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Russian leader Vladimir Putin gave his stammering spy chief a tongue-lashing at a security council meeting Tuesday, schooling him in a discussion about Moscow recognizing the independence of two separatist-controlled regions of Ukraine. The director of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Russia seemed to goof after a testy exchange with Putin, and said he supported absorbing the breakaway states into the Russian federation before backtracking and saying he supported their independence. Russia’s recognition of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic has been viewed as the possible first step of Russia’s expected invasion of Ukraine. Putin is...

“If you look in his eyes, you see someone who has gone completely mad. What we are seeing tonight is a moment in history, something we have not seen for generations.” Jennifer Griffin on Putin

MOSCOW: The leader of France's far-right National Front, Marine Le Pen, visited Moscow Tuesday for talks with the speaker of the lower house that were closed to press. Le Pen previously met the speaker Sergei Naryshkin, Russia's fourth most important official and a member of the ruling United Russia party, in April last year. Le Pen's party in November came under fire for taking out a 9 million euro loan with a Russian bank. Russia has sought to cosy up to European politicians who have criticized the European Union for imposing sanctions on Moscow over its actions in Ukraine, including...

More than 25 years after the Berlin Wall’s fall, Russian lawmakers are mulling a proposal to condemn West Germany’s 1990 “annexation” of East Germany as Moscow’s answer to Western denunciation of its seizure of Crimea. Sergei Naryshkin, speaker of Russian parliament’s lower house, on Wednesday ordered legislators to consider an appeal from a Communist Party deputy to denounce the reunification of Germany as an illegal land grab of East Germany by its western neighbor. The collapse of Socialist rule in East Germany—officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR)—heralded the end of the Cold War, and was met with jubilation...

Marine Le Pen, leader of France's far-right National Front, blamed the European Union for declaring a new Cold War on Russia that would hurt all concerned, Russian media reported on Saturday as she paid an official visit to Moscow. Europe-Russia relations are at their lowest ebb in decades after President Vladimir Putin's annexation of Crimea prompted the EU to impose sanctions on dozens of prominent Russian officials and lawmakers. However Le Pen, along with other Eurosceptic leaders of the far left and nationalist right, believe the original fault lies with Brussels for offering closer ties with Ukraine, a move Russia...

MOSCOW, March 16. /ITAR-TASS/. Sunday’s referendum in Crimea, in which the voters expressed their will on the future of their region, is a historic moment for Russia, State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin said in an interview with the Moscow-based Channel One television channel. He called for awaiting the final results of the referendum first, yet he underlined the fact Russia had mostly been losing people in previous years. “And here at last we’re getting our compatriots back,” Naryshkin said. “So that’s a historic moment for Russia.” “The figures produced by the referendum speak for themselves, just look at the voters’...