* Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia could invest several billion dollars in Vietnam's economy
* Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said the Russian energy giant planned to cooperate with Vietnamese oil and gas company Petrovietnam in geological prospecting and natural gas production, and in exporting Vietnam's gas to third countries
* Evraz Group bought U.S. company Oregon Steel for $2.3 billion, the Russian metals holding said
* Norilsk Nickel will buy the nickel business of U.S.-based OM Group for $408 million, the Russian metals giant said
* Private Russian investment fund Basic Element bought 100% in state-owned Sochi International Airport for 5.504 billion rubles ($206.6 million) through an auction
* State defense orders will be increased by 23.2% in 2007, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said
* Poland's Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski reiterated that Warsaw will not lift its veto of talks on a new cooperation pact between Russia and the EU until the former lifts an embargo on Polish meat exports
* Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili appointed Chief of Presidential Staff Georgy Arveladze to the post of economics minister to replace Irakly Okruashvili, Georgia's former defense minister, who tendered his resignation Friday after just seven days in office
* Russia's Federal Financial Markets Service said it could withdraw licenses from several dozen private pension funds
* The Moscow Arbitration Court upheld a 15.8-billion ruble ($600 million) debt claim against bankrupt Russian oil company Yukos filed by the Federal Bailiffs Service,
* Russia's foreign intelligence service denied any involvement in the alleged poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, a former FSB officer and allegedly a close associate of fugitive Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky. Litvinenko is now in a London hospital with symptoms of severe poisoning
