* President Vladimir Putin appointed former Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov as Russia's justice minister
* Moldovan police said they had detained early in the morning the main suspect in the February 26 murder of Russian television reporter Ilya Zimin; Moldovan authorities said they would extradite the suspect as soon as possible
* Rosneft said that the minimum bid to buy shares at the state-owned company's initial public offering scheduled for mid-July had been set at 15,000 rubles ($555)
* Officials in Russia played down media speculation that North Korea's secretive leader Kim Jong-il had entered the country
* Leaders from member countries of two post-Soviet organizations focusing on economic matters and security convened in the Belarusian capital for meetings intended to determine key priorities
* President Vladimir Putin said Uzbekistan had lifted its moratorium on active work within the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a coalition of former Soviet republics, and become a full member of the CSTO
* Putin placed state-run United Industrial Enterprise Oboronprom on a list of strategic companies in which foreigners cannot buy blocking stakes
* The board of Russian electricity monopoly Unified Energy System said it had endorsed a list of pilot projects for additional share emissions of its wholesale and territorial generating companies
* A man arrested over 10 murders committed from 2000 to 2006 in southern Moscow has admitted to eight killings, city law-enforcement agencies said
* Russia's Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko said:
- He is optimistic about a merger between Russia's Severstal and Luxembourg-registered steel giant Arcelor, while admitting that there were complications in the mooted deal
- Ukraine should be fulfilling the terms of natural-gas deals with Russia rather than trying to revise them
* Oleh Rybachuk, head of the Ukrainian presidential secretariat, said a new government would be formed in ten days
* Yulia Tymoshenko's candidacy for premiership has been submitted to Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko for approval, a representative of a pro-presidential party said
* Ukraine's national energy company Naftogaz said gas prices for domestic consumers could rise again in January 2007
* Russia's Black Sea Fleet said an attempt was being made to seize a building housing its hydrographic service in Sevastopol, the fleet's main base in Ukraine's autonomous republic of Crimea
* Russia's Economic Development and Trade Ministry said:
- The average price of Urals crude rose 37.3% year-on-year in January-May 2006, hitting $60.7 per barrel;
- Russia's GDP grew 8.1% in May, and inflation will not exceed 0.5% in June;
- Russia will cut customs duties on alcoholic drinks imported from non-CIS countries from 20% to 12.5% after its accession to the World Trade Organization
