almost shadow rulers. A “government of the few,” in the word's etymology. The term has...