Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin lashed out Monday at "arrogant world powers" as he hosted his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao for a regional security summit Moscow bills as a counterpart to NATO.

Russia's likely new head of state after next year's presidential elections accused Western nations of hypocrisy for backing revolutions in North African countries that previously enjoyed their strong support.

Russia's ruling party engaged in heavy damage control on Monday after being stung by a viral video alleging to show a bribes for votes speech being delivered by one of its most senior officials.

The mobile phone footage shows central Izhevsk region administration chief Denis Agashin telling a gasping audience that future veterans' funding will depend on how many votes United Russia wins in December's parliamentary polls.

Russia said Saturday it had put high-ranking U.S. officials implicated in "human rights crimes" on a visa black list, saying that list would grow if Washington continued to put pressure on Moscow.

Washington had earlier outraged Moscow by banning visas for an unspecified number of Russian officials linked to the 2009 death in prison of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, which became a symbol of abuses in the Russian judicial system.

President Dmitry Medvedev on Saturday denied that Vladimir Putin's expected return to the Kremlin would throw Russia back to its past but admitted the decision disappointed some of his supporters.

Lampooned by liberals as a lame duck who had failed to change Russia in his presidency, Medvedev sought to regain the initiative in a town hall-style meeting with supporters at the trendy Red October complex in central Moscow.

Russia's ruling party on Friday formally confirmed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as its candidate for the March 2012 presidential election.

"United Russia proposes its leader, the party leader, Vladimir Vladimirovitch Putin, for the post of president of Russia," the party said in an address published on its website.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin left China Wednesday after a visit that yielded $7 billion in trade pacts but no breakthrough on a long-delayed gas deal with the world's top energy consumer.

Putin held talks with his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao and President Hu Jintao in Beijing on his first foreign trip since he announced plans to reclaim the Russian presidency.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said he was bewildered by the seven-year sentence handed to his former Ukrainian counterpart Yulia Tymoshenko.

The Russian leader spoke in Beijing after a Ukrainian judge earlier in the day sentenced Tymoshenko to seven years in jail for abusing her powers in a gas deal with him in 2009.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing Tuesday for talks with Chinese leaders, a day after his gas-rich nation signed deals worth over $7 billion with the world's top energy consumer.

Putin is due to meet his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao and President Hu Jintao on his two-day visit -- his first abroad since he announced plans last month to reclaim the Russian presidency.

President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday denied that the fate of Russia's elections was predetermined by his decision to step down in favor of his political mentor Vladimir Putin.

"How can they be predetermined," news agencies quoted Medvedev as saying in a Russian television interview to be aired on the country's main channels on Friday evening.

Russia risks six lost years when Vladimir Putin returns to the Kremlin if he does not undertake wholesale change of its political system, the Soviet Union's last leader Mikhail Gorbachev said Monday.

Gorbachev wrote in a commentary for the Novaya Gazeta, which he part owns, that the decision for Putin to stand for the presidency in 2012 elections instead of incumbent President Dmitry Medvedev was wholly expected.