The Vatican said Russian President Vladimir Putin and Pope Francis on Monday discussed the need for talks to resolve the Syria conflict, as international officials met in Geneva to discuss a date for a peace conference.

The two leaders talked about the urgent need "to promote concrete initiatives for a peaceful solution to the conflict, favoring negotiation," the Vatican said, following a 35-minute audience in the Apostolic Palace.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday called the deal reached with world powers on Tehran's nuclear program a breakthrough but warned it was the first step in a long process, as Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the agreement would benefit all sides.

"A breakthrough step has been made, but only the first on a long and difficult path," Putin said in his first comments on the deal clinched after marathon talks in Geneva.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday it was the European Union and not Russia that was putting pressure on Ukraine, after the ex-Soviet country scrapped plans to sign a key trade deal with the bloc.

"We've heard threats from our European partners against Ukraine -- up to the point of helping them stage mass protests," Putin said, seeking to counter EU accusations that Ukraine ditched the deal after pressure from the Kremlin.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday insisted on the need for a "real" solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis, after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Putin said that the two men discussed the Iranian nuclear standoff "in detail" at Kremlin talks which overran by several hours. But the Israeli premier was insistent that only the strongest of diplomatic solutions was acceptable for his country.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived on Thursday in Russia for talks with President Vladimir Putin, in a last-minute bid to influence an emerging nuclear deal with Iran strongly opposed by the Jewish state.

An Agence France Presse correspondent accompanying the Israeli premier said Netanyahu arrived in Moscow in the early afternoon and made no comment to reporters during the flight.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani on Monday there was "a real chance" to find a solution to the decade-old stand-off over Tehran's nuclear drive.

The Kremlin said Putin had called Rouhani to discuss the Syrian crisis as well as a new round of talks about the nuclear standoff that is set to begin in Geneva on Wednesday.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev came under new pressure Friday after a public rebuke from President Vladimir Putin over one of his signature reforms passed during his stint as Kremlin chief.

Putin said late Thursday upon returning from a trip to Asia that he had heard some public criticism of proposed new legislation that would return investigators' right to launch tax fraud cases.

A Moscow court on Tuesday froze the assets of protest leader Alexei Navalny as part of an investigation into alleged fraud and money laundering by him and his brother Oleg.

The Basmanny District Court agreed with a petition by investigators and "ordered a freeze on assets belonging to the two brothers Navalny," spokeswoman Natalia Romanova told AFP.

Jailed anti-Kremlin protester Sergei Krivov, who has gone for 50 days without food in protest of his trial, is in danger and not getting medical help from prison staff, his lawyer said Thursday.

Sergei Krivov is one of 15 people being held in pretrial detention for taking part in a violent protest that was held on the eve of President Vladimir Putin's May 7, 2012 swearing in for a third term.

Pope Francis will receive Russian President Vladimir Putin on November 25, the Vatican said on Thursday, as the Roman Catholic Church seeks to improve ties with the Russian Orthodox Church.

Putin has previously met the pope's predecessor Benedict XVI as well as late pope John Paul II and there are hopes for what would be an historic meeting between a pope and a Russian patriarch.