* Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking at an economic forum in St. Petersburg, said the Russian Central Bank's gold and foreign currency reserves could exceed the country's foreign debt in 2006; high inflation, sectoral monopolization, bureaucracy and corruption were the main problems holding back Russia's economy
* Gazrpom said it would select partners to develop the giant Shtokman gas deposit off Russia's Arctic coast before the summer holidays but after its shareholders' meeting slated for June 30
* MMC Norilsk Nickel and BHP Billiton said they had signed an agreement on prospecting and developing mineral resources in Russia
* Russian gas giant Gazprom said its audited reserves increased in 2005 by $45.7 billion year on year, to $138.6 billion; it would exceed its 2006 output plan of 548 billion cubic meters of natural gas by 13%; and planned to build a natural gas pipeline between two major cities in the country's Far East, Khabarovsk and Vladivostok, with a possible offshoot to the Korean peninsula
* President Vladimir Putin said Russia would maintain Gazprom's gas transport monopoly, but would allow access to the company-controlled pipelines for independent producers
* Russia's economics ministry and Japanese carmaker Nissan signed a deal to build an automotive plant in Russia
* The Bank of St. Petersburg placed a debut bond issue worth $1 billion rubles (about $37 million)
* The head of federal NPP construction agency Rosenergoatom, Sergei Obozov, said Russia would construct the world's first floating nuclear power plant by the end of 2010
* Russia's Transportation Ministry and railroad monopoly Russian Railways (RZD) signed a cooperation deal with Germany's Deutsche Bahn and Siemens
* U.S. automaker General Motors said it would launch a full-scale industrial production of cars near St. Petersburg in 2008
* Russian and Italian electricity giants Unified Energy System and Enel SPA said they had signed a memorandum on cooperation
* Russia's envoy to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe slammed the organization as "amorphous" and chaotic, and said Russia would slash its budget contributions
* A fresh round of talks between leaders of a mooted "orange coalition" in the new Ukrainian parliament broke up without producing a result, a representative of pro-presidential group Our Ukraine said.
