* Russian President Vladimir Putin said at an annual televised news conference in the Kremlin:

– Russia will develop an effective response to United States plans for the deployment of missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic

– Bulgaria and Greece should overcome objections to the construction of a $1 billion oil pipeline in the Balkans

– There are ways of ensuring Iran's right to develop civilian nuclear power, while eliminating international concerns on the issue

– Russia could rebury Soviet World War II soldiers on its own territory if Estonia chooses to 

demolish Soviet memorials

– Foreign partners have every chance of joining the vast Shtokman gas field project off Russia's Arctic coast, but the prerogative to select them belongs to energy giant Gazprom

– International uranium enrichment centers will take responsibility for the disposal of nuclear waste

* Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov said that six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program could be held at the ministerial level at some point in the future

* Russia's Stabilization Fund as of February 1, 2007, held 2.647 trillion rubles ($99.7 billion), up 12.8% month-on-month, the Finance Ministry said

* The Russian Foreign Ministry has called statements by the U.S.-based human rights organization Freedom House that Russia suppresses civil liberties "absurd"

* Russian oil exports fell 1% in 2006 year-on-year to 249.91 million tons (1.84 billion bbl), the Russian Industry and Energy Ministry said

* Ukraine's Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych proposed merging his country's energy assets with those of Russia on a parity basis

* Russia has lifted a ban on pork imports from the United States and cattle from some parts of the Czech Republic, the Russian veterinary service said

* Moscow police have detained Levon Chakhmakhchyan, a former member of the Russian parliament from the Caspian republic of Kalmykia, his lawyer said

* A total of 174 militants were killed last year in the North Caucasus, and 1,171 were detained, Arkady Yedelev, a deputy Russian interior minister said

// Feb. 02, 2007 - 05:32 GMT

MOSCOW, November 29 (RIA Novosti) – Relatives of people who died when a plane crashed on landing in the Siberian city of Irkutsk in July have filed a lawsuit against the airliner's European manufacturer, Airbus, for over 17.5 million rubles ($665,000), a lawyer said Tuesday.

On July 9, an A-310 plane owned by Siberia-based S-7 Airlines crashed killing 124 people on a flight from Moscow to Irkutsk, the home airport for popular tourist destination Lake Baikal. It veered off the runway upon landing and caught fire after hitting a concrete wall and plowing into garages.

Lawyer Igor Trunov said Konstantin and Lyubov Slastin, who lost two family members in the tragedy, filed the lawsuit against Airbus to Moscow's Khoroshevsky Court, demanding compensation for "moral and material damages."

S-7 Airlines will be called to the case as a third party.

The Slastins are demanding 16.2 million rubles ($616,000) in moral damages and 1.268 million rubles ($48,100) for the loss of property, Trunov said.

In addition, they want Airbus to pay them lifetime compensation of 6,900 rubles per month ($262).

The Slastins had previously filed a lawsuit to Moscow's Zamoskvoretsky Court demanding compensation of 20 million rubles ($759,000), but the court sent their case to Siberia's Novosibirsk Region.

The International Aviation Committee, a civil aviation body of former Soviet republics which is investigating the causes of the Siberian crash, said in a statement that the crew was to blame for the tragedy.

"On landing, the crew commander automatically moved the thrust lever of the left engine without noticing that its reverse thruster mode was deactivated," the statement said.

S7 said the official conclusion was convenient for the authorities, but not accurate.

// Nov. 29, 2006 - 17:28 GMT

BISHKEK, November 7 (RIA Novosti) – Political turmoil in Kyrgyzstan continued Tuesday as the president, who has been resisting calls for constitutional reform, accused parliamentarians of trying to usurp power.

// Nov. 07, 2006 - 08:03 GMT

MOSCOW, November 3 (RIA Novosti) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said Friday it plans to acquire a minority stake through the first international public offering by WGC-5, one of Russia's six wholesale power generating companies.

The bank will buy "up to 10% of the company's common shares in an open subscription at the final offering price of $0.09 per share," with "total investment not to exceed of $45.9 million," an EBRD news release said.

The offering constitutes 14.4 % of WGC-5's share capital, totaling 30,271,685,504 rubles ($1.13 billion), and is part of a strategy of its controlling shareholder, Unified Energy Systems (UES), to raise private funds on the open capital market for investment in the power sector. The share issue will reduce the largest Russian power utility's 87.67% stake in WGC-5 to around 75%.

The proceeds of the offering will be used to renovate WGC-5's four main power stations, as well as for investments in additional capacity to help meet Russia's growing electricity demand.

WGC-5 is one of the six wholesale power generating companies established as part of UES's restructuring in September 2004. Its plants are located in some of Russia's fastest growing regions, including the Urals.

The company's installed capacity is 8.67 GW, or 4% of Russia's total generating capacity, and its electricity output constitutes 3.8% of the nation's total.

// Nov. 03, 2006 - 15:35 GMT

ALMATY, June 17 (RIA Novosti) – The states whose delegations attended the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) signed a raft of documents in Kazakhstan's former capital Saturday.

// Jun. 17, 2006 - 15:24 GMT

ROSTOV-ON-DON, South Russia, May 30 (RIA Novosti, Sergei Rudkovsky) – The first mass produced Mi-28N Night Hunter military helicopter was given to Russia's Defense Ministry after successfully completing factory tests, the chopper's manufacturer said Tuesday. "The serial helicopter will join two other experimental Mi-28N helicopters being tested by the Defense Ministry, and will have to confirm its performance, and undergo avionics tests, including testing of armaments systems," the Rostov Helicopter Plant, or Rostvertol, said.The company said the Mi-28N had successfully passed factory flight and armament tests and that it met design specifications.In March 2006, a state commission led by Russian Air Force commander Vladimir Mikhailov approved production of an experimental batch of helicopters. Mikhailov also said the Defense Ministry planned to buy 50 Mi-28Ns by 2010.The helicopter is primarily designed to locate and destroy enemy armored vehicles, personnel, small surface ships, and low-speed air targets and fortifications, and to lay mine fields day or night in adverse weather conditions.High reliability and powerful weaponry make the chopper competitive on global aircraft markets, Rostvertol said. Military experts said the helicopter's effectiveness was four to five times higher than any existing helicopters of its type.

// May. 30, 2006 - 15:08 GMT

TEHRAN, May 30 (RIA Novosti) – A pilotless Iranian reconnaissance plane circled for 25 minutes over a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf before returning safely to its base, a senior Iranian official said Tuesday."Our pilotless reconnaissance plane flew over the USS Ronald Reagan in the Persian Gulf unnoticed to the Americans for 25 minutes," the official said, according to Iran's Fars agency.He did not say when the flight took place, but added that U.S. radars picked up the unmanned aerial vehicle after 25 minutes, and that four USAF fighters and two helicopters were scrambled to intercept it. However, the Iranian plane had already crossed the border back into Iran and landed at its base. "This points to holes in the U.S. military reconnaissance systems deployed in the Persian Gulf," the Iranian official said.

// May. 30, 2006 - 15:06 GMT

MOSCOW, May 12 (RIA Novosti) – A campaign dedicated to the 61st anniversary of the end of World War II that saw thousands of orange and black ribbons flying throughout Russia and other countries has concluded.

// May. 12, 2006 - 14:26 GMT

MOSCOW, May 4 (RIA Novosti) – Rostelecom (RTS: RTKM) said Thursday its net profit in the first quarter of this year calculated to Russian Accounting Standards had dropped 14.8% year on year from $88.7 mln to $75.5 mln. Russia's largest long-distance telecom services provider said its Q1 revenues grew 52.3% year on year to $537 mln on higher returns from long-distance and international services due to the introduction of new tariffs on January 1, 2006. Rostelecom, a subsidiary of telecoms major Svyazinvest, connects Russia with 211 countries worldwide.

// May. 04, 2006 - 12:43 GMT

MOSCOW, May 3 (RIA Novosti) – The Stabilization Fund stood at just over 1.8 trillion rubles (about $70 billion) as of May 1, up 123 billion rubles on April, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday. The Stabilization Fund was set up to harvest windfall oil revenues above a cutoff point of $27 per barrel.

// May. 03, 2006 - 14:08 GMT