Moscow/ Sochi, Russia - German ex-chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said Thursday 100 million euros were being spent on an environmental study of the Nord Stream pipeline project for gas from Russia to Germany, which he chairs.

"The most acute problems for the realisation of the Nord Stream project are of course issues over ecological preservation," Schroeder was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying.

He made the comments at a meeting with Russia's premier Vladimir Putin and the head of national energy Gazprom Alexei Miller in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Moscow - Russia's two leading stock exchanges remained mostly shut for the third day Thursday as stocks took their worst dive since the 1998 financial crisis.

The dollar-denominated RTS is still waiting for permission from the Federal Financial Markets Service to resume trading, the market's press office said.

A spokesman said it was unclear whether the index would open Thursday.

London, September 18 : After talks in Caracas with Venezuelan and Cuban officials, Russia’s space agency chief has said that Moscow is ready to help Cuba develop its own space centre.

According to a report in New Scientist, Russia has stepped up efforts to develop closer links with both countries, which are ideological enemies of Washington, including sending Russian strategic bombers on a mission to Venezuela this month.

“We have held preliminary discussions about the possibility of creating a space centre in Cuba with our help,” Anatoly Perminov, the chief of Russia’s Federal Space Agency, was quoted as saying in Caracas by Russia’s Itar-Tass news agency.

London, Sept. 18: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that his country may unilaterally stake a claim to a part of the energy rich Arctic region.

"We must finalise and adopt a federal law on the southern border of Russia's Arctic zone," The Telegraph quoted Medvedev as telling a meeting of his country’s Security Council.

"This is our responsibility, and simply our direct duty, to our descendents. We must surely, and for the long-term future, secure Russia's interests in the Arctic," he added.

Moscow, Sept. 18 : Russian customs chiefs have uncovered an underwater pipeline that was being used to smuggle cheap vodka from Russia into the European Union.

Managua - Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin Wednesday thanked Nicaragua for recognizing the breakaway Georgian provinces South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

The leftist Sandinista government of President Manuel Ortega was the second country after Russia to recognize the two provinces' independence.

Sechin, who earlier this week visited Cuba and Venezuela, said Moscow wanted to renew political and economic ties with Managua after more than 20 years' interruption.