Moscow - Two Russian submersibles plumbed the depths of Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia on Tuesday, diving a record 1,680 metres (5,512 feet) in one of the world's largest lakes.

"It is a world record for deep-water submersion in fresh water," an organizer told news agencies Itar-Tass on the barge fielding expedition that was to last another five hours.

The exploration mission is headed by pro-Kremlin lawmaker Artur Chilingarov, who led a mission with the same two mini-submarines to plant a Russian flag on the sea bed below the North Pole last August.

The Soviet-designed Mir-1 and Mir-2 submersibles are to scour Baikal's waters through mid-September for research on global warming and the local ecology and archeology.

Moscow - Sergei Kislyak, Russia's deputy foreign minister, was named the country's new ambassador to Washington, news agencies reported Tuesday.

Kislyak, 57, has headed difficult negotiations with the United States in recent months over Washington's plan to install parts of a missile defence shield in Eastern Europe.

The countries' conflicting security vision is one of a number of issues that makes for tense relations that show no signs of easing as Kislyak takes the post, despite a change of administrations in both capitals.

The two front-runners in the US presidential race have been strongly critical of former president Vladimir Putin, whose legacy his successor Dmitry Medvedev has pledged to follow.

Amman - A new generation of portable Russian grenade launchers that can fire multi-sized rounds and punch through tank armour will be built in Jordan starting next year, a senior official was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

The project will be carried out by a joint Jordanian-Russian company that was established last year, Muayyad Samman, Chairman and CEO of King Abdullah II Design and Development Bureau (KADDB) was quoted as saying by the Jordan Times.

"The factory will be a strategic project that seeks to transfer the technology to Jordan, provide the Jordan Armed Forces with its needs of this weapon, export to other markets, create jobs and bring hard currency into the Kingdom," Samman said.

Moscow - A top Kremlin advisor on Monday denied political meddling in the legal struggles of TNK-BP head Robert Dudley with Russian shareholders of the joint oil venture.

"TNK-BP faces no risks whatsoever to its operations in Russia, and the shareholders must decide what to do next," Kremlin economist Arkady Dvorkovich was quoted by news agency RIA-Novosti as saying Monday.

Observers have suspected that the shareholder battle between British Petroleum (BP) and its Russian billionaire partners, as well as recent legal enquires into foreign employees working at the company preface a takeover by a Russian state firm such as Gazprom.

Russia-based Sistema has announced that it will invest over $ 5 billion in Indian telecom sector in the next 3-4 years.

Sistema has finalized a deal with Indian telecom services provider Shyam Telelink, the unlisted telecom services arm of the Shyam Telecom Group, to acquire 74% stake in the company.

Russia has also assured Indian oil firm ONGC that it will become its helping hand for acquiring stake in its giant Sakhalin-3 project.

Moscow - Russia is preparing to counter the strategic threat posed if the US sites a missile defence base in eastern Europe with military measures including specially modifying its ballistic missiles, a Russian military expert said Thursday.

"Russia's military responses to the deployment of a US missile defence system in Europe may include improving the Russian strategic Topol-M missiles with hypersonic manoeuvering warheads and a large number of jamming stations that would reduce the effectiveness of missile defence elements tenfold," said Viktor Yesin, a former chief of General Staff of the Russian Strategic Missile Troops.