The Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, has said he wants to stand for a second term in the Kremlin, but also conceded that he will not run against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in elections due next March.

Bloggers in a provincial Russian town are investigating what happened to hundreds of strips of turf used to spruce up the town centre before a visit from the Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, which disappeared almost as soon as he left.

A fifth of Russia's state defence spending is stolen every year by corrupt officials, dishonest generals and crooked contractors, Russia's chief military prosecutor said in an interview published yesterday.

Russian Interior Ministry troops were fed dog food earlier this year to save money, a former officer in the ministry said yesterday.

The stage was set for Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev to fire the starting gun on a bid for a second term yesterday, but a press conference attended by more than 800 journalists was more of a damp squib than a campaign launch.

Rosneft, the Russian state oil giant which walked away from an Arctic exploration pact with BP earlier this week, has received new proposals from the UK group. "These proposals make it possible to discuss our co-operation outside the agreements which have already expired," Rosneft said.

In his career as Russia's foremost rock music critic, Artemy Troitsky has got used to a turbulent relationship with those in power – grappling with Soviet-era censorship and yet raising funds for Chernobyl victims. But it is unlikely he imagined he would find himself facing a jail term for calling an allegedly pro-Kremlin guitarist a "poodle".

Female police cadets marched in lockstep with tens of thousands of soldiers across Red Square yesterday in Russia's annual Victory Day display of military might, while President Dmitry Medvedev said the country is committed to peace and global stability.

The former Russian intelligence officer accused of helping US authorities arrest 10 sleeper agents last summer has been charged in Moscow with high treason and desertion.

Putin and Medvedev are publicly clashing for the first time as the country's top job hangs in the balance

In his strongest hint yet that he wants to return to the presidency next year, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin yesterday told Russian MPs that the country needs a "strong and calm" decade to ensure economic growth. He cautioned against "unnecessary liberalism", in what many will see as a swipe against the current President Dmitry Medvedev.