Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview broadcast Sunday that he had no regrets over Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea and that it was righting a historical injustice.

"I think we did the right thing and I don't regret a thing," Putin said of his decision to take back the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine, interviewed in a state television documentary.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he can "completely imagine" leaving the Kremlin for a more modest abode and does not consider himself a member of his country's elite.

"If someone can return to an ordinary flat and live there instead of in palace interiors, I think he has not lost contact with the outside world," Putin said in an interview broadcast Sunday on state television. "I can completely imagine life outside this position."

Russian President Vladimir Putin in a documentary broadcast Sunday accused the United States of directly contacting and providing logistical support to North Caucasus separatist militants.

In the documentary "President," which has already been broadcast in far eastern Russia on Rossiya 1 television, Putin made the claim, citing intelligence from Russian special services, to state that it occurred in the early 2000s.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday lashed out at the European Union and world leaders who have recognized the 1915 massacres of Armenians as genocide on the centenary of the events. 

Erdogan accused the leaders of France, Germany and Russia of "supporting claims based on Armenian lies" after they described the slaughter of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman forces as genocide -- which Turkey strongly objects to. 

President Vladimir Putin on Friday called on French leader Francois Hollande to restore ties after a year of tensions over Ukraine as the two leaders met on the sidelines of genocide commemorations in Armenia.

"Unfortunately, our ties are not in the best shape, trade turnover is falling including with France which only causes regret," Putin told Hollande in the Armenian capital Yerevan.

The leaders of France and Russia on Friday joined ceremonies marking the centenary of the massacre of some 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman forces, a hugely emotional event that remains a diplomatic minefield.

During a commemoration at a hilltop memorial in the Armenian capital Yerevan, French President Francois Hollande urged modern day Turkey to end its refusal to recognize the massacre as genocide, saying he bowed in memory of the victims.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov on Thursday ordered his troops to "shoot to kill" if they encountered any unauthorized Russian forces on the territory of the small republic in the volatile North Caucasus region.

"I am officially stating that if (a soldier) appears on your territory without authorization, whether he comes from Moscow or Stavropol, shoot to kill," the Kremlin-loyal strongman said in a video broadcast by the local Grozny TV station. "They need to take us into account," he added.

Russia's opposition led by the charismatic activist Alexei Navalny vowed Wednesday to contest next year's parliamentary elections as liberals firm up plans to close ranks amid an intensifying Kremlin crackdown.

Last week Navalny and his Party of Progress  joined ranks with the political party of slain Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov in a bid to form a democratic alliance and overcome years of bickering. 

President Francois Hollande said Wednesday that France will reimburse Russia if it fails to deliver two Mistral warships in a deal frozen over the Ukraine conflict.

"According to the different scenarios you either have payment or reimbursement," Hollande said during a press conference.

French President Francois Hollande said Sunday that negotiations with Moscow were under way to find a solution to a dispute over the sale of two Mistral warships, frozen over the Ukraine crisis.

"We are busy negotiating a solution to the crisis," over the 1.2 billion euro ($1.5 billion) sale, Hollande said on French television.