North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Jong-Il on Saturday arrived in his armored train in Russia and plans to meet President Dmitry Medvedev, the Kremlin said.

During the visit, his first since 2002, Kim is expected to meet with the Kremlin chief for talks in Siberia to discuss North Korea's nuclear program, bilateral economic projects and a worsening food crisis in the isolated state.

Russia's ruling tandem of President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have put on a new show of unity ahead of elections by going fishing and taking a joint dive in the river.

The carefully choreographed footage of two leaders -- both potential candidates in March elections that will likely only feature one of the two men -- appeared aimed at removing suggestions of a brewing political rivalry.

Russian security services have foiled a plot by a group of Islamists to blow up a high-speed train running between Moscow and Saint Petersburg, the Kommersant business daily said Monday.

A blast on the same route that authorities blamed on Muslim rebels killed 26 people in November 2009.

President Dmitry Medvedev has signed a decree toughening sanctions on Libya five months after the measure was passed by the U.N. Security Council in March, the Kremlin said Friday.

It was not immediately clear why Medvedev signed the decree implementing the sanctions so long after Resolution 1973 was passed.

A Russian cargo plane crashed on Tuesday in the remote Far East after reporting engine trouble and disappearing off radars, apparently killing all 11 on board in the latest in a spate of air accidents.

Transport prosecutors said in a statement that the ageing Soviet jet came down in a hard-to-reach area of the Magadan region, hundreds of kilometers even from the nearest village.

Two young women stripped down to bikinis in central Moscow on Thursday to express support for Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, in the latest exposure of bare flesh ahead of 2012 polls.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has already inspired an apparently rival group of women to similar acts of naked daring but this was the first time the incumbent Russian president has prompted an erotic frisson.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday called the situation in Syria "dramatic" and expressed "enormous concern" over the deadly violence in the country.

"Unfortunately, people die there in large numbers. This arouses enormous concern from us," the Russian leader said in an interview given to Russian media in the southern resort Sochi.

The French chef who cooks for President Dmitry Medvedev in the Kremlin said Friday that he "does not have the right to make a mistake," but stayed tight-lipped on the Russian leader's favorite dish.

"It's a lot of stress and a huge personal commitment. You have to be available 24 hours and constantly keep an eye on things," Jerome Rigaud told Agence France Presse as the chefs who cook for world leaders held a regular summit in Moscow.

A mysterious poster depicting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev as Captain America, a skinny kid turned comic super hero, appeared Tuesday in Moscow causing Kremlin irritation.

Wearing a black leather jacket and leather gloves, the Russian president is shown in a spoof movie poster for "Captain America: The First Avenger", a movie which hit U.S. screens earlier this month.

One of Russia's most senior former nuclear officials has been arrested for allegedly pocketing state research grants and stealing other people's work off the Internet, a news report said Wednesday.

Yevgeny Yevstratov, who served as deputy general director of the Rosatom state nuclear corporation, oversaw a group that received some 50 million rubles ($1.7 million) in nuclear safety research assistance.