Russia’s foreign-currency credit rating has been cut to junk by Standard & Poor’s, putting it below investment grade for the first time in a decade.

As Alexander Litvinenko lay dying from radiation poisoning in 2006, he named the man he thought had ordered his murder: Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Newly discovered recording of murdered Russian Alexander Litvinenko linking Russian President to one of the world’s most dangerous criminals.

The firm providing support for the giant Russian-owned vessel Serene says superyacht tourism is booming.

There were some unlikely “Charlies” on yesterday’s march for democracy and freedom.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Can Russia afford the economic blowback from taking over Crimea? The markets aren't so sure.

Muscovites rushed to the shops yesterday as the ruble's slide brought fears that imported goods would soon soar in price.

Here's what's happening in Russia: Its currency has lost half its value, investors have pulled billions of dollars amid an oil plunge. Now here's what's not happening.

The financial crisis in Russia has wiped billions off the fortunes of some of Britain's wealthiest tycoons and has led to a spate of property panic buying across London.

The raw figures look bad, and they are deteriorating.

Russia's currency crisis has added risk to world markets, but the New Zealand economy is likely to be spared direct impact, analysts say.

Russia has lost control of its economy and may be forced to impose Soviet-style exchange controls after the central bank failed to stem the collapse of the rouble.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

PM joined chorus of voices condemning Russia's President at the G20, although he was not quite as blunt as Canada's Stephen Harper.

Ukrainian Australians staged a powerful protest yesterday, laying on the ground in a symbol of the murderous acts they say Russia's president is responsible for.

Prime Minister John Key says Russia has tried to reignite free trade talks - but New Zealand has made it clear it will not budge until Russia buckles to international demands over Ukraine.