European Union nations postponed a decision on December 9 on renewing the bloc's economic sanctions against Russia after Italy called for a debate on the matter.

• December 10, 2015

Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed the Finance Ministry to take Ukraine to court if the country defaults on its $3 billion debt to Moscow.

• December 9, 2015

Turkey has carried out new air raids on suspected Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq.

• December 9, 2015

Turkish officials say Russia has stopped construction work at Turkey's first planned nuclear power plant, amid a bitter row between Moscow and Ankara.

• December 9, 2015

Russia says it has for the first time struck Islamic State targets in Syria with missiles fired from a submarine.

• December 8, 2015

Russia says the deployment of Turkish forces in Iraq without Baghdad's approval is “unacceptable.”

• December 8, 2015

Oil prices plummeted to their lowest levels since the depths of the global recession in February 2009 as investors braced for a flood of Iranian oil in an already glutted market.

• December 8, 2015

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says that Ankara may find alternatives to buying Russian oil and gas as bilateral relations deteriorate over the downing of a Russian warplane.

• December 7, 2015