Free speech 'shrinking' in Russia
Russian freedom of speech is "shrinking alarmingly" under President Vladimir Putin, says Amnesty International.
The murders of outspoken journalists go unsolved, independent media outlets have been shut and police have attacked opposition protesters, said the report.
It also said "arbitrary" laws were curbing the right to express opinion and silencing NGOs deemed to be a threat by the authorities.
The report comes ahead of Russian's presidential elections on 2 March.
The director of Amnesty International UK, Kate Allen, said: "The space for freedom of speech is shrinking alarmingly in Russia and it's now imperative that the Russian authorities reverse this trend."
She said dissent could be a matter of life or death in the case of outspoken journalists like Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot dead in Moscow two years ago.
The 52-page Freedom Limited report warned any opposition demonstrations could suffer heavy clampdowns in the coming days, as Amnesty said had happened in the run-up to past elections.
First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, whom President Putin has named his favoured successor, is expected to be elected in this Sunday's poll.
EU criticises Israel settler plan
A senior EU official has criticised an Israeli decision to build more houses in occupied East Jerusalem, joining the US in condemning Israel.
External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said she was "very concerned" about a plan for 300 new homes on land captured in the 1967 war.
"We want to have a successful peace process," Ms Ferrero-Waldner said.
In rare condemnation by the US, the secretary of state said it threatened new Israeli-Palestinian talks.
Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the former Austrian foreign minister, was speaking after talks with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in Brussels.
Mr Fayyad said the fresh settlement activity was against "the letter and the spirit" of the recent Arab-Israeli peace conference.
"Those actions are clearly inconsistent with the overall direction this process should take if it is to produce an outcome that is satisfactory to all; lasting peace in the Middle East," he said.
He said the Palestinian Authority would seek $5.6bn (｣2.7bn) in aid for 2008-10 at a donors' conference next week in Paris.
Obligations
The first face-to-face meeting after last month's Annapolis summit is due to take place on Wednesday.
Under obligations contained in the international peace plan known as the roadmap, agreed in 2003 and revived in 2007, Israel must cease settlement activity on occupied land.
However, Israel says the restriction does not apply in East Jerusalem, which it annexed in 1967. The annexation has not been recognised internationally.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the plan "doesn't help build confidence", after meeting Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in Brussels on Friday.
The new units will be built at Har Homa settlement, which already has about 2,000 houses, in an area of south-east Jerusalem known to Palestinians as Jabal Abu Ghneim.
Putin sees Medvedev as successor
Russian leader Vladimir Putin has backed First Deputy PM Dmitry Medvedev to replace him as president next year, Russian media report.
"I fully support this candidacy," Mr Putin was quoted as saying.
Mr Medvedev was nominated by Mr Putin's United Russia Party and three other pro-Kremlin parties on Monday.
Mr Medvedev was previously Mr Putin's chief of staff and is chairman of the gas giant Gazprom. He hails from Mr Putin's native St Petersburg.
The 42-year-old former lawyer managed Mr Putin's election campaign in 2000. As first deputy prime minister he has overseen national programmes in the areas of health, housing and education.
He has long been a significant player in Mr Putin's group of close associates from St Petersburg.
His name was put forward by United Russia, A Just Russia, the Agrarian Party and Civil Force, at a meeting with President Putin.
Commenting on the choice, Mr Putin said: "I have known him for more than 17 years, I have worked with him very closely all these years, and I fully and completely support this candidacy".
Likely winner
The BBC's James Rodgers in Moscow says the overwhelming support for Mr Putin in Russia puts Mr Medvedev in a strong position to win the presidential election next March.
He will be officially nominated by a special congress next week as the United Russia candidate.
Fellow First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov had also been seen as a strong potential presidential candidate.
Under Russia's political system the president enjoys far-reaching powers, including the appointment of regional governors.
Earlier this month United Russia won the parliamentary election by a wide margin, and Putin supporters will dominate the new parliament.
Mr Putin has made it clear he will retain a significant national leadership role after he leaves office at the end of his second term.
Mr Putin voiced confidence that Mr Medvedev would provide continuity.
"We have the chance to form a stable government after the elections in March 2008. And not just a stable government, but one that will carry out the course that has brought results for all of the past eight years," Mr Putin said.
United Russia leader Boris Gryzlov highlighted Mr Medvedev's role in managing national projects aimed at raising Russian living standards.
"Dmitry Anatolyevich (Medvedev) oversees national projects. He oversees the demographic programme and we believe that it is precisely the issues to do with raising standards of living that are the most important issues for the upcoming four-year period."
Russia Votes After Controversial Campaign
(AP) Russia began voting Sunday in a parliamentary election where the only question is whether President Vladimir Putin's party will win merely a strong majority of seats or a gargantuan, crushing share.
The election follows months of increasingly acidic rhetoric aimed against the West and efforts, by law and by truncheon, to stifle opponents.
A huge win for Putin's United Russia party could pave the way for him to stay at the country's helm once his presidential term expires in the spring. The party casts the election as essentially a referendum on Putin's nearly eight years in office. Many of its campaign banners that festoon the capital read "Moscow is voting for Putin."
Putin is constitutionally prohibited from running for a third consecutive term as president in March. But he clearly wants to keep his hand on the helm in Russia, and has raised the prospect of becoming prime minister; many supporters have suggested his becoming a "national leader," though what duties and powers that would entail are unclear.
He said that a strong showing for the party Sunday would give him the moral right to ensure that politicians continue his policies. Recent opinion polls suggest the party could win up to 80 percent of seats.
The voting started in the Far Eastern regions of Chukotka and Kamchatka while Muscovites were preparing for bed late Saturday. It concludes in the western exclave of Kaliningrad at 1800 GMT.
The vote is the first national ballot under new election laws that have been widely criticized as marginalizing opposition forces. All the seats will be awarded proportionately to how much of the vote a party receives; in previous elections, half the seats were chosen among candidates contesting a specific district, which allowed a few mavericks to get in.
The new laws also say a party must receive at least 7 percent of the national vote to get any seats - up from the previous 5 percent. A poll by the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Center in mid-November showed the Communists and two other parties hovering near the cutoff point.
Opposition parties, meanwhile, claim authorities have confiscated campaign materials and that the managers of halls have refused to rent them out for opposition meetings. Police have violently broken up opposition rallies - most recently in Moscow and St. Petersburg last weekend - and national television gives the parties hardly any coverage.
Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion who has become one of the most prominent opposition leaders, called the election a "farce" Friday, a day after being released from jail following his arrest in the weekend protests.
In contrast to the near invisibility of the opposition on television, Putin's speeches to supporters have been broadcast in full and repeated throughout evening newscasts. On Thursday, the noon news program on the country's largest TV network led with a paid Putin address to the nation in which he called on voters to cast ballots for United Russia. It was repeated on other channels throughout the day, raising criticism that he was misusing state resources for open campaigning.
Sunday's vote "meets none of the criteria of a free, fair and democratic election. In effect, it is not even an election," Andrei Illarionov, a former adviser to Putin, wrote in a commentary for the Cato Institute think-tank.
Under Putin, once-struggling Russia has become inundated with oil revenue, a nascent middle-class is developing and the war against separatists in Chechnya has faded into sporadic, small clashes. Russia's newly assertive military policy and inclination to taunt and criticize the West appeals strongly to Russians who suffered physically and emotionally in the early post-Soviet years.
All those factors contribute to strong support for United Russia. But with the competition stifled and the election result seen as a foregone conclusion, many of the 107 million eligible to vote could find apathy and inertia weakening any desire to brave winter weather to cast ballots.
"It's clear that the current election will only stabilize the interests for one man, who has already run the country for a long time," said Musa Isayev, a 40-year-old resident of Grozny, the capital of Chechnya.
There's no minimum turnout needed for the election to be valid - another change from previous elections - but a low number of voters could undermine Putin's claim that Russia is developing into a true democracy, albeit one with only passing resemblance to Western democracies.
Authorities throughout Russia's 11 time zones appear determined to ensure a sizable turnout, through pressure, persuasion and even presents. One region is offering young voters passes to pools and sports facilities; another instituted a contest in which first-time voters could win mobile phones; yet another says new housing will be built in whichever village shows the most "mature" turnout.
Teachers, doctors and other workers have complained that their bosses are ordering them to vote - usually with the implication that they should vote for United Russia.
With Russia showing an increasingly assertive military policy and with foreign hunger growing for Russia's oil, gas and minerals, the election is of strong interest overseas. But international organizations are not able to watch as closely as they had hoped.
The elections-monitoring arm of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, regarded in the West as the most authoritative assessor of whether an election is fair, canceled plans to send observers. It said Russia had delayed granting visas for so long that the organization would be unable to conduct a meaningful assessment of election preparations.
Russia has criticized monitoring by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe elsewhere in the former Soviet Union as supporting protests that forced leadership changes, but it denied that it was impeding operations in Russia. Putin claimed the pullout was initiated by the United States in an effort to discredit the elections and his government.
A total of about 300 observers from various international organizations were scheduled to monitor the voting, including some from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization of Russia, China and ex-Soviet Central Asian republics.
Disdain for the West has been one of the dominating themes of the election. Putin called his opponents "foreign-fed jackals" last month and warned that Russia will not tolerate meddling from abroad.
Putin compares US shield to Cuba
Russian President Vladimir Putin has compared US plans for a missile shield in Europe to the Cuban missile crisis of the 1960s.
The crisis saw the US and Soviet Union go to the brink of nuclear war.
Mr Putin, at a summit with EU leaders in Portugal, said the situation was "technologically similar".
But he argued there would be no repeat because Russia and the US were "not enemies anymore... we are partners" and President Bush was a "personal friend".
The 1962 stand-off was triggered when US spy planes discovered Soviet missile bases in Cuba, within striking distance of the American mainland.
Moscow's decision to deploy these weapons in Cuba was at the time seen as a response to the build-up of powerful US missiles in Europe.
Tensions were only defused when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev agreed to dismantle the bases in return for guarantees that Washington would not attack communist Cuba.
'Similar situation'
US President George W Bush has said there is a "real and urgent" need for a missile shield in Europe as a defence against possible attack by Iran and countries in the Middle East.
His defence secretary suggested this week that the development of the bases in countries such as the Czech Republic and Poland could be slowed while Russian concerns were addressed.
President Putin said: "Let me recall how relations shaped up in a similar situation in the mid-1960s.
"Similar actions by the Soviet Union, when it deployed missiles in Cuba, provoked the Caribbean crisis. For us, technologically, the situation is very similar."
But he said the current tensions would not reach the pitch attained during the Cuban crisis.
"I agree completely with President Bush when he says that Russia and the US are not enemies anymore... we are partners. I am fully justified in saying that just as he calls me a friend, I can call him a personal friend too."
Mr Putin said Russia had put forward proposals in the area of security but "we have unfortunately not yet received any answers".
US state department spokesman Sean McCormack said there were "clear historical differences" with the Cuban crisis.
"I don't think that they are historically analogous in any way, shape or form."
Simmering tensions
EU leaders at the Portugal summit were hoping to speed progress towards a long-term agreement with Russia, that would extend to sensitive areas such as energy supplies.
The EU depends on Russia for a third of its energy needs and has seen gas supplies disrupted for two successive winters.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso confirmed a deal had been reached on sharing information on energy supplies to pre-empt sudden shortages.
"We have agreed today on a specific early warning mechanism to deal with problems in supply before they become a possible crisis," he said.
An agreement was also reached in Portugal on working together to curb the trafficking and consumption of illicit drugs and on raising the quota for Russian steel exports to the EU.
Putin Slams U.S. For "Pointless" Iraq War
(AP) President Vladimir Putin, in his latest jab at Washington, suggested Thursday that the U.S. military campaign in Iraq was a "pointless" battle against the Iraqi people, aimed in part at seizing the country's oil reserves.
Putin has increasingly confronted U.S. foreign policy in recent months, deepening the chill between Washington and Moscow. Among other things, he has questioned U.S. plans for a missile defense system in Europe and the U.S. push for sanctions against Iran for its nuclear programs.
Putin spoke during an annual question-and-answer session with the public. Broadcast live on state-controlled TV channels and radio stations, the event consisted of people from around the country quizzing Putin on issues such as pensions, public workers' salaries and school funding.
In one question, a mechanic from the Siberian city of Novosibirsk asked the president about comments he said were made some years ago by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who suggested that Siberia had too many natural resources to belong to one country.
"I know that some politicians play with such ideas in their heads," he said, dismissing the notion as wishful thinking, or "political erotica that ... hardly leads to a positive result."
"The best example of that are the events in Iraq - a small country that can hardly defend itself and which possesses huge oil reserves. And we see what's going on there. They've learned to shoot there, but they are not managing to bring order," he said.
"One can wipe off a political map some tyrannical regime ... but it's absolutely pointless to fight with a people," he said. "Russia, thank God, isn't Iraq. It has enough strength and power to defend itself and its interests, both on its territory and in other parts of the world."
Putin suggested the U.S. campaign was aimed at seizing control of Iraq's vast oil wealth, and said a concrete date must be set for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
"I believe one of the goals is to establish control of the country's oil reserves," he said.
Unless a date for pulling out is set, Putin said, "the Iraqi leadership, feeling (safe) under the reliable American umbrella, will not hurry to develop its own armed and law enforcement forces."
Putin also reiterated his warning against U.S. efforts to put elements of a missile defense system in eastern Europe.
He said U.S. officials were genuinely considering Russian proposals to resolve the dispute. He added, however, "If a decision is made without taking Russia's opinion into account, then we will certainly take steps in response, to ensure the security of Russian citizens."
He did not elaborate on what steps Russia would take.
During the phone-in session, Putin also discussed his recent trip to Iran, which is under increasing Western pressure and scrutiny over its nuclear program.
"Russia is taking steps together with other members of the international negotiations to solve the problem through peaceful means in the interests of the international community and the Iranian people," Putin said.
Threats against Iran, he said, are "harmful for international relations because dialogue with states ... is always more promising. It is a shorter route toward success than a policy of threats, sanctions and, even less so, armed pressure."
Putin, who is widely popular among Russians for the stability and relative prosperity of the country during his regime, has sought to use phone-ins along with tightly choreographed, lavish television coverage to project the image of a leader responding directly to voters' concerns.
He said Thursday that Russia will have a different president next year, reaffirming his plans to step aside but leaving unclear what exact role he might have.
With just two months remaining before crucial parliamentary elections - and five before presidential elections - speculation has mounted about Putin's plans once his second, consecutive term ends in March.
"In 2008, in the Kremlin there will be a different person," Putin said. He also said he expected no radical policy changes from his successor, adding that the next president should "keep the stable course of our nation and continuity in realizing the plans that have been devised in recent years."
Putin told of 'assassination bid'
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been warned of a plot to assassinate him during a visit to Iran this week, Kremlin officials have said.
The Interfax news agency cited sources in the Russian special services saying a gang of suicide bombers would attempt to kill Mr Putin in Tehran.
Iran's foreign ministry dismissed the reports as "completely baseless".
A Kremlin spokesman told Reuters there were no plans to cancel the trip to meet President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
During his visit, Mr Putin will also attend a summit of Caspian Sea nations.
He will be the first Russian president to travel to Iran since Joseph Stalin attended a summit of the Allied Powers in 1943.
Mr Putin is currently in Germany meeting Chancellor Angela Merkel and is due to fly on to Tehran on Monday night.
'Erroneous reports'
Interfax reported that Russian special services said several groups of suicide bombers had been set up for the attack in Tehran.
The services had relied on information received from several sources outside the country, the agency said.
Kremlin deputy spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Reuters the trip was still going ahead as far as he was aware.
"The information is being dealt with by the secret services... The president has been informed," he said.
A spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry, Mohammed Ali Hosseini, said the reports were completely baseless and "part of a psychological war waged by enemies to disrupt relations between Iran and Russia".
"Such erroneous reports will have no effect on the programme already decided upon for Mr Putin's visit to Tehran," he said.
Correspondents say Moscow and Tehran have good relations and Russia is helping to build the Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern Iran.
'Radical organisations'
A member of the Russian parliament's security committee, Gennadiy Gudkov, said the reports were likely to have a "fairly high level of reliability".
"For me this report has not come as a big revelation, because, unfortunately, today there are enough radical organisations, forces and movements of an extremist nature, oriented against Russia, which would like to settle a score with the Russian president," he told the state-owned Russian news channel, Vesti TV.
"There are certainly organisations of this kind in Tehran, which in recent times has unfortunately been a stronghold of radical Islamic organisations," he said.
Russian officials have said several plots to assassinate Mr Putin on foreign trips have been uncovered since he became president in December 1999.
Shortly after his election, Ukrainian security services said they had foiled an attempt to kill Mr Putin at an informal summit of former Soviet republics in Yalta.
In 2003, police in London said they had arrested two men in connection with another plot to assassinate him.
Rice attacks Kremlin's power grip
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has voiced concern about Russia's direction by saying too much power is concentrated within the Kremlin.
Her comments, made during a visit to Moscow, will be seen as a thinly veiled criticism of President Vladimir Putin.
Earlier she met human rights activists and said she wanted to help them build institutions to protect people from the "arbitrary power of the state".
But she also said she had no wish to interfere in Russia's internal affairs.
She and US Defence Secretary Robert Gates are in Moscow for talks on US plans to base a missile shield in Eastern Europe - which Russia opposes.
Washington has so far been cautious about criticising the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin on democracy.
But the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Moscow says this is rapidly becoming another issue to add to the long list of those that divide Russia and America.
Ms Rice met eight prominent human rights activists at the residence of the US ambassador to Moscow on Saturday.
Afterwards she told reporters: "I think that there is too much concentration of power in the Kremlin. Everybody has doubts about the full independence of the judiciary."
She added: "I am quite confident that your goal is to build institutions that are indigenous to Russia... but that are also respectful of what we all know to be universal values."
Those values included "the rights of individuals to liberty..., the right to assembly, the right to not have to deal with the arbitrary power of the state", Ms Rice said.
Tatyana Lokshina, one of the activists who met her, told the BBC that there had been "a very serious setback in Russia as far as human rights are concerned".
Russian anger
Another activist, Lyudmila Alekseyeva, said she had told Ms Rice that an "authoritarian system" had been built by Mr Putin.
The US and other Western powers have accused of him of rolling back democracy.
He has centralised power and brought television - the predominant source of information for most of Russians - under tight control.
Mr Putin denies curbing freedom of speech, pointing to thousands of non-state publications.
The secretary of state was due to have dinner later with her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, while Mr Gates will meet Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov.
Their trip comes as Russia prepares for parliamentary and presidential elections over the next five months.
Mr Putin must step down in March after two terms in office. But he has already hinted he may become prime minister and return as president in 2012, as the constitution allows.
On Friday, talks about US plans to base a missile shield in Eastern Europe ended acrimoniously.
Russia is angry at US plans to base an anti-missile system in eastern Europe.
But the White House team rejected Russian appeals at Friday's meetings in Moscow to halt the scheme.
Mr Putin was not convinced by US assurances that the system would be to counteract "rogue" states such as North Korea and Iran.
He threatened to abandon a key nuclear missile reduction treaty if Washington forged ahead with the plans.
Putin plays down Iran bomb fears
Moscow has no information that Iran is trying to build a nuclear bomb, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.
But he said the Kremlin shared the West's concern that Tehran's nuclear programme should be "transparent".
Mr Putin was speaking after talks in Moscow with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who said the two countries had made progress on the Iran issue.
Iran denies accusations that it is seeking to build a nuclear bomb, saying its programme is for civilian use.
"We do not have data that says Iran is trying to produce nuclear weapons," Mr Putin said at a joint news conference with Mr Sarkozy.
"Therefore we proceed from a position that Iran has no such plans but we share the concern of our partners that all programmes should be as transparent as possible," the Russian leader added.
Kosovo issue
Mr Sarkozy, for his part, said Paris and Moscow had made progress towards resolving differences over Iran.
He said their positions were moving "towards the same path", but gave no details.
Mr Sarkozy has been pushing for tougher sanctions against Tehran but Russia has opposed the move. Mr Putin is due to visit Iran next week.
Mr Sarkozy said earlier that the two leaders had also bridged differences over Kosovo's future status.
Russia is fiercely opposed to independence for Serbia's breakaway province, while France - along with other Western nations - supports it.
There was also a reminder of European concerns about Russia's human rights record, the BBC's James Rodgers in Moscow says.
Mr Sarkozy confirmed that he would meet members of a group critical of the situation in Chechnya, our correspondent says.
Chess Champion To Take On Russia's Putin
(AP) The former world chess champion Garry Kasparov entered Russia's presidential race on Sunday, elected overwhelmingly as the candidate for the country's beleaguered opposition coalition.
Kasparov has been a driving force behind the coalition, which has united liberals, leftists and nationalists in opposition to President Vladimir Putin. He received 379 of 498 votes at a national congress held in Moscow by the Other Russia coalition, coalition spokeswoman Lyudmila Mamina told The Associated Press.
Kasparov's place on the March ballot was not assured. His candidacy still needs to be registered and is likely to be blocked.
Even if he were allowed to run, Kasparov would not be expected to pose a major challenge to whichever candidate wins Putin's backing.
Kasparov was followed in Sunday's voting by Sergei Gulyayev, a former member of St. Petersburg's Legislative Assembly, who received 59 votes, and former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov with 18, Mamina said. The coalition was choosing among six candidates who had won regional primaries in recent months.
The Other Russia also chose Kasparov to be one of three candidates to head the coalition's list in parliamentary elections in December. The others are former Central Bank chairman Viktor Gerashchenko and Eduard Limonov, a provocative writer who heads the banned National Bolshevik Party.
The coalition, however, has virtually no chance of participating in the election for the State Duma, the lower house of parliament. Only registered political parties can take part and none of the political movements that make up the Other Russia qualify.
State Duma seats are distributed among parties according to the percentage of the vote they receive.
In putting forward its candidates on Sunday, the Other Russia got a jump on United Russia, the main pro-Kremlin party, which opens its two-day congress on Monday. United Russia also is expected to pick its "troika" of candidates to head the party list.
Lost Romanov bones 'identified'
Russian scientists have said they may have identified the missing remains of two of Tsar Nicholas II's children, who were executed after the revolution.
Experts said it was "highly probable" the remains found near Yekaterinburg in July were Alexei, the heir to the throne, and Maria, his elder sister.
They were missing when most of the family's remains were found in 1991.
The tsar, his wife and five children were shot dead by a Bolshevik firing squad in Yekaterinburg on 17 July 1918.
In 2000, the Russian Orthodox Church canonised the royal family, saying they had undergone suffering with gentleness, patience and humility.
Forensic tests
Citing preliminary forensic and DNA tests, the deputy forensic chief scientist in the Sverdlovsk region said the appearance, age and sex of the remains they found mean it was "highly probable" they belonged to Alexei and Maria.
"On the basis of the expert analysis, it is possible to conclude with a large degree of certainty that parts of the skeleton... belong to Tsarevich Alexei and his sister, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolayevna Romanova", Vladimir Gromov told Russian media.
The BBC's James Rodgers in Moscow says the whereabouts of the missing Romanov children has been one of the great unsolved mysteries of Russia's blood-soaked revolution.
After they were shot, the bodies of the tsar and the remainder of his family were burned, doused with acid and thrown into a pit.
They were exhumed in 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Final identification of the rest of their family took years, and they were ceremonially buried at the St Peter and Paul Cathedral in St Petersburg in 1998.
Even since then, some members of the Russian Orthodox Church have continued to question the scientists' conclusions, our correspondent says.
Putin names next prime minister
Russian President Vladimir Putin has accepted the resignation of PM Mikhail Fradkov and nominated a financial crime investigator to replace him.
Viktor Zubkov, head of the federal financial monitoring service, is a relative unknown in Russian politics.
The change marks a major political shake-up ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections.
The lower house of the Russian parliament, the Duma, is set to vote on Mr Zubkov's nomination on Friday.
Mr Fradkov offered to resign earlier Wednesday, citing "approaching significant political events", said Itar-Tass news agency.
Mr Putin asked Mr Fradkov to stay on as acting prime minister until his replacement is confirmed.
"We all have to think together how to build a structure of power so that it better corresponds to the pre-election period and prepares the country for the period after the presidential election in March," Mr Putin said in accepting Mr Fradkov's resignation.
Strong platform
Elections to the Duma are to be held in December.
Mr Putin is barred by Russia's constitution from running for a third term as president in elections in March.
Whoever becomes the new prime minister gains a strong platform from which to campaign to replace Mr Putin, correspondents say.
Russian media had been speculating that First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov - long considered a frontrunner for the presidency - could have been about to be made prime minister.
Mr Ivanov worked under Mr Putin in the FSB, the internal intelligence agency, in the 1990s and the two men are believed to be close.
Power struggle?
Mr Zubkov's links with Mr Putin go back to the early 1990s, when he was the future president's deputy on the St Petersburg city external relations committee.
But few in Russia believe that Mr Zubkov is now in the running for the presidency, says the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Moscow.
Instead, says our correspondent, many analysts believe he has been appointed to ensure a smooth transition between Mr Putin and his successor, whoever that might be.
None of Russia's political heavyweights has yet declared his candidacy and Mr Putin has not yet publicly endorsed anyone.
Dmitry Medvedev, the other first deputy prime minister, has also been seen as a possible presidential candidate.
The choice of Mr Zubkov suggests a behind-the-scenes power struggle between "clans" within the Kremlin that are differentiated mainly by their degree of hostility toward the West, says the BBC's Russia analyst Steven Eke.
White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the choice of leaders was a matter for the people of Russia to decide and that the US "looks forward to continuing its good relations with the Russian government".
Arrests over Russia writer murder
Russian police and security officers are among 10 suspects arrested over the murder of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, Russian authorities say.
The prosecutor general said suspects included a security officer and a Chechen gang leader, and that evidence suggested a conspiracy planned abroad.
But a colleague of Politkovskaya said he was surprised by the statement.
The journalist, a vehement critic of President Vladimir Putin, was shot dead near her Moscow apartment last October.
Plotters 'beyond Russia'
"The individuals interested in eliminating Politkovskaya can only be ones living beyond Russia's borders," Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika told reporters.
"Above all, people and structures interested in destabilising the country, changing its constitutional order, in stoking a crisis in Russia... could gain from this crime," he said.
But Roman Shleynov, editor of the investigative unit at the liberal Novaya Gazeta newspaper where Politkovskaya worked, told the BBC it was too early in the investigation to be definite about suspects.
"There is no evidence of evil forces from abroad being involved," he said. "It reminds me of the practice in the Soviet Union when for every problem inside the country, top officials blamed usually somebody from the West."
He also questioned Mr Chaika's motives in making the remarks, saying political statements could influence the work of investigators on the ground.
The murder of Politkovskaya drew international condemnation, including allegations that President Putin was failing to safeguard freedom of speech.
Mr Chaika was shown on TV telling the president of the arrests, informing him that those held would soon be charged.
Careful planning
"The group was headed by a leader of a Moscow criminal group of Chechen origin," Mr Chaika said.
"Unfortunately, this group included retired and acting interior ministry and FSB (Federal Security Service) officers."
Mr Chaika said the same group may have been involved in two other high-profile murders: the 2004 killing of Paul Klebnikov, who edited the Russian version of Forbes magazine, and last year's killing of Andrei Kozlov, deputy head of the Russian central bank.
The arrested FSB officer was named as Lt Col Pavel Ryaguzov.
Mr Chaika said the Politkovskaya murder had been planned very carefully and had involved two groups keeping her under surveillance.
She was killed as she left for work. Closed circuit television footage showed a single gunman carried out the murder.
The Russian government has always strenuously denied any connection to the murder.
Politkovskaya made her name reporting from Chechnya for Novaya Gazeta.
She was also the author of two books in English, A Dirty War: A Russian Reporter in Chechnya (2001), and Putin's Russia (2004).
Her writing was often polemical, as bitter in its condemnation of the Russian army and the Russian government as it was fervent in support of human rights and the rule of law.
Russia Matches U.K. Diplomat Expulsions
(CBS/AP) Russia said Thursday it was expelling four British diplomats in retaliation for a similar move by Britain, as a confrontation mounted between Moscow and London over the murder of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko.
After Russia refused to extradite Andrei Lugovoi, who is accused of killing Litvinenko in London, Britain said Monday it would expel four Russian diplomats and place restrictions on visas issued to Russian government officials.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin announced the British expulsions after British Ambassador Anthony Brenton was summoned to the ministry earlier in the day.
Kamynin described Russia's response as "targeted, balanced and the minimum necessary."
Kamynin also said Russia would stop issuing visas to British officials and seeking British visas for Russian officials. He said Russia would halt counterterrorism cooperation with Britain.
"To our regret, cooperation between Russia and Britain on issues of fighting terrorism becomes impossible," he said.
Kamynin said the interests of tourists and businessmen would not be hurt. He said that on visa issues, Russia would mirror Britain's actions from now on.
Brenton said he met with Kamynin's deputy, Alexander Grushko. "We of course discussed the Litvinenko case. He gave me several notices for me to pass on to London. I won't comment on the contents," Brenton said, the Interfax news agency reported.
Emerging from the Foreign Office in London to make a brief statement on the matter Thursday, Foreign Minister David Miliband said, "we are disappointed that the Russian government should have signaled no new cooperation" in Lugovoi's extradition.
He called the Russian moves "completely unjustified".
Seeking to show what Britain feels is a strong hand of public opinion, Miliband said he was "much heartened" by statements of support from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the European Union, and the international community at large.
"This is an issue of rule of law to our minds, not an issue of politics," Rice said during a news conference in the Portuguese capital Thursday, where she was to attend a conference on Middle East peace. "It is a matter of Russia cooperating fully in what is simply an effort to solve what was a very terrible crime committed on British soil."
Litvinenko, a fierce Kremlin critic, died Nov. 23 after ingesting radioactive polonium-210. From his deathbed, he said Russian President Vladimir Putin was behind his poisoning.
Britain sent investigators to Russia in the case, but they were not permitted to question suspects. After Britain named Russian businessman Lugovoi as its chief suspect and demanded his extradition, Russia refused, saying its constitution prevents such a move.
Lugovoi denies any involvement in Litvinenko's death, and insists he is just a witness in the case, not a suspect. British authorities said traces of polonium-210 were found in a hotel used by Lugovoi in London, and in two planes on which he flew.
Meanwhile, London police said Wednesday they had arrested a man on suspicion of conspiring to murder Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky ・a Kremlin critic and friend of Litvinenko.
Russia has long-resented Britain granting asylum to Berezovsky and Chechen rebel envoy Akhmed Zakayev.
On both sides, "the degree of feeling offense is too strong to seek reconciliation," said Natalia Leshchenko, an analyst at the Global Insight think-tank. She suggested that London and Moscow will spend the near future venting their grievances as strongly as possible before either would make a move toward reconciliation.
Russia suspends arms control pact
Russian President Vladimir Putin has suspended the application of a key Cold War arms control treaty.
Mr Putin signed a decree citing "exceptional circumstances" affecting security as the reason for the move.
Russia has been angered by US plans to base parts of a missile defence system in Poland and the Czech Republic.
The 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty (CFE) limits the number of heavy weapons deployed between the Atlantic Ocean and the Urals mountains.
'Cornerstone'
The Russian suspension will become effective 150 days after other parties to the treaty have been notified, President Putin's decree says.
The suspension is not a full-scale withdrawal - but it means that Russia will no longer permit inspections or exchange data on its deployments.
Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak said Moscow was not "shutting the door to dialogue".
"We have submitted to our partners proposals on ways out of the situation. And we continue to wait for a constructive reaction," Mr Kislyak said.
But a Nato spokesman said the alliance "regretted" Russia's decision.
"The allies consider this treaty to be an important cornerstone of European security," James Appathurai said.
He added that the move was "a disappointing step in the wrong direction".
Russia's suspension of its application of the treaty is yet another sign of a worsening relationship between the US and Russia, says the BBC's diplomatic correspondent, Jonathan Marcus.
An informal meeting earlier in July at the Bush family's Maine home seems to have done very little to improve ties between the two leaders, he says.
It is also yet one more sign of a more assertive Russian foreign policy, our diplomatic correspondent says.
The CFE agreement of 1990 was one of the most significant arms control agreements of the Cold War years.
It set strict limits on the number of offensive weapons - battle tanks, combat aircraft, heavy artillery - that the members of the Warsaw Pact and Nato could deploy in Europe, stretching from the Atlantic to the Urals.
In the wake of the collapse of communism, the treaty was revised in 1999, in part to address Russian concerns.
But this revised treaty has never been ratified by the Nato countries who want Russia to withdraw all of its forces from two breakaway regions with Russian-speaking majorities - Abkhazia in Georgia and Trans-Dniester in Moldova.
"The CFE treaty and missile defence are the two major irritants between Russia and the West. It would have been easy, it still is easy, I think Nato allies feel, to move closer to ratifying the CFE treaty," the Nato spokesman added.
Putin Offers Plan For U.S. Missile Shield
(CBS/AP) Russian President Vladimir Putin sought anew Monday to bat down U.S. plans to build a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe, proposing that the system be expanded and largely Russian-based.
Neither President Bush nor his aides reacted definitively to the surprise idea, Putin's second in less than a month on the topic that has sent U.S.-Russian relations into a tailspin.
From Sunday afternoon through lunch on Monday, Bush used personal charms, his family's wealth and a slew of traditional Maine treats to woo Putin and heal fissures that have the Washington-Moscow alliance at its lowest point since the Cold War. There was lobster, blueberry pie and striper fishing in the Atlantic from his dad's prized speedboat ・all from the spectacular setting of the century-old Bush summer compound on a craggy peninsula.
But with all Bush's efforts, it was Putin who appeared to leave Kennebunkport with the upper hand ・a situation aptly, if coincidentally, illustrated by Putin's singular success among their group at outsmarting fish.
On substantive issues, the Russian leader appeared to neither lose ground or give any.
He emphasized more talking with Iran about its suspected nuclear weapons program over the tougher U.N. sanctions on Tehran that Bush wants. There was no sign that Putin came closer to the Western view that the Serbian province of Kosovo should be allowed independence. Most dramatically, Putin again showed up at a meeting with Bush with a proposal on missile defense that caught the president off guard.
As Putin said at the end of his appearance with Bush before reporters on the sun-drenched lawn of Walker's Point's main stone-and-shingle home: "We are here to play."
As a result, Putin traveled on to Guatemala for a decision meeting on the site for the 2014 winter Olympics likely boosted in the eyes of the world by the respectful treatment and lavish compliments given him by the globe's only superpower.
There are many fissures in the Washington-Moscow relationship.
The anti-terror bond forged after the 2001 terrorist attacks has meant continued cooperation on fighting terrorism and weapons proliferation. But disputes quickly developed, from the Iraq war, the fate of democracy in Russia, NATO expansion and sniping over what each side views as meddling in former Soviet republics.
No issue has done as much damage, as fast, as Bush's announcement in January than the United States would base a new missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland.
"On missile defense, the Bush-Putin relationship had gotten acrimonious to the point of threatening that even an intent to find a solution looks good," said CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk. "But President Bush is sticking to the Poland and Czech Republic plan and Putin has offered a second counterproposal, and a compromise proposal is still not in the works."
Putin is convinced the shield in his backyard is aimed at Russian missiles, not potential Iranian ones as Washington insists. He threatened to suspend participation in a conventional forces treaty, said Russia's missiles would be re-aimed toward Europe and compared Bush's foreign policies to those of the Third Reich and Stalin.
Last month in Germany when the two met on the sidelines of a summit of world economic powers, Putin suggested replacing the U.S. plan with existing radar in Azerbaijan. While loath to offend Putin with an outright rejection, U.S. officials have hinted the aging Soviet-era facility is up to little more than providing supplemental information.
Russians test ballistic missile
Russia has successfully tested a new, sea-based ballistic missile from a nuclear submarine, officials have said.
The weapon, capable of breaching anti-missile defence systems, flew almost the whole length of the country.
US plans to build a missile defence shield in Europe have angered Russia, which sees the proposal as a challenge to its influence in the region.
The Russian test comes as President Vladimir Putin heads for the US to meet President George W Bush on Sunday.
'Key component'
The Bulava missile was launched from the White Sea off Russia's north-west coast.
The intercontinental missile hit its target on the Pacific Ocean peninsula of Kamchatka.
Three earlier tests of the weapon in recent years had failed.
The Bulava is designed to have a range of 10,000km (6,200 miles) and carry six individually targeted nuclear warheads.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has described the missile as a key component of Moscow's future nuclear forces, saying it can penetrate any prospective missile defence system.
Nato urges calm in Russia dispute
Russia and the West should tone down their rhetoric in their bitter disputes over defence, Kosovo and other issues, Nato's secretary general has said.
"There is no reason to speak with megaphones," Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters after talks in Moscow.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to point missiles at Europe if the US stations parts of a new missile shield near Russia's borders.
Moscow also opposes a Western-backed plan for independence in Kosovo.
Mr de Hoop Scheffer was in Moscow to mark the fifth anniversary of the Nato-Russia Council.
"It is advisable to lower the volume of public comments on both sides," he said after talks with President Putin.
"Given our starting point as Cold War adversaries, the task of building a genuine Russia-Nato partnership has never been an easy one."
Russia has expressed anger at the proposed US missile defence shield - particularly plans to site a radar in the Czech Republic and 10 anti-missile interceptors in Poland.
Nato and the US say the facilities would not be directed as Russia, but at "rogue" states such as North Korea and Iran.
Mr Putin recently warned that Russia would target its missiles back at Europe if Washington went ahead with the programme.
On Tuesday Mr de Hoop Scheffer said: "The Nato-Russia relationship is one of partnership, and in the framework of the partnership these remarks about targeting missiles do not fit, and they do not have a place in these discussions."
Veto threat
On Kosovo, he said he had urged Mr Putin to allow the UN security Council to vote on the province's future "as soon as possible".
Western countries support a plan that would give the territory independence from Serbia, but Russia - which wields a veto in the council - says further negotiations are needed.
The BBC's James Rodgers in Moscow says the question is putting pressure on relations between Russia and Nato at a time when they are already strained.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned Nato against steps that would compromise Russian security.
He said each side should avoid "taking any steps aimed at improving someone's security at the expense of the security of others".
As a compromise, Mr Putin has offered the US joint use of a Soviet-build radar base in Azerbaijan.
But US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Washington viewed the offer as an additional capability, not a substitute for the plan.
Moscow has also voiced opposition to Nato's possible further eastward expansion to include more former Soviet states, such as Ukraine and Georgia.
Russia Probing Alleged U.K. Espionage
(CBS/AP) Russia's security agency said Friday it had launched an investigation into suspected British spying, based on information from Britain's chief suspect in the fatal poisoning of former agent Alexander Litvinenko.
The suspect, Andrei Lugovoi, claimed last month that both Litvinenko and his patron, Kremlin critic Boris Berezovsky, had contacts with British intelligence and that Berezovsky had given Britain sensitive information about Russia.
The announcement came against the background of persistent friction between Russia and the West, and repeated Russian claims that British and other Western intelligence agencies ・as well as Russians who have found refuge abroad ・are seeking to weaken Russia.
The Federal Security Service did not say who was suspected of spying on Russia, but its one-sentence statement said the criminal investigation was based on Lugovoi's statements.
Lugovoi has said Litvinenko and Berezovsky, both Kremlin opponents, had contacts with the British spy agency M16 and that Berezovsky had given British intelligence sensitive information about Russia. He said he had evidence but only would provide it to Russian investigators.
Britain and Berezovsky have denied the allegations, dismissed by Kremlin critics as an effort to distract attention from Moscow. Lugovoi, also a former KGB agent, is Britain's chief suspect in the poisoning case.
Lugovoi denies he killed Litvinenko, a Berezovsky ally who died Nov. 23 in a London hospital after ingesting radioactive polonium-210. In a deathbed statement, he accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of being behind his killing. A former KGB agent, he had alleged the FSB was behind deadly 1999 bombings that stoked support for a new Kremlin war against Chechen rebels.
Lugovoi and business associate Dmitry Kovtun met with Litvinenko on Nov. 1, the day he said he fell ill. Radiation traces were found at several locations connected with the men, including the hotel bar where they met Litvinenko.
Litvinenko's killing damaged Putin's image in the West, already tarnished by accusations of democratic backsliding and concerns over the Kremlin's treatment of critics. Kremlin allies have sought to counter that by suggesting the killing was masterminded by enemies of Russia to discredit the country and its leadership.
The new espionage case could further strain relations between London and Moscow, which is angry over Britain's refusal to hand over Berezovsky and other foes of Putin for prosecution in Russia.
Russia has long sought Berezovsky's extradition on charges of economic crimes. Britain granted the billionaire political asylum in 2003 after he had a falling out with Putin.
Both Kovtun and Lugovoi were questioned in the presence of British investigators in Moscow in December, and British authorities last month requested Lugovoi's extradition, saying they had sufficient evidence to charge him. Putin refused, calling the request "stupidity." He cited a constitutional prohibition on the extradition of Russian citizens.
Russian prosecutors have said Lugovoi could be tried in Russia if Britain provides enough evidence to warrant a charge, but Lugovoi is under no restrictions and has appeared on a handful of television news and talk shows.
Lugovoi declined to comment Friday on the FSB statement, but told ITAR-Tass that he was cooperating with Russian authorities, "including in questions of providing for the security of our state."
Vienna hosts arms treaty review
Former Cold War foes in Europe are holding talks in Vienna to review a key arms control agreement which has put Russia and Nato at loggerheads.
The Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty, signed in 1990, limits the number of conventional weapons countries are allowed.
But the Russians say it is outdated and restricts their ability to move troops around their own territory.
President Vladimir Putin has announced a moratorium on honouring the treaty.
The Russian leader says the CFE treaty no longer reflects the post-Cold War world.
The head of the US delegation at the talks, Daniel Fried, said the treaty could be preserved successfully into the 21st Century and it would be unfortunate if the Russians carried out their threat to halt compliance.
The CFE treaty was adapted in 1999, eight years after the Warsaw Pact was dissolved.
Russia ratified the revised version, but Nato states have not done so, first demanding the withdrawal of Russian forces from Georgia and Moldova.
The BBC's diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus says the CFE treaty harks back to another age and in many ways it is difficult to see quite why it is relevant today.
Russia was alarmed when the US withdrew from another Cold War agreement - the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty - in 2001.
Faced by a US administration that sees less and less value in such agreements, the Russians are signalling that what goes for Washington goes for them too, our correspondent says.
Russia warns US on missile plan
The US should halt moves to deploy a missile defence shield in central Europe, pending further talks, the Russian foreign minister has said.
Sergei Lavrov was speaking after President Bush made clear Poland and the US were committed to the plan.
Russia has proposed a radar station in Azerbaijan should be used instead of Polish and also Czech locations.
Mr Lavrov said US plans could "seriously complicate" talks on the dispute over Iran's nuclear programme.
The United Nations imposed sanctions on Iran in March after it refused to suspend its uranium enrichment programme.
Putin's offer
"All work on deploying missile defence elements in Europe needs to be frozen, at least while this issue is being studied," said Mr Lavrov.
Mr Lavrov also said that America's stated intention of protecting against potential Iranian threat would anger Tehran by indicating that it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons, the Ria-Novosti news agency reported.
Mr Lavrov said that the US action would "put in doubt the justification, in the Iranian view, of its open and honest cooperation".
Mr Lavrov's comments come two days after a surprise offer to Washington by Russian President Vladimir Putin to jointly use a radar station in Azerbaijan, which borders Iran.
The offer was made by Mr Putin at a G8 summit in Germany.
Mr Bush described the proposal as "interesting" and said US officials would study it.
But during a brief visit to Poland on Friday he made it clear that both countries were still planning to go ahead with the proposed European missile defence shield.
This has clearly angered the Russian government, says the BBC's Richard Galpin, and now it has pulled out one of its diplomatic trump cards, linking the issue with Iran.
Russia has strong links with Iran and has the power to veto UN Security Council resolutions calling for tougher action against Teheran.
It has repeatedly dismissed US claims its defence shield is only targeting so-called rogue states, such as Iran and North Korea.
In response, Moscow has said it may aim its missiles at Europe once more.
Putin: Put Missile Shield In Central Asia
(CBS/AP) Looking to keep the U.S. from basing new defensive missiles in Eastern Europe, the Kremlin leader made a counteroffer Thursday.
(CBS/AP) Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that Moscow could take "retaliatory steps" if Washington proceeds with plans to build a missile defense system for Europe, including possibly aiming nuclear weapons at targets on the continent.
Moscow may target weapons at Europe if the US builds planned missile defence facilities in the region, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.
Russia has not pointed missiles towards Europe since the end of the Cold War.
Last week, Russia said it had tested a ballistic missile to maintain "strategic balance" in the world.
The US wants to expand its missile defences into Eastern Europe. It says the system is not aimed at Russia but Moscow says its security is threatened.
'Not our fault'
Mr Putin made the comments in an interview published in Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera ahead of the G8 meeting which starts in Germany on Wednesday.
He repeated warnings that the US defence shield could lead to a new arms race but said it would the fault of the Americans if this happened.
He said the US had "altered the strategic balance" by unilaterally pulling out of the anti-ballistic missile (ABM) treaty in 2002.
"If the American nuclear potential grows in European territory, we have to give ourselves new targets in Europe," Mr Putin said.
"It is up to our military to define these targets, in addition to defining the choice between ballistic and cruise missiles."
US President George W Bush is due to meet Mr Putin at the three-day G8 summit in the German resort of Heiligendamm.
Washington wants to deploy interceptor rockets in Poland and a radar base in the Czech Republic to counter what it describes as a potential threat from "rogue states" such as Iran and North Korea.
Last Tuesday, Russia tested an RS-24 missile that successfully struck its target 5,500km (3,400 miles) away.
It was designed to evade missile defence systems, Russia's defence ministry said.
(AP) President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Russia's test-firing of new missiles this week was a response to U.S. plans to build missile defense sites across Europe, and suggested Washington is pursuing an imperialist policy that has triggered a new arms race.
(CBS/AP) A senior Russian official said strategic and tactical missiles tested Tuesday can penetrate any missile defense system, Russian news agencies reported.
Two West European MPs and a Russian gay rights leader have been arrested in Moscow, as violence broke out at a banned protest by gay rights activists.
Anti-homosexual protesters threw kicks, punches and eggs at the gay rights group, chanting "Moscow is not Sodom".
The gay rights demonstrators were trying to deliver a petition to the mayor of Moscow, demanding the right to stage public marches.
Veteran British gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell was among those held.
Mr Tatchell was punched in the face before being detained.
The leader of GayRussia, Nikolai Alexeyev, was also arrested.
Italian MEP Marco Cappato was kicked by an anti-gay rights protester and then arrested when he demanded police protection.
Protesters warned
Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov has called homosexuality "satanic" and says he will never allow gay rights parades in Russia's capital.
Gay activists were also attacked by right-wing protesters and arrested during a march last year.
Sunday's protest was to commemorate the 14th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Russia.
Moscow city police spokesman Viktor Bryukov had warned the organisers not to go ahead.
"Moscow police don't have the right to encroach on the law to pander to a group of citizens who exploit the theme of human rights while distorting this notion," he said.
On Saturday, right-wingers and members of the Russian Orthodox Church held an anti-gay demonstration in Moscow.
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Alexy II, supports the ban on gay parades.
Gay activists in Russia were divided over whether the protest should be held.
Some fear it could provoke a backlash.
The Russian man the UK wants to charge with murdering Alexander Litvinenko has denied any involvement and said the case is "politically motivated".
Andrei Lugovoi, a former KGB officer, told Russian TV: "I'm a victim not a perpetrator of a radiation attack."
The UK's director of public prosecutions has recommended Mr Lugovoi be extradited for the "grave crime" of murder by poisoning of Mr Litvinenko.
He died in London last November after exposure to a radioactive isotope.
Mr Litvinenko, 43, was a former FSB official and had been a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin since defecting to the UK.
The Kremlin earlier said Russia's constitution did not allow for Mr Lugovoi to be extradited.
But Prime Minister Tony Blair's official spokesman said people should wait and see what Russia's "considered legal response" was to a formal extradition request.
'Deeply surprised'
Mr Lugovoi told Russian television: "I've said it before and I'll say it again - my family and myself were attacked when we were in the UK.
"I think today's charges are completely inadequate. I don't understand what proof they have or what motive they think I might have - or, indeed, how I could have done it.
"So I'm deeply surprised about the inadequate actions of the British law enforcement bodies."
Mr Lugovoi met Mr Litvinenko on the day he fell ill.
Radioactive polonium-210 - the substance found in Mr Litvinenko's body - was later found in a string of places Mr Lugovoi had visited in London, but he has insisted he was a witness and a victim but not a suspect.
Mr Lugovoi said: "Within the next week we'll make a statement regarding events in which Litvinenko and myself were involved last year. I think I'll say a few things which will be sensational to a British audience. "
The formal submission of a request for Mr Lugovoi's extradition is expected to take place before the end of the week.
Echoing the Kremlin's comments, the Russian general prosecution service also said there was "no way" Mr Lugovoi could be extradited, because of constitutional constraints.
But the service's spokesman added that a Russian citizen who had committed a crime in another country "should be prosecuted in Russia with evidence provided by the foreign state".
UK Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said she had told the Russian ambassador that she expected "full co-operation" with regards to extraditing Mr Lugovoi.
And Mr Blair's official spokesman pointed out that in 2001 Russia had signed the 1957 EU convention on extradition.
British citizen
Mr Litvinenko, who was granted political asylum in the UK in 2000 after leaving Russia and went on to take British citizenship, died at London's University College Hospital on 23 November.
Director of public prosecutions Sir Ken Macdonald told a news conference he had instructed CPS lawyers to take immediate steps to seek the early extradition of Mr Lugovoi so "he may be charged with murder and be brought swiftly before a court in London to be prosecuted for this extraordinarily grave crime".
"I have today concluded that the evidence sent to us by the police is sufficient to charge Andrei Lugovoi with the murder of Mr Litvinenko by deliberate poisoning.
"I have further concluded that a prosecution of this case would clearly be in the public interest."
The counter-terrorism command of the Metropolitan Police has been conducting a detailed international investigation into Mr Litvinenko's death. Police passed a file to the Crown Prosecution Service in January.
The leaders of the European Union and Russia have traded sharp criticism over human rights, at a summit that exposed the divisions between the two sides.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed alarm at the detention of activists intending to protest against the Russian government.
Vladimir Putin retorted that Estonia's ethnic Russians were being persecuted.
Correspondents said the exchanges just illustrated the souring mood between the EU and its eastern neighbour.
There are a number of prickly issues between the two, including trade, energy supplies and Kosovo.
In a break with previous practice, no joint declaration was prepared before the summit at Volzhsky Utyos government resort, near the Russian city of Samara.
If the atmosphere at the post-summit news conference was anything to go by, the relationship has reached a new low, says the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Moscow.
President Putin turned the tables on the EU, accusing members Estonia and Latvia of violating the human rights of their Russian minority.
"We believe this is unacceptable and unworthy of Europe," he said.
It follows Estonia's removal last month of a World War II monument to Red Army soldiers, which led to riots and the death of one ethnic Russian.
'Colonial instincts'
In a BBC interview after the summit, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the future status of Kosovo should be decided by the Serbian people.
He said those who thought it could be determined by Russia, the EU and the US were burdened by colonial instincts.
EU leaders have recently expressed alarm about Russian threats to veto a UN Security Council resolution proposing Kosovo's de facto independence from Serbia.
Mr Lavrov said: "It's a case which, according to the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1224, adopted by consensus, supported by Russia, by the European Union, and by the United States, must be resolved in negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina."
Opposition detained
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso warned Russia that any action taken against an individual EU state would be considered action against the whole bloc.
"It is very important if you want to have close co-operation to understand that the EU is based on principles of solidarity," he said.
Mrs Merkel, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, then stepped in, complaining that opposition activists had been prevented from travelling to the summit venue to take part in a protest.
"I'm concerned about some people having problems in travelling here," Mrs Merkel said.
"I hope they will be given an opportunity to express their opinion."
A number of leading anti-Putin activists, including the former chess champion Garry Kasparov, had passports confiscated and were detained at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport.
The authorities said they had false travel documents.
Several foreign journalists were also reportedly prevented from travelling.
'Sacred principles'
Nevertheless, some protesters - estimated variously between 100 and 500 - gathered at a square in Samara and marched, chanting slogans like "Russia without Putin!"
"I don't agree with what's happening in Russia today. I want another Russia, a free one," said Natalya Sorochan, 27.
A perceived increase in Russian authoritarianism is one of the thorns in the side of EU-Russian relations, correspondents say.
Mr Barroso said the EU's "sacred principles" included "democracy, freedom of the press, freedom of association, freedom of demonstration".
Another testing issue is Russia's ban on meat imports from Poland over apparent food safety issues.
Poland rejects the ban, and says it will veto any new strategic partnership between the EU and Russia, until it is lifted.
Also souring relations are the cutting of Russian oil supplies to Lithuania in a separate row.
The leaders of the European Union and Russia have traded sharp criticism over human rights, at a summit that exposed the divisions between the two sides.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed alarm at the detention of activists intending to protest against the Russian government.
Vladimir Putin retorted that Estonia's ethnic Russians were being persecuted.
Correspondents said the exchanges just illustrated the souring mood between the EU and its eastern neighbour.
There are a number of prickly issues between the two, including trade, energy supplies and Kosovo.
In a break with previous practice, no joint declaration was prepared before the summit at Volzhsky Utyos government resort, near the Russian city of Samara.
If the atmosphere at the post-summit news conference was anything to go by, the relationship has reached a new low, says the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Moscow.
President Putin turned the tables on the EU, accusing members Estonia and Latvia of violating the human rights of their Russian minority.
"We believe this is unacceptable and unworthy of Europe," he said.
It follows Estonia's removal last month of a World War II monument to Red Army soldiers, which led to riots and the death of one ethnic Russian.
'Colonial instincts'
In a BBC interview after the summit, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the future status of Kosovo should be decided by the Serbian people.
He said those who thought it could be determined by Russia, the EU and the US were burdened by colonial instincts.
EU leaders have recently expressed alarm about Russian threats to veto a UN Security Council resolution proposing Kosovo's de facto independence from Serbia.
Mr Lavrov said: "It's a case which, according to the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1224, adopted by consensus, supported by Russia, by the European Union, and by the United States, must be resolved in negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina."
Opposition detained
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso warned Russia that any action taken against an individual EU state would be considered action against the whole bloc.
"It is very important if you want to have close co-operation to understand that the EU is based on principles of solidarity," he said.
Mrs Merkel, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, then stepped in, complaining that opposition activists had been prevented from travelling to the summit venue to take part in a protest.
"I'm concerned about some people having problems in travelling here," Mrs Merkel said.
"I hope they will be given an opportunity to express their opinion."
A number of leading anti-Putin activists, including the former chess champion Garry Kasparov, had passports confiscated and were detained at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport.
The authorities said they had false travel documents.
Several foreign journalists were also reportedly prevented from travelling.
'Sacred principles'
Nevertheless, some protesters - estimated variously between 100 and 500 - gathered at a square in Samara and marched, chanting slogans like "Russia without Putin!"
"I don't agree with what's happening in Russia today. I want another Russia, a free one," said Natalya Sorochan, 27.
A perceived increase in Russian authoritarianism is one of the thorns in the side of EU-Russian relations, correspondents say.
Mr Barroso said the EU's "sacred principles" included "democracy, freedom of the press, freedom of association, freedom of demonstration".
Another testing issue is Russia's ban on meat imports from Poland over apparent food safety issues.
Poland rejects the ban, and says it will veto any new strategic partnership between the EU and Russia, until it is lifted.
Also souring relations are the cutting of Russian oil supplies to Lithuania in a separate row.
The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad has reunited with the Russian Orthodox Church after 80 years of schism sparked by the Bolshevik revolution.
The move was sealed by Patriarch Alexy II and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, Metropolitan Lavry, at an elaborate ceremony in Moscow.
Reunification talks began after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
But some clergy abroad are rejecting the move. They say that many priests in Russia collaborated with Communists.
Long road
Alexy II and Metropolitan Lavry signed the reunification agreement in a ceremony at the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow.
"By this act, canonical communion within the local Russian Orthodox Church is hereby restored," the act said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the ceremony, shown live on television.
Talks to re-establish ties between the Russian Orthodox Church in exile and its mother church began soon after the collapse of the USSR, which ignited a revival of organised religion in Russia.
A major step was reached when Church leaders in Moscow elevated the murdered Tsar Nicholas II and his family to the status of sainthood in 2000, the BBC's religious affairs correspondent Mike Lanchin reports.
In 2006, the Russian Orthodox Church allowed the remains of the tsar's mother to be reburied in St Petersburg.
One of the last sticking points was disagreement over who would own the extensive property in the hands of the exiled church in the US, Europe and even Israel.
The agreement is that these remain as they are, our correspondent says. The exiles also retain control over the appointment of their own priests.
Schism
The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad owes its origin to the civil war - which followed the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and ended with the victory of the militantly atheist Communists over the monarchist Whites.
Exiled bishops and clerics proclaimed the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad at a meeting in Serbia in 1922 - later relocating to the United States.
It cut all ties with its mother church in 1927, after the leader of the church in Russia, Patriarch Sergiy, declared loyalty to the Communists.
The New York-based Church says it has nearly 500,000 members.
The Moscow Patriarchate counts nearly 70% of Russia's population of about 142 million as its members.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has dismissed talk of a new Cold War between Russia and the US, at the start of a visit to Moscow.
Ms Rice said "I think the parallels just frankly have no basis whatsoever", while acknowledging that "it's not an easy time" for Russian-US relations.
The Kremlin has expressed strong opposition to US plans to deploy a missile defence shield in Europe.
Washington's backing for Kosovo's independence has also been attacked.
For her part, Ms Rice has criticised what she sees as democratic setbacks in President Vladimir Putin's Russia, says the BBC's correspondent at the state department, Jonathan Beale.
Her key meetings will take place on Tuesday, when she meets Mr Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
She said she did not like the current "rhetoric" surrounding US-Russian relations, but added that "it's not a time in which I think any sort of cataclysmic things are happening".
Recently Mr Putin accused the US of making the world a more dangerous place.
The United States believes Mr Putin has backtracked on democratic reforms, but at the same time the Bush administration needs the support of Moscow on a range of issues, says our correspondent.
Czech radar
Ms Rice will be trying to reassure Russia about its plans to extend the US missile defence shield in Eastern Europe.
Russia remains vehemently opposed to having more US military hardware so close to its own backyard, our correspondent says.
The US opened talks with Poland on Monday over its plans to locate part of its defence shield on Polish soil.
The US wants 10 interceptor rockets there to destroy any long-range ballistic missiles fired at the US from the Middle East.
Warsaw has indicated it will back the plan if it improves Poland's security.
The US also wants a radar base in the Czech Republic.
Ms Rice will additionally try to overcome Russia's objections to efforts to help Kosovo on the path towards independence. Russia believes Kosovo should remain part of Serbia.
Washington also needs Russia's support to keep up the international pressure on Iran's nuclear programme.
(AP) A 20-year-old Kazakhstan native turned himself over to police on Friday, ending a three-hour standoff with police and safely releasing a man he had been holding at the Russian Embassy in Costa Rica, police said.
(AP) Who was President Vladimir Putin talking about when he said the world faces threats to peace like those that led to World War II?
Russian President Vladimir Putin has condemned people who "desecrate memorials to war heroes", accusing them of sowing discord between nations.
His comments at a Victory Day commemoration in Red Square appeared to be a continuation of a war of words with Estonia.
Estonia last month moved a Soviet-era war memorial out of the city-centre of the capital, Tallinn.
The move angered ethnic Russians in Estonia, and led to violent clashes.
One person was killed in the disturbances, and hundreds arrested.
Many Estonians consider the monument a symbol of the Soviet occupation, which continued for nearly 50 years after World War II, but for Russians it commemorates the Soviet Union's role in the victory over Nazism.
Jet fighters
"The reasons for any war must be sought in the mistakes and miscalculations of peacetime, and their roots are in the ideology of confrontation and extremism," Mr Putin said.
He also warned of "new threats" based on "the same contempt for human life and the same claims of exceptionalism and diktat in the world as in the Third Reich", which correspondents interpreted as a criticism of US unilateral military action.
Some 7,000 soldiers marched on Red Square after Mr Putin's speech, and nine jet fighters flew overhead.
Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov inspected the troops in an open Soviet-era Zil limousine.
The Estonian foreign minister has accused the Russian government of orchestrating the disturbances in Tallinn, and paying demonstrators to blockade the Estonian embassy in Moscow.
Russia, for its part, has accused Estonia of "indulging neofascists and inciting extremism".
Auschwitz
In Belarus, President Alexander Lukashenko also criticised Estonia for moving the war monument, and lashed out against Poland too for failing to re-open an exhibition honouring Russian victims of the Auschwitz death camp.
"Acts of mockery of the heroes and victims of war give rise to anger and indignation," he told veterans.
"These include the dismantling of the monument to the liberators in Estonia, and the closure by Polish authorities of the Soviet exhibition at the Auschwitz camp museum."
He referred to Nato interventions in Afghanistan and ex-Yugoslavia as cases of "using war as an instrument of foreign policy".
Estonia's foreign minister says Russia's response to the row over a Soviet war memorial is an "attack" on the whole European Union.
Minister Urmas Paet said Russia had launched real, psychological and - via the internet - virtual attacks since Estonia decided to relocate the statue.
Mr Paet called for a "vigorous" EU reaction to Moscow.
Estonians of Russian origin rioted last week in protest at the decision to move the statue of a Red Army soldier.
One person died and 153 were injured in the unrest.
On Monday, Russian MPs paid their respects at the controversial monument which was re-erected on Monday at a military cemetery in Tallinn, away from the city centre.
Estonians say the soldier symbolised Soviet occupation. Russians describe it as a tribute to those who fought the Nazis.
'Cyber terrorists'
In a statement issued on Tuesday evening, Mr Paet protested against what he said were "co-ordinated activities undertaken against Estonia by Russia" in response to the row.
He said "cyber terrorists'" attacks against internet pages of Estonian government agencies and the office of the President had originated from Russian government computers.
Russian youth organisation "Nashi" has laid a siege to the Estonian embassy in Moscow, he said, accusing the Kremlin of paying the demonstrators.
"We find it necessary that the reaction on behalf of the European Union to the behaviour of Russia should be as vigorous as possible," he said.
"This could mean suspending different talks between the European Union and Russia or not commencing them at all. The postponement of the European Union - Russia summit should be also given full consideration."
'Barbaric'
Tensions have escalated ahead of the World War II Victory Day anniversary on 9 May.
The anniversary is traditionally a day of patriotism and pride for many Russians.
Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov called for "a boycott of all things connected with Estonia," at a May Day rally on Tuesday.
He said Estonia had dismantled the Soviet memorial "in the most barbaric way".
More than a quarter of Estonia's 1.3m people are ethnically Russian, and speak Russian.
However, half of them do not have Estonian citizenship.
During the years of Soviet occupation after the war tens of thousands of Estonians were killed. They say their country was effectively colonised, with many Russians being brought in as workers and military personnel.
President Vladimir Putin took a final, farewell, glance backwards. Then he told Russia what it had to look forward to.
His annual address began with a minute's silence for Russia's first post-Soviet president, Boris Yeltsin.
It seemed to pass quickly.
An impressive array of economic figures followed.
Mr Putin seems to delight in announcing detailed statistics.
He was obviously proud as he declared: "Russia has now not only completely overcome its long period of declining production, but has become one of the 10 biggest world economies."
Economic strength is the major factor which makes Putin's Russia a different country from Yeltsin's Russia.
As he prepares for his last year in office, Mr Putin enjoys something which Mr Yeltsin had lost when he stepped down - Russia's trust.
Pledges
Oil revenues have brought billions into the Kremlin's coffers.
As they have re-examined the Yeltsin era this week, analysts have wondered if his fate might have been different if the oil price had been too.
Mr Putin has used the money to pay off debts which had been piling up since the Soviet era.
He is also making pledges to the people who feel they have yet to enjoy the benefits of the boom.
His speech was a catalogue of the challenges still facing Russia - low birth rate, short life expectancy, poor housing.
It was not just a list of problems, though. There were solutions too - oil revenues would be used to repair the housing stock and to improve the lot of the poorest.
Revenues from the sale of the bankrupt oil giant Yukos' assets would be used to build new homes.
This is likely to go down especially well with voters who believe that all the ills of the 1990s were caused by tycoons who got rich while the majority got poorer.
Yukos' former owner, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is in jail for fraud and tax evasion. His supporters have always said the case against him was political.
Last address
Mr Putin stressed that this would be his last annual address. It focused minds on the election season ahead.
He said that the proportional representation system to be used for December's parliamentary election would ensure a fair result.
"Life shows that a proportional system enables the opposition to gain more legislative mandates. I can easily prove that with examples and statistics," he said.
In Russia, it depends what you mean by opposition.
Russia's parliamentary opposition, A Fair Russia, begs to differ with the United Russia party. But like their nominal rivals, they have no complaints about the president.
Those who style themselves as the real opposition have no prospect of electoral success. Their opinion poll ratings suggest that they would not pass the threshold to get into parliament.
Their most recent demonstrations have been broken up by riot police.
The Other Russia, as they call themselves, is led by the former world chess champion, Garry Kasparov. It is a hugely disparate alliance of different groups.
In any case, none of the groups is registered as a party. The new laws make it illegal for them to stand for election.
Overseas warning
Mr Putin also warned off people he accused of sponsoring their campaigns from overseas.
"At the same time, there is a growing flow of money - coming from abroad - which is being used to influence our internal affairs."
There was a hawkish dismissal of Washington's plans for a missile defence system to be based in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Mr Putin said that Russia would suspend its commitment to the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty, at least until all its signatories had ratified it.
"The right thing to do for us now would be to impose a moratorium on this treaty until all Nato countries ratify it and start complying with it, as Russia does at the moment," he said.
There was loud applause.
Looking ahead
Whenever Mr Putin makes a major speech, the same questions always come up.
Will he really leave office next year? Who will come next?
Today's answers were, once again, "yes" and, effectively, "no comment".
The two men most often touted as his successor are Russia's two first deputy prime ministers, Sergei Ivanov and Dmitry Medvedev.
They sat next to each other in the audience.
Mr Putin said that the next annual address would be made by the next president.
Perhaps he was secretly looking even further ahead. One well-informed observer with close ties to the Kremlin suggested he might be.
"He'll be one of the most important players on the Russian political scene," political analyst Vyacheslav Nikonov told the Vesti-24 TV channel.
"I don't rule out that, in full accordance with the constitution, in the not too distant future, he could return to the post."
(AP) Russia bid a solemn farewell Wednesday to Boris Yeltsin, its first post-Soviet leader, in a funeral presided over by some two dozen white-robed priests, with and a crowd of dignitaries including President Vladimir Putin and two former U.S. presidents in attendance.
(AP) Thousands of somber and tearful mourners move past the open coffin of former President Boris Yeltsin on Tuesday, lighting candles and crossing themselves to the sound of chanted Orthodox prayers as foreign dignitaries headed to Moscow to pay their last respects.
(AP) Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday urged Russia to drop its opposition to U.S. plans to develop defenses in Europe against long-range nuclear missiles, but the Russians refused to budge.
Trust between the EU and Russia has reached its lowest level since the end of the Cold War, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson has warned.
He said this was partly due to concerns over energy, which both thought the other was using as a political weapon.
Mr Mandelson urged the creation of a "grand bargain" with security of demand and supply on both sides as well as investment in each other's markets.
Another cause was different perceptions of the 1990s post-Soviet transition.
There was also a lack of respect between the two sides, he said.
"Neither [side] thinks they enjoy the respect from the other they are entitled to expect," he said at a conference in the Italian city of Bologna.
To overcome this mistrust it would be necessary to anchor the Russian economy in the EU's single market and the international trade system, he added.
Partnership call
"Relations between the EU and Russia ... contain a level of misunderstanding or even mistrust we have not seen since the end of the Cold War," he told the conference.
But he later clarified his remarks, saying there was not the same animosity between the two sides that there was during their nuclear-based confrontation.
"Since the Cold War we've had obviously very different, much better relations, ... nonetheless I think they're going through a very difficult period," he told the BBC World Service's Newshour programme.
"I'm somebody who believes that Russia's interests and Europe's interests will be served by the strong partnership between the both of us," he added.
"You're only going to create that partnership if you deal with the current misunderstandings and mistrusts between us, and in my view the roots of these misunderstandings lie in different perceptions of the 1990s and what's happened since the collapse of the Soviet empire."
The trade commissioner said it was not surprising that Russians were sceptical about democracy and the market economy, in view of the unhappiness caused by economic liberalisation and privatisation during the 1990s.
'No respect'
Mr Mandelson told the conference that the EU needed guarantees Russia would not cut off oil and gas supplies.
Recent rows over energy costs between Russia and former Soviet states have caused temporary disruption of supply to western Europe and sparked accusations that Russia is using energy exports as a political weapon.
Russia, meanwhile, believed that the EU was generating an insecurity of demand for its supplies, Mr Mandelson said, and urged Europe not to give the impression it was determined to avoid dependence on Russian oil and gas at all costs.
He said Russia should diversify its economy away from a reliance on energy.
"In the modern age, the essential characteristics of a country with Russia's huge potential cannot be heavy, centralised political control, and an economy based on the rents from energy resources," he said.
Membership of the World Trade Organisation would both strengthen the Russian economy and make resolving trade disputes easier, he told the conference.
Russia has started building the world's first floating nuclear plant, designed to provide power for remote areas.
The plant, costing ｣100m ($200m), is due to be launched in 2010.
Russia's atomic energy ministry (Minatom) announced that the base unit for the plant had been prepared in Severodvinsk, in Russia's Arctic north.
The plant - to be called Akademik Lomonosov - will supply electricity to Sevmash, a shipbuilding firm which produces nuclear-powered submarines.
Export potential
Russia's nuclear energy producer Rosenergoatom is financing 80% of the project and Sevmash the other 20%.
According to Minatom, the plant will have an operational life of 12-15 years and has a high level of radiation security.
A senior engineer involved in the project, Oleg Samoilov, said that "in the worst-case accident, with damage to the radioactive zone, civilian protection measures will not be needed beyond a one-kilometre radius around the plant".
Minatom says such plants could be widely used in energy-poor regions and could also power water purification installations.
Russia hopes that Pacific island states will want to buy the technology. According to Rosenergoatom, more than 12 countries have expressed interest in the project.
Russia plans to build seven floating nuclear plants by 2015.
Environmentalists have been highly critical of the proposals.
Charles Digges, editor of the Norwegian-based Bellona website, told the Associated Press that floating nuclear plants were "absolutely unsafe - inherently so".
"There are risks of the unit itself sinking, there are risks in towing the units to where they need to be," he said.
Russia currently generates up to 17% of its electricity from 31 reactors at 10 sites, and President Vladimir Putin has said he would like to increase the figure to a quarter.
Hundreds of anti-Kremlin demonstrators have held a rally in St Petersburg, a day after a protest in Moscow ended in scuffles and arrests.
The participants gathered at a square in the city centre, but were encircled by a similar number of riot police and prevented from marching.
Smaller groups clashed with police after the main rally finished. Several opposition leaders were arrested.
Ex-chess champion Garry Kasparov was among 170 held in the Moscow march.
Mr Kasparov was freed several hours later after being fined $40 (｣20) for public order offences.
The protesters, allied under the Other Russia coalition, say President Vladimir Putin is stifling democracy.
March banned
Reports say Eduard Limonov, leader of the radical National Bolshevik party, and several other organisers were arrested.
A number of participants had been detained on arrival in the city, including the leader of the Pora youth movement Andrey Sidelnikov and Olga Kurnosova, the local head of Mr Kasparov's United Civil Front.
A reporter for the private Moscow Echo radio station said before the rally that he saw interior ministry troops and a water cannon in the city, adding that people could be forgiven for thinking a military operation was about to start.
Demonstrators were seen holding flags of various groups including that of the liberal Yabloko party and the hammer and sickle banner of the National Bolsheviks.
Organisers contemplated whether to try to march down the city's main street, but were blocked by police and began to disperse after two hours.
One group of demonstrators who avoided the encirclement tried to march but were stopped at a nearby railway station, where scuffles broke out with police, local media said.
Reports say several people were beaten by police, including an elderly man.
Russian authorities sanctioned the rally but banned any marching.
President Vladimir Putin denies the opposition charge that he is trampling on democracy, accusing the opposition of destabilising Russia.
In Moscow on Saturday, a huge security operation, including more than 9,000 police, was launched to prevent protesters from gathering at Pushkin Square.
Mr Kasparov's swift arrest followed warnings by the prosecution office on the eve of the march, stating that anyone participating risked being detained.
After being released Mr Kasparov said: "It is no longer a country... where the government tries to pretend it is playing by the letter and spirit of the law."
Russian opposition activist Garry Kasparov was among about 170 people arrested as police moved against a banned anti-Kremlin rally in Moscow.
The former chess champion was freed several hours later after being fined $40 (｣20) for public order offences.
The huge security operation was launched to prevent protesters from gathering at Pushkin Square.
President Vladimir Putin denies he is trampling on democracy, accusing the opposition of destabilising Russia.
Mr Kasparov leads the United Civil Front group, part of the opposition coalition The Other Russia.
He said he had been "walking with a group of people along the pavement without any slogans" when riot police had surrounded them.
"They grabbed everyone without distinction, without asking any questions," he said.
Before being pushed away, he shouted: "Tell your leaders that this regime is criminal, is a police state. They arrest people everywhere because they are scared stiff."
More than 9,000 police had been drafted into Moscow to prevent the rally going ahead.
Mr Kasparov's swift arrest followed warnings by the prosecution office on the eve of the march, stating that anyone participating risked being detained.
The security operation in Moscow came as Russia warned it wanted the extradition of London-based exile Boris Berezovsky.
Mr Berezovsky told the UK's Guardian newspaper he was plotting "revolution" to overthrow Vladimir Putin.
Accusing Mr Putin of creating an authoritarian regime, the tycoon said that Russia's leadership could only be removed by force.
Later, he clarified his words, stating that he backed "bloodless change" and did not support violence.
Other Russia has called for another massive march in St Petersburg on Sunday, which Moscow has also banned.
(AP) Exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky is calling for the use of force to oust President Vladimir Putin's government and claimed he has support from members of its political elite, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported Friday.
Moscow has expressed its confusion over wargames near Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant, which Russia is helping build.
Iranian air defence forces carried out drills near the plant last Friday without telling Moscow, BBC Moscow correspondent James Rodgers says.
He said the decision to make the news public showed Russian frustration over Iranian actions.
Iran says its nuclear programme is peaceful, but the West fears it wants to build atomic bombs.
There have been disputes over payment for Russia's help in building the facility, which is in the south of the country.
Vote for sanctions
Iran angrily denied falling behind with payments and said Russia was bowing to pressure from the US over its controversial nuclear programme.
Last month, Russia joined its fellow UN security council members in voting for sanctions against Iran over its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment.
On Tuesday, a senior aide to President Putin regretted publicly that Iran did not always heed Russian advice on how to reduce tension over its nuclear programme.
On Monday, Iran had said it could produce nuclear fuel on such a scale.
But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said there was no evidence Iran had made the advances needed to produce nuclear fuel on an industrial scale.
The Bushehr plant is expected to be finished in September.
Russia recently sold Tehran sophisticated air defence equipment, such as the TOR-M1 anti-aircraft missile system, which drew international condemnation.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has dissolved parliament and called a snap election, in an escalation of the country's political crisis.
The move comes amid a long-running power struggle between the pro-Western president and pro-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych.
Lawmakers in parliament said the decree was "a step towards a coup d'etat" and vowed to continue to work.
Mr Yanukovych urged the president to back down on the dissolution.
Analysts say the move could plunge Ukraine into renewed political turmoil.
Thousands of supporters of both sides have been out on the streets in recent days.
'My obligation'
The announcement of the new election - set for 27 May - followed seven hours of failed talks between Mr Yushchenko and parliamentary leaders.
Mr Yushchenko accuses Mr Yanukovych of trying to usurp his power by illegally luring pro-Western lawmakers over to his coalition to increase his parliamentary majority.
Under the constitution, only factions - not individuals - can change sides. But last month 11 lawmakers allied with Mr Yushchenko switched sides.
If Mr Yanukovych gains 300 deputies in the 450-seat house, he would have the power to overturn presidential vetoes and oversee new constitutional change.
"My actions are dictated by the strict necessity to save the state's sovereignty and territorial integrity," the president said in his televised address to the nation. "It is not only my right, it is my obligation."
And he accused rivals of using an "unconstitutional process" to form a parliamentary majority. "Deliberate efforts are being made in parliament to worsen the political crisis, posing a threat to our country and people," he said.
Rival rallies
Mr Yanukovych said Mr Yushchenko should not publish the decree, which would mean it would not come into force.
Mr Yanukovych said his rival should instead "sit down at the negotiating table" and that a dissolution would "lead to a significant worsening of the situation in the country".
MPs backed a resolution stating that the legislature would continue to function, and that they would refuse funding for the election.
"The people's deputies have enough courage to withstand blackmail, threats and... ultimatums," parliamentary speaker Oleksandr Moroz said in a statement.
Supporters of Mr Yanukovych have also vowed to defy the president's decision, setting up tents in parks outside parliament.
Over the weekend, tens of thousands of supporters of both factions turned out on the streets of Kiev for rival rallies.
Mr Yushchenko became president in January 2005, following the pro-democracy Orange Revolution which overturned a rigged victory for Mr Yanukovych.
But Mr Yushchenko was forced to accept his rival as prime minister after his allies failed to win a majority in the March 2006 parliamentary election, and the two men have repeatedly clashed.
A senior Russian lawmaker has proposed changing the constitution, in a move that might allow President Vladimir Putin to stay in power longer.
But a Kremlin spokesman responded by saying Mr Putin was opposed to any such change to the constitution.
Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov said that instead of four years the presidential term should be extended to "five, or maybe seven".
He also argued against the two-term limit for the Russian president.
Under the current rules Mr Putin will have to step down in 2008, after having served two terms.
"We proceed from the president's position that it is pointless to change the constitution to extend the presidential term or the number of terms," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov, quoted by the Associated Press.
Mr Putin has made it clear previously that he is not planning to seek a third term - despite calls from various politicians and organisations for him to do so.
But Mr Mironov, speaking immediately after his re-election as Speaker of the upper house, said the constitutional amendment proposal should be discussed by lawmakers throughout Russia and then put to Mr Putin for approval.
Mr Mironov has been Speaker since January 2003. He represents the St Petersburg assembly - the city where Mr Putin also launched his political career.
Mr Putin's second term in office expires in 12 months' time. But the BBC's James Rodgers in Moscow says it is not clear whether any of the changes Mr Mironov seeks could be introduced before the election in March 2008.
Russian riot police have arrested dozens of demonstrators who staged an anti-government rally in the city of Nizhny Novgorod on Saturday.
Protesters were dragged into waiting police vans and driven away.
The marchers were defying a ban on protests to demonstrate against what they see as attempts by President Vladimir Putin to stifle democracy.
A Russian presidential envoy described those taking part as disaffected young people and political outsiders.
"Around 30 people have been detained, four or five of them were active organisers," a local police spokesman, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.
Riot police with batons, black helmets and shields dispersed the remaining dozens of protestors in the city's central Gorky Square, some of whom were chanting "Fascists".
Organisers said that dozens of activists had also been arrested ahead of the demonstration in Russia's fourth biggest city, about 380km (240 miles) east of Moscow.
'Power to silence'
The anti-government protest is the second in recent weeks. Several thousand demonstrators held a rally in St Petersburg, during which about 100 people were arrested.
The event - entitled "the march of the dissenters" - was organised by opposition leaders, including former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and chess champion Gary Kasparov.
They accuse the Kremlin of using its power to silence the opposition in advance of local and parliamentary elections.
The constitution requires Mr Putin to step down after his second term in 2008. Critics accuse him of trying to manipulate victory for a successor of his own choosing.
A methane explosion at a coal mine in a remote part of Siberia has killed at least 78 people, Russian officials say.
They said 83 miners, several of them injured, had been rescued after the blast at the mine, nearly 3,000km (1,850 miles) east of Moscow.
About 200 miners were believed to be underground at the time, and more than 40 are still trapped, officials said.
Russia's coal mines have a poor safety record. A methane blast at a Kemerovo coal mine killed 21 miners in 2005.
The blast happened at 1030 Moscow time (0730 GMT) at the Ulyanovskaya mine in Kemerovo region.
Kemerovo Governor Aman Tuleyev was quoted as saying the explosion occurred after a rockslide caused methane gas to build up in part of the huge mine.
He said that after getting as many people out as possible, the priority was to ensure that fire did not break out.
Local officials described current conditions down the mine as " very difficult".
According to Reuters news agency, rescue work was being hampered by thick smoke and roof collapses in horizontal shafts stretching for up to 5km.
A Reuters reporter who went to the mine said security guards prevented him from getting close.
Emergencies minister Sergei Shoigu has been ordered to the area to oversee the rescue operation, Russian news agencies said.
The mine, at Novokuznetsk, was opened in 2002 and had modern equipment, regional officials said.
Russia's coal mines are largely unprofitable and many have not invested in new safety equipment since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
At least seven people have been killed and more than 20 hurt after a passenger plane made an emergency landing in central Russia, officials say.
They say the Tu-134 jet crashed on landing in the city of Samara, some 900km (550 miles) south-east of Moscow.
"The plane made a harsh landing. As a result the plane's fuselage broke apart," Russia's emergency situation ministry spokeswoman said.
She said 50 passengers and seven crew were aboard the plane.
The twin-engine aircraft of Russia's YUT-Air airlines crash-landed at 1045 local time (0645 GMT) in thick fog, officials said.
It remains unclear what caused the incident.
Emergency situations ministry spokeswoman Irina Andrianova said the plane "grazed the runway with one of its wings", Ria Novosti agency reported.
There were also reports that the jet's landing gear failed to come down.
The plane was en route from the Siberian city of Surgut, about 2,200km (1,400 miles) east of Moscow.
Rescue teams are working at the scene.
A number of people have been taken to hospital.
Tu-134s are widely used in Russia and other former Soviet republics.
The last major crash of a Russian airliner was last August, when a Tu-154 crashed in Ukraine, killing all 170 people aboard.
Investigators later concluded that pilot error was to blame.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has met Pope Benedict XVI for the first time during an official visit to Rome.
They discussed ways to improve relations between the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches, dogged by long-standing differences.
The Vatican said the talks had been held in a "very positive atmosphere".
Mr Putin was also expected to discuss energy and security with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi in meetings on Tuesday night and Wednesday.
President Putin was said to have been in favour of a visit to Russia by Pope Benedict's predecessor, Pope John Paul II.
But the late Pope was never able to fulfil his ambition of seeing post-communist Russia.
Pope Benedict puts great emphasis on healing the churches' divisions and some say this is helping to mend the 1,000-year schism between Rome and the eastern Christian churches.
Energy focus
The Pope and Mr Putin held "cordial" private talks lasting about 25 minutes, Vatican officials said.
The pair spoke mostly in German - the Pope's native language and the one used by Mr Putin during his years working for the KGB in the former East Germany.
Speaking before they met, the Papal Nuncio to Moscow, Monsignor Antonio Mennini, said relations between the two churches were much improved.
But any talk of a meeting between Pope Benedict and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Alexy II, has been ruled out.
Monsignor Mennini said Mr Putin was paying a secular visit to Italy and it was still premature to be talking about papal visits to Moscow.
The BBC's Christian Fraser in Rome says the focus of Mr Putin's trip will now turn to energy and security, as he meets Mr Prodi.
The two men are likely to discuss disagreements between Europe and Russia over major issues like Iran, Iraq and the Middle East, our correspondent says.
They will also talk energy, he says, since the Russian gas giant, Gazprom, signed a deal with the Italian energy company, ENI, in November which gives the Russian firm a foothold in southern Europe.
But while Mr Prodi is a supporter of closer economic ties, he is looking for assurances from Mr Putin that Russia will guarantee supply and will not use gas and oil to drive hard diplomatic agendas with its neighbours, as Moscow has been accused of doing in the past, our correspondent adds
Russian President Vladimir Putin has met Pope Benedict XVI for the first time during an official visit to Rome.
They discussed ways to improve relations between the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches, dogged by long-standing differences.
The Vatican said the talks had been held in a "very positive atmosphere".
Mr Putin was also expected to discuss energy and security with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi in meetings on Tuesday night and Wednesday.
President Putin was said to have been in favour of a visit to Russia by Pope Benedict's predecessor, Pope John Paul II.
But the late Pope was never able to fulfil his ambition of seeing post-communist Russia.
Pope Benedict puts great emphasis on healing the churches' divisions and some say this is helping to mend the 1,000-year schism between Rome and the eastern Christian churches.
Energy focus
The Pope and Mr Putin held "cordial" private talks lasting about 25 minutes, Vatican officials said.
The pair spoke mostly in German - the Pope's native language and the one used by Mr Putin during his years working for the KGB in the former East Germany.
Speaking before they met, the Papal Nuncio to Moscow, Monsignor Antonio Mennini, said relations between the two churches were much improved.
But any talk of a meeting between Pope Benedict and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Alexy II, has been ruled out.
Monsignor Mennini said Mr Putin was paying a secular visit to Italy and it was still premature to be talking about papal visits to Moscow.
The BBC's Christian Fraser in Rome says the focus of Mr Putin's trip will now turn to energy and security, as he meets Mr Prodi.
The two men are likely to discuss disagreements between Europe and Russia over major issues like Iran, Iraq and the Middle East, our correspondent says.
They will also talk energy, he says, since the Russian gas giant, Gazprom, signed a deal with the Italian energy company, ENI, in November which gives the Russian firm a foothold in southern Europe.
But while Mr Prodi is a supporter of closer economic ties, he is looking for assurances from Mr Putin that Russia will guarantee supply and will not use gas and oil to drive hard diplomatic agendas with its neighbours, as Moscow has been accused of doing in the past, our correspondent adds
Russian riot police have broken up a rare opposition march in St Petersburg.
Several thousand opposition supporters gathered to protest against what they see as attempts by President Vladimir Putin to stifle democracy.
They broke through a police cordon and marched down Nevsky Prospekt, the city's main street, shouting "freedom!" and slogans hostile to Mr Putin.
The organisers say police beat demonstrators with batons and made a number of arrests.
The event - entitled "the march of the dissenters" - was organised by opposition leaders, including former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and chess champion Gary Kasparov.
They accuse the Kremlin of using its power to silence the opposition in advance of local and parliamentary elections.
Mr Kasparov said about 5,000 people took part in the march and called it a "major success".
Officials say between 2,000 and 3,000 took part and several dozen were detained.
The constitution requires Mr Putin to step down after his second term in 2008. Critics accuse him of trying to manage victory for a successor of his choosing.
"They'll be giving it a good clean before it lands in the Olympic city," said the passenger sitting across the aisle. He was looking through the window at a mechanical arm spraying the wing of the aircraft.
Actually, the plane's wings were being de-iced before take-off.
It was -15C at Moscow airport. It was +8C when we landed in Sochi.
The remark - joke or misunderstanding - reflected the sense of importance which Russia attaches to its bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics.
You wouldn't think that a country known for the severity of its winters would choose its warmest town to go for the games - but that's what is happening.
There is certainly novelty value to the bid. While most of Russia shivers, Sochi enjoys the warm weather of the Black Sea coast. There are even palm trees along the seafront.
Its climate has always been Sochi's selling point as a resort. The 20th Century dictator Joseph Stalin liked it here. His era left the city a legacy of elegant neo-classical villas where the Communist elite could come to relax.
Now Sochi wants to expand its appeal.
'Compact plan'
You only have to travel about 50 km inland to find yourself among skiers and snowboarders on the slopes of the Caucasus Mountains.
That's the basis of Sochi's Olympic bid: a "coastal cluster" for the ice events, and a "mountain cluster" in the ski resort of Krasnaya Polyana.
Officials from the International Olympic Committee have been here in Sochi this week to look at the plans.
Sochi faces competition from Pyeongchang in South Korea, and Salzburg in Austria.
I met Andrei Braginsky , the spokesman for Sochi's bid, at the town's newly spruced-up railway station. The IOC delegation had just left to look at one of the potential sites.
"It's a very compact plan, and we really hope we'll succeed," he told me. "We have a beautiful place, and we have very strong popular support - 86% of the population here support us."
It's not just popular support that counts. Sochi has been studying the methods of previous successful bids, including London's for 2012. They know that high-level endorsement counts.
So on Tuesday President Vladimir Putin turned up in person to praise the preparations. To reinforce the point, he tried out the ski slopes for himself.
Mr Putin has an official residence here. That's made it fashionable. The presidential factor and Russia's oil wealth are driving a property boom.
Resurgent Russia?
Tom Rawlins is a British businessman who lived in Moscow for 15 years. Now he's come to the Caucasus in the hope of cashing in.
"It's a boom at the moment," he told me as we chatted at the foot of a ski slope. "The prices for land are doubling every year. Six years ago they were $2,000 per 100 sq m. Now it's going up - you can't find a decent plot of land for under $30,000."
Not everyone's getting a share. Sochi makes no secret of the fact that it hopes a successful bid will bring in plenty of money. Sixty-year-old Yury was among the onlookers at the ice rink the bid committee have set up in the city.
"The Olympics will be very good for us," he told me. "There'll be new jobs; there'll be sport facilities for the young," he said hopefully.
The decision will come in July. There's still a way to go. The organisers of Sochi's bid have had to defend themselves against accusations of not doing enough to protect the environment.
Leaked city council documents suggest that officials have been trying to divert attention from other possible shortcomings.
This isn't just a local affair. President Putin's involvement suggests that the international pride of a resurgent Russia is also at stake.
An explosion at a McDonald's restaurant in the Russian city of St Petersburg has slightly injured six people with concussion and cuts from flying glass.
The cause of the blast was unclear, but police said their initial information suggested that it was caused by "an explosive device".
However, they said they were treating the incident as "hooliganism" rather than terrorism.
The restaurant is on Nevsky Prospect, the main street in the city centre.
Reports said a ceiling was partially destroyed by the blast, which occurred at about 2030 local time (1730 GMT).
Some windows were broken but no fire resulted from the blast.
Interfax news agency quoted interior ministry officials as saying the device contained the equivalent of about 200g of TNT, and had been placed under a table.
One of the injured was a German tourist, media reports said.
Correspondents say such explosions are not uncommon in Russia, and there was a similar blast in a St Petersburg supermarket just last weekend.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has criticised the United States for what he said was its "almost uncontained" use of force around the world.
Washington's "very dangerous" approach to global relations was fuelling a nuclear arms race, he told a security summit in Munich.
Correspondents say the strident speech may signal a more assertive Russia.
The White House said it was "surprised and disappointed" by the Russian president's comments.
"We expect to continue co-operation with Russia in areas important to the international community such as counter-terrorism and reducing the spread and threat of weapons of mass destruction," said Gordon Johndroe, press secretary for the White House National Security Council.
Mr Putin told senior security officials from around the world that nations were "witnessing an almost uncontained hyper use of force in international relations".
"One state, the United States, has overstepped its national borders in every way," he said, speaking through a translator.
"This is very dangerous. Nobody feels secure anymore because nobody can hide behind international law.
"This is nourishing an arms race with the desire of countries to get nuclear weapons."
BBC defence and security correspondent Rob Watson, in Munich, said Mr Putin's speech was a strident performance which may well be remembered as a turning point in international relations.
US defence secretary Robert Gates, also attending the summit in Munich, said only that the Russian leader had been "very candid".
Democratic Senator Joseph Lieberman said Mr Putin's speech was "provocative", adding that its rhetoric "sounded more like the Cold War".
And Republican Senator John McCain added: "Moscow must understand that it cannot enjoy a genuine partnership with the West so long as its actions at home and abroad conflict fundamentally with the core values of the Euro-Atlantic democracies. In today's multi-polar world there is no place for needless confrontation."
Mr Putin's spokesman Dimitry Peskov said the speech was "not about confrontation, it's an invitation to think".
"Until we get rid of unilateralism in international affairs, until we exclude the possibility of imposing one country's views on others, we will not have stability," he said.
'Power not weapons'
The conference, founded in 1962, has become an annual opportunity for world leaders to discuss the most pressing issues of the day.
Earlier, German chancellor Angela Merkel told delegates the international community was determined to stop Iran getting nuclear weapons.
There was "no way around" the need for Tehran to accept demands from the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), she said.
"What we are talking about here is a very, very sensitive technology, and for that reason we need a high degree of transparency, which Iran has failed to provide, and if Iran does not do so then the alternative for Iran is to slip further into isolation," she said.
Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, also at the conference, has been repeating Iran's position that it wants nuclear power, not nuclear weapons.
"We believe the Iranian nuclear dossier is resolvable by negotiation," Mr Larijani was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying on the sidelines of the conference.
European diplomats are hoping to hold informal talks with Mr Larijani at the two-day summit.
It would be their first meeting since the collapse of talks last year and the imposition of limited UN sanctions on Tehran for its failure to stop the enrichment of uranium.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has strongly denied claims that Russia is using its energy resources as a lever to put pressure on other countries.
He was addressing the world's media at his annual news conference in Moscow.
Mr Putin said Russia's energy deals with Ukraine and other neighbouring countries "benefit the consumers" and "experts understand this".
On the poisoning of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko in London, Mr Putin said he did not believe in conspiracy theories.
"As for what happened there, this, I repeat, can only be answered by the investigation."
There has been some speculation in the Russian media that enemies of Mr Putin may have had a hand in Mr Litvinenko's death, to put the Kremlin in a bad light. Mr Litvinenko was a vehement critic of Mr Putin.
Mr Putin said Mr Litvinenko "did not possess any secrets" that could have damaged Russia.
Market forces
In a wide-ranging, marathon news conference, Mr Putin said Russia was now one of the world's most powerful economies, with a rapid growth rate - about 6.9% in 2006 - and declining inflation.
Mr Putin insisted that Russia's price increases for energy exports were driven by necessary market adjustments.
He said Russia could not continue Soviet-style energy subsidies for its former Soviet bloc neighbours.
"We're not obliged to subsidise the economies of other countries," he said. "Nobody does that, so why are they demanding it of us?"
In January a Russian row with Belarus over oil exports revived concern among Russia's energy customers in the EU.
"We are always told that Russia is using its ... economic resources to achieve foreign policy aims. That is not the case," Mr Putin insisted on Thursday.
No named successor
Mr Putin is due to leave office in March next year and so far it is not clear who will take his place.
He declined to state any preference for a successor, saying voters would have a "free, democratic" choice.
"There will be no successor. There will be candidates to the presidential post," he told the news conference.
"The authorities' goal is to ensure the elections are held democratically.
"I, too, am a citizen of the Russian Federation, which I am very proud of, and of course have the right to express my preferences but I will only do it during the election campaign."
Under the constitution Mr Putin has to stand down in 2008, after serving two terms. But he has now become so powerful and popular that it is widely assumed whoever he names as the preferred candidate will win the election, the BBC's Richard Galpin reports from Moscow.
"For the time being I'm not going anywhere... Are you trying to shove me out before my time is up? I'll go by myself," Mr Putin said.
More than 1,000 members of the Russian and foreign media registered for the news conference, which has become an annual event.
Russia has accused the US of illegally imposing sanctions against four Russian defence firms that Washington says are selling banned items to Iran and Syria.
The Russian foreign ministry said the US was wrongly trying to force foreign firms to abide by domestic American rules that only apply to US firms.
Moscow's comments come after the US said it was enforcing sanctions against 24 overseas defence companies in total.
The US says the firms break its Iran and Syria Nonproliferation Act.
This bans companies from providing the two countries with materials that could contribute to the development of weapons of mass destruction, or cruise or ballistic missile systems.
'Politicised actions'
The four Russian firms to be hit by the US's latest sanctions include state-owned Rosoboronexport, Russia's largest arms exporter.
"This is not the first time the US resorts to illegal attempts to spread its internal legislation on foreign companies and force them to abide by the US rules," said Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement.
Other companies hit by the latest US sanctions include some from China, Iraq, Malaysia, Mexico, North Korea and Sudan.
The sanctions came into force on 28 December, 2006, and are due to remain in place for two years.
They prevent US firms from working with the named companies.
The US last hit Russian firms, including Rosoboronexport, with sanctions because of their dealings with Iran in August.
Moscow said the latest US move was once more groundless.
"And yet once again, the United States is embarking on this vicious circle," said the Russian foreign ministry.
"As a result of its politicised actions, the American state also denies itself and US firms the right to co-operate with our advanced companies.
"In business language, this is called lost opportunities."
Russia and Belarus say they have reached a deal on gas supplies after Moscow threatened to cut them off if a big price rise was not agreed.
This came after last-ditch talks in Moscow ahead of a deadline.
Describing it as "unfortunate terms", Belarus said it would pay $100 per 1,000 cubic metres of gas, below the $105 demanded by Russia.
Russia had threatened to halt supplies at 1000 (0700GMT) on Monday unless Belarus more than doubled its payments.
"The Belarussian side, in a difficult atmosphere on the eve of the new year, signed an agreement on unfortunate terms," Belarussian Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko said.
Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said the deal was done at 2358 (2058GMT), adding that Belarus had been offered "the best conditions".
Both nations have accused each other of blackmail over the dispute.
About 20% of Russian gas exports to Europe pass through Belarus, the remainder through Ukraine. Belarus had threatened to disrupt Russian gas supplies to Western Europe.
It echoes a fierce row last year between Russia and Ukraine, and comes as Russia is pushing up prices for many of its customers.
Energy diplomacy
Russia has been accused of using its energy muscle to re-impose its will on what is sometimes called Russia's "near abroad" - the countries that were once part of the Soviet Union.
Although some of the targeted countries, such as Ukraine and Georgia, have strained relations with the Kremlin, Belarus has historically remained an ally throughout the post-Soviet period.
Gazprom insists the planned rise from $47 to $105 merely reflected market prices.
However, as has been the case with Belarus, the price rises are often coupled to demands for shared ownership of those countries' gas or oil distribution networks.
A half-share in Belarus' gas monopoly Beltransgaz, which operates its own pipelines and Gazprom's export pipeline, is up for grabs - but only, says the government in Minsk, if the price of gas stays lower.
European Union countries in particular were keen to avoid a repeat of the gas shortages which accompanied the Russia-Ukraine dispute.
At that time, Gazprom accused Ukraine of siphoning off gas meant for Europe, and has also warned Belarus against doing the same thing.
Russia's chief prosecutor says he is investigating whether a former boss of the oil firm Yukos may be linked to the death of ex-agent Alexander Litvinenko.
The prosecutor-general's office said it was "checking the version" that former Yukos manager Leonid Nevzlin could be among those involved in the poisoning.
Mr Nevzlin's spokesman said the suggestion was "ridiculous", Reuters news agency reported.
Mr Nevzlin was close to jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who ran Yukos.
The prosecutor-general's statement said Mr Nevzlin and some other ex-Yukos executives were wanted internationally "over serious crimes".
It said there were indications of a link between the poisoning of Mr Litvinenko and attempted murder of Dmitry Kovtun - who met him in London before he fell ill - and "the charges that several Yukos managers committed crimes against the life and health of citizens".
Demise of Yukos
Mr Nevzlin, who denies any wrongdoing in connection with Yukos, is now living in Israel.
The prosecutor-general's office says it is taking steps towards the possible extradition of the Russian suspects living abroad.
Former secret service officer Mr Litvinenko died in London on 23 November and his body was found to contain a massive dose of the radioactive isotope polonium-210.
The case - which remains shrouded in mystery - has strained relations between Britain and Russia.
A statement made by Mr Litvinenko before he died accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of involvement in his death - but the Kremlin has dismissed any suggestion it was involved as "nonsense".
Mr Khodorkovsky is facing new money-laundering charges along with his jailed colleague Platon Lebedev.
Most of the enormous assets of Yukos have been taken over by the state-controlled oil company, Rosneft.
Russian president Vladimir Putin is set to make his first trip to Ukraine since the appointment of the pro-Russian Prime Minister, Viktor Yanukovych.
On Friday Mr Putin is due to hold talks with Ukraine's President, Viktor Yushchenko, as well as Mr Yanukovych.
The visit comes as Mr Yushchenko is being increasingly marginalised by the prime minister.
Energy will be high on the agenda after Moscow cut off gas supplies to Ukraine in January in a dispute over prices.
Strong position
This will be a difficult day for Ukraine's pro-western president.
The last time he held talks with President Putin in Kiev was almost two years ago and things were very different.
Back then Mr Yushchenko had just been elected as a result of the mass protests of the Orange Revolution.
He defeated Viktor Yanukovych, who had been publicly backed by the Kremlin.
Now Mr Yanukovych is the prime minister and Russia's president is in a much stronger position.
The visit comes as there is an escalating power struggle between Ukraine's president and prime minister.
Ukraine's parliament recently voted to sack Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk - a close ally of the president. Mr Yushchenko has said that this was unlawful.
In what is likely to be seen by some as a provocative move, the foreign minister is expected to be present during the talks with Mr Putin.
Four out of five political leaders and state administrators in Russia either have been or still are members of the security services, a study suggests.
The unprecedented research implies a huge expansion of KGB-FSB influence in politics and business in recent years.
Many of the officials concerned have been appointed under President Vladimir Putin - himself a former spy chief.
This has led many liberal commentators to claim their influence is growing unchecked, and threatening democracy.
Politics and business
This new research was conducted by Olga Kryshtanovskaya, a respected academic, for the Centre for the Study of the Elite, part of the prestigious Academy of Sciences.
It confirms that the siloviki - ex-KGB operatives or those working for its successor organisation, the FSB - have done well in President Putin's Russia.
It has long been thought that their influence was growing. But this first, concerted attempt to provide empirical evidence of its scale, has produced some surprising results.
Among the presidential administration, members of the government, deputies of both chambers of parliament, regional heads, as well as the boards of Russia's top state corporations, four in five officials worked for the KGB, or continue to work for one or more of its successor organisations.
The research also suggests the political and business elites are rapidly coalescing, with some key industrial figures, such as the head of the state weapons export agency, also from the same security service heritage.
Contrast
How different Russia looks from other formerly communist countries in eastern Europe, where there have been attempts to identify individuals who worked for Soviet-era security services, many of which were highly repressive.
Some of these individuals have been put on trial for their alleged crimes.
But perhaps more significantly, there has been a real effort to keep them out of politics and big business.
But whatever it means for Russia's future as a democracy - or not - so far, unhappiness about Russia's new ruling class has been expressed only by the country's beleaguered liberal minority.
Family and friends of Alexander Litvinenko are unlikely to help a Russian investigation into his death, says a friend of the former KGB agent.
Alex Goldfarb said they did not "trust" a Russian investigation and would help only if they were given assurances by British authorities about their safety.
His comments came as it emerged that Russian investigators are to travel to London to question witnesses.
Mr Litvinenko's widow earlier said she would not aid the Russian inquiry.
Mr Litvinenko, 43, died in a London hospital on 23 November - it is suspected he was poisoned by the radioactive substance polonum-210.
Moscow's prosecutor general's office said there were plans to send officials to Britain but was unable to confirm who they would question and when.
'Conditions' needed
Mr Goldfarb said he had spoken to Mr Litvinenko's widow, Marina, as well as exiled billionaire Boris Berezovsky and Chechen dissident Akhmed Zakayev, about the investigation
"None of them trust a Russian investigation," he said.
"They will only talk to the Russians in London if the British request that they do it or to help the British get access to witnesses. Then they will agree to talk to them."
He added there would be conditions, including that any meeting should not be in the Russian embassy and that there should be police protection.
"The second [condition] is that the British should give assurances that the Russian investigators have been screened for any kind of possible poisoning," Mr Goldfarb said.
A team of nine Scotland Yard counter-terrorism detectives are currently in Russia to investigate Mr Litvinenko's death.
Mr Goldfarb said he feared they were being obstructed by Russian authorities who were "shielding" two "key witnesses".
Mrs Litvinenko, 44, has said she believes the Russian authorities could have been behind her husband's murder.
She told the Mail on Sunday: "Obviously it was not Putin himself, of course not."
But she added what President Putin "does around him in Russia makes it possible to kill a British person" in Britain.
She said she had confidence UK police would find her husband's killer, but she would not help Russia's planned probe.
"I can't believe that they will tell the truth. I can't believe if they ask about evidence they will use it in the proper way," she said.
Friends of Mr Litvinenko believe he was poisoned because of his criticisms of the Russian government since defecting to the UK, but the Kremlin has dismissed suggestions it was involved in any way.
Russia's foreign intelligence service has also issued a statement denying any involvement.
Also on Sunday, the Metropolitan Police said two of the 26 police officers closely involved in the inquiry in London had tested positive for traces of polonium-210.
It said the traces were "relatively small" and were "below defined safety limits". Both officers are being monitored by health specialists.
A fire at a Moscow hospital for drug addicts has killed 45 women and at least eight more suffered carbon monoxide poisoning or other injuries.
Officials say they are "90% certain" arson caused the overnight fire at Hospital 17 in the city's south-west.
All appear to have died of smoke asphyxiation before rescuers arrived.
They were trapped between fire at one end of their second-floor corridor and a locked metal grille barring stairs at the other end, an official said.
The Moscow fire was followed on Saturday by a second lethal fire, in a hospital in the Siberian town of Taiga.
Eight people died at the hospital, also for drug addicts, in the province of Kemerovo.
Safety concerns
Windows in the five-storey Moscow hospital building were barred and fire safety concerns had been raised before.
The fire, which broke out about 0140 (2240 GMT) in a kitchen, was relatively small but there was very heavy smoke, possibly from burning plastic wall coverings, Russian media report.
"Everyone who died in this fire, was dead before the first fire engines arrived," said Deputy Emergencies Minister Alexander Chupriyan.
He added that crews had responded to an emergency call in just four minutes, evacuating the hospital which had a total of 177 patients and 15 staff at the time of the fire.
In daylight, relatives and friends of the dead women, who included patients infected with Aids/HIV, could be seen weeping outside the building on Bolotnikovskaya Street.
'Slow reaction'
As an investigation was launched, a spokesman for the Moscow fire brigade accused hospital staff of being slow to raise the alarm.
"[They] worked very badly - they did not take steps to evacuate people in the early stages of the fire," Yevgeny Bobylyov was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.
However there were suggestions that staff had been overcome so rapidly by smoke that they had been incapable of taking action.
Televised footage shows scorched, peeling corridor walls inside the building and beds and personal effects covered in black ash in a room which looked otherwise undamaged.
"The fire was relatively small," one rescue official told Itar-Tass news agency.
"But there was very thick smoke, and people got poisoned by smoke in their sleep."
Mr Chupriyan said there was evidence of a desperate struggle by patients to escape:
"Judging by the placement of the bodies, they really tried to get out."
Andrei Kotov, a male patient on the 4th floor, said no fire alarm had been sounded and staff had come in to wake people in his ward.
Speaking to Interfax news agency, he said he could hear cries for help from the second floor "but evidently nobody did go to the aid of those women".
Safety concerns
Fire safety officers visited the hospital in February and March and called for its temporary closure after their second visit, said Russia's chief fire inspector, Yuri Nenashev.
"Unfortunately this decision was not adopted," he added.
Irina Andrianova, a spokeswoman for the emergencies ministry, said the design of the building was "very particular" because it was used to treat drug addicts.
Mr Nenashev said the fire had begun on a wooden shelf, which led him to suspect arson or "extremely careless handling of flammable materials".
Russia records about 18,000 fire deaths a year, AP reports - 10 times more than in the US.
Last December seven people died in a fire at an institute for the mentally ill near Moscow.
And in 2003, 36 students died and some 170 were hurt at a hostel for foreign students.
(AP) Scotland Yard said Wednesday it is treating the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko as murder.
Officers investigating the death of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko will "follow the evidence wherever it goes", Home Secretary John Reid has said.
However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that speculation over Mr Litvinenko's death was harming relations between Russia and the UK.
The comments came as UK police arrived in Moscow to pursue their inquiries.
The British Embassy in Moscow confirmed that one of its rooms would be tested for radiation as a precaution.
Former KGB bodyguard Andrei Lugovoi - who met former KGB agent Mr Litvinenko in London on 1 November - the day he fell ill - visited the embassy building in Russia last week to deny any involvement in the poisoning.
The Parkes Hotel in Knightsbridge - where Mr Lugovoi reportedly said he had stayed - and an office in Cavendish Place are the latest London locations being examined over the poisoning.
Earlier the Health Protection Agency (HPA) carried out tests at the Best Western Hotel in Shaftesbury Avenue, London, but found nothing of concern to public health.
'Avoid speculations'
"This investigation will proceed as normal, whatever the diplomatic or... wider considerations," Mr Reid said.
Speaking in Brussels at European Union talks, Mr Reid said that Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett has "made plain to her Russian colleagues that we are asking them to give us all the support and information that they can".
The Kremlin has given assurances that support and information would be forthcoming, the home secretary added.
Mr Reid has also sought to reassure EU ministers over the health threat posed by the ex-spy's poisoning.
In Russia, foreign minister Mr Lavrov said Kremlin officials should not be involved in the British police inquiry.
"If the British have questions, then they should be sent via the law enforcement agencies between which there are contacts," he said.
He added the death of Mr Litvinenko, who was found to have traces of radioactive polonium-210 in his body, should not be politicised.
"The only thing that we are talking about today is the need to avoid politicising this issue, this tragedy.
"We are talking about the need to avoid speculations on this subject."
Speculation has been rife over the motives behind Mr Litvinenko's suspected poisoning.
Friends believe he was targeted because of his fierce criticism of the Putin government, but the Kremlin has dismissed suggestions it was involved in any way as "sheer nonsense".
Meanwhile, Mario Scaramella - an Italian contact of Mr Litvinenko's - is still being observed by doctors after testing positive for polonium-210.
However, doctors say Mr Scaramella, who met Mr Litvinenko the day the former KGB agent fell ill, remains well.
The BBC's Daniel Sandford said it was understood nine officers from the Metropolitan Police's counter-terrorism command could travel to Russia.
The specialist unit - launched in October to meet terrorist threats - is heading the investigation into Mr Litvinenko's poisoning.
Shadow home secretary David Davis welcomed news that the investigation was expanding.
He told BBC One's The Politics Show on Sunday: "I think it's a good thing, I think it's very important that no channel is left unpursued, that this investigation goes right to its limit wherever that may be and that limit should not be a diplomatic limit, it should be the limit of the evidence."
The Health Protection Agency said just over 3,000 people had called the NHS Direct line since the radiation scare, with 179 being followed up for further investigation.
Twenty-seven people were referred as a precaution to a specialist outpatient clinic for radiological exposure assessment.
A total of 70 urine samples, mainly from medical staff and ambulance workers, have been tested and found negative.
(CBS/AP) An Italian security consultant who tested positive for traces of the same radioactive substance that was found in the body of a poisoned ex-KGB spy is not showing any signs of illness, doctors said Saturday.
Russia and the US have signed a bilateral agreement that allows Russia to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) after 12 years of negotiations.
The 800-page trade pact was signed during a meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders in Hanoi.
Russia's WTO membership was dependent on the deal - outlining reductions in tariffs across a range of industries.
In a separate development, Russia said that the US had lifted sanctions on jet maker Sukhoi.
They were imposed for allegedly passing on equipment to Iran that could be used to develop weapons of mass destruction.
No decision has yet been made on Rosoboronexport, Russia's state arms exporter, which faces the same sanctions.
'Historic step'
Previous hopes of a breakthrough on WTO entry collapsed as negotiators failed to clinch a deal at the G8 summit in July.
Russian trade and economic minister, German Gref said the deal would allow Russia to compete "as an equal" in world markets.
"This is a very significant event, which signals Russia's integration into the global trading system," he said.
"This is a historic step, the last step that signals the return of Russia to the market principles of the world economy."
Russian president Vladimir Putin said the trade pact, which was essential for Moscow's admission to the WTO membership, would not have been possible without the political will of the US.
US trade representative Susan Schwab also welcomed the agreement.
"The full integration of Russia into the global economy is in the interests of Russia and is also in the interests of the United States," she said.
The deal must be ratified in both countries and Russia must also agree a multilateral deal with the WTO as a whole - meaning it may be six months before its membership is complete.
Resistance
The US was the only member of the 149-nation WTO to withhold consent for Russia's membership.
Reservations about Russia's human rights record, state control over key energy resources, intellectual property rights and restrictions on the activity of foreign companies had all held up a deal.
Russian resistance to sanctions against Iran in response to Tehran's nuclear ambitions also counted against it in US eyes.
Meanwhile, Russia has raised concerns about the sanitary conditions used in imports of meat from the US.
Hundreds of people have gathered in central Moscow to pay tribute to prominent journalist Anna Politkovskaya - a day after she was murdered.
They lit candles and laid flowers as they held posters describing the killing as politically-motivated.
The 48-year-old mother of two was known as a fierce critic of the Kremlin's actions in Chechnya.
Her death has been widely condemned in Russia and elsewhere. But there has been no word so far from the Kremlin.
Russia's prosecutor-general has personally taken charge of the murder investigation - focusing on possible links to her investigative reporting.
Ms Politkovskaya was due to publish an article on torture and kidnappings in Chechnya on Monday, her Novaya Gazeta has revealed.
Anna Politkovskaya was found shot dead on Saturday in a lift at her block of flats in the Russian capital, Moscow.
Grainy CCTV footage from the building shows a man in a baseball cap following her inside just before the shooting.
Police sources quoted by Russian media say Ms Politkovskaya was shot three times in the body and once in the head.
A Makarov pistol and four cartridges were reportedly found near her body.
Her newspaper is offering a $1m (｣534,000) reward for information to track down the killer.
Putin blamed
Mourners - some weeping - laid flowers outside Ms Politkovskaya's home, as hundreds gathered in Moscow's Pushkin Square and in the Chechen capital, Grozny, to condemn the murder.
"Don't be silent," said a message written on a mask one of the protesters was wearing across her mouth to highlight allegations of press freedoms in Russia.
"The Kremlin has killed freedom of speech," said one of the posters at Pushkin.
Another said "Anna was killed by cannibalist state power."
Others blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the murder.
Ms Politkovskaya often wrote about human rights abuses in Chechnya and her last published article in Novaya Gazeta attacked pro-Moscow militia there.
Russia's president has urged Europe's security body to pressure Georgia to "drastically" change its course in dealing with regional disputes.
In a letter to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Vladimir Putin said Georgia wanted to resolve issues by force.
It follows Russia's deportation of about 130 Georgians, amid a worsening diplomatic row between the two states.
Tensions have escalated since Georgia detained four suspected Russian spies.
The four - all military officers - were released to the OSCE on Monday, but Russia has imposed a series of punishing measures against Georgia, including a crackdown on illegal Georgian immigrants.
Police raids
In his letter, Mr Putin accused the authorities in Tbilisi of planning to solve the conflicts between Russia and Georgia over the two troubled Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia by force.
He went on to say that what he called the irresponsibility of the Georgian authorities could no longer "be ignored" by the international community.
Mr Putin reacted furiously to the officers' detention on 27 September, which at the time he called an "act of state terrorism with hostage-taking".
In the latest reprisal, the deportees were flown back to Georgia on board a Russian cargo plane on Friday.
They were rounded up in police raids over the past few days and accused of immigration offences, according to media reports.
One of the deportees told Georgian television her passport had expired but another said his documents were in order.
The BBC's Matthew Collin at Tbilisi airport said the deportees walked down the ramp from the huge Russian cargo plane carrying whatever possessions they managed to bring with them.
Few seemed happy to be back in Georgia, although one woman knelt down and kissed the ground, he said.
Meanwhile a Russian plane took more Russians out of Georgia, which Moscow says is now unsafe for its citizens.
Last week, some 100 Russian officials and their families in Georgia were ordered by Moscow to return to Russia.
Estimates vary but it is believed that at least one million Georgians live in Russia. Many Georgian families depend on the remittances they send home.
'School lists'
Moscow police have also asked schools to draw up lists of pupils with Georgian surnames as part of their search for illegal immigrants, Russian media reported.
Alexander Gavrilov, a spokesman for the Moscow education department, said some schools had received the request, which he criticised.
But a Russian interior ministry spokesman said no such request had been made.
Tensions between Moscow and Tbilisi have grown since the early 1990s, with Tbilisi accusing Moscow of supporting separatists in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Russia has accused Georgia of pursuing an anti-Russian foreign policy in seeking closer relations with the West and Nato.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Georgia's arrest of four Russian army officers for spying was "an act of state terrorism with hostage-taking".
He was speaking after a meeting of his security council to discuss the crisis.
He said Georgia was trying to provoke Moscow with the help of "foreign sponsors" and compared its leadership to that of Soviet leader Josef Stalin.
Correspondents say it is Russia's worst crisis in relations with its neighbour in more than a decade.
In his first public comments on the crisis, Mr Putin likened the arrests to the repression of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's feared police chief, saying they were "a sign of the political legacy of Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria".
"They clearly want to pinch Russia in the most painful way, provoke it," he said in televised remarks at the start of a session of the presidential security council.
"These people think that under the roof of their foreign sponsors they can feel comfortable and secure. Is it really so?"
He then denounced the arrests as "an act of state terrorism involving the taking of hostages", the Kremlin said in a statement.
Growing tensions
On Friday, four Russian officers who had been detained in Georgia on Wednesday were charged with spying and were ordered to be held for two months pending investigations.
Russia recalled its ambassador to the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, and began a partial evacuation of its staff from the country.
On Saturday, Russia announced it was suspending the withdrawal of its troops from Georgia, which had been expected to be completed by the end of 2008.
Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili said his country expected Russia to honour the pullout agreement, and accused Moscow of trying to scare the Georgian people.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has described Moscow's reaction to the arrests as "hysteria".
Russia has urged the United Nations Security Council to take action to restrain Georgia.
Relations between Moscow and Tbilisi have deteriorated in recent weeks, since Georgia and the Western military alliance Nato agreed to hold talks on closer relations, correspondents say.
Georgia has also accused Russia of actively trying to undermine its government by backing separatists in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Relations between the two nations had already become increasingly tense since Mr Saakashvili was elected president of Georgia in 2004, pledging to take the Caucasian nation out of Russia's orbit and join Nato and the European Union.
Several miners remain trapped following a fire in a gold mine in Russia that has killed at least 12 colleagues.
The blaze broke out between 85m and 130m (230-430ft) below ground in the Darasun mine in Chita in Siberia.
Three men managed to escape the mine early on Saturday, two days after the fire started. They said at least five others were still alive in the mine.
Rescue work has been hampered by smoke, and 15 miners saved from the blaze were treated for smoke inhalation.
Specialist teams arrived on Saturday at the Darasun mine, which is about 4,700km (2,900 miles) east of Moscow, Russian emergency officials said.
Hope of survivors
The cause of the fire is not yet clear, though one report said it was set off by welding work.
Of the 64 miners underground when the fire took hold on Thursday, 31 crawled out within hours.
The company which owns the mine, Highland Gold Mining, said the bodies of 12 miners had been recovered.
After the further three who escaped on Saturday, 18 remain unaccounted for.
"The main thing today and now is to save the people and finish off this rescue operation," said Dmitry Yakushkin, the company's communication director.
A spokesman for Russia's emergencies ministry said there was still hope of finding survivors.
A Russian investigator has said grenades fired by surrounding Russian forces could have triggered the Beslan school bloodbath in September 2004.
Yuri Savelyev's conclusions contradict the official view that bombs planted by the hostage-takers in the school gym went off just before the gun battle.
Mr Savelyev is a member of the Russian parliamentary commission investigating the siege, in which 331 people died.
Many of the victims were children, taken hostage by pro-Chechen militants.
Blast evidence
In an interview with Moscow Echo radio on Monday, Mr Savelyev, a weapons and explosives expert, said that during the investigation, he "discovered that the consequences of those blasts could not at all be explained by the explosions of the home-made devices installed by the rebels".
"Most of the hostages were talking about explosions in a totally different part of the gym from that to which the official investigation referred.
"As a result, I came to the conclusion that these home-made explosive devices installed by the rebels did not explode at all. Those were explosive devices delivered from outside," he said, adding that it could have been "shots fired from grenade-launchers".
He said the explosions killed many of the hostages and dozens more died in the resulting fire.
Many relatives blame their children's deaths on the botched rescue operation, in which fire engulfed the school, in the Russian Caucasus republic of North Ossetia.
A North Ossetian parliamentary commission said the school had been seized because of "failings in the law enforcement bodies".
Row rages on
The head of the commission, Stanislav Kesayev, said he had confidence in Mr Savelyev's conclusions.
"He had more resources than our commission. He relied on his own knowledge as a weapons specialist and mathematician," Mr Kesayev told the radio.
Mr Savelyev's conclusions were published on the website pravdabeslana.ru.
One of his colleagues on the Russian parliamentary commission, Arkady Baskayev, rejected his conclusions.
He said there was "nothing convincing in the trajectory of these special shells" which Mr Savelyev blamed for the explosions.
"This is Mr Savelyev's private opinion, which is not confirmed in any way," he said.
The earlier North Ossetian investigation concluded that grenade launchers, flamethrowers and tank fire had been used during the storming of the school by Russian security forces.
Russia's prosecutor general admitted such equipment had been used, but only after all the children had left the school.
For weeks after the siege Russian officials had denied the use of flamethrowers.
Ukraine is holding a national day of mourning for 170 people killed there in a Russian plane crash on Tuesday.
The plane was flying from the Russian Black Sea resort of Anapa to St Petersburg when it crashed near Donetsk, killing all on board.
Most of the passengers were thought to be Russians, including 45 children.
Officials say bad weather or a possible fire may have caused the crash. Investigators have now recovered the flight data and voice recorders.
Officials working at the scene of the crash said fragments of 130 bodies had been recovered so far.
In St Petersburg, grieving relatives gathered at the city airport, which was the plane's final destination.
Some 50 relatives are expected to travel to the crash site in eastern Ukraine later on Wednesday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country would declare Thursday a day of mourning for the victims.
Dutch passengers
The crew of the Pulkovo Airlines flight FV 612 sent a distress signal at 1537 Moscow time (1137 GMT), and the plane - a Tupolev-154 - disappeared from radar screens two minutes later, Russian officials said.
Russia has urged Iran to heed a UN Security Council resolution giving Tehran until the end of the month to suspend uranium enrichment.
Iran asserted its right to produce nuclear energy a day after the resolution was passed.
The UN Security Council has given Tehran until 31 August to stop nuclear activities, or face possible sanctions.
Russia and China, which have strong commercial ties with Iran, previously resisted Western calls for sanctions.
Russia's foreign ministry said if Iran heeded the calls, then no further measures from the UN Security Council would be required.
However, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he would not bow to "the language of force and threats".
Speaking at a rally in the country's north, he said Iran had the right to use nuclear technology to produce fuel.
"The Iranian people see taking advantage of technology to produce nuclear fuel for peaceful purposes as their right," Mr Ahmadinejad told a crowd in the town of Bojnurd.
"Those who think they can use the language of threats and force against Iran are mistaken."
"If they don't realise that now, one day they will learn it the hard way," he added.
Economic sanctions
The US and other nations have accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons, but Iran says its motives are peaceful.
UN resolution 1696 was passed by 14 votes to one on Monday, with Qatar the lone dissenter.
It gives Iran until the end of August to suspend uranium enrichment and open its nuclear programme to international inspections.
If it does not comply, the council would consider adopting "appropriate measures" under Article 41 of Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which relates to economic sanctions.
Russia and China argued against the specific mention of sanctions, and said the Council would have to hold further discussions on what steps to take should Iran fail to meet the deadline.
Iran's ambassador to the UN, Javad Zarif, rejected the move, saying the country's nuclear programme "poses no threat to international peace and security".
The European Court of Human Rights has held Russia responsible for the disappearance and presumed death of a Chechen man, in a landmark ruling.
Khadzhi-Murat Yandiyev, 25, disappeared after being detained by Russian troops in Chechnya in 1999.
The case was brought by his mother, Fatima Bazorkina, after she saw TV footage in 2000 in which a Russian officer ordered her son to be shot.
Mrs Bazorkina sued Russia for failing to adequately investigate the case.
Russia had argued that there was no formal order to execute Mr Yandiyev and no hard evidence that he was dead.
This is the first such case the court is hearing from the Chechen conflict.
It could set an important precedent for the 200 or so other similar claims which are waiting to be heard, the BBC's Emma Simpson in Moscow says.
The ruling was posted on the Strasbourg-based court's official website.
It said that a chamber of seven judges in the case Bazorkina v Russia unanimously held that:
The court awarded Mrs Bazorkina 35,000 euros (｣24,000) in damages and 12,241 euros (｣8,400) for costs and expenses.
The ruling did not specify who would pay the damages and costs to the applicant.
Caught on camera
Khadzhi-Murat Yandiyev was arrested during the military campaign to regain control of the Chechen capital Grozny in 1999. He had returned from Moscow, where he had been studying sociology.
The presidents of Russia and the United States have been holding talks in St Petersburg as other world leaders arrive for the annual G8 summit.
But Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization, which was high on the agenda of George W Bush and Vladimir Putin, has been further delayed.
Despite marathon talks, US and Russian negotiators failed to strike a deal though talks will continue.
Other key issues for the summit are energy security and the Middle East.
Mr Bush arrived in Russia's second city on Friday, and the full G8 summit will officially open on Sunday morning.
'Significant progress'
No deal has yet been struck on Russia joining the World Trade Organization, said Sean Spicer, spokesman for US Trade Representative Susan Schwab.
"A final agreement has not been reached, but significant progress was made," he told Reuters news agency.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said talks were "continuing and will continue".
Russia has long been pressing for WTO entry, for which it needs US support.
It is by far the largest economy still outside the 149-member group but the US still has some concerns - particularly on intellectual property rights.
Despite a thaw in the run-up to the summit, relations between the US and Russia have been frosty over recent months.
Mr Bush has pledged to raise concerns about freedom in Russia during their meetings but said he would not lecture Mr Putin.
President Putin recently accused Western critics of Russian democracy of using "colonialist" rhetoric and said they should not interfere in Russia's affairs.
The two leaders dined on Friday night at the opulent 18th-Century Constantine Palace, which will host the G8 meetings.
Russia resurgent
Seven of the G8 nations, uneasy about the increasing role that Russia will have in meeting their energy needs, want energy supplies to be secure, says BBC economics correspondent Andrew Walker.
US President George W Bush has said he will be "firm" in expressing his concerns about freedoms in Russia to President Vladimir Putin.
"Our job is to continue to remind Russia if she wants to continue to have good relations she needs to share common values," Mr Bush said.
"But I'm also going to be respectful," he said ahead of a G8 summit in Russia.
Mr Bush's comments came at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Stralsund, Germany.
Mr Bush's two-day visit to the German Baltic port is the first by the president since Mrs Merkel came to power last year.
The two leaders also discussed a number of issues, including the Middle East, Iran's nuclear stand-off and North Korea's missile tests during the talks described by Mr Bush as a "strategy session".
'Firm belief'
Mr Bush said he would tell Mr Putin during the G8 summit in St Petersburg that non-governmental organisation should be allowed to function in Russia "without intimidation".
"I'll be firm about my belief in certain democratic institutions," Mr Bush said.
"I'll be firm in belief about the need for there [in Russia] to be an active civil society."
Mr Bush said he would raise these concerns with Mr Putin in their private meetings, without lecturing him.
His comments came a day after Mr Putin accused Western critics of Russia's record on democracy of using "colonialist" rhetoric.
In TV interviews, he said it was unacceptable for the West to use the issue to interfere in Russia's affairs.
Security concerns
Mr Bush is spending most of Thursday in the former East Germany, where Mrs Merkel grew up, in her parliamentary constituency of Stralsund.
Insurgents in Iraq say they have killed four Russian embassy workers kidnapped at the start of June.
The Mujahideen Shura Council, an umbrella group incorporating al-Qaeda in Iraq, released an internet video and a statement announcing their deaths.
The video showed one man being beheaded and another shot dead, as well as the body of a third, but there was no sign of the fourth hostage.
The Kremlin said it could not immediately confirm their deaths.
"At this moment our sources in Iraq have not confirmed the report of the killing of the Russian hostages," a government spokesman Moscow radio.
"The Foreign Ministry is doing all it can and using all channels to check the validity of this information."
The men were seized in Baghdad on 3 June, and kidnappers said the executions were in revenge for "torture, killing and displacement by the infidel Russian government" in Chechnya.
The Mujahideen Shura Council, which said it was holding the men, had threatened to kill them if Russia did not pull its troops out of Chechnya.
WASHINGTON — U.S. and Russian officials have agreed on terms for a seven-year extension of programs that provide U.S. money and expertise to secure and destroy Soviet-era caches of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
The agreement resolves legal disputes that threatened to derail the programs, which send hundreds of millions of dollars a year to Russia for "cooperative threat reduction" efforts. It will be signed by week's end, according to Frederick Jones, a spokesman for President Bush's National Security Council.
"The agreement ensures that critical cooperation with Russia continues to combat the proliferation threat posed by large quantities of Soviet legacy weapons of mass destruction and missile(s)," Jones says.
The cooperation programs, initiated in 1992, comprise a broad range of initiatives meant to reduce the risk that old Soviet weapons of mass destruction will fall into the hands of rogue states or terrorists. Projects include constructing facilities to lock down nuclear material and warheads; strengthening security at labs storing dangerous biological pathogens; developing special facilities to destroy chemical weapons; and dismantling long-range missiles and bombers.
President Bush has hailed the programs as an important part of the administration's efforts to keep terrorists from obtaining weapons of mass destruction. But the programs' future has been in flux since 2004 due to a U.S.-Russian dispute over liability protections for U.S. companies, workers and government personnel working at Russian weapons sites.
The original agreement governing the projects gave U.S. workers blanket protection from liability for damages in case of an on-site accident. That might include, for example, the accidental release of nerve gas at a chemical weapons disposal facility. But Russia was reluctant to continue that arrangement based on concerns that it would indemnify U.S. workers even for intentional acts of sabotage.
The new pact essentially retains the same blanket protections for U.S. workers involved in projects already underway. For new projects, the countries will develop liability protections that are not as sweeping as the current agreement.
William Hoehn, a non-proliferation expert at the Russian American Nuclear Security Advisory Council, said the new agreement would ensure that old Soviet weapons stocks are properly secured and disposed of.
— Russian, American, European and Japanese officials are negotiating over whether Russia should be allowed greater latitude to invest in utilities, pipelines, natural gas facilities and other infrastructure in the United States and Europe.
In a draft declaration for endorsement at a Group of 8 summit meeting next month in St. Petersburg, Russia, broadened Russian access is paired with something the West wants: endorsement of market principles and greater access for foreign investment in the energy industry of Russia, one of the biggest oil and natural gas producers in the world.
Russian investment in Western energy facilities has been relatively modest, like Lukoil's investment in a chain of 2,000 filling stations in the United States. But earlier this year, when Gazprom, the giant Russian natural gas monopoly, expressed an interest in buying Britain's largest distributor of natural gas, it raised a furor in Britain similar to reactions in the United States to a Chinese bid for Unocal and a Dubai company's arrangement to control operations at several American ports.
The political maneuvering keeps a channel for progress open at a time of fierce tensions between Russia and the West over access to energy supplies. In January, Russia cut off natural gas shipments to Ukraine during a price dispute, which shut down deliveries in Europe. The move prompted denunciations from the United States and Europe, and was seen as an effort to punish Ukraine, long dominated by Russia, for its political independence.
More recently, Vice President Dick Cheney and other American officials have rebuked Russia for its increased state control of the energy sector, its crackdown on dissent and what they say is an effort to muscle out Western investments in oil and gas pipelines in the Caspian Sea, where the United States has been trying to secure energy supplies in ways that would bypass Russia.
The goal of the energy negotiations, which are being held at the highest levels, is to smooth over the most pointed differences between Russia and the West with some mutually acceptable language. "The U.S., Russia and Europe are trying to find their way to common ground on the road to the summit," said Daniel Yergin, president of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, who talked with Russian and European officials in Europe last week.
The negotiator for the United States is Faryar Shirzad, a deputy national security adviser for economic affairs. For France, it is President Jacques Chirac's diplomatic adviser, Maurice Gourdault-Montagne. For Russia, it is Igor Shuvalov, President Vladimir V. Putin's chief aide in planning the meeting.
Mr. Shuvalov said Russia was determined to get the Group of 8 summit meeting to endorse the principle that for Russia, "energy security" meant greater access to investment in the West and to the means of delivery of oil and natural gas. Mr. Putin has said that energy security will be a main theme of the meeting.
Mr. Shuvalov said Russia was prepared to use its leverage to get that access, and had held up a decision on foreign bids for exploring a potentially huge natural gas reserve off the Russian coast in the Barents Sea until it was clear that the West would be receptive to offering similar bids by Russia for ownership in American and European energy facilities.
Russian investment has in fact already begun, and it has begun to stoke controversy. Rebuffing pressure from many in Britain, Prime Minister Tony Blair said he would not try to stop the Russian effort.
Gazprom and Lukoil are not the only Russian entities looking abroad. Now the Russians appear interested in investing in pipelines and liquefied natural gas conversion facilities on the East Coast, which some experts fear could reignite the passions that swirled around Unocal and the Dubai port deals, both of which fell through. Critics of those deals successfully argued that they would have surrendered vital strategic economic assets to foreign control.
"Gazprom has not been specific on what it wants in North America," said Thane Gustafson, professor of politics at Georgetown University. "But what they want to do is replicate what they've done in Germany and in varying degrees throughout Eastern Europe, " he said, referring to investments by Russian companies in European energy production and transmission.
Mr. Putin aims to use the St. Petersburg summit meeting to demand respect for Russia as a major energy producer. Russia wants to rebut the argument, heard after the Ukraine natural gas cutoff, that it is not a reliable producer, and to bury suggestions from some critics in the United States that it should be expelled from the Group of 8 nations.
"The summit should recognize that Russia plays a key role in providing energy security, and that Russia is ready to open its energy reserves to foreign investment," said Mr. Shuvalov in a telephone interview. "We think that after this summit, no one will again question the membership of Russia in the G-8."
The United States is looking to the meeting to endorse Mr. Bush's vision of "energy security," particularly reduced dependence on Middle East oil, greater variety of oil resources and more nuclear power. One other important part of the American vision is that, especially after the Ukraine cutoff, there should be more efforts to bypass Russia for natural gas exports, especially to Europe.
Not surprisingly, the Russians have a different definition for "energy security," interpreting the term to mean greater guarantees of access of Russian energy to Europe, not less. Ownership of European and American pipelines would support that goal, Russians say.
One area of Russian-American competition that could come up at the summit meeting is the activity in the Caspian Sea, where at least since the 1990's, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States has sought to encourage oil and gas pipelines that would not go through Russia. Earlier this year, for example, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Turkey and Greece not to engage Gazprom as a partner in bringing natural gas to southern Europe. Gazprom is viewed in the West as a shadowy creature of the Russian state that has enriched the people around Mr. Putin.
Comments like those of Ms. Rice and Mr. Cheney challenging Russian energy dominance in the region have hurt the atmosphere for the summit meeting, Mr. Shuvalov said. But American officials say it is in Russia's interest to encourage diversity of supply.
"Despite what they think, it's not that we want to shut Russia out," said another senior administration official involved in planning the summit meeting, who requested anonymity because he did not want to speak publicly about issues still under negotiation. "That's ridiculous. Russia will always be a major energy exporter and transit route. What we're trying to do is make sure there is no monopoly on energy, to avoid someone manipulating the markets."
More than 70 people have been arrested in Moscow after activists tried to hold the city's first gay rights rally, despite a ban on the event.
About 50 gay rights supporters were held, as well as 20 people from religious and nationalist groups opposed to the march.
On Friday, a court upheld a ban on the march imposed by the city authorities who argued it could trigger violence.
Saturday marks 13 years since Russia's decriminalisation of homosexuality.
A number of foreign activists are in Moscow for a forum on gay rights.
About 1,000 riot police were deployed close to Red Square in the heart of the city to stop the rally from taking place and prevent clashes with its opponents.
They moved in when a group of activists tried to lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, in a symbolic protest to equate the struggle for gay rights with the struggle against fascism in World War II.
The rally's organiser, Nikolay Alexeyev, was among those arrested.
Slogans and abuse
Meanwhile demonstrators representing nationalist and Orthodox Christian groups chanted anti-gay slogans and shouted abuse.
Eyewitnesses said several foreign gay rights activists were beaten by protesters.
"What happened today unfortunately is representative of the non-respect for human rights in Russia. You can't express your point of view, and you are not protected from extremists," said French activist Sebastien Maria.
Nationalist groups expressed anger at the nature of the action at the tomb.
"We are Russians. We are Orthodox. These soldiers died so we could live like Russians, not so these people could come here and tell us what to do," Andrey, 25, told Reuters news agency.
Both groups moved up one of the main city streets to a square outside the Moscow city government offices, where more arrests followed.
Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said he had banned the march because he believed homosexuality was not natural and because the event would cause outrage in society - a position supported by many Christian and Muslim groups.
He said that as long as he was mayor he would not allow such events to take place.
Mr Alexeyev said the march would not go ahead as originally planned, but promised a public action nonetheless.
The judge said Chechen carpenter Nur-Pashi Kulayev deserved the death penalty, but as that was not possible in Russia, they jailed him for life.
Kulayev had denied the charges relating to the 2004 attack in which more than 330 people died, many of them children.
The verdict is the culmination of a year-long, highly emotional trial.
Kulayev, 25, was the only survivor from a group of 32 Chechen separatists who held more than 1,000 children, parents and teachers hostage in the North Ossetia school for three days.
He narrowly avoided being lynched by local people after being discovered hiding underneath a lorry not far from the school after the siege ended in a bloody battle between hostage-takers and Russian troops.
'Fairy tale'
Black-clad mothers of victims had crowded the courtroom for the verdict, carrying banners which read: "There is no forgiveness of the authorities who let Beslan happen."
As Kulayev was led away, some of them tried to attack him while others wailed and banged on the glass and metal cage.
Reactions to the verdict were mixed.
Emiliya Bzarova, who lost a son in the siege, told Russian radio it gave her hope that Kulayev would at some point "tell the truth" and help to convict others.
Another victim's mother, Aneta Gadiyeva, who said she spoke for a majority of the families, said: "The ultimate sentence should have been passed... We believe that this was a particularly evil act and it should have been punished accordingly."
Kulayev admitted participating in the siege, but said he did not kill anyone and dismissed the charges against him as a "fairy tale".
Judge Tamerlan Aguzarov said Kulayev's actions had in part led to the killing of 16 hostages by the attackers and he had detonated a bomb at School Number One that had injured hostages and government troops.
Questions remain
He was also found guilty of shooting children and other hostages who tried to escape the school on the third day of the crisis, the Associated Press reports.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov has announced sweeping plans to modernise the country's armed forces.
He said the priorities would be to reduce the number of conscripts and cut hundreds of generals' and admirals' posts over the next five years.
The defence minister also announced that around 30,000 military support jobs would be axed.
Russian officials have said reforms will be an important step in curbing indiscipline and endemic bullying.
As part of the reforms, 70% of servicemen, and all non-commissioned officers, would be employed under contract in three years.
General cuts
Mr Ivanov said the plans aimed to move the armed forces towards a more professional footing, but he avoided suggestions of a final end to conscription.
He said the cuts would only be made from "bureaucratic posts and auxiliary structures".
"Not one single combat unit, not one unit, will be cut," he said.
"We have plans to cut in the future some 300 generals' and admirals' posts, maintaining a constant ratio of one general or admiral to every 1,000 subordinate service personnel."
Mr Ivanov has previously said the move to a professional army could take a decade or more. But he now appears to be indicating that the process should be accelerated.
Influential
The minister said that in future, funding will be earmarked for development, rather than maintenance of existing equipment and facilities.
He also warned that reports of the US planning to station missile systems in Eastern Europe caused "serious concern" in Russia, and would be taken into account in military planning.
Mr Ivanov is Russia's first civilian defence minister and is an influential political figure, BBC Russian affairs analyst Steven Eke says.
Like President Vladimir Putin, he made his career in the Soviet intelligence services.
He is often referred to by the Russian media as a possible successor to Mr Putin after the 2008 presidential elections.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has arrived in Russia ahead of talks with President Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
Top of the agenda is likely to be Russia's financial aid for the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority.
Funding dried up from the US and Europe after militant group Hamas won elections earlier this year.
But Russia has continued its funding, saying it would be wrong to isolate the Palestinians even with Hamas in charge.
UN mechanism
Unlike Washington and Brussels, Moscow has refused to condemn Hamas as a terrorist organisation.
It even invited Hamas leaders to Moscow for talks two months ago
Last week, Russia transferred $10 million (｣5.2m) in emergency funds to the authority, which is in deep financial crisis.
More than 165,000 workers have not been paid for two months.
In the wake of the scrapping of direct financial aid by the EU and US, a temporary international aid mechanism was negotiated at the UN last Tuesday.
Palestinian ambassador to Russia, Baker Abdel Munem, said Monday's talks would be a "meeting of two friends".
Hamas spokesman, Ali Barakat, quoted by the Tass news agency, thanked Mr Putin for his support of the Palestinian people and said he hoped the meeting in Sochi would "invigorate the situation in all areas".
Mr Mahmoud's Fatah faction remains in a tense power struggle with Hamas following the latter's poll win in January.
The US says Hamas must renounce violence and recognise Israel - demands dismissed by Hamas.
MOSCOW, Russia -- President Vladimir Putin used his state of the nation address to announce measures to boost Russia's falling birthrate and call for a stronger army -- though he also took a swipe at the U.S. after recent remarks by Vice President Dick Cheney. In the seventh state of the nation address since his 2000 election, Putin concentrated largely on domestic issues, calling for measures to reverse a demographic decline that has shrunk Russia's population by millions since the Soviet collapse. But amid increasingly vocal American criticism of his domestic and foreign policies, Putin also issued a veiled response to Vice President Dick Cheney's accusations that Moscow is rolling back on democracy and strong-arming its ex-Soviet neighbors. "Where is all this pathos about protecting human rights and democracy when it comes to the need to pursue their own interests?" said Putin, who also used a fairy-tale reference to criticize the aggressive U.S. course in global affairs. "We are aware what is going on in the world," he said. "Comrade wolf knows whom to eat, it eats without listening and it's clearly not going to listen to anyone." CNN's Senior International Correspondent Matthew Chance said the speech -- the text of which had been kept secret until it was delivered -- was not the one that had been expected. Kremlin watchers said the speech would focus on international affairs, said Moscow-based Chance. But the main themes of the speech were economic, although the Russian leader did touch on some international issues. The main themes of Putin's speech were the importance of the Russian army and the need to increase the country's birthrate, calling the persistent population decline one of the most serious problems facing the country. Putin also called for Russia to focus on investment and innovation to win its deserved place in the world economy. He also called for more work to tackle alcoholism. Devoting much of the hour-long speech to defense, Putin stressed that Russia needs a strong military not only to guard against terrorism and attacks but also to resist political pressure from abroad. He noted that Russia's military budget was 25 times lower than that of the United States. "Their house is their fortress -- good for them," he said. "But that means that we also must make our house strong and reliable." "We must always be ready to counter any attempts to pressure Russia in order to strengthen positions at our expense," Putin said. "The stronger our military is, the less temptation there will be to exert such pressure on us." Putin said the government would work to strengthen the nation's nuclear deterrent as well as conventional military forces without repeating the mistakes of the Cold War era, when a costly arms race against the United States drained Soviet resources. "Our response must be based on intellectual advantage, it must be asymmetrical and less costly while increasing the reliability and efficiency of our nuclear triad," Putin said, adding that the nation will strengthen all its components -- long-range aviation, land-based strategic missile forces and nuclear submarines. He said Russia would soon commission two nuclear submarines equipped with the new Bulava intercontinental ballistic missiles -- the nation's first since Soviet times -- while the land-based strategic missile forces will get their first unit of mobile Topol-M missiles. U.S.-Russian relations hit their coldest moment last week when U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, speaking in Vilnius, accused Moscow of backsliding on democracy and using its vast energy resources as a tool for "intimidation and blackmail" against its neighbors. U.S. President George W. Bush, who will next meet Putin in St. Petersburg in July at a G8 summit of leaders of the industrialized world, said in an interview with a German newspaper that Russia is giving out "mixed signals" on democracy. On Iran, Putin also sidestepped open criticism, making only a veiled warning to Washington not to take military action against Iran over its nuclear ambitions.
Putin said Russia stood "unambiguously" for preventing the spread of nuclear weapons in the world. But, in an apparent reference to mounting tension between the United States and Iran though without mentioning either by name, he said: "Methods of force rarely give the desired result and often their consequences are even more terrible than the original threat." Moscow finds itself at odds with the West in the U.N. Security Council over how to respond to Tehran's refusal to end uranium enrichment. Putin, unchallenged at home and due to step down in 2008 after two terms in office, zeroed in instead on Russia's catastrophic demographic situation, saying the population of the country was falling by 700,000 people every year. "The problem of low birth rates cannot be resolved without a change in the attitude of our society towards the issue of family and family values," he said. "We must at least stimulate the birth of a second child," Putin said, adding that concerns about housing, health care and education prompt many families to stop at one. To loud applause from officials, he said a special program would be set up in the 2007 state budget that would make 1,500 rubles ($55.39) monthly payouts to families for their first baby and double that sum for a second child. He called on the government to work more effectively to raise Russians' standard of living, and made a now customary -- though ineffective up to now -- dig at state corruption, saying that a number of officials "have enriched themselves at the cost of the majority of citizens." Putin acknowledged that his originally stated goal of doubling gross domestic product within a decade now looks unlikely, due to growth falling slightly short of expectations in the last couple of years. However, he stressed that overall economic developments have been positive, and took credit in particular for the explosive growth in the market capitalization of gas monopoly OAO Gazprom over the last year. "This didn't happen by itself ... but as the result of certain actions by the Russian government," Putin said. He identified obsolete equipment and poor energy efficiency as two of the factors holding back the Russian economy's competitiveness. Much of the equipment produced in Russia is "10 years out of date" and he said "even taking into account the climatic conditions of our country, energy efficiency is much lower than in competing nations." In a barb apparently aimed at the United States, he said countries should not use Russia's World Trade Organization membership negotiations as a vehicle to make unrelated demands. "The negotiations for letting Russia into the WTO should not become a bargaining chip for questions that have nothing in common with the activities of this organization," Putin said. Russia has signed agreements with the European Union, China and Japan, among others, but has yet to reach deals with the United States, Colombia and Australia. In March, Putin expressed frustration at the pace of negotiations, accusing the U.S. of coming up with ungrounded demands that were hindering talks. One of the persistent obstacles to Russia's WTO membership has been its poor record on combating the production and sale of pirated goods. "It is our obligation" to protect copyrights, Putin said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will make his seventh annual address to the nation on Wednesday.
The exact contents of the speech are kept secret until delivery, but it is expected to place more emphasis on foreign policy than in previous years.
Mr Putin will say that despite tensions Russia remains committed to ties with the West but will not seek its approval at any price, correspondents say.
He will insist that Russia is getting back on its feet after years of chaos.
In his speech, to be delivered at 1200 local time (0800 GMT), Mr Putin will address ministers, parliamentarians, senior members of the judiciary and religious leaders.
Those gathered in the Marble Hall of the Kremlin may number more than 1,000.
Iran policy
A much larger, worldwide audience will also be paying close attention. Russia currently holds the presidency of the G8 group of the world's leading industrialised nations.
Security of energy supply is one of the themes of Russia's time in charge.
The BBC's James Rodgers in Moscow say its growing role as a provider of oil and gas to an energy-hungry world has given it new strength on the international stage.
Mr Putin may choose to answer critics, including US Vice-President Dick Cheney, who have suggested that Russia uses its resources as tools of intimidation and blackmail.
He may also talk about policy towards Iran. Moscow has always insisted that the tension over Tehran's nuclear programme be solved by diplomatic means and has sought to bring such a solution about.
President Putin is also likely to discuss domestic issues, particularly Russia's so-called "national projects".
These high-profile government schemes are devoted to improving health, education, agriculture and housing.
Racist killings in Russia are "out of control", according to a report by international human rights watchdog Amnesty International.
The report into violent racism shows that at least 28 people were killed and 366 were assaulted in 2005.
This year there have already been a number of high-profile cases, including the death of nine-year-old Tajik girl.
Amnesty condemns discrimination by the authorities and a failure to properly record or investigate racist crimes.
The Amnesty report, entitled "Russian Federation: Violent racism out of control", includes examples of police and prosecutors routinely classifying murders and serious assaults by skinhead extremists as lesser crimes of "hooliganism".
Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said racist killings and violent attacks against foreigners, visible ethnic minorities and anti-racist campaigners in Russia were out of control.
"Some Russian authorities are turning a blind eye," she said. "Instead of seeing only 'hooliganism' in vicious organised attacks on students from African, south-east Asian countries and non-Slavic Russians from Chechnya, Russia's police and prosecutors need to tackle head-on the growing scourge of violent racism in Russia."
She said President Vladimir Putin's government should adopt a comprehensive "plan of action" to combat racism and anti-Semitism.
Protests
Cases highlighted in the Amnesty report include the killing of nine-year-old Tajik girl Khursheda Sultonov.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused European countries for whipping up fears over the reliability of Russian energy supplies.
Speaking after meeting German leader Angela Merkel, Mr Putin said Russia and Europe must agree "rules of the game".
Russian firms could seek new markets in Asia if they were not free to operate in Europe, he said in a veiled threat.
European anxieties on the issue have been growing since Russia briefly cut gas supplies to Ukraine in January.
The stoppage had a knock-on effect, hitting supplies to other European countries further down its pipeline.
Fears about Russia's supplies resurfaced in the UK recently after it emerged that Russian gas giant Gazprom was eyeing British Gas owner Centrica as a potential takeover target.
The BBC's Andrew Walker says Russia is unlikely to break any existing contracts, but firms know perfectly well there is enormous demand for their oil and gas in Asia.
The timing of Mr Putin's comments, after a meeting with the German chancellor, was unlikely to be a coincidence - the message would not go unheeded, our correspondent adds.
No coincidence
The Kremlin leader denied Moscow had any plans to restrict energy supplies to Europe - the continent was, he said, a natural and convenient partner for Russia to do business with.
In a fierce defence of his country's reliability as a supplier of energy, Mr Putin said even during the Cold War, Moscow had always fulfilled its commercial energy contracts with European states.
But opposition to Russian expansion in European markets could force Moscow's companies to look elsewhere, he added.
"We are being blocked to the north, the south and the west on any pretext. We have to find outlets, to fit into the global development process.
"What are we supposed to do in these circumstances, when every day we hear the same thing? We start to look for other markets."
Globalisation or expansion?
Mr Putin singled out apparent support in the UK for special legislation designed to prevent Russian firm Gazprom buying a controlling stake in UK gas distributor Centrica.
"What kind of reaction is this? What about globalisation? What about free markets? What is this?"
Russian oil and gas companies have benefited from high fuel prices in recent years and have become keen to expand their businesses.
However, Mr Putin said, when European companies invest abroad they call it "investment and globalisation", but when Russians go abroad, it is seen as expansion.
A senior US official has called on Russia to stop helping Iran build its first civilian nuclear power station.
After talks in Moscow to discuss Iran's nuclear programme, US envoy Nicholas Burns said other nations should not help Iran, even on civilian projects.
The tension between the US and Russia comes despite attempts to present a united front to Iran.
Tehran has defied UN calls to stop nuclear activity, saying last week it had successfully enriched uranium.
Enriched uranium can be used as fuel in a nuclear plant, or, when highly refined, in a nuclear weapon.
Iran insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful power generation only, while the US and other Western countries believe it is running a covert weapons programme.
Impatience
Russia's engagement with Iran's nuclear programme has been a source of friction between Moscow and Washington for many years, says the BBC's Russian affairs analyst Steven Eke.
US officials believe it has helped bolster Iranian nuclear know-how.
"We... think it is important for countries to stop cooperation with Iran on nuclear issues, even on civilian nuclear issues like the Bushehr facility," said Mr Burns, the US undersecretary of state, referring to Iran's first atomic power station in the south of the country.
Russia's impatience with Iran is increasingly visible, says our correspondent, but even so Moscow will not welcome this American intervention.
Russia says it has always maintained adequate safeguards and international oversight would be in place to prevent the diversion of sensitive technologies.
It is also reluctant to do anything that might damage its relationship with Iran, our correspondent says.
Russia has said it will grant the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority urgent financial aid, in opposition to the policy of the EU and the US.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made the pledge to authority President Mahmoud Abbas in a telephone call, Moscow said.
The US and EU cut off aid after Hamas took power on 30 March because the militant group refused to renounce violence or recognise Israel.
Iran on Friday urged the Muslim world to help fund the authority.
A Russian foreign ministry statement said: "Mahmoud Abbas stated his high appreciation of Russia's intent, confirmed by Sergei Lavrov, to grant the Palestinian Authority an urgent financial aid in the nearest future."
Mr Lavrov said on Tuesday withholding aid to the Palestinians was a mistake.
"Hamas should... recognise Israel and sit down at the negotiating table. But for that it's necessary to work with them," Mr Lavrov said.
The US Treasury this week further tightened the screws on Palestinian cash by banning American nationals from doing business with the Hamas-led authority.
However, the US is making exceptions for government entities under the direct control of Mr Abbas, whose Fatah movement is a rival of Hamas.
Palestinian PM Ismail Haniya, of Hamas, vowed on Friday that the cuts in funds would not weaken the people's resolve.
Israel 'a rotten tree'
In Tehran, the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, opened a three-day forum on Palestinian solidarity by calling on the Muslim world to help the Palestinian people and their Hamas-led government.
Ayatollah Khamenei said all Muslims had a duty to help and should not remain indifferent to tyranny.
MOSCOW, April 6 -- In major Russian supermarkets, Georgian and Moldovan wine is being pulled from the shelves. At warehouses across the country, millions of bottles from the two countries are in lockdown. And hundreds of train cars and trucks laden with wine are stopped on Russia's borders, blocked from entering by customs officials. Just a few months ago, Russia settled its war over natural gas prices with Ukraine. Now it has opened another trade battle with two other former Soviet republics that officials here see as recalcitrant for drifting away from Moscow's influence. Late last month the Russian consumer protection agency banned the import of Georgian and Moldovan wine and ordered a halt to all sales of existing stock, claiming the wines were contaminated with pesticides and heavy metals. Officials in the two countries dismiss the allegation as nonsense. Together, Georgia and Moldova provide nearly 43 percent of all wine sold in Russia, according to Snezhana Ravlyuk, senior analyst at Business Analytica in Moscow. The ban is having a punishing effect on an industry that stretches from Black Sea vineyards to the Moscow warehouses of Russian wholesalers. "It's very clear this was a political, illegal and unfriendly decision," said Georgia's prime minister, Zurab Nogaideli, in a telephone interview from Tbilisi, the capital. "It's absolutely absurd and ridiculous. If our wine goes to European Union markets and North America and has no problems, why is it not able to go to the Russian market?" The Russian action followed suggestions by Georgian and Moldovan officials that they might block Russia's attempt to join the World Trade Organization, a major goal of President Vladimir Putin. He has also complained recently that the United States was holding up Russia's membership. Both Georgia and Moldova contain breakaway regions that are supported by Russia. The two governments hoped to use Russia's desire to join the WTO as leverage in negotiations with the Kremlin about those regions, analysts here said. Georgia and Moldova have had strained relations with Moscow since Western-oriented governments came to power. They say the wine ban exemplifies Russia's willingness to use its economic clout for political purposes. Such moves are generally illegal under WTO rules. A similar accusation was leveled when Russia's state-owned Gazprom switched off the flow of natural gas to Ukraine for a few days at the beginning of January. Russian officials said at the time that the cutoff resulted from a need to charge market prices and end what amounted to a massive subsidy of the Ukrainian government. This time, the Russians say, it's all about bad wine. "Our results show that more than 60 percent of wine and wine materials from Moldova and the Republic of Georgia do not comply with sanitation and epidemiological regulations," Russia's Federal Inspectorate for Consumer Protection said in a letter to the Russian Customs Service. Officials at the consumer agency were not available for comment, a spokeswoman said. The decision followed what the consumer agency said were routine checks of Georgian and Moldovan wines on store shelves. Whether the checked wine was even from Georgia is open to question; in Russia there is large-scale counterfeiting of Georgian wine, which is very popular for both its quality and cost.
MOSCOW -- In this city, it's beginning to feel like a new Cold War, driven by what many people here see as an old American impulse: to encircle, weaken or even destroy Russia, just as the country is emerging from post-Soviet ruins as a cohesive, self-confident and global power. The specter of a U.S. nuclear first strike even resurfaced this month. An article in Foreign Affairs magazine, published by the Council on Foreign Relations, suggested that the United States could hit Russia and China without serious risk of retaliation. That sent heads spinning here with visions of Dr. Strangelove. "The publication of these ideas in a respectable American journal has had an explosive effect," former Russian prime minister Yegor Gaidar wrote in an article in London's Financial Times newspaper. "Even those Russian journalists and analysts who are not prone to hysteria or anti-Americanism took it as an outline of the official position of the U.S. Administration." "Today, it's accepted by most of the establishment that we are under pressure, that we are being surrounded, and it's leading to a defensive nationalist vision," said Sergei Rogov, director of the Institute of the United States and Canada in Moscow. Intensifying U.S. criticism -- that Russia is rolling back democratic institutions, interfering in the countries of the former Soviet Union and using its vast energy resources to further its interests -- is leading to widespread resentment here and seen as little more than self-serving rhetoric. Russians widely believe that U.S. programs to promote democracy in Ukraine, Georgia and Belarus are a Trojan horse intended to sideline Russia and expand NATO. Academics point to reports such as one released recently by the Council on Foreign Relations: "To ease Russian pressure on neighboring states," it said, "the United States should work to accelerate those states' integration into the West." "We are gradually being pushed to the northeast of the Eurasian continent away from the seas . . . to the place where the depths of freezing is more than two meters," said Natalia Narochnitskaya, vice chairman of the international affairs committee in the State Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament, and a member of the nationalist Rodina Party. She rues the loss of the three Baltic states to European Union and NATO membership and the possible loss of Russia's naval presence on the Black Sea. "The messianism of American foreign policy is a remarkable thing," she said. When Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice speaks, Narochnitskaya said, "it seems like Khrushchev reporting to the party congress: 'The whole world is marching triumphantly toward democracy but some rogue states prefer to stay aside from that road, etc. etc.' " The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks appeared to put U.S.-Russian relations on a new and remarkable footing. President Vladimir Putin facilitated the stationing of American troops in Central Asia to support military operations in Afghanistan. In 2002, Putin, still regarded as a reformer, was offered a year-long chairmanship of the Group of Eight leading industrial democracies. Today, some public figures in the United States, including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), have suggested that President Bush boycott the G8 summit in St. Petersburg this summer to register dismay at Russia's foreign policy and its internal direction. Many U.S. officials hold up the administration of President Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s as imperfect but headed in the right direction; people here say those years were simply chaotic. "For a person of democratic and liberal persuasions, I can say that Russia has never been freer or more affluent," said Sergei Karaganov, chairman of the Russian Council on Foreign and Defense Policy. "Putin inherited a non-state, so he first wants to build a state and create the conditions for modernization and democracy. Do I worry about some domestic developments? Of course. I could be more critical than most Americans. But it's like blaming winter for following autumn." In Moscow, strains in the relationship are viewed more as a result of the United States' inability to accept the fact that Russia is no longer the servile entity of the 1990s -- when it blustered but, in the end, always caved because it was weak. "We have safeguarded and will safeguard our national interests," Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, told reporters last week. "If someone dislikes this, this is not our problem." On certain issues, such as the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran, Russian officials say they will work with the West, but on their own terms. There is, for instance, broad agreement with the United States that Iran should not acquire nuclear weapons, but little consensus on what steps to take to prevent that from happening. Russia is opposed to imposing sanctions on Iran, with which it has strong economic ties. But in the area known as Russia's "near-abroad," the former Soviet republics at its periphery, Russia and the West often take diametrically opposed views of the same situation. In Belarus, Western governments condemned the recent reelection of President Alexander Lukashenko as a farce. Russia declared the contest free and fair, as it has in contested ballots across the former Soviet Union. Even if Russians recognize electoral fraud, they are not going to concede the point, said Rogov. "My suspicion is that since we see no better alternative, we prefer the status quo -- no matter how bad it is." Narochnitskaya said the underlying issue is not democracy but influence. "The hysteria around Belarus and the demonization of President Lukashenko has more to do with his anti-NATO, anti-Western stand than his lack of democracy," she said. "Belarus is a missing piece of the puzzle assembled from the Baltics to the Black Sea. There are points on the map where we can yield, but there are some where it's important not to do so." The point that appears to animate Russians most is Ukraine. Since that country's Orange Revolution, the popular protests that swept President Viktor Yushchenko into power 16 months ago, relations between the two countries have soured. At the beginning of this year, the Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom briefly cut off natural gas supplies, which are critical to Ukraine's heavy industry and households. In parliamentary elections last month, Yushchenko's party suffered a humiliating setback to a Moscow-backed candidate. In Washington and European Union capitals, the cutoff was seen as punishment for Yushchenko's Western orientation, particularly his desire to bring Ukraine into NATO. For Russia, such a move would be anathema. The defense and civilian industries of the two countries remain closely intertwined, and Russia's Black Sea fleet is based in the Crimea on Ukrainian territory. "The idea of admitting Ukraine into NATO is hammering the final nail into the coffin of Russia as an independent great power," Rogov said. "We go out, you go in. Unfortunately, it's almost a consensus in Russia, that the West is trying to isolate Russia."
Russia has denied providing Saddam Hussein with intelligence on US military moves in the opening days of the US-led invasion in 2003.
"Similar, baseless accusations concerning Russia's intelligence have been made more than once," a Foreign Intelligence Service spokesman said.
A US Pentagon report said Russia passed details through its Baghdad ambassador.
One piece of intelligence passed on was false, and in fact helped a key US deception effort, the report said.
The report also quoted an Iraqi memo which mentioned Russian "sources" at the US military headquarters in Qatar.
"The information that the Russians have collected from their sources inside the American Central Command in Doha is that the United States is convinced that occupying Iraqi cities are [sic] impossible," said the Iraqi document, quoted by the Pentagon report.
Surprise attack
The false intelligence apparently passed on by Russia concerned the date the US was likely to start its main attack on Baghdad.
A document from the Iraqi foreign minister to Saddam Hussein, dated 2 April 2003, and quoting Russian intelligence, said the attack would not begin until the Army's 4th Infantry Division arrived about 15 April.
This reinforced an impression that the US military were trying to create, in order to catch Iraqis by surprise with an earlier attack, the Pentagon report said.
In fact, the assault on the Iraqi capital began well before the 4th Division arrived, and the city fell about a week before 15 April.
The same Iraqi memo said that US troops were moving to cut off Baghdad from the south, east and north.
"Significantly, the (Iraqi) regime was also receiving intelligence from the Russians that fed suspicions that the attack out of Kuwait was merely a diversion," the report said.
The Pentagon report noted that there were Russian business interests in Iraqi oil, and a senior US military spokesman said Russia's actions were being seen as "driven by economic interests".
Saddam 'interference'
The report also said Saddam Hussein's inept military leadership was a key factor in the defeat of his forces.
"The largest contributing factor to the complete defeat of Iraq's military forces was the continued interference by Saddam (Hussein)," it said.
The BBC's Pentagon correspondent, Adam Brookes, says that overall the report portrays Saddam Hussein as chronically out of touch with reality - preoccupied with the prevention of domestic unrest and with the threat posed by Iran.
The 210-page report - Iraqi Perspectives Project - aims to help US officials understand in hindsight how the Iraqi military prepared for and fought during the invasion.
There are both classified and unclassified versions of the report.
Russia provided Saddam Hussein with intelligence on US military moves in the opening days of the US-led invasion in 2003, a Pentagon report has said.
Russia passed the details through its Baghdad ambassador, the report said. Russia has not commented on the claim.
One piece of intelligence passed on was false, and in fact helped a key US deception effort, the report concluded.
The report also quoted an Iraqi memo which mentioned Russian "sources" at the US military headquarters in Qatar.
"The information that the Russians have collected from their sources inside the American Central Command in Doha is that the United States is convinced that occupying Iraqi cities are [sic] impossible," said the Iraqi document, quoted by the Pentagon report.
Surprise attack
The false intelligence apparently passed on by Russia concerned the date the US was likely to start its main attack on Baghdad.
A document from the Iraqi foreign minister to Saddam Hussein, dated 2 April 2003, and quoting Russian intelligence, said the attack would not begin until the Army's 4th Infantry Division arrived about 15 April.
This reinforced an impression that the US military were trying to create, in order to catch Iraqis by surprise with an earlier attack, the Pentagon report said.
In fact, the assault on the Iraqi capital began well before the 4th Division arrived, and the city fell about a week before 15 April.
The same Iraqi memo said that US troops were moving to cut off Baghdad from the south, east and north.
"Significantly, the (Iraqi) regime was also receiving intelligence from the Russians that fed suspicions that the attack out of Kuwait was merely a diversion," the report said.
The Pentagon report noted that there were Russian business interests in Iraqi oil, and a senior US military spokesman said Russia's actions were being seen as "driven by economic interests".
Saddam 'interference'
The report also said Saddam Hussein's inept military leadership was a key factor in the defeat of his forces.
"The largest contributing factor to the complete defeat of Iraq's military forces was the continued interference by Saddam (Hussein)," it said.
The BBC's Pentagon correspondent, Adam Brookes, says that overall the report portrays Saddam Hussein as chronically out of touch with reality - preoccupied with the prevention of domestic unrest and with the threat posed by Iran.
The 210-page report - Iraqi Perspectives Project - aims to help US officials understand in hindsight how the Iraqi military prepared for and fought during the invasion.
There are both classified and unclassified versions of the report.
MINSK, Belarus, March 20 -- The landslide victory of Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus's presidential election was condemned Monday by a broad range of Western governments and international organizations as the poisoned fruit of the state's abuse of power. "The March 19 presidential election did not meet the required international standards for free and fair elections," said Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.), who chairs the parliamentary assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a 55-nation transatlantic organization that monitors elections. "Arbitrary use of state power and widespread detentions showed a disregard for the basic rights of freedom of assembly, association and expression," Hastings said, "and raise doubts regarding the authorities' willingness to tolerate political competition." Official figures show that Lukashenko, 51, received 82.6 percent of the vote, compared to 6 percent for his nearest rival, Alexander Milinkevich, a former physics professor. Milinkevich said that the president's tally was "monstrously inflated." For the second night in a row, thousands of his supporters gathered on a central square in downtown Minsk to protest the result. Riot police deployed nearby have so far not intervened to disperse the protesters, despite a threat from Lukashenko last week that he would "wring the necks" of demonstrators. When a French reporter asked him at a press conference Monday what had come of his threat, Lukashenko, a former collective farm manager, said, "I see your neck is in place." Opposition leaders conceded that the size of the crowds, 10,000 Sunday night and somewhat fewer Monday, was not enough to threaten the government. Sergei Kalyakin, who headed Milinkevich's campaign, said 100,000 people are needed if authorities are to "hear the voice of the people." In a country where Lukashenko maintains solid support and where the galvanized opposition is mostly composed of students, that kind of public backlash is unlikely. Opposition leaders hope that the election and its aftermath will seed a movement that eventually will present a real challenge to Lukashenko's autocratic rule. In what has now become a pattern in the former Soviet Union at election time, observers from other former Soviet republics, including Russia, and Western monitors on government-sponsored trips, said the vote was free and fair. "There is full ground to believe that the elections complied with universally recognized standards," said the Russian Foreign Ministry in a statement. "There are no doubts about their legitimacy. This is the opinion of a large group of election observers from Russia" and the Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose association of former Soviet republics. President Vladimir Putin sent Lukashenko a telegram congratulating him on his victory. An Italian parliamentary commission has concluded that the former Soviet Union was behind the 1981 assassination attempt on the late Pope John Paul II.
The head of the commission, Paolo Guzzanti, said it was sure beyond "reasonable doubt" that Soviet leaders ordered the shooting.
Turkish national Mehmet Ali Agca, now 48, shot the Pope in St Peter's Square on 13 May 1981, hitting him four times.
Agca never gave a motive, and mystery has continued to surround the shooting.
A link between Agca and Bulgarian agents, and through them to the Soviet Union's KGB, has been the subject of speculation over the years.
Solidarity links
The commission released the final draft of its report to journalists on Thursday.
"This commission believes, beyond all reasonable doubt, that the leaders of the USSR took the initiative to eliminate Pope Karol Wojtyla," the report said.
Soviet leaders "communicated this decision to the military secret service in order that it carry out the necessary operations", it continued.
The commission said the Soviet Union felt the Pope was a danger because of his support for the democracy-linked Solidarity labour movement in Poland, his native country.
It also said that it had photographic evidence showing a Bulgarian man, one of six men acquitted in 1986 of orchestrating the assassination attempt, was in St Peter's Square at the time of the shooting.
The findings came from a commission set up to investigate Cold War secrets revealed by Vasili Mitrokhin, a KGB archivist who defected to the UK in 1992.
Agca served nearly 20 years in an Italian jail for the crime. He is currently in prison in Turkey for the murder of a journalist.
MOSCOW, Feb. 26 -- The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization said Sunday that his country had agreed in principle to set up a joint uranium enrichment project with Russia, a potential breakthrough in efforts to prevent an international confrontation over Iran's nuclear ambitions. "Regarding this joint venture, we have reached a basic agreement," said Gholamreza Aghazadeh, the country's nuclear chief, speaking at a news conference with his Russian counterpart in Bushehr, where Russia is helping to build a nuclear power plant. "Talks to complete this package will continue in coming days in Russia." Among the outstanding issues is whether Iran will continue the small-scale uranium enrichment it began earlier this month, a source of growing international concern. Russia's offer to enrich uranium for Iran on Russian territory, a proposal backed by the United States and the European Union, has been the basis of intense but previously fruitless negotiations between Moscow and Tehran. If Iran does agree to shift enrichment to Russia, Iran would cede control of a key element in the nuclear fuel cycle and ease suspicions that it could secretly produce uranium suitable for nuclear weapons. A deal would also head off punitive action by the U.N. Security Council after a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna on March 6. Aghazadeh made it clear, however, that there is still no formal agreement and some issues must still be resolved. "There are different parts that need to be discussed," he said, according to Russian news agencies. "These are not just related to forming a company -- there are other elements. There are political issues, and the proposal should be seen as a package." He added that Iran has "set a precondition," which he declined to specify. Russian analysts following the talks said Iran wants security guarantees that it would not be attacked by the United States. President Bush's national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, was cautious about the announcement. "It's too soon to say," he said on CNN's "Late Edition." "In any of these arrangements, the devil is in the details. We'll just have to see what emerges." The announcement on Sunday followed two days of talks between Aghazadeh and Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of Russia's nuclear agency. Negotiations are expected to continue in Moscow in the next two or three days. "I think there remain no organizational, technical or financial problems on the joint venture establishment," said Kiriyenko, but he added that "the international community must have guarantees of security and preservation of the nonproliferation regime."
At least 56 people were killed when the snow-laden roof of a Russian market collapsed, officials say.
Dozens more shoppers and staff were hurt when the roof of the busy Basmanny food market fell in at 0545 (0245GMT).
Rescuers battled all day to free the injured. As darkness fell, lights were used to illuminate the scene as cranes and diggers cleared piles of rubble.
Officials believe thick, wet snow may have triggered the collapse. A criminal negligence probe has been opened.
President Vladimir Putin has called for a "detailed inquiry".
Listening for voices
Traders were preparing for business on what was a national holiday in Russia, when a 21,530 sq ft (2,000 sq m) section of roof collapsed.
It is thought there were up to 150 people in the building, although some reports say as many as 300 use the market at night.
Rescuers used heat guns to blow hot air into the wreckage to try to protect survivors from the cold.
Emergency workers used pick-axes to cut holes, occasionally ordering silence to listen for voices.
Some survivors were heard knocking and crying for help, as well as using their mobile phones to guide rescuers.
Many of the traders are believed to be from the former Soviet republics in the Caucasus and Central Asia.
'Darkness'
"Everything suddenly caved in," Oktay Salmanov, a market trader from Azerbaijan, said.
"I was standing near the main entrance and that's why I managed to get out in time. But my three sisters are dead and so is the man I was working with."
Herb seller Halik Mamedov was sleeping under a staircase in the market.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has defended tighter controls on NGOs in Russia, saying he will not allow foreign "puppeteers" to control them.
He was commenting on the recent spying row in which Moscow accused British diplomats of making secret payments to non-governmental organisations.
"We are for their funding being transparent... we don't want them led by puppeteers from abroad," he said.
However he ruled out any expulsion of the British diplomats concerned.
"Let them stay... It will be nicer for us to know that we can keep an eye on these people," he told reporters at his annual Kremlin news conference.
He said the case "will not lead to a lowering of the level of our relations with Britain" - relations he characterised as "robust".
Mr Putin has signed a law giving the authorities wide-ranging powers to monitor the activities and finances of NGOs.
The new powers, which include the right to suspend NGOs should they "threaten Russia's sovereignty or independence", have been condemned by both domestic and international rights groups.
The rules are widely seen as a Russian effort to prevent any Ukraine or Georgia-style revolution spearheaded by NGOs.
The FSB security service - the main successor to the Soviet KGB - has accused Western intelligence agents of using NGOs to foment revolution in the former Soviet Union.
The authorities' new powers cover the activities of numerous charities in Russia as well as non-profit groups promoting human rights and democracy.
Defence of G8 role
Human rights activists have also attacked Russia's current chairmanship of the G8, accusing Mr Putin of authoritarian methods.
But he hit back on Tuesday, saying Russia's role in the grouping of leading industrialised countries was backed by all the leaders in it.
"No-one is against our active participation in this club. No-one wants the G8 to return to a group of fat cats," he said.
Mr Putin said Russia's economic growth last year had exceeded expectations, even though many Russians were still poor.
He also said that the G8 was not only about the economy but about global security.
Pressure avoided
Mr Putin warned of the danger of a revolution in Uzbekistan, saying it could turn the Central Asian state into "another Afghanistan".
Russia has avoided putting pressure on the authorities in Uzbekistan, despite international outrage over their harsh crackdown against opposition activists.
Mr Putin covered various other issues at his news conference:
At least six Russian soldiers have been held after the beating of a conscript, whose injuries were so severe his legs and genitals were amputated.
The incident took place at the Chelyabinsk Tank Academy in the Ural Mountains over the New Year.
Eight other conscripts were also seriously injured.
Investigators say more senior soldiers carried out the beatings, with the co-operation of commanding officers.
Public inquiry
Private Andrei Sychev contracted gangrene after he was forced to squat for several hours on New Year's Eve, then tied to chairs and beaten, according to the investigators.
Doctors treating the conscript say he is in a "stable" condition.
Russia's Defence Minister has ordered a military commission to look into the beatings.
Sergei Ivanov said the findings would be made public.
The authorities have been criticised by human rights groups who say the response to the incidents at the academy has been slow.
Media reports suggest the academy, which is situated about 1,900 kilometres (1,180 miles) east of Moscow, may now be closed down.
Bullying in the armed forces is said to be widespread.
Lyudmila Alexeyeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, said the government was trying to turn public opinion against NGOs it wanted to shut down.
Russia said spies posing as diplomats funded NGOs and used a hi-tech "letterbox" disguised as a rock.
The UK government denies any improper behaviour towards Russian NGOs.
The allegations emerged in a Russian TV report on Sunday and were later backed up by the internal state security service, the FSB.
Ms Alexeyeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, said they were part of a campaign against Kremlin critics, linked to a law tightening control over NGOs which President Vladimir Putin signed this month.
"They are preparing public opinion for a government move to close us down, which they can now do under the new law," she told reporters.
She said a document written in Russian which showed one of the alleged spies' signatures was a fake. All communication between her organisation and British donors was in English, according to Ms Alexeyeva.
'Red-handed'
The FSB backed the claims made on Russia's Rossiya TV channel which showed what it said were British agents retrieving data from the dummy, loaf-sized rock planted on a street.
According to the programme, a UK diplomat made regular payments to Russian non-governmental organisations.
The programme named four individuals it described as British spies working as diplomats and also mentioned a Russian citizen, said to be now in custody after confessing to espionage.
The four were named in the programme as Christopher Pirt, Marc Doe, Paul Crompton and Andrew Fleming.
"The most important thing is that we caught them red-handed while they were in contact with their agents [and established] that they were financing some non-governmental organisations," said FSB chief spokesman Sergei Ignatchenko.
He did not detail what action would be taken by the Russian authorities, saying only that the question would be "decided at the political level". The new law on NGOs bans foreign funding of any NGO with "political purposes" but it does not spell out what this means.
It also appears that the alleged donations took place before the new law took effect.
The UK Foreign Office says it is well known that the UK government gives financial support to projects implemented by Russian NGOs in the field of human rights and civil society.
"All our assistance is given openly and aims to support the development of a healthy civil society in Russia," a statement said.
Michael Evans, defence editor of the UK Times newspaper, told the BBC that Russia was still regarded as a centre of espionage.
"I've no idea whether it's true, but clearly there is a lot of intelligence gathering that goes on," he said.
Mikhail Saakashvili told the BBC the near simultaneous attacks close to Georgia's border were pre-planned actions orchestrated by Russia.
An electricity transmission line was also destroyed as Georgia experiences extremely cold weather.
Russia's foreign ministry dismissed Mr Saakashvili's remarks as "hysteria".
Russian prosecutors earlier described the attacks as deliberate criminal acts and said an investigation was under way.
Georgia has no gas reserves and was due to run out of gas on Sunday evening, correspondents say.
Relations between Georgia and Russia have been tense since Mr Saakashvili was swept to power by the so-called "Rose Revolution" in 2003, pledging to lead his nation on a pro-Western course.
'Planned attacks'
The two explosions occurred on the main branch and a reserve branch of the Mozdok-Tbilisi pipeline in the Russian border region of North Ossetia at around 0300 local time (2400 GMT).
The electricity transmission line in Russia's southern region of Karachayevo-Cherkessiya - also near the Georgian border - was brought down by an explosion just hours later.
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Saakashvili said there was now huge pressure on his country's energy system, as it was experiencing its coldest weather in more than 20 years.
He said all gas supplies to Georgia were now cut off as was 25% of the electricity supply.
Mr Saakashvili said the gas pipeline was blown up in "an area fully under Russian control... with a heavy presence of Russian border guards", where there were no local insurgents.
"They happened at the same time, and basically they didn't affect supplies to Russia proper, so we can conclude that it was a very well-organised and very well-co-ordinated act.
"We've received numerous threats by Russian politicians and officials at different levels to punish us for basically for not giving them pipelines," the Georgian president said.
Prime Minister Zurab Noghaideli added that the "political motive was clear".
He told the BBC that Russia was seeking "to make a problem for Georgia in winter, to make the government angry and to create instability".
Neither politician offered any evidence to back their claims.
The Russian foreign ministry described Mr Saakashvili's comments as the product of "hysteria and bacchanalia".
Russia's prosecutor's office earlier said what happened were acts of sabotage and that explosive devices had been found, the BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Moscow reports.
A spokesman for Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom said the company was doing all it could to restore gas supplies.
"We believe this situation should not be politicised," Sergei Kuprianov was quoted as saying by the Russian Interfax news agency.
Reports say it could take several days to restore gas supplies, due to the site's remoteness and poor weather conditions.
Price hikes
Georgia is holding emergency talks aimed at securing supplies from Azerbaijan and Iran, but this could also take several days, said Georgian Deputy Energy Minister Aleko Khetagurov.
Russia also supplies gas through Georgia to Armenia, which in turn sends some electricity back to Georgia.
Gas prices to the two countries were doubled in January to $110 per 1,000 cubic metres, as part of a series of recent price hikes for former Soviet countries.
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan is expected to discuss the gas situation in a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a visit to Moscow which starts on Sunday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin threw a curveball at President George W. Bush, offering to drop his opposition to the defense system if the United States used a radar in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan instead of planned installations in NATO allies Poland and the Czech Republic, reports CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod.
Mr. Bush called the idea "interesting" and will discuss it with Putin at next month's U.S.-Russia summit.
Mr. Bush has proposed basing the radar in the Czech Republic and interceptor rockets in Poland, rousing Moscow's suspicions that a system built in its backyard had to be aimed at it. The United States insisted the shield was aimed at any potential nuclear threat from Iran, not Russia, but Moscow declared the explanation "insufficient" as recently as Wednesday night.
With the dispute flaring in recent days into Cold War-style rhetoric and threats from Moscow, Putin's proposal to put the system in Azerbaijan came as a surprise.
U.S. officials scrambled to react afterward, huddling hurriedly before trying to explain it to the press. Though outright acceptance of such an idea seemed unlikely, the White House clearly wanted to avoid further inflaming tensions with a needed ally by giving Putin's idea short shrift.
"I think President Putin wanted to de-escalate the tensions a little bit on this issue, and I think it was a useful thing that he did," Hadley told a few reporters.
Putin said the existing radar station, built during Soviet times, is rented by Russia under a continuing agreement between Russia and Azerbaijan.
He argued the benefits of his suggested substitute: An Azerbaijan-based system would cover all of Europe rather than just part of it, and destroyed missile debris would fall in the ocean rather than on land.
Appearing together before reporters, Mr. Bush spoke before Putin and did not mention the alternative presented by his Russian counterpart. He said only that Putin "made some interesting suggestions."
The two leaders agreed to discuss the issue further during two days of talks beginning July 1 in Kennebunkport, Maine, at the Bush family's oceanfront compound. Lower-level officials in both governments also plan to explore it.
"This will be a serious set of strategic discussions," Mr. Bush said. "This is a serious issue, and we want to make sure that we all understand each other's positions very clearly."
The Russian leader said the proposed relocation would alleviate Russia's concerns about a European missile shield. "This will make it unnecessary for us to place our offensive complexes along the border with Europe," Putin said.
He laid out several other conditions, as well:
"Then we will have no problem," the Russian leader said.
He also warned the United States not to proceed with building the system as planned while negotiations with Moscow take place.
Putin Warns Of Retaliation To Missile Plan
Speaking to foreign reporters days before he travels to Germany for the annual summit with President Bush and the other Group of Eight leaders, Putin assailed the White House plan to place a radar system in the Czech Republic and interceptor missiles in neighboring Poland.
In an interview last week, Mr. Bush said he explained to Putin that the new defense system was designed to protect NATO allies from a missile fired by Iran or North Korea, reports CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod. But neither Iran nor North Korea has a missile that can reach Europe, providing Putin with a way to confront the United States at a critical time for him.
"We are being told the anti-missile defense system is targeted against something that does not exist. Doesn't it seem funny to you, to say the least?" an irritated Putin said.
He added that the planned missile shield would cover Russia's territory up to the Ural Mountains.
"It would be funny if it wasn't so sad," he said.
Putin lamented that the planned system would be "an integral part of the U.S. nuclear arsenal" in Europe ・an unprecedented step. "It simply changes the entire configuration of international security."
He said he hoped that U.S. officials would change their minds regarding the missile plan, warning that Moscow was preparing a tit-for-tat response.
"If this doesn't happen, then we disclaim responsibility for our retaliatory steps, because it is not we who are the initiators of the new arms race, which is undoubtedly brewing in Europe," Putin said.
"The strategic balance in the world is being upset and in order to restore this balance without creating an anti-missile defense on our territory we will be creating a system of countering that anti-missile system, which is what we are doing now," Putin said.
Last week, Russia tested a new ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads and a new cruise missile. While Western analysts said the system has probably been under development for several years, Putin has described the test as part of Moscow's response to the U.S. anti-missile plan.
Putin also suggested that Russia could respond to the threat by aiming its nuclear weapons at Europe.
"If a part of the strategic nuclear potential of the United States appears in Europe and, in the opinion of our military specialists will threaten us, then we will have to take appropriate steps in response. What kind of steps? We will have to have new targets in Europe," Putin said, according to a transcript released by the Kremlin. These could be targeted with "ballistic or cruise missiles or maybe a completely new system" he said.
Putin also suggested that in the absence of a real threat from Iranian and North Korean missiles, the U.S. plan could be an attempt to spoil Russia's relations with Europe.
In Iran's first official response to the U.S. missile-defense plan, Supreme National Security Council head Ali Larijani said "claims by U.S. officials that installing a missile defense system in Europe is aimed at confronting Iranian missiles and protecting Europe against Iran is the joke of the year," according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
"The range of Iran's missiles doesn't reach Europe at all," the agency quoted him as saying.
Relations between Moscow and Washington have soured in the past year. The two former Cold War foes are at odds over Washington's missile plans, Russia's conflicts with former Soviet nations ・including Ukraine, Georgia and Estonia ・and U.S. concerns of democratic backsliding in Russia.
Mr. Bush leaves Washington Monday on an eight-day, six-country European jaunt, including the G-8 meeting in Germany.
The president is beginning his trip in the Czech Republic, with a scheduled arrival in Prague Monday afternoon, and will wrap up his tour with a visit to Poland ・the former Soviet satellites where he wants to base major parts of the new shield.
Visiting the two countries on the sidelines of the summit is likely to be taken in Moscow as a very deliberate snub by Mr. Bush.
"This is a distinctive message that is as easily understandable in Russian as it is in English," said Simon Serfaty, a senior adviser to the Europe program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "The message is that we're going to do what we're going to do, and your concerns about the deployment of some marginal capabilities designed for defense purposes in Central Europe are not going to impress me."
Besides the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland, Bush also has Italy, Albania and Bulgaria on his travel itinerary. He has meetings planned with at least 15 foreign leaders, plus the Pope, and his schedule isn't final yet.
Putin warns Europe in missile row
Putin: U.S. Pursuing "Imperialist" Policy
In a clear reference to the United States, Putin harshly criticized "diktat and imperialism" in global affairs and warned that Russia will keep strengthening its military potential to maintain a global strategic balance.
"It wasn't us who initiated a new round of arms race," Putin said when asked about Russia's missile tests this week at a news conference in Moscow.
In Washington, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe indicated that Moscow's tests only underscore the U.S. contention that the missile defense system would not be a threat to Russia.
"Russia's strong missile capabilities are no match for our European missile defense plans and will not upset the strategic balance in the region," Johndroe said.
Putin described the tests of a new ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads and a new cruise missile as part of the Russian response to the planned deployment of new U.S. military bases and missile defense sites in ex-Soviet satellites in eastern Europe.
He assailed the United States and other NATO members for failing to ratify an amended version of the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe treaty, which limits the deployment of heavy non-nuclear weapons around the continent.
"We have signed and ratified the CFE and are fully implementing it. We have pulled out all our heavy weapons from the European part of Russia to (locations) behind the Ural Mountains and cut our military by 300,000 men," Putin said.
"And what about our partners? They are filling Eastern Europe with new weapons. A new base in Bulgaria, another one in Romania, a (missile defense) site in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic," he said. "What we are supposed to do? We can't just sit back and look at that."
Putin and other Russian officials have repeatedly rejected U.S. assurances that the planned missile defense installations are meant to counter a potential threat from nations such as Iran and pose no danger to Russia.
He reaffirmed his warning that Russia would opt out of the CFE treaty altogether if NATO nations fail to ratify its amended version.
"Either you ratify the treaty and start observing it, or we will opt out of it," Putin said.
In remarks directed at Washington, Putin blasted those "who want to dictate their will to all others regardless of international norms and law."
"It's dangerous and harmful," he added. "Norms of the international law were replaced with political expediency. We view it as diktat and imperialism."
In one of the tests Tuesday, a prototype of Russia's new intercontinental ballistic missile, called the RS-24, was fired from a mobile launcher at the Plesetsk launch site in northwestern Russia and its test warhead landed on target 3,400 miles away on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the far eastern part of the country, officials said.
Deploying a new missile capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads could allow Russia to maintain nuclear parity with the United States despite having to gradually decommission Soviet-built ICBMs.
The military also tested a new cruise missile based on the existing short-range Iskander missile.
First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, widely seen as a potential Kremlin candidate to succeed Putin, hailed the missile's capability on Thursday.
"It can be used at long range with surgical precision, as doctors say" Ivanov said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency. "Russia needs this weapon to maintain strategic stability."
ITAR-Tass said Thursday the new cruise missile, R-500, will have a range of up to 310 miles, the limit under a Soviet-era treaty that banned intermediate-range missiles. Putin and other officials have called the treaty outdated but have not said Russia would opt out of it.
Russia: New Missiles Are Unstoppable
"As of today Russia has new (missiles) that are capable of overcoming any existing or future missile defense systems," ITAR-Tass quoted First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov as saying. "So in terms of defense and security Russian can look calmly to the country's future."
Ivanov spoke after the Russian Strategic Missile Forces announced the test of a new intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple independent warheads. He said Russia had also successfully tested a tactical cruise missile.
"Reminiscent of the Cold War arm's race, the Russian missile launch appears to have been intended to send a message opposing the U.S. deployment of missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic," said CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk from the United Nations.
President Vladimir Putin and Ivanov, a former defense minister seen as a potential candidate to succeed Putin in elections next year, have repeatedly said Russia would continue to improve its nuclear weapons systems and respond to U.S. plans to deploy a missile defense system in Europe.
The ICBM, called the RS-24, was fired from a mobile launcher at the Plesetsk launch pad in northwestern Russia. Its test warhead landed on target some 3,400 miles away on the Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, a statement from the Strategic Missile Forces said.
The new missile is seen as eventually replacing the aging RS-18s and RS-20s that are the backbone of the country's missile forces, the statement said. Those missiles are known in the West as the SS-19 Stiletto and the SS-18 Satan.
Ivanov said the missile was a new version of the Topol-M, first known as the SS-27 in the West, but one that that can carry multiple independent warheads, ITAR-Tass reported.
The first Topol-Ms were commissioned in 1997, but deployment has proceeded slower than planned because of a shortage of funds. Existing Topol-M missiles are capable of hitting targets more than 6,000 miles away.
The RS-24 "strengthens the capability of the attack groups of the Strategic Missile Forces by surmounting anti-missile defense systems, at the same time strengthening the potential for nuclear deterrence," the statement said.
The statement did not specify how many warheads the missile can carry.
The new missile would likely be more capable of penetrating missile defense systems than previous models, said Alexander Pikayev, an arms control expert and senior analyst at the Moscow-based Institute for World Economy and International Relations.
He said Russia had been working on a version of the Topol-M that could carry multiple warheads, and that its development was probably "inevitable" after the U.S. withdrew from the Soviet-era Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty in 2002, preventing the START-II treaty from coming into force.
Pikayev concurred with the missile forces statement that the RS-24 conforms with terms laid down in the START-I treaty, which is in force, and the 2002 Moscow Treaty, which calls for reductions in each country's nuclear arsenal to 1,700-2,000 warheads.
Alexander Golts, a respected military analyst with the Yezhenedelny Zhurnal online publication, expressed surprise at the announcement.
"It seems to be a brand new missile. It's either a decoy or something that has been developed in complete secrecy," he told The Associated Press.
The test comes at a time of increased tension between Russia and the West over missiles and other weapons issues.
Russia adamantly opposes U.S. efforts to deploy elements of a missile-defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. The United States says the system is aimed at blocking possible attacks by countries such as North Korea and Iran, but Russia says the system would destroy the strategic balance of forces in Europe.
"We consider it harmful and dangerous to turn Europe into a powder keg," Putin said Tuesday, when asked at a news conference with Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates about the controversy.
Russia, meanwhile, called Monday for an emergency conference next month on a key Soviet-era arms control treaty that has been a source of increasing friction between Moscow and NATO.
The call for a conference on the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty follows last month's statement from Putin in which he declared a moratorium on observing Russia's obligations under the treaty.
The treaty, which limits the number of aircraft, tanks and other non-nuclear heavy weapons around Europe, was first signed in 1990 and then amended in 1999 to reflect changes since the Soviet breakup. Russia has ratified the amended version, but the United States and other NATO members have refused to do so until Moscow withdraws troops from the former Soviet republics of Moldova and Georgia ・an issue Moscow says is unrelated.
Putin warned that Russia could dump the treaty altogether if Western nations refuse to ratify its amended version, and the Foreign Ministry said Monday that it lodged a formal request for a conference among treaty signatories in Vienna, Austria, on June 12-15.
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Hostage Standoff At Russian Embassy Ends
Roman Bogdanyants covered his face as he was escorted by police from the building, followed by a Russian man that police spokesman Francisco Ruiz identified as a former hostage.
While hostage negotiators were talking with the suspect, police surrounded the four-story building, which is located near several other embassies, including that of Venezuela.
The standoff, which lasted more than three hours, began when Bogdanyans, a Kazakhstan native who arrived in Costa Rica in 2005, seized part of the building Friday, holding Russian Ambassador Valery Nikolayenko and seven others hostage.
Officials originally reported an armed gunman had seized eight hostages, quickly releasing five. But Russian Ambassador Valery Nikolayenko told Channel 7 Telenoticias in a phone interview during the standoff that he and three other officials had remained in the building to help negotiate a peaceful end to the conflict.
Costa Rican media gave conflicting reports about why the suspect took the hostages. Some said he was angry that a visa request had been rejected, while others claimed his family had been a victim of fraud.
A family friend, Artur Mitiniani, told Channel 7 that the family had lost $54,000 because of problems with a Russian citizen who Bogdanyants met at the embassy.
In July 2004, a Costa Rican security guard took several hostages at the Chilean Embassy where he worked in San Jose, eventually killing himself and three embassy employees. The guard, Orlando Jimenez, 54, was upset about a pending transfer.
Putin Offers Blunt Victory Day Speech
Putin's statement at a Victory Day parade on Red Square on Wednesday was artfully phrased to be both blunt and vague, but political observers have little doubt he was criticizing the United States for "disrespect for human life, claims to global exclusiveness and dictate, just as it was in the time of the Third Reich."
While Putin didn't name any particular country in the speech marking the 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany, the remarks echoed his increasingly strong criticism of the perceived U.S. domination in global affairs.
Political analysts close to the Kremlin say that Putin referred to the United States in his remarks, expressing Russia's dismay at what it views as U.S. unilateralism in world affairs and disrespect for other countries' interests.
"Hitler was striving for global domination, and the United States is striving for global domination now," Sergei Markov, the Kremlin-connected head of the Moscow-based Institute for Political Research, told The Associated Press. "Hitler thought he was above the League of Nations, and the United States thinks it is above the United Nations. Their action is similar."
Relations between Russia and the United States have become increasingly tense amid U.S. criticism of the Kremlin for rolling back on democracy and Moscow's complaints against U.S. plans to deploy missile defense sites in Europe close to its western borders. Moscow also frequently accuses Washington of meddling in what it considers its home turf by trying to take other ex-Soviet nations away from its orbit.
Markov said that while Putin sought to soften his remarks by avoiding a direct reference to the United States, he undoubtedly was aiming at Washington. "Only the United States now is claiming global exclusiveness," Markov said.
Shortly after his speech at the parade, Putin told veterans at a Kremlin reception that World War II showed "where militarist ambitions, ethnic intolerance and any attempts to recarve the globe are leading to."
Markov saw that as another veiled reference to the United States.
"After the Cold War ended, the United States has initiated a new arms race," fueling nuclear ambitions of many nations worldwide, he said.
"If a nation doesn't have nuclear weapons, it risks being bombed like Yugoslavia or Iraq," he said. "And if it does have nuclear weapons like North Korea, it faces no such threat."
Gleb Pavlovsky, another political analyst with close Kremlin connections, said that Putin's remarks reflected his "concern about the spreading of unilateralist approaches to global affairs."
"The United States is trying to dominate the world ... and Russia takes a stance against such hegemony," Pavlovsky said.
He added, however, that Putin was not referring exclusively to the United States when he mentioned a contempt for human life and claims at global domination, but also forces behind international terrorism and extremism.
"He was also referring to nations that support Islamic fundamentalism when he talked about claims to global exclusiveness," Pavlovsky said.
Putin's remarks reflect an increasingly assertive posture by Russia, which has regained its economic muscle thanks to a rising tide of oil revenue and sought to rebuild its military might eroded in the post-Soviet industrial demise.
Putin shocked Western leaders in February when he spoke at a security conference in Germany, bluntly accusing the United States of trying to force other nations to conform to its standards and warned that Russia would strongly retaliate to the deployment of the U.S. missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic.
In a state of the nation address last month, Putin called for a Russian moratorium on observance of the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty, which limits the number of aircraft, tanks and other non-nuclear heavy weapons around the continent, saying that NATO members' refusal to ratify an amended version of the pact hurt Russia's security interests.
Putin also threatened to pull out of the treaty altogether unless talks with NATO members yielded satisfactory results, and some Russian generals warned that Moscow could also opt out of a Cold War-era treaty with the United States banning intermediate-range missiles.
Russia's military chief of staff has also said Russia could target elements of the missile defense system if it is deployed in Poland and the Czech Republic.
While Putin's speech Wednesday sounded like another salvo in a new Cold War, Markov insisted that it was merely another attempt by the Russian leader to persuade the United States to reckon with Russia's interests.
"It's an attempt to launch a serious dialogue," Markov said.
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A Final Farewell To Boris Yeltsin
Before the funeral, more than 20,000 people had filed through the gold-domed Cathedral of Christ the Savior in central Moscow to view the body of Yeltsin, who died Monday at age 76. After the viewing ended, dignitaries including former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush arrived and offered condolences to Yeltsin's black-clad widow Naina.
Many of the mourners said they admired Yeltsin for breaking the grip of monolithic Communism and moving the country toward full-fledged democracy ・and said they fear his successor Vladimir Putin is reversing the progress.
"I came here to pay respect to Boris Nikolayevich for everything he has given us: freedom and the opportunity to realize ourselves," said 73-year-old Svetlana Zamishlayeva. But now, she said, "there is a certain retreat from freedom of the press, from fair elections, from all kinds of freedom."
"The policy course that he set is being dismantled today," said Nikita Belykh, leader of the liberal Union of Right Forces party that has become increasingly marginalized during Putin's seven years in office.
He suggested that Yeltsin may have expected Putin to continue his policies when he resigned and turned over the presidency to Putin on New Year's Eve 1999. "We all make mistakes," Belykh said outside the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
Communist lawmakers meanwhile expressed resentment of Yeltsin's role in bringing an end to the Soviet Union. They refused to stand for a moment of silence called in Yeltsin's memory at the opening of the Wednesday session of the lower house of parliament, news agencies reported.
"We will never give honor to the destroyer of fatherland," Communist deputy Viktor Ilyukhin was quoted as saying by the RIA-Novosti news agency.
Yeltsin is to be buried in Novodevichy Cemetery, which holds the graves of many prominent Russian authors, musicians and artists.
Many countries sent lower-ranked retired politicians and diplomats to the funeral ・a reflection of the funeral's quick timing but also perhaps of Yeltsin's uncertain legacy as unsteady democrat, Communist scourge and incomplete reformer.
The Soviet Union was an atheist state, so it seemed fitting Russia's first post-Soviet president was accorded religious rites. Though he made appearances at church services, Yeltsin was not regarded as an overtly pious man, but the Russian Orthodox Church was grateful for his support.
"By his strength, he helped the restoration of the proper role of the Russian Orthodox Church in the life of the country and its people," church spokesman Metropolitan Kirill said in a statement.
Yeltsin is widely remembered for his bold and principled stand against the 1990 hardline Communist coup attempt against Gorbachev and for launching Russia on the path to political pluralism.
"He gave us a choice ・not just a choice between cheese and ham, but the possibility to think for ourselves," said mourner Alla Gerber, the head of Russia's Holocaust Foundation. "He took us out of the claws of that terrible regime."
But Yeltsin disappointed Russians by failing to bring political, economic and social stability to the nation. Many were outraged, as well, by his sale of the nation's industrial might and natural resources in shadowy auctions, by the disintegration of the public health care system and by pensions that turned to cinders in the fires of raging inflation.
Mourners Say Farewell To Yeltsin
Former U.S. Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton were to attend Wednesday's funeral service, which culminates with Yeltsin's burial at the landmark Novodivechy Cemetery. Another prominent foe of communism, Polish Nobel Laureate Lech Walesa, was also to attend.
But many other countries were sending lower-ranked retired politicians and diplomats, a reflection of the funeral's quick timing but also perhaps of Yeltsin's uncertain legacy as unsteady democrat, Communist scourge and incomplete reformer.
Yeltsin, the first president of post-Soviet Russia, died of heart failure on Monday at the age of 76.
Russians lined up under overcast skies to pass through metal detectors and the towering metal doors of the Christ the Savior Cathedral on the banks of the Moscow River. The gold-domed building is a replica of the original, which was blown up by the Soviet authorities in 1931, just a few months after Yeltsin's birth, and rebuilt during his presidency.
Inside, white-robed Orthodox priests chanted prayers and swung censers. Yeltsin's widow, Naina, and his two daughters sat dressed in black alongside the casket, which was draped in the Russian tricolor in the center of the cathedral's nave. An honor guard stood nearby.
Officials estimated that around 4,000 people had paid their respects by early evening.
"I followed Yeltsin as soon as he appeared, I followed him everywhere. ... He was the first honest and decent president," said Taisiya Shlyonova, a 75-year-old pensioner. The mourners were mostly middle-aged or older.
"There are good and bad things about him, but he will remain in history for his one great achievement: he buried communism," Alexander Bolshakov, a 44-year-old teacher, said as he waited to enter the cathedral.
The Soviet Union was an atheist state, so it seemed fitting Russia's first post-Soviet president was accorded religious rites. Though he made appearances at church services, Yeltsin was not regarded as an overtly pious man, but the Russian Orthodox Church was grateful for his support.
Photo Essay: Boris Yeltsin
"By his strength, he helped the restoration of the proper role of the Russian Orthodox Church in the life of the country and its people," church spokesman Metropolitan Kirill said in a statement.
Yeltsin's burial Wednesday will also break with Soviet traditions. Unlike most of the leaders of the USSR, he will not be interred in the cold formality of the burial ground at the Kremlin walls; instead, his grave will be a plot at Novodevichy Cemetery, a leafy and comforting expanse next to Moscow's most famous monastery.
It is largely a burial site for dreamers and artists, rather than politicians, including writers Anton Chekhov and Mikhail Bulgakov and composer Sergei Prokofiev. It is also the resting place of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, a maverick with simple tastes and often crude manners, like Yeltsin.
Yeltsin is widely remembered for his bold and principled stand against the 1990 hardline Communist coup attempt and for launching Russia on the path to political pluralism, if not a full-fledged democracy.
But he disappointed Russians by failing to bring political, economic and social stability to the nation. Many were outraged, as well, by his sale of the nation's industrial might and natural resources in shadowy auctions, by the disintegration of the public health care system and by pensions that turned to cinders in the fires of raging inflation.
Even among Yeltsin's supporters, some Russian blame him for leaving the country in the hands of President Vladimir Putin, whom critics accuse of undoing many of Yeltsin's democratic reforms ・stifling free speech, creating a docile parliament and suppressing dissent.
"It's a complete retreat from democracy. Why do you think Yeltsin died? He couldn't handle that. Everything he fought for, nothing has been left of that," said Elena Mosolitina, a 65-year-old pensioner. "No freedom of expression, no freedom of protest, no real parliament, nothing."
A full list of foreign dignitaries attending the funeral has not been released, but many countries indicated they would send only middle-level officials ・former prime ministers, foreign ministers or others.
Gates Can't Bend Russia On Defense Plan
"We face new threats that require new strategies for deterrence and defense," Gates said in a prepared statement delivered with Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov seated beside him. "We invite Russia to join our defensive endeavor as a partner."
Serdyukov, however, made clear that Moscow is opposed.
"The Russian position with respect to this issue remains unchanged," Serdyukov said.
"We do believe that deploying all the strategic elements of the ballistic missile defenses is a destabilizing factor that may have a great impact upon global and regional security," he added.
The Bush administration hopes a series of high-level meetings this week will yield the first sign of a crack in Russia's opposition to a top-priority U.S. defense project ・building anti-missile bases in Poland and the Czech Republic.
The bases would be meant to provide protection in Europe from a long-range nuclear missile launched by Iran ・a threat that U.S. officials say may be fast approaching but that the Russians say is exaggerated.
The dispute has grown into a major irritant in U.S.-Russian relations.
Gates, on his first visit to Russia since taking office last December, was meeting Monday with Serdyukov, President Vladimir Putin and other senior officials, to gauge their initial reaction to a new set of U.S. proposals designed to soften Russian objections.
"It's nice that you accepted the invitation and that President Bush sent you so quickly," Putin said. "We have planned a conversation with him after our meeting."
Russian-American relations are very important, Gates said, adding, "There is a great deal we can accomplish together."
The proposals, presented quietly last week in Moscow and at NATO headquarters in Belgium, include sharing data collected by U.S. sensors to provide early warning of ballistic missile launches, cooperation on missile defense research, and joint testing of the building blocks of an anti-missile system, according to an administration official traveling with Gates. Two officials on the trip from Washington discussed the proposals on condition they not be identified because the talks had not yet begun.
One official acknowledged that previous U.S. proposals for such cooperation had fizzled, and that it likely would take time and multiple meetings and consultations to see if the Russians will change their mind.
"I don't think we expect to solve this problem on this trip or to get even a definitive answer from the Russians necessarily on this trip," one official said. "I hope we get at least a preliminary response."
Later this week Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is due to attend a NATO meeting in Norway that is scheduled to include a session with Russian officials on the missile defense controversy and other issues.
The administration is consulting with Poland on hosting a U.S. base with 10 missile interceptors, and is talking to the Czech government about hosting a radar system used to track hostile missiles in flight. Russia has long objected to a U.S. military presence on its periphery; Poland and the Czech Republic were part of the old Warsaw Pact that faced off against U.S.-led NATO during the Cold War.
Washington has repeatedly insisted that an anti-missile system in Europe would not threaten the viability of Russia's vast offensive nuclear missile arsenal and would offer it some protection from a potential Iranian attack.
The Russians not only question the seriousness of the threat from long-range missiles, which U.S. officials say is real and growing, but also the feasibility of U.S. anti-missile technology as a response to any such threat.
Last week the Russian Interfax news agency quoted Sergei Ivanov, the first deputy prime minister and formerly the defense minister, as saying he saw "no grounds to talk about potential cooperation" on missile defense.
The Bush administration, however, sees the extension of its existing missile defense system to Europe as crucial.
"Whether Russia cooperates with us or not is really up to Russia. That's a decision that they have to make," one of the administration officials on the trip said. "Russia doesn't get a veto over what we do" in missile defense.
Some of Russia's opposition may be rooted in the history of the U.S. missile defense program. It was famously jump-started with a 1983 "Star Wars" speech by President Ronald Reagan that envisioned a global shield against ballistic missiles, which Reagan hoped might one day lead to the abolishment of nuclear weapons. Leaders of the then-Soviet Union decried the Reagan idea, worked to enlarge European opposition to it and spent enormous sums building Soviet offensive missile capabilities to counter the U.S. program. Some argue that the Soviet effort hastened the collapse of the Communist regime.
The U.S. missile defense effort waned in the 1990s with the demise of the Cold War, and when it was revived in 2001 by the Bush administration it shifted its focus from Russia to North Korea and Iran.
EU-Russia relations 'at low ebb'
Russia making floating atom plant
Russian opposition in fresh rally
But correspondents say the turnout was not as good as the organisers might have hoped.
Kasparov arrested at Moscow rally
Exiled Tycoon Fomenting Russian Coup?
Russian authorities reacted swiftly to the prominent Kremlin foe's statements, saying Berezovsky was abusing his asylum status in Britain and renewing calls for his extradition.
In remarks that appeared aimed to rattle the Kremlin and foment political unrest ahead of crucial elections, the exiled billionaire claimed he was funding influential insiders who are conspiring to take power, according to the Guardian.
"We need to use force to change this regime, because ... this regime is unconstitutional," Berezovsky said in an audio excerpt posted on the Guardian's Web site. "It means that I call to use force to recreate (a) constitutional regime again."
Berezovsky ・a former Kremlin insider who fell out with Putin and fled to Britain, where he was granted asylum ・accused the Russian president of creating a totalitarian regime. In the audio clip, he said that "there is no chance to change that through elections, and (the) only way (is) to use power."
According to the Guardian, Berezovsky claimed to be in contact with unidentified members of Russia's political leadership and had offered them financial aid as well as "my understanding of how it could be done."
He did not identify any individuals or groups, but the Guardian said Berezovsky claimed to be in contact with people inside the Kremlin who were conspiring to mount a palace coup. In the past, Berezovsky has said he has bankrolled opposition forces rather than government insiders.
"If one part of the political elite disagrees with another part of the political elite ・that is the only way in Russia to change the regime. I try to move that," the Guardian quoted Berezovsky as saying.
Berezovsky made similar comments in early 2006, but his Guardian interview comes amid rising tensions ahead of parliamentary elections in December and a presidential vote next March to replace Putin. Under the constitution, Putin is barred from seeking a third consecutive term.
Putin has signed laws that critics say have rolled back democracy and are aimed to ensure the current Kremlin leadership retains power following the presidential election.
Berezovsky's remarks provoked new calls from the Russian government for Britain to extradite the tycoon for prosecution here.
"There is a longstanding request to terminate the situation in which Boris Berezovsky takes advantage of his refugee status, grossly abusing this status, committing actions that, under British legislation, require his extradition," Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika said he had ordered authorities to open a new criminal case against Berezovsky because the remarks contained "calls for the violent seizure of power," and his spokeswoman Marina Gridneva said prosecutors would once again officially appeal to Britain to hand him over.
Britain granted Berezovsky refugee status in 2003, turning down an earlier Russian extradition request. Russian prosecutors made a renewed effort following his comments last year, but a British judge ruled that he could not be extradited because his asylum status meant he was protected by the Geneva Conventions.
Berezovsky said in another recorded statement on the Guardian's Web site that his efforts to oust the current Kremlin leadership are legal and that he does not fear Russian prosecution. However, he said he fears for the safety of his contacts in Russia, accusing Putin's government of killing those it considers enemies.
Berezovsky said it was unlikely he would be extradited following the mysterious death last November of Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB officer who was poisoned with a radioactive substance.
On his deathbed, Litvinenko accused Putin of ordering his poisoning but cited no evidence. Russian authorities have denied involvement.
There has been widespread speculation in the West that Litvinenko was killed by Russian agents, acting on their own or with official sanction, possibly as punishment for the relentless criticism of Putin.
Russian news media and officials have repeatedly suggested that Berezovsky could have ordered the poisoning himself, perhaps to discredit Putin and his government. Berezovsky ・who once controlled an oil, automobiles and media empire here ・gained a reputation for ruthlessness in the 1990s when he became one of Russia's wealthiest tycoons in the chaotic and often violent post-Soviet period.
Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov suggested any overthrow attempt by Berezovsky would fail because of widespread distrust of the magnates who made fortunes in the 1990s.
"Berezovsky helped the previous authorities to rob the country, and now he has suddenly become a revolutionary. The people will never follow him," Interfax quoted Zyuganov as saying.
Moscow 'confused' at Iran wargame
Ukraine leader calls early poll
Putin 'against having third term'
Russian opposition demo quashed
Siberia mine blast deaths hit 78
Seven die in Russian air crash
Putin in landmark Vatican visit
Putin in landmark Vatican visit
Russian anti-Putin demo broken up
Resurgent Russia's Olympic task
Explosion in Russian McDonald's
Putin attacks 'very dangerous' US
Putin hits back at energy critics
Russia attacks US on defence ban
Russia-Belarus gas deal reached
Yukos probed over ex-spy's death
Putin ready for visit to Ukraine
KGB influence 'soars under Putin'
Moscow drug clinic fire kills 45
U.K. Police Treating Spy Death As Murder
The announcement came nearly two weeks after Litvinenko died in a London hospital; the rare radioactive substance polonium-210 was found in his body. Scotland Yard detectives are in Moscow as part of the widening investigation into his death.
"Detectives ... have reached the stage where it is felt appropriate to treat it as an allegation of murder," the Metropolitan Police said. "It is important to stress that we have reached no conclusions as to the means employed, the motive or the identity of those who might be responsible for Mr. Litvinenko's death."
Earlier Wednesday, Mario Scaramella, the Italian security expert who met with Litvinenko on Nov. 1, the day the former agent fell ill, was released from a London hospital after showing no signs of radiation poisoning.
Scaramella was in good health, University College Hospital spokesman Ian Lloyd said. He was hospitalized after testing positive for polonium-210.
A British official also said faint levels of the same element had been found at two locations at London's Emirates Stadium, where a key figure in the investigation, former Russian agent Andrei Lugovoi, attended a soccer match Nov. 1.
The radiation was "barely detectable" and posed no public health risk, said Katherine Lewis, spokeswoman for the Health Protection Agency.
Traces also were found at the British Embassy in Moscow, the Foreign Office said. Officials said the level was low and posed no risk to health.
The health agency has been tracking a number of sites found to be contaminated with polonium-210, including a sushi bar and a hotel Litvinenko visited Nov. 1. He died in a London hospital on Nov. 23.
The restaurant, Itsu Sushi, said Wednesday that it would reopen in the new year. It said all its staff had been given a clean bill of health.
Lugovoi, who is hospitalized in Moscow for tests for possible radiation contamination, attended a match at Emirates Stadium between CSKA Moscow and Arsenal on Nov. 1, the same day he met Litvinenko.
A former KGB officer, Lugovoi told Ekho Moskvy radio in Moscow that he had known Litvinenko for a decade, dating back to Lugovoi's tenure as head of security for ORT television, which was controlled at the time by tycoon Boris Berezovsky, who now lives in London.
He said Litvinenko had contacted him from London about a year ago with some business-related proposals, and that they had met intermittently in London since then.
One of Lugovoi's business associates, Vyacheslav Sokolenko, said British investigators were due to meet with Lugovoi on Wednesday. But ITAR-Tass quoted a lawyer for Lugovoi, Andrei Romashov, as saying the meeting with Scotland Yard detectives would take place Thursday or Friday.
"Representatives of law enforcement agencies have not notified us of a date or time," Romashov was quoted as saying.
ABC News reported that British detectives had identified Lugovoi as a prime suspect in Litvinenko's poisoning. The report cited an unidentified senior British official.
British police have publicly named Lugovoi only as a witness. A British government official, who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press, said Lugovoi was "one of many people investigators are looking to question, but I wouldn't call him a suspect at this point."
"We're also looking at the possibility there were criminal gangs involved," he said. "I think the investigation will take a very long time but I doubt any one person will be named or implicated in the end."
Lugovoi told the ITAR-Tass news agency that he was undergoing tests for possible radiation contamination, and that the results would be ready in a few days. He said he was prepared to answer all the British investigators' questions.
"I intend to fully satisfy their interest and am waiting for an invitation from the law enforcement organs," he was quoted as saying.
"Once I give all the necessary testimony to the law enforcement organs, I intend to publicly put an end to (speculation) about my supposed involvement in this story that has caused such a stir," he said.
Lugovoi traveled to London three times in the month before Litvinenko's death and met with Litvinenko four times, according to Russian media.
Litvinenko's funeral is expected to take place this week.
His father, Walter, told Radio Liberty that his son had converted and wished to receive a Muslim burial. "He told me about his decision two days before he died. He said, 'Papa, I have to talk to you about something serious. I've become a Muslim."'
An ally of Litvinenko said the ex-spy converted to Islam on his deathbed.
"He told me that he wanted to convert to Islam literally in his first days in the hospital," said Chechen rebel envoy Akhmed Zakayev.
"I did not pay a lot of attention to this," Zakayev told Radio Liberty, "but he returned to the theme again and again."
Zakayev said that on Nov. 22, Litvinenko was visited in hospital by an imam, who read a Quranic verse traditionally said over the dying.
Litvinenko's friend Alex Goldfarb confirmed an imam visited the hospital, "when he was heavily sedated and on the verge of death."
He said he did not know whether his friend had converted.
"He was basically a nonreligious person as long as I knew him," Goldfarb said.
Reid pledge on spy death inquiry
Spy Death: Radiation Tests Continue
Mario Scaramella met with former Russian agent and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko at a central London sushi bar on Nov. 1. Later that day Litvinenko reported feeling unwell, and the 43-year-old died three weeks later ・his body withered, his hair fallen out and his organs ravaged.
Scaramella, 36, was "well" and preliminary tests had shown "no evidence of radiation toxicity," said a spokesman for University College Hospital, where Litvinenko died and Scaramella is having tests.
Tests on Friday confirmed that Scaramella had been exposed to polonium-210, the rare substance found in Litvinenko's body before he died in London on Nov. 23. But doctors said Scaramella had been exposed to a much lower level of the radioactive material.
Scaramella's Naples-based lawyer, Sergio Rastrelli, told Italy's Sky TG24 TV that the Italian wasn't in isolation and was meeting with doctors and police.
"He was exposed to the same source as Litvinenko, but at a lower level," Rastrelli said. Scaramella was showing "no external symptoms."
"It's possible he ingested or inhaled the same substance at the same place as the Russian," Rastrelli said, "although fortunately in exponentially lower doses."
Scaramella has said that he didn't eat anything at the sushi restaurant when he was there with Litvinenko because it was after lunchtime.
Also on Saturday, four Greeks were undergoing medical tests for possible contamination by a radioactive substance that killed Litvinenko, private Greek television said Saturday.
The four people were recently in London and stayed at the same hotel as Litvinenko, private Antenna TV said, quoting Deputy Health Minister Thanasis Yiannopoulos.
The four people ・who were not identified ・were undergoing blood and urine tests at the state-run Dimokritos nuclear research center, Antenna reported. Results were expected early next week.
Also on Saturday, British Airways said three jetliners grounded by investigators looking into Litvinenko's death had been cleared to resume service. Small traces of radioactive substances had been found on the planes, which traveled between Moscow and London since the former spy turned Kremlin critic was poisoned.
"They have all been cleared and they will be back in service in the next few days," said a BA spokeswoman, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with department policy.
Britain's Health Protection Agency said though low levels of polonium 210 were found on two of the planes, there was no risk to passengers.
Another airline, easyJet, said Scaramella had flown with them to London from Naples on Oct. 31 and returned on Nov. 3, two days after his meeting with 43-year-old Litvinenko. The HPA said there was no risk to the public from those flights.
An official at Russia's Transport Ministry said Saturday that radiation had been found on a Finnair plane in Moscow, and a flight inquiry officer at the Sheremetyevo airport said the Helsinki-bound airbus A-319 had been delayed for several hours. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, and neither would say whether the checks in Moscow were related to Litvinenko's case.
Taneli Hassinen, a spokesman for Finnair, said an initial measurement found slightly elevated radiation levels on the plane, but that they were within the permissible levels. Later measurements found no increased levels and the plane had permission to return to Helsinki with 70 passengers on board, he said.
Another airline, easyJet, said Scaramella had flown with them to London from Naples on Oct. 31 and returned on Nov. 3, two days after his meeting with 43-year-old Litvinenko. The HPA said there was no risk to the public from those flights.
Litvinenko's wife Marina, 44, was also confirmed as having shown traces of polonium, but she was showing no ill effects and did not need hospital treatment, the ex-spy's friend, Alex Goldfarb, said Saturday.
"She has never been in the hospital," Goldfarb told The Associated Press. "She was told that she had minuscule amounts of radioactivity which is totally not considered a health hazard."
Goldfarb joined Marina and the Litvinenkos' son Anatoly for a remembrance dinner on Friday, adding that the boy had been cleared of contamination.
In East Sussex, southern England, police and health officials evacuated and later reopened the Ashdown Park Hotel and Country Club, where Scaramella had been staying, after testing for signs of the substance.
No test results were released, but hotel managers said no radiation had been found.
The Italian health ministry has ruled out any danger to public health in Italy ・where Scaramella returned following his visit to London.
Scaramella told Litvinenko on Nov. 1 about an e-mail he received from a source naming the purported killers of Anna Politkovskaya, the Russian investigative journalist gunned down on Oct. 7 in Moscow. The e-mail reportedly said that he and Litvinenko ・a friend of the reporter ・were also on the hit list.
In a letter released Friday by human rights activists, a former Russian security officer who is now in jail said he had also warned Litvinenko in 2002 about a government-sponsored death squad that intended to kill him and other Kremlin opponents.
The letter by Mikhail Trepashkin was released by rights activists in Yekaterinburg, the center of the Ural Mountains province where he is serving his four-year sentence. Its authenticity could not immediately be confirmed.
Russia's Federal Security Service, the KGB successor agency known by its Russian acronym FSB, has refused to comment on Trepashkin's claim.
In Ireland, meanwhile, officials said tests on former Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar were negative for radiation poisoning.
"Testing for radioactive poisoning came out negative," said Rosaleen Harlin of Ireland's health executive.
Gaidar, now a leader of Russia's opposition, became violently ill during a conference in Dublin last week in what his aides have described as another poisoning. He is now being treated at a hospital in Moscow, where his condition has been described as improving.
Three pathologists on Friday completed Litvinenko's autopsy at the Royal London Hospital, coroner Dr. Andrew Reid said. Results of the autopsy may not be available for several days.
US paves way for Russia WTO entry
Russians remember killed reporter
Putin calls for Georgia pressure
The president said the OSCE should concentrate on encouraging the Georgian leadership to "drastically change its course".
Putin fury at Georgia
Russian gold mine fire kills 12
Grenades 'caused Beslan tragedy'
Mourning for Ukraine crash dead
Russia warns Iran over deadline
Russia censured over Chechen man
But the judges said it had to be presumed that he was dead and they held Russia liable for his death.
Russian WTO bid falters at summit
Bush to press Putin on freedoms
Russian hostages 'killed in Iraq'
U.S., Russia reach deal on securing Soviet WMD
Russia Bargains for Bigger Stake in West's Energy
Banned Moscow gay rally broken up
Beslan attacker jailed for life
The sole surviving suspect from the Beslan school siege has been found guilty of murder and terrorism at a court in southern Russia.
Russia plans wide military reform
Putin and Abbas set for key talks
Putin calls for stronger army
State of nation address focuses on domestic issues
Plea for more babies
Growth of Gazprom
WTO barb
Putin to push foreign policy aims
Russian racism 'out of control'
Putin criticises West over energy
US warns Russia over aid to Iran
Palestinians to get Russian aid
Russia Uncorks Another Trade Dispute
Wine From Georgia and Moldova Is Banned as Ex-Soviet States Anger Moscow
Russians Sense the Heat of Cold War
Intensifying U.S. Criticism of Government and Its Role in Region Evokes Resentment
Russia denies Iraq secrets claim
Russia 'gave Iraq intelligence'
West Condemns Belarus Landslide Presidential Victory
Thousands Protest Lukashenko's Win in Minsk
Soviets 'ordered Pope shooting'
Iran Says It Will Agree to Russian Enrichment Project
Putin warning over 'puppet' NGOs
Russian soldiers held over attack
Russian NGO rejects spy 'smear'
One of the non-government groups named in Russian allegations of a UK spy network has dismissed the reports as a smear aimed at undermining its work.
Russia blamed for 'gas sabotage'
Georgia's president has accused Moscow of serious acts of "sabotage" after gas blasts on Russian pipelines cut off supplies to Georgia and Armenia.
Russia Weathering Deadly Cold Spell
(AP)
Electricity use surged to record levels and towns and cities struggled to keep indoor temperatures up as temperatures in Moscow plunged overnight to as low as minus-24 Fahrenheit.
Seven people died of exposure in the Russian capital over the previous 24 hours, city emergency officials said, pushing the nationwide death toll from the Siberian cold wave that swept into Moscow late Monday to at least 31.
At a zoo in Lipetsk, south of Moscow, director Alexander Osipov said monkeys would be given wine three times day, "to protect against colds," the RIA-Novosti news agency reported.
Schoolchildren stayed home and drivers struggled to start cars but thousands of religious believers, along with other hardy souls plunged into icy waters nationwide for an annual ritual marking the Russian Orthodox Christian holiday of Epiphany.
The temperature matched a record set in 1927, said Tatyana Pozdnyakova, a Moscow weather forecasting service official.
Vendors at Moscow's outdoor food and clothing markets shuttered their booths and outdoor ATMs reportedly froze up, while traffic was uncharacteristically light as drivers were reluctant to venture out or unable to start their cars. Outside one apartment building, residents hefted car batteries back into their vehicles after taking them home overnight to keep them warm. Others tried to jump-start their cars.
Many parents kept their children home from school. At least two towns in the Moscow region saw heat disrupted by water main breaks, leaving dozens of homes and thousands of people shivering. A similar accident left thousands without heat in Siberia's Chita region, some 3,000 miles east of Moscow. Russian buildings frequently are heated by municipal hot water systems.
Many people shrugged off the cold to mark Epiphany by dipping into holes cut into thick ice on rivers and ponds, a ritual that commemorates the baptism of Jesus Christ in the River Jordan.
"Minus-30 is the most intense feeling," one man in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg told Channel One television after taking a dip, his eyebrows rimed with frost.
At one location in northeast Moscow, Vladimir Grebyonkin, an avid 65-year-old winter swimmer and scientist, said the frigid temperatures gave the water special qualities.
"These waters have their own properties, their own benefits," he says. "I'm not a believer (in God), but I'm believer in physics."
Electricity use reached a 15-year high earlier this week, power monopoly RAO Unified Energy Systems said Wednesday. The company also said Russia might reduce electricity supplies to Finland in order to ensure deliveries to St. Petersburg and the surrounding region.
Russia's state-controlled natural gas monopoly OAO Gazprom meanwhile tried to maintain exports, a sensitive issue for Europe following a New Year's interruption in supplies stemming from a dispute between Russia and Ukraine.
Gazprom said Thursday that it was fulfilling all its contracts to European customers and said it had pumped an extra 750 million cubic meters of gas to domestic users this week to compensate for increased usage during the cold snap.
Friday was expected to bring slightly warmer temperatures, with a forecast weekend high in Moscow of about minus-4.
 Russia vows to end gas shortage
Russia says it will pump more gas to Europe after various countries said their supplies had fallen by up to 40% after Moscow cut Ukraine's provision. France, Italy, Germany and Poland were among those reporting falling volumes. Russia said it was sending an extra 95m cubic metres a day to make up for gas "stolen" by Ukraine. Ukraine denies it has siphoned off $25m (｣15m) worth of gas from a pipeline crossing its territory after Russia cut off its supply in a price dispute.
Russian gas monopoly Gazprom raised the price of 1,000 cubic metres of gas from $50 to $230 and Ukraine refused to pay.
Gazprom is still charging the lower price to some former Soviet countries, though the average price in the EU is $240. Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin said his country had also been cut off, after refusing to pay $160 per 1,000 cubic metres, according to the Itar-Tass news agency. 'Blackmail' European Union energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs told the BBC's World Tonight programme that he was monitoring the situation and invited Russia and Ukraine to resume negotiations. He said nobody was to blame, but that the situation was complex. "Ukraine is definitely not able to pay a four times increase of price. It is just not possible if you pay $50... and the next day you should pay $230. You just can't do it," he said.
EU energy officials are set to discuss the crisis at a meeting on Wednesday. Kiev says it is being punished for its attempts to become more independent from Moscow and develop stronger ties with the West. It has accused Russia of resorting to "blackmail" in order to undermine Ukraine's economy. Ambassadors from Europe, the US and Japan met Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, who told them he was willing to go to international arbitration to settle the issue. Germany, which depends on Russia for 30% of its supplies, has called on Moscow to "act responsibly". Alexander Medvedev, deputy head of Gazprom, said Ukraine had stolen 100 million cubic metres of gas on Sunday. Ukraine's Fuel and Energy Minister Ivan Plachkov said there had been no "unauthorised diversion" of gas. But he said Ukraine had the right under existing contracts to take a share of gas exported via the Ukrainian pipeline - the main route for Russian exports - and would do so if the temperature fell below -3C. Tension Gazprom supplies about one-fifth of gas consumed by the European Union. France, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia have reported a sharp fall in supplies, of between 25% and 40%. Full supplies have now been restored to Hungary, after earlier being 40% down, an energy ministry spokesman told Reuters news agency.
The head of Austria's OMV oil and gas group also said the flow of gas was back to normal. The shortage was being passed on, as affected countries said they would in turn be pumping less gas to customers further down the line, such as Serbia and Bosnia. Mr Medvedev said Gazprom would carry out checks on gas volumes and "use all possible measures so that Western consumers continue to receive gas as foreseen by contracts". Ukraine says it is not opposed to an increase in gas prices, if this is phased in gradually, and says taps should be turned back on while negotiations continue. Relations between Russia and Ukraine have been tense since Mr Yushchenko came to power last year on a promise to strengthen relations with the EU and Nato, and steer the country out of Russia's sphere of influence. |
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Russia cuts gas to Ukraine over price dispute
MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Russia's state-owned natural gas monopoly Gazprom has halted deliveries of natural gas to Ukraine, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.
Gazprom said it shut off supplies after Ukrainian officials said they would not sign a new gas price agreement proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Gazprom, which supplies around one third of Ukraine's natural gas, has increased the price of gas from around $50 per 1,000 cubic meters of natural gas to $230 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas -- a four-fold increase.
Ukrainian officials have balked at the price hike, and see the increase as Russia's attempt to penalize the former Soviet republic for its Western-leaning foreign policy.
Putin offered a last minute compromise, calling for gas prices to be frozen at the old level for the first quarter of 2006 if Ukraine agreed to price increases after that.
Gazprom officials said they were told by Ukraine that they would not sign the compromise agreement. That offer expired with the coming of the new year.
A spokesman for Naftogaz, Ukraine's natural gas company, said there was enough gas for the immediate future to heat homes and power its industry.
"Gas is not flowing at all through some transit routes, which can lead to a fall in pressure in all the pipelines and limit the overall supply of gas to Ukraine and Europe," The Associated Press quoted Eduard Zaniuk as saying.
Ukraine announced last week it had signed an extension of its agreement with Turkmenistan, which supplies about half of Ukraine's natural gas supply.
While a gas supply crisis is not expected immediately, experts project that Ukraine will run out of natural gas sometime around the summer.
Western Europe is watching the Ukraine-Russia battle anxiously because the same pipelines that take Russia's gas to Ukraine go on to Western Europe, supplying it with more than a quarter of its natural gas needs.
The fear is that there could be a disruption in European gas supplies because of the dispute.
The European Commission will meet this week to discuss contingency plans. The Russians -- and the Ukrainians -- both promise their dispute won't disrupt western Europe's supply.
Europe Calls for Talks on Russia's Oil Dispute With Ukraine
KIEV (Reuters) - Russian gas giant Gazprom on Friday spurned Ukraine's plea to freeze a rise in prices as the clock ticked down to a New Year deadline for a deal to keep supplies flowing to the ex-Soviet state and Moscow's European customers. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's appeal coincided with the apparent failure of last-ditch attempts, watched anxiously by consumers in snowbound western Europe, to end a row over Russia's sudden demand for a four-fold leap in prices.
A clearly nervous European Union called a January 4 meeting of energy officials from its 25 member states to discuss the issue. ``The idea is to be ready for all eventualities and to have a common approach,'' European Commission spokesman Amadeu Altafaj Tardio said.
Central European nations started setting up contingency plans just in case there are supply disruptions. But Czech, Hungarian, Polish and Romanian officials said while their countries were prepared, they expected no problems.
Yushchenko's proposal, in a message to Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, called for further talks with a contract to be signed by January 10. ``Pending completion of these talks and signing of a contract, a moratorium is proposed on increased prices and rates,'' it read.
The president doggedly remained confident of a solution, but dug in his heels, saying Russian demands were unjustified. But Gazprom clearly had no confidence in his negotiating position. ``There is a danger that after having proposed to freeze the price for the first 10 days of January, the Ukrainian side will then want to freeze it for another 10 days,'' Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov said in response to Ukraine's appeal.
NEW YEAR DEADLINE
Gazprom says it will cut off all supplies to Ukraine from 0700 GMT on Sunday unless its neighbor agrees to pay $230 for 1,000 cubic metres of gas against a current rate of $50. Russia argues it is subsidizing Ukraine by supplying gas under outdated terms -- discounting prices with the costs of using Ukraine's pipelines to send gas to European customers. A quarter of Europe's gas needs come from Russia and nearly all of that is piped across Ukrainian territory.
Simmering in the background is tension between the two countries after Ukraine's ``Orange Revolution'' protests last year which helped put in power the pro-Western Yushchenko at the expense of the Kremlin's preferred candidate. In a television interview, Yushchenko said he hoped good relations with Putin would help produce a solution.
``I simply do not want to believe that this is a result of pressure from Russia. That frankly humiliates us as a negotiating partner,'' Yushchenko said. He linked passions to Ukraine's campaign for a March parliamentary election. But Russia, he said, was varying price according to the customer -- $120 for the Baltic states, $110 for ex-Soviet Caucasus states and $47 for pro-Russian Belarus. ``A price of $230 is unacceptable not because it is high, but because there are no economic grounds for it,'' he said. ``I think we will soon reach an understanding. We must not engage in conflicts and rows with Russia.''
Yushchenko also announced a deal to buy 40 billion cubic meters of gas next year from ex-Soviet Turkmenistan in Central Asia -- at $50 -- part of plans to diversify energy sources. Energy Minister Ivan Plachkov flew back to Kiev overnight after two days of apparently fruitless bargaining in Moscow.
A statement issued by his ministry made clear there had been no progress. ``At this time the two sides have been unable to reach an understanding on these issues,'' it said.
In the meantime, Gazprom sounded uncompromising. ``If in the remaining hours, Ukraine does not sign a contract for gas, then at 10 a.m. Moscow time on January 1 the Russian Federation will completely sever supplies to the Ukrainian customer,'' Gazprom chief Alexei Miller told reporters. Ukraine, its economy gripped by a slowdown, counters that it cannot afford such an abrupt rise. Yushchenko has made plain he intends to pay no more than $70-80.
Putin admits Ukraine gas 'crisis'
Vladimir Putin has admitted Russia's dispute with Ukraine over gas supplies had led to a "real crisis" in relations between the two countries.
High-level talks are continuing in Moscow in an effort to resolve the dispute, centring on the amount that Ukraine pays for Russian gas imports.
Russia wants to raise prices fourfold and has threatened to cut off supplies on 1 January if terms are not agreed.
President Putin has offered Ukraine a loan to help it adjust to the deal.
Political crisis
While reiterating that Russia's price demands were unacceptable, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said on Thursday that a political solution must be found to the dispute.
This crisis appears to be a crisis between our two countries
After meeting with senior ministers and Ukraine's energy minister Ivan Plachkov, President Putin publicly acknowledged the scale of the dispute for the first time.
"You have simply created a real crisis and not only in the energy sphere," news agency Interfax reported Mr Putin as saying.
"This crisis appears to be a crisis between our two countries. This is very bad."
Russia insists that Ukraine must pay market rates for the gas from its state-owned firm Gazprom, which wants to quadruple prices to between $220 and $230 per 1,000 cubic metres.
Concession?
Ukraine says it is happy to pay market rates, but wants price increases to be phased in gradually over several years.
In an apparent concession, Mr Putin said Russia would be prepared to offer Ukraine a loan in the region of $3.6bn to help it adjust to the new arrangement.
"We must give our Ukrainian partners the opportunity to arrange their budget in such a way that it can adapt to market relations," he said.
In one or two days, a political decision must be taken
Ukraine has warned Russia that it may seek international arbitration if an acceptable compromise to the dispute is not reached.
It has argued that Belarus, a close ally of Russia, will pay just $46 per 1,000 cubic metres for gas after a recent agreement, while both Georgia and Armenia are also paying less.
President Yushchenko described the price demands as "provocative" but said he expected the dispute to be settled shortly.
"In one or two days, a political decision must be taken not by the experts but by the presidents of the two countries," he said.
Ukraine's state-owned gas company has said the country has enough supplies to survive the winter, should Russia cut off its imports.
Relations between Ukraine and Russia have been tense ever since the election of the pro-Western Mr Yushchenko in 2004.
Beslan rescue 'full of failures'
The operation to free hostages held at a school in Beslan in 2004 was full of "failures and shortcomings", a Russian investigator has said.
Alexander Torshin, the man leading a federal inquiry, said regional police failed to follow orders which could have prevented an attack.
His preliminary findings contrast with a prosecutor's report which said security forces had made no mistakes.
That angered relatives of the 331 people who were killed at the school.
An earlier investigation by the local parliamentary commission had said the security services had been incompetent.
Instructions
The investigations relate to the siege in the North Ossetian town in September 2004.
Dozens of children were among those killed when mines planted by the hostage-takers inside the school began to explode and security forces stormed the building.
We had the right to expect something more weighty from Torshin
Mr Torshin's findings were presented to the Russian parliament on Wednesday.
He told MPs: "The list of failures and shortcomings is long."
Negligence and carelessness by officials allowed the hostage-takers to carry out the attack, he said.
He added that the regional police department in North Ossetia had ignored instructions from the Russian Interior Ministry to upgrade security around schools.
"There was no information about the planning of terror attacks but there was a warning telegram... on 21 August and 31 August," he said.
"In those telegrams, based on intelligence information, there was an order to the Interior Ministry branch in North Ossetia to strengthen protection of all educational facilities on 1 September. That could have prevented the terrorist attack. But they weren't fulfilled."
Trial
The BBC's Emma Simpson in Moscow says the relatives of the victims have long thought that many of the victims were not killed by the hostage-takers, but as a result of the heavy weaponry fired on the school.
But Mr Torshin has said that there is not enough material to reach full and objective conclusions, she added.
Ella Kesayeva, of the Beslan Mothers Committee, told Radio Ekho Moskvy: "We had the right to expect something more weighty from Torshin.
"Of course, he would never have given all the names, this is clear."
Relatives' groups want someone to be held accountable for what happened. President Vladimir Putin has said that if officials are found to be to blame, they will be held accountable.
But he is waiting for the final conclusions - which are not due until next year.
The trial of Nur-Pashi Kulayev - said to be the only hostage-taker not to have died in the siege - began in May and is still ongoing.
The 24-year-old Chechen carpenter faces nine charges, including murder, banditry and terrorism, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
'No mistakes', Beslan report says
Russian prosecutors investigating last year's Beslan school siege say the authorities made no mistakes during the crisis in North Ossetia.
Relatives of more than 330 people who died in the siege accuse the security services of incompetence.
They say the police who stormed the school should shoulder the blame for as many deaths as the hostage-takers.
An earlier report by the local parliamentary commission did find the security services had been incompetent.
The BBC's Artyom Liss in Moscow says the prosecutors' report, released on Monday, will probably infuriate relatives of those who died in Beslan - but it does not come as a surprise.
In September 2004, more than 300 people were killed when police and troops stormed the school after it was seized by Chechen rebels.
Since then people in Beslan have demanded that the authorities be called to account.
The prosecutors' view of events is very different to the findings of the local parliamentary commission.
'Poor prevention'
Deputy Prosecutor-General Nikolay Shepel told Interfax news agency the security forces had all acted strictly within the law, and a reconstruction of the events did not uncover any actions that could have provoked the tragedy.
"According to the conclusions of the investigation, the expert commission did not find ... any infringements which could have a causal link to the harmful consequences which resulted from the terrorist act in Beslan," he said.
But, Mr Shepel added, the experts had concluded that the existing system for preventing terrorism did not provide full protection for the country's population.
"This manifests itself in an inability to discover, warn of and prevent terrorist attacks in good time," he said.
Our correspondent says that for victims of the siege all this is little consolation. Dozens of them, who have formed the group known as the Mothers of Beslan, have already accused the prosecutors of trying to whitewash the generals responsible.
They say they do not trust the authorities and promise to continue their own investigation.
Russia Puts New Pressure on Private Groups
- Russia's lower house of Parliament today amended legislation intended to increase the government's control over charities and other private organizations, while leaving in place core provisions that critics said would open the groups to political pressure and even closing.
Described by one critic as "a nasty piece of work," the legislation advanced despite international pressure that included a resolution by the United States Congress and appeals from senior Bush administration officials who said the law, if adopted, would stifle free debate and undercut efforts to promote democracy and political pluralism in Russia.
The debate over the legislation - introduced by lawmakers loyal to the Kremlin last month - has been one of the most intense in years, both here and abroad. President Vladimir V. Putin's supporters have argued that the changes would bolster national security by controlling organizations advocating extremism or terrorism. But even some of his advisers expressed concern over the legislation's sweep. Critics went further, complaining that Mr. Putin's government was determined to exert power over one of the last parts of society not already dominated by the state.
In the second of three required votes, the lower house adopted 62 amendments, many of them highly technical. Among the revised provisions was one that could have closed some of the world's most prominent organizations by forcing them to register as purely Russian groups. At the same time, however, those organizations would face new requirements to report to the authorities that their work and spending did not oppose Russia's national, social or cultural interests. "It's a nasty piece of work," said Steven Solnick, the representative for the Ford Foundation, which has distributed roughly $10 million a year in grants in Russia for programs involving education, AIDS and the arts. "What everybody was hoping for was that they would be concrete about what activities are prohibited," he added, referring to the amendments, "but they have gone the other way." As in the first vote, the amended bill won overwhelming support, with 376 deputies voting for, and only 10 against, underscoring the Kremlin's sway within the legislative branch. A third vote, largely a technicality, is expected by Friday. The legislation still requires approval from the upper house and Mr. Putin. The Russian leader and others have said the state needed to protect civil society, but the legislation's sponsors did little to disguise a driving motive: to restrain what has been seen here as foreign, especially American, support for democratic movements in Ukraine and other former Soviet states or satellites.
"I think that the bill provides a very good basis for law enforcers to carry out the main task - namely to preclude the channels of financing terrorist and extremist activities," one of the sponsors, Vladimir N. Pligin, said in a statement, "and to prevent interference by various foreign associations into the political life in Russia." Russian organizations would still be required to register with a government agency empowered to review compliance with the legislation. Groups could be shut down after a single serious violation. The groups have also complained that bureaucratic reporting requirements could bog them down.
Liliya V. Shibanova, director of a voting-rights organization called Golos, or Voice, which has received American grants, said that the amendments effectively made the legislation worse, subjecting groups like hers to the scrutiny of prosecutors, not merely tax or other civil authorities. She said the proposed law's convoluted provisions were intended to let the authorities arbitrarily single out "the public organizations they consider a threat." "If this version is adopted we can only sit and wait for the first visit from the prosecutor," Ms. Shibanova said.
Putin Eyes Bush Pal For Oil Post
Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered former Commerce Secretary Donald Evans, a close friend of President Bush, a top job at Russian state oil company OAO Rosneft.
A person familiar with the details of a recent trip Evans made to Russia said the offer came at a meeting Evans had with Putin last week at the Kremlin. This person spoke only on condition of anonymity because no public announcement has been made.
Evans did not give an answer at the meeting but said he would consider the offer, the person said.
The Interfax news agency quoted Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov as telling reporters at a news conference Thursday that the government would in principle welcome the participation of Western executives in Russian companies.
"As for Evans, we'll soon find out," Zhukov said.
Rosneft has previously declined to comment on Evans' possible appointment, directing requests to the Federal Property Agency, which holds the state's 100 percent stake in the company.
No one could be reached at the agency Friday evening.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Rosneft is scheduled to sell as much as 49 percent of its stock in an initial public offering in 2006.
Evans was in Russia last week at the invitation of the American Chamber of Commerce to discuss integrating Russia into the global economy. While in the country, he attended a number of meetings with U.S. executives doing business in Russia and with senior officials of Putin's government.
A week ago, the Russian state-owned gas company OAO Gazprom named former German Prime Minister Gerhard Schroeder as chairman of a $5 billion Russian-controlled venture to build a gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea.
Putin softens draft law on NGOs
Vladimir Putin, Russian president, yesterday responded to mounting international criticism and asked parliament to soften a draft law that threatens to restrict the work of foreign non-governmental organisations in Russia.
Mr Putin said foreign NGOs should not be required to register as Russian entities ・which would have caused many of them to close down ・but would have to notify the Russian authorities of their presence and activities. Foreign and Russian NGOs said this was a step in the right direction, but not sufficient.
The Kremlin has been under pressure from the US and the European Union, which expressed concern about the draft law, saying non-governmental organisations were vital for healthy democracy in Russia.
The draft law, which has already passed the first reading in the parliament, followed allegations made by Russian officials that domestic and foreign NGOs helped to stir up democratic revolutions in Ukraine and in Georgia. In his recommendations to the Duma, the lower house of parliament, Mr Putin said the aims of this draft law deserve support, but the mechanism of implementing them should correspond more closely to the principles of civil society.
Steven Solnick, the head of the Ford Foundation in Moscow, said Mr Putin's proposals addressed the most glaring contradictions between international law and the draft Russian legislation. However, Mr Putin wants to prevent foreign NGOs interfering in Russian politics.
Yuri Dzhibladze, the president of the Centre for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights, a Russian NGO, said Mr Putin's proposals still gave government bureaucrats huge scope to interfere arbitrarily in the work of non-governmental organisations. He said the main problem, which remains, was that the law's failure to clearly define interference in politics meant it could be used against any organisation that monitors the political process in Russia or tries to influence public opinion.
According to Mr Putin's proposal, foreign NGOs will have to inform relevant Russian authorities about the purpose of their spending on each project.
Leading Russia TV anchor 'banned'
A newsreader from one of the last remaining television stations openly critical of the Kremlin has been ordered off the air.
Olga Romanova said security guards had blocked her way when she arrived for work on Thursday night at Ren TV.
She had previously accused her management of blocking news items that might anger top officials.
Moscow-based Ren TV had earned a reputation as Russia's last relatively independent television news outlet.
There is mystery surrounding the fate of Ms Romanova, a prominent TV anchor.
She has been telling journalists that three security men in black uniforms prevented her from entering the news studio of Ren TV.
State ownership
The boss, she said, had asked her to resign because she had told a local radio station that the channel had decided not to run a story about the son of Russia's Defence Minister, Sergei Ivanov.
Ren TV is Moscow-based, but has a national audience of 97 million viewers.
Under President Vladimir Putin all of Russia's national TV stations are now either state-owned, or owned by state-run companies.
Earlier this year, Ren TV also changed hands. The new majority shareholder is run by an oligarch seen as loyal to Mr Putin.
Former Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev has been quoted by one Russian news agency as saying that the treatment of Ms Romanova was a sign that Russia had lost the last station that had kept even a little objectivity in its coverage.
Ren TV's management have denied there was any political motive and said they were making personnel changes to boost ratings. One spokesperson told the BBC that Ms Romanova would be back at work next week.
Soviet plans to annihilate Europe revealed
A Cold War map detailing the Warsaw Pact's training plans for a nuclear war has been released by the new Polish government, which pledged to confront the nation's Communist past.
Dating from 1979, the map reveals how Soviet forces could respond to a Nato assault by invading Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Red and blue mushroom clouds are marked on the map, showing Soviet nuclear bombs raining down on cities including Brussels, Antwerp, Munich and Stuttgart, and Nato nuclear strikes on Warsaw and a line of Polish territory, cutting the country in two. The Nato objective was to halt a second wave of Soviet troops sweeping westwards from Russia. Polish military chiefs said yesterday that about two million people would have died in Poland alone. Meanwhile, Britain and France appeared to have escaped unscathed, so separate plans may have existed for them.
The right-wing Polish government sent a powerful political message by releasing the map from the military archives, reinforcing its tough, nationalistic and anti-Russian rhetoric.
The Law and Justice party emphasised that key figures in the previous social democratic government had been members of the Communist regime.
Radoslaw Sikorski, the Defence Minister, said there had been no prior discussions with Moscow about the release. Explaining how the Soviets had made Poland the main target for Nato, he argued: "We need to know about our past. Historians have the right to know the history of the 20th century. If people did some things they were not proud of, that will be an education for them too.
"I think it is very important for a democracy for the citizens to know who was who, who was the hero and who was the villain. On that basis we make democratic choices.
"I think it is also important for the health of civic society for morality tales to be told: that it pays to be decent and that if you do things that did not serve the national interest, one day it will come out and you might be called to account."
Mr Sikorski promised to release 1,700 documents including the statute of the Warsaw Pact, protocols from its political and military committees and documents relating to the suppression of the Prague Spring uprising in 1968.
The model for openness is that of the Gauck Institute in Berlin, which made public the files compiled by the Stasi, the East German secret police. "This government wants to end the post-Communist period in which the files of the Warsaw Pact were secret,'' Mr Sikorski said.
Asked whether the release of archive material would recreate social divisions, and antagonise those who regard Poland's last Communist leader, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, as a hero, Mr Sikorski replied bluntly: "He is not considered to be a hero by me.''
Interestingly, the Warsaw Pact training map illustrates a defensive military operation in response to a Nato nuclear strike, and the Soviet forces appeared to stop at the English Channel. French territory is also avoided, a fact which Waldemar Wojcik, head of Poland's central military archive, explained by the fact that France was outside Nato's integrated military command structure.
Britain does, however, feature on the map and Nato bombers are shown flying over Bridlington and Ipswich on the way to the Continent, as a separate force sweeps in from Denmark.
Mr Wojcik added that, on a visit to Washington, Polish military officials had seen plans from Nato that were "a mirror image" of the Warsaw Pact's own deadly war plan.
State of fear
Russia is slipping back into a pattern of governance that looks a lot like Soviet-style déjà vu to anyone brought up during the Cold War. A new strong man in the Kremlin, President Vladimir Putin, is tightening his grip upon society, cracking down on independent civic organizations, muzzling the press, cancelling elections and seeking to impose Russia’s will upon neighbouring countries. Yet there is no sign of the communist ideology that was used to justify the former USSR’s harsh social regimentation and authoritarian system. Putin insists, indeed, that he is trying to build Russian democracy, but argues for strengthening the state and greater powers for the security forces. The reason has a familiar ring for even the youngest readers – the fight against terrorism.
That threat is real. During the past five years, roughly the period Putin has been in power, Russia has experienced a string of horrific terrorist attacks against civilians, each more deadly than the last. In every case the Kremlin has responded with sweeping measures to claw back civic freedoms and human rights. Putin has justified such measures with dire warnings that Russia’s very survival is at stake. Following last September’s terrorist siege of a school in Beslan, southern Russia, which killed hundreds of children, Putin cancelled direct elections for governors in Russia’s 89 regions, tightened restrictions on domestic movements by citizens, and declared a state of semi-emergency in the troubled north Caucasus zone.
‘Russia has been too weak,’ Putin said in a TV address following the Beslan tragedy. ‘And the weak get beaten.’
Though independent social polling has been drastically curbed, the surveys that are available appear to show most Russians in agreement with Putin’s strong-armed approach. The President’s personal approval rating has seldom fallen below 70 per cent in the past five years. Other polls suggest that majorities favour press censorship, expanded police rights of search and seizure, and restoring the Soviet-era ‘block committees’ of neighbourhood vigilantes and police informer networks. But even officially backed opinion surveys show that over half of Russians oppose Putin’s decision to end elections for local governors, and over 40 per cent do not believe there can be a ‘forceful solution’ to the decade-old conflict in separatist Chechnya, the key source of Russia’s terrorist problem.
‘There is no doubt that terrorism has been a major spur in the public’s yearning for a strong hand to bring order,’ says Sergei Kazyonnov, an expert with the independent Institute of National Security and Strategic Research in Moscow. ‘People see the loss of freedom as a tax that has to be paid for security. And it’s clear that, after the traumas that have occurred, Russians are very willing to pay that price.’
But terrorism has also been a handy excuse for Putin, a former KGB agent who came to office pledging to reverse Russia’s decline on the world stage, restore social order, rebuild the armed forces and modernize the rusting Soviet-era economy.
‘The connection between terrorism and Putin’s policies is a bit artificial,’ says Sergei Mikheyev, an expert with the Centre for Political Technologies, a Moscow thinktank. ‘The main goal is to end the post-Soviet deterioration of Russia, to strengthen the state in order to restore our lost economic, scientific and geopolitical positions. If you want to call that authoritarianism, OK, then these authoritarian trends would have appeared even without terrorism.’
In the autumn of 1999, when Putin was Prime Minister and heir apparent of the unpopular and enfeebled Boris Yeltsin, Russia was shaken by a series of night-time apartment blasts that killed almost 300 people in their sleep, in Moscow and two other cities. The attacks were blamed on Chechen rebels – although the perpetrators have never been clearly identified – and, under the personal supervision of Putin, Russian troops invaded Chechnya for the second time in less than a decade.
Short term gain
The war proved immensely popular. Within a few months Russian forces
had occupied most of the tiny, mainly Muslim republic, reversing the
humiliating defeat that forced Moscow out of Chechnya in the mid-1990s.
On the strength of this victory, a pro-Putin political party created
just a few months earlier swept parliamentary elections, and Putin
himself won the presidency in a March 2000 landslide.
But the second Chechen war, now well into its sixth year, has mutated into a savage counter-insurgency struggle, in which human rights monitors have accused Russia of committing mass atrocities against Chechen civilians and maintaining a brutal occupation regime in the tiny republic. At least one wing of Chechen rebels, led by the field commander Shamil Basayev, has turned increasingly to vicious terrorist reprisals against Russian civilians. Over the past five years a wave of Chechen suicide bombers have killed well over 1,000 people on trains, in metro stations, at a rock concert and on two downed airliners; while hundreds more have died in a couple of tragic mass hostage-takings – at a Moscow theatre in 2002 and at the Beslan school last September.
Putin has moved to restore state control over Russia’s freewheeling media, though he has shunned overt Soviet-style methods. The independent NTV network was taken over by the state-owned company Gazprom in a ‘commercial dispute’ while two smaller networks were pulled from the air by the Press Ministry. Critical newspapers, magazines and media personalities gradually disappeared from circulation, while mainstream news coverage grew increasingly uniform and wedded to the Kremlin line. The process of homogenizing Russia’s media is still under way.
‘Our TV has become a mouthpiece for the authorities, as it was in Soviet times,’ says Yevgenia Albats, a liberal journalist who works at Russia’s last independent radio station, Ekho Moskvi. ‘There is still a bit of space for criticism on the fringes of the media, but it is getting more and more difficult all the time.’
It is not exactly clear how the straitjacketing of Russia’s media aids the fight against terrorism, though the Kremlin has made the case that it does. In October 2002, after Russian security forces stormed a downtown Moscow theatre where Chechen terrorists were holding 800 hostages – 129 people died from the effects of a toxic gas used by the police – Putin publicly slammed the NTV network for its live coverage of the assault, which allegedly ‘aided the terrorists’. The director of NTV, Boris Jordan, was subsequently fired and replaced with a former Kremlin official. Last year the popular editor of the daily Izvestia, Rem Shakhirov, was sacked after the Kremlin accused him of ‘sensationalizing’ the Beslan tragedy in his paper.
Under Putin the Russian state has used its resources, its near-total media control and its power to intimidate, to sideline opposition parties and their financial backers. The ongoing legal assault against Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his company, Yukos, began after authorities accused the entrepreneur of supporting opposition newspapers, human rights groups and the small liberal party Yabloko. Khodorkovsky faces 10 years in prison for his alleged role in illegal privatizations in the wild 1990s. Yukos has been bankrupted, dismembered and seems like it will soon be swallowed by the state-controlled giant Gazprom. Meanwhile, other Russian ‘oligarchs’ who gained fabulous wealth by murky means, face no legal problems as long as they toe the Kremlin line and contribute to the pro-Putin United Russia party.
A wave of spy trials, initiated by Russia’s FSB security service, has resulted in harsh convictions for a handful of critical journalists, environmentalists, scientists and researchers. Critics say these few cases have been orchestrated to set an example for others.
‘The message is: be careful what subjects you get involved with, watch what you say to foreigners,’ says Masha Lipman, a former journalist who now works as a researcher with the Carnegie Centre in Moscow. ‘It’s a means of intimidating everyone without resorting to mass repressions.’
The Putin system, which the Kremlin describes as ‘managed democracy’ and critics slam as ‘dictatorship’, has enjoyed notable successes. Russia’s economy, which shrank by half during the 1990s, has grown by at least six per cent for each of the past five years. Moscow’s standing on the global stage has improved, especially after Putin joined President George W Bush as a partner in the global anti-terrorism coalition in the wake of the 9/11 attacks in the US. The pro-Kremlin United Russia Party won a two-thirds majority in the December 2003 parliamentary elections, while support for the once-mighty Russian Communist Party was halved and two small liberal parties were excluded from Parliament altogether. Three months later Putin, facing not a single well-known challenger, swept to re-election with 71 per cent of the popular vote.
Spreading repression
In the wake of Beslan, Putin sent several sweeping new ‘anti-terrorist’ laws
to Parliament, most of which have already been passed by the obedient
pro-Kremlin majority. In addition to the law rescinding gubernatorial
elections, Parliament lifted the Yeltsin-era ban on civil servants joining
political parties – leading to a stampede of top officials joining
the United Russia Party. Some experts fear the return of a Soviet-style
one-party state.
‘As soon as bureaucrats see that a tightly centralized power system is returning in force in Russia, there is no doubt they will rush to join the party of power,’ says Sergei Kolmakov, vice-president of the independent Foundation for the Development of Parliamentarism in Moscow. ‘When the bureaucratic chain of command becomes a single party, that party will dominate the state and the nation. People from all sections of the élite will also want to join, to get closer to the sources of power.’
Another law makes it difficult for non-governmental organizations to obtain funding from abroad, and requires them to file detailed reports on how they spend any foreign grant money they do manage to get. Yet another Kremlin-backed draft law will introduce legal punishments for foreign residents of Russia, including journalists, who ‘defame Russia’s image’ abroad. An anti-terrorist bill currently before Parliament will empower authorities to impose a 60-day state of emergency in any Russian region merely on the suspicion that a terrorist act is being planned.
‘Perhaps in a free society the threat of terrorism can lead to some restrictions on people’s rights,’ says Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent Moscow-based security expert. ‘At least, I know this debate rages in other countries. But what we see taking place here in Russia is not a few restrictions, but the wholesale liquidation of democracy and freedom.’
But the persistence of terrorism, corruption and official bungling under Putin may mean that Russians are giving up their freedoms in exchange for supposed benefits that will never materialize.
‘The weakening of independent institutions by the Kremlin is undermining the only agencies that can ensure that government does its job properly,’ says Lipman. She believes that even the fight against terrorism will stumble in a society where grassroots initiative is paralyzed. ‘Without a free press, independent courts, an active parliament, the authorities get no feedback and there is no accountability. History shows that authoritarian systems lead to bad decision-making, breakdown and collapse.’
The Rollback of Democracy In Vladimir Putin's Russia:Tenure Marked by Consolidation of Power
On a cold afternoon in the winter of 2004, Vladimir Putin summoned his long-serving prime minister to his Kremlin office.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, right, took part in a wreath-laying ceremony in Moscow on June 22, 2002. In 2004, Putin fired Kasyanov.(Photos By Mikhail Metzel -- Associated Press)
"Unfortunately," Putin told him, "I have to fire you" Mikhail Kasyanov was stunned. The Russian president gave no reason for the abrupt dismissal. Facing a national vote on his reelection just two weeks away, Putin had chosen a surprising time to shift governments. As he absorbed the news, Kasyanov assumed he would have to leave after the election. No, Putin corrected the prime minister. "I mean now. The power of paranoia had gripped the Kremlin. For four years, the men around Putin had done everything possible to guarantee that no one could challenge his authority. The government had taken over national television, emasculated the power of the country's governors, converted parliament into a rubber stamp, jailed the main financier of the political opposition and intimidated the most potent would-be challengers from entering the race. The Kremlin had proved so successful in eliminating competition that Putin's token competitors were now plotting to drop out en masse to protest the manipulation. And Putin's aides feared such a move could result in turnout on election day falling below the legal minimum. If that happened, the prime minister would become president for a month before a new election, putting him potentially in a position to do to Putin what Putin had done to his rivals -- a remote prospect but still untenable for a leader who believed no detail of democracy was too small to be managed. "In his mentality," one senior Putin aide said later, "every risk should be minimized to zero. The risk posed by Kasyanov no longer seemed acceptable four years into Putin's rule. By now, the fledgling democracy of the post-Soviet era had been transformed into a system meant to serve one master. The revolution that Boris Yeltsin had started when he helped bring down the Soviet Union in 1991, however flawed, however unfinished, had been ended by his handpicked successor, a man drawn from the ranks of the old KGB. "The Russian people," Putin's chief of staff, Alexander Voloshin, regularly told colleagues behind closed doors, "are not ready for democracy". This account of Putin's rise to power and his campaign to consolidate authority in his Kremlin was drawn from interviews with dozens of Russian political figures, including Putin advisers who had rarely spoken to Western journalists before. Out of fear of retribution, many of them shared their insights on the condition that they not be named. Putin, now 52, had come to office promising stability after a decade of dislocation. But in 2004, four years later, his Russia was a country of contrasts, with a booming economy floating on oil and with political space for dissent rapidly disappearing. Creeping crises threatened the future, whether a demographic collapse fueled by alcoholism and AIDS that could slice the Russian population by a third in coming decades or the blood-feud war in Chechnya that had left hundreds of thousands dead, injured or homeless and spawned a wave of horrific terrorism. But Putin was running for reelection with soothing words for his tired nation. His prime minister was as unpopular with the public as Putin was popular, and there would be no ballot-box consequences if he were jettisoned. "The time of uncertainty and anxious expectations is past," Putin had told voters in his one and only campaign appearance.
'Project Putin'
Physically, Vladimir Putin was hardly a dominating figure in any room, a relatively slight man at 5 foot 9, rail-thin with a retreating hairline, hard eyes and a strained, joyless smile. In keeping with his KGB training, he had a skill for listening and taking on the persona desired by his interlocutors. But Putin was not a born president. He commanded no mass following, articulated no grand vision for his country, had never been elected to public office. At the moment when Yeltsin publicly anointed him his chosen successor in 1999, polls showed his popularity rating at just 2 percent. He was the creation of one of the most extraordinary political projects in history -- "Project Putin," as some of those in the Kremlin came to call the effort they were enlisted to run.
Russia denies Iran nuclear deal
A senior Russian envoy, Igor Ivanov, has met Iranian officials but denied reports he had given them a proposal aimed at ending the nuclear stand-off. Russian officials had spoken of a plan that would allow Iran to engage in uranium conversion while shifting the process of enrichment to Russia.
But Mr Ivanov, on a visit to Tehran, told Iranian television that Russia had not put forward any specific proposal. Tehran argues that it has a legitimate right to peaceful nuclear technology.
It has given no hint that it is willing to consider a compromise that moves the most sensitive part of nuclear fuel production - enrichment - to another country, the BBC's Frances Harrison reports from Tehran.
Mr Ivanov's denial comes a day after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters that Russia expected a swift response to its nuclear proposal.
He said Moscow was working closely with Europe, the US and the UN nuclear watchdog to find a political resolution to the issue.
'Change of attitude'
Mr Ivanov met Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, on Saturday.
Mr Larijani said afterwards that instead of new proposals, what Iran needed was a change of attitude so that Iran's rights were recognised.
He added that if any proposals were put forward, then Iran would take them into consideration.
The West fears that the enrichment process could enable Iran to produce nuclear weapons-grade uranium.
In August Tehran rejected European proposals for resolving the crisis and resumed the processing of uranium.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in September paved the way for Iran's referral to the Security Council - which could impose sanctions - but the agency has not set a date for this. The agency's board of governors is due to discuss the issue on 24 November.