2007 Review: December

RIA Novosti looks back at the main events of the outgoing year; below the month-by-month review of 2007 continues with December

December 2

* President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party gains 64.3% in the parliamentary election

* Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez loses a referendum on abolishing presidential term limits and removing the Central Bank's autonomy

December 3

* The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC) opens in Bali, Indonesia, amid high security with thousands of police and even UN peacekeepers guarding the event

* The U.S. National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) contradicts a previous intelligence assessment in 2005 which stated Iran was actively pursuing a nuclear bomb

December 4

* Moscow and Kiev agree that as from January 1, 2008, the price of natural gas on the Russian-Ukrainian border will be set at $179.5 per 1,000 cubic meters

December 5

* Russia's Navy resumes its continual presence in different regions of the world's oceans 


December 10

* Russia's Vladimir Putin backs his longtime ally, First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, as candidate for Russian president in elections due on March 2

December 12

* Russia's unilateral moratorium on a major arms reductions treaty in Europe comes into force immediately after midnight

* The British Council is ordered to close all its Russian offices outside Moscow from the start of next year over tax and legal status violations

December 15

* Russia's natural gas will be supplied to Belarus in the first quarter of 2008 at the price of $119 per 1,000 cubic meters, a high-placed source in the Russian energy giant Gazprom says

December 16

* The Kyrgyz president's Ak Zhol party wins 48.82% of the vote in the parliamentary elections, giving it all the seats in the legislature, according to the Central Election Commission

December 17

* The pro-Kremlin United Russia party officially nominates First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as its presidential candidate during its congress

December 18

* Ukraine's parliament votes to approve pro-Western coalition leader Yulia Tymoshenko's return as prime minister

December 19

* U.S. magazine Time declares Russian President Vladimir Putin "Person of the Year 2007" for bringing stability to his country and raising Russia's role on the global stage

* Former Seoul mayor and businessman Lee Myung-bak wins a landslide victory in South Korea's presidential election

* The UN Security Council states that it has failed to reach a compromise between Serbia and Kosovo, and that the EU and NATO will decide on the province's status

* Russia and Poland sign a memorandum to lift a ban on Polish meat supplies

December 20

* Russia and Belarus sign an intergovernmental agreement to grant Minsk a $1.5 billion stabilization loan to finance Russian energy supplies

December 21

* Nine European Union members join the Schengen agreement allowing border-free internal travel, expanding the zone to Russia's western borders

* Nepal's government reaches a political deal with former rebels to abolish the country's 250-year-old monarchy and establish a democracy after general elections in April 2008

December 25

* Russia conducts two successful test launches of Sineva and RS-24 intercontinental ballistic missiles

* A Proton-M carrier rocket with three Glonass (Global Navigation Satellite System) satellites on board to join the existing satellite constellation is launched from Russia's Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan

December 27

* Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto dies during surgery from injuries sustained in a suicide bomb attack