Russia's newly sworn-in President Vladimir Putin on Monday proposed his Kremlin predecessor Dmitry Medvedev as the country's new prime minister under a job swap agreement first announced last year.

The lower house of parliament's speaker Sergei Naryshkin said Putin submitted Medvedev's name for confirmation shortly after taking the oath of office for a third Kremlin term.

Baton-wielding riot police roughly broke up a Moscow protest rally Sunday on the eve of Vladimir Putin's return for a third Kremlin term, arresting more than 400 people including top opposition leaders.

The clashes just over the river from the Kremlin were the most violent since the first rallies against the Russian strongman began in December and set an ominous tone ahead of his glitzy presidential inauguration ceremony Monday.

Vladimir Putin supporters unveiled plans on Saturday to draw more than 50,000 people onto the streets of Moscow in a show of force ahead of the strongman's inauguration to a third presidential term.

Russia's current prime minister will take back the Kremlin seat he already held from 2000-2008 during a swearing-in ceremony on Monday that follows his thumping March 4 election win against only token opposition.

The head of the Arab League, which has played a key role in mediating the Syria crisis, arrived in China on Friday for discussions with top leaders, China's foreign ministry said.

Nabil al-Arabi arrived in the commercial hub of Shanghai and would travel to Beijing on Monday to meet Chinese officials, including Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, a spokesman said.

A double car bombing in Russia's troubled North Caucasus killed at least 14 people and injured more than 120 just days before Vladimir Putin returns to the Kremlin, officials said Friday.

The attacks late Thursday outside Dagestan's main city, which authorities said may have been triggered by suicide bombers, were the deadliest in the Caucasus in months and smashed any illusion of increasing stability.

Russia said Thursday its dispute with the United States over missile defense was near a "dead end" and warned it might have to deploy new rockets in Europe to take out elements of the controversial shield.

"We have not been able to find mutually-acceptable solutions at this point and the situation is practically at a dead end," Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov told a televised conference on missile defense issues.

Russia's president-elect Vladimir Putin on Tuesday joined over 150,000 people in a Soviet-style march through Moscow to celebrate Labor Day and show off public support ahead of his inauguration.

Accompanied by kitsch brass music and surrounded by multi-colored balloons, Putin and outgoing President Dmitry Medvedev led the most extensive May Day march in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Russia on Saturday said it backed delivering a "decisive rebuff" to "terrorists" operating in Syria a day after state television reported 11 people killed in a bomb blast outside a Damascus mosque.

"We are convinced that the terrorists operating in Syria need a decisive rebuff, and that all domestic and outside players need to prevent any support" from reaching the rebel forces, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Russian deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov said Thursday that French calls to use force in Syria under a United Nations mandate were counterproductive.

Bogdanov's comments came a day after French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Syria's United Nations-backed peace plan was "seriously compromised" and held out the threat of seeking military action to end a brutal 13-month crackdown on dissent.

Russia accused the Syrian rebels on Thursday of waging a wide-scale terror campaign that is designed to kill as many civilians as possible despite a formal ceasefire.

"Opposition groups have essentially reverted to waging wide-scale terror in the region," said foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich.