Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project

Former British Prime Minister David Cameron indicated foul play might be why the U.K. lost the bid to host the FIFA 2018 World Cup to Russia,  The Independentreported.

A Russian investigative journalist who wrote about mercenaries in Syria has died following a suspicious fall from his fifth-floor balcony, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported Sunday.

While Monday showed big losses for Russia’s oligarchs targeted by US sanctions, they might have already started recovering by Friday.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev promised on Monday to help Russian companies targeted by US sanctions with the creation of two jurisdictions with special tax rules in Russia, similar to offshores, Vedomosti reported.

Sergei Skripal, the former Russian military intelligence agent who was poisoned in Britain, was not the first victim of the deadly toxin. Is it still out there?

The name “Novichok” is now widely-known after the poisoning of Sergey Skripal in Salisbury. It turns out that a substance from this group of chemicals was used to murder a banker in 1995. Could some of it have fallen into the hands of criminals? Photo by: Edin Pasovic / OCCRP

The net worth of Oleg Deripaska, one of the oligarchs targeted by Friday’s U.S. sanctions, fell by US$1.1 billion, Bloomberg reported Monday.

Moscow’s deteriorating relationship with the West and stricter checks of money origins in the UK have forced many rich Russian emigrants to consider returning to their homeland.

A Moscow Court opened a hearing on Wednesday on how a former prizefighter killed crime boss Karen “Lipetsky” Petrosyan at a gas station in Moscow over US$1.7 million, Rosbalt reports.

Two Russian environmental activists were beaten up when they returned from taking photographs of a private chapel illegally built on forest land on the Black Sea Coast. A gang of thugs was waiting for them at their offices in Krasnodar, Russia’s Novaya Gazeta revealed on Monday.

Russian billionaire Ziyavudin Magomedov was arrested Saturday for embezzling US$44million, Radio Free Europe reports.

British authorities on Thursday began new investigations into money-laundering, sanctions and economic crime, focusing particular attention on properties purchased from those with Russian connections.

Russian President Vladimir Putin may be running for reelection as an independent candidate, at least officially — but his electoral campaign is wholly funded by the ruling United Russia party and 22 affiliated foundations. They have contributed the entire 400 million rubles (US$ 7 million) that any candidate can legally spend on the election.

Vladimir Putin is running as an independent candidate in Russia's presidential elections — but donations to his campaign link back to familiar faces from the Russian elite, including those from the country's ruling United Russia party. Photo by: Edin Pasovic / OCCRP

The man who in 2014 claimed to be a Spanish flight controller and blamed Ukraine for shooting down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, turns out to be a petty criminal who says he was paid to launch the hoax, a journalist investigation revealed on Wednesday.

In response to Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, the European Union banned more than 100 Russian officials and businessmen from entering its territory and froze their European assets. The move was meant to punish well-connected Russians who have profited from their country’s aggression against Ukraine.

Boris Rotenberg’s previously unknown property in Eze, France. (Photo: Sophie Balaÿ)

Dressed in gray coats with white scarves, Russian athletes marched into South Korea’s Pyeongchang Stadium carrying the Olympic flag instead of their own.

Russian athletes enter the stadium at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, 9 February 2018. (Photo (c): Daniel Karmann / Picture-Alliance / DPA / AP Images.)

The US Treasury added on Wednesday five more names to the list of Russian individuals sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act, including the leader of the Republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kardyrov.

A French judge on Thursday ordered Russian legislator and billionaire Suleiman Kerimov to post US$47 million in bail and relinquish his passport as part of an investigation into tax fraud and money laundering at Kerimov’s luxury properties on the French Riviera.

German prosecutors are investigating possible bribery related to the construction of a pipeline that pumps gas from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea, the German magazine Stern reported Wednesday.

A Novaya Gazeta and OCCRP investigation looks into the wealth surrounding Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A man burst into the Russia's top liberal talk-radio station, Ekho Moskvy, in the center of Moscow on Monday and stabbed a prominent journalist in the throat, rekindling the debate on freedom of press in the country.