Vladimir Putin News

A statement for the White House Security Council says President Vladimir Putin offered condolences and unspecified assistance after Russia's Security Council Secretary met Wednesday with President Barack Obama.

President Barack Obama wants Russia to be friends. Since he and former president Dmitry Medvedev , now the country's Prime Minister, discussed a "reset" of relations, the Cold War's Punch & Judy have been more like frenemies than friends.

A criminal case against 12 activists allegedly involved in last May's riots on Bolotnaya Square in the Russian capital, after hundreds of people briefly broke through police lines in a bid to take their protest to the Kremlin walls, has been sent to court.

Hans Poldoja / Flickr The Cathedral of the Nativity in central Chisinau, designed by Abram Melnikov, was built in 1830 and is the main cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church in Chisinau, Moldova.

Russia is going to reopen the Contemporary Western Art Museum, that was closed in 1948.

A woman walking near the headquarters of the Federal Security Service, in central Moscow, May 14, 2013.

Depardieu, who arrived in Chechen capital Grozny with co-star British actress Elizabeth Hurley, said the ethnic-Chechen Tsarnaev brothers accused of carrying out last month's bombing in which three people died and more than 260 were injured, had been raised American and the outrage could not be blamed on Chechnya.

A Russian official undermined state prosecutors' case against protest leader Alexei Navalny at his trial on theft charges on Wednesday, saying that he had done no harm.

Israel's newfound natural gas reserves will boost its regional clout and could help it improve ties with neighboring states in need of new energy sources, Energy Minister Silvan Shalom said.

Acting Daghestan leader Ramazan Abdulatipov in the People's Assembly in January, when he was named acting president by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Among talk of the problem of unpaid gas bills and the possibility of opening a St.

Displayed on a computer screen is one of the pictures of Alexei Ustimchuk, a former officer of the Federal Bodyguard Service , posing behind Vladimir Putin's desk in the Kremlin.

Russian lawmakers on Tuesday took a step toward imposing jail terms for offending religious feelings, approving legislation proposed after punk band Pussy Riot performed a raucous protest song in Moscow's main Orthodox Christian cathedral.

As it approaches its goal of European Union membership, Croatia got a black eye this week by the American accounting firm Ernst & Young, which issued a report saying the Balkan nation is one of the most corrupt on the continent, euobserver.com reports .

Moscow seen as struggling for relevance as its Mideast grasp slips away; rebels view Russian involvement as thwarting resolution in Syria.

Khalid Dayli, a 23-year old fighter with Syria's rebel forces, flicked through the channels on his television, ogling at the scantily clad female singers and dismissing the talents of a Saudi soccer team.

Prosecutors have "brought us to the brink of sanctions on the one hand and are undermining our authority and business reputation on the other," says Levada's Lev Gudkov.

The head of Russia's National Security Council has arrived in the US on a two-day visit for top-level talks on key stumbling blocks in bilateral relations.

Mikhail Beketov, a Russian journalist who was savagely beaten in 2008, died in the town of Khimki, near Moscow, 8 April after choking on a piece of food, RIA Novosti reports .

COCOA BEACH, Fla., Nov. 6, 2012, 12:37am ET -- Today is Obama Day. In the distant future, when the history books present their record of this time, this nation may be judged by the decision we make at the polls today .