* Deputy Russian Finance Minister Sergei Storchak said the next meeting of G8 finance ministers would take place in Moscow in February 2006
* In line with the election laws, as of 12 a.m. December 3, all parties and candidates running in the Moscow City Duma election due Dec.4 ended their election campaign
* Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed activities of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Russia at a meeting with Russian Security Council members
* Ukraine's Emergency Situations Ministry said a highly pathogenic strain of the bird flu virus had been discovered in three regions of the Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula in the Black Sea
* Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with the German foreign minister that he would meet with new German Chancellor Angela Merkel in mid-January 2006
* The pro-presidential United Russia party won a landslide victory in the November 27 parliamentary elections in Chechnya, getting 33 out of 58 seats, the Chechen Election Commission said as it was announcing the final results of the elections in the republic
