Main news of June 25

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

RUSSIA

* Russia hopes Belarus will behave responsibly, avoid conflicts and fulfill its obligations under Russian gas transit contracts, President Dmitry Medvedev said

* Russia's Innovation Center of Skolkovo, President Dmitry Medvedev's pet project, and Boeing signed an agreement to formalize its participation in the Skolkovo Innocity project
* Russia's gas giant Gazprom will start production at the Kirinsky gas condensate field under the Sakhalin-3 project at the end of 2011
* Russia's state-controlled gas monopoly Gazprom plans to expand its underground gas storage facilities (UGS) abroad to 6.5 billion cubic meters by 2016

* Russian energy giant Gazprom is planning to join the Elephant oilfield in Libya in an asset-swap deal with Italy's energy company Eni this fall

* Russia will not accept Exxon's $3.5 billion spending plan for the Sakhalin-1 offshore project in 2010 following the global economic crisis

EX-SOVIET STATES

* Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Russia had 24 hours to pay off its gas transit debt or Minsk would restrict oil and gas transit through its territory

* The detained nephew of ousted Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev has admitted his involvement in sparking interethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan, the country's deputy interior minister said

* Russia and the United States pledged to continue their support of the economic development of Kyrgyzstan and will assist the Central Asian state in the fight against terrorism and drug-trafficking

* The United States intends to allocate an additional $32 million in aid to Kyrgyzstan to help the country deal with the aftermath of recent inter-ethnic riots

* Russia will use facilities on Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula for naval pilot training in the next few years, the Russian defense minister said
* Former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko has unveiled an agreement on purchasing by the Ukrainian state gas company Naftogaz of 11 billion cubic meters of gas from the Russian energy giant Gazprom

* A police assessment mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has arrived in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek to help stabilize the situation in the country

* Ukraine is in talks with U.S. companies on joint projects to develop the Black Sea shelf, Ukraine's fuel and energy minister said

* Moscow regards Moldova's decision to institute "Soviet Occupation Day" as an element of "a preplanned political campaign spearheaded against Russian-Moldovan partnership," the Russian Foreign Ministry said

WORLD

*Increasing state debt and budget deficits were among the first issues on the agenda at the G8 summit in Canada, a Russian Finance Ministry official said

* Russia could join the World Trade Organization in 2011, the country's chief WTO negotiator Maxim Medvedkov said

* Russia and the U.S. intend to intensify cooperation in investing in innovation projects, promoting entrepreneurship and catalyzing breakthroughs in shared priorities, the White House said

* The United States will resume poultry exports to Russia, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said

* Nobel Prize winner, author and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, has begun a global campaign in a bid to free jailed Russian oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky