Some 3,000 Russian Communist Party supporters took to the streets of Moscow Friday, waving Soviet flags and bearing portraits of Lenin to mark the 97th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution.

The demonstration, which included a large contingent of youths, wound its way through the Russian capital escorted by models of armored vehicles once used in the Soviet Union.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat announced Friday that Russia is “concerned” over the failure to elect a new president in Lebanon, following talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.

“I explained to Lavrov that we failed to elect a president due to some political disputes and he expressed his concern over the issue,” Jumblat said in remarks to Al-Arabiya television.

Portraits of President Vladimir Putin in the Ukrainian capital? Plenty -- but they're printed on toilet paper.

The Kremlin leader's stern features stare from novelty rolls sold for 20 hrvyna (1.5 dollars) in Kiev gift shops. He appears on T-shirts emblazoned with an obscene slogan. He's on doormats.

Russia's currency on Friday slid to a historic low, losing over 10 percent in value over the course of the week amid falling oil prices and the fallout of the Ukraine crisis.

The fall sparked panic as the euro reached the 60 ruble mark for the first time and the dollar passed 48 rubles.

The United States is putting Hungary under "great pressure" over its energy ties to Russia because of the Ukraine crisis, Prime Minister Viktor Orban was quoted as saying for the first time Friday.

"The U.S. is putting Hungary under great pressure," Hungarian media cited Orban as saying in Munich, Germany late Thursday after a meeting with Bavarian state premier Horst Seehofer.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Beijing on Saturday ahead of next week's APEC summit, Russian news agencies reported on Friday.

"The meeting between Lavrov and Kerry is planned for November 8 on the sidelines of the preparations for the APEC summit in Beijing," the agencies quoted a source at the foreign ministry as saying.

Ukraine said Friday that dozens of tanks and truckloads of soldiers had crossed from Russia into Kremlin-backed rebel territory, as five servicemen were killed in fighting that made a mockery of a supposed ceasefire.

A column of 32 tanks, 16 howitzer cannons and 30 trucks carrying troops and equipment crossed the border into separatist-held Lugansk region Thursday, Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said, adding that another convoy including three mobile radar stations had also entered the same area.

U.S. President Barack Obama has secretly written to Iran's supreme leader to discuss possible cooperation in the fight against Islamic militants providing there is a nuclear deal, a U.S. daily reported Thursday.

Obama sent the letter last month to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and described what he called a "shared fight" against the Sunni militant Islamic State group, the Wall Street Journal said, citing "people briefed on the correspondence."

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat held talks Thursday in Moscow with Aleksey Pushkov, head of the foreign affairs committee in the Russian Duma.

The meeting was attended by Jumblat's son Taimur, Health Minister Wael Abu Faour and PSP official Halim Abu Fakhreddine.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said on Thursday he would seek to defend Vladimir Putin's policies when he travels to Germany for ceremonies commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall this week.

Gorbachev, who is praised for his decision not to use force to quell uprisings in Eastern Europe, allowing the Berlin Wall to fall, said that Washington did Moscow wrong and Putin was the best man for the job of protecting the country's interests.