* Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref said GDP growth in Russia would be 6.4% and industrial output 4.1% in 2005
* Sergei Yastrzhembsky, the Russian president's envoy to the EU, said Russia's relations with the European Union had not faced a crisis in 2005 as some observers had suggested
* A source in the Russian Ministry of Industry and Energy said oil supplies from state-owned Kazakh company KazMunaiGaz to Lithuania were not listed in Russia's oil transit schedule for the first quarter of 2006
* The North Korean Foreign Ministry said the country would develop its nuclear capabilities to defend its sovereignty
* Russian energy giant Gazprom said it was moving away from fixed pricing of its natural gas exports to Ukraine toward a price regime based on world oil prices
* One of 12 Russian sailors released by a Nigerian court on December 14 said they would return home on Wednesday
* Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich predicted that political forces supporting him would triumph in next spring's parliamentary elections
* Russian Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu said he hoped to avoid interruptions to water supplies in the Far East with the arrival of a toxic slick along the region's largest river, the Amur
* North Korean authorities gave permission to a Russian ship, the Terney, detained in the country's territorial waters since December 5, to return home
