Alexander Bastrykin

The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, called the explosion of the Crimean bridge a terrorist attack, the perpetrators, guarantors and executors of which are the Ukrainian special services. The chairman of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, added that Russian citizens and foreign countries were involved in the organization of the attack.

Ambassadors of 27 European Union nations have agreed further anti-Russian sanctions over the situation around Russian blogger Alexey Navalny, a source in one of the delegations told TASS on Monday.

The Obama administration has sanctioned Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun as alleged assassins of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy. The two are believed to be among the top allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The two men allegedly poisoned Litvinenko in London in 2006.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on March 6 he was cutting his salary by 10 percent as well as the earnings of several top government officials, as the country's economy reels from the collapse of the ruble.