President Vladimir Putin warned Thursday that Russia's position on Syria would not shift under pressure despite the crisis likely topping the agenda during his upcoming visits to Berlin and Paris.

"Russia's position is well-known. It is balanced and consistent and completely logical," Interfax quoted Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.

The administration of President Barack Obama is considering working with Russia on a plan calling for the departure of Syrian President Bashar Assad under a proposal modeled on the transition in Yemen, The New York Times reported Sunday.

The newspaper said the plan calls for a negotiated political settlement that would satisfy Syrian opposition groups but that could leave remnants of Assad's government in place.

Russia's ruling party United Russia confirmed Saturday Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as its new chief in a bid to reverse flagging popularity that stoked opposition protests against the Kremlin.

A party congress in Moscow overwhelmingly approved by a show of hands Medvedev's candidacy to take over from President Vladimir Putin as party leader, with no apparent opposition and no other candidate contesting the post.

President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday gave seven former cabinet ministers top posts in his Kremlin administration in defiance of opposition pressure for new faces after the protests against his rule.

The swift re-assignment of officials from the government to the Kremlin just one day after they formally left the cabinet further cements Putin's command of Russia and limits the sway of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has spelled out his views on security, bilateral relations and regional cooperation in a letter to U.S. counterpart Barack Obama, a Russian diplomatic source said Monday.

The letter was delivered by Putin's Kremlin predecessor Dmitry Medvedev who attended the G8 summit at Camp David at the weekend after Putin had cancelled his U.S. visit on the grounds that he was too busy picking a cabinet.

President Vladimir Putin put his stamp on a new government Monday that kept his most trusted allies in charge of finance while leaving tested veterans at the helm of foreign affairs and defense.

But the cabinet also left some room for open-market reformers, with the appointment of a liberal aide of current premier and Putin's predecessor Dmitry Medvedev to a key industry post.

Russia's parliament on Friday postponed a debate on a controversial bill that would massively hike fines for unsanctioned protests after opposition parties threatened a boycott.

The Duma lower house was due to debate the bill in its first reading Friday, but speaker Sergei Naryshkin announced it would be postponed until Tuesday after meeting the leaders of the four parties, RIA Novosti reported.

Russia cautioned Western powers on Thursday against launching "hasty" wars that could lead to the rise of radical Islamist factions and even result in regional nuclear wars.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told a legal forum ahead of his visit to the G8 summit as Russia's official representative at Camp David that Moscow noted numerous examples of powers infringing on the sovereignty of other states.

There is still no agreement among leaders of the world's richest nations on the final text of a declaration that will touch upon the protracted conflict in Syria, a Kremlin advisor said Thursday.

The leaders of the G8 -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the United States -- will meet Friday and Saturday for a summit at the Camp David presidential retreat near Washington.

Moscow authorities broke up a week-long Occupy protest on Wednesday that sprung up in response to President Vladimir Putin's inauguration, warning they would prevent similar actions during his third term.

The dawn-hours raid on dozens of sleeping protesters brought an abrupt end to younger Russians' first attempt to emulate the tent city tactic that is increasing popular in the West.