PUTIN

Russia has many motives to keep supporting Syria's dictator -- e.g., arms contracts, naval base access -- but energy is the real reason.

A Russian court paved the way for a potential closure of video-sharing website YouTube by banning an anti-Islam video on Monday that sparked violent protests across the Muslim world.

Billionaire Alexander Lebedev has been charged with hooliganism in Russia after punching another man in the face on television last year.

Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev has been charged with "hooliganism," though he claimed he's being targeted by President Valdimir Putin for funding the political opposition.

Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked Mitt Romney Tuesday for rating Moscow as the United States' "number one geopolitical foe."

Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), issued the following statement at the opening of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders Summit in Vladivostok, Russia on Sunday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says that his priority in Syria is to end the violence, but accuses rebel supporters of pursing a 'dangerous and short-sighted policy.'

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was "mistaken" in an interview aired Thursday.

Russian President Vladimir V Putin pulled off his latest feat, helping a flock of critically endangered Siberian white cranes in their migration trip to Asia on Wednesday. Putin piloted a motorized hang glider in Siberian skies guiding a flock of the migratory cranes.

Russian punk band Pussy Riot released a new song lambasting Russian President Vladimir Putin after being found guilty and sentenced to two years in jail on charges of ?hooliganism driven by religious hatred.? Authorities are searching for the band?s remaining members while outraged bold-faced names continued to voice their support for the group.

On Friday, three members of the Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot were found guilty of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" after performing an anti-Putin song in a Moscow cathedral. In support of the band, a topless women's rights activist defiantly chopped down an Orthodox cross in Kiev, Ukraine.

After Russia’s disappointing showing at the London Olympics comes more bad news for Vladimir Putin’s.

Jesuit priest Paolo Dall'Oglio, who spent the last 30 years in Syria and was recently exiled, said the country still very much needs the U.N.'s help to find a peaceful solution, but the end of Bashar al-Assad's days as president is near.

Russian opposition activist Aleksei Navalny has been charged with embezzlement by the Kremlin?s State Investigative Committee.

"This is not only damaging us but the whole [Russian] judicial system. It's a disgrace," one of Pussy Riot's lawyers, Nikolai Polozov, commented at the start of the trial on Monday.

Rahm Emanuel and Karl Rove somehow agree on what the Romney campaign needs to do. Meanwhile, chief Romney campaign strategist Ed Gillespie ignores both of them.

On Tuesday, the Russian language Wikipedia website blacked out its content for 24 hours to protest a law, under consideration this week, that could result in increased censorship of the internet in Russia.

Russia isn't the first place that comes to mind when thinking of free speech, but that's exactly where the second World Media Summit was held. Attendees including BBC and CNN heard about a free press from Vladimir Putin, and about world harmony from the North Koreans.

Russia?s President Vladimir Putin also said that both sides of the Syrian conflict must enter into peace negotiations.

At least 150 people have died after massive floods hit the Russian city of Krymsk, and suspicions have erupted over the exact cause of the flooding.

Worries about present-day issues overshadowed unsavory history this week as Russian President Vladimir Putin made a 24-hour whirlwind visit to Israel.