Moscow is offering cash to recovered patients who donate blood, hoping that they will have developed antibodies which can help other people fight off the disease (pictured, recipient Alexander Kutuzov).

A clever raven was spotted in Ufa, Russia, lifting a plastic lid in its beak, flying it up a hill and then snowboarding back down. A passerby stopped to take a video of the bizarre moment.

Russia reported 4,774 new cases of coronavirus Thursday - marking the second straight day of decline - despite warnings that the country is rapidly running out of hospital beds.

Sergei Sobyanin said Russia's 0.9 per cent mortality rate was so low because of mass testing which leads to a high number of confirmed infections.

Infections outside Moscow and its surrounding region have soared 110 per cent in the past week.

Analysts and President Vladimir Putin's political enemies wonder if his long and brutal reign might fall victim to the coronavirus crisis amid the perilous effects of the pandemic in Russia.

Mother-of-two Dr Yelena Nepomnyashchaya, 47, plunged 50ft from an office window in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, after being told her hospital would treat coronavirus patients, despite lack of PPE.

The Russian government reported a total of 87,147 cases on Monday, which is almost 4,000 more than China's official toll of 83,912.

Natalya Lebedeva had been accused of failing to stop an outbreak of Covid-19 inside the restricted Star City (file phot) where cosmonauts are trained, colleagues claimed.

Russian real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, 64, said his Crocus Group business is in trouble due to coronavirus shutdowns and fears the worst is yet to come when Russia hits its peak in May.

Col. Gen. Andrei Burlaka, the FSB Border Service's chief of operational staff, has been named as the highest-ranking person of interest in the investigation into the downing of the plane.

The victim Maria from Russia sought help from her hospital and an online forum but was refused an appointment due to the lockdown and a ban on nonessential consultations.

The 7,099 new cases - surpassing the previous high of 6,411 on Tuesday - bring Russia's total from 99,399 to 106,498, the eighth-highest tally in the world.

Mikhail Mishustin, Russia's Prime Minister, has today said he has tested positive for the coronavirus as Russia's death toll today reached 1,000 and its total number of cases broke through 100,000 (graph).

Russian researcher Vitaly Davydov has said robots will overtake their human brothers on the battlefield because they will be faster and are more accurate in target selection.

Russia's coronavirus crisis continues to worsen with a record 7,922 cases recorded the day after Prime Minister Mikhail Mishtushin (left, inset) tested positive for the disease.

The former Scottish First Minister was widely criticised for taking a job with Vladimir Putin's 'propaganda' channel, formerly known as Russia Today, on its English-language service.

Dr Andrew Marriott, 64, a retired lieutenant colonel and visiting researcher at Newcastle University, concluded it is 'highly implausible' that the medals came from Russian guns.

Deaths from coronavirus rose by 58 to 1,280, official figures show, as Russia is now recording more new infections than any European country. New infections rose with 10,633 cases in the past 24 hours.

Vladimir Putin (pictured) has seen his trust ratings fall following dissatisfaction with the Russian government's handling of the coronavirus crisis as cases of the disease continue to rise.

The latest rise of 10,102 cases, bringing the total from 145,268 to 155,370, confirms Russia's place as Europe's new virus hotbed as infections slow elsewhere.

Alexander Shulepov, 37, from Voronezh is in intensive care after taking part in a video which claimed he was ordered to work despite testing positive for Covid-19.

The body of Dmitry Bosov, 52, who played ice hockey with Vladimir Putin, was discovered by his wife with a gunshot wound to his head in a 'suspected suicide' at his Moscow mansion.

'I LOVE talking about sports and reading all of the dumb misogynist comments. It reminds me that women need to keep fighting for equality. It's 2019 but feels like the 1950s,' she tweeted.

New York architect Joseph Feingold, 97, originally from Poland, who appeared in an Oscar-nominated film about his escape from the Nazis called 'Joe's Violin', has died with coronavirus.

A shocking video shows the moment an unhinged man believed to be an essential worker throws 40 punches at an innocent bystander who was Asian, because the attacker blamed him for COVID-19.

MATT HUGHES: Russia are facing a worldwide ban from all major sports events after being given three weeks to explain signs of tampering with drug tests. 

Russia could be set for a new ban from major international sporting events like next summer's Olympic and Paralympic Games over claimed inconsistencies in anti-doping data.

The prospect of Russian track and field athletes taking part in the Tokyo Olympics are looking slimmer after the president of the country's athletics federation was charged on Thursday.

Russia's reinstatement process has been suspended by the World Athletics Council following fresh anti-doping charges against senior officials. The RusAF has been banned since 2015.

It follows an investigation into the data handed over by the Moscow laboratory in January as part of the reintegration process of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency following the state-sponsored doping scandal.

Investigators from the World Anti-Doping Agency found inconsistencies in laboratory data obtained from the Russian anti-doping agency in January.

EXCLUSIVE BY ROB DRAPER: UK Athletics called a special meeting with the English Institute of Sport to discuss the controversial use of thyroid medication on elite athletes.

Russia have been banned from the world's top sporting events for four years, including next summer's Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 Qatar World Cup, for tampering with doping tests.

Vladimir Putin's comments come after WADA barred teams under a Russian flag from competing at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2020 and 2022 and the football World Cup in 2022.

EXCLUSIVE BY MATT HUGHES: American athletes are planning podium protests at the Olympics to express anger at the presence of Russian athletes if they win medals at next summer.

British Olympic chiefs have called for even tougher sanctions against Russia to prevent their athletes competing as neutrals in Tokyo next year.

Speaking about the World Anti-Doping Agency's decision, Putin said Russia were 'being punished for the same thing twice - we've never had anything like this in the history of humankind.'

ROB DRAPER AND PETER ALLEN IN PARIS: A criminal trial will start on Monday with some huge names on the International Olympic Committee sweating to see if they are named in court.

Russia have hit out at UK Anti-Doping for constructing a 'wall of distrust' by refusing to hand over Mo Farah's blood and urine samples to the World Anti-Doping Agency. 

The possibility of a blanket ban on Russians in the athletics disciplines at Tokyo 2020 increased after World Athletics ordered their disgraced national federation to admit to doping offences.

RIATH Al-SAMARRAI: Sir Mo Farah could face investigation by UK Anti-Doping agency after it emerged he changed his story when talking to investigators about injections he received.

EXCLUSIVE BY MATT HUGHES: Russia has asked the Court of Arbitration for Sport for more time to prepare an appeal against their four-year ban from international sport.

UEFA have announced that Russia will host the 2023 Super Cup despite the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) recommending the nation should not be allowed to host major competitions.

The World Anti-Doping Agency are expected to order a ban on Russian athletes competing at the Olympics as well as preventing them from hosting or competing in major international events.

Another wave of Russian athletes could face new doping charges after the World Anti-Doping Agency said on Thursday that it has completed its investigation of a vast trove of evidence.

Borussia Dortmund's sensational 2011-12 season will live long in fans' memories but not in Jurgen Klopp's, as the German coach was too drunk to 'notice' the celebrations. 

Donald Trump said on the eve of the annual Group of Seven summit that it would be 'appropriate' for Russia to retake its seat at the table with the world's most advanced economies.

Donald Trump says that Russia should be allowed to rejoin the Group of Seven, even though the nation refused to leave Crimea, so he's able to speak to Vladimir Putin  more directly.

The White House on Thursday attempted to scale back Donald Trump's claims that he wants Russia back in the G7 after European leaders said Vladimir Putin is not welcome until he relinquished the Crimean Peninsula.