* Vladimir Mikhailov, the commander-in-chief of the Russian Air Force, said an air defense regiment equipped with S-400 missile systems would go on combat duty in 2006, and the Russian fifth-generation fighter plane would be ready in 2007
* Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said that Russia would gradually merge its defense industry companies into large holdings
* Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law making the Kaliningrad Region, a Russian exclave surrounded by European Union countries on the Baltic Sea, a special economic zone
* Russian energy giant Gazprom said Moldova and Russia had agreed the price of $110 per 1,000 cubic meters for Russia's natural gas in the first quarter of 2006
* Deputy board chairman of the Russian energy giant Gazprom Alexander Medvedev said Gazprom's 2006 gas exports would be unchanged from the company's original plans and would stand at 151 billion cu m
* The Federal Financial Markets Service (FFMS) said it was introducing a limit on the issue of American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) by Russian companies of 35% of their charter capital
* The commander of Interior Ministry troops in the North Caucasus said between 70 and 75 small militant gangs with an overall strength of 730 members were currently operational in Chechnya
* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia and Iran would hold talks on nuclear cooperation in Moscow on February 16
* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia was ready to sign a border treaty with Latvia, but without any conditions being imposed
* Yury Shmidt, a lawyer for jailed former head of Yukos Mikhail Khodorkovsky, filed another appeal against the oil tycoon's transfer from Moscow to a prison in the Siberian region of Chita after a previous appeal was lost Monday
* Valery Pasat, a former defense minister of Moldova and adviser to the chief executive of Russia's electricity giant UES, was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted of abuse of office
