* The Kremlin press service said President Vladimir Putin signed into law a bill setting out a new simplified migration registration in Russia for foreign nationals and persons without citizenship
* During a visit to the country's central nuclear testing site on the Artic Ocean island of Novaya Zemlya, Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said:
- Russia fulfilled all its obligations under a moratorium on nuclear tests
- the Middle East conflict could only be resolved through diplomacy
* Russia's energy giant Gazprom offered in a letter to buy a 20% stake in Gazprom Neft formerly known as Sibneft, from embattled crude producer Yukos
* Russian Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev said Russia would keep auditing United States meat producers
* Russian Natural Resources Minister Yury Trutnev said:
- Work on drafting a law on subsoil use is directly dependent on the lifting of restrictions on foreign investors' access to Russia's strategic sectors
- The largest number of idle wells in the country are on oil fields developed by TNK-BP and Yukos
* Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov discussed with Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdul Ilah Khatib in Amman the escalating violence in the Middle East and means of ending it
* Georgia's government started working on official procedures aimed at securing the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from conflict zones on its territory
* A Moscow court ruled that Vasily Aleksanyan, executive vice president of embattled oil company Yukos, should remain in custody
* Russia's oil production increased 2.5% in January-May 2006 year-on-year to reach 196.3 million metric tons (1.44 billion bbl) and exports fell 1% to 103.2 million m/t (758 million bbl), the State Statistics Service said
* The speaker of a self-proclaimed republic in Georgia said Abkhazia would not allow Russian peacekeepers to be replaced with an international contingent because it fears new bloodshed
* Russia's Economic Development and Trade Ministry said it would submit a draft resolution on an oil product exchange to the government by September
* Chechnya's president Alu Alkhanov proposed offering an amnesty to members of illegal armed groups in the republic until January 1, 2007
* Russia's state-run foreign economic bank Vnesheconombank (VEB) signed an agreement with regional energy operator Baltenergo on financing a project to build an under-water electric power link to Finland
