Russia

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.

An official burial ceremony is held in Belarus for 110 Napoleonic soldiers who died in a major battle in 1812 against the Russian army.

Mounted French and Russian actors recreate the 200-year-old Battle of Borodino at the gates of Moscow that led to the fall of Napoleon.

During talks in Paris Francois Hollande failed to win the backing of Vladimir Putin for tougher U.N. sanctions aimed at ending violence in Syria.

Russia rebukes France for dropping weapons for Libyan rebels, saying it violates UN resolutions, and has demanded an explanation from Paris.

A Paris court ruling has left French oil giant Total facing a claim for 170 billion dollars (131 billion euros) over a contract negotiated in Russia 20 years ago by a defunct subsidiary. No corporate entity has ever before faced a damages claim for such a huge and potentially devastating amount. Martine Orange reveals a Kafkaesque legal drama with a colourful cast that includes an entrepreneur and former F1 racing driver known as ‘Dédé the Sardine' and the late French novelist Françoise Sagan.