Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin

Kabila has been invited to almost every major world capital: to Washington to meet United States' George Bush on 26 October; a date with Belgium's Guy Verhofstadt; an upcoming trip to China to meet Hu Jintao followed by a stopover in Moscow to meet Russia's Vladimir Putin; then to India to see Prime Minister Manoman Singh whose officials are putting together a Chinese-style investment package for Congo...

Comrade companies This week Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in South Africa the essential first stop on his belated Africa tour...

Neither the host President Vladimir Putin nor his core agenda of extracting maximum diplomatic leverage from Russia's vast energy reserves had much interest for Africa...

Leviev born in Uzbekistan and a member of the Jewish ultra-orthodox Chabad Lubavitch movement has helped Russian President Vladimir Putin in his battle against oligarch Vladimir Gusiinsky...

Pro-Bouteflika Algerians argue that he is still the best President they will get and are proud that within a few weeks he has conferred with Russia's President Vladimir Putin with his old friend Cuba's Fidel Castro and with Louis Freeh Director of the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)...

Leviev is said to have helped Russian President Vladimir Putin in his battles with oligarch Vladimir Gusinsky; this helps the Leviev-Gaydamak partnership build on Gaydamak's already strong ties with Russian securocrats...