* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments that Israel should be "wiped off the map" were unacceptable and would provide more arguments for those countries that wanted to refer the Iranian nuclear file to the UN Security Council
* The lawyer of a Russian National Bolshevik party member accused of attacking a government building in Moscow in December said the Moscow city court had refused to let his client go to the Netherlands for his famous father's funeral
* ConocoPhillips CEO James Mulva said the American oil major wanted to buy a stake in Lithuania's Mazeikiu nafta with Russia's LUKoil
* A Russian delegation to the United States, headed by Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko, met with representatives of major automakers
* The Moody's ratings agency upgraded the ratings of Russian natural gas monopoly Gazprom, oil majors Transneft and Rosneft and Russian Railways to Baa2, with a stable outlook
