Inside the court of President Putin: no extravagance, only loneliness
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/life/article4161294.ece
He rarely uses the internet, dislikes going to the Kremlin, prefers his country home and works late into the night. Ben Judah on the real Putin The president wakes late and eats shortly after noon. He begins with the simplest of breakfasts. There is always cottage cheese. His cooked portion is always substantial: omelette or occasionally porridge. He likes quails’ eggs. He drinks fruit juice. The food is for ever fresh: baskets of his favourites dispatched regularly from the farmland estates of the Patriarch Kirill, Russia’s religious leader.
Russia hit by toughest sanctions since the Cold War
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/europe/article4161318.ece
Russia was hit by the toughest sanctions since the Cold War last night as the West finally agreed to force President Putin to pay “heavy costs” for fuelling violence in Ukraine. An unprecedented EU clampdown targeting state-owned Russian banks and oil firms as well as arms sales was announced yesterday and will cost the economy billions of euros.
It’s not a joke: Turkish leader tells women to stop laughing
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/europe/article4161389.ece
Turkey’s deputy prime minister has provoked outrage by declaring that women should not laugh in public, and berating them for spending too much time on their phones. Hundreds of Turkish women posted pictures of themselves on social media laughing in response to comments by Bulent Arinc, a founding member of the ruling Justice and Development Party, which is rooted in Islam.