* President Vladimir Putin signed the 2006 federal budget, with budget revenues expected at 5.046 trillion rubles ($189.6 billion) and spending at 4.27 trillion rubles ($148.26 billion)
* Ukrainian Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov said Ukraine had the right to use 15% of the Russian natural gas pumped through its territory
* Russian Defense Minster and Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said that revising the agreement on Russia's Black Sea Fleet deployed in the Ukrainian autonomy of the Crimea was unacceptable
* The Prosecutor General's Office of the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan asked Russia for help in arresting ex-President Askar Akayev's eldest son for economic crimes
* The Emergency Situations Ministry's southern regional center said another person had been hospitalized with convulsions in Chechnya
