Russia, Moscow | featured news

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, a member of the feminist punk band, Pussy Riot, gestures at a district court from behind bars in Zubova Polyana, 240 miles southeast of Moscow in Russia's province of Mordovia, Friday.

Thirty-eight people were feared dead after a fire raged through an isolated psychiatric hospital north of Moscow on Friday, killing some patients in their beds and others who were trapped by barred windows. Most of the patients died in their sleep inhaling the fumes as they were likely sedated by prescribed medicine, a police source told the RIA Novosti news agency.

Militants from Chechnya and other restive regions in Russia's volatile North Caucasus have targeted Moscow and other areas with bombings and hostage-takings, but the allegations of involvement in the Boston Marathon explosions would mark the first time they had conducted a terror attack in the West....

Russian officials say a meteorite has fallen in the Chelyabinsk region some 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) east of Moscow.

'Grandpa Khasan' has been at war with a rival criminal group from Georgia since 2006.

Protesters chanting "Russia without Putin" began marching through Moscow on Saturday in a protest seen as a test of the opposition's ability to mount a sustained challenge to President Vladimir Putin.

Tens of thousands marched in Moscow on Saturday against the rule of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who is seeking re-election.

The Russian Foreign Ministry announced Monday that it had convinced Bashar al-Assad’s government to start informal negotiations in Moscow with representatives of the opposition.

Tens of thousands of Russians turned out in central Moscow and across the country Saturday to protest what they believe were rigged parliamentary elections.

President Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday that Russia will target the American missile defense system in Europe with its own missiles if Moscow cannot reach an agreement with Washington and NATO on how the system will be built and operated. Medvedev said time hasn’t run out for an agreement, but he accused the United States of failing to take into account Russian concerns.