Russian President Vladimir Putin must have been a very angry man when he sanctioned the posthumous trial of Sergei Magnitsky, who died in March 2009, for tax evasion.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has made an attempt to bounce Russia into supporting a future for Syria without President Bashar al-Assad.

Lyudmila Putin once described her husband as a vampire.

The Russian Parliament is preparing to pass a bill that would outlaw "homosexual propaganda", which has prompted fears of a rise in homophobic violence, in a society that has little tolerance of gay people.

A US diplomat disguised in a blond wig was caught trying to recruit a Russian counterintelligence officer in Moscow, Russia's security services say.

Liz Light spends 24 hours in Novgorod.

Sub-audible infrasonic waves from the meteor which exploded over a remote region of Russia last week were recorded 15,000km away in Antarctica.

With a blinding flash and a booming shock wave, a meteor blazed across the sky over Russia's Ural Mountains region Friday and exploded with the force of an atomic bomb, injuring more than 1,000 people as it blasted out windows and spread panic in a city of 1 million.

Analysts of the murky Russian underworld say a number of different groupings could be behind the audacious daylight shooting of a Russian mafia boss in central Moscow.

A man accused of organising a zorb ride at a Russian ski resort that killed a man has been detained and will face court, authorities say.

The Kiwi who invented zorbing is disgusted with the extreme activity's latest death and claims it could severely damage New Zealand's reputation as the world's adventure capital.

The New Zealand inventors of zorbing have described the death of a father-of-two at a Russian ski resort as "very troubling".

President Vladimir Putin says a draft bill banning US adoptions of Russian children is a legitimate response to a new US law that calls for sanctions on Russians deemed to be human rights violators. But he has not committed to signing it.

Here are some of the world's key doomsday destinations and other places marked by fear and fascination.