| December 2008 |
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The United States and Ukraine have agreed on strategic partnership in economic development, energy and defense aiming to strengthen Kiev's potential as a NATO aspiring state. 
Russia's Baltic Fleet Neustrashimy (Fearless) missile frigate is escorting a group of commercial ships off the Somali coast, a Russian Navy spokesman said on Friday. 
Kiev has paid Russian energy giant Gazprom $1 billion towards its natural gas debt to cover September and October, the UNIAN news agency quoted a Ukrainian presidential spokeswoman as saying on Friday. 
Russia's Admiral Levchenko destroyer has called at the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, a Russian Navy spokesman said on Friday. 
Three ships from Russia's Northern Fleet arrived in Havana Bay on Friday as part of the Russian Navy's first visit to Cuba since the Cold War. 
Russian troops have returned to Perevi village along Georgia's border with South Ossetia to prevent growing tensions in the area, the Foreign Ministry said Friday in response to criticism by EU monitors. 
The crew of a Chinese ship attacked by pirates off Somalia earlier this week used Molotov cocktails and empty beer bottles to defend their vessel, local media said on Friday. 
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Kazakh counterpart, Nursultan Nazarbayev, signed on Friday a joint action plan to deepen their countries' ties in 2009-2010. 
The Russia-NATO Council will hold an informal meeting at ambassadorial level in mid-January, the Russian envoy to the North Atlantic alliance said on Friday. 
The Bush administration is making a last ditch attempt to "drag" Georgia and Ukraine into NATO before U.S. president-elect Barack Obama takes office, an analyst on Russian-American relations said on Friday. 
Russia and Ukraine have reassured the European Commission that their current gas dispute will have no affect on Russian gas supplied to the EU via Ukraine, the commission's energy spokesman said on Friday. 
The Belarusian president said on Friday he fully supported Russia's idea to deploy short-range missiles in its Kaliningrad exclave in response to a U.S. missile shield in Central Europe. 
Iran expressed hopes that Russia would continue to strengthen its international influence, a deputy foreign minister said on Friday. 
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, currently in Moscow on a visit, asked the United States for $5 billion in financial aid, the president told state media in Minsk. 



