* Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Russia was ready to pay its entire $28 billion debt to the Paris Club of Creditor Nations early
* A Moscow court upheld creditors' claim against Yukos but lowered the amount by $6.72 million
* Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov praised tests of the new Bulava missile system, which the Armed Forces will get by the end of 2007
* The Central Bank of Russia said the 10% inflation rate target for 2005 could be hit
* Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said he saw no need to change oil taxation despite differences in the government
* The governing bureau of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs said it would recommend Alexander Shokhin as the union's new president
* The earnings of Svyazinvest, a big Russian telecommunications holding, in 2005 may increase 17% on last year to reach 7.6 billion rubles ($266.03 million)
* Russian energy giant Gazprom said it had decided to increase its 2005 investment program by 92.4 billion rubles ($3.23 billion), to 305 billion rubles ($10.68 billion)
* The Belarusian opposition said it would put forward a single candidate for the 2006 presidential elections on October 2
