* Belarus hopes Russia will abandon its plan to impose duties on crude oil supplies in exchange for 50% of Belarusian revenues received from the re-export of refined products to Europe, First Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko said
// Jan. 03, 2007 - 07:42 GMT
Russia is "highly" likely to join the World Trade Organization by the end of July 2007, the country's chief negotiator Maxim Medvedkov told <i>Interfax</i> news agency on Wednesday, Jan. 3.
// Jan. 03, 2007 - 09:42 GMT
In 2007 Russia will be able to export 23.5 tons of black caviar, said on Tuesday, Jan. 2, the office of CITES (Convention on international trade in endangered species). The office said that the ban on export of Caspian Sea caviar has been lifted, allowing Russia, along with Iran, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, to produce and sell caviar from fish, caught in the waters of this sea.
// Jan. 03, 2007 - 09:57 GMT
Singer George Michael pocketed 3.3 million U.S. dollars for performing for 75 minutes at a Russian billionaire's New Year's Eve party.
// Jan. 03, 2007 - 10:06 GMT
A four-seater Orion-12 private plane has crashed in Siberia's Tyumen region, killing 2 people.
// Jan. 03, 2007 - 10:11 GMT
Japan and Russia are likely to consider settling their decades-old territorial row by dividing the disputed Kuril Islands off Hokkaido by land area rather than by number, Japanese diplomatic sources said.
// Jan. 03, 2007 - 10:15 GMT
MOSCOW. (Yury Zaitsev for RIA Novosti) – On November 21, 2006, Russia, South Korea, China, Japan, India, the European Union and the United States signed an agreement on building the world's first International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER).
// Jan. 03, 2007 - 10:41 GMT
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti military commentator Viktor Litovkin) – Some of the most significant events of the outgoing year were in the military sphere – the defeat of the US-led coalition forces in Iraq, the Israeli army's setback in Lebanon, and the return of the Taliban to Afghanistan despite the presence of 20,000 NATO troops there.
// Jan. 03, 2007 - 10:46 GMT
MOSCOW. (Alexei Makarkin for RIA Novosti) – In the outgoing year, Russia-oriented self-proclaimed states on post-Soviet territory – Transdnestr, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia have not only survived as proto-state formations, but have also received a fresh impetus for their development.
// Jan. 03, 2007 - 10:48 GMT
TYUMEN, January 3 (RIA Novosti) – A light plane has crashed in Tyumen in Russia's West Siberia, killing two people, the regional emergencies center said Wednesday.
// Jan. 03, 2007 - 11:02 GMT