Nation/CIS

Ukraine’s ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko said she was ready to head the country’s new government, she told reporters today. Tymoshenko was sacked by President Viktor Yushchenko earlier this month. “I can see that our relations are returning to status quo,” she said.

Supplies of light-water nuclear reactors to North Korea can only be considered after it dismantles its nuclear program, the Russian foreign minister said Wednesday. Sergei Lavrov said he discussed the issue with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Ukraine’s parliament has rejected the candidacy of Yuri Yekhanurov for prime minister. Yekhanurov won 223 votes, against 226 needed for approval. He was not supported by Communists, the Social and Democratic Party and some other parties.

The Moscow City Court has started hearings of the appeals earlier submitted by the former chief executive of Yukos Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev Tuesday.

The six nations negotiating to put an end to North Korea's nuclear weapons program have adopted a joint statement on the principles of denuclearization, a Chinese official said Monday.

On the last day of his working visit to the US, September 16, Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet US President George Bush and managers of the US top oil companies.

Igor Smirnov, president of the self-proclaimed Transdnestr Moldovan Republic, praised the Russian peacekeeping mission and said the country could play a significant role in settling the Transdnestr-Moldovan conflict.

Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky is said to have financed the election campaign of Ukraine’s president, Viktor Yushchenko. Ex-Ukrainian leader Leonid Kravchuk said Berezovsky had told him that his firms had transferred $15 million to the bank accounts of companies that financed Yushchenko’s campaign.

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon in New York. Putin said Russia would support the peace process in the Middle East, and was open to cooperate with all interested parties, including Palestine.

Ukrainian leader Viktor Yushchenko said he had not wanted to sack prime minister Yulia Timoshenko. He said the decision had been prompted by new allegations of corruption within Ukrainian authorities made by deputy prime minister Mykola Tomenko on Thursday morning.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has dismissed Yuliya Tymoshenko's government. Yury Yekhanurov has been appointed acting prime minister. Before the appointment, Yekhanurov headed the Dnepropetrovsk region administration.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov said Wednesday that Russian-Chinese relations had a good future. Speaking at a meeting with Chinese Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan, Fradkov said, "We [China and Russia] have laid a solid foundation for relations of mutual trust . . .

Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said it was hopeful that Russian planes carrying humanitarian aid for people affected by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans would leave for the United States Tuesday.

Russia will be able to lend $146 million to Belarus this year, a source in the Russian government told RBC on the eve of Russian premier Mikhail Fradkov’s visit to Minsk.

Russia hopes that Germany will continue to develop its strategic partnership with Russia after the September 18 parliamentary elections, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tuesday.

A Moscow court has upheld a decision to prolong the arrest of former nuclear power minister Yevgeny Adamov, now held in a Swiss prison, until October 8. The court turned down the appeal filed by Adamov's lawyer, Timofei Gridnev, who had insisted the arrest was illegal.

A member of the lower chamber of Russia's parliament, the State Duma, made new accusations Monday against former premier Mikhail Kasyanov. Alexander Khinshtein told a Moscow news conference that he had carried out his own investigation and found two properties linked with Kasyanov's name.

Not a single state in the world can guarantee security for its citizens today, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday. Speaking to residents of the North Ossetian town of Beslan, where 331 people, including 186 children, lost their lives in a school hostage crisis last September . . .

Up to a hundred Russians could be trapped in U.S. areas hit by Hurricane Katrina, Russia’s foreign ministry told RBC quoting data from the Russian general consulate in Houston. Many of them are students.

About 2,000 mourners, including a large number of children and teenagers, gathered this morning in the yard of school no.1 in Beslan to remember the hostage-taking tragedy that started on September 1 last year.

About RUR 500 million ($17.5 million) will be allocated to administrative reforms next year. The sum was agreed to with all concerned ministries, and it was approved by the government’s commission for administrative reforms on Tuesday . . .

Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, sentenced to 9 years in jail on charges of tax evasion and fraud, decided to run for a seat in the Moscow City Duma, he said in a statement today. He will run in Moscow's Universitetsky constituency No. 201.

Mikhail Kasyanov, former prime minister of Russia, has been notified a tax inspection will commence against his consulting company MK Analitika, Vremya Novostei newspaper reported. Kasyanov isn't bothered by the news.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to meet on September 2 with members of the Mothers of Beslan committee, which was set up in the wake of the terrorist atrocity in the North Caucasus town of Beslan in 2004.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will arrive in Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, today. The city is celebrating its 1,000th anniversary. In the morning, Putin will chair a meeting of Russia's State Council.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky should not have declared a hunger strike, the former Yukos CEO's defense attorney Genrikh Padva said Thursday. "This is an extreme measure he shouldn't have taken. Since yesterday [Wednesday], Khodorkovsky's health has deteriorated," Pavda said.

Germany's foreign policy has become more independent since Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder took office, Russian President Vladimir Putin told a leading German TV network Wednesday. In an interview with ZDF television, Putin said that under Schroeder Germany had consolidated the sovereignty of its foreign policy.

Yury Kalinin, director of Russia’s federal penal service, denied reports that jailed businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky had gone on hunger strike. Kalinin said Khodorkovsky had not informed the administration of the Moscow Detention Center No.1, where he is jailed, of his hunger strike.

Former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky has begun a hunger strike to support his colleague Platon Lebedev, the former head of Menatep, who was moved to an isolation cell for seven days, Anton Drel, Khodorkovsky's lawyer, said.

The Council of foreign ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) are meeting in Moscow today. The meeting will be chaired by Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.