Russia

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.

Move over BRIC. RIC or the troika of Russia, India and China are taking over. A regional formation will take up international issues like the reform of the UN and the Security Council, according to Konstantin V Vnukov, director, first Asia department, Russian foreign ministry, and head of delegation for trilateral cooperation between India, Russia and China, on a visit to the capital for the seventh ministerial of the troika.

Russian envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, said Friday that the latest U.S. proposals on its planned missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic contain strange elements. He said Russian experts are scrutinizing Washington's proposals brought to Moscow by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates earlier this month.

China welcomes Iran's wish to become a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which groups China, Russia and Central Asian nations, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tuesday.

MITROVICA, Kosovo (Reuters) - NATO troops in Kosovo patrolled the Serb stronghold of north Mitrovica alone on Tuesday after police withdrew following deadly Serb riots.

Russia is a country with more than its fair share of idiosyncrasies, yet even by its standards tomorrow's presidential vote takes peculiarity to the extreme. Those Russians who choose to cast their ballots will be participating in an election that is not really an election, in order to choose a president who, most likely, will not really be a president.

ussia, the world's second-largest oil-exporting nation after Saudi Arabia, has been quietly preparing to switch trading in Russian Ural Blend oil, the country's primary export, from the dollar to the ruble. But the change, if it comes, is still some time off, industry analysts and officials said. The Russian effort began modestly this month, with trading in refined products for the domestic market.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on Sunday. The United States and many, but not all, European countries recognized it. The Serbian government did not impose an economic blockade on — or take any military action against — Kosovo, although it declared the Albanian leadership of Kosovo traitors to Serbia.

An agreement to introduce a visa-free regime between Russia and Israel could be signed in March this year, an Israeli minister said on Tuesday. Russia and Israel announced late last year that a feasibility study had been concluded canceling

Iran, the world’s fourth-largest oil producer, may use the Russian ruble in trading on its new oil exchange, the country’s ambassador to Moscow said.