Russia said on Friday that most of Syria's chemical weapons may be taken out of the country for destruction because of the violence raging between rebels and President Bashar Assad's regime.

"Much speaks in favor of the idea of moving the predominant majority of the toxic agents that exist in Syria out of this country," the RIA Novosti news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying.

U.S. intelligence leaker Edward Snowden is ready to talk with German prosecutors in Russia, his lawyer said on Friday, after the fugitive met a German lawmaker over his evidence that Washington spied on Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, who was also due Friday to begin work at an undisclosed Russian Internet firm, was granted asylum in Russia in August to the fury of the United States, where he faces trial.

Two people were killed and at least 15 wounded Wednesday when two explosive devices went off in shops in Russia's troubled Caucasus region of Dagestan, officials said Wednesday.

The national anti-terror committee said the attacks occurred on a busy street in the center of the Dagestan capital Makhachkala.

Russia on Wednesday test-fired a series of short- and long-range nuclear-capable missiles as part of an unannounced check of the readiness of its massive Soviet-era force.

The defense ministry said several ballistic missiles were successfully launched from the Bryansk and Svyatoy Georgy Pobedonosets submarines stationed in the Barents and Okhotsk Seas.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday blasted critics of a U.S.-Russia initiative for a peace conference on Syria, warning that toppling the Assad regime militarily posed a "huge threat" to the area.

"Open objections have surfaced against holding this Russia-U.S. meeting (dubbed Geneva II), not only among Syrian sides but also among capitals, both in neighboring and non-neighboring states," Lavrov said during a visit to Athens, according to the official translation.

The European Commission said Wednesday it is checking gifts and gadgets which host Russia gave to delegations at last month's G20 summit to see if they pose a security risk.

With daily revelations stoking concerns over the extent of covert surveillance by friend and foe alike, the latest reports suggest that Russia hoped to trick G20 delegates into using devices which could feed back sensitive information.

Georgian president-elect Giorgi Margvelashvili on Monday said he would strive to reduce tensions with Russia after the two foes fought a brief 2008 war under outgoing leader Mikheil Saakashvili.

"The relations are extremely difficult," Margvelashvili told reporters after sealing a landslide win at elections on Sunday.

Russia on Monday described as "outrageous" a threat by powerful rebel groups in Syria against those who attend peace talks on the conflict backed by Moscow and Washington.

"It is outrageous that some of these extremist, terrorist organisations fighting government forces in Syria are starting to make threats," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in televised comments.

One of the 30 Greenpeace activists held in Russia for scaling an oil rig to protest Arctic drilling complained in a letter published Sunday that he was being kept in isolation in a cold cell.

"The solitude is weighing on me and I am miserable," Marco Weber said in a letter published by Swiss weeklies SonntagsZeitung and Le Matin Dimanche.

Nineteen Islamist groups fighting to topple President Bashar Assad have rejected outright a mooted U.S.-Russian peace initiative for Syria dubbed Geneva 2, a statement said.

"We announce that the Geneva 2 conference is not, nor will it ever be our people's choice or our revolution's demand," the groups said in a late Saturday statement read in an online video by Ahmad Eissa al-Sheikh, chief of the Suqur al-Sham chief.