The European Union slaps sanctions on the two most senior officers in Russian military intelligence and identifies the two agents accused by Britain of carrying out a chemical attack.

Russian warships in the Mediterranean Sea fire cruise missiles at targets near Aleppo on Friday, a further sign of Moscow's broadening military effort in Syria days after it began to fly bombing missions from an airbase in Iran.

When a helicopter pilot spotted the first crater in summer 2014, everyone was baffled. The 100-foot-wide hole appeared on the Yamal Peninsula seemingly out of nowhere, during a tense season of Russian military action in Ukraine and international sanctions.

President Vladimir Putin orders the Russian military to take "extremely tough" action against any threat to its forces in Syria.

Russia plans to station state-of-the art missiles in its westernmost Baltic enclave and deploy nuclear-capable bombers to Crimea as part of massive war games to showcase its resurgent military power amid bitter tensions with the West over Ukraine