- Russia and the U.S. have started drafting a bilateral agreement on the civilian use of nuclear energy
- An international uranium enrichment center may be established in early of 2007
- The Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant in Iran, which Russian specialists are helping build, will be launched in November 2007
* Russia's Natural Resources Ministry said it had decided to annul its approval of the results of a state probe into the Sakhalin II energy project off the country's Pacific coast
* A Russian rocket carrying a U.S.-Russian crew, and the world's first female space tourist, lifted off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station
* The vast majority of the population of Transdnestr, a self-proclaimed republic in Moldova, voted Sunday for independence and future accession to Russia, the central election committee said
* Russia's foreign minister said the overwhelming support for a union with Russia at a referendum in Moldova's breakaway region of Transdnestr Sunday was predictable and urged talks to be held under available agreements
* Russia's Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said two major financial institutions of the former communist bloc, the International Bank for Economic Cooperation (IBEC) and the International Investment Bank (MI-Bank), could unite to become a new force in the post-Soviet world
* Russian energy giant Gazprom said it had discussed the signing of a memorandum on cooperation with Malaysian state oil and gas company Petronas
* Russia intends to boost its military technical cooperation with African countries, including by establishing maintenance centers for Russian-made armaments and equipment, state arms exporter Rosoboronexport said
* Russia's military said its plans for 2006 on withdrawing military hardware from bases in Georgia will be completed Tuesday
* A lawyer representing survivors of a Moscow water park's collapse in 2004 on Monday filed a formal protest against amnesty for the architect at the center of the tragedy
* Ukraine's Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych proposed clarifying the powers of the country's president and government
* A problem with an oxygen regeneration system caused an alarming situation Monday on the world's sole civilian orbital station as an alarm went off, Russia's space agency said
* Denmark's ambassador to Russia said the remains of Tsar Alexander III's Danish-born wife, resting in Copenhagen since her death nearly 80 years ago, would be brought for reburial in her adopted homeland later this month
* Russian President Vladimir Putin said:
- Gazprom guaranteed natural gas supplies to Hungary and the country's concerns over oil supplies had also been eased
- International nuclear fuel centers would ensure non-discriminatory access to nuclear energy
* A Russian government source said Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych would arrive in Moscow on an official visit on September 22
* IAEA Director General Mohammed ElBaradei said:
- He will visit Russia next week
- He hopes the Iranian problem will be resolved through talks between Tehran and European and other partners
* Russia's Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin added his voice to calls by other high-ranking officials for the World Bank to avoid interfering in politics while trying to help national governments fight corruption
* Russian Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu said the administration of a gold mine in southern Siberia was responsible for a tragedy earlier this month, when 25 miners died in a fire
* A total of 55 children have tested positive for HIV in southern Kazakhstan after they are presumed to have been given contaminated blood in transfusions, the Central Asian country's health minister said
* The State Statistics Agency said Russia's industrial output grew 4.3%, year-on-year, in the first eight months of 2006, and 5.6% in August 2006
* A cash collector was wounded and four million rubles (about $150,000) was stolen in an armed attack on a cash van in the central Russian city of Samara
* The captain of a Japanese fishing boat arrested by Russian border guards near the Kuril Islands in August, allegedly for illegal fishing, has asked for shorter trial proceedings as he has admitted the charges
