* Deputy Russian Finance Minister Sergei Storchak said Russia was ready to repay the $12-billion debt inherited from the former USSR to the Paris Club of creditor nations in 2006 ahead of schedule

// Dec. 04, 2005 - 07:03 GMT

MOSCOW

// Dec. 04, 2005 - 07:09 GMT

MOSCOW, December 4 (RIA Novosti) – Elections to the Moscow City Council and by-elections to the State Duma (the parliament's lower house) in two electoral districts of Moscow are being held this Sunday in the Russian capital.

// Dec. 04, 2005 - 08:10 GMT

MOSCOW, December 4 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a federal law on ratifying the agreement on the Russian-Kazakh state border, the presidential press-service said Sunday.

// Dec. 04, 2005 - 08:24 GMT

ASTANA, December 4 (RIA Novosti) – Voting opened in the oil-rich Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan in a presidential election this Sunday.

// Dec. 04, 2005 - 08:57 GMT

ASTANA, December 4 (RIA Novosti) – More than 70% of the electors in the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan cast their votes in favor of the incumbent President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the first exit poll results suggested Sunday.

// Dec. 04, 2005 - 09:12 GMT

ASTANA, December 4 (RIA Novosti, Olga Kovalenko) – A total of 48.78% of electors cast their votes by 2:00 p.m. local time (08:00 a.m. GMT) in a presidential election in the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan this Sunday, the Kazakh central election commission said.

// Dec. 04, 2005 - 09:46 GMT

Voters in Kazakhstan cast their ballots in an election almost certain to return President Nursultan Nazarbayev to office but which the opposition has said it expects to be riddled by fraud.

Moscow holds elections to the Moscow City Council and by-elections to the State Duma in two electoral districts.

Russia will permit the chief rabbi of Moscow, Pinhas Goldschmidt, to re-enter the country thus lifting a three-month ban, an Israeli daily reports.