Depressing, grim and unsurprising news: the Russian activist and Putin critic Alexei Navalny has died in prison. Breaking news, more soon theguardian.com/world/2024/feb… Russia's prison service says "the causes of his death are not clear". In fact it's blindingly obvious the regime killed him - either by murder or deliberate neglect - and that no such decision could be made without Vladimir Putin's personal authorisation

Here's Matthew Elliott - chief executive of Vote Leave, given a peerage today by Liz Truss - in Moscow, on a trip organised in 2012 by a Russian spy. Elliott was a leading figure in the Conservative Friends of Russia, and is pictured right. @RhonddaBryant theguardian.com/politics/2012/… The UK- based Russian spy who organised Elliott's Moscow trip was Sergei Nalobin. The goal was to improve relations with the Conservative party after the murder of Alexander Litvinenko & to identify a new generation of Eurosceptic "influencers" who might be useful to the Kremlin

Boom! Leaked documents from #Moscow shed light on Vladimir Putin's shadowy cyber-warfare capabilities: hacking, disinformation, propaganda. Here's our story on the #VulkanFiles, supplied by a whistleblower unhappy at Ukraine war and who is now a "ghost" theguardian.com/technology/202… Our story follows a months-long investigation into Vulkan, a cyber-security firm in Moscow. Its clients include the #FSB, Putin's old spy agency; the Russian military and the #GRU intelligence agency; and the SVR, the foreign intelligence outfit, emails and multiple docs show

I spent a week travelling along #Ukraine's southern frontline, from Odesa and Mykolaiv to Kryvyi Rih and Nikopol. Here's my report on #Kyiv's quest to take back the city of Kherson and other occupied territories lost to #Russia. Video: @christophcherry theguardian.com/world/2022/aug… Ukraine has used Himars systems to clinical effect. It has disabled crossing points over the Dnipro including Kherson's Antonivsky bridge, and has left Russian troops on the river's right-bank dangerously exposed. In contrast to the east, these southern positions look vulnerable

A symbol of imperial hubris. Destroyed Russian armoured vehicle next to the exclusion zone in Chornobyl. The white letters read: "Glory to Ukraine". Around 1000 #Russian servicemen lived in the nuclear power plant for over a month, digging trenches, tank shelters and a kitchen... I spoke today to the head of state agency which manages the zone. He said the Russian soldiers who breathed in radioactive dust will feel the consequences, "some in months, some in years". "This is the first time the world has seen tanks at a nuclear power plant," he said

Deputy mayor of #Mariupol Sergiy Orlov has just been speaking. Says city under "continuous Russian shelling", genocide taking place, 1170 people killed, 47 buried today in a mass grave. No water, heat, power, gas, with residents drinking snow and burning firewood. "It's medieval" Orlov: "Putin is intent on having Ukraine without Ukrainians. It's pure genocide. The attack being waged by Russia isn't simply treacherous. It's a war crime. They are attacking us with aviation, shells, multiple rocket launchers."

Here's @guardian write up of Putin's terrifying and delusional speech this evening. An extraordinary mash up of grievances and lies. Clearly a Russian military offensive is coming & on a large scale

https://twitter.com/Andrew__Roth/status/1495852138873987074

I spoke to #Ukraine's former defence minister Andriy Zagorodnyuk. He said any attempt by Putin to capture additional territory in the east or beyond would mean full blown war - "attacks, resistance, deaths, casualties, losses, plus a war crimes trial"
theguardian.com/world/live/202…

My latest report from #Ukraine's uneasy frontline and the port city of Mariupol. Video by @VolodymyrYurch and @guardian film coming soon. With thanks to @USCC_center theguardian.com/world/2022/jan… The Ukrainian troops I met are motivated, professional and ready to defend their homes. But it's also clear they are badly outgunned by (pro) #Russian forces. The war continues, with shots and grenade fire when we visited the spectacularly wrecked frontline village of Shyrokyne

Breaking: Roman Abramovich has settled his lawsuit against @CatherineBelton and Harper Collins over her acclaimed book #Putin's People. Agreement reached overnight Abramovich will not receive damages and will pay his own costs. Harper Collins has agreed to include additional denials and acknowledges that it is not a statement of fact that the oligarch bought Chelsea FC at Vladimir Putin's behest

In 1997 I wrote a book about Jonathan Aitken, the Conservative minister jailed for lying in a libel action against the Guardian. Alas, Aitken has been at it again - claiming he received no money from #Kazakhstan for a book on its dictator. He got £166,000 theguardian.com/news/2021/oct/… The money was routed via a PR company that works for Kazakhstan's government. Its founder Patrick Robertson is a #Brexiteer ultra who worked in the 1990s as Aitken's press guy. World PR paid Aitken the cash from secret #offshore accounts and underwrote his US book tour

The secret offshore world of #Tory super-donor Lubov Chernukhin and her husband Vladimir. Mansions, quad bikes, an Oxfordshire chicken coop... all are owned by opaque companies. Oh, and Vladimir is a non-dom. My #PandoraPapers story with @harryfoxdavies theguardian.com/news/2021/oct/… For anyone who missed, here's my piece on Mr Chernukhin's old #Moscow boss Vladimir #Putin. Putin's alleged lover, friend and oil trader associate have all hidden their wealth in #Monaco, with help from a British fixer. But is this cash really theirs? theguardian.com/news/2021/oct/…

Revealed: the spies who came in from the cold – how Vladimir #Putin’s alleged lover and an old family friend hid their fortunes in sunny #Monaco, with help from a British accountant. But was the money really theirs? My @guardian story from #PandoraPapers theguardian.com/news/2021/oct/… In 2003 a mysterious offshore company, Brockville Development Ltd, bought a luxury €3.6m apartment overlooking Monaco’s marina. Its owner? Svetlana Krivonogikh, a 28-year-old #Russian woman who around the turn of the millennium became extremely rich #PandoraPapers

Exclusive: Leaked Putin papers appear to show #Russia’s plot to put a “mentally unstable” Donald Trump into the White House – my story with @julianborger in Washington and @dansabbagh in London theguardian.com/world/2021/jul… The papers from inside the #Russian presidential administration suggest Vladimir #Putin ordered a wide-ranging spy agency operation after a closed meeting of his national security council on January 22, 2016

Here's an extract from my book #Collusion on the KGB's operation to cultivate Donald #Trump, including during #Trump's 1987 trip to Soviet #Moscow politi.co/2zRrRvK via @politicomag The former #KGB officer Yuri Shvets today corroborates my Collusion account, saying the spy agency cultivated #Trump as an asset for 40 years. Per my sources he was classified as 'doveritelnaya svyaz' - a confidential contact theguardian.com/us-news/2021/j…

The Cabinet Office is routinely obstructing freedom of information requests and has a blacklist of journalists working for @guardian and @DailyMirror, @openDemocracy reports. As I discovered last month when inquiring about Lord Lebedev .. theguardian.com/politics/2020/… I discovered the House of Lords Appointments Commission (HOLAC) - which scrutinises proposed peers - hadn't published minutes for over a year. I asked to see 2020 minutes, including from March when Lebedev's peerage was discussed - and rejected on national security grounds..

Drugs, a mural of Stalin, and Boris #Johnson - our exclusive investigation into Evgeny Lebedev's "hedonistic" parties in London and Italy and his decade-long relationship with the British prime minister. By me and @dansabbagh  theguardian.com/politics/2020/… Johnson made Lebedev a peer in July. He's due to take up his seat shortly in the House of Lords. Security sources tell us he is *still* deemed to be a potential security risk, albeit a low tier one, because of his #Moscow-based father Alexander who was in the #KGB

Here's my exclusive interview with Igor Danchenko, the #Russian analyst behind the Steele dossier. He says he "stands by" his work, including allegations that Trump was compromised in #Moscow's Ritz-Carlton hotel. "I got it right," he says theguardian.com/us-news/2020/o… Last week Danchenko sent cease-and-desist letters to Trump's counsel and to Republican senator Lindsey Graham. Both have suggested he's a suspected #Russian spy who fed disinformation to Steele. The allegations - retweeted by Trump - are "completely false", his lawyer wrote

I've speed read the Senate intelligence committee's report on Russian interference. Story for @GuardianUS coming shortly! It's a treasure trove of new detail about #Trump-#Russia and provides the most compelling account yet of what goes on inside the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Moscow A Russian intelligence officer is stationed permanently at the hotel, notes who checks in and out, and presides over a "network" of cameras including in guests' bedrooms, the report says. There are prostitutes under the control of an unnamed spy agency. We can assume #FSB

Exclusive: MPs who drew up the #Russia report were told the #Kremlin has a "likely hold" over Donald #Trump and there were "indications" #Moscow interfered in and may have covertly funded the 2016 #Brexit vote  - my new book Shadow State reveals theguardian.com/world/2020/jun… The evidence - given by former MI6 officer Christopher Steele - is the most compelling explanation so far as to why Boris #Johnson still refuses to publish the missing #Russia report, which he suppressed before last December's UK general election

Revealed: Russia 'hired network of Britons to go after enemies of #Putin', according to testimony given to parliament’s intelligence and security committee - the #Russia report, suppressed by Boris Johnson. My exclusive with ⁦@dansabbagh⁩ theguardian.com/world/2020/mar… The @guardian is publishing Bill Browder’s evidence to the ISC, delivered in 2018. We don’t know if it features in final report. It paints a depressing picture of British former intelligence officers, MPs, PR guys lobbying on behalf of #Kremlin interests in return for £££££

Revealed: wife of #Putin's spokesman faces questions over US tax affairs - my latest with @jonswaine in New York theguardian.com/us-news/2019/f… Tatiana Navka lived and trained in the US for over a decade. She was a US permanent resident up until Sep 2015 - the year she married Putin's press sec Dmitry Peskov. Navka was obliged to declare her global income. Including from #Russian sources ..