Vladimir Putin has deliberately sidelined his foreign minister Sergei Lavrov amid claims that he torpedoed a summit with Donald Trump, according to a report. Lavrov was “deliberately absent” from a meeting of Russia’s security council on proposals to resume nuclear testing on Wednesday, a source told Russian outlet Kommersant.

Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded the Order of Honor to the country's Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar for his contribution to strengthening the unity of the Russian nation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his top officials on Wednesday to draft proposals for a possible test of nuclear weapons, something Moscow has not done since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

The president is meeting Friday with Hungary's Orbán for their first bilateral talks since Trump returned to the White House.

Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orban will meet president Donald Trump at the White House on Friday to seek exemptions from US sanctions on Russian oil and broker a summit between the American leader and Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday the world would have no future without a system of arms control, with the future of a nuclear weapons pact between Russia and the United States hanging in the balance.

Pianist and composer Justus Frantz has regularly divided opinion in Germany's classical music world over his close relationship with Russia's President Vladimir Putin. Now he's set disapproving tongues wagging again within the industry by accepting Moscow's Order of Friendship award.

In an interview with CBS news, Trump praised both Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin for being "smart, tough, serious" leaders.