Russian media has reported that the mole extracted in 2017 may be Oleg Smolenkov, an aide of senior diplomat and former ambassador to the U.S. Yury Ushakov (pictured).

The CIA pulled a spy with deep access inside the Kremlin out of Russia in 2017 because of leaks, and not because President Donald Trump had compromised the secret agent.

Oleg Smolenkov, the Kremlin aide named in Russia as the CIA's asset at the heart of Putin's regime tracks closely to a source described in the Steele dossier, claims Ilya Shumanov.

Russian president Vladimir Putin hailed Khabib Nurmagomedov as a 'strong, tough fighter' after the unbeaten MMA fighter retained his UFC lightweight title.

Rudy Giuliani (left) has pulled out of a scheduled appearance at a Russia-backed trade conference which Vladimir Putin (right) and his top advisor, Sergev Glazyev (center), would also appear at.

The WHO released the report on Tuesday that put a decrease in the country's alcohol consumption down to a raft of measures brought in under sport-loving President Vladimir Putin.

The unit is comprised of veterans from Russia's bloodiest wars, including hardened service personnel who fought in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Ukraine.

Mazlum Abdi, the head of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), phoned Moscow to 'thank Vladimir Putin (pictured yesterday) and Russia for their keenness in defusing the war'.

A KGB profile belonging to Russian President Vladimir Putin has been released to the public at an exhibition of declassified documents at the central state archive in St. Petersburg.

'It's better to replace it with the Great Russian Encyclopedia in electronic form…here it will be in any case, reliable information in a good modern form.' Putin said in Moscow on Tuesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has asserted that Russia will continue to expand its weapons development during a meeting with top officials and prosecutors on Wednesday.

The new site costing £20.7million will be a web version of the Great Russian Encyclopaedia and show 'reliable information in a good, modern way'.

The briefcase, which has a personalised key code, a flash card and is under constant supervision, is said to remotely control Russia's nuclear arsenal.

IAN HERBERT: The cries are laughable if anyone could find it within them to raise a smile about this mendacious, risible, pariah sporting nation.

Alexander Gabyshev was arrested two days into his planned 5,000-mile trek to Moscow, three months after his first journey was cut short when he was detained in September and flown back to Siberia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is set to meet President Trump amid the focus the congressional impeachment inquiry, CNN reported.

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu informed Mr Putin that the first missile unit equipped with the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle entered Russian combat duty, the Defence Ministry said.

Mr Young (pictured with girlfriend Noelle Reno) died after plunging onto railings below his £3m London penthouse in 2014 after repeatedly warning police and friends that hitmen wanted him dead.

U.S. intelligence agencies are investigating whether Russia is targeting Joe Biden in the 2020 election by promoting the controversy in the Ukraine over his and Hunter Biden's roles there. 

In an address to the nation, Putin - who should step down in 2024 under the current arrangement - described how power was being shifted from the presidency to parliament.

Putin appears to have set himself up to rule for life after announcing reforms that could see him grab the helm of a strengthened state council. His moves have been likened to that of China's leader.

The first image of Vladlena Mishustina, wife of Russia's new prime minister Mikhail Mishustin, emerged on Friday as questions were raised about how they obtained their wealth.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has submitted to parliament a package of constitutional amendments widely seen as an attempt to secure his grip on power after his term ends in 2024.

Russia's parliament on Thursday approved a package of constitutional amendments in a move widely seen as an attempt by President Vladimir Putin to stay in power past the end of his term.

Imran Aliev's body was found in a hotel in Lille, France, last week. The 44-year-old had vocally opposed to both Vladimir Putin and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

Bashir Dokhov fixed a large portrait of Putin to the lift in a Moscow residential block and recorded people's shocked reactions as they entered the lift.

Cameras followed Alexandra Tolstoy and Sergei Pugachev over five years for a documentary about their privileged lifestyle but as they were filming things began to fall apart.

The paratroopers reportedly jumped from a height of 10,000 metres (32,808 feet) from an Ilyushin Il-76 strategic airlifter.

Dmitry Bosov, 52, one of the richest men in Russia, was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head inside the private gym of his mansion in Moscow on Wednesday night.

Business Wire India

Monsoon Blockchain Corporation, Asia’s premier blockchain company pioneering the adoption of highly secure decentralized asset management, has partnered with Asia’s largest digital asset platform OSL of BC Group, DraperDragon Fund, CarbonBlue of BSN, and Academy Award Winning Studio Cross Creek Media. This deal signifies a major move for the blockchain, digital assets, and the expansion of global media and Hollywood. These partners create a global powerhouse in the Asia-Pacific region, which plan to harness industry-leading blockchain solutions for their business needs.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505006164/en/

The Monsoon-OSL deal will explore opportunities to accelerate the drive towards the digitalization of assets, money, currencies, and decentralized blockchain ledgers (where all transactions, storage of payments and data will be inviolably recorded). Combining intellectual property, deal flow, large scale investors, and blockchain capabilities, Monsoon Blockchain is looking to create a digital asset powerhouse in the US and Asia.

OSL is the Hong Kong region’s most comprehensive digital asset platform, providing Software-as-a-Service, brokerage, exchange, and custody services for institutions and professional investors. OSL manages over $1.5B in transactions per month in digital asset trading. After reaching $171 billion this year, the value of business-to-business and cross-border payments carried out on blockchain systems is estimated to exceed an astounding $4.4 trillion by 2024.

Recently, Fidelity International, a spin-off from the U.S. financial services brand Fidelity Investments, invested in BC Group (stock code: 863 HK), the Hong Kong-based operator of crypto exchange OSL. Including custodial accounts, the firm reported $8.3 trillion in assets under administration - a spike from the reported $6.7 trillion in 2018.

Both Monsoon and OSL will participate in launching multiple digital assets and tokens including media and telecommunications tokens, Monsoon Token, and other branded assets within the Monsoon ecosystem. Monsoon has been making worldwide news in blockchain after partnering with China’s largest phone retailer, Dixintong (D.Phone), which generated a reported $2.5 billion in revenue in 2019.

Monsoon will be joining the Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN), which was recently launched on the Chinese Mainland on April 25th, 2020 and will officially be available for global commercial use by June 25^th. China Mobile, China UnionPay, and Red Date Technology are the founding consortia partners that created the BSN protocol and infrastructure, which has been deployed in over 100 cities in China. The BSN is a global interoperability protocol that allows companies to connect to different blockchain ecosystems, as well as create and run new blockchain-as-a-service applications. The BSN will accelerate the development of digital economies and smart cities deployment by providing global interconnectivity and integrated blockchain cloud computing services for participants on the network.

Additionally, Monsoon has formed a new partnership with CarbonBlue Innovations to integrate cloud computing capabilities on top of the BSN protocol, allowing the creation of new low-cost blockchain cloud computing offerings suitable for developing regions of the world. CarbonBlue Innovations is a leading venture building and investment company that is focused on rapidly commercializing and scaling blockchain, fintech, and digital finance innovation around the world. Not only does CarbonBlue Innovations focus on both fintech infrastructure solutions, but also digital assets and investment banking services to allow the institutional adoption of regulated digital assets.

Michael Sung, Chairman of CarbonBlue Innovations asserted: “Monsoon’s unique cloud computing optimization technologies complement the existing multi-cloud offerings of the BSN and can further enhance our ability to customize blockchain cloud services for the developing world. With this partnership, we will be able to offer compelling low-cost solutions to enable SMEs (small and medium enterprises) globally to join the digital economy, which will massively drive self-sufficiency and financial inclusion in these developing regions.”

Monsoon will also be able to leverage the partnership with CarbonBlue Innovations to create innovative digital asset securitization and digital finance solutions for the market. Leveraging CarbonBlue Innovation’s strong academic and institutional finance affiliations, the new partnership will allow the creation of a vertically-integrated digital asset investment banking platform to address the massive opportunity in the future digitization of the world’s economy. CarbonBlue Innovations is able to provide full-stack solutions, vertically-integrating fintech technology infrastructure, legal/regulatory best practices, and institutional financial engineering expertise for digital finance.

Michael Sung added, “CarbonBlue Innovations has created a strong strategic partnership network consisting of the top digital asset companies leading the industry. Combined with Monsoon’s access to various industry ecosystems and pipeline of tokenization projects, our partnership will enable us to immediately scale to take a leadership position in the market and allow our clients to leapfrog into the future of finance.”

Partnering with Monsoon Blockchain, Cross Creek Media ($1.5B in the worldwide Box office) will expand its digital assets in film, television, and IP into the blockchain universe. The aim of the partnership is to achieve streamlined digital content management systems, and to gain broader access to worldwide audiences. Cross Creek has been a co-financier/producer of such films as Oscar winner Black Swan and has been behind hits American Made,Everest, Black Mass, Bloodshot, Hacksaw Ridge and the upcoming The Trial of the Chicago 7. Cross Creek is well positioned to be the next generation of production houses. Additionally, Cross Creek will announce a token style offering alongside Monsoon Blockchain Corporation. Timmy Thompson, CEO of Cross Creek Media stated: “We are very excited to work with Monsoon and continue developing award-winning properties. Furthermore, we believe Cross Creek's portfolio of new media technology investments perfectly positions us to take advantage of the new distribution paradigms.”

“We are very honored to work with such insightful leaders and innovators, the breadth of participants in this deal demonstrates the significant impact blockchain will have across a wide variety of industries,” Dr. Donald Basile added, “tokenization of asset classes has a tremendous upside on both the investment level and security level. Gartner’s prediction of over $3 trillion of business value added by blockchain seems increasingly likely.”

Monsoon Blockchain Corporation is focused on innovative cloud solutions in the blockchain ecosystem. Dr. Donald Basile, its CEO and founder, is the former CEO of Fusion IO, a company known for playing a major role in implementing the cloud systems at Apple and Facebook as well as partnerships with HP, IBM, and Dell. Recently, Monsoon Blockchain added advisory board members Ken Goldman, President of Hillspire (Eric Schmidt’s family office), and former CFO of Yahoo and Fortinet and Xiaoma Lu, former Dalian Wanda Investments CEO and former board member of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange to their team.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200505006164/en/

A report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development revealed that Greece, Austria and Portugal have the most doctors per head among developed countries.

Lisa Wilkinson dedicated an article to Germaine Greer thanking her for her early work but suggesting it was time she hung up her boots after Wednesday's contentious interview about rape.

The actress, 24, revealed her misgivings while talking with ELLE UK on Wednesday about her role as Yelena Belova in the forthcoming Marvel flick.

It was the result neither team was expecting in the first Reno Rumble elimination, on Monday night's episode.

At the event, which took place in Burbank, Shum was clad in a khaki polo shirt with dark slacks and brown dress shoes, with his shaggy black locks parted to the side.

Most guests could only bring a plus one. But lucky Harry Shum Jr got to bring his gorgeous wife Shelby and his unborn daughter to the SAG Awards on Sunday.

People.com mislabeled a photo from a SAG afterparty, misidentifying several actors. It was originally mislabeled by the photo agency.

Sam Perry was the odds on favourite to win the grand final of The Voice on Sunday night and triumph he did, taking home the win.  

Channel 10 have released a sneak peek for its new Pilot Week series, Sydney's Crazy Rich Asians.

The suicide bomb blasr targeted a police patrol in Charles de Gaulle Street in the centre of Tunisia's capital, Tunis.

The Foreign Office said terrorists are 'very likely' to strike in Tunisia, including against British targets, after three explosions in a week in Tunis (armed personnel are seen in the city on Tuesday).

Under the new rules signed by Tunisia's prime minister, people wearing the Muslim face covering (pictured in a stock photo) will not be allowed to enter government buildings.

Tunisia ended Madagascar's remarkable Africa Cup of Nations run when they beat the rank outsiders 3-0 in their quarter-final, notching their first win of the tournament in the process.

Tunisia's 92-year-old president, Beji Caid Essebsi, who helped guide the North African country's transition to democracy after a 2011 revolution, has died, the presidency said on Thursday.

Hanaa Ben Abdesslem, 28, who has walked for the likes of Chanel and Oscar de la Renta, married fiancé Amerpal Lamba in her hometown of Nabeul, Tunisia, last month after a whirlwind engagement.

Mounir Baatour (pictured), the Liberal Party's chief and a lawyer at the Court of Cassation, presents himself as a defender of LGBTIQ rights.

Julie Paige booked a flight with the collapsed UK travel firm that was not covered by the industry insurance fund Atol and the date she was due to fly fell outside the CAA's repatriation scheme.

The airline will operate two flights a week from London Gatwick to the beach resort of Enfidha, starting on May 2, 2020. UK airlines stopped flying to Tunisia in 2015 following Foreign Office advice.

WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT: Abigail Fernandez who lives in Cornwall said she was 'horrified' after her wound became infected following the botched tummy tuck surgery in Tunisia.

The two assailants tried to force their way through the main gate but were blocked by officers guarding the consulate in the Berges du Lac district of Tunis.