Visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin, seeking to tighten defense ties with India and double trade within three years, met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for talks on Monday.

Accompanied by several senior ministers and military officials, Putin was making a one-day trip to India, a traditional Russian ally which he had not visited since resuming the presidency in May.

President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia does not want "chaos" in Syria and that it looked forward to seeing a democratic regime in the war-torn nation.

"We will try to pursue the public order in Syria and look forward to a democratic regime in Syria because this country is close to our borders," he said at a news conference closing an EU-Russia summit, according to an English translation of his words.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday denied propping up Syrian President Bashar Assad and stressed that Moscow was only seeking to avert a perpetual civil war.

"We are not concerned about (Bashar Assad's fate. We understand that the family has been in power for 40 years and there is a need for change," Putin told a major Moscow press briefing.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday denied running an authoritarian system, saying he had many chances to change the constitution during his rule, but never did.

"I cannot call this system authoritarian, I cannot agree with this," Putin told the first major news conference since his return to the Kremlin.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ruled out that the world will end this week, as predicted by Mayans, saying he did not expect the end for another 4.5 billion years.

Giving his first major news conference since his return to the Kremlin, Putin was asked why he picked a date one day before the end of the world, according to a Mayan prophecy that has caused global hysteria.

The European Union welcomes Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, highlighting its partnership with a Moscow determined to forcefully defend its interests against Western interference.

EU officials described the 30th EU-Russia summit as topping "15 years of intense summitry" between "indispensable partners" in a changing world.

Russia's security council chief Nikolai Patrushev said Tuesday he did not see any grounds for a popular uprising in the country but warned the Kremlin would not allow opposition protests to wreak havoc.

"In today's Russia there are no preconditions for possible 'color' revolutions and we are certain that we will not allow the realization of such scenarios in our country," Patrushev told tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda.

Turkey has made a new proposal to Russia for an orderly peaceful transition in war-ravaged Syria in the post-regime era, a Turkish newspaper reported on Monday.

The proposal calls for President Bashar Assad to step down in the first three months of 2013 and for the transition process to be undertaken by the opposition National Coalition, which was recognised as the sole representative of Syrians by Arab and Western states last week, the Radikal newspaper reported.

Russian investigators said Friday that they had launched a fraud probe against opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his brother, putting new legal pressure on the protest movement's most charismatic figure.

The new probe -- the second major investigation launched against Navalny -- also comes as the opposition plans an unsanctioned rally Saturday in Moscow after the City Hall denied to authorize their proposed routes.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday condemned as unfriendly the so-called Magnitsky Act passed by the U.S. Congress blacklisting Russian officials implicated in the prison death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.

Passed last week and awaiting signature by U.S. President Barack Obama, the legislation would punish officials tied to the November 2009 death of Magnitsky in a Moscow detention center, denying them entry to the United States and freezing their assets.