The State Duma has passed a bill that would ban the use of expletives from films, theater and other works of art, casting doubt over the fate of some contemporary shows whose scripts include strong language.

Ukrainian troops with five light armored vehicles took control of a checkpoint north of Slovyansk on Thursday after pro-Russian separatists appeared to abandon the position, Reuters journalists said from the scene.

The Communist Party has announced that it will step up its fight against corruption by pushing for an amendment to legislation that suspends capital punishment indefinitely.

As tanks and troops sent by the central government in Kiev zeroed in to Ukraine's wayward town of Slovyansk on Thursday, Moscow responded by ordering snap military drills on the border with the troubled region.

Russia's space agency chief said that Russia did not need Western space technology, and pledged further cooperation with China amid concerns that additional U.S. sanctions could cripple the space industry and collaborative projects like the International Space Station, or ISS.

Last Friday evening, the Russian Security Council met. In attendance were 12 men — almost all of whom are around 60 years old and who once worked in the KGB in St. Petersburg — and one woman.

Russia's parliament has agreed to write off about $10 billion of North Korea's Soviet-era debt, in a deal expected to facilitate the building of a gas pipeline to South Korea across the reclusive state.

Support for the legacy of Bolshevik revolutionary Vladimir Lenin is on the rise, a poll published on the eve of the 144th anniversary of his birth showed.

Four physicists have announced their resignation from the academic council of one of Russia's top research institutes, accusing it of failing to defend a prominent colleague who was fired for "truancy" after attending a workshop at Stony Brook University in the U.S.

Russia will adjust its economic course to make the country less vulnerable to another possible wave of sanctions from the West and will look for new partners to diversify its hydrocarbon exports, said Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday in an annual report to members of the State Duma.