VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin issued a warning over the fragile state of the global economy on Friday as he set out plans for Russia to build economic ties with Asia at a time when Europe is battling a debt crisis.

Looking relaxed, Putin fielded questions from businessmen for 90 minutes before a summit with Asia-Pacific leaders, portraying Russia as a reliable energy supplier for Asia and as a gateway to Europe for Asian investors.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Banker and media magnate Alexander Lebedev said on Thursday he could sell his business assets in Russia after coming under pressure from the Kremlin, adding he feared he might be jailed in a criminal case he regards as politically motivated.

Lebedev also said Russia could face a wave of political repression following a series of moves since Vladimir Putin returned to the presidency on May 7 that opposition leaders have described as a crackdown on dissent.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian protest leader Alexei Navalny said on Wednesday he was sure he would go to prison after being charged with theft, and warned this was just the start of a crackdown on dissent by President Vladimir Putin.

The 36-year-old anti-corruption blogger, who has emerged as one of Putin’s most powerful opponents during months of protests against the Kremlin leader’s 12-year rule, faces the threat of a 10-year jail term over allegations on Tuesday that he was involved in embezzling money in 2009.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Russian government rushed a law through parliament on Friday which will tighten controls on civil rights groups and has strained relations with the United States, which fears a crackdown on opponents of President Vladimir Putin.

In defiance of criticism this week from the U.S. State Department, curtly dismissed by Russia’s Foreign Ministry as “gross interference”, the lower house overwhelmingly backed the bill in second and third readings under accelerated procedures.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – What do you do when your capital city gets too polluted, too crowded and overrun by traffic? Russia has an answer: Move it, or at least part of it.

Moscow authorities are drawing up plans to move a number of official buildings, including the parliament and some of the government administration, out of the clogged center to a “federal district” that would be built in a southeastern suburb.

MOSCOW, July 13 (Reuters) – What do you do when your capital
city gets too polluted, too crowded and overrun by traffic?
Russia has an answer: Move it, or at least part of it.

Moscow authorities are drawing up plans to move a number of
official buildings, including the parliament and some of the
government administration, out of the clogged centre to a
“federal district” that would be built in a southeastern suburb.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – It took only a few hours before Vladimir Putin was aboard a luxury helicopter, surveying the flood waters in southern Russia that have killed 150 people.

Television channels showed the Russian president asking pointed questions and then grilling the governor and other local officials unsmilingly about whether they had acted quickly enough to save lives.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s lower house of parliament gave preliminary approval on Friday to a law that would brand many rights and campaign groups “foreign agents”, a move opponents say is an attempt to stifle protests against Vladimir Putin.

The law, presented by the president’s United Russia party for the first of three readings, would tighten controls on non-governmental organizations that receive foreign funding by forcing them to submit reports on their activity twice a year.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – It took Lyudmila Alexeyeva just over four years to come to the conclusion that Vladimir Putin wants Russia to be more like the Soviet Union.

When the grandmother of Russia’s human rights movement first met Putin in November 2002, she was impressed by his humility and willingness to listen to activists like herself after less than three years as president.

ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) – Vladimir Putin has travelled halfway round the world to show who is in charge of Russia since his return to the presidency last month. The trouble is, no one is sure who he is trying to be.

On Monday, the world saw a prickly, tough and uncompromising Putin grimace his way through a frosty meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama that revived memories of Cold War diplomacy. The body language was reminiscent of the old Putin.