Russia hit out on Tuesday at a U.N. resolution proposed by European nations that condemns Syria's deadly crackdown on anti-regime protests, describing it as "unacceptable."

Britain, France, Germany and Portugal had dropped the word "sanctions" from their draft text in a bid to win over members of the U.N. Security Council, but it was not enough to avoid opposition from veto-wielding Russia.

Turkey has revoked a contract to purchase six billion cubic meters a year of natural gas from Russia, its main supplier, after failing to win a discount, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said Saturday.

"The contract on the western routing has been wound up because the request for a lower price has been refused," Anatolia news agency quoted him as saying.

President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday denied that the fate of Russia's elections was predetermined by his decision to step down in favor of his political mentor Vladimir Putin.

"How can they be predetermined," news agencies quoted Medvedev as saying in a Russian television interview to be aired on the country's main channels on Friday evening.

Turkey threatened Thursday to revoke a contract to purchase six billion cubic meters of natural gas, a third of its Russian imports, if the price is not reduced.

"We have asked them (Russia) for a reduction. If Russia does not sufficiently meet this demand, we will display the will to end the contract," Energy Minister Taner Yildiz told reporters in Ankara.

Russia risks six lost years when Vladimir Putin returns to the Kremlin if he does not undertake wholesale change of its political system, the Soviet Union's last leader Mikhail Gorbachev said Monday.

Gorbachev wrote in a commentary for the Novaya Gazeta, which he part owns, that the decision for Putin to stand for the presidency in 2012 elections instead of incumbent President Dmitry Medvedev was wholly expected.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Saturday stunningly announced that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin should return to the Kremlin in 2012 elections for a new six-year mandate.

Medvedev told the annual congress of ruling party United Russia that he was prepared to take on "practical work" in the government after the March presidential polls, a hint that he could be prime minister in a new Putin presidency.

Twin explosions killed a police officer and injured dozens of others as well as civilians in Russia's southern city of Makhachkalay, officials said Thursday.

The explosions within meters of each other rocked the capital of the North Caucasus region of Dagestan after midnight and went off about 500 meters from the offices of Dagestan's interior ministry, a representative of Makhachkala police told Agence France Presse.

U.S. ballet star David Hallberg is to join Russia's Bolshoi Theatre for the new season, the first time an American has become a member of the legendary company, sources said Wednesday.

Whereas Russian dancers including Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov famously defected to the West from the Soviet Union, this is the first time that a Western dancer is to perform full time with the Bolshoi.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday warned against "any foreign intervention that threatens to fragment states in the region and increase the risk of extremism in them," in talks with a Russian delegation on a mission to help end the government crackdown on anti-regime protests.

Assad also welcomed the "balanced and constructive Russian position toward the security and stability of Syria," the state-run SANA news agency reported.

Honda Motor has decided to build its first factory in Russia, becoming the last of the five major Japanese automakers to do so, a report said Sunday.

Russia has an expanding car market and the Nikkei newspaper said Honda, the third largest Japanese vehicle manufacturer, has submitted the plant plan to the Russian government.