- No progress has been made at today's talks, but consultations with Belarusian officials continue, Gazprom said
- Gazprom will ensure uninterrupted gas supplies in full to Europe via the Yamal-Europe pipeline that stretches across Belarus, the state-controlled Russian natural gas monopoly said
- Ukraine is ready to increase transit of Russia's Europe-bound gas if Moscow fails to sign a gas deal with Belarus over a price dispute, the country's energy minister said
- Germany's government said the gas dispute between Russia and Belarus was a bilateral issue and would not affect Russian gas deliveries to Europe
* A passenger jet of Russia's Aeroflot airline made an emergency landing in Prague following an attempt to hijack the plane, and the suspected attacker was arrested, an airline official and the air security service said
* Abkhazia's troops have been put on partial high alert, the foreign minister of Georgia's self-proclaimed republic said
* President Vladimir Putin said the nation's economy grew 6.9% in 2006, up 0.5% on last year
* Six candidates for the Turkmen presidency were officially registered in the Central Asian republic, the country's election commission said
* A liquid radioactive waste reprocessing plant has been commissioned in Russia's northwestern Murmansk Region, the country's nuclear power generating monopoly said
* The Rostov Helicopter Plant sent four combat and one transport helicopters to Venezuela under existing contracts with the Latin American country
* Russia's state-run foreign trade bank Vneshtorgbank (VTB) and France's Societe Generale won a tender to finance the construction of an oil refinery in East Siberia for Russia's largest diamond producer, Alrosa, the company said
* VTB Bank France S.A., a subsidiary of Vneshtorgbank, sold a 19.77% stake in International Moscow Bank (IMB) to Bank Austria Creditanstalt (BA-CA) for $415.3 million, BA-CA said
* Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and major shareholder of Russian-British joint venture TNK-BP Viktor Vekselberg discussed the construction of a regional gas chemical complex in Russia's East, the Russian energy giant's press service said
* Evraz Group extended its offer to purchase shares of U.S.-based Oregon Steel Mills until January 9, 2007, the Russian metals giant said
* The Russian Trading System (RTS) index, which is the benchmark index of Russia's stock market, hit a record high 1,903.39 points
* Investigators from the Russian Prosecutor General's Office launched an inquiry into the financial activities of a government agency overseeing compliance with environmental regulations, a source inside the agency said
* The Prosecutor General's Office could bring new charges against founder of embattled Yukos oil company Mikhail Khodorkovsky after the New Year holidays, a lawyer for the jailed tycoon said
* A court in West Siberia sentenced three skinheads, convicted of committing several racially motivated attacks on foreigners, to between five-and-a-half and eight years in prison
* A court in Russia's Far East ruled to confiscate a Japanese ship caught poaching in Russian waters in early November
* Rescuers began searching for three passengers of a private helicopter that has been missing for two days after disappearing in the Primorye Territory in Russia's Far East
* This year Russia has registered the highest number of unfavorable and dangerous natural phenomena in the history of meteorological observation, a director of Russia's Hydrometeorology Center said
* Russian scientists resumed exploring the world's largest sub-glacial lake in Antarctica, a senior fellow at St. Petersburg's Institute of Arctic and Antarctic Studies said
