President Barack Obama said Wednesday Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin is unlikely to shift his stance on Ukraine until the full force of economic sanctions levelled against Moscow hits home.

Obama said Putin's "nationalist, backward-looking" outlook had isolated Russia internationally but had played well domestically. 

President Vladimir Putin on Monday unexpectedly announced Russia was shelving the multi-billion dollar South Stream pipeline project to deliver Russian gas to the Europe, blaming the EU for throwing obstacles in its path.

Putin revealed on a visit to Ankara that Russia was drawing the curtain on what for half-a-decade has been one of the Kremlin's flagship projects, saying Turkey in the future could play an important role as a gas hub.

The Syrian regime and key ally Russia have agreed to support a U.N. proposal to suspend fighting in the battered northern city of Aleppo, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said.

Muallem's remarks, reported by state news agency SANA, followed a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and a Syrian government delegation in Sochi, Russia on Wednesday.

President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday hosted Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem in his first meeting with a top envoy from Damascus since the old Moscow ally plunged into civil war more than three years ago.

But the high-stakes discussion was held behind closed doors and neither side disclosed its details.

Russia is losing around $40 billion (32 billion euros) per year due to Western sanctions over the Ukraine conflict, its finance minister said Monday although President Vladimir Putin dismissed the economic damage as "not fatal".

"We are losing around $40 billion per year due to geopolitical sanctions," Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said in a speech at an economic forum in Moscow, quoted by RIA Novosti news agency.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is fiercely protective of his private life, said Sunday that his two daughters -- who had reportedly lived abroad with their foreign partners -- now live in Moscow.

In a rare glimpse into the Russian ruler's notoriously secretive family life, Putin told the TASS news agency he tries to meet his daughters Maria, 29, nicknamed Masha, and Yekaterina, 28, known as Katya, every month.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is considering running for a fourth Kremlin term in 2018, which would see him stay in power until 2024, the TASS news agency reported Sunday.

"Yes, the possibility exists of my standing as a candidate again. Whether or not it will happen, I don't know yet," Putin said in an interview.

When Ukraine pulled out of its association agreement with the European Union a year ago, kicking off its revolution, it took Brussels by surprise.

Twelve months later the EU is still learning bitter lessons about geopolitics and Russian aggression, experts say.

A special envoy of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un on Thursday praised his landmark meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, expressing hope that the two nations would strengthen ties.

On Tuesday, Putin held talks with envoy Choe Ryong-Hae during the high-ranking North Korean official’s week-long visit to Russia.

President Vladimir Putin stuck to his guns as he refused to say where Moscow-backed Ukrainian separatists receive heavy arms from and said that people fighting a just cause "will always get weapons".

"Where did they get the armoured vehicles and the artillery systems?" Putin said in reply to a question from German TV network ARD in an interview broadcast Sunday.