The attack Friday evening, which killed two senior government officials, was the worst terrorist strike outside the North Caucasus since 2004 and was also the second time bombers have derailed the Nevsky Express, raising fears that militants could step up attacks on the country's expansive, low-security rail network.

When asked by a French journalist on Friday about Magnitsky's death, Putin said although human rights issues are important, prime ministers "are forced to address specific issues that have to do with industry and the economy."

The attack came after a spate of police violence against citizens, including the fatal beating of an Abkhaz man in Moscow last week, and an increasingly heated debate over the need to reform the Interior Ministry.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin oversaw the deal with the French carmaker on his two-day trip to Paris, where he also wrapped up a host of other deals, including signing up French participation in the South Stream pipeline.

President Dmitry Medvedev met with his counterparts Alexander Lukashenko and Nursultan Nazarbayev in Minsk on Friday, where they agreed to the creation of a unified customs tariff that will start Jan. 1.

The currency's fall comes after a nearly three-month rally and brings some relief to authorities worried that the currency’s strength could derail the export-oriented economy’s fragile recovery.

Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said in September that Russia was in talks with Japan on a loan of $2 billion to $3 billion for a gas link project.

The prospect of Russian oil product supplies to Iran came as the International Atomic Energy Agency rebuked the country Friday for secretly building a uranium-enrichment plant — a project that fueled fears that it was seeking a nuclear bomb.

Naftogaz announced the proposal to amend the formula that Gazprom uses to calculate the price of gas just days after Gazprom relaxed contract obligations for Ukraine.

Moscow missed its initial deadline to deliver the S-300 missile defense systems, which could defend Iranian nuclear facilities against an Israeli strike, but has reassured Tehran that they will arrive soon.