Russian leader Vladimir Putin congratulated Iran's reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian on his victory in a presidential runoff, the Kremlin said on Saturday.

"I hope that your tenure as president will contribute to a reinforcement of constructive bilateral cooperation between our friendly peoples," Putin said in a message to Pezeshkian.

The two

Moscow has centered its firepower on the industrial region, which it claims to have annexed and has been partially controlled by Kremlin-backed forces since 2014.

Russian-installed officials also

The Kremlin on Friday said it was "not optimistic at all" about any change in difficult relations between Britain and Russia following Labour's victory in the U.K. general election.

"As far as we can see from their previous statements, they are not inclined to any flexibility or creativity in normalizing bilateral Russian-British relations,"

Jailed Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza has been transferred to a prison hospital and his lawyers were denied access to their client, his wife said Friday.

Kara-Murza, 42, suffers from health problems that his wife Evgenia and lawyers say are directly related to alleged attempts to poison him. Russian authorities have refused to investigate the