Russia and Ukraine were part of the 15 Soviet republics that made up the Soviet Union. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine declared independence on August 24. The map below ...

You would be forgiven for believing the Russia and Norway do not share a border, or that travel between the two countries would have to come via Sweden or Finland from a cursory glance at a map.

Getty Images Russia has important economic ties to the EU which may make sanctions more effective There are also fundamental differences between the Soviet Union and modern-day Russia that make ...

Russian President Vladamir Putin referred to territories in east Ukraine as "Novorussia," or "New Russia ... of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, part of the Soviet Union.

Tax revenue was much reduced as a share of a shrunken (measured) GDP: IMF data show a fall from 43 percent of GDP in the six final years of the Soviet Union to 31 percent in the CIS as a whole in 1997 ...

Russia is transcontinental ... These are known as Khrushchevkas and they're named after the former leader of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, who first announced in the 1950s that the Soviet ...

Mikhail Gorbachev - the last Soviet leader ... end of the union, before toasting him. Those fighting for Ukraine and those who have lost loved ones hope to end the war with Russia on their ...