The American fast food chain is on the way into the largest (populated) Big Mac-free territory on the globe: but do the locals want it?

Here we go back in time and remember 13 remarkable moments of 2013.

Workers at new spaceport write messages to Vladimir Putin on roofs of buildings after going months without pay.

Jessica Long is pleading with the Russian authorities to reverse the new ban on children being adopted to America, which came into force on January 1.

Beauty parlour employee Elena Silina, 24, see her car submerge into a giant pothole in the street.

New shipping link symbolises developing Arctic economy which can avoid eco-damage, says Putin.

Trans Siberian Art Festival in Novosibirsk closed without Gergiev who was stuck in New York.

Tomsk roads got a splash of colour as activists planted artificial flowers in the city's poorly repaired roads.

Bronze statue had been erected last month in Surgut by local people, but was seen as offensive by descendants of political detainees sent to Siberia.