- Ukraine is not planning to deploy elements of the U.S. missile defense system on its territory
- he is not going to resign
- he would not backtrack on his decree to hold early parliamentary elections
- he does not rule out that mediators could be involved in settling the conflict in the country
* Deployment of U.S. missile-defense bases in Poland and the Czech Republic is an attempt by the U.S. to control Europe, Former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev said
* Russia will begin withdrawing from its military base in Georgia's Black Sea port of Batumi in mid-May, a deputy chief-of-staff of the Russian Army said
* The Bush administration again cited Ukraine on a list of 15 countries cooperating with the U.S. on its national missile defense system, the U.S. Defense Department said
* The U.S. administration says Russia is welcome to join its missile defense shield, although the U.S. believes it unlikely they will accept the proposal
* The U.S. plans to relocate an interceptor missile system from Marshall Islands in the Pacific to the Czech Republic by spring 2011, a U.S. Missile Defense Agency official said
* The Russian Foreign Ministry described the latest U.S. human rights report as "politicized" and said it "fails to reflect actual conditions," Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Yakovenko said
* Russia's energy giant Gazprom [RTS: GAZP] said it had proposed to Pakistan to draft a general scheme for the development of the Pakistani gas industry
* Production-sharing agreements (PSA) signed under the Sakhalin II oil and gas project off Russia's Pacific Coast ensure foreign investors' maximum protection and infringe on the country's interests, Viktor Orlov, a Russian senator, said
* Large oil and gas projects on Sakhalin I and Sakhalin II off Russia's Pacific coast last year brought in $857 million and $794.6 million, respectively, the Industry and Energy Ministry said
* Russia has annulled a contract with PricewaterhouseCoopers, auditor of the Sakhalin II hydrocarbon project in the Far East for 10 years, and selected a new auditor, the Industry and Energy Ministry said
* Total has rectified numerous violations at the Kharyaga oil deposit in northern Russia that the French energy giant is developing, the Russian Audit Chamber chairman said
* Atomstroyexport has completed the assembly of the second reactor block at the Tianwan nuclear power plant in China, the Russian nuclear equipment export monopoly said
* Baltika, one of Russia's most popular beer brands, will be produced in the U.K., the beer producer said in a statement
* Mechel, one of Russia's leading mining and metals companies, said it has filed a bid for a tender to purchase Croatia's metals producer Zeljezara Split
* Belarus intends to establish a joint venture with Venezuela in 2008 to refine and produce oil, Mikhail Osipenko, the acting chairman of the Belarusian state oil company Belneftekhim, said
* The industry ministry proposed building a second leg of an oil pipeline to Europe bypassing Belarus and Poland to reduce Russia's dependence on transit countries, the ministry's press service said
* Belarus's strongman president, Alexander Lukashenko, said he was ready to cooperate with the opposition, reiterated plans to build a nuclear power plant and swore to stand with Russia in the face of a common enemy
* Gen. Yasr Buyukanit, the chief of the Turkish General Staff said it is necessary to carry out a military operation against Kurdish insurgents in North Iraq
* A woman planning to commit a terrorist attack on the Taksim central square of Istanbul in Turkey has been arrested, Turkish nationwide television news channel NTV said
* Moldova resumed in full its fruit and vegetable exports to Russia, the agriculture ministry of the ex-Soviet nation said
* Russia will temporarily ban rice imports from Thailand as of May 1, a Russian food safety watchdog said
* Russia's London-based fugitive tycoon Boris Berezovsky is demanding an apology from a state Russian television channel and threatening it with a libel suit, but Rossiya denied receiving any warning letters, the Gazeta.ru Web site said
* A newly released government strategy designed to streamline America's intelligence gathering efforts will include broader collaboration with foreign services, Mike McConnell, the U.S. intelligence director, said
