- said Russia will not start talks with Belarus until it lifts its transit levy on Europe-bound Russian oil
- called Belarus's transit fee of $45 per metric ton of Russian oil unprecedented, and said it runs against intergovernmental agreements
* Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft filed law suits against Belarus, which Moscow accuses of tapping Europe-bound oil, the industry and energy minister said
* Russia could boost rail and river transit to maintain oil supplies to Europe, in view of the supply interruption caused by the ongoing standoff with Belarus, said Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko
* Iran will continue developing its nuclear program even if the UN Security Council adopts a tougher resolution on sanctions against the country, Tehran's top nuclear negotiator said
* At least thirty people were killed and two injured Tuesday when a Moldovan-owned An-26 plane carrying Turkish workers crashed near the Iraqi capital, Turkey's Foreign Ministry said
* Russian President Vladimir Putin:
- ordered the government to protect the interests of Western energy consumers amid the energy standoff with Belarus
- said Russia's economy will lose some $3.3 billion over natural gas agreements with Belarus, including $1.3 billion in losses to the state budget and $2 billion for Gazprom
* Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said:
- Russia and the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company are set to build transport aircraft outside Moscow
- Russia is planning to join a tender on supplying fighters for the Indian Air Force
* Russia will earn about $4 billion in 2007 by raising the oil export duty for Belarus, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said
* The first reactor block of China's Tianwan nuclear power plant, which is being built in eastern China's port city of Lianyungang by Russia's nuclear export monopoly Atomstroyexport, became fully operational
* Alexander Dyukov, former head of Gazprom's Sibur subsidiary, has been elected president of Gazprom Neft, another subsidiary of the Russian energy giant
* Moscow City Court is set to announce on February 2 the verdict in a case involving two bomb explosions on the Moscow metro in 2004, which killed a total of 49 people and injured 300 others, with three defendants facing possible life sentences
* Duty on oil exports from Russia from February 1, 2007 will be $179.7 per metric ton, down $1 from the figure set on December 1, 2006, a Finance Ministry official said
* The disruption of Russian crude supplies to Europe, including Slovakia, through Belarus does not jeopardize the EU nation's energy security, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said
* A Russian court has sentenced the former speaker of the Volgograd Duma to three years in a high security penal colony for accepting bribes
* Kazakhstan's president advanced the candidacy of Deputy Prime Minister Karim Masimov to replace the resigned premier, a parliamentary official said
* Defendants in a criminal case on alleged bribery in the adoption of Russian children by foreigners have appealed their sentences, Russia's Supreme Court said
