Russian President Vladimir Putin would be open to meeting with American counterpart Barack Obama on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Russia's foreign minister said Wednesday. 

"Our American colleagues are sending us signs that they want to maintain contact," Sergei Lavrov said, after confirming that Putin was planning to attend the United Nations meet new month.

Germany said Wednesday it could not rule out Russian President Vladimir Putin would take part in a future round of talks over conflict-torn eastern Ukraine after speculation that Western leaders were snubbing him.

Chancellor Angela Merkel is hosting talks with France's President Francois Hollande and Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko on Monday, and analysts said the conspicuous absence of Putin underlined that relations were deteriorating as new violence flares in eastern Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday slammed alleged "external control" over Ukraine's government as he made his third visit to the Crimean peninsula since Moscow seized the region from Kiev last year.

"I am sure that despite all the current difficulties the situation in Ukraine will improve and Ukraine will develop," Putin said in televised comments during a meeting with local officials. 

The United States is further damaging its relations with Moscow by adding a Russian offshore oil and gas field to its sanctions imposed over Ukraine, a Kremlin spokesman said Friday.

"The trend to continue a dialogue in the language of sanctions is further destroying our bilateral relations, unfortunately," President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, quoted by TASS news agency.

France's defense minister said on Thursday that "several" countries had expressed an interest in buying its Mistral-class warships, after Paris refused to deliver them to Russia because of the Ukraine crisis.

"A certain number of countries -- there are several -- have made their interest known for these boats," Jean-Yves Le Drian told RTL radio.

Pictures of Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman flashing a watch worth an alleged $620,000 on Monday sparked controversy in the crisis-hit country.

Dmitry Peskov, who is given a broad remit to voice the views of the Kremlin strongman, was photographed wearing the pricey timepiece as he tied the knot with Olympic ice dancer Tatiana Navka on Saturday in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is having a change of heart on the Kremlin's wholehearted support for Syrian leader Bashar Assad and may "give up on him" in the future, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying Monday.

When asked if Putin could be persuaded not to support Assad, Erdogan said he saw his counterpart as "more positive" during a face-to-face meeting in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku in June and in subsequent telephone talks. 

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Monday accused his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin of wanting to take over the "whole of Europe" and potentially aiming his sights next at Finland and the Baltics.

"Putin wants to go as far as we allow him -- not only Ukraine, but the whole of Europe," Poroshenko said in an interview with French radio station RFI. 

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Wednesday made an "urgent" appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin not to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution to try those who shot down flight MH17 over Ukraine.

Rutte's office said he telephoned Putin, ahead of the vote in New York later Wednesday, to seek his backing for setting up an international tribunal to try the as-yet unidentified suspects behind the downing of the Malaysia Airlines jet that killed 298 people in July of last year.

Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to give Silvio Berlusconi Russian citizenship -- and the job of economy minister -- the disgraced Italian billionaire politician was quoted as saying Thursday.

"In Italy, I have been relegated to the sidelines, but Putin has told me he is willing to give me citizenship, and entrust me with running the economy ministry," La Stampa newspaper quoted him as saying at a dinner party.