But when powerful neighbors get involved, a local election can quickly turn into a fierce international dispute. A fresh diplomatic clash has erupted over who gets a place on the ballot, reports TASS.

While some powerful Russians shun the West, others want to restore ties and embrace friendly Westerners. President Vladimir V. Putin’s annual economic conference illustrates the conflicting impulses.

Ukraine is significantly expanding its long-range drone attacks on targets across Russia -- including the capital Moscow -- according to data published by the Russian Defense Ministry, as the Kremlin's four-year-old full-scale invasion of its neighbor grinds on with little apparent hope for a peace deal or for the Russian victory that President Vladimir Putin has framed as inevitable.

It brings home the fact Ukraine has the capacity to strike at very significant scale at or around the Russian capital,” taking the war home to Russians in a way that would be “most unwelcome” to the Kremlin,

A Moscow arbitration court has granted a Russian central bank request for immediate enforcement of a court ruling requiring Euroclear to pay damages for ​the European Union's freezing of 18.17 trillion roubles ($252.

Russia and Afghanistan's Taliban government reportedly signed a military cooperation pact, solidifying Moscow's growing alliance in Central Asia.

Residents who experienced attacks in recent days were shaken deeply by the conflict coming home to the capital region, the seat of the Kremlin’s power.

The president’s ‘bravado’ is doing little to ease the disquiet inside Russia

Japanese officials who visited Moscow last week met commodity exporters along with Russian government representatives in a rare high-level commercial contact between their countries since President Vladimir Putin ordered the 2022 full scale invasion of Ukraine.