A friend of slain Russian opposition activist Boris Nemtsov on Monday dismissed theories that radical Islamists were responsible for gunning him down as "absurd" and politically motivated.
Investigators have said they were looking into the possibility that the former deputy prime minister was killed over his support for French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo which published images of the Prophet Mohammed.

A Russian court on Sunday charged two men with the murder of opposition activist Boris Nemtsov, including an ex-police officer from Chechnya who confessed to his involvement in what investigators said was a contract killing.
Four other suspects have denied connection to the February 27 killing of Nemtsov who was shot four times in the back while walking with his girlfriend late at night along a bridge outside the Kremlin, in the most high-profile assassination of President Vladimir Putin's rule that has sent shivers through the opposition.

China vowed Sunday to plough ahead on economic and diplomatic cooperation with Russia despite Western sanctions against Moscow over the conflict in Ukraine, stressing their relations are based on "mutual need".
"The practical cooperation between China and Russia is based on mutual need, it seeks win-win results and has enormous internal impetus and room for expansion," said Beijing's foreign minister Wang Yi.

The media freedom situation in Crimea is getting ever worse with a "deeply disturbing" and at times violent crackdown on independent voices a year after Russia's annexation of the Black Sea peninsula, the OSCE said.
"The continuous dismantling of free media in Crimea and the crackdown on independent and critical voices is deeply disturbing and worrying," said Dunja Mijatovic, media freedom representative at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Russia said Saturday it had arrested two men suspected of organizing and carrying out the murder of opposition activist Boris Nemtsov, who was gunned down near the Kremlin in a brazen assassination that shocked the country.
The arrests come a week after the longtime critic of President Vladimir Putin was shot four times in the back as he strolled with his girlfriend along a bridge in the heart of the capital, in view of the Kremlin and Red Square.

NATO member Poland will train Ukrainian military instructors as it has better facilities than those of its non-allied eastern neighbor, a Polish government spokesperson said Friday.
The announcement came on the heels of a meeting Friday in Warsaw between Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz and Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council chief Oleksandr Turchynov.

Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko has decided to end a hunger strike after going more than 80 days without food to protest her detention in a Russian jail, one of her lawyers said on Friday.
"She has taken the decision," lawyer Mark Feigin told AFP.

Kiev said Friday it had withdrawn all its Uragan multiple rocket launchers from the main conflict zone in eastern Ukraine, in compliance with a ceasefire agreement with pro-Russian rebels.
Two of the imposing Uragan (Hurricane) rocket launchers -- equipped with 16 launch tubes for 220mm rockets -- were being readied for loading on to a train alongside at least ten howitzer cannons in the eastern town of Artemivsk, an AFP photographer reported.

A Moscow court has jailed an ex-policeman for 15 years for high treason after he was caught placing documents under a fake rock, allegedly for the CIA, in the latest such case in Russia.
Roman Ushakov was found guilty and sentenced Thursday for trying to transmit coded documents from the Russian interior ministry to the United States' Central Intelligence Agency, Russian news agencies reported.

EU foreign ministers on Friday downplayed the threat of new sanctions against Russia but warned they remain on the table if Moscow undermined the latest Ukraine ceasefire accord.
France and Germany brokered a second Minsk peace agreement with Russia and Ukraine last month which so far seems to be holding, though the situation remains fragile and the outlook for full implementation is uncertain.
