• Conviction of Putin foe sets off protest in Moscow - By NATALIYA VASILYEVA

Conviction of Putin foe sets off protest in Moscow

by NATALIYA VASILYEVA

Supporters and opponents of Russian opposition activist and anti-corruption crusader Alexei Navalny clash during unsanctioned protest in Manezhnaya Square in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2014. The unsanctioned protest came hours after Alexei Navalny was found guilty of fraud and given a suspended sentence. Navalny, who has been under house arrest since February, is accused of breaking the terms of his house arrest to attend the rally and was detained by police as he approached the site of the protest. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)

• Putin Is Infiltrating European Politics With Shocking Effectiveness - JEREMY BENDER

Putin Is Infiltrating European Politics With Shocking Effectiveness

JEREMY BENDER   

Putin has become shockingly effective at influencing European politics through a host of far-right parties.

The following chart from the Center for Eurasian Strategic Intelligence (CESI) shows Russia's growing influence within six different European Union countries.

• Western leaders warn of more economic sanctions if Putin doesn't end Russian backing for rebels in Ukraine

Western leaders warn of more economic 

sanctions if Putin doesn't end Russian 

backing for rebels in Ukraine

Western leaders warned Vladimir Putin at a G20 summit on Saturday that he risked more economic sanctions if he failed to end Russian backing for separatist rebels in Ukraine.

• Ukraine's Ambassador to the UN says Russia planning full-scale invasion

Ukraine's Ambassador to the UN says Russia 

planning full-scale invasion

Reports of build-up of Russian tanks and fighters in east Ukraine continue

Ukraine's Ambassador to the United Nations has said via Twitter that UN should be informed that Russia is planning a full scale invasion of Ukraine.

• Seventh illegal Russian 'aid' convoy set for Donbas delivery

Seventh illegal Russian 'aid' convoy 

set for Donbas delivery

Russia plans to send another unsanctioned 'aid' convoy to east Ukraine 
Russia has confirmed plans to send yet one more so-called 'aid' convoy to east Ukraine in the coming days. The Kremlin has already sent six illegal convoys into parts of Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian militants. 

• Putin Hits on China's First Lady, Censors Go Wild BY BETHANY ALLEN-EBRAHIMIAN

Putin Hits on China's First Lady, 

Censors Go Wild 

Russia’s Don Juan-in-chief just got a little too friendly with Xi Jinping's wife. BY BETHANY ALLEN-EBRAHIMIAN

• Russians buy dollars, hoard cash on rouble fears - Alexander Winning and Oksana Kobzeva

 Russians buy dollars, hoard cash on rouble fears

Alexander Winning and Oksana Kobzeva

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Many Russians are buying dollars and hoarding cash, increasingly concerned by a slide in the rouble and wary of possible restrictions on bank withdrawals as President Vladimir Putin blames currency woes on speculators and the West.

• Thousands protest in Russia against conflict in Ukraine

Thousands protest in Russia against conflict in Ukraine 

Thousands of Russians marched in protest against the armed conflict in Ukraine on Sunday in the first major anti-war rally since the start of the standoff between Kiev and pro-Russian rebels.

The armed conflict, which Kiev and the West blame on Russia's support of the separatist armed groups in eastern Ukraine, has killed more than 3,000 people since April, although this month's ceasefire has brought a relative calm.

• Hammered by the West, Putin Turns East - KEITH JOHNSON

Hammered by the West, Putin Turns East
KEITH JOHNSON

Russia and China are close to another mammoth natural gas deal that could reshape the world's energy map.

ht as the West is tightening the screws on Russia's energy sector,Vladimir Putin is accelerating his own pivot to the east, moving closer to another giant natural gas deal with China.

• Putin Threatens Nuclear War Over Ukraine

Putin Threatens Nuclear War Over Ukraine

Raising the spectre of nuclear war over Ukraine, Russia’s Vladimir Putin is playing a new, and dangerous, game.

On Friday, as Russian Federation tanks and troops poured across the border into eastern Ukraine, Vladimir Putin talked about his country’s most destructive weaponry. “I want to remind you that Russia is one of the most powerful nuclear nations,” he said. “This is a reality, not just words.” Russia, he told listeners, is “strengthening our nuclear deterrence forces.”

• Moscow troops could be in five NATO capitals in two days, boasts Putin: Leader boasted to Ukrainian president about Russian power - WILL STEWART FOR MAILONLINE

Moscow troops could be in five NATO capitals in two days, boasts Putin: Leader boasted to Ukrainian president about Russian power 

by WILL STEWART FOR MAILONLINE

Putin, pictured here at a meeting of the Russian State Council, boasted Russia could be in Kiev in two days - and also in Riga, Vilnius, Tallinn, Warsaw and Bucarest

Shockwaves reverberated through Eastern Europe tonight after Vladimir Putin boasted he could invade five NATO capitals inside two days.

• Vladimir Putin threatened to invade NATO nations in alleged conversation with Ukraine’s president

Vladimir Putin threatened to invade NATO nations in alleged conversation with Ukraine’s president

Justin Huggler, The Telegraph

Russian President Vladimir Putin waves after a wreath laying ceremony at the monument to Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2014. As the Ukraine crisis intensifies, the NATO countries closest to Russia have been pushing the alliance to set up permanent bases with troops on their land — with historical fears of Moscow heightened by new Russian aggression.

President Vladimir Putin privately said he could invade Poland, Romania and the Baltic states, according to a record of a conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart.

• Putin 'privately threatened to invade Poland, Romania and the Baltic states' - Justin Huggler

Putin 'privately threatened to invade Poland, Romania and the Baltic states'

Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung reports that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told European Commission that Putin made the threat in a recent conversation
By Justin Huggler, Berlin - 6:48PM BST 18 Sep 2014