Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called for an international peacekeeping mission in his nation's war-torn east.

Ukraine has appealed to the West to get tough on Russia after separatists it says are militarily backed by Moscow stormed a flashpoint town.

The 94-year-old Wellington veteran received the honour at French Ambassador Laurent Contini's home in Thorndon tonight.

More than 11 months into the crisis he unleashed, Russian President Vladimir Putin remains in charge of the dynamic, seeking to confuse and divide the West as he apparently seeks to create a damaged....

Diplomats have warned Europe could descend into war if the West does not stand up to Russia over the Ukraine conflict.

The widow of poisoned spy Alexander Litvinenko has told the public inquiry into his death that her husband accused Russian president Vladimir Putin of being a paedophile.

Another tale of Russian spooks operating in the US has emerged, described by the former CIA analyst Mark Stout as a "classic case of espionage".

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.

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.

Anton Tumanov gave up his life for his country, but his country won't say where and it won't say how.

The perception for more than a decade has been of a state ridding itself of a reliance on oil and gas exports and diversifying in a manner befitting a high-tech, modern economy.

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.

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's ruble was tanking on Tuesday faster than journalists could type, hitting levels against the dollar that were unimaginable even a week ago.

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.