Russia elections Live Blog

The former leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, says he is troubled by the way Russia's presidential election was handled.

He says the arrest of protesters in the wake of the poll shows the Russian government fears the opposition.

“The authorities were doing all that because, on the one hand, they are afraid, and on the other hand, they wanted to scare society and manage it through fear. It is necessary to put our election system in order. What have the current authorities been doing? Most of them have been in power for two or three terms. They have ruined the whole election system."

Russia is not considering offering political sylum to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Vladimir Putin said Wednesday in his first comments on the crisis since his election to a third term as president.

"We are not even discussing this question," news agencies quoted Putin as telling Kremlin reporters.

Russia has warned the West not to expect a shift in its stance on Syria following Vladimir Putin's victory in a presidential election, saying its position had nothing to do with domestic politics. 

One month before Sunday's election, Russia vetoed a Western-backed UN Security Council resolution that would have condemned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over a crackdown on protesters and supported an Arab League call for his exit. 

Putin made accusations of global meddling by the United States and its allies a theme of his election campaign, prompting suggestions his tough talk was aimed at a domestic audience and that Moscow might be more flexible after the vote. 

"Russia's position on a Syrian settlement was never subject to political considerations and is not formed under the influence of electoral cycles, unlike those of some of our Western colleagues," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. 

"Our approaches to a resolution of internal conflicts are based on international law and the United Nations Charter," it said. "We are talking primarily about strict adherence to the principle of inadmissibility of interference from outside." 

The ministry said the conflict in Syria could be resolved "only on the basis of a broad national dialogue in which Syrians themselves - and nobody else - will take decisions about the future development of their state." 

[Reuters]

Al Jazeera's correspondent, Barnaby Phillips, reports from Moscow.