Deputies from the opposition A Just Russia party staged a highly unusual walkout of the Russian parliament on Wednesday during an appearance by president-elect Vladimir Putin.

Faction leader Sergei Mironov led his deputies out of the chamber in protest at Putin's response to a question about a mayoral vote in the southern city of Astrakhan that his party says was rigged and prompted the local candidate to go on hunger strike.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday Russia has beaten the economic crisis and called on political forces to unite as he prepares to return to the Kremlin next month.

Putin said in a keynote speech to the State Duma lower house of parliament that the 2008-2009 economic crisis was so serious it could have endangered Russia's sovereignty but added that the country had now fully recovered.

More than 70 Russian opposition activists, including writer Eduard Limonov, were on Saturday arrested during unauthorized gatherings in Moscow and St Petersburg.

In Moscow, around 300 people, some shouting "Russia without Putin" gathered in Triumfalnaya Square.

NATO will announce the completion of the first stage of a controversial missile defense shield at a May summit that will not include Russian leader Vladimir Putin, its chief said Monday.

NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the Western military bloc intended to announce the deployment of the first "interim" phase of a missile defense shield for Europe at the summit in Chicago.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday cautioned against attempts to circumvent the authority of the United Nations as the West seeks to secure Moscow's support in the Syria crisis.

"There's a need to eliminate any loopholes allowing (nations) to act in circumvention of the authority of the Security Council and use force without its approval," Medvedev told a European security conference in Moscow.

Riot police detained dozens of protesters on Sunday who picketed Moscow's iconic television tower after footage purporting to show people being paid to rally against Vladimir Putin was aired nationally.

An Agence France Presse correspondent saw organizers Boris Nemtsov and Sergei Udaltsov being led away with about 30 others sporting the white protest ribbons of the nascent movement against Putin's 12-year domination of Russia.

Thousands protested on Saturday against Vladimir Putin's domination of Russia, but the event struggled to live up to the success of past mass rallies after his crushing election victory.

The protest, which ended with a handful of arrests, was a fraction of the size of previous rallies in Moscow, in a sign the opposition is finding it hard to maintain momentum after Putin won a third Kremlin term on March 4.

President Barack Obama Friday called Russia's president-elect Vladimir Putin to congratulate him on his election win, despite earlier U.S. concern over reported vote irregularities.

The call inaugurated a relationship that will decide the fate of "reset" U.S. relations with the Kremlin which the White House sees as a key foreign policy achievement headed into Obama's reelection campaign.

Vladimir Putin vowed Thursday to rule Russia as a "non-party" leader when he assumes power for a third term as president amid a wave of protests challenging his rule for the first time in 12 years.

"Today, it would probably be appropriate to recall that the president is a non-party figure," Putin told outgoing President Dmitry Medvedev in a televised meeting at the Krasnaya Polyana ski resort on the Black Sea.

Vladimir Putin on Wednesday rejected the idea of Russia offering Syrian President Bashar al-Assad asylum as a way of helping put an end to nearly a year of bloodshed in its Soviet-era ally.

"We are not even discussing this question," news agencies quoted Putin as telling Kremlin reporters.