The fathers of rebel leaders say the darndest things. Case in point: Philosopher Yury Borodai — the father of eastern Ukraine rebel leader Alexander Borodai — who posited in a monograph that ape evolved into man not through labor, but through masturbation and sexual repression.

The Russian government has officially declared the conditions that will allow international payment systems Visa and MasterCard to continue business in Russia without paying the massive security deposit that had threatened to shove them out of the country.

Amid of flurry of new laws announced Tuesday, President Vladimir Putin signed legislation  bolstering punishments for unruly protesters.

Among about 40 bills signed by President Vladimir Putin in a marathon session on Tuesday was a widely lambasted law that will strip hundreds of independent Russian television channels of a basic source of income: advertising.

President Vladimir Putin appeared to take one step forward and two steps back Tuesday, appeasing the international community with promises of cooperation in the investigation of downed Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 but blaming the West for interference in Ukraine and warning "outside forces" against orchestrating color revolutions.

A Malaysian airliner carrying 285 passengers crashed over conflict-torn eastern Ukraine, Interfax reported, citing Ukrainian law enforcement sources.

The Education and Science Ministry has drafted an order that expanding the scope of essential high-school education beyond the "basic" subjects — such as language, literature and math — to include "personal results" like patriotism.

A passenger on the Malaysian Airlines flight that crashed in eastern Ukraine appears to have posted an ominous message before the plane took off from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.

President Vladimir Putin's approval rating is currently at 83 percent, the highest it has been since he left office for the first time in 2008, according to a recent survey of Russians by the respected U.S. pollster Gallup.

The destruction of Flight MH17 was the last nail in the coffin of the reassuring theory that a repeat of the Cold War was impossible, writes columnist Victor Davidoff.