A Kremlin spokesman on Sunday dismissed as "absurd" claims that Washington could target President Vladimir Putin directly if it imposes further sanctions against Russia.

Quoting anonymous sources, The Times said in an article published Friday that the United States was looking at imposing sanctions on Putin, who is estimated to hold some $40 billion in Swiss accounts.

President Vladimir Putin on Saturday said nothing should impede the normalization of relations between Russia and the West, after ties hit a post-Cold War low due to the standoff over Ukraine.

His remark, which contrasted with weeks of hostile rhetoric on both sides, came after talks between Russia, Ukraine and the West on Thursday in which an agreement was forged on initial steps to ease the crisis.

Fugitive U.S. intelligence leaker Edward Snowden on Friday defended his decision to question President Vladimir Putin in a televised phone-in over the extent of Russia's surveillance activities.

Snowden, writing in Britain's Guardian newspaper, said he was taken aback at criticism of his decision to take part in the show during which Putin greeted him, to laughs from the audience, as a fellow "former agent".

Russian President Vladimir Putin exuded self-confidence as he fielded four hours of questions in his traditional phone-in marathon, keeping open Russia's diplomatic and military options on the Ukraine crisis.

Putin basked in the glory of Russia's lightning takeover of Crimea from Ukraine last month, sitting impassively as dozens of locals in the Crimean port of Sevastopol chanted "Thank you!" in a live link-up.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday accused NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen of secretly recording and then leaking to the media a private conversation between them when Rasmussen was Danish prime minister.

As NATO secretary general, Rasmussen has used hawkish rhetoric calling for Moscow to "de-escalate" the crisis in Ukraine and pull back thousands of troops massed on the border.

The European Union said it had agreed Thursday to hold talks with Russia on its gas supplies to Europe through Ukraine, warning Moscow its reliability as an energy source was at stake.

The EU "agrees on your proposal for consultations with the Russian Federation and Ukraine with regard to security of gas supply and transit," European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso said in reply to an April 10 letter from President Vladimir Putin.

Russia and Ukraine sat down Thursday for Western-backed talks on the escalating crisis in the former Soviet republic as Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the authorities in Kiev of dragging the country towards the abyss.

In a dramatic worsening of tensions in the restive east, three pro-Moscow separatists were killed in an overnight gunbattle with Ukrainian troops in the southeastern port city of Mariupol.

U.S. senator John McCain on Wednesday described the West's response to Russian actions in Ukraine as "almost laughable", saying a stronger stance is needed to keep the Kremlin in check.

The recent U.S. and EU sanctions against Russia were "the weakest response imaginable", the Republican senator told reporters in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius while on a tour of the Baltic states.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday he wanted clear United Nations condemnation of the "anti-constitutional" military operation by Ukraine against separatists in the east of the country.

Putin told Ban in telephone talks that Russia "expects clear condemnation from the United Nations and the international community of the anti-constitutional actions" by Ukraine, which according to Putin had sharply worsened the crisis in the country, the Kremlin said in a statement.

U.S. President Barack Obama urged Russian leader Vladimir Putin in a phone call Monday to press pro-Moscow groups to lay down their arms in Ukraine, as the Kiev government sought U.N. help to tackle the growing insurgency.

Tensions between the U.S. and Russia were exacerbated by two episodes at the weekend -- a confrontation in the Black Sea in which a Russian warplane "buzzed" a U.S. destroyer and a visit to Kiev by CIA chief John Brennan.