Moscow/Minsk - Moscow will give Belarus a two billion dollar credit to purchase Russian natural gas Minsk cannot otherwise afford, the Belapan news agency reported Tuesday.
Russian Finance Minister Aleksei Kudrin announced the loan at a Moscow press conference. At least half of the money would be transferred to the Belarusian government by the end of 2008, he said.
MMoscow - Five Russian soldiers were killed and six injured in an ambush in the Cacausus republic of Dagestan on Tuesday, Russian news agencies reported.
A three-vehicle column of Interior Ministry troops was attacked about 40 kilometres from the republic's capital of Makhachkala, agencies quoted an unnamed law-enforcement official as saying.
The attacks come after one of the most serious assaults on government troops by insurgents over the weekend in the neighbouing republic of Ingushetia.
Moscow - Lybian leader Moamer Gadaffi will travel to Moscow on October 31 to meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev over weapons purchases and energy deals, business daily Vedemosti cited a Foreign Ministry source as saying.
It is Gadaffi's first visit in over 20 years marking Moscow's renewed Soviet-era ties with the north African state since Russia's Vladimir Putin traveled to Tripoli just after stepping down as president in April.
Moscow - Nothing could be a more visual throwback to the scarcity of Soviet days then the yawning bare shelves at some of Moscow's small grocery chains this week.
Kremlin critics have even voiced hope that such - so far limited - signs of economic crisis could turn the populace against former president-turned-premier Vladimir Putin.
"It's the crisis," affirmed a sales girl at grocer Samokhval behind a glowing refrigerated counter empty of all but frozen veggies. "They haven't stopped paying me yet, but it's all over the papers - the victims of the crisis."
With that she held up a tabloid expose of affected oligarchs headlined "The Rich Are Crying" in daily Zhizn.
Moscow - Nothing could be a more visual throwback to the scarcity of Soviet days then the yawning bare shelves at some of Moscow's small grocery chains this week.
Kremlin critics have even voiced hope that such - so far limited - signs of economic crisis could turn the populace against former president-turned-premier Vladimir Putin.
Moscow - Russian energy stocks plummeted on deteriorating global oil prices Thursday with export monopoly Gazprom loosing two- thirds of its market value as indices hit three-year lows.
Oil firms Rosneft and Lukoil led a plunge of over 11 per cent on the MICEX index, where most Russian stock's are traded, before trading was halted at 4:12 pm (1200 GMT) on Thursday.
Moscow/Minsk - Moscow will give Belarus a two billion dollar credit to purchase Russian natural gas Minsk cannot otherwise afford, the Belapan news agency reported Tuesday.
MMoscow - Five Russian soldiers were killed and six injured in an ambush in the Cacausus republic of Dagestan on Tuesday, Russian news agencies reported.
Moscow - Lybian leader Moamer Gadaffi will travel to Moscow on October 31 to meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev over weapons purchases and energy deals, business daily Vedemosti cited a Foreign Ministry source as saying.
Moscow - Nothing could be a more visual throwback to the scarcity of Soviet days then the yawning bare shelves at some of Moscow's small grocery chains this week.
Moscow - Russian energy stocks plummeted on deteriorating global oil prices Thursday with export monopoly Gazprom loosing two- thirds of its market value as indices hit three-year lows.
