Russia's central bank withdrew on Wednesday the licence of a popular Moscow bank where a cousin of President Vladimir Putin sits on the board.

Investigators said they suspected managers at Master Bank -- Russia's 75th biggest by total assets -- of money laundering and other illegal cash transactions.

Iran's top decision-maker Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday he will not allow any "retreat" on Tehran's nuclear rights, ahead of a new round of talks with world powers.

While expressing support for negotiators engaging in nuclear talks in Geneva today, the supreme leader said the Iranian team was instructed to respect Tehran's "red lines."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived on Thursday in Russia for talks with President Vladimir Putin, in a last-minute bid to influence an emerging nuclear deal with Iran strongly opposed by the Jewish state.

An Agence France Presse correspondent accompanying the Israeli premier said Netanyahu arrived in Moscow in the early afternoon and made no comment to reporters during the flight.

At odds with ally Washington over an emerging nuclear agreement with Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will on Wednesday take his campaign against the deal to Moscow.

Russia is a member of the P5+1 group -- alongside the United States, China, France, Britain and Germany -- which has been struggling to reach a deal to freeze or curb Iran's nuclear activities in exchange for some relief from international sanctions.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged a visiting Syrian regime delegation on Tuesday to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the multitude of civilians left destitute by war.

Lavrov met Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Muqdad for talks aimed at preparing Russia's main Middle East ally for a peace conference in Geneva, which world diplomats hope to convene mid-December.

Russian courts on Tuesday granted bail to seven foreign Greenpeace activists detained for an oil drilling protest, bringing to 10 the number released over the last days and raising hopes of a solution to a case which has raised global concern.

Russia had held 30 crewmembers of Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise ship for over two months after activists in September scaled an oil rig in the Barents Sea owned by energy giant Gazprom.

The head of Russia's state industrial holding company said on Monday that Moscow was on the verge of reaching a landmark agreement to deliver air defense systems to Egypt's army.

Rostec chief Sergey Chemezov's comments came in the wake of a visit to Cairo last week by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu devoted to military and diplomatic ties.

A Russian court on Monday extended the pre-trial detention of one of 30 Greenpeace activists arrested for a protest against Arctic oil drilling, but unexpectedly freed a Russian doctor on bail.

Yekaterina Zaspa, a doctor with Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise icebreaker, became the first of the arrested crew members to be freed pending trial, after two months in detention.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani on Monday there was "a real chance" to find a solution to the decade-old stand-off over Tehran's nuclear drive.

The Kremlin said Putin had called Rouhani to discuss the Syrian crisis as well as a new round of talks about the nuclear standoff that is set to begin in Geneva on Wednesday.

Russia on Monday sought answers for the latest deadly plane crash to raise concern about the safety of its civil aviation, with investigators focusing on a fault with the 23-year old plane or pilot error as the likely cause for the disaster that killed 50.

The Tatarstan Airlines Boeing 737-500 crashed on landing at the airport in the Volga city of Kazan after a flight from Moscow's Domodedovo airport Sunday night, killing all 44 passengers and six crew on board, the emergencies ministry said.