- taxes on state benefits paid for the birth of a second child in Russian families should be abolished
- he backed a decision of the United Russia to introduce a 20% quota for youths on voting lists
- opposition forces in Russia should be always given floor to express their opinion
- the government put aside 32 billion rubles ($1.2 bln) for demographic projects
- Russia's government would set up a 100% state-controlled venture company to diversify the economy and encourage investment in the innovation sector
- the government should raise real public sector wages 50% in three years
* Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko said Russia's ratification of the Energy Charter depended only on talks with the European Union and had nothing to do with politics
* Viktor Khristenko said the share of nuclear energy in Russia's overall electricity output will grow from the current 16% to 23-35% over the next 13 years
* Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Russia would be entitled to retain Soviet property abroad after it had repaid all debts of the former U.S.S.R.
* Alexei Kudrin said Russia would allocate extra funds to tighten security at its embassies abroad
* Gas price for Ukrainian consumers increased 85% starting from July 1 in accordance with a decision of the national electric power watchdog
* Ukraine's opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych called on his supporters all over the country to start rallies if the "orange" parliamentary coalition failed to meet his party's demands
* LUKoil (RTS: LKOH) said it had started drilling natural gas wells in the southwest of Uzbekistan
* Russia's National Agricultural Census started Saturday and will cover over 36 million farmer households and involve about 100 million of people
