Russia on Monday quietly marked the one-year anniversary of the landmark announcement that Vladimir Putin would return to the Kremlin for a new term which has already seen a fresh clampdown on civil society.

Putin's plan to trade jobs with then president Dmitry Medvedev was unveiled at a ruling United Russia party congress on September 24 last year, followed months later by unprecedented protests against his domination.

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday agreed a deal with Kyrgyzstan that will allow Russia to keep a military base in the country until 2032 as Moscow and Washington jostle for influence in the region.

The agreement -- essentially a set of memorandums of intent ahead of formal treaties -- also foresees Russia wiping out nearly $500 million (380 million euros) in debt owed by Kyrgyzstan, a significant sum for the central Asian ex-Soviet state.

The United States on Wednesday denounced Moscow's decision to expel USAID and denied allegations that the agency had been meddling in Russian elections.

"It is regrettable that Russia's taken this decision, first and foremost for the Russian people," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said as Moscow gave the U.S. Agency for International Development until October 1 to leave the country.

Russia said on Wednesday it has ordered USAID to halt its operations by October 1 because the agency was seeking to influence domestic politics.

"The decision was taken mainly because the work of the agency's officials far from always responded to the stated goals of development and humanitarian cooperation," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

In the far north of Siberia, Russian scientists have stepped up research on a once-secret deposit of diamonds whose scale dwarfs anything ever discovered and could turn world markets "upside down".

Soviet scientists had in the 1970s uncovered the 100-kilometer (60-mile) Popigai Crater left by a huge asteroid in Siberia 35 million years ago.

A controversial new Russian media law could be used to block YouTube in the country over postings of the anti-Islam film that has sparked deadly rioting, the communications minister warned Tuesday.

"It sounds like a joke, but because of this video... all of YouTube could be blocked throughout Russia," minister Nikolai Nikiforov wrote on Twitter.

The Russian prosecutor general's office Monday backed a ban on the U.S.-made anti-Islam film that has sparked deadly violence, saying it would seek to add it to a list of extremist material.

A spokeswoman said her office "has prepared a request to a court to recognize the film, which is posted on the Internet and is offensive to believers, as extremist material," Interfax reported.

Georgia on Sunday reopened a world-renowned medieval cathedral in the ex-Soviet state's second city Kutaisi which has been restored despite concerns raised by global cultural agency UNESCO.

The consecration ceremony was attended by Georgian Orthodox Patriarch Ilia II and President Mikheil Saakashvili as well as representatives of opposition parties which are challenging the ruling United National Movement in crucial elections on October 1.

A major U.S.-led naval minesweeping exercise got underway in the Gulf Sunday as tension remain high over Iran and its controversial nuclear program.

The exercise kicked off on the same day the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned of retaliation against the Strait of Hormuz, Israel and nearby U.S. bases if his country is attacked, and as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted on a "red line" from Washington, claiming Tehran is "90 percent" toward having a nuclear bomb.

Russia insisted on Saturday it was not "clinging" to any individual leaders in Syria despite Moscow's refusal to back international calls on President Bashar Assad to step down.

"We are not clinging to any political figures," Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said in brief comments reaffirming the country's official position.