Ukrainian officials say the bungled attempt to steal the remains was part of a continuing Russian effort to repatriate the remains of the Soviet war dead.

The newly discovered memo, written in March 1994 by Wayne Merry, chief of the U.S. Embassy’s internal politics division at the time, didn’t make the same impact as Kennan’s for two reasons. First, Merry did not go public.

Russia's friends — or frenemies — aren't all pariah states. Some of them enjoy good relations with the West, too.

Secretive North Korea has one of the world’s largest militaries, with 1.28 million active soldiers, but unlike in Russia, the Korean People's Army (KPA) has no recent experience of combat. Pyongyang’s army is “thoroughly indoctrinated but with low readiness,” says Mark Cancian, from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Volunteers helping to clean up a major oil spill along Russia's Black Sea coast appealed in a video released on Monday for President Vladimir Putin to urgently send federal aid, saying that they and local authorities were overwhelmed.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday hosted Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, in a rare visit to the Kremlin by an EU leader since Moscow’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

North Korea and Russia are deepening their military cooperation, as Pyongyang ramps up the supply of arms to Moscow for its war in Ukraine and receives much needed cash and oil from the Kremlin in return.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that more than 3,000 North Korean soldiers have been killed and wounded in Russia's Kursk region and warned that Pyongyang could send more personnel and equipment for Moscow's army.

Lawmakers in Russia have targeted so-called nontraditional lifestyles as they seek to tackle falling birthrates and a spike in divorces.

One of the biggest media stories of 2024 was a celebratory one: Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was freed from Russia in a complex prisoner swap.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed Monday more than 3,000 troops from North Korea have been killed so far fighting next to Russian forces.