Hungary's gas pipeline network operator FGSZ said on Monday that it will resume gas supplies to neighboring Ukraine, after suspending it indefinitely in September prompting criticism from Ukraine's state-owned gas firm Naftogaz.

"FGSZ Ltd will again secure gas supplies towards Ukraine from January 1, 2015," the company said in a short statement posted on their website on Monday.

Strategic and tough sanctions against Moscow have effectively battled Russian President Vladimir Putin's aggression in Ukraine, US President Barack Obama said in an interview broadcast Monday.

Obama recalled how Putin had convinced many in Washington that the Russian leader "was a genius" for his lightning-quick annexation of the Crimean peninsula and invasion of areas of eastern Ukraine.

Russia has suddenly brought forward the date of top anti-Kremlin figure Alexei Navalny's verdict in his fraud trial to Tuesday after thousands of his supporters pledged to take to the streets next month, his lawyers said.

An independent TV station based in Siberia will go off air on January 1st on the orders of Russian authorities following months of pressure, its editor in chief said Monday.

Ukraine's Western-backed leader Petro Poroshenko promised Monday to meet Russia's Vladimir Putin and involve U.S. President Barack Obama in his stalled push for peace with pro-Kremlin fighters in the separatist east.

The surprise announcement came days after the first direct peace talks with the rebels in three months broke down without any evident progress after just one acrimonious round.

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov on Sunday proposed the creation of a "special regiment" made up from Chechnya's armed forces to help defend Russia from Western aggression.

The editor-in-chief of Russia's top opposition magazine, The New Times, has been accused of disobeying traffic police and faces up to 15 days in jail amid ever-shrinking tolerance for dissent.

Writing on Twitter, Yevgenia Albats said a court would hear her case on Tuesday.

Syria's regime is willing to meet the country's opposition in Moscow to seek a way out of the nearly four-year civil war, a government official said on Saturday.

"Syria is ready to participate in a preliminary and consultative meeting in Moscow to respond to the aspirations of Syrians who are trying to find a solution to the crisis," the foreign ministry official said, quoted by SANA state news agency.

The Kremlin on Friday branded the expansion of NATO as a fundamental threat to Russia in a revised military doctrine that dramatically reflects deteriorating relations with the West.

The new document, approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin, decries the "reinforcement of NATO's offensive capacities directly on Russia's borders, and measures taken to deploy a global anti-missile defense system" in Central Europe.

Ukraine said on Friday it was suspending all rail and bus services to Russian-occupied Crimea because of security concerns.