MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian authorities said on Thursday that security agencies had foiled a plot by Islamic militants to attack the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, using an arsenal of weapons including surface-to-air missiles and a flamethrower.

Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAC) said special services had confiscated arms, ammunition and explosives in the breakaway Abkhazia region of Georgia, the South Caucasus country with which Russia went to war in 2008.

Abkhazia, which Russia recognized as an independent nation after the war, is adjacent to Sochi on the Black Sea coast. The assailants had also planned attacks in the runup to the Games in February 2014, it said.

“Russia’s FSB (security service) was able to establish that the fighters planned to move the weapons to Sochi from 2012 to 2014 and use them to carry out terrorist acts before and during the Olympic Games,” NAC said in a statement.

The NAC blamed the plot on the Caucasus Emirate, one of the leading groups in an insurgency against Russian rule in the volatile North Caucasus, where Russian troops have fought two wars in Chechnya since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

It suggested the group’s leader, Doku Umarov, had been cooperating with Georgian special services but did not give any details to support this allegation and the NAC report could not be independently verified.

Russia has often said Georgia may be plotting further aggression following the war, an accusation Georgia rejects.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin promised to project Russia’s might on the world stage in a rallying speech on Wednesday to troops and war veterans celebrating victory over Nazi Germany at a military parade bristling with weapons on Red Square.

Two days after starting his six-year term, Putin, flanked by military chiefs and his defense and prime ministers, used the address to reinforce appeals for national unity as he tries to reassert his authority, shaken by months of protests.

Russian courts later jailed two prominent opposition leaders for 15 days for their role in the protests against his return to the Kremlin, sending a new signal that Putin is determined to keep a lid on dissent in his third presidential term.

“Russia consistently follows a policy of strengthening global security and we have a great moral right to stand up determinedly for our positions because our country suffered the blow of Nazism,” Putin said in the annual speech marking Victory in Europe day, delivered from a podium under the Kremlin walls.

He did not refer to any enemy other than evoking the victory over Nazi Germany in 1945 at a great human cost, including millions of Soviet victims, at a parade in which goose-stepping troops, tanks and trucks carrying missiles filed past him.

“Barbarians were plotting to destroy whole nations,” he said. “The inevitable happened – responsibility and common resolve prevailed over evil.”

Putin, 59, has often used tough statements on foreign policy to rally people and resorted to anti-American rhetoric in the run-up to the March 4 presidential election. The tactic was also used by Soviet leaders, including on this patriotic holiday evoking the sacrifices of World War Two.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin, speaking in Moscow’s Red Square with military generals at his side, said he would promote Russia’s might on the world stage in a patriotic speech on Wednesday glorifying the Soviet victory over Germany in World War Two.

Two days after being sworn in for a six-year term that has drawn protests against his return to the Kremlin, Putin used the address to troops and war veterans at the annual military parade on Red Square to reinforce appeals for national unity.

Putin faces a battle to reassert himself after the biggest protests since he rose to power in 2000 and the detention of hundreds of protesters this week to keep a lid on dissent.

“Russia consistently follows a policy of strengthening global security and we have a great moral right to stand up determinedly for our positions because our country suffered the blow of Nazism,” Putin said on a podium flanked by military chiefs bristling with medals under the Kremlin’s red walls.

He did not refer to any enemy other than evoking the victory over Nazi Germany in 1945 at a great human cost, including millions of Soviet victims, at a parade in which goose-stepping troops, tanks and trucks carrying missiles filed past him.

“Barbarians were plotting to destroy whole nations,” he said. “The inevitable happened – responsibility and common resolve prevailed over evil.

Putin, 59, has often used tough statements on foreign policy to rally people and resorted to anti-American rhetoric in the run-up to the March 4 presidential election. The tactic was also used by Soviet leaders, and featured prominently on national holidays such as Victory in Europe day.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s lower house of parliament confirmed former president Dmitry Medvedev as prime minister on Tuesday, completing a job swap with Vladimir Putin that has sparked protests against the two leaders’ grip on power.

The approval vote, comfortably won by Medvedev as Putin looked on, ignored growing concern in the country that keeping power in the hands of the same men who have led Russia for the past four years will bring political and economic stagnation.

Police led away more than 20 people, including two opposition leaders, when they broke up a peaceful protest near the Kremlin hours before the vote, after detaining more than 700 on the previous two days to keep a lid on dissent.

The vote in the State Duma, the lower house, was held under tight security, with camouflage-clad riot police guarding the building near Red Square and police trucks and buses parked nearby.

Medvedev stood and nodded his gratitude to Duma deputies and then shook hands with Putin. The president smiled and applauded the outcome of the vote, one day after he was sworn in as president for a six-year term.

“I thank you for showing your trust in me,” Medvedev told the assembly. “I am absolutely sure that if we work together we can achieve results.”

Medvedev, 46, had told the chamber before the vote that Russia must reduce red tape, crack down on corruption and protect property rights to improve the business environment and become more competitive against the top world economies.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin asked Russia’s lower house on Tuesday to confirm his ally Dmitry Medvedev as prime minister in a job swap that has angered many Russians and sparked protests against the men’s grip on power.

“I count on your support,” Putin said at the end of a brief speech to the State Duma in which he presented Medvedev, president for the last four years, as an experienced leader who would not let Russia down.

The Communist Party, the second biggest in the lower house, said it would oppose Medvedev. But his United Russia has enough seats to guarantee his confirmation by a simple majority, and nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s Liberal Democrats said they would also back him.

Before the Duma began its debate, police swooped on about 150 people who staged an all-night sit-in protest in a park near the Kremlin and detained at least 22. Others just packed up their blankets and left.

Police also detained opposition leaders Alexei Navalny and Sergei Udaltsov at the protests but later freed them. They had detained more than 700 people in the previous two days, many of them after a clash with protesters at a rally on Sunday.

The protesters fear Putin’s inauguration for a six-year term on Monday, after four years as prime minister and eight before that as president, heralds political and economic stagnation in the world’s largest country.

Many Russians saw his choice of Medvedev, 46, as premier as a slap in the face for democracy, and evidence that they have no say in how the country of more than 140 million is run.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Vladimir Putin took the oath as Russia’s president on Monday with a ringing appeal for unity at the start of a six-year term in which he faces growing dissent, economic problems and bitter political rivalries.

Parliament is expected to approve to his ally Dmitry Medvedev, 46, as prime minister on Tuesday, completing a job swap that has left many Russians feeling disenfranchised two decades after the Soviet Union collapsed.

Outside the Kremlin’s high red walls, riot police prevented protests by rounding up more than 300 people, including men and women in cafes who wore white ribbons symbolizing opposition to Putin, a day after detaining more than 400 during clashes.

But in the Kremlin, 2,000 dignitaries applauded Putin’s every step down the red carpet into a vast hall with gilded columns, the throne room of tsars, where he was sworn in with his right hand resting on the red-bound Russian constitution.

“We will achieve our goals if we are a single, united people, if we hold our fatherland dear, strengthen Russian democracy, constitutional rights and freedoms,” Putin said in a five-minute speech after taking the oath for the third time.

“I will do all I can to justify the faith of millions of our citizens. I consider it to be the meaning of my whole life and my obligation to serve my fatherland and our people.”

The Kremlin’s bells pealed, and the national anthem blared at the end of a ceremony which was followed by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church blessing Putin and the president taking charge of the nuclear suitcase.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Vladimir Putin took the oath as Russia’s president on Monday with a ringing appeal for unity at the start of a six-year term in which he faces growing dissent, economic problems and bitter political rivalries.

Outside the Kremlin’s high red walls, riot police prevented protests by rounding up 120 people, including men and women in cafes wearing the white ribbons symbolising opposition to Putin, a day after detaining more than 400 people during clashes.

But in the Kremlin, 2,000 dignitaries applauded Putin’s every step down the red carpet into a vast hall with gilded columns, the throne room of tsars, where he was sworn in with his right hand resting on the red-bound Russian constitution.

“We will achieve our goals if we are a single, united people, if we hold our fatherland dear, strengthen Russian democracy, constitutional rights and freedoms,” Putin said in a five-minute speech after taking the oath for the third time.

“I will do all I can to justify the faith of millions of our citizens. I consider it to be the meaning of my whole life and my obligation to serve my fatherland and our people.”

The Kremlin’s bells chimed, and the national anthem bellowed out at the end of a ceremony which was followed by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church blessing Putin and the president taking charge of the nuclear suitcase.

Although he has remained Russia’s dominant leader for the past four years as prime minister, Putin, 59, has now taken back the formal reins of power he ceded to his ally Dmitry Medvedev in 2008 after eight years as president.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Vladimir Putin will be sworn in as Russia’s president at a glittering ceremony on Monday, hours after clashes between police and protesters laid bare the deep divisions over his return to the Kremlin for six more years.

The former KGB spy will take his oath before nearly 2,000 guests in the Kremlin’s St Andrew Hall, the former throne room with sparkling chandeliers, gilded pillars and high Gothic vaults, before being blessed by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church and taking charge of the nuclear suitcase.

He will also deliver a short speech, inspect the Kremlin presidential guard and host a lavish reception featuring only Russian food and drink.

Although he has remained Russia’s supreme leader for the past four years as prime minister, Putin will take back the formal reins of power he ceded to his ally Dmitry Medvedev in 2008 after eight years as president.

He is returning with his authority weakened by months of protests that have polarized Russia and left him facing a battle to reassert himself or risk being sidelined by the powerful business and political elites whose backing is vital.

In the latest protests on Sunday, police detained more than 400 people, including three opposition leaders, after tensions boiled over at a rally attended by about 20,000 people across the Moscow river from the Kremlin.

Police hit protesters on the head with batons as they tried to stop demonstrators advancing towards them, carrying metal crowd barriers and throwing objects. The crowd fought back with flagpoles before the police eventually restored order.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Thousands of people took to the streets of several Russian cities on Sunday to protest against Vladimir Putin on the eve of his return to the presidency, but opposition hopes of staging a “march of a million” fell flat.

At least 20,000 people protested under banners and flags in Moscow, chanting “Russia without Putin” and “Putin – thief”, the day before a lavish inauguration inside the Kremlin at which the head of the Russian Orthodox Church will bless Putin.

Demonstrators carried a black coffin bearing the word “democracy” through the Pacific port city of Vladivostok and several people were detained there and at protests in the Urals city of Kurgan and Kemerovo in western Siberia.

Many of the protesters are angry that Putin is extending his 12-year domination of Russia, despite being undermined by large protests from December to March, and fear he will stifle political and economic reform in his third term as president.

“History shows that if one person rules for a long time, especially using the methods of a dictator, nothing good comes of it for the country,” said an 85-year-old World War Two veteran in Moscow who gave his name only as Alexander.

Holding a banner saying “Putin lost my trust”, 44-year-old Andrey Asianov said: “I trusted Putin as long as he ruled within the bounds of the constitution but our law limits the presidency to two consecutive terms. He and his clown (outgoing President Dmitry) Medvedev spat on that.”

But the sting has gone out of protests since Putin was elected to his third term as president of the world’s largest country and biggest energy producer with almost 64 percent of the vote in the March 4 presidential election.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian demonstrators carried a black coffin bearing the word ‘democracy’ through the city of Vladivostok on Sunday at the start of protests against Vladimir Putin on the eve of his return to the presidency for another six years.

The opposition also planned a “march of the million” in Moscow and staged smaller rallies in other cities the day before a lavish inauguration ceremony inside the Kremlin at which the head of the Russian Orthodox Church will bless Putin.

Many Russians are angry that Putin, 59, is extending his already 12-year domination of Russia and fear he will stifle political and economic reform during his new term.

Witnesses said about 100 protesters staged a rally in a central square in the Pacific port of Vladivostok and unfurled a banner declaring “Putin is not our president”, a reference to allegations of fraud in the March 4 election that Putin won.

“Putin was illegitimately elected … We cannot stay silent and watch this disgrace,” Boris Nemtsov, a liberal opposition leader, said before the Moscow march got underway.

“People who are not indifferent will come to show Putin his inauguration is not a national holiday like he thinks it is, like a coronation, it is the funeral of honest politics.”

Putin has dismissed allegations that widespread fraud helped him win the presidential election and secured victory for his United Russia party in a parliamentary poll in December.