- Russia will do everything in its power to fulfill its obligations on energy supplies
- Moscow will continue working for a peaceful resolution of the North Korean nuclear problem
* Moscow does not intend to revisit the issue of Lithuania's compensation demands to Russia for what it terms the "Soviet occupation," the Russian Foreign Ministry said
* The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Estonia's ambassador to Russia to issue Moscow's first official warning to Tallinn of "serious consequences for Russian-Estonian relations" amid an escalating row over the possible demolition of Soviet war memorials in the ex-Soviet Baltic state
* Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said he has vetoed a bill reducing his authority for a second time, in an ongoing power struggle between him and the prime minister, and returned it to parliament
* President Vladimir Putin met with Russian Ambassador to Georgia Alexander Kovalenko, who was recalled in September 2006 but will soon return to Tbilisi to resume work
* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will attend the ministerial meeting of the Quartet mediating the Middle East conflict in Washington February 2, the minister's special representative for the problem said
* Kyrgyzstan's parliament turned down by a majority of votes the candidacy of ex-Prime Minister Felix Kulov to be the new premier as proposed by the president following a standoff between the government and lawmakers
* Azerbaijan's authorities have formally notified Moscow they will withdraw from the 1995 intergovernmental agreement on the transmission of Russian television broadcasts as of July, Russia's ambassador to the ex-Soviet Caucasus nation said
* Vladimir Mikhailov, the Air Force commander-in-chief, said:
- Russia's entire Air Force fleet will be replaced or upgraded by 2020
- Russia and Belarus will sign an agreement on the creation of a common regional air defense system for the Union State they are forming by late January
* Russian presidential aide Igor Shuvalov assured Germany and the rest of Europe that Russia remains a reliable energy supplier, but denied any plans to ratify the main energy partnership document being sought by the EU
* Fidel Castro, in hospital since summer, is feeling better, Cuba's ambassador to Russia said
* Russia's top prosecutors have brought charges against Liana Askerova, a suspect in Central Bank regulator Andrei Kozlov's murder, of abetting the killing, investigators said.
* Igor Trunov, a defense lawyer in the case of a Kozlov's murder, may see himself debarred for allegedly divulging details of the criminal investigation, a source in the Prosecutor General's Office said
* The murder case of former editor of Forbes Russia Paul Klebnikov, killed in Moscow in July 2004, has been returned to the Moscow City Court for reconsideration, a court spokesperson said
* A Moscow court issued an arrest warrant for Sergei Shimkevich, former head of a Yukos subsidiary and now a member of a city legislature in West Siberia, charged with embezzlement and money laundering
* Moscow's Arbitration Court refused once again to revoke the license of pharmaceutical company Bryntsalov-A over uncovered violations, but fined the firm $1,500
* Russia's federal budget cash surplus in 2006 was around $75.3 billion, the Finance Ministry said, citing preliminary data
* Russia's environmental regulator said:
- It will check compliance with license agreements on the Kovykta natural gas deposit in East Siberia, at which TNK-BP holds licenses in late spring
- It will send documents to the federal mineral resources agency by the weekend, seeking to revoke the license of a subsidiary of state-controlled oil company Rosneft
* Kazakhstan's energy and mineral resources ministry said the country's oil and gas condensate output grew 5.5% year-on-year in 2006 to 64.8 million metric tons
* The Russian Federal Space Agency said a Russian Soyuz-U booster rocket with a Progress M-59 space freighter was launched from the Baikonur space center to the International Space Station
