Russian intelligence

Only days before US President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration,

The United States and Russia have engaged in a dangerous diplomatic spat, after the former issued sanctions on the latter over their involvement in hacking U.S. political groups in the 2016 presidential election, which sparked reaction from Russia.

The US has expelled 35 Russian diplomats in retaliation to the cyber attacks Washington claims were aimed at influencing the presidential election.

The diplomats at Russia's Embassy to Washington have been given 72 hours to leave after being declared "persona non grata."

The latest wave of sanctions includes entities and individuals in the Russian intelligence.

President Vladimir Putin probably approved a Russian intelligence operation to murder ex-KBG agent Alexander Litvinenko with radioactive polonium-210, a British inquiry into the 2006 killing in London concluded. 

Litvinenko, 43, an outspoken critic of Putin who fled Russia, died after drinking green tea laced with the rare radioactive isotope at London's Millennium Hotel. 

Russian intelligence services have spotted almost 12,000 oil trucks on the Turkish-Iraqi border, near the Zakho checkpoint, Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy has said.

The chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces spoke in Moscow on Friday, and according to Sputnik, added:

Russian intelligence found up to 12,000 tankers and trucks on the Turkish-Iraqi border,  reports the General Staff of Russia’s armed forces has reported. Russian Lieutenant-General Sergey Rudskoy told journalists on Friday that the aerial imagery was made in the vicinity of Zakho, a city in Iraqi Kurdistan. There were 11,775 tankers and trucks on both sides of the Turkish-Iraqi border.

Iraq has started bombing Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) targets with help from a new intelligence center that has staff from Russia, Iran and Syria, the head of parliament's defense and security committee said Oct. 13 as Russia intensifies attacks on the jihadist group in neighboring Syria. 

Germany's federal prosecutors' office said on Thursday that a German spy has been charged with treason, taking bribes and disclosing official state secrets, AP reported.

Kaim Saduev has died in Istanbul after eating wild garlic sent from Chechnya. His relatives claim that it is a 'Litvinenko-style murder' A Chechen activist has died in Istanbul after being hospitalized with his family members for food poisoning, as some of his relatives and Turkish activists accuse the Russian intelligence agency of poisoning wild garlic sent to him from Chechnya.

Caretaker Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov has said he is seriously concerned with the abduction of Estonian police official Eston Kohver on September 5, 2014.

In a statement, he has called the incident "a violation of international law on behalf of the Russian Federation".

The Foreign Ministry is calling on Russia to immediately release Kohver and secure his return to Estonia.