Demonstrators demanded the release from prison of Kremlin-critic Alexei Navalny, who has been on a hunger strike for three weeks. The marches swept across dozens of cities.

The report says Russian leader Vladimir Putin authorized a campaign to assist former President Donald Trump and undermine Joe Biden, though it was not on the same scale as Moscow's efforts in 2016.

The country's Internet regulator says Twitter has ignored its requests to remove material it considers harmful to children. The move is part of a larger effort to rein in non-Russian social media.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview "We don't want to isolate ourselves from global life, but we have to be ready for that. If you want peace then prepare for war,"

Despite disagreements on many issues, the president and the Russian leader agreed to extend the only remaining U.S.-Russia nuclear arms control deal.

One law would allow for the blocking of foreign websites that it says "discriminate" against Russian media, while another would allow people convicted of slander to be jailed for up to two years.

Vaccination will be voluntary, the Kremlin says, and will begin with health care workers and people with chronic medical conditions. Russia's Sputnik V vaccine is still in clinical trials.

Leaders in the Kremlin and Beijing, as well as in Mexico and Brazil, have conspicuously not congratulated the president-elect, instead waiting for legal challenges to be resolved.

In an interview, the Russian opposition leader accuses President Vladimir Putin of ordering the attack with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok. A Kremlin spokesperson calls the accusation groundless.

A spokeswoman says the Russian opposition leader's bank accounts were frozen and his Moscow apartment "seized" in connection with a libel suit while he was in a coma after poisoning by a nerve agent.

Alexander Lukashenko declared a landslide victory in Aug. 9 polls widely seen as fraudulent. He was sworn in for a sixth term Wednesday in a secret ceremony in the capital, according to state media.

In a speech to the U.N. General Assembly, the president once again sought to blame China for the COVID-19 pandemic and called on Beijing to be punished for its handling of the disease.

It's the first country to approve a COVID-19 vaccine, but it has not finished Phase III trials to assess safety and effectiveness in the general population.

Russian military intelligence, the GRU, is linked to the invasion of Ukraine and interference in the 2016 U.S. election. Now it's suspected of a bounty program to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan.