Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday ordered unscheduled military exercises involving thousands of troops and dozens of ships in the Black Sea region to test their battle readiness, the Kremlin said.

The order was presented to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in a sealed envelope at 4:00 am (2400 GMT), his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies, adding the exercises would involve 36 ships and up to 7,000 troops.

Russia on Wednesday called the Arab League's decision to award Syria's seat at the organization to the anti-regime National Coalition "illegal and indefensible".

"In terms of international law, the League's decision on Syria is illegal and indefensible because the government of the Syrian Arab Republic was and is the legitimate representative member-state at the United Nations," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.

Life expectancy in Russia has marked time since the collapse of the Soviet Union but risen in its former eastern-bloc allies, The Lancet reported on Wednesday.

Alcohol, tobacco and road accidents head a list of problems that lie behind premature death in the former Communist eastern Europe but remain chronic in many of the ex-Soviet republics, it said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that Moscow backed a solution to local Lebanese challenges through national dialogue in the aftermath of the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Miqati's government.

“We are confident that the formation of the new government and holding parliamentary elections would be resolved by the Lebanese through national dialogue and not through foreign dictates,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich.

Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu called his U.S. counterpart Chuck Hagel on Monday and expressed a desire to hold high-level talks on missile defense, the Pentagon announced.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Hagel said the desire to maintain discussions on the issue at deputy minister level were "an important part of U.S.-Russian relations."

China has agreed to buy two dozen fighter jets and four submarines from Russia, state media reported Monday, the country's first large-scale weapons technology purchases from Moscow in a decade.

The agreement to buy the 24 Su-35 fighters and four Lada-class submarines was signed just before President Xi Jinping's weekend visit to Russia, said the People's Daily, the Communist Party organ, citing state television.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Monday that Moscow intended to study the consequences of the Cyprus bailout deal agreed in Brussels amid analyst warnings of Russian deposits suffering the biggest hit.

"We have to figure out what this story turns into in the long run, what the consequences for the international financial and monetary system will be -- and thus, for our own interests as well," news agencies quoted Medvedev as saying in Russia's first official response to the rescue.

Leaders from the BRICS emerging nations are expected to launch a joint development bank to rival western-dominated institutions at a summit beginning Tuesday.

The grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and hosts South Africa will meet in Durban to set up an infrastructure-focused lender that would challenge seven decades of dominance by the World Bank.

Associates of exiled Russian oligarch and Kremlin critic Boris Berezovsky, who was found dead Saturday, questioned claims that he had begged President Vladimir Putin for forgiveness, but said he had been depressed and perhaps suicidal.

Berezovsky, who helped Putin rise to power but then fled Russia as the new strongman cracked down on politically ambitious oligarchs, was found dead in his mansion near London on Saturday afternoon.

China's new leader Xi Jinping flew out off Moscow on Sunday morning to begin a tour of Africa after declaring his first foreign visit as president a success and overseeing the signing of a number of energy deals.

Xi flew out at 8:00 am local time (04:00 GMT) to Tanzania, where he was set to give a major speech on relations with Africa.