APRNEWS - US President Donald Trump on Wednesday delayed a second summit with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, while his top diplomat insisted there was no let up against Moscow following the two leaders’ controversial meeting in Helsinki.

APRNEWS - Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump have agreed to continue their “useful contacts” and may meet by year’s end, a Kremlin aide said Tuesday, as tensions rise in Washington over the direction of the US leader’s Russia policy.

APRNEWS - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Moscow's military chief of staff will arrive in Israel later Monday for talks on the conflict in neighbouring Syria, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

REUTERS - President Donald Trump has invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to Washington this autumn, the White House said on Thursday, a daring rebuttal to the torrent of criticism in the United States over Trump’s failure to publicly confront Putin at their first summit for Moscow’s meddling in the 2016 election.

APRNEWS - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday described the probe by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into Moscow’s election meddling as “political games” that should not be permitted to interfere with US-Russia relations.

REUTERS - Standing side by side with Vladimir Putin, U.S. President Donald Trump refused on Monday to blame the Russian leader for meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, casting doubt on the findings of his own intelligence agencies and sparking a storm of criticism at home.

REUTERS - Russian President Vladimir Putin met Ali Akbar Velayati, a top adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Thursday in Moscow, RIA news agency reported, without providing any details.

APRNEWS - Several thousand people took to the streets across Russia Sunday to protest a hugely unpopular government decision to hike the pension age that has led to a record slump in Vladimir Putin’s approval ratings.

REUTERS - U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton held talks in Moscow on Wednesday with Russian officials ahead of a meeting with Vladimir Putin, part of an effort to lay the ground for a summit between the Russian president and President Donald Trump.

REUTERS - Syrian state media said on Monday that U.S.-led coalition aircraft bombed an army position in the east, causing deaths and injuries, but the U.S. military denied it was responsible.

The attack took place in al-Harra, southeast of the town of Albu Kamal, state media said citing a military source. There were no immediate details on casualties.