RUSSIAN MILITARY USES SYRIA AS PROVING GROUND AND WEST TAKES NOTICE

Has become, in effect, a testing ground for an increasingly confrontational and defiant Russia under Mr. Putin... READ MORE›

CRIMEAN GOLD MUST GO BACK TO UKRAINE, SAYS DUTCH COURT

Four museums in Crimea asked for the collection to be returned, but Ukraine argued that it was state property... READ MORE›

RUSSIAN SPY SHIP LIMAN SINKS OFF TURKEY AFTER COLLISION WITH FREIGHTER

The Russian Black Sea Fleet BSF passes through the Bosphorus Strait for deployments in the Mediterranean, notably in Syria... READ MORE›

UKRAINE CLASHES LEAVE SEVERAL DEAD AND TEST TRUMP'S RUSSIA STANCE

The violence is an early test of Donald Trump's stated desire for better US relations with Russia... READ MORE›

RUSSIA 'ACCIDENTALLY REVEALS' NUMBER OF ITS SOLDIERS KILLED IN EASTERN UKRAINE

Russia accidentally reveals number of its soldiers killed in eastern ukraine... READ MORE›

IN RUSSIAS FROZEN ZONE, A CREEPING BORDER WITH GEORGIA

Instead, Russian border guards have moved deeper into Georgian territory... READ MORE›

DAVID STOLIAR SURVIVOR OF WORLD WAR II DISASTER DIES AT 91

Thousands hoped for passage out of Constanza, Romania's port on the Black Sea, and through the Bosporus to Palestine... READ MORE›

RUSSIA FIRES WARNING SHOT AT TURKISH FISHING BOAT IN AEGEAN

A Russian defence ministry statement said the Turkish vessel approached to 600m 1,800ft before turning away in response to Russian small arms fire... READ MORE›

CLOSE MILITARY ENCOUNTERS BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE WEST AT COLD WAR LEVELS

Black Sea encounter On 7 September, the Canadian frigate Toronto was buzzed by a Russian aircraft in the Black Sea with the plane coming within 300 metres... READ MORE›

U.S. SENDS F-22 WARPLANES TO ROMANIA

The planes touched down in Romania, near the home of Russia's Black Sea fleet... READ MORE›

IN CRIMEA A DISPUTED BEACH IS A SYMBOL OF CORRUPTION

In an interview, Mr. Skorik said Gurzuf residents had tired of the fact that in both Ukraine and now seemingly in Russia, citizens came last... READ MORE›

'PUTIN IS OBSESSED WITH THE IDEA OF TESTING NATO'

Mikheil Saakashvili, enemy of Vladimir Putin who did much to implant democracy in Georgia, left the country in June, claiming he faced guaranteed imprisonment ... READ MORE›

IS IT TOO LATE TO STOP TURKEY'S COAL RUSH?

If Turkey's coal rush is to be headed off, it will happen in places like Amasra... READ MORE›

CIVILIANS, SOLDIERS DIE IN EAST UKRAINE FIGHTING AS PUTIN VISITS CRIMEA

In Moscow Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov blamed Kiev for the violence giving no detail but saying he suspected Ukraine was preparing a new offensive... READ MORE›

PARTY VICTORY BOOSTS ERDOGANS PURSUIT OF POWER

At the end of the day, Erdogan gambled, and it paid off, said Omer Taspinar, a Turkey expert at the Brookings Institution... READ MORE›

AFTER SECESSION CHAOS AND CORRUPTION PLAGUE CRIMEA

Crimea, many here are now realizing, could face years in limbo, no longer part of Ukraine but not yet fully absorbed by Russia... READ MORE›

RUSSIA'S VLADIMIR PUTIN TAKES DIVE IN SUBMERSIBLE IN CRIMEA

On March 16, 2014, Crimea held a referendum on whether to continue as part of Ukraine or to cast its lot with the Russian Federation... READ MORE›

3 MAPS THAT SHOW HOW RUSSIA AND NATO MIGHT ACCIDENTALLY ESCALATE INTO WAR

Already, there have been near-misses with Russian military aircraft getting dangerously close to civilian jetliners above the Baltic Sea... READ MORE›

PUTIN ASKS DUMA TO RATIFY RUSSIA-ARMENIA AGREEMENT ON JOINT AIR DEFENSE

The document allows Armenia to use Russian anti-aircraft systems and air and space forces, including military satellites, for defense of its airspace... READ MORE›

RUSSIA GIVES UKRAINIAN FILMMAKER OLEG SENTSOV A 20-YEAR SENTENCE

Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, home to the Russian Navy's Black Sea fleet, shortly thereafter... READ MORE›

REBEL-HELD UKRAINE OVERHAULS EDUCATION SYSTEM AS IT ALIGNS ITSELF WITH RUSSIA

Russia's five-point grading system now also takes precedence over Ukraine's 12-point scheme... READ MORE›

'BIDEN, GET OUT': PROTESTERS HECKLE VP IN TURKEY

The new funding Biden announced will aid Syrian refugees in Turkey and other neighboring countries... READ MORE›

THREE U.S. SAILORS ATTACKED BY TURKISH PROTESTERS

Navy sailors Wednesday in Istanbul near where their warship was docked on an inlet of the Bosphorus Strait in the Black Sea... READ MORE›

EUROPEAN LEADERS FEAR GROWTH OF RUSSIAN INFLUENCE ABROAD

Angela Merkel criticises destabilising strategy by Vladimir Putin to spread sphere of influence beyond former Soviet states... READ MORE›

AP INVESTIGATION: NUCLEAR SMUGGLERS SOUGHT EXTREMIST BUYERS

Vadim Ghirda Associated Press Moldovan investigators can't be sure that the suspects who fled didn't hold on to the bulk of the nuclear materials... READ MORE›

COMMENTEMAILMORE BERDYANSK, Ukraine When war sent waves of refugees across east Ukraine, Oleg Zinchenko decided that the expansion of his fish processing plant could wait... READ MORE›

SYRIA AND UKRAINE: TWO FRONTS IN RUSSIAN WAR FOR INFLUENCE

The ceasefire is in better shape because the Russians have decided it should be so... READ MORE›

UKRAINE PICKS CRIMEAN TATAR WITH TRAGIC TALE FOR EUROVISION

Memories of that horror have been revived by Russia's seizure of Crimea, a Black Sea peninsula, in 2014... READ MORE›

PUTIN ACCUSES UKRAINE OF PLOTTING TERRORIST ATTACKS IN CRIMEA

MOSCOW -- President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia accused the Ukrainian government on Wednesday of plotting terrorist attacks in Crimea, and threatened to respond... READ MORE›

INCREDIBLE DRONE FOOTAGE SHOWS OFF CAPE TOWN

A quadcopter with an attached GoPro camera, navigated by Eric Cheng, shows views of the world-famous Table Mountain and sharks feeding... READ MORE›