2009 Review: February

RIAN News Service looks back at the main events of the outgoing year; below a month-by-month review of 2009 continues with February:

February 1

* The Russian Orthodox Church enthrones its new leader, Patriarch Kirill

February 2

* Russian international Andrei Arshavin signs for Arsenal 

February 3

* Moscow and Minsk sign an agreement on the joint protection of the Russia-Belarus Union State's airspace and the creation of an integrated regional air defense network

February 5

* The Faina Ukrainian cargo ship captured by Somali pirates in September 2008 with 20 crewmembers on board is released after a ransom is paid

February 10

* Israel holds early parliamentary elections

February 11

* Russian and Indian warships complete the final stage of the INDRA-2009 joint naval exercises, practicing anti-piracy operations off the Somali coast

February 12

* The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe extends a mandate for its unarmed military observers in Georgia

February 15

* Bolivia's President Evo Morales arrives in Moscow on the first official visit to Russia to sign a number of agreements, including in the energy and military-technical sectors

February 16

* Russian prosecutors give the go ahead for a new criminal case to be brought against the jailed Yukos founder, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and his business partner Platon Lebedev

February 17

* Russia's antimonopoly regulator launches suits against the country's largest crude producers - TNK-BP, Gazprom Neft, LUKoil and Rosneft - over fuel market violations in late 2008

February 19

* The jury acquits all defendants suspected of involvement in the murder of Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya

February 20

* Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev signs a decree to close the Manas U.S. airbase used since 2001 to support NATO operations in nearby Afghanistan

February 22

* The Idex-2009 international defense exhibition and conference opens in Abu Dhabi

February 24

* The European Union announces the inclusion of Belarus in its Eastern Partnership (EaP) program