News Highlights

President Vladimir Putin has signed a law to enhance powers to conduct snap inspections of non-governmental organizations.

Kazakhstan has protested to the Russian government over statements by the leader of Russia’s Liberal Democratic Party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

Russian economy minister Alexei Ulyukayev said on Monday the next $2 billion bailout installment for Ukraine is “ready to go” and that Moscow was waiting for the formation of a new government after the ouster of Russian-backed president Viktor Yanukovich.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Monday that “substantial doubts” existed over the legitimacy of the new acting government in Ukraine.

Russian deputy prime minister Dmitry Kozak has dismissed an attack on protest group Pussy Riot in Sochi.

Russia’s central bank expanded the upper limit for the ruble trading corridor again Monday after the currency slumped to a record low against the dollar last week.

Ukraine’s new authorities issued an arrest warrant on Monday for mass murder against ousted president Viktor Yanukovich, who is on the run after being toppled by bloody street protests in which police snipers killed demonstrators.

Rescuers have recovered a fourth body from a shopping mall in Siberia that was hit over the weekend by an explosion presumed to have been caused by gas leak.

A performance artist who made international headlines last year by nailing his scrotum to cobblestones on Moscow’s Red Square was detained Sunday for lighting a pyre of car tires in St. Petersburg in a tribute to the unrest that has rocked Ukraine.

A prominent Russian state TV host said on Sunday that ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich had betrayed his people when he fled Kiev, an uncompromising verdict on a leader President Vladimir Putin had hoped would bring Ukraine closer to Moscow’s orbit.