- The statement made by Russia's chief of the General Staff that Russia can unilaterally quit the INF treaty does not mean a final decision has been made in this regard
- Moscow hopes that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will reach an agreement on the resumption of conflict settlement talks during their meeting February 19
- The Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty has no relevance now that most of the former Warsaw Pact states have joined NATO
* Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov said Russia's government decided to establish a commission to prevent the country's laws from being broken
* Gennady Onishchenko, Russia's chief health official, said bird flu had caused domestic fowl deaths in the south of the Moscow Region adding that there is no threat of virus expansion
* The Moscow Arbitration Court said the 2004 auction that sold off 76.79% in Yukos's Yuganskneftegaz was legal
* A deputy chairman of Gazprom's board of directors said Russia should use more coal and hydropower rather than natural gas to generate electricity
* The Transportation Ministry said two Russian state aviation regulators suspended the charter and non-regular flights of several Russian air carriers to the European Union
* Vneshekonombank (VEB) said it will secure a long-term loan worth over $200 million from a consortium of Japanese banks to finance the construction of the Sheremetevo-3 airport terminal
* The economics ministry said Russia's inflation equaled 0.4% in the first 12 days of February, compared to the January monthly rate of 1.7%
* Leaders of A Just Russia and the smaller left-wing People's Party announced plans to unite ahead of the March 11 regional elections in 14 Russian regions
* The Russian Prosecutor General's Office completed its investigation in a new case against jailed Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his partner Platon Lebedev
* Russia will block imports of flowers from the Netherlands that are accompanied by phytosanitary certificates signed by certain Dutch inspectors, the Russian agriculture watchdog said
* Russia's leading defense companies will roll out an array of modern military technologies at an international exhibition in the United Arab Emirates that opens February 18, a spokesman for the state arms export monopoly said
