- told Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian National Authority during a telephone conversation that Russia intended to do everything possible to normalize the situation in Palestinian territories swiftly
- ordered that $7.7 billion saved on the early repayment of the Russia's Soviet-era debt to the Paris Club of creditor nations be sent to the country's Investment Fund
* during his speech at a religious summit in Moscow, the Russian president:
- called for a broad dialogue between religions to ward off extremist tendencies that he said led to outbreaks of violence
- warned that people had to understand the potential consequences of a clash of civilizations being imposed on the world
- said terrorist ideologues capitalized on religious ignorance, separatist and nationalist sentiment, and acute social problems
* Taras Chernovol, a member of Ukraine's opposition Party of Regions, said the party had presented a list of demands to the parliamentary coalition, including the election of the Supreme Rada speaker and the prime minister under parliament's regulations, and proportional representation of each party in the election of committee heads
* Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said more than 300 residential buildings and a hospital were left without electricity after a fire broke out in a power cable hub in northeast Moscow
* Russian energy giant Gazprom said:
- Russia and Moldova have signed a contract raising gas prices for the former Soviet republic from $110 early this year to $160 per 1,000 cubic meters from the second half of 2006
- its 2005 net profit calculated to U.S. GAAP standards rose 37.1% year-on-year to $2.8 billion
* Ukraine's delegation intends to visit Russia before July 10 to hold talks on natural gas deliveries, Fuel and Energy Minister Ivan Plachkov, who leads the delegation, said
* Ukraine's opposition Party of Regions is continuing a sit-in of the country's parliament to prevent the start of a plenary session in protest over a coalition formed by three other movements
* Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov:
- called on the Palestinian leadership to stop violence aimed against Israeli towns, and on Israel to show restraint
- said Russia was using all available links to help secure the release of an Israeli soldier abducted by Palestinian militants
* Russia's export duties for crude oil will rise $16.6 from August 1 to a record $216.4 per metric ton, a Finance Ministry official said
* Russia's Supreme Court upheld the acquittal of two men cleared of their alleged role in a 2002 terrorist attack in the North Caucasus republic of Daghestan
* Rostelecom, Russia's largest long-distance telecom services provider, said it had signed a memorandum on cooperation with China's leading telecoms operator, China Telecom
* Police in Moscow said they had detained a suspect in connection with the stabbing of two ethnic Armenians at a subway station in the Russian capital
* Representatives of non-governmental organizations prepared for a two-day forum in Moscow in the run-up to the July 15-17 G8 summit in St. Petersburg
