* President Vladimir Putin praised security agencies for repelling the attack on the North Caucasus city of Nalchik
* Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said Gazprom would hit record production levels of 547 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2005
* The Russian lower house of parliament approved the draft 2006 budget in its second reading
* Russia's fifth largest oil company, Sibneft, said it expected production to fall in 2005
* Russian tennis players Svetlana Kuznetsova and Yelena Likhovtseva were knocked out of the Kremlin Cup
