* Russia's Foreign Ministry said:
-Russia insists that Iran implement resolutions of the UN Security Council and the board of governors of the international nuclear watchdog
-Russia believes it is too early to stop Kosovo status talks and submit the Ahtisaari plan on Kosovo to the UN Security Council
* Vladislav Surkov, a deputy head of the Kremlin administration, said a healthy political system had been established in Russia and called for re-orienting the economy towards the innovation sector
* Russian company Atomstroyexport will continue the partial construction of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern Iran despite financing difficulties, the project's contractor said
* Some Russian specialists who came to Iran to build the Bushehr nuclear power plant in the country's south are starting to leave the Islamic Republic, the Russian nuclear power agency said
* The head of Russia's nuclear power agency dismissed the director of the Bochvar All-Russian Research Institute of Non-Organic Materials following breaches in the registration and control of nuclear and radioactive substances
* Russia's veterinary watchdog and the European Commission have failed to reach an agreement to resume Polish meat and agricultural imports to Russia, the watchdog press secretary said
* Semyon Vainshtok, the head of the state pipeline monopoly Transneft said Russia may begin building a direct oil pipeline to Europe bypassing Belarus in April to reduce its dependence on the transit country
*Russia's environmental and technological watchdog has launched a routine probe into the Kharyaga oil field operated by France's Total in northern Russia, the body said
* An auction for a state-controlled stake in S7 Airlines, formerly Sibir, a leading Russian air carrier, has been canceled due to a lack of bids, the Russian Federal Property Fund said
* An unsuccessful rocket launch under the Sea Launch project in late January was caused by engine failure, the press secretary of Russia's federal space agency said
* A court in California has sentenced two Soviet emigrants to death for kidnapping and brutally murdering five fellow Soviet emigrants
* Communists rallied in Transdnestr protesting against growing consumer prices and energy tariffs in the unrecognized Russian-speaking region on Moldovan territory, a party official said
