Grand Croix of the Légion d'honneur

The OSCE's Chairman-in-Office and Swiss President Didier Burkhalter has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the situation in Ukraine.

BELGRADE - Russia understands correctly Serbia's position on the crisis in Ukraine, said Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic in talks with Russia's State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin on Tuesday, voicing concern about the escalation of the crisis in that country.

An elderly Russian Communist Party activist takes part in the traditional May Day rally in front of the Bolshoi Theatre in central Moscow Thursday.

By Nikos Konstandaras

Russia's President Vladimir Putin demanded that Ukrainian forces pull back from the south-east of their country in a conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

A phone call between the two has held as Merkel decided to ask Putin for help in the OSCE hostage crisis of the last few days, Der Spiegel magazine has reported.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin "is creating his own reality, and his sort of world", the US State Secretary John Kerry said late on Monday.

His words, which he addressed in an interview for the Wall Street Journal, come in the midst of rhetoric reinforcement from both the West and Russia over the Ukrainian crisis.

The European Union put Russian Deputy Premier Dmitry Kozak on an expanded sanctions list, joining the US in protesting Russia's actions in Ukraine.

A pro-Russian armed man stands guard at a barricade near the state security service building in Slaviansk, Monday. The sticker on the rifle reads ‘Republic of Donetsk.’

By Thanos Dokos *

The United States has announced new sanctions against Russia in relation to the events in Ukraine, Monday.

Internet emerged as a CIA project and this is also how it was developed, Russia's President Vladimir Putin reminded on Thursday.

At a media forum, he explained that everything which was said on the Internet was controlled through servers based in the US, Russia's Kommersant newspaper reports.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin admitted that the “little green men” who seized strategic points in Crimea in March were Russian troops.