* A senior delegate to the sixth ministerial WTO conference in Hong Kong said the United States was unlikely to sign a bilateral agreement with Russia on the country's accession to the World Trade Organization before the end of the year
* Presidential press secretary Alexei Gromov said Vladimir Putin had paid a surprise visit to Grozny and addressed the first session of the newly elected Chechen parliament
* Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), one of Russia's leading mobile phone operators, announced its acquisition of Kyrgyzstan's largest mobile phone operator, Bitel
* Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said that containing inflation between 7% and 8.5% in 2006 would be crucial for the Russian economy
* Russia's first 24-hour English-language news channel, Russia Today, suspended broadcasting after hackers tried to break into its computer network
* The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said it was offering a 12-year loan worth 30 million euros to the East Siberian region of Irkutsk to fund regional housing and community projects
* The Russian Air Force said it would receive 11 Su-27 Flanker fighters by the end of the year and a Tu-160 Blackjack bomber by the end of the first quarter of 2006
* The Russian Defense Ministry said Russia saw 120 of its military servicemen killed in accidents or crimes in November
* An assassination attempt was made on a parliament member of the North Caucasus republic of Daghestan, a local police official reported
* One of China's leading energy companies issued a strongly worded denial that it was interested in acquiring some non-core assets of embattled Russian oil major Yukos
