The secrets of Russian President Vladimir Putin's buff physique and youthful appearance are the result of herbal health remedies and swimming regularly to combat stress, his doctor revealed Monday.

Putin "doesn't look his age", the Kremlin's top doctor Sergei Mironov told Russian weekly Itogui, chiefly because the 60-year-old is "skeptical about medication".

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday he found it "strange" that his biggest critic Alexei Navalny was sentenced to five years in prison while a man convicted in the same case was let off with a suspended term.

The remark was the first by the Russian leader on the ruling against his arch foe, who was convicted of fraud last month.

Russia's awarding of asylum to U.S. leaker Edward Snowden dealt a new blow to already bruised relations between Moscow and Washington but it remains in their interest to prevent the row from erupting into a Cold-War style crisis, analysts said.

Washington immediately rebuked Moscow for granting one year asylum to a man the United States wants to put on trial for leaking details of a vast U.S. intelligence program.

Russia on Friday faced fury from the United States after granting asylum to fugitive intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, whose whereabouts are now a mystery after he was finally able to walk free from an airport transit zone where he was marooned for over five weeks.

The White House said it was "extremely disappointed" by Moscow's decision, adding that it would now review if a U.S.-Russia summit in September is necessary.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday held a rare and previously unannounced meeting with Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan to discuss the situation in the Middle East, the Kremlin said.

"A wide number of questions regarding Saudi-Russia relations were discussed as well as the situation in North Africa and the Middle East," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies.

The Kremlin on Friday denied the validity of a photograph published on the Internet claiming to show President Vladimir Putin helping arrest a dissident in the former Soviet Union while he was a KGB agent.

The picture, circulated by a Russian blogger and already widely viewed, shows a man resembling Putin looking on as a democratic rights activist is roughly arrested.

President Vladimir Putin praised close ties between the Kremlin and the powerful Orthodox Church as he hosted top Orthodox clergy from across the world Thursday to mark the 1025th anniversary of the arrival of Christianity in Russia.

Convening the heads and senior members of 15 Orthodox Churches for an unprecedented meeting at the Kremlin, Putin praised the moral authority of the Church as he seeks to strengthen his power following huge protests against his 13-year rule.

President Vladimir Putin is to visit Iran in August to try to restart talks on Tehran's controversial nuclear drive, a Russian newspaper reported Wednesday.

Putin's visit is planned for mid-August, shortly after Iran's moderate new president Hassan Rowhani takes office on August 3, Kommersant reported, citing sources in the Kremlin and the Iranian foreign ministry.

President Vladimir Putin hailed the Russian Orthodox Church as a "natural partner" of the Kremlin in a two-hour film aired on national television, extolling the church's resurgence after its repression under Soviet rule.

"In the most critical moments of our history, our people looked upon their roots, the moral foundations, the religious values," Putin said in the nearly two-hour film called "The Second Baptism of Russia."

Russian police said on Saturday it would pursue vandalism charges over graffiti deriding President Vladimir Putin scrawled on the parliament building in Moscow.

Several thousand protesters took to the streets of central Moscow on Thursday evening to protest the sentencing of Putin's top critic, Alexei Navalny, to five years in a penal colony on embezzlement charges.