Domestic theatre: For Putin, confronting the West plays well at home. As Dmitry Medvedev, the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia, recently claimed, “Europe fears its own war”. For the Kremlin, that fear reinforces the narrative that Russia is the assertive power, and that the West is indecisive.

The Kremlin said on Tuesday it welcomed U.S. President Donald Trump's desire to focus on the search for a peace deal to end the fighting in Ukraine after achieving a ceasefire in Gaza and hoped he'd be able to push Kyiv towards a settlement.

Putin portrays the war as a watershed moment in Moscow's relations with the West, which he says humiliated Russia after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union by enlarging NATO and encroaching on what he considers Moscow's sphere of influence, including Ukraine and Georgia.

The United States is aware of the pause in the negotiation process for a peaceful settlement of the conflict in Ukraine between Moscow and Kiev. This was announced on October 13 at a briefing by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Tuesday it had opened a criminal case against exiled businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky and other prominent Kremlin critics, accusing them of plotting to violently seize power.

The Kremlin have issued a chilling nuclear warning after Donald Trump confirmed that he is contemplating sending Ukraine new long-range missiles if Putin doesn't stop his invasion

Zelensky shared in an interview with Axios that he personally asked Trump for an unnamed long-range weapon that he believed would bring Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table. He said that Ukraine would not target civilians, but that centers of power such as the Kremlin were now fair targets.

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Tuesday it had opened a criminal case against exiled Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, accusing him of creating a "terrorist organisation" and of plotting to violently seize power.

Spokesman Dmitry Peskov says European politicians ‘blame Russia for everything’ without evidence - Anadolu Ajansı

The Kremlin said on Tuesday it welcomed U.S. President Donald Trump’s desire to focus on the search for a peace deal to end the fighting in Ukraine after achieving a ceasefire in Gaza and hoped he’d be able to push Kyiv towards a settlement.

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko will visit Moscow for talks "in the coming days", the Kremlin said on Monday.