Russia

    Russian spies launched cyber attacks against Britain's government and a global chemical weapons watchdog after the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, it is claimed. The GRU military intelligence service allegedly targeted computers at the Foreign Office and the Porton Down defence research lab and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to infiltrate the nerve agent attack probe. The Netherlands said four Russian intelligence officers were expelled after they were caught with spying equipment at a hotel next to the OPCW headquarters in The Hague in April. The GRU is also accused of targeting files on the investigation into Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which was shot down over territory held by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. R...

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has called Sergei Skripal, the ex-spy who was poisoned with a military grade nerve agent in Britain, a traitor and a scumbag. It was the first time Mr Putin has directly condemned Mr Skripal, who spent weeks in hospital with his daughter Yulia after both were poisoned in the city of Salisbury in March. Britain put the blame squarely on Russia but Moscow has denied any role in the incident. Asked about sanctions on Russia triggered by the attack, Mr Putin called the ex-spy just a scumbag who betrayed his country. He reiterated Russia’s claim that it has nothing to do with the poisoning. Mr Putin said the former agent was of no interest to the Kremlin since he was tried in Russia and exchanged in a spy swap in 2010.

    His intervention risks provoking fresh tensions a day after Moscow and Tel Aviv moved to de-escalate a row that threatened to build into a military confrontation. This unfortunate incident was the result of Israeli arrogance and depravity, the Syrian leader said, offering his condolences in a letter to his Russian counterpart for the death of 15 Russian crew members killed in the incident over Syria on Monday. We are determined that such tragic events will sway neither you nor us from continuing the fight against terrorism, he continued in the letter published by the official Sana agency. The Russian plane was shot down by Syria's Russian-made S-200 air defence system and all aboard were killed on Tuesday. The Russian military has accused Israeli pilots of using t...

    A Russian military jet is believed to have been inadvertetly shot down in Syria. The Russian Defence Ministry says it lost contact with an IL-20 turbo-prop plane, which had 14 people on board, near Khmeimim Airbase in Syria. The jet disappeared off radar around the same time that Israeli and French forces were mounting aerial attacks on targets in Syria. The aircraft is believed to have been accidentally shot down by Syrian defences while firing at incoming Israeli missiles. A US government official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said it believed the plane, used for electronic reconnaissance, was downed by anti-aircraft artillery. Around the time the plane disappeared, the Syrian coastal city of Latakia near a Russian airbase to which the IL-20 w...

    The Russian President watched as 300,000 troops, 36,000 tanks and 1,000 aircraft went on manoeuvres at the Tsugol range, near the border with China. Putin also watched a huge military parade in which Russian troops lined up alongside their Chinese and Mongolian counterparts. All components of the troops' combat readiness, preparedness of the management bodies, units and formations as well as the organization of their cooperation are subjected to comprehensive checks. The government has increased military spending every year since 1998, with the exception of 2017 when it fell due to an economic crisis, in an effort to update Soviet-era systems by 2025. Moscow insisted that only around 12,000 troops would participate, though at the time NATO believed up to 100...

    Bots and Russian trolls spread misinformation about vaccines on Twitter to sow division and distribute malicious content before and during the American presidential election, according to a new study. Scientists at George Washington University, in Washington DC, made the discovery while trying to improve social media communications for public health workers, researchers said. Instead, they found trolls and bots skewing online debate and upending consensus about vaccine safety. The study discovered several accounts, now known to belong to the same Russian trolls who interfered in the US election, as well as marketing and malware bots, tweeting about vaccines. Russian trolls played both sides, the researchers said, tweeting pro- and anti-vaccine content in a politica...

    A nuclear-powered Russian missile remains lost at sea after a failed test late last year, and Moscow is preparing to try to recover it, according to people with direct knowledge of a U.S. intelligence report. Crews will attempt to recover a missile that was test launched in November and landed in the Barents Sea, which is located north of Norway and Russia. The operation will include three vessels, one of which is equipped to handle radioactive material from the weapon's nuclear core. There is no timeline for the mission, according to the people with knowledge of the report. The U.S. intelligence report did not mention any potential health or environmental risks posed by possible damage to the missile's nuclear reactor. Russian President Vladimir Putin unveiled the...

    The US president has again caused confusion over his stance on Russia after appearing to say he believed Moscow was no longer targeting the US. Speaking to reporters during a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Donald Trump answered "no" when asked if the US was still being targeted by Russia, a belief that would put him at odds with his intelligence chiefs. But White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said hours later that she had talked with the president and he had instead been saying "no" to taking further questions from reporters. When asked if she was reversing what the president had said, she answered: "I'm interpreting it, not reversing it." It comes a day after Mr Trump backtracked on comments he madeabout whether he believed Russia had been responsible for al...

    Vladimir Putin has addressed the Novichok poisonings in the UK as he was asked why so many of his political opponents end up dead. The Russian president slammed the 'ungrounded accusations' against Moscow over the nerve agent attack which left one woman dead and three people in comas. And the former KGB agent failed to answer a bold question from a Fox News host about the mysterious deaths of his enemies. In an exclusive interview , following his summit with Donald Trump in Helsinki yesterday, journalist Chris Wallace asked Putin outright why so many people who oppose him end up dead. The news anchor listed a number of Russians who have been targeted, including former double agent Sergei Skripal and Boris Nemtsov, a Russian politician who was shot dead outside the...

    A mummified corpse discovered in Russia has earned the nickname “Sleeping Beauty” because she was laid to rest in luxurious clothing while clutching gifts for the afterlife, including a makeup box with a mirror. Scientists think the body could be more than 1,900 years old. The woman’s body was buried in the grave dressed in a silk skirt and with a pouch of pine nuts on her chest. Archaeologists think that several expensive items found in the grave, including a gemstone buckle on a beaded belt and the mirror, were placed there to help her in the afterlife, The Siberian Times reported. The body was accidentally mummified in the stone tomb, in a rare case of natural mummification by which the skin and organs of a dead person or animal are preserved, without the introdu...