Russia is developing a new intercontinental ballistic missile, the military announced on Friday, in an apparent attempt to remind the United States of Moscow's rocket capacities.

Revealing the existence of the project for the first time, rocket forces commander General Sergei Karakayev said that several test launches of prototypes had already taken place and the work was on the "right path,” Russian state media said.

Russia said on Friday that it had not changed and would not change its controversial stance on Syria, after a top Russian diplomat said the defeat of the Syrian regime was possible.

"We have never changed our position (on Syria) and we never will," foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday condemned as unfriendly the so-called Magnitsky Act passed by the U.S. Congress blacklisting Russian officials implicated in the prison death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.

Passed last week and awaiting signature by U.S. President Barack Obama, the legislation would punish officials tied to the November 2009 death of Magnitsky in a Moscow detention center, denying them entry to the United States and freezing their assets.

The British government has evidence that the Russian state was involved in the radioactive poisoning of dissident Alexander Litvinenko, a hearing into his death was told on Thursday.

A hearing ahead of a full inquest that is due to take place next year was also told that Litvinenko had been working with the Spanish secret service as well as with British intelligence.

A top Russian diplomat said on Thursday that the regime of President Bashar Assad is losing "more and more" control of Syria after 21 months of conflict and an opposition victory cannot be ruled out.

The comments by Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov appear to be the first time a senior Russian official has explicitly acknowledged that the opposition could defeat Assad and take power in Syria.

Georgia expressed disappointment Wednesday after its latest round of U.N.-mediated talks with Russia, blaming Moscow for blocking discussions on people displaced during the countries' brief war in 2008.

"I have to say we are deeply disappointed that our counterparts did not approach this meeting in good faith," Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Nikoloz Vashakidze told reporters in Geneva.

President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday encouraged Russians to have more children, saying three per family should be the average, as he seeks to battle an acute demographic crisis upon returning for a third Kremlin term.

"For Russia to be sovereign and strong, there should be more of us," Putin said in his annual speech to the Federal Assembly of both houses of parliament.

President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday denounced his opponents who receive financial assistance from abroad and said Russia would not allow democracy to be imposed on it from the outside.

Putin said in his annual state-of-the-nation address that it should be illegal for anyone who receives money from abroad to be a politician in Russia, in a clear stab at his opponents.

China's foreign ministry said Wednesday it regretted North Korea's long-range rocket launch, echoing a similar reaction from Russia and following strong condemnation from the United States.

"We express regret at the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's launch in spite of the extensive concerns of the international community," China foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters.

Russian investigators on Tuesday raided the homes of opposition activists said to have attended seminars abroad on how to spark a revolution aimed at toppling President Vladimir Putin.

Investigators raided the homes of opposition activists Taisiya Alexandrova, Yuri Nabutovsky and Anna Kornilova, confiscating documents as well as computers, Investigative Committee (SK) spokesman Vladimir Markin said in a statement.