Moscow

In the Kerchen Strait began a massive operation on the assembly of the railway arch of the Crimean Bridge, BNT reported. It weighs 6,000 tons.

Four people standing trial in a Moscow court have been killed in a gun attack, Russian media report, quoted by The Independent.

RIA Novosti quoted a lawyer who said she heard at least 20 shots.

Sofya Rubasskaya said she saw a guard and a court official injured.

A fire has broken out in a high-rise building under reconstruction on a major street in central Moscow, The Emergencies Ministry reports. The fire started on the seventh floor of the building and has reportedly engulfed about 200 square meters, according to Russia Today.

MOSCOW - Belgrade and Moscow on Thursday signed an agreement on cooperation until 2020 as a follow-up to a 2015 agreement that expires at the end of this year.

The agreement was initialled by the mayors of Moscow and Belgrade, Sergey Sobyanin and Sinisa Mali, in the Moscow government building as part of the Belgrade Days in Moscow event.

Property developers are racing to build up prime land in Moscow's leafy outskirts with plans that involve razing entire villages and felling acres of forest. 

Now determined locals are fighting back to stop the developers in their tracks and preserve the environment, local heritage and their homes.

Moscow-based daily Kommersant is reporting that the presidential bid of Aleksandar Vucic represents "a serious obstacle" to the plans of Tomislav Nikolic.

If Milorad Dodik's "plan on the RS leaving Bosnia" comes to pass, it "could lead to a war in the region and further confrontation between Russia and the West."

This is what Moscow-based daily Kommersant wrote on Tuesday, as cited by Beta agency.

Greece has been hit by a wave of harsh weather for the past days, with snow covering many areas of the country. But these extreme weather conditions are quite ordinary for countries like Russia. Dealing with the effects of large snow falls and below zero temperatures is part of their daily life during the coldest months of the year.

A plane carrying 35 Russian diplomats expelled from the United States over Moscow's alleged interference in the presidential election took off from Washington on Jan.1 and landed in Moscow on Jan. 2, Russian news agencies reported.

"The plane has taken off, everyone is on board," said the Russian embassy in Washington, quoted by the state-owned RIA Novosti agency.

Just hours after the murder of Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov, who was shot in Ankara while visiting an art gallery, another high ranking Russian diplomat was killed in Moscow, Tuesday. Petr Ploishikov, 56, was found dead at his home in Moscow with a bullet wound to his head, according to Russian network Ren TV.