Russia denied on Thursday that two of its fighter jets had violated Japanese airspace as claimed by Tokyo, in what would be the first incident of its kind for several years.

"Flights by the air force of the Pacific Fleet take place regularly in this region, in strict adherence to the international rules, without violation of state borders," the spokesman of the military command's eastern district Roman Martov said in a statement to Russian news agencies.

Japan's prime minister said Thursday he wants to find a "mutually acceptable solution" to a decades-old territorial row with Russia and sign a long-delayed peace treaty with Moscow.

Shinzo Abe's apparently conciliatory comments are in marked contrast to his uncompromising stance on a dispute with China over the sovereignty of a different set of disputed islands.

Russia on Monday replaced the leader of Dagestan, a volatile region in the Northern Caucasus where federal forces are struggling to contain a growing Islamist insurgency fueled by corruption and poverty.

President Vladimir Putin relieved Dagestani leader Magomedsalam Magomedov of his post and appointed ruling party lawmaker Ramazan Abdulatipov acting head of the region on the shores of the Caspian Sea, the Kremlin said in a statement.

Russian President Vladimir Putin offered on Wednesday after meeting with President Michel Suleiman to host an international conference in Moscow on the refugee crisis in Syria sparked by the conflict between rebels and the regime.

"If the interested nations agree to this, we will be ready to propose Moscow as the venue," news agencies quoted Putin saying.

President Michel Suleiman traveled to Moscow on Saturday for talks with his Russian counterpart and to receive an award on his role in calling for dialogue and opening channels of communication between bickering parties.

Suleiman's three-day visit at the head of a delegation that includes deputy Prime Minister Samir Moqbel comes following an official invitation sent by Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill I.

President Michel Suleiman is scheduled on January 22 to visit Moscow where he will meet with his Russian counterpart and receive an award on his role in calling for dialogue and opening channels of communication between bickering parties, the Central News Agency reported.

CNA said Thursday that Suleiman's two-day visit comes following an official invitation sent by Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill I.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday granted fast-track citizenship to France's Gerard Depardieu after the movie star complained about his Socialist government's proposed 75 percent tax on the rich.

The decision appears to give Depardieu -- already a frequent guest of the Moscow celebrity circuit -- a chance to pay the flat 13 percent income tax levied in Russia on everyone from billionaires to the poor.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday used a traditional New Year's address to call for unity following a year of protests against his return to the Kremlin for a third term.

The country's "development and fate depend on our enthusiasm and labor, on our unity and responsibility," the ITAR-TASS news agency quoted Putin as saying in the televised message aired first in Russia's Far East.

President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed into law a ban on the adoption of Russian children by American families that activists slammed for making orphans pawns in a diplomatic row between Moscow and Washington.

The law -- retaliation for a U.S. law punishing Russian officials implicated in the 2009 prison death of the whistle-blowing attorney Sergei Magnitsky -- will take effect on January 1, the Kremlin said in a statement.

Russia said Monday it expected "common sense" to prevail in a burgeoning diplomatic row with Washington that could result in tit-for-tat travel restrictions between the two Cold War rivals.

"I would like to believe that common sense will prevail," Russian news agencies quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying.