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The statement, which came amid simmering tensions between Moscow and the West, reflects the Kremlin’s assertive posture less than two weeks before Russia’s Dec. 2 parliamentary elections.

“In violation of previous agreements, military resources of NATO members are being built up next to our borders. Of course, we cannot allow ourselves to remain indifferent to this obvious muscle-flexing,” Putin said in televised remarks at a meeting of top military officials.

Russia has fiercely opposed U.S. plans to establish missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, and the deployment of U.S.

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The detention of Sergei Storchak, one of the country’s top authorities on international financial relations, prompted fevered speculation in the Russian media that the inquiry could have a political element amid growing uncertainty about President Vladimir Putin’s future.

It has also raised new questions among many investors about corruption in Russia and what the government was doing to fight it.

Storchak was detained Thursday, one day before he was supposed to accompany Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin on a trip to South America.

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The comments by Patriarch Alexy II, made at a Kremlin meeting with President Vladimir Putin, come as concerns increase over the growing influence of the church on government policy.

Russia needs to establish of a public council to oversee the “morality” of the mass media, Alexy II said.

“Many television and radio programs shows the permissibility of vicious behavior and it makes one contemplate the moral criteria of what mass media are allowed to do,” he said.

“Our society needs a public council that will assume appropriate regulating functions,” he said.

He spoke after a ceremony in which a government museum turned over to church officials a piece of cloth that the Orthodox faithful believe was part of a robe worn by Jesus Christ.

Some analysts say the meeting between Putin and patriarch was part of the continuing effort by the Kremlin to encourage religious Russians to vote in the Dec.

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The two sides reached a mutual understanding that Russia would dispose of 37.5 tons (34 tons) of plutonium from its weapons program by converting it into mixed oxide fuel that would be used to generate electricity. The United States would dispose of an equal amount of plutonium under the agreement.

"Along with the U.S. program to dispose of plutonium as mixed oxide fuel in light water reactors, the Russian program will ensure that enough plutonium for thousands of weapons is converted into a form which cannot be used to construct a weapon," U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said in a statement.

The United States and Russia agreed to begin reducing dangerous Cold War stockpiles of weapons-grade plutonium seven years ago, under the 2000 Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement.

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Police detained Storchak, Russia's top Paris Club debt negotiator, on Thursday along with Viktor Zakharov, head of the firm Sodexim, and the chairman of Moscow's Interregional Investment Bank (MIB), Vadim Volkov.

They have not been formally charged with any crime.

But the investigation committee at the Prosecutor General's Office said in a statement the three men were suspected of "having created an organized group to embezzle budget funds under the pretext of covering expenses for Sodexim."

"The sum in question is $43.4 million."

Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, a close associate of Storchak, said on Sunday he did not understand the arrest of his deputy, who oversees a $148 billion oil stabilization fund that collects revenues from Russia's booming oil exports.

But the investigation committee said Storchak had been detained to prevent the destruction of evidence.

"The investigation possesses evidence that if Storchak had been left a free man, he could escape the investigation and the trial, engage in criminal activities, threaten witnesses…

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United Russia's programme is called "The Putin plan," the popular Russian president is running as No. 1 on the party's election slate, and his name and photographs are plastered over its campaign literature.

But the Putin card is more than just a vote-grabbing ploy. United Russia has been handed the task at the December 2 election of ensuring the 55-year-old leader retains some kind of power or influence after he steps down next year.

The party's leaders do not disguise this.

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The St. Vincent and Grenadines-registered Kasper-1 timber carrier was en route from Russia’s far eastern port of Nakhodka to China when it sank in a storm, said Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman Viktor Beltsov.

Its crew of 36 boarded inflatable rafts. Twelve crew members were rescued by emergency teams, who were trying to move the rest to safety.

Storchak is responsible for Russia's debt policy and oversees the $148 billion stabilization fund, which collects windfall revenues from oil exports.

"The detention took place outside the ministry. It may be related to criminal cases against a third party, not finance ministry officials," the ministry said in a statement.

It said it had not received any official documents from law enforcement agencies related to the detention and expressed hopes the investigation would be objective.

Earlier, a senior police source told Reuters Storchak was detained on criminal charges but declined to give any details of the case.

A source close to Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin told Reuters he "could not rule out" that the detention was part of a campaign against Storchak's powerful boss ahead of next month's parliamentary election.

President Vladimir Putin promoted Kudrin, his long-term ally, to the rank of Deputy Prime Minister in a reshuffle in September.

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Russian authorities "remain unwilling to receive … observers in a timely and cooperative manner and cooperate fully with them," the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said.

In a statement the OSCE said it would "be unable to deliver its mandate under these circumstances" in the December 2 polls and had written to Russian authorities to tell them it "regretted this conclusion."

The OSCE said it had tried to "deliver its mandate conscientiously and in good faith". It applied for its monitors' visas on November 2, aiming to deploy an advance team of 20 people by November 7 and the remaining 50 by November 15.

"Despite repeated attempts …

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The home home near the city of Tula did not have basic safety equipment and police have started a criminal investigation into the latest in a series of fire disasters in Russia, according to officials quoted by Russian news agencies.

Regional deputy governor Alexei Korablyov said rescuers were trying to find five-to-eight people missing after Sunday's fire in Velye Nikolskoye, a village 30 kilometres (20 miles) outside Tula, ITAR-TASS reported.

More than 100 firefighters and 22 vehicles were sent to the blaze, where 293 people, including 17 nurses, were evacuated, Interfax news agency quoted the Emergency Situations Ministry as saying.

Viktor Beltsov, an official with the Emergency Situations Ministry, told Echo of Moscow radio station that flames had spread quickly through the 1950s-era building, which had wooden beams and no fire alarm.

According to Beltsov, authorities had tried to shut down the home after serious violations, including the lack of an alarm system, were discovered during three safety inspections over the last 12 months.

"However, the court did not support that decision," he said.

RIA Novosti news agency quoted a law enforcement source saying that an electrical short circuit started the blaze.

Police announced a criminal investigation into violation of fire safety procedures, news agencies reported.

Beltsov told Interfax that more people could have been saved if the fire services had been called earlier.

"The reason for mass death of people in the old people's home in Tula region was the delayed raising of the alarm," he said.

The deadly blaze was only the latest of a series in Russia, where accidents often end tragically due to poor safety procedures and infrastructure.

In December last year, a fire in a Moscow drug rehabilitation clinic killed 45 women.

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