Today, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov will pay a one-day working visit to Hungary to meet with his Hungarian counterpart Ferenc Gyurcsany and President Laszlo Solyom, RBC has been told by the government's press service.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former head of the embattled Yukos oil company, sent notification to the district election commission about his plans to run in elections for the Moscow legislature for the 201st University district, Khodorkovsky's lawyer Anton Drel said Wednesday.

About 48 percent of Russians would not like working for foreign companies, polls held by the All-Russian Center for Public Opinion and Research (VTsIOM) have shown.

On the eve of the first anniversary of the terrorist act in a Beslan school, ROMIR Monitoring research company held a public opinion poll on the most efficient means of fighting international terrorism. Respondents were able select several options, therefore the total can exceed 100 percent.

Russia’s export duty on crude oil may be raised to $179 per ton starting on October 1, Alexander Sakovich, deputy chairman of the finance ministry’s customs department, told RBC.

Sibir Energy is pleased to confirm that in the Royal Courts of Justice this morning, the Judge, Mr Justice Peter Smith, dismissed in their entirety the claims made by Harley Street Capital against Sibir Energy, Chalva Tchigirinsky, Alexander Tchigirinsky and Bennfield Limited . . .

Former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, accused of illegally privatizing two state-owned country houses, will return to Moscow before the end of August, despite media reports that he could remain abroad in political exile. "I cannot say when exactly he will return . . .

RAO Unified Energy Systems of Russia reported a 35.15 percent drop in net profit last year, to RUR 17.411 billion (about $609 million). Core business profit shrank 15.1 percent, at RUR 26.426 billion. Core business revenue stood at RUR 42.917 billion (about $1.5 billion), down 25.95 percent from the previous year.

Iran's new President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his country's right to use atomic energy for peaceful purposes should be recognized.

Roman Abramovich, Russia’s and England’s richest man, quietly lost a court case in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) last week. But the sound of the judge’s ruling is about to toll right round the world. For the first time in one of the most successful careers in the world of what Karl Marx once called . . .

According to Bank of Moscow analysts, as the Russian market moves to a historic high, trader activity is declining. Yesterday's trade was marked by mild profit fixing in most highly marketable securities, and the RTS index declined by 0.4 percent to 755 points . . .

Energy security, including stability of energy supplies, will be the key issue at the next G8 summit, Russian Deputy Energy and Industry Minister Ivan Materov told a Bavarian minister today.

The Russian Foreign Ministry is not expecting any breakthroughs at the next round of six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program, a deputy minister said.

The head of Russia's nuclear power agency and an Iranian parliamentary delegation met Thursday to discuss cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

The Russian Audit Chamber and the Iranian Supreme Audit Court will jointly control the supplies and the financing of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant's first power unit, the head of the Russian body said Tuesday.

Russia, India, Brazil, and China will be able to compete with industrialized nations in five years with developing innovations, Ernst & Young Global experts say.

Russia's electric power giant, Unified Energy Systems, wants to use money from the country's Stabilization Fund to build a hydropower station at Sangtudin, Tajikistan, the company's chief executive said today.

The international thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER) is to be built in France, ministers of six countries involved in the project have determined at their second meeting.

RAO UES chief Anatoly Chubais admitted a strategic mistake of the electricity monopoly's management in the May power crisis in the Moscow region. Serious personnel drawbacks, outdated equipment and strategic mistakes of the RAO UES management and Chubais himself are among the crisis causes . . .

A possible working visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Japan is being linked with his plans to attend an APEC summit, which is to meet in November of this year, a source close to a Russian delegation told RIA Novosti.

The I Siberian Energy Congress will open today in Novosibirsk. The aim of the congress is to assist actual establishment of eastern energy centers that meet Russia's strategic interests.

Moscow and Ottawa are going to end talks on Russia's WTO accession before the end of this summer, head of the trade negotiations department of the Economic Development and Trade Ministry Maxim Medvedkov has told journalists.

While the collapse of Communism in Russia was followed by a dramatic decline in oil production from 587m tons in 1987 to 301m tons in 1996, the decline in gas production was much less marked. It fell from a peak of 636 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 1990 to 571 bcm in 1997, before starting to rise again, achieving 634 bcm in 2004, a rise of 2.8 percent over 2003.

Vagit Alekperov is one of Russia’s richest men. His fortune, calculated on the basis of the value of his shares in LUKoil, Russia’s largest oil company, is currently estimated at between $4.2 and $4.3 billion. But Alekperov is famously parsimonious with words, particularly on the subject of diamonds.

Russia’s hotel industry is most developed in such big cities as Moscow, St. Petersburg, and resort towns such as Sochi on the Black Sea. Other large industrial regions with over a million residents such as Voronezh, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Samara and Rostov-on-Don are currently experiencing a construction boom in the hospitality sector.

Gazprom-Media is holding talks on the acquirement of the Izvestiya newspaper at the market price as company considers this asset as an attractive one, Gazprom-Media general director Nikolay Senkevich has said.

U.S. congressman Henry J. Hyde does not back proposals to expel Russia from G8 in connection with the nine-year sentence to former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky. I do not share the opinion that Russia should be expelled from G8 . . .

Vietnam and Russia agreed to boost bilateral cooperation in nuclear energy during the second session of the Joint Coordinator on Cooperation in the Field of Nuclear Energy here on May 17-20, Vietnam News Agency reported Sunday.

Oil and gas condensate production grew 3.4 percent in the January to April period of 2005 and hit 152m tons, the Russian Federal Statistics Service (Rosstat) has reported. Oil production shrank at a 3.4-percent monthly rate in April and advanced 3 percent from a year earlier.

News that RAO UES is contesting additional tax claims for 2001 totaling RUR3.679bn (approx USD131m) will not affect the holding's shares considerably, because the market expected this, Prospect Investment analysts say.