January
January 16
MOSCOW - German Chancellor Angela Merkel's working visit to Russia.
MOSCOW - The opening ceremony of the Russian government's House of Receptions to host events related to Russia's G8 presidency in 2006.
MOSCOW - The heads of the Russian Builders Association will meet with Chairman of the Russian Audit Chamber Sergei Stepashin to discuss legal aspects of the construction industry.
STRASBOURG - The year's first session of the European Parliament (until January 19).
January 17
MOSCOW - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's news conference on the results of Russian diplomatic efforts in 2005.
MOSCOW - Grigory Elkin, the head of the Federal Agency for Technical Regulation and Metrology, will deliver a report on the agency's work in 2005.
MOSCOW - A roundtable on The Natural Gas Crisis, Parliamentary Elections in Ukraine and the Future of Bilateral Relations.
BEIJING - An international conference on fighting bird flu, organized by China, the European Commission and the World Bank (until January 18).
NEW DELHI - The third round of the Indian-Pakistan peace talks (until January 18).
January 18
MOSCOW - A session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Russia-Belarus Union (until January 20).
ST. PETERSBURG - The Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics (ABCDE) organized by the World Bank (until January 19).
LONDON - Talks between Azerbaijani and Armenian Foreign Ministers Elmar Mamedyarov and Vardan Oskanyan on the Nagorny Karabakh conflict resolution (until January 19).
January 19
ST. PETERSBURG - The seventh international conference on global development issues (until January 21) with 500 politicians and scientists from more than 100 countries.
SWEDEN - The Snezhinka (Snowflake) - 2006 joint Russian-Swedish peacekeeping exercise (until January 26).
January 20
MOSCOW - A session of the Marine Board of the Russian government on the 2005 results and plans for 2006.
MOSCOW - The Federal Industry Agency will hold a presentation on the ILA2006 Berlin Air Show International Aerospace Exhibition & Conferences (May 15-21).
January 21
MOSCOW - Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia will meet with President of the Republic of Cyprus Tassos Papadopoulos.
MOSCOW - Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia will oversee the awards ceremony of the Orthodox Unity Fund.
VELIKY NOVGOROD - The Russian ice rally (until January 22).
January 22
MOSCOW - The opening ceremony of the Year of Armenia in Russia.
LISBON - Presidential elections in Portugal.
January 23
MOSCOW - The first plenary session of the Russian Public Chamber.
MOSCOW - The Russian independence Triumph awards ceremony in the sphere of arts and culture.
KIEV - The Kiev Court of Appeals will hear the case of journalist Georgy Gongadze's murder.
STRASBOURG, FRANCE - The January session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (until January 27) will begin. It will focus on the observation of human rights in Chechnya.
OTTAWA - Parliamentary elections in Canada.
January 24
BAGHDAD - Saddam Hussein's trial will resume.
January 25
VIENNA - Talks on the future status of Kosovo with Albanian and Serbian representatives.
PALESTINE - Parliamentary elections.
January 26
NOVOSIBIRSK - An inter-regional banking conference on the topic, Private crediting: market infrastructure and development prospects.
BRUSSELS - The European Parliament's commission for relations with Russia, and a delegation of the Russian State Duma, will hold a session on the Russian-Ukrainian natural gas dispute.
January 27
RIGA - The Senate of the Latvian Supreme Court will consider an appeal by Boris Berezovsky regarding his persona non grata status in the country.
January 28
MOSCOW - The ceremony of the fourth Golden Eagle national film awards.
January 29
MOSCOW - Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia will head the 14th international Christmas readings on the topic, School and Church: traditions and education reform.
January 31
NEW DELHI - Defexpo India 2006 international arms exhibition (until February 3).
February
February 8
GENEVA - The first conference of signatory countries to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
February 9
MOSCOW - A nationwide conference on the effective implementation of priority national projects with representatives of the Russian government, presidential staff, the Audit Chamber, ministries and departments (until February 10).
SICILY - An informal meeting of NATO defense ministers with their Russian counterpart Sergei Ivanov (until February 10).
February 10
MOSCOW - A meeting of G8 finance ministers and central bank heads (until February 11).
TURIN, ITALY - The 20th Winter Olympic Games (until February 26).
February 12
LONDON - A concert in honor of the great Russian ballet dancer Maya Plisetskaya (Covent Garden).
February 13
LONDON - The annual International Petroleum Week with representatives of international oil companies (until February 16).
February 15
VIENNA - A meeting of the European trio's foreign ministers with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The trio comprises representatives of the European Commission, Austria (which holds the EU presidency in the first half of 2006) and Finland (EU which holds presidency in the second half of 2006).
February 22
MOSCOW - First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Health and Social Development Minister Mikhail Zurabov will deliver a report on the demographic situation in Russia to the State Duma.
