* Gazprom head Alexei Miller said the Russian natural gas monopoly was considering partnering with Turkey to build a LNG plant in the Turkish cities of Ceyhan or Izmir
* Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Russia should join the European Union
* A $1-billion collection of paintings from Moscow's Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts left Geneva bound for Russia via Germany after being impounded Wednesday by local authorities
* Russia signed the European Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism
* Russian Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko said construction of the North European Gas Pipeline would begin this year
* Russian railroad monopoly Russian Railways placed its sixth and seventh bond issues totaling 15 billion rubles ($520 million) on MICEX
* The Russian government approved a federal target program on the development of space centers for 2006-2015
* Russian diamond giant Alrosa said its net profits had grown 12.5% year on year in the first nine months of 2005 reaching more than $368 million
* Bird flu quarantine was lifted in the Siberian region of Altai
* Marina Denikin-Grey, the daughter of "White Russian" General Anton Denikin, died in Paris at the age of 86
