Exclusive: Key British-Russian activist tells Tom Watling that even if he and other opposition leaders are killed, others will come in their place to challenge Putin, as he thanked The Independent for

British-Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza who was freed from a Siberian penal camp in a historic prisoner swap last month believes that the fall of Vladimir Putin is "inevitable"

Murza, one of the faces of Russian opposition to Vladimir Putin alongside Evan Gershkovich, sits down with The Independent for the first time since being freed in a historic prisoner swap

In the United States and Europe, there is growing uncertainty about how to counter Putin’s aggression without stoking a direct conflict with Russia.

A close ally of President Vladimir Putin warned Western governments on Thursday that a nuclear war would ensue if they gave the green light for Ukraine to use long-range Western weapons to strike targets deep inside Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered the country’s military to increase its number of troops by 180,000 to a total of 1.5 million, as Moscow’s military action in Ukraine drags on for more than two and a half years. The presidential decree, published on the official government website, will take effect on 1 December.

The Russian president earlier this year rebuffed Defense Ministry officials who had tried to convince him they needed more soldiers.