President Vladimir Putin welcomed his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, to Russia on Tuesday, as the Kremlin head prepares to host several leaders of developing nations at an intergovernmental summit this week.

Xi and Putin in May pledged a "new era" of partnership between the two most powerful rivals of the United States, which they cast as an aggressive Cold War hegemon sowing chaos across the world.

Russian President Vladimir Putin calls Chinese President Xi Jinping his ‘dear friend’ Tuesday at a BRICS summit meeting hosted in Kazan