* Aeroflot pulled out of its bid for a controlling stake in Italy's ailing state-controlled Alitalia Airlines, the flagship Russian air carrier said in a news release
* Moscow's Savyolovsky Court will start on July 2 a trial in absentia of fugitive Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky, accused of embezzling Aeroflot airline funds, the Moscow City Court said
* The Kant air base in Kyrgyzstan is strategically important for Russia, and Moscow will continue to reinforce it, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said
* Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, 70, who has held office for the past 15 years, was reelected for a fifth term by the Moscow legislature
* Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during his visit to the West Bank and Israel:
- Moscow condemns any attempts to undermine Palestinian statehood, and called for a unified Palestinian state to be established shortly
- Russia is ready to mediate in the release of Israeli military personnel held captive by Palestinian militants if Tel Aviv requests it
* A search and rescue operation at a coal mine in Russia's north Urals was concluded after rescuers found the bodies of two missing miners following Monday's methane explosion, a local emergencies official said
* Russia formally handed over its military base at Akhalkalaki in southern Georgia to Tbilisi as part of an ongoing scaling-down of its military presence in the ex-Soviet state
* Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said he would call a national referendum on amending the Constitution to limit parliament's powers
* Rosneft received its first 237-billion-ruble tranche ($9 billion) of debt repaid by bankrupt oil company Yukos, the state crude producer said in a news release
* The construction of a base for U.S. interceptor missiles in Poland may begin in February next year, a Polish deputy foreign minister said
* Inter RAO UES, Russia's electricity import and export operator, could hold an IPO in 2008, the head of electricity monopoly Unified Energy System said
* Gallagher Holdings Ltd., an investment company owned by Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, bought a 12.32% stake in Medusa Mining Ltd., an Australian gold producing company, for $16.9 million
* A United States appeals court rejected a claim filed against Gazprom by U.S. oil company Moncrief Oil International, saying it had no jurisdiction over the Russian natural gas monopoly
* Russia's lower house of parliament ratified two agreements regulating the ITER project, an experimental reactor in France being built with Russia's involvement, aimed at eventually generating power by nuclear fusion
* LUKoil Overseas, an international production arm of Russia's LUKoil, will set up a joint venture with the national petroleum company of Venezuela, PDVSA, the Russian company said
* Venezuela's energy minister said U.S. oil majors Exxon-Mobil and Conoco-Phillips have been banned from producing oil in the Latin American country
* The Russian and Chinese space agencies signed a deal in Moscow on joint exploration of Mars and its satellite Phobos, the Russian agency said
* Moldovan wines and cognacs, whose exports to Russia were suspended a year ago, will be back on Russian markets by fall, an official from the Moldova-vin state agency said
* Romania dismissed allegations that it was involved in hosting secret CIA jails to interrogate terror suspects in 2003-05, following claims made in an EU report
