- The military component is key to defending Russian national interests wherever the state feels they are being infringed upon, specifically if the U.S. deploys missiles in Central Europe;
- A missile threat from Iran is not realistic in the foreseeable future;
- The U.S. is set on deploying its missile shield in Europe and is unlikely to accept Russia's offer to use the Gabala radar in Azerbaijan
* The United States is ready to work together with Russia on a new nuclear security regime to replace the expiring Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried said
* At least ten people were killed and four seriously injured in a fire that swept through a retirement home in a village in Western Siberia during the night, a local rescue services official said
* A Russian rescue plane with 73 Russians and seven Belarusians evacuated from the conflict-torn Gaza Strip landed in Moscow after 6 p.m. local time (2 p.m. GMT)
* Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet Sunday at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Israeli radio station Galei Tzahal reported
* Austrian authorities released a Russian space agency official arrested on espionage charges last week, and he will be soon handed over to Russian diplomats, Russia's Embassy in Vienna said
* Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Guatemala July 3-4 to attend an International Olympic Committee session and promote Sochi's 2014 Winter Olympic bid, the Kremlin press service said
* President Putin will take part in an economic cooperation summit of Black Sea countries in Turkey on June 25, the Kremlin press service said
* The landing of the Atlantis shuttle at Cape Canaveral has been put off till Friday because of adverse weather conditions, a spokesperson for NASA's Johnson space center said
* A two-day European Union summit opened in Brussels, which is expected to break a deadlock in the process towards a European Constitution
* Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak said the transfer of $25 million from North Korea's account at a Macao bank via a Russian bank in the Far East was going ahead
* First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said the government would allocate 200 billion rubles ($7.7 billion) to develop nanotechnology until 2015
* Sergei Stepashin, head of Russia's Audit Chamber said there is no need to revise production sharing agreements on the Kharyaga oilfield in northern Russia or the Far East Sakhalin-1 natural gas project
* Serb film director Emir Kusturica presented his latest picture, Promise Me This, at the opening of the Moscow International Film Festival and promised that his next film would be shot in Russia
* Major Ukrainian opposition parties will form a ruling coalition if they win early parliamentary elections September 30, or an opposition bloc if they are unsuccessful, pro-presidential Our Ukraine's leader said
* Crude oil production in Russia expanded by an annualized 3.2% year-on-year in January-May 2007 to 203 million metric tons (1.5 billion barrels), the Industry and Energy Ministry said
* The European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, confirmed that he will hold a meeting in Lisbon Saturday with Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani
* Police in southern Russia have prevented 30 planned terrorist attacks since the start of the year, the country's deputy prosecutor general said
* The upper house of Kazakhstan's parliament ratified protocols on changes to Russian-Kazakh agreements on the lease of four military test sites in the ex-Soviet Central Asian republic
