Dear readers, we are excited to announce that the Voice of Russia is changing its name and moving over to a new website. We will now be known as Sputnik news agency and radio. You can find all the latest stories from our London bureau here: http://uk.sputniknews.com. Please update your bookmarks and stay with us!

Polish employees at a Lidl supermarket in Kirkcaldy, Fife have been told to speak only English on the premises. Under threat of dismissal they were banned from using Polish at all, apparently even on their breaks.

Nearly 50 years after tobacco advertising was banned in the UK in 1965, an advertisement showing what looks like cigarette smoke being exhaled is to show on British TV today as new rules take effect.

Dear readers, we are excited to announce that the Voice of Russia is changing its name and moving over to a new website. We will now be known as Sputnik news agency and radio. You can find all the latest stories from our London bureau here: http://uk.sputniknews.com. Please update your bookmarks and stay with us!

Nearly 50 years after tobacco advertising was banned in the UK in 1965, an advertisement showing what looks like cigarette smoke being exhaled is to show on British TV today as new rules take effect.

Polish employees at a Lidl supermarket in Kirkcaldy, Fife have been told to speak only English on the premises. Under threat of dismissal they were banned from using Polish at all, apparently even on their breaks.

On the eve of the parliamentary elections in Ukraine - the second general elections since the dramatic and controversial takeover of power earlier this year, we look at where the country is headed and how it will change – if change at all.

Sex education remains a controversial subject in Britain. Politicians and parents worry about the over sexualisation of children in the digital age, while some parents worry that schools are failing to provide proper guidance to pupils and other parents believe information being given is too graphic.

US-led forces have stepped up air strikes against Islamic State or ISIS fighters threatening the Syrian town of Kobane, near the Turkish border. This comes after Turkish officials denied reaching an agreement with the US to use its Incirlik airbase in the southern city of Adana, 100 miles from the Syrian border. So what will the US-led coalition’s strategy to tackle ISIS be, and what of Turkey’s role? VoR's Brendan Cole hosts a discussion.

The exit of British troops from Afghanistan and a report into how criminalising drugs has no impact on drug use are among the topics discussed this week on Telling it Like it Is. Joining VoR’s Brendan Cole is the former Kremlin adviser Alexander Nekrassov, the Independent journalist Maggie Pagano and the New York-based writer and broadcaster Jeffrey Robinson.

Journalist Maggie Pagano of the Financial News, and former Kremlin adviser Alexander Nekrassov join writer and broadcaster Jeffrey Robinson on the line to discuss the week's events in Telling Like it Is. They talk about the crisis on the Turkish border with IS militants, the response to the Ebola outbreak and Nick Clegg's speech at the Liberal Democrat conference. VoR's Brendan Cole asks the questions.

US strikes on the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, Ed Miliband’s Labour Party conference speech and the Tesco scandal of overstated profits are among the topics discussed in Telling it Like it Is. With VoR's Brendan Cole are political analyst Alexander Nekrassov, journalist Maggie Pagano and New York-based writer and broadcaster Jeffrey Robinson. 

Something rotten is going on off the state of Sweden. A foreign something, nobody is sure what, has been reported floating close to Stockholm. Could be a submarine, could be a man in black, which begs a question how big is the man, or small the submarine. Well, must be a really big one if the Swedish navy has declared the area off limits to civilian navigation, and the skies above have been designated a no fly zone, as if the Baltic country is next to Syria or Libya. But small enough to be found in four days of a massive search.

British Ukrainian Russian actress and writer Vera Graziadei bemoans the lack of investigation into atrocities in Ukraine, including those against children. 

This month’s by-election results showed us quite clearly that UKIP – the rising force in British politics – poses a significant threat not only to Conservative chances of success in next year’s general election, but to Labour too, writes Neil Clark.

Most of Ukraine went to the polls to vote for a new parliament. The results – more or less – reflected expectations. And at this point Ukraine has a decidedly pro-western orientation. What happens now?

Ukraine as a story topic has largely dropped out of the headlines for West’s mass media. This is tragic for many reasons, particularly since the country faces economic collapse and worse. Has the West abandoned Ukraine? VoR's Peter Lavelle hosts a discussion.

Protests, democracy demands, outside meddling, regime change and the future of China - all of these issues have put Hong Kong in the spotlight. Have the students and Beijing both blinked at this point? VoR's Peter Lavelle hosts a discussion.

Moscow audiences will be entertained on November 29  by the British musical trio 'Blake'. Humphrey Berney, Ollie Baines and Stephen Bowman have had tremendous success performing for the British Royal Family, at national sporting events and touring around the world with their mixture of classical, opera and popular music.

It’s long been said that we are what we eat. For many of us in the developed world almost everything we eat comes from commercially produced animals and crops, and is bought from supermarkets. A new book lifts the lid on the dangers of mass food production both for human health and for the health of the planet. VoR's Tim Ecott spoke to Philip Lymbery, one of the joint authors of Farmageddon: the true cost of cheap meat.

Australian by birth, author and adventurer Tim Cope decided to train as a wilderness guide in Finland. That led to an adventure riding across Russia to China by bicycle and then to a bolder journey on horseback across Mongolia all the way east to Kazakhstan and Ukraine eventually ending up in Hungary. The journey took three years and his story is told in On the Trail of Genghis Khan: An Epic Journey through the Land of the Nomads. VoR’s Tim Ecott talks to Tim Cope.

Families from all over England travel down to London to see the Nutcracker ballet at Christmas. But it wasn’t always such a hit. VoR's Alice Lagnado invited Russian music expert Daniel Jaffe into the studio and began by asking him how the ballet was first greeted back in the late 19th century.

The ballet world is going through a difficult time in Russia, with courtroom trials and a change in management at the renowned Vaganova academy in St Petersburg. VoR’s Alice Lagnado takes a further look.

In this edition of Curtain Up, VoR’s Alice Lagnado talks to conductor Alice Farnham, who is bringing Britten’s opera The Rape of Lucretia to the Mariinsky Theatre this month. It’s her first time conducting at the Mariinsky, and it’s also the first time the opera has been performed at the theatre.

As a small child, Andrew Ravensdale was sexually abused by his own mother, as well as witnessing the abuse of his two brothers, one of whom later killed himself. In a rare interview, he talked to VoR's Alice Lagnado about how he set himself free from his childhood trauma and went on to change the lives of people with severe mental illness.

Sergei Yastrzhembsky, a former top aide to Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, has swapped the big beasts of politics for the arguably less daunting ones of the African plains.

In 1994, the current President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, decided that he would move the capital of the country from Almaty, the historic and cultural centre, to the city of Akmola. Was this a wise move? VoR's Tim Walklate has just returned from there and gives his personal account of the result.

For the second year in a row, London will host a Russian ball, to take place at the Old Billingsgate Hall on Sunday November 2. Approximately 1,000 guests are expected at the Ball, with a number of high profile business, political and cultural figures to be in attendance in what is expected to be an example of Russian culture.

To mark Halloween, we've got images of some of the best-known haunted spots in Britain, from historic palaces with royal shades to a Cornish inn spine-chillingly known as a place of "dark deeds done in the night"...

Sergei Yastrzhembsky, a former top aide to Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, has swapped the big beasts of politics for the arguably less daunting ones of the African plains. Patriarchal Africa: The Last Sunrise – photo chronicle of a vanishing life is a compendium of photographs that Yastrzhembsky has taken over the last five years, concentrating on recording ways of life there that are now under threat.

The gun attack in the Canadian capital Ottawa, the US mid-term elections, ructions in the European Union and the death of the legendary Washington Post editor Ben Bradley are among the topics tackled in Telling it Like it Is. Joining political analyst Alexander Nekrassov is the Independent journalist Maggie Pagano and on the line is the writer and broadcaster Jeffrey Robinson. Asking the questions is VoR’s Brendan Cole.

The West, notably the United States, has been putting an enormous amount of pressure on Russia, most recently over Ukraine. But it all began much earlier. What exactly is Washington’s goal - is it to bring some sort of positive change to Russia, or is it to cast Russia as an ‘evil empire’, to mould Russia as the perfect enemy? VoR's Dmitry Linnik hosts a discussion.

London remains one of the world's top tourism destinations - not least of all for Russian visitors. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there's a market for tour guides who are native Russian speakers. One of them is a former Muscovite, Konstnatin Pinaev who takes groups of Russian visitors around the capital on foot - using themed itineraries based loosely on the destinations familiar to anyone who's ever played the game of Monopoly. Around London in 40 Steps is his company. He explained what sort of Russian visitors went on his tours.