President Dmitry Medvedev's press office faces some competition.
At the G8/20 summit, Medvedev announced efforts to overhaul global financial rules and an agreement for regular talks with new British Prime Minister David Cameron on his new Twitter microblog.
In all, Medvedev, who opened the Twitter account Wednesday during a fact-finding trip to California's Silicon Valley that included a stop at Twitter's headquarters, made more than 10 posts as he met with the leaders of the world's 20 largest economies in Canada from Friday to Sunday.
After attending G8 meetings in Huntsville, north of Toronto, on Saturday, the president tweeted: "Encouraged G8 leaders to set an example of responsible budget policy."
Medvedev economic aide Arkady Dvorkovich later explained that the president had reiterated Russia's call for the creation of a global financial control system aimed at preventing a new economic crisis.A larger number of reserve currencies that go beyond the U.S. dollar and euro, as well as "a higher role of the drawing rights of the International Monetary Fund," is "the best scenario," Dvorkovich told reporters.
But for the shorter term an acceptable method to lessen risks to the global currency system is for countries to review one another's policies and hold consultations about how credit and monetary policies are pursued, he said.
Russia also opposed a proposal by France, Germany and Britain to introduce an international financial transactions tax aimed at compensating governments' costs for supporting the banking system, he said, adding that Russia was unlikely to benefit from such a tax on banks.
The three countries said earlier this month that they planned to impose the tax as early as next year, with Britain alone expecting to collect £2 billion ($3 billion) a year.
"Our financial market is just developing. We would like a large bulk of financial transactions to be completed [in Russia]," Dvorkovich said, adding that Russia would benefit if other countries imposed the tax.
He said tighter regulations over European banks could speed up Kremlin plans to turn Moscow into an international financial center.
Countries at the G20 summit on Sunday were split on the tax, with the United States joining France, Germany and Britain in embracing it and Japan, China and India supporting Russia's opposition.
The G20 leaders planned to agree on measures to rein in budget deficits that highlighted the countries' need for "sustainable" budgets, Bloomberg reported Sunday, citing a draft summit statement.
Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Saturday that the countries' leaders would agree to lower 2011 budget deficits.
Medvedev, who just started following the tweets of U.S. President Barack Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Cameron, declared after meeting Saturday with the new British prime minister that the two had agreed to talk on a regular basis.
"Met with David Cameron. Have agreed that we'll continue to speak in person, not just online," Medvedev tweeted.
The two spoke for more than an hour in their first meeting after Cameron took office in May.
Medvedev told reporters after the meeting that "permanent attention to economic issues and other themes" was needed to develop Russian-British ties, which have been strained since the 2006 poisoning death of former Federal Security Service officer Alexander Litvinenko in London.
"We are determined to make them more productive and full-fledged," Medvedev said, according to the Kremlin's web site.
The two leaders didn't discuss the case of Litvinenko, Medvedev spokeswoman Natalya Timakova said. "A number of disagreements … were mentioned," she added, without elaborating.
Russia has refused to extradite Britain's main murder suspect, State Duma Deputy Andrei Lugovoi, to London.
Medvedev and Cameron also discussed the situation in Iran and the Middle East and BP's problems after the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The issue of BP "was touched upon very briefly," Dvorkovich said.
"We confirmed that we are interested in a favorable outcome for BP," he said, adding that "the talks had been very open and candid."
A planned meeting of the leaders of the emerging BRIC economies — Brazil, Russia, India and China — was cancelled after Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva skipped the G20 summit to deal with flooding at home.
As the leaders worried about the global economy, Medvedev showed his concern for another event, the World Cup, which he was seen watching on his new iPad.
"Germany plays England today," he tweeted Sunday. "I sincerely hope both teams do well. No matter who wins, it will be a wonderful match."
Germany ended up thrashing England 4-1.