Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev followed his Belarusian counterpart to Ukraine on Monday as Moscow's old allies reassessed their reliance on Russia in the heat of its financial malaise.

U.S. President Barack Obama hit back at foreign policy critics in an interview aired Sunday, brushing off claims he had been naively outmaneuvered by Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin over the Ukraine crisis.

The authoritarian leader of Belarus visits Kiev on Sunday hoping to revive stalled Ukrainian peace talks he has been hosting in order to calm Europe's volatile eastern edge.

But a high-ranking Ukrainian official said Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko will be just as keen to use the trip to build bridges to Europe that ease his dependence on an increasingly isolated Russia.

North Korea comes under scrutiny Monday at the U.N. Security Council in the first-ever meeting on its dismal rights record, amid calls for Pyongyang to be referred to the International Criminal Court.

Until now, the top U.N. body has focused on North Korea's nuclear program as a security threat, but the scope has widened to human rights following the release of a U.N. commission of inquiry report.

President Vladimir Putin said Saturday no country can "intimidate" or "isolate" Russia, after the West imposed new sanctions on Moscow over the Ukraine crisis.

"Of course, no one will be able to intimidate us, or contain and isolate Russia. No one has ever been able to and no one ever will," Putin said in a speech.

The latest round of Ukraine-related sanctions by the United States and Canada hamper efforts to resolve the conflict, Russia's foreign ministry said Saturday.

"The sanctions are directed to disrupt the political process," the ministry said in a statement following the announcement of the latest measures on Friday. 

President Vladimir Putin has invited North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un for celebrations next year to mark the 70th anniversary of victory in World War II, Russian news agencies said Friday, citing his spokesman.

"Yes. Such an invitation was sent," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS news agency.

Russian prosecutors Friday called for leading Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny to be sentenced to 10 years in prison for allegedly defrauding French cosmetics company Yves Rocher of more than half a million dollars.

Presenting their closing arguments in a Moscow district court the prosecutors called for the charismatic anti-corruption campaigner, who has rallied opposition to President Vladimir Putin, to be sent to a prison colony if convicted, Russian news agencies reported.

China on Friday criticized a call by the United Nations for North Korea to be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague over its human rights record.

"It is our long-standing position that countries should engage in constructive dialogue and negotiations to deal with differences on human rights, and we oppose politicizing or using the issue of human rights to put pressure on other countries," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said at a regular briefing.

New U.S. legislation authorizing sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine crisis could undermine relations between Moscow and Washington for a long time, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying on Friday.