With troops now stationed in the breakaway Georgian provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Russia unilaterally recognizes both as independent republics

Russia and China use their Security Council veto to block a UN resolution to end the violence in Syria

Vladimir Putin is elected president in Russia, prompting large public protests and widespread allegations of fraud

Russia and China again veto a UN Security Council attempt to apply economic sanctions on Syria

A huge meteor enters the earth's atmosphere and explodes over Chelyabinsk in Russia, injuring more than 1000 people

The American whistleblower Edward Snowden is granted a one-year visa for asylum in Russia

Syria accepts a joint Russian and US proposal that all their chemical weapons should be identified and destroyed within a very tight deadline

Thirty Greenpeace activists protesting against drilling in the Arctic are arrrested when armed Russians storm their ship, the Arctic Sunrise

People gather in Kiev's main square chanting 'Ukraine is Europe' to protest against President Yanukovych's attempts to align the country with Russia rather than the European Union

A vast crowd assembles in Kiev to protest against President Yanukovych's rejection of an alliance with the European Union, preferring one with Russia

The Ukrainian parliament votes to dismiss President Viktor Yanukovych, leading to major political disturbances by Russian-speakers in the Crimea and southeast Ukraine

Putin absorbs Sevastopol and the Republic of Crimea within the Russian Federation, after encouraging a referendum for Russians in these southeast regions of Ukraine

The Crimean parliament declares independence from Ukraine, and four days later signs a treaty with Russia for the Republic of Crimea to become part of the Russian Federation

The UN General Assembly condemns Russia's annexation of the Crimea and passes a resolution recognizing the Crimea as being within Ukraine's national borders

An agreement is reached in Geneva between Ukraine, the USA, Russia and the EU to try and resolve the crisis in Ukraine, but soon proves ineffective amid escalating violence in the southeast of the country