Vladimir Putin

Russia has ended the destruction of its chemical arsenal ahead of schedule, President Vladimir Putin said. Putin described the event as historic given the huge amount of chemical weapons left over from Soviet times, reports TASS. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin is going on a working visit to Ankara on Thursday, where he will meet with Turkish counterpart Recep Erdogan, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, quoted by TASS.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will travel to Ankara on Sept. 28 to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan with a wide range of topics on the agenda: The Astana process on a cease-fire in Syria, the independence referendum held by the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), and Ankara's purchase of Russian S- 400 missile defense systems.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a phone conversation on the situation in Syria and Iraq on Sept. 25, private broadcaster CNN Türk has reported.   

During the conversation, the two leaders stressed the "importance of the territorial integrity of Iraq and Syria," the broadcaster reported.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Sept. 21 that Turkey will deploy troops in Syria's northern Idlib region as part of a so-called de-escalation agreement brokered by Russia last month.

The Turkish and Russian presidents, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Vladimir Putin, are expected to meet in person in Ankara next week, following the recent agreement for the establishment of de-escalation zones in Syria, including rebel-held Idlib. 

The secretary general of a small opposition liberal party in Serbia, Nova Stranka [New Party], Djordje Nakic, told BIRN that his party intends to help draw up a declaration on [the lack of] human rights in Russia - after Russia's ruling United Russia party announced it wished to help Serbs create a declaration on the preservation of Serbia's national identity.

Russia's General Prosecutor Yuri Chaika will visit his Bulgarian counterpart, Sotir Tsatsarov, next week, Dnevnik reports.

Vladimir Putin's United Russia party supports the decision of the Kosovo Serb party, Srpska lista, to enter the Kosovo Government, Belgrade announced on Thursday.

A coalition of liberal opposition parties has achieved an unexpected triumph in local and regional elections in Russia, writes index.hr.

The Croatian website added that the coalition has won in several electoral units in the middle of Moscow - while "certainly, Putin's party United Russia that has dominated the country for 17 years, won the majority of seats on Sunday."