2007 Review: January

RIA Novosti looks back at the main events of the outgoing year; below starts a month-by month review of 2007, beginning with January

January 1

* Gazprom signs a five-year contract on Russia's natural gas deliveries to Belarus at $100 per 1,000 cubic meters

January 8

* Poland and Germany say supplies of Europe-bound Russian oil going through Belarus were disrupted

January 9

* The first reactor block of China's Tianwan nuclear power plant, which is being built in eastern China's port city of Lianyungang by Russia's nuclear export monopoly Atomstroyexport, becomes fully operational

January 10

* Belarus abolishes the transit duty of $45 per metric ton on Europe-bound Russian oil, which was imposed January 1

* Kazakhstan's parliament unanimously approves Karim Masimov as the Central Asian country's new prime minister after Danial Akhmetov's resignation

January 12

* After two days of energy and trade talks in Moscow Russian and Belarusian officials sign a bilateral agreement to slash Russia's oil export duty for Belarus from $180.7 to $53 per metric ton in 2007

January 15

* TVEL and Ukraine's national nuclear energy generating company Energoatom sign a contract on Russian nuclear fuel supplies to Ukrainian power plants in 2007

January 19

* President Putin issues a decree appointing Russia's state-owned arms exporter Rosoboronexport as the sole agency authorized to trade military hardware internationally

* Techsnabexport, Russia's state-run nuclear exporter, signs a cooperation agreement with Renova Group to set up joint ventures as part of a shared investment project to prospect and develop uranium deposits in Africa and Asia

January 20

* The United States officially proposes to deploy a missile-defense radar in the Czech Republic

January 23

* Russian arms export monopoly Rosoboronexport confirms it has completed the delivery of Tor-M1 anti-aircraft missile systems to Iran under a contract

* Russia and Ukraine set up a joint venture to resume production of An-124-100 Ruslan heavy cargo planes, which was halted in the early 1990s, the head of the Volga-Dnepr aircraft manufacturing consortium said

January 24

* Belarus and Iran sign a memorandum of understanding on defense cooperation during a visit by the ex-Soviet nation's defense minister to the Islamic Republic

* Russia and Costa Rica sign a protocol on the completion of bilateral negotiations on Russia's entry to the World Trade Organization (WTO)

January 25

* Russia and India sign agreements on Russia's global space navigation system Glonass and on the construction of four more nuclear reactors for India's Kudankulam nuclear power plant and other stations during President Vladimir Putin's visit to New Delhi

January 29

* Russia's nuclear fuel producer and supplier TVEL completes a unique project to restore the second power unit at Hungary's sole nuclear power plant

January 31

* A Sea Launch Zenit-3SL rocket carrying a commercial communications satellite explodes during lift off from an oceangoing platform in the Pacific