* Ahtisaari's plan on the status of Serbia's breakaway province of Kosovo has failed, the Russian foreign minister said
* Russia's Finance Ministry has extended the license of the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Audit firm, facing tax claims in Russia and involved in a Yukos case, for another five years
* Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said:
- the U.S. missile defense system in Europe could only be directed against Russia
- there are no grounds to speak about possible Russia-U.S. cooperation in strategic missile defense
- Russia's defense industry makes up 70% of the country's total science intensive production
* U.S. missile defense radars could be placed not only in Caucasus, but in other parts of Europe, the director of the U.S. missile defense program said
* NATO allies do not see negative consequences in U.S. plans to place elements of a missile defense system in Central Europe, the NATO secretary general said
* Russian President Vladimir Putin will make his annual state of the nation address to both houses of parliament April 25, the Kremlin press service said
* Holders of North Korean accounts at the Macao-based bank Banco Delta Asia started transferring their deposits, worth $25 billion, to other East Asian banks, the Japanese Yomiuri daily said
* Ukraine's parliament will not consider impeachment of President Yushchenko before a constitutional court ruling on parliament dissolution, the parliamentary speaker said
* Over 150 members of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and Our Ukraine have offered their resignation to President Viktor Yushchenko, Tymoshenko said
* Iran's top nuclear negotiator and the European Union's foreign policy chief will discuss the Iranian nuclear program on April 25, Iranian TV said
* The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman has denied U.S. statements alleging the discovery of Iranian-made weapons in Afghanistan, labeling them as "a repeated and dubious scenario"
* No applications have been received by the deadline for a sixth auction for smaller assets of the now bankrupt oil company Yukos, Russia's federal property fund said
* Russia has passed additional materials to the U.K. Home Office to assist in the extradition case of fugitive Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky, the Russian ambassador in London said
* The Moscow City Court has declared the National Bolshevik Party an extremist organization and banned its activities following a request from prosecutors
* Russia's Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref said:
- Russia's gross domestic product growth in the first quarter of 2007 hit 7.9% compared with a 5% growth last year
- The real effective ruble rate appreciated 2.6% in the first quarter of 2007
- Russia registered an $18.3 billion net capital influx in January-March
* Gazprom rejected a U.S. State Department accusation that it was seeking to establish a monopoly on the European energy market, the gas giant's official spokesman said
* The Russian government has adopted a general power distribution scheme until 2020, deputy head of the government staff Mikhail Kopeikin said
*Russia's government approved a plan for socioeconomic development until 2010 and instructed the economics ministry to draft an action plan by September
* The sale of Russian art objects at Christie's Wednesday yielded a total of $19.2 million, a spokesperson for the auction house, Kate Swan, said
*A new list of Russia's 100 richest people published by the Forbes Russia magazine placed Roman Abramovich firmly at the top
* Turkmen President Gurbanugly Berdymukhammedov will visit Moscow in his second international trip April 23-24, the Kremlin press service said
