Russia on Saturday published its own blacklist of US officials banned from entering the country in retaliation for Washington's move Friday to name 18 Russians who allegedly committed human rights abuses.
President Vladimir Putin unveiled a new $50 billion drive for Russia to preserve its status as a top space power, including the construction of a brand new cosmodrome.
Three years after a jet crash in Russia killed a Polish president and 95 other people, conspiracy theorists in Poland are as adamant as ever that it was an assassination.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych pardoned Sunday a close ally of jailed former premier Yulia Tymoshenko as several thousands rallied in Kiev to protest his policies amid rising political tensions.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to "give a chance" to non-governmental organisations which she described as a "motor of innovation".
Over four millennia ago, the fortress town of Gonur-Tepe might have been a rare advanced civilisation before it was buried for centuries under the dust of the Kara Kum desert in remote western Turkmenistan.
Moscow on Saturday accused Washington of interfering in its domestic affairs after the State Department compared searches of Russian non-governmental organisations to a "witch hunt."