A systematic crackdown by the government and a history of intolerance have failed to silence a flourishing, diverse civil society.

Speculation that Dmitry Medvedev is keeping the Kremlin warm pending an inevitable Putin return in 2012 is subsiding

A Russian strategic bomber briefly entered Japanese airspace over the Pacific south of Tokyo early on Saturday morning, prompting 24 Japanese military aircraft to scramble, officials said. Russia denied the incursion, but the Japanese Foreign Ministry said it lodged a strong protest with the Russian embassy in Tokyo.

The diplomatic stand-off with Russia entered a dangerous new phase on Wednesday as British officials denounced "a pattern of intimidation" by Russia's security services against British Council staff. The Foreign Office complained of unacceptable behaviour, after Russians working at British Council offices were called in for questioning by the FSB.

Britain warned Russia on Wednesday that any attempt to intimidate staff of its cultural arm was "completely unacceptable" after Russia's state security service summoned local employees to speak to its officers. Britain's consulate in St Petersburg said the British Council office in the northern city had been forced to shut temporarily.

Workers rebuilding a 19th-century Moscow house unearthed the remains of nearly three dozen people apparently dating back to the era of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's political purges nearly 70 years ago, police officials said on Thursday. Police also found a rusted pistol on the estate where the remains of an estimated 34 people were discovered.