Putin calls sports ban a political decision

The leaders of Russia and North Korea have met in Vladivostok for their first ever summit. Russia welcomes North Korea's efforts to normalize ties with the South and the US, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Just as Ukraine is set for a new leader, Russia has offered passports to millions of Ukrainians. Experts say Moscow wants to cement power over occupied areas and stop population decline — but the move is a powder keg.

During Vladimir Putin's two decades in power, polls have often shown Russians blame their government rather than their president for their problems. Amidst a new wave of domestic tension, that could be changing.

Moscow's wave of protests has no leader, but 31-year-old Lyubov Sobol has emerged as one of its most visible protagonists. Instead of participating in a weekend protest, she was detained by police in the Russian capital.

The Russian president has turned heads with remarks on climate change, the eastern Ukrainian conflict and Trump's impeachment. In his end-of-year press conference, he said he thought a new arms race with the US "is bad."

In 1945, the Soviets liberated Nazi Germany's Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp in occupied Poland. Russia, Poland and Israel are engaged in a diplomatic spat surrounding the 75th anniversary of this event.

Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was killed not far from the Kremlin in February 2015. Five years later, the motive for his murder remains a mystery.

The Russian president says his Belarusian counterpart has asked for security assistance, should the situation spiral out of control. However, Vladimir Putin said he would not do so unless absolutely necessary.

"Putin's People", a new book by journalist Catherine Belton, is a forensic examination of the Russian president's inner circle and how their shared experiences in the dying days of the Soviet Union have shaped the modern-day Russian state. The book, filled with insider accounts of Putin's rise to the top, has been described as "fearless". The author speaks to FRANCE 24.

The Russian president has congratulated Joe Biden on his victory over Donald Trump, weeks after many other world leaders. The Kremlin called for "collaboration" between superpowers to solve global security challenges.

Russian intelligence services have made the headlines recently: The FSB embarrassed itself in the Navalny poisoning case and the SVR is suspected to be behind cyberattacks in the US. Will heads roll now?

Meanwhile, an ally of Alexei Navalny has called for new protests across Russia to demand the release of the jailed dissident. And the Kremlin has accused US tech companies of interfering in Moscow's internal affairs.