VLADIMIR PUTIN

Russia's finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said he would decline a job in the country's next government, citing irreconcilable policy differences with President Dmitry Medvedev, who is set to become premier in a job swap with Vladimir Putin.

Saving Greece from a default would be better for the euro zone countries and ease the threat of similar developments in Spain and Italy, Russia's Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on Saturday.

Ending the ongoing speculations in Russia over the next presidential candidate from the ruling United Russia party, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Saturday accepted President Dmitry Medvedev's proposal to stand for president in March 2012.

Mikhail Prokhorov, who most Americans know as the New Jersey Nets' eccentric, jet ski-loving owner, is causing a stir in Mother Russia. Prokhorov, who is the country's third richest person, abandoned his Kremlin-backed Pravoye Delo (Right Cause) political party on Thursday, calling for others to join him.

The sole member of the Yaroslavl Lokomotiv ice hockey team to survive last week's air crash in western Russia died of his injuries on Monday, the medical center that treated him said.

The president of Russian oil producer Rosneft could soon be replaced, industry sources said on Friday, little more than a week after the state company signed an Arctic offshore development deal with ExxonMobil .

Cameron is expected to confer with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev as well as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

A Russian jet plane carrying a major league ice hockey team crashed while taking off in city of Yaroslavl, killing 36 of the 37 people on board.

In a deal announced Tuesday, Exxon will partner with OAO Rosneft, Russia’s state-owned oil producer, replacing British Petroleum in exchange for unspecified assets. Exxon and Rosneft will spend $3.2 billion in the initial explorations of the Arctic and Black Sea, the companies stated.

Exxon Mobil and Rosneft, Russia's top crude oil producer, announced a strategic agreement on Tuesday to jointly develop oil in the Russian Artic.

Since 2003, Matviyenko, 62, has been governor of St Petersburg, Russia's second largest city and Putin’s hometown.

Russia needs a change of leadership and free elections to stop it sliding backwards 20 years after a coup that hastened the end of the Soviet Union, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev said on Wednesday.

Former Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev told a German magazine that he believes Vladimir Putin is pulling Russia back toward the Communist State he once ran.

Russia will showcase its top-of-the-range fighter jets and newest space shuttles at the MAKS airshow, starting on Tuesday, and an ambitious program to upgrade its arms looks set to make Moscow the biggest buyer at its own show.

Russia?s ?tough? man stumbled upon two ancient artifacts while scuba diving at Taman Bay off the Greek Black Sea in southern Russia on August 10, 2011.

Three young women stripped down to bikinis on a chilly Thursday in central Moscow in support of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his anti-beer drive, in the latest racy campaigning ahead of 2012 elections.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin did not mince words describing the United States' conduct during the debt deal crisis. Putin did, however, recognize that the United States, in the end, had the common sense to do the right end.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Monday gave a speech to pro-Kremlin youth in which he accused the United States of acting like a "parasite" on the global economy by massing up uncontrollable debts that threaten the financial system of the world.

Russia's interior minister called on Tuesday for limits on the Internet to prevent a slide in traditional cultural values among young people, raising fears of controls over the vibrant Russian-language Web.

The analysts expect ?mild appreciation pressure on the ruble? in the next few months.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused the United States Monday of living beyond its means "like a parasite" on the global economy and said dollar dominance was a threat to the financial markets.