Moscow - Russian state television has lowered the pitch of its coverage of the most devastating financial crisis to hit the markets in over a decade at the Kremlin's behest, the Moscow Times reported Thursday, citing media monitoring firms.

Kremlin officials have banned the use of the terms "crisis" and "collapse" on the country's main television channels, the newspaper quoted Ekho Moskvy radio sation deputy editor Vladimir Varfolomeyev as saying.

Brussels - The European Union's top foreign-policy official, Javier Solana, on Wednesday hailed Russian moves to pull out of parts of Georgia.

Moscow/Tskhinvali, Georgia - Russia has pulled troops out of all of its checkpoints inside Georgia around the breakaway region of South Ossetia, the head of the Russian peacekeeping forces said on Wednesday.

Moscow  - Japan scrambled four fighter jets on Wednesday to flank Russian bombers on a long-range patrol over the Sea of Japan, a Russian air force official said.

"Four Japanese air force F-15 fighters escorted the long-range aviation crews as they flew over the Sea of Japan," Lieutenant- Colonel Vladimir Drik was quoted by news agency Interfax as saying.

Russia ordered out an extra two Russian Su-27 fighters to backup their TU-22 bombers, known as Backfires by their NATO codenames, while they completed their training, Drik said.

Moscow - Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday said an arms embargo against Georgia would top Russia's agenda for peace talks set for Geneva on October 15.

"It is our conviction that an international embargo on sales of offensive weapons to Georgia is an urgent step," Lavrov was quoted by news agency Interfax as saying on Wednesday.

The Geneva peace conference was agreed under an EU-brokered ceasefire negotiated by French President Nicolas Sarkozy with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev that ended Russia's five-day war with Georgia.

Moscow  - The MICEX index, Moscow's leading stock exchange, shut down until Friday while trading on the RTS was suspended indefinitely after shares plummeted at opening on Wednesday.

The MICEX's headlong dive, dropping more than 14 per cent in the first half-hour of trading, compounded record losses in the last two days as Russia faces its worst financial crisis since the national default of 1998.

Trading on the MICEX, where most of Russia's stocks are traded, was suspended by market watchdogs at 11:05 am (0805 GMT) for two- days.