* RUSSIA-CHINA TALKS: Vladimir Putin hosted Chinese Pres. Xi Jinping on Thursday for formal talks in the Kremlin for the first time since 2023. During the talks, he invited China to set up factories in Russia and talked up Russia-China relations as hitting an "all-time high". (COMMENT: This was

* KREMLIN TALKS: Vladimir Putin on Wednesday held talks in the Kremlin with Venezuelan Pres. Nicolas Maduro, as well as with the leaders of Cuba, Mongolia and the Congo, ahead of his May 9 military parade. (COMMENT: The Kremlin charm offensive has slipped into overdrive ahead of the major parade.) * PUTIN

* STALIN GLORIFIED: Another bust of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin was unveiled in a village in the Volgoda region of north-central Russia. This is the village where Stalin lived in exile between 1911-12. The village museum had already unveiled a new bust of Stalin last year. (COMMENT: The Kremlin has deliberately

TOURISTS FLY TO GEORGIAN REBEL REGION: Abkhazia, the Moscow-backed Georgian rebel region, received its first commercial flight in 32 years on Thursday. The flight from Moscow's Vnukovo Airport was operated by UVT Aero. Among the passengers was Sergei Kiriyenko, a top aide to Vladimir Putin. He has special

PRO-WAR PROPAGANDA: Busts of Daria Dugina, a Russian journalist killed by a car bomb outside Moscow in August 2022, and her nationalist philosopher father, Alexander Dugin, have been installed in a new exhibition in a central Moscow park. (NOTE: The exhibition supports Putin's war in Ukraine and the

ANTI-TERROR DRILLS: Nationwide anti-terrorist drills took place in schools across Russia yesterday. Photos from the drills show men in balaclavas pointing rifles and shouting at schoolchildren who are cowering on the floor of their classrooms with their hands on their heads. (COMMENT: The photos look fairly traumatic but the Kremlin

SUPPORT FOR NORTH KOREA: The Russia-North Korea Mutal Assistance Pact that allowed Vladimir Putin to ask Kim Jung-Un for military support to expel Ukrainian soldiers from the Kursk region means exactly that, said Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman. In other words, if North Korea is attacked it can call on

CAR BOMB: A car bomb in a Moscow suburb killed Lieutenant-General Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy head of the Russian Army's Main Operations Directorate as he walked past. Ukraine has killed several high-ranking Russian military officers, scientists and propagandists. (COMMENT: The apparent assassination of Moskalik came only a few hours

TEACHERS'S PAY COMPLAINTS: Teachers in some of Russia's regions are refusing to organise end-of-year exams until they get a pay rise, the Izvestia newspaper reported on Thursday. (COMMENT: This is part of the 'inflation in Russia' story. Teachers and other municipal workers have not