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.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Friday made light of the sex scandals surrounding Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi, saying critics were simply jealous of his sexual prowess.

"However much they nag Signor Berlusconi for his special attitude to the beautiful sex, and by the way they nag him mainly because of jealousy, he has shown himself as a responsible statesman," Putin said at an international investment forum in Sochi, quoted by the state RIA Novosti news agency.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday defended the Syrian regime against sanctions for its crackdown on protesters and warned British Prime Minister David Cameron of the dangers of such a move.

Cameron met Medvedev for talks focusing on Syria and bilateral disputes as global frustration mounted with Russia's continued support of its ally despite President Bashar al-Assad's months-long repression of nationwide protests.

It's summer, so it must be time for Russian strongman Vladimir Putin to take his shirt off.

And any Russians disappointed that Putin had not been photographed this holiday season riding bare-chested on a horse or fishing would have been happy to have seen state television pictures of him visiting a provincial doctor.

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.

A Russian team is visiting Lebanon in an attempt to sign contracts with Lebanese authorities to have oil exploration rights in Lebanon’s Exclusive Economic Zone, media reports said Saturday.

As Safir daily reported that the delegation was carrying a message from Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to his Lebanese counterpart.

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.

Belarus on Tuesday gave a cool reception to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's surprise announcement he favors a merger between the two countries into one state as in the days of the USSR.

The opposition raised the alarm over what it said were Russian dreams to essentially annex Belarus while sociologists said that support for re-unification with Russia was dwindling in the country year-by-year.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Monday said he was in favor of Russia and its western neighbor Belarus uniting into a single state, as in the days of the Soviet Union.

"This is possible and very desirable," said Putin, when asked at a pro-Kremlin youth camp on Russia's Lake Seliger if Russia and Belarus could merge into one entity.