- approved leader of pro-Russian Party of Regions Viktor Yanukovych as prime minister
- swore in all 11 Constitutional Court judges
- passed a law allowing foreign troops to hold joint exercises on Ukrainian territory
* Viktor Yanukovych said Ukraine would prioritize relations with Russia
* Ukraine's outgoing Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov said he would not work in the new government
* Russia's Foreign Ministry said the UN Security Council should prepare a resolution on the Lebanese-Israeli conflict within the next few days
* Russia's Foreign Ministry condemned the U.S. State Department's move to impose sanctions against Russia's state arms exporter Rosoboronexport and state-owned aircraft manufacturer Sukhoi over an alleged breach of the Iran Nonproliferation Agreement
* Georgia's ambassador to Russia said his country had no plans to use the Kodori Gorge as a springboard to launch an invasion in the self-proclaimed republic of Abkhazia
* A spokesperson for the Russian space agency said a Russian carrier rocket with a U.S. satellite would be launched from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on August 5
* Russia's natural resources watchdog demanded that a court annul a positive decision of the state environmental inspectorate on the development of two sectors of the Sakhalin II project in the country's Far East
* Electricity monopoly United Energy System said its net profit calculated to Russian Accounting Standards rose 50% year-on-year in January-June 2006 to 12.3 billion rubles (about $456 million)
* Nafta-Moskva investment group denied media reports that it is in negotiations to buy Yukos shares
* Russia's Hermitage Museum called on art and antiques collectors to help find more than 200 objects stolen from its Russian section worth a total of $4.85 million
* Russia's chief military prosecutor Sergei Fridinsky said suicides in the army in the first half of the year had fallen 10% on the same period of 2005
