Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev Gorbachev Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, warned that Russia and the United States may be teetering on the brink of a "hot war" in comments to Interfax on Thursday.

Russian steelmaker MMK said Thursday that its crude steel output in the fourth quarter totaled 3.07 million tons, down 9 percent quarter-on-quarter, mainly because of scheduled maintenance and seasonal factors. The company, controlled by businessman Viktor Rashnikov, also said in a statement that its full-year crude steel output rose 9 percent to 13.0 million tons in 2014.

The recent change of leadership in the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and the announcement of plans to merge that agency with the United Rocket and Space Corporation (URSC) suggests at first glance, that chaos reigns in the Russian space industry. However, a closer look reveals that the aerospace industry is simply fighting for survival.

news Russia's Football World Cup Logo Gets Mocked Online Brazil had the facepalm. Germany had what was know as "the ecstasy pills." So as far as misbegotten football World Cup logos go, the bar for Russia...

Moscow police have confiscated the heads and pelts of a rare Amur tiger and a far eastern leopard, as well as 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of what appears to have been the animals' meat, from a mall in the city's southeastern outskirts, the police department said.

Numerous reports have claimed that Russian soldiers have been sent across the border into eastern Ukraine to bolster the efforts of pro-Russian separatists. ST. PETERSBURG — Russian army conscripts are being tricked or pressured into signing up to become contract soldiers, human rights groups say — and their relatives fear that once they turn professional, they run the risk of being secretly dispatched to fight in eastern Ukraine. Soldiers' Mothers of St.

STOCKHOLM — Stig Bergling, a former Swedish security officer who sold secrets to the Soviet Union during the Cold War and brazenly escaped while serving a life sentence for espionage, has died. He was 77. Bergling's death was first reported Thursday by Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter. The Swedish tax authority, which records deaths, confirmed he died on Jan. 24. No cause was given.

Celebrated Russian film director Eldar Ryazanov has been discharged from a hospital where he had spent two months after suffering a suspected stroke, news reports said. Ryazanov, 87, feels better but doctors will continue to monitor his health on an outpatient basis, the Interfax news agency reported Wednesday, citing an unidentified hospital employee and another person close to the director's family.

Danish brewer Carlsberg said on Thursday that it would close two of its 10 breweries in sanctions-hit Russia as a weak market blighted by the economic downturn has dented demand there. Carlsberg will close two of its 10 breweries in sanctions-hit Russia, the Danish brewer said on Thursday, citing the country's economic downturn and tough market regulation that have dented sales.

In addition to the $2 billion in loan guarantees offered so far, President Barack Obama will ask the U.S. Congress on Monday to authorize another billion dollars in support for Ukraine. The United States signed an agreement on Wednesday to provide $2 billion in loan guarantees to help war-torn Ukraine with "near-term social spending" in 2015 and said it was prepared to step up economic sanctions against Russia if necessary.

Russia's Gazprom posted a 35 percent drop in nine-month net profit to 556.3 billion rubles ($8.13 billion) year-on-year, after the world's top gas producer was hit by a dispute with Ukraine and currency losses. Russian state gas producer Gazprom suffered a 60 percent slump in third-quarter net profit on Thursday, hurt by the weaker ruble and after exports were halted to Ukraine over a pricing dispute.

A policeman gazing up at the State Duma, which has been turning out a flurry of anti-corruption legislation. Recent official statements, backed by upcoming laws and decrees, suggest that Russia is launching a real war on corruption, a systematic illness that has long eaten at the type of stable economic growth that could provide a bulwark against the country's current political and financial crisis.

Lukashenko said on Thursday Belarus would find a way out of its financial problems, exacerbated by economic turmoil in Russia. Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko spooked bond markets on Thursday by speaking of a possible restructuring of $4 billion of Belarussian foreign debt falling due this year, then softened his comments to refer only to refinancing.

The Russian planes were detected flying over the Channel, south of England, on Wednesday and typhoons were launched from Royal Air Force (RAF) bases at Lossiemouth in Scotland and Coningsby in eastern England, the MoD said. British Typhoon fighter jets were scrambled to intercept two Russian Bear long-range bombers which had flown close to British airspace, the country's Ministry of Defense (MoD) said Thursday.

BAKU — Azerbaijan said Thursday that it had shot down an Armenian drone near the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, a report dismissed by Armenia as "absurd." Renewed violence this year along the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan and around Nagorno-Karabakh, which lies inside Azerbaijan but is controlled by its majority ethnic Armenians, has underlined the risk of a wider conflict breaking out in the South Caucasus, which is crossed by oil and gas pipelines.