North Korean leader Kim Jong Un arrived in Russia's Pacific port city of Vladivostok on Wednesday for a first summit with Vladimir Putin, as Pyongyang seeks support in its nuclear deadlock with the United States.

Turkey is "taking into account" NATO concerns over its Russian missile deal, the country's foreign minister said on Friday, in more conciliatory remarks over a purchase stoking tensions between Washington and Ankara.

Russia on Friday once more dismissed the Mueller report, saying it failed to present clear evidence of any meddling by Moscow in the 2016 US election and called its impact on relations regrettable.

Russian lawmakers on Thursday approved in a key second reading a controversial bill that would allow Moscow to cut off the country's internet traffic from foreign servers.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the delivery of Turkey's disputed Russian S-400 missile defence systems could be earlier than initially planned, Hurriyet daily reported on Wednesday.

Ankara's purchase of the S-400s risks US sanctions and has further strained already tense relations with Washington.

Russia on Sunday blocked a U.N. Security Council statement that would have called on forces loyal to Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar to halt their advance on Tripoli, diplomats said.

The United States said Monday it was halting all deliveries and joint work with Turkey on the F-35 fighter jet program after the NATO ally insisted on a major arms purchase from Russia.

Russia said Thursday its troops will stay in Venezuela "for as long as needed", rejecting US President Donald Trump's demand that Russia remove its military from the crisis-stricken country.

Russia's weekend deployment of troops and equipment to bolster President Nicolas Maduro has ratcheted up already high international tensions over Venezuela where the Trump administration is pushing for regime change.

A grenade was thrown early Friday into the courtyard of the Russian consulate in Athens, police said, an attack typical of domestic far-left groups.

The area in the Athens suburb of Halandri was rapidly cordoned off and bomb specialists were dispatched, a police source said.

President Michel Aoun on Thursday noted that Lebanon's ties with Syria are already “normalized,” warning that any siege on Hizbullah would “affect all Lebanese.”

“The ties with Syria are normalized, seeing as they're characterized by the presence of an ambassador in each of the two countries, and therefore they're not severed,” Aoun said in an interview with reporters of Russian-owned media outlets on the eve of an upcoming visit to Moscow.