Putin turned 60 the official retirement age in the country he has dominated for the past 12 years, as critics snickered that his image of an energetic, young macho leader no longer corresponds with his age.
The defeat in Georgia's parliamentary polls of Russia's bitter foe President Mikhail Saakashvili may remove some poison from venomous bilateral relations, but Moscow should not expect major policy changes from Tbilisi.
Georgia on Tuesday awaited the outcome of hard-fought parliamentary polls as the opposition threatened a dramatic victory over President Mikheil Saakashvili's long-dominant ruling party.
Leaders of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are pleased with the results of the official visit and have once again reiterated their positions on the hydrotechnical facilities being constructed in the upstream of Syrdarya: press-service.
A Russian court on Monday hears the appeal of jailed punk rockers Pussy Riot against a two-year prison camp sentence for performing an anti-Kremlin song in a cathedral.
A court in Russia's region of Chechnya has banned the anti-Islamic film that sparked deadly protests across the Muslim world, a ruling that in theory should be observed across Russia.
Georgia votes in parliamentary polls Monday with President Mikheil Saakashvili's party facing a billionaire-led opposition in a test of the ex-Soviet state's democracy overshadowed by a torture scandal.
Belarus on Monday boasted of a massive turnout in parliamentary polls won by supporters of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko but the opposition ridiculed the results as brazenly rigged.
Five orphans from a children's home and two adults, killed when a drunken driver slammed into them at a Moscow bus stop, had just collected a handicrafts prize for disabled children.
The United States has asked Russia for more time to shutter the activities of USAID, after Moscow gave it less than three weeks to close down two-decade old programs.