* Russia's ruling party, United Russia, maintained its substantial lead in the parliamentary elections in the North Caucasus republic of Chechnya
* The Kazakh parliament ratified an agreement on a uniform export-control procedure for the five member countries of the Eurasian Economic Community
* The Russian defense minister said at a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart that the level of military and technical cooperation between Russia and Ukraine could fall if the latter joins NATO
* Russian energy giant Gazprom forecasted the company would make over $27 billion from natural gas exports in 2005
* Gazprom said its net losses from natural gas transportation services provided to independent producers would total 2 billion rubles ($69 million) by the end of 2005
* President of the Siberian republic of Sakha (Yakutia) said the level of investment in the gold mining industry in the republic could soon total $800 million
* Russia's largest private natural gas producer, Novatek, said it wanted to build a gas-condensate pipeline with a projected annual capacity of 20-25 million metric tons to link northern Siberia with European Russia
* The secretary of the Belarusian Security Council said the first batch of S-300 advanced air defense systems would be delivered from Russia in March 2006
* The St. Petersburg-based Admiralty Shipyard has begun sea trials of a fourth-generation Project 677 Lada class diesel-electric submarine
* The presidential council for national projects decided to consider cutting the interest rates on mortgages from 14%-15% to 7%-8% by 2010
