Russia hopes that the victory of Georgia's opposition in parliamentary elections will help normalize Tbilisi's fraught relations with Moscow, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

"Clearly Georgian society voted for change," spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement. "We hope that in the end it will let Georgia move to a normalization and establishment of constructive and respectful relations with their neighbors. Russia would welcome this development."

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday welcome initial vote results in Georgia, pointing to a victory by the opposition as a sign of people wanting more "constructive" ties with Moscow.

"If this result turns out being real, the political landscape in Georgia will become multi-faceted," news agencies quoted Russia's former president as saying some four years after the two sides fought a brief border war.

Russia on Tuesday urged the West not to "search for pretexts" in order to conduct direct operations in Syria while also calling on Damascus and Ankara to exercise restraint along their flashpoint border.

"In our contacts with NATO partners... we call upon them not to search for pretexts to carry out a military scenario or initiatives like humanitarian corridors and buffer zones," Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told the Interfax news agency.

A Russian court on Monday banned as "extremist" a U.S.-made anti-Islamic film that sparked deadly protests across the Arab world but whose showing was backed by human rights supporters in Russia.

Moscow's Tverskoi District judge sided with prosecution arguments presented in court that the low-budget "Innocence of Muslims" production "promoted the rise of religious intolerance in Russia."

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged China, Iran and Russia Sunday to end their support for the Syrian regime, warning that "history will not forgive" their stance in the face of mounting bloodshed.

"Please rethink your current attitude. History will not forgive those who have sided with these brutal regimes," Erdogan said in a speech at a congress of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Eight people were killed and eight others were hurt when a major fire broke out at an industrial waste treatment plant in oil-rich western Siberia, the emergencies ministry said on Saturday.

"Eight people died, (and) eight people were wounded," the regional emergencies ministry said in a statement, adding that the survivors were hospitalized.

Russia's anti-drug chief expressed fear Friday that drug trafficking from Afghanistan would increase after the pullout of NATO troops in 2014, saying the country stockpiled enough narcotics to keep the trade going for another decade.

"We estimate that opiates from Afghanistan make up 30 percent of all narcotics in Russia," said Viktor Ivanov at a meeting with anti-drug officials from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan in the Tajik capital Dushanbe.

Russia's U.N. Security Council veto is "just an excuse" for world powers not to intervene in Syria, but the regime is going to fall without their help, the chief of Syria's Muslim Brotherhood told AFP Thursday.

"Russia is just an excuse for the rest of the great powers not to topple (Syrian President Bashar Assad's) regime," said Mohammed Riyad al-Shaqfa, complaining of an international unwillingness to "get sucked into" the conflict in Syria.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday accused the West of pursuing policies that had destabilized states in the Arab world and now risked creating chaos in Syria.

"The most important thing is that our partners cannot stop themselves," news agencies quoted Putin as saying at his local Moscow residence at a meeting with local residents of the Ryazan region in central Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday world powers should draw lessons from their mistakes and stop interfering in crisis-hit nations of North Africa and the Middle East.

Putin did not address the raging conflict in Syria directly and appeared to be referring to the overall threat of the use of force that has also been applied by Israel and the United States to Iran over its nuclear program.