* Russian natural gas monopoly Gazprom and Ukraine's national gas company, Naftogaz, again failed to agree on gas supplies and deliveries for 2006
* The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said two bodies had been recovered after a helicopter crashed in Russia's Far East
* The Kremlin press service said President Putin would visit Malaysia to attend the first Russia-ASEAN summit and the first East Asian summit
* The Russian Space Agency said the launch of a Russian Proton-M rocket carrying a U.S. AMC-23 satellite (WorldSat-3) had been postponed again without being rescheduled
* Deutsche Bank's press office said the bank had become the sole owner of leading Russian investment bank United Financial Group (UFG) after reaching a final agreement on acquiring the remaining 60% stake in UFG's authorized capital
* The Moscow City Court opened preliminary hearings on the murder of Forbes Russia Editor Paul Klebnikov
* Russia signed a contract with the Indian Navy to deliver 16 MiG-29K Fulcrum D fighters
* Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said the country's annual inflation in 2006 would hit 8.5%, the lowest in 15 years
* President Putin said Russia was ready to increase supplies of oil and natural gas to India and consider building pipelines
* IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said he welcomed Russia's proposal to supply nuclear fuel to Iran if the latter stopped uranium enrichment
* Norwegian oil and gas company Hydro said it was ready to participate in the Russian-German project to build the North European Gas Pipeline (NEGP)
* Ukrainian investigators said blood samples taken from President Viktor Yushchenko were being studied by experts in Belgium, Britain, and Germany
* The head of Italian energy giant ENI said a new agreement with Russian natural gas monopoly Gazprom on Russian gas supplies to Italy would require lengthy negotiations
