* Russian Natural Resources Minister Yury Trutnev said:
- The results of investigations into violations through the Sakhalin II energy project in Russia's Far East will be handed to the Prosecutor General's Office in two weeks
- The Sakhalin II energy project in Russia's Far East can be suspended at some sections
- If French oil major Total fixes all violations it has committed in developing the Kharyaga oil field in northern Russia, the Natural Resources Ministry will have no more claims against the company
* Iran has begun the launch of its second cascade of gas centrifuges to enrich uranium, the Iranian Student News Agency reported
* Russia's lower house of parliament has submitted a bill giving the Russian president the right to use economic sanctions in international emergency situations, the bill's author said
* Russian energy giant Gazprom said in a press release that its board has approved:
- the purchase of a 19.87% stake in Moscow electricity producer Mosenergo from Gazfond, the energy giant's pension fund
- an increase in its stake in Armenia's national natural gas monopoly Armrosgazprom from 45% to 58%
- an issue of additional Gazprombank shares, to be transferred to Gazfond
* Capitalization of state-controlled oil company Rosneft increased by $12 billion, to $92 billion, following an IPO in Moscow and London, President Vladimir Putin said
* LUKoil is planning to increase its value from $70 billion to $150-200 billion by 2016, Vagit Alekperov, the president of Russia's largest crude producer, said
* Russia's electricity monopoly Unified Energy System has decided to transfer $2.1 billion in Mosenergo stock to energy giant Gazprom and affiliated investors, the first deputy head of the Moscow power utility said
* Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said:
- Supporting dialogue between Georgia and its breakaway region of Abkhazia is a key priority for Russia
- Russian combat engineers working in Lebanon to repair infrastructure devastated during a month of fighting this summer between Hizbollah and the Israeli military, will leave the country in a month and a half
- He is skeptical about UN peacekeepers' ability to force members of the Lebanon-based Islamist movement Hizbollah to lay down their arms
* The Georgian prime minister, speaking at the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna, accused Russia of taking 'disproportionate measures' in regard to Georgia, while Russia's OSCE envoy said Tbilisi is pursuing a military scenario to bring the self-proclaimed republics, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, back into the fold
* The construction of a natural gas pipeline linking Russia and the Georgian breakaway republic of South Ossetia, which may drive another wedge between Russia and Georgia, began in North Ossetia
* Ukraine has called on the European Union to assist in the final stage of construction of the Odessa-Brody pipeline toward Poland, the Ukrainian president's press service said
* Russia's state arms exporter Rosoboronexport and French defense company DCN signed a cooperation document during an international arms show in France
* Work on the International Space Station returned to normal after a docking problem with a Russian cargo ship was resolved, the Russian Space Agency said
* Force majeure is to blame for the sinking of the Russian cargo ship Sinegorye in the Sea of Japan, the head of the Federal Agency for Sea and Inland Water Transportation said
* Moscow police confiscated more than 2.6 kilograms of heroin during the arrest of two citizens of Tajikistan, suspected of drug trafficking, a police source said
