Thousands of Russians have paid homage to Vladimir Putin, some with tongue in cheek, after the Russian president was photographed topless enjoying the Siberian summer. [...] Men, women and children across Russia and elsewhere answered the call from Durov, who is reported to be living abroad after repeated clashes with the authorities.

Asked at a media forum in St. Petersburg about Russia’s largest search engine, Yandex, storing its data on servers outside the country, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the Internet was originally a "CIA project" and "is still developing as such."

American fugitive Edward Snowden was offered a job by Russia's top social networking site on Thursday, hours after the former intelligence contractor received a year-long asylum in Russia. "We invite Edward Snowden to Petersburg and will be happy if he decides to join the star team of programmers at VKontakte," Pavel Durov, one of the founders of the St. Petersburg-based VKontakte, Russia's answer to Facebook, said on his profile.