* A check conducted by Russia's nuclear watchdog revealed no violations of the nuclear materials storage and transportation rules, Konstantin Pulikovsky, the watchdog's head, said
* Former FSB colonel Mikhail Trepashkin, serving a four-year sentence for divulging state secretes, said he has important evidence on the death of his fellow security officer in London to share with British investigators, his defense lawyer said
* The only reactor in Russia able to produce a radioactive isotope found in the body of a former Russian secret service agent in the U.K. was shut down two years ago, a source in the Russian nuclear agency said
* Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov:
- denied media reports saying Russian diplomats had been instructed to file protests over the publication of a former FSB officer's purported deathbed note discrediting the president
- said the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe cannot be used as a tool for promoting unilateral interests in regional conflicts and should be less focused on humanitarian issues
* Moscow expects a new U.S. ambassador to the UN to promote the development of cooperation with Russia, diplomats said
* Two peacekeepers detained by Georgian police in the conflict zone with South Ossetia have been released, the peacekeeping commander said
* Russia is completing the mobilization of a regiment of Topol-M mobile missile systems and placing it on active duty, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said
* Several commanders in Russia's Pacific Fleet have been reprimanded for hazing incidents in their units, the Defense Ministry said
* Russia's top prosecution body is preparing an extradition request for Murat Gasayev, a suspected Chechen militant arrested last week in Spain, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office said
* The Russian Bank for Development's charter capital will exceed $2 billion after the state bank incorporates Vnesheconombank and Eximbank, Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref said
* A Moscow court prolonged the arrest of Vasily Aleksanyan, an executive vice-president of bankrupt Russian oil company Yukos, charged with embezzlement and money laundering
* It is not possible to hold direct elections for the upper house of Russia's parliament in March 2007, the head of the Central Elections Commission said
* A priest, his wife and three young children were killed in the early hours of Sunday in an arson attack on their home in Central Russia's Tver Region, an Orthodox Christian magazine said
* Authorities in the Republic of Karelia in Russia's northwest said that the families of victims of an interethnic brawl in the city of Kondopoga will receive compensation
* Georgia has detained another Russian dry cargo ship, citing navigation violations in a restricted Black Sea zone, Georgia's border guards said
