Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov concluded on Sunday his four-day visit to Lebanon, during which he voiced his concern over the possible spread of the Syrian unrest to Lebanon.

The daily An Nahar reported Sunday that he had called on Hizbullah to withdraw its fighters from Syria out of the concern that the fighting may spread to Lebanon.

A fire that killed 36 patients at a dilapidated wooden psychiatric facility has exposed Russia's failure to move on from the old Soviet system of punitive psychiatry used against political dissidents.

Two staff and 36 patients -- apparently too sedated or disorientated to escape from their mass dormitory with barred windows -- perished in the fire that broke out on Friday.

Russian officials blacklisted by the United States over the prison death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky expressed defiance on Saturday as ministers assured them of the Russian government's support.

The United States this month released a list of 16 Russians allegedly linked to the 2009 death of Magnitsky. They were barred from traveling to the United States or holding assets there in a move that enraged Russia and prompted tit-for-tat measures and a U.S. adoption ban.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov hoped on Saturday that the unanimity on Tammam Salam's nomination would allow the premier-designate to quickly form the new government, warning against the prolongation of Syria's conflict and its repercussions on Lebanon.

“We hope that the unanimity on his nomination would reflect on the cabinet formation process and allow Salam to quickly form it,” Bogdanov told reporters in al-Msaitbeh after holding talks with the prime minister-designate.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Friday called on Russia to exert efforts to end the war that has been raging in Syria for more than two years.

During talks in Mukhtara with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, Jumblat said: “We see in Bogdanov's visit an additional indication on the Lebanese-Russian friendship and Mukhtara will not forget the moral, material and political support offered by Russia when Lebanon was facing the partitioning scheme.”

Russian law enforcement agencies have detained 140 people in Moscow on suspicion of involvement in Islamic extremist groups, the FSB security service said on Friday.

"As the result of investigative activities at the house No 8 at the Danilovskaya embankment, employees of law enforcement bodies detained 140 people of whom more than 30 are foreign nationals," the Moscow branch of the FSB state security agency said in a statement carried by the Interfax news agency.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov handed over on Friday to President Michel Suleiman a letter of support from his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Putin hailed in the letter to the efforts exerted by Suleiman to maintain stability in Lebanon, expressing support to the resumption of the all-party talks and to the dissociation policy adopted by the Lebanese government.

At least 38 people died in a fire in a psychiatric hospital outside Moscow late Thursday night.

Police said the fire, which broke out at about 2 a.m. local time (6 p.m. Eastern, 2200 GMT) in the one-story hospital in the Ramenskoye settlement, was caused by a short circuit, the RIA Novosti reported on Friday.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said Thursday that he shares Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel's viewpoint that Christians “are going through difficult and complicated circumstances in the region, especially in Syria.”

“We agreed with the Phalange Party to activate contacts between our two parties and between the institutions … in the framework of finding solutions to the region's problems,” Bogdanov said after meeting Gemayel, in his first meeting after arriving in Beirut on a 4-day official visit.

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed hope that the Boston bombing tragedy would result in closer cooperation between Moscow and Washington in the fight against terror.

"I hope this tragedy pushes us closer to one another in stopping shared threats," Putin said during his live televised call-in session in Moscow, saying Russia was also a victim of "international terrorism".