PUTIN

Russia and Syria signed a $100 million deal for the transaction last year.

Christofias criticized the EU, the ECB and IMF for behaving like a ?colonial force? with respect to its fiscal demands on Greece.

Russia has been widely criticized for its friendly relations with both nations, but Putin is hoping to raise his status in the region.

?We agreed on the need for a cessation of the violence,? Obama told reporters.

On Monday her house was among several raided by security forces, with Sobchak ordered to appear at a police station only hours before a major anti-government rally took place in Moscow on Tuesday.

Opposition groups in Russia published their Manifesto of Free Russia, which demands an end to Putin's 12-year rule.

Putin, whose former party United Russia sponsored the bill, said on Wednesday that he will not put his signature on the bill if it is not up to European democratic standards.

The Ukrainian parliament has passed a controversial bill that would make Russian more prominent, a proposal which has been met with vehement opposition from both politicians and ordinary citizens who feel Ukraine's national identity is being threatened.

Putin's government increases the fines for unsanctioned protests, culling critics who are against the draconian legislature.

Newly elected French President Francois Hollande on Friday called for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down to prevent continuing violence. No solution to this crisis is possible without the departure of Bashar al-Assad, Hollande said.

It?s a showdown between the government and the private owners of Domodedovo Airport, with the former trying by many accounts to pry control of Russia's most lucrative airport away from the shadowy company that runs it.

The Russian missile carried a dummy warhead and was fired from a distance of 3730 miles.

The former KGB strongman maneuvered key allies into prominent posts, including naming the heavy-handed Moscow police chief Vladimir Kolokoltsev as interior minister, who came down hard on anti-Putin protestors in recent weeks.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has recommended Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin for a seat on the board of the state oil and gas holding company while announcing that Sechin will leave the Cabinet Sunday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin Thursday called off a much anticipated visit to the US where he was to join the other world leaders in a key summit of the Group of Eight (G8) industrial nations and meet with US President Barack Obama, the Kremlin announced, citing domestic concerns as the reason behind the change of plans.

Hacktivists boasting allegiance to the Russian branch of hacker collective Anonymous are claiming responsibility for temporarily shutting down the websites of the Kremlin and the Russian President, Vladimir Putin.

The group of hackers known as Anonymous on Wednesday kept its promise to join the protest against President Vladimir Putin by temporarily shutting down the Kremlin website, the official online page of the presidency.

Among the flurry of decrees Vladimir Putin issued after returning to the presidency for a historic third term were calls for faster privatization and government-sponsored boost in capital investment and closer ties with the US, based on equality, non-interference in internal affairs and respect for one another's interests.

Vladimir Putin ordered Russia's government to boost investment and shake up state-run industries in a flurry of decrees issued after he returned to the presidency on Monday with a call for a new economy.

The former KGB strongman is replacing his 'protégé' Dmitry Medvedev, who will almost certainly return to being Prime Minister in a job swap first agreed upon last year.

Russian riot police beat protesters about the head with batons and detained 250 Sunday after clashes broke out at a Moscow rally by thousands of people against Vladimir Putin on the eve of his return to the presidency.