Court proceedings revealed how a criminal gang in Britain was directed to target Yevgeny Chichvarkin, a dissident Russian who owns Hide, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Mayfair.

A British man offered personal information about former defence minister Grant Shapps to Russian intelligence for money, prosecutors said on Wednesday at the start of his trial for a National Security Act offence.

The Ukrainian Air Force says Russia launched 741 drones and missiles at Ukraine overnight in the largest Russian aerial attack since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022.

President Vladimir Putin on Monday dismissed Roman Starovoit, a former Kursk governor, as transport minister and asked Starovoit's deputy to replace him. Starovoit was found dead at a park just outside Moscow, state investigators announced a few hours later.

The Kremlin's grip on the Russian elite appears to be closing ever tighter as two major figures of Russian business and security structures were detained in the past few days. Konstantin Strukov, a billionaire running a gold mining empire,

(Reuters) -Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, who also served as Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin's special representative to the Middle East and to Africa, was relieved of his duties on Wednesday at his own request,