Russia's economy will be under major strain in 2025, economists told BI. One said stagnation was similar to the USSR at the start of the 1980s.

Russia's inflation has reached 9.5% this year, according to new weekly data showing that the consumer price index rose by 0.33% in the week leading up to Dec. 23, the statistical agency Rosstat reported on Wednesday.

Pope Francis has called for negotiations between Ukraine and Russia to end the war triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In his traditional Christmas Day address, the Pope said "boldness [was] needed to open the door" to dialogue "in order to achieve a just and lasting peace" between the two sides.

Ukrainian officials say Russia has launched a massive missile barrage targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

A Russian court case involving a compensation claim against Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) will continue in the second half of January, judicial authorities and the lender said on Wednesday.

Russia has held several rounds of tactical nuclear weapons drills this year, and regularly carries out military exercises for its strategic nuclear forces.

The strikes ignited fires at the Kadamovsky range, a crucial training site for Russian troops heading into Ukraine.

Russia is ready to continue gas exports to Europe through several routes just as a contract to transit the fuel via Ukraine is expected to end this year, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said.

When Russia's invasion of Ukraine stymied his travel plans, photographer Carl De Keyzer decided to take a virtual trip instead, creating a series of AI-generated images. He was unprepared for the consequences.

An Azerbaijan Airlines passenger aircraft crashed near Kazakhstan's Aktau Airport close to the Caspian Sea on Wednesday morning.

An Azerbaijani airliner with 67 people onboard crashed Wednesday near the Kazakhstani city of Aktau, leaving at least 32 survivors, according to officials. More than 30 people may be dead. FlightRadar24 separately said in an online post that the aircraft had faced “strong GPS jamming” which “ made the aircraft transmit bad ADS-B data”,