October 1
* The Sakhalin-I international oil and natural gas project begins production in Russia's Far East
October 4
* The presidium of the Russian Arbitration Court rejects an appeal filed by Yukos and rules that its $3.5 billion tax bill for 2000 is legal
October 6
* Lithuanian prosecutors release the pilot of a Russian fighter that crashed in Lithuania in September
October 7
* Russia's chief of the General Staff says the Russian army will increase its weapons acquisitions by 50% next year
October 10
* Former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev are transferred from a pre-trial detention center to prison to serve their eight-year terms
October 13
* Militants attack the North Caucasus city of Nalchik. Interior Ministry troops repel the assault. The Interior Ministry of the Republic of Kabardino-Balkariya later says 24 officers, 12 civilians, and 72 militants were killed
October 14
* Russian President Vladimir Putin signs a bill on the formation of a new federation member that includes the Krasnoyarsk territory and the Taimyr and Evenk autonomous districts
* Oleg Lundstrem, the father of Russian jazz, died at the age of 89
* Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller says the company will hit record production levels of 547 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2005
October 18
* The Finance Ministry says foreign companies will be allowed to develop the country's natural resource deposits but with some restrictions
* A senior official in the Russian Tax Service and an employee of the Central Bank are caught taking a $1 million bribe
October 20
* Three hostages, including a high-ranking Kyrgyz MP and a human rights official, are killed by inmates at a maximum-security penal colony in Kyrgyzstan
* Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former head of embattled oil giant Yukos, arrives in a local penal colony to serve out his eight-year sentence
October 21
* Roman Abramovich, Russia's billionaire and the owner of London's Chelsea Soccer Club, is sworn in as Chukotka governor for a second term
October 23
* The overwhelming majority of the local electorate votes at a referendum in favor of the Kamchatka and Koryakia to unite into a single Federation member
October 24
* The world's largest steel producer, Mittal Steel, won an auction for the Kryvorizhstal steel mill with a bid of $4.79 billion for 93.02% of the shares in the company
October 25
* Twelve shareholders in Russian embattled oil major Yukos file a lawsuit against the Russian government and oil and gas companies with a U.S. court
October 26
* The Supreme Court of Zurich sentences Russian Vitaly Kaloyev who lost his family in an air crash, to eight years in jail for the premeditated murder of a Swiss air traffic controller
October 28
* The board of Russian electricity monopoly Unified Energy System approves a credit agreement with Vneshtorgbank for the purchase of a 22.43% stake in Silovye Mashiny
October 31
* Oleg Kiselyov, the president of Renaissance Capital, one of Russia's largest investment banks, resigns in the wake of Interior Ministry allegations of attempted embezzlement leveled against him.
