RIA Novosti looks back at the main events of the outgoing year; below the month-by-month review of 2008 continues, with February:
February 1
February 2
February 4
February 6
* Moscow cancels $12 billion of Iraq's debt, or 93% of the total sum owed by the Middle East state
February 12
February 13
February 14
* Russia's outgoing President Vladimir Putin gives his seventh and last annual news conference
February 17
* Kosovo unilaterally declares independence
February 19
* Fidel Castro announces he will step down as Cuba's president after almost 50 years in power
February 20
February 21
February 22
* Turkey launches a large-scale ground operation targeting Kurdish insurgents in the north of Iraq
February 29