American sentenced to four years in Russian jail for allegedly trying to smuggle Kalashnikov rifle stocks through Moscow airport security checkpoint.

Russia's economy is hanging between stagnation and decline, and ordinary Russians are beginning to feel the pinch.

The Ukrainian public would not accept Kyiv simply handing over the country’s Donbas region to Russia in a peace deal, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday — advising US envoys against continually pushing a version of peace the war’s victims would see as an “unsuccessful story.”

Iran has been joined by Russia and China in deploying naval vessels for a joint live-fire exercise in the Strait of Hormuz, heightening regional tensions even as negotiators from Washington and Tehran met for diplomatic talks aimed at averting a military confrontation.

Get live updates and the latest news on the Trump administration after Jesse Jackson dies at 84, Russia and Ukraine meet for U.S.-brokered peace talks, and the U.S. and Iran hold nuclear talks in Geneva.

Moreover, American companies can hope to sell only so much to Russians. Their $2.2trn economy is smaller than Italy’s, with a shrinking middle class. The KSE estimates that, in 2021, the total annual profits made by the 1,500 foreign firms operating in Russia that it tracks were just $18bn, from revenues of around $300bn.

The Iraqi cabinet approved on Tuesday an "amicable settlement" with Russia's Lukoil over the transfer of operations of the giant West Qurna 2 oil field to the state-run Basra Oil Company, according to a statement.