Russia

The man suspended himself in a tent from the second floor of the monument in protest against Russia's detention of 30 of the group's members.

French company denies allegations that it bribed officials to win contract for 43km stretch of toll road linking Moscow to St Petersburg.

France's Laurent Fabius says UN report leaves no doubt that Syrian government is responsible for chemical attack but Russians still blame rebels.

Initial French UN Security Council resolution would require Syria to make complete declaration of its chemical weapons program within 15 days.

French president François Hollande has made clear that France will join the US in military strikes against the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, dismissing calls for a vote of approval beforehand in parliament. As illustrated in yesterday’s heated debate in the lower house, the National Assembly, political and public opinion is deeply divided, both over the legality and consequences of the planned strikes. Lénaïg Bredoux and Caroline Donati have talked to senior French officials and experts close to the Syrian dossier, many of whom agreed to be interviewed on condition of anonymity, to find out why Hollande appears to have been finally wrongfooted amid a rushed and chaotic final denouement to a crisis of more than two years, and which one government advisor says is down to “a series of balls-ups”.

The French actor insists that he never 'left' his country, and says that despite reports he quit it over tax row 'I love France as much as ever'.

French anti-money laundering investigators raise alarm over recent Chinese, Russian and Ukranian acquisitions of loss-making vineyards.

Russian president says adoption by gay couples goes against his country's values and will seek changes in an agreement regulating adoptions.

Syria and human rights were on the agenda of talks in Moscow between the French and Russian presidents which lasted two hours over schedule.

The French actor plans to open the restaurant in the provincial town of Saransk in an effort to integrate more quickly into his newly-adopted country.

The actor, who now has a Russian passport, says if he simply wanted to avoid tax rises he would have gone earlier and insists he remains French.

Tax exile Gérard Depardieu has shown the press his new Russian passport before dining with President Vladimir Putin at Black Sea resort of Sochi.

French cinema icon and animal rights campaigner says she will apply for Russian citizenship unless slaughter of two sick circus elephants is stopped.

The actor, who recently announced he was moving to Belgium to flee French taxes, is offered Russian citizenship in a decree by President Putin.

Disagreements over how to deal with the Syria conflict will top the agenda when Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev visits Paris this week.