Moscow

Venezuela is planning to conclude several contracts with Russia next month on the purchase of military equipment worth at least $2 billion, a leading Russian business daily said on Monday.

The United States promised Kazakhstan on Friday to help it bring its armed forces up to NATO standards in a new military cooperation pact certain to irritate Russia, Kazakhstan’s former Soviet overlord.

MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's top military officer on Saturday accused the United States of seeking direct confrontation with Moscow and warned again that US plans to deploy missile defenses in Europe would destabilize the continent. Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky said such a deployment would prompt an "asymmetrical response." He did not elaborate.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that his country will respond to a U.S. plan to deploy anti-missile components in central Europe if its interests are ignored.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin made clear to Washington on Tuesday that Moscow would not accept military action against Iran and he persuaded other Caspian Sea states to rule out any such strikes from the region.

MOSCOW — Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov has appointed Vasily Yakemenko, leader of pro-Kremlin youth movement Nashi, to head the newly established State Committee for Youth Affairs, the White House press service said Wednesday.

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti commentator Dina Lyakhovich) - American troops attract terrorists like magnet attracts metal. African and Asian countries have made this conclusion four and a half years after the Iraqi campaign began. U.S. Africa Command, or AFRICOM, started functioning as the Pentagon's newest regionally focused headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, because Liberia was the only country to offer its territory for AFRICOM's headquarters.