Tapped phone conversations filled with swearing and codenames were among the most critical pieces of evidence into MH17. Here's what really went on.

A football lout claims :"Football hooligans are ordinary people who love violence. And we are the most honest part of society."

On a clear afternoon last Monday a line of humanitarian aid trucks eased to a stop in front of a cluster of warehouses packed with aid supplies 24km outside the Syrian city of Aleppo.

Footage from a polling booth at the weekend's Russian parliamentary elections appears to show an official stuffing a ballot box.

The US-Russia deal to bring peace to Syria seemed near collapse yesterday as two countries publicly accused each other of double-dealing and atrocities.

The Russian President will cheer the Syrian agreement as a victory over US Secretary of State John Kerry.

These astonishing photos of a thrill-seeker's sky-high catwalk show have turned her into a social media sensation.

New Zealand will hand over the responsibility of carrying out polls on the Secretary General job to Russia in September to ensure there is no perception of a conflict of interest.

Helen Clark's bid for the UN Secretary General job has been raised by Foreign Minister Murray McCully during a meeting with his Russian counterpart in Moscow.

Police are hunting a killer Romeo after a young woman was gruesomely murdered after hooking up with a man she met online.

The dangerous relationship between Putin and Trump.

On NZ Herald Focus, Donald Trump has appealed to Russia to release emails that Hillary Clinton did not hand over.

We are going to see Russians winning medals and an Olympic movement in disgrace.

Russia and her allies have started a fightback to stay in the Rio Olympics after the sensational disclosures about a state-directed doping programme.

Russia's doping programme saw drug dissolved in Chivas whisky for men and vermouth for women, to give them an undetected edge over other athletes.

Vladimir Putin has purged all the officers in his Baltic Sea fleet citing corruption

Isis fighters shot down a Russian helicopter above Syria, killing both pilots on board.

The New Zealand Olympic Committee says it has not been told of any plan to ban Russian athletes from Rio for doping.

US defence official says Russia's might could annihilate Nato in three days, as a stand-off between them escalates in the region.

Russian "AIDS experts" say the best form of protection is to "be in a heterosexual family where both partners are loyal to each other".

Vladimir Putin may have unleashed his worst enemy when Nadia Savchenko was freed from Russian prison.

An Aucklander adopted from a Russian orphanage 19 years ago has been reunited with her birth sister - live on Russian television.

It's hard not to feel like James Bond stepping off the hovercraft on the crunchy ice of frozen solid Lake Baikal in Siberia.

The former Soviet city of Pripyat, the site of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, has became an unlikely drawcard for international tourists

Diplomats tell us what Kiwis need to know about their homelands.

Reports by two consortiums of investigative journalists purport to have exposed the dealings and offshore accounts of some of Putin's closest associates.

Safely tucked away from prying eyes, Bunker 42 was Joseph Stalin's expansive nuclear facility built by the Soviet Union during the Cold War

Wendi Deng, 47, is rumoured to be seeing Russian President Vladimir Putin. But the Kremlin has denied any relationship between the two.

The former wife of the media mogul is reportedly in a "serious" relationship with the world leader.