Moscow - Russia halted plans to deploy Iskander missiles in its European enclave of Kaliningrad Wednesday, in response a perceived shift in US President Barack Obama's policy on missile defence, a top military official was quoted by news agency Interfax as saying.

"Russia doesn't need the Iskander missiles if there won't be any US missile elements eliciting fear in Eastern Europe," the agency cited the unnamed official in Russia's military general staff as saying.

Moscow - Russia halted plans to deploy Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad, citing a shift in US policy on missile defence with US President Barack Obama, a top military official was quoted by news agency Interfax as saying on Wednesday.

"Russia doesn't need the Iskander missiles if there won't be any US missile defence elements in Eastern Europe," the agency cited the unnamed official in Russia's military general staff as saying.

Moscow  - The Russ

Moscow - The Russian Orthodox Church will elect a new leader Tuesday for the first time since the collapse of the officially atheist communist regime in 1991.

A full church council of 711 bishops, monks and lay people from the former Soviet Union gathered in Moscow's massive Christ the Savior Cathedral to vote on a short-list of three candidates selected by church hierarchs on the weekend.

Clergy clad in ceremonial garb intoned a liturgy that resonated against the gilded vaults of the cathedral to open the proceedings Tuesday.

Moscow  - The deputy interior minister of the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia was shot dead Monday in the regional capital Sukhumi, the Abkhazian President Sergey Bagapsh reported.

In a statement carried by the Interfax news agency, Bagapsh said the minister was in a cafe when he was shot in the head and chest by two masked assailants, who escaped on foot.

"This murder is aimed at destabilizing the situation in Abkhazia," Bagapsh said.

No information as to the motive behind the attack was available.

Moscow  - Passersby on their lunch break in downtown Moscow on Monday were witness to a brazen double murder by a hired hit man, but the news was dulled by the fact that it seemed all too familiar.

Prominent human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov left a press conference that day in the company of young journalist Anastasia Baburova at about 3 pm (1200 GMT), before joining the bustle headed to the Kropotinskaya metro station.