* Energy will top the agenda of a meeting between the Russian and Vietnamese leaders during Vladimir Putin's official visit to the Southeast Asian country, Russia's Hanoi ambassador said
* The chief of the General Staff of Russia's army, Yury Baluyevsky, said he was concerned over NATO's unchanged policy, and its continued expansion despite changes in the international situation
* The heads of Russian energy giant Gazprom and Belarusian pipeline company Beltransgaz met to discuss the prospect of raising the price of Russian natural gas for the ex-Soviet republic in 2007 to $180-200 from the current $50, Gazprom said
* President Vladimir Putin said:
- The number of illegal migrants in Russia may have reached 15 million
- Extremism is threatening Russia's unity
* Labor migration, anti-extremism measures, and the decriminalization of the gambling business were among the key issues the Russian president discussed during a meeting with the leadership of the pro-Kremlin party United Russia
* Vagit Alekperov, the president of Russia's largest oil company LUKoil, said:
- LUKoil is working on a project to refine crude from Venezuela in Canada
- LUKoil plans to invest about $100 billion in oil and gas production over the next decade
- No more than five of the largest companies will remain in Russia's oil and gas sector in the foreseeable future
* Russia will lower its export duty on crude oil from $237.6 to $180.7 per metric tons starting from December 1, 2006, the Russian government's press service said
* Russia's Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said inflation in the country could be less than 9% in 2006
* Six senior officials from Russia's compulsory medical insurance fund have been arrested on bribery and corruption charges, the Prosecutor General's Office said
* A maternity incentive bill on payouts for women who give birth to more than one child was passed by lawmakers in Russia's State Duma in its first reading
* Russia's state-controlled Rosneft has signed a deal with China's second-largest oil company Sinopec to acquire a 51% stake in Russian crude producer Udmurtneft, the Russian company said
* Russia's Foreign Ministry issued a statement condemning anti-Russian rhetoric in remarks by Georgia's Minister for European and Trans-Atlantic Integration, Giorgy Baramidze, who accused the country's leadership of ethnic cleansing and compared their current policies toward Russian-based Georgian nationals to the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany
* Georgia's economics minister and former defense minister, Irakly Okruashvili, has tendered his resignation, the ministry said
* Abkhazia's leader Sergei Bagapsh said the breakaway region will not resume talks with Georgia until it withdraws its troops from the Kodori Gorge, the only Tbilisi-controlled area in the un-recognized republic
