Anna Chapman: Agent provocateur

Anna Chapman, the “sultry Russian secret agent” who hit the headlines last year after being exposed as a deep-cover operative in the United States, says she bears no ill will towards the man who betrayed her. And why should she? Since being freed as part of a dramatic spy swap deal in Vienna in July

Kremlin moves to save Arctic oil deal with BP

Kremlin-controlled oil group Rosneft insists it is pressing ahead with its controversial alliance with BP, after the venture was blocked by a Stockholm court. Igor Sechin, Rosneft’s chairman and Russia’s deputy prime minister, declared he intended to proceed with the alliance and claimed the court had merely extended an existing temporary injunction on the project

Sacked ambassador stokes Russian tension over Libya

Russia’s former ambassador to Libya has stoked new tension between President Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin, the prime minister, after calling the Kremlin’s acquiescence to air strikes targeting Libya a “betrayal of Russia’s interests”. Putin and Medvedev, who are close political allies, appeared to clash on Monday after the former condemned support for the bombing

Russian, Ukrainian defense ministers to meet in Moscow

Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and his Ukrainian counterpart Mykhaylo Yezhel will meet in Moscow on Friday to discuss bilateral military cooperation. A Ukrainian military delegation, led by Yezhel, arrives in Moscow to participate in a meeting of a subcommittee on security under the Russian-Ukrainian Interstate Commission. “Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and his Ukrainian colleague