More than 400 people were detained in Russia while paying tribute to opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died at a remote Arctic penal colony, a prominent rights group reported.
Putin will bid for his fifth presidential term at the elections, set to take place on March 17, 2024, as he aims to solidify his continuous hold on power as head of state or prime minister for more than two decades.
The two countries have forged an informal alliance against the United States and other democratic nations that is now complicated by the Israel-Hamas war.
Putin is believed to be seeking one of the few things impoverished North Korea has in abundance — stockpiles of aging ammunition and rockets for Soviet-era weapons.
A memorial service has taken place for mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was killed in a plane crash last week, his spokespeople confirmed shortly after the Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin was not planning to attend the funeral.
The Kremlin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov flatly rejected the allegations it was behind a plane crash that is presumed to have killed mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Russian forces pounded a key village that Ukraine claimed to have recaptured in its grinding counteroffensive in the country's southeast, while Moscow accused Kyiv of firing two missiles at southern Russia.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy alleged Russian troops had placed "objects resembling explosives" on top of several of the plant's power units to "simulate" an attack from outside.
The Ukrainian leader said the private military company had suffered "enormous losses," particularly in eastern Ukraine where its "most powerful group" was fighting.
Documents shared exclusively with CNN suggest that a top Russian military commander, General Sergey Surovikin, was a secret VIP member of the Wagner Group.