Georgia will sign a strategic partnership treaty with the United States on January 9, the Georgian Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

The agreement will be signed in Washington by Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the Foreign Ministry spokesman said. The signing was originally scheduled for Sunday but was delayed by recent events in the Middle East.

The United States signed a similar deal with Ukraine earlier this month, which along with Georgia is hoping to join NATO. The alliance pledged to boost ties with the two ex-Soviet countries at a ministerial meeting earlier in December, although it did not offer them Membership Action Plans, which provides assistance to countries wishing to join NATO.

Russia’s gas giant Gazprom said it turned off the taps at 0700 GMT, when its contract to supply Ukraine ended.

Ukraine insists it has paid off its debts to Gazprom, but Russia contests this. The two countries have also failed to agree on a price for 2009.

Russian oligarchs are lining up for $78 billion of Kremlin loans to survive the credit squeeze, handing Prime Minister Vladimir Putin the opportunity to increase government control of the nation’s biggest companies.

A bill to extend the presidential term from four to six years has been backed by Russia's upper house of parliament after regional assemblies endorsed it.

It is hard to tell exactly what is going on, but Russia and Iran seem to be bracing for a countermove in the event of the Obama administration pressing ahead with the present US policy to isolate them or cut them out from their "near abroad".

An Israeli envoy urged Russia on Friday not to sell weapons to Iran that could be used to attack the Jewish state, a news agency reported.

Russia is currently fulfilling a contract to deliver S-300 air defence systems to Iran, RIA news agency quoted confidential sources as saying on Wednesday.

Russia is considering buying an unspecified number of remotely piloted reconnaissance aircraft from Israel, the head of the Russian military said Tuesday, in what may be an attempt by the Kremlin to strengthen its intelligence-gathering capacity after the August war with Georgia.

A senior Russian military official expressed concern on Tuesday about what he said were U.S. plans to set up military bases in the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Chinese President Hu Jintao has called for stronger military ties with Russia in talks with visiting Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, state media reported.

"As the strategic partnership between China and Russia develops, the relationship between the two militaries has also continued to become more consolidated and stronger," Xinhua news agency quoted Hu as saying.

With next year's 60th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral relations approaching and economic relations between them at historic highs, the two nations should also advance ties in other areas, Hu said.

Konashenko pulls a green compass out of his shirt pocket and opens it. It's a U.S. military model. "This is a little trophy -- a gift from one of my soldiers," he says. "Everything that the Georgians left behind, I mean everything, was American. All the guns, grenades, uniforms, boots, food rations -- they just left it all. Our boys stuffed themselves on the food," he adds slyly. "It was tasty." The booty, according to Konashenko, also included 65 intact tanks outfitted with the latest NATO and American (as well as Israeli) technology.

NATO fighters have trailed two Russian strategic bombers on a patrol mission over the North Sea, a Russian Air Force spokesman said on Friday.

Fifteen Years Ago, a Bullet Felled CIA Agent Freddie Woodruff. Was It the First Shot in a New Cold War With Russia?

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ministers in Brussels have decided to ignore the wishes of the United States and delay the admission of Georgia and the Ukraine, in effect indefinitely, in what the George W Bush administration is sheepishly trying to claim is a positive "compromise".

The United States will quickly feel a change in attitude from Moscow if President-elect Barack Obama transforms Washington's policies toward Russia, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

Russia called on Israel to end its blockade of Gaza and allow aid to reach the isolated strip.

A senior Russian diplomat made the statement Thursday during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council.

On Monday, Israel's navy turned back a Libyan vessel carrying humanitarian aid bound for Gaza.

"I want to tell you a 'terrible military secret,'" Putin said. "When we announced that our military ships would go to Venezuela for joint exercises, we received very many inquiries—frankly speaking, I didn't expect this—from many countries with requests that our ships visit their ports."

NATO foreign ministers led by Germany managed to forestall fast-track membership for Georgia and Ukraine, and likewise reached an agreement to resume limited ties with Russia. The move was described as “conditional and graduated re-engagement” by NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

"Russia cannot expect anything good in terms of Russian-US relations," Volk told AFP. "During the election campaign Hillary made a number of tough statements about Russia."

European Union observers in Georgia say they will move their offices closer to a volatile area around the breakaway province of South Ossetia.

Georgian and separatist South Ossetian authorities are accusing each other of opening fire across the line of control in the ex-Soviet republic.

A day after he sent Russian forces into South Ossetia to repel the Georgian army, President Dmitry Medvedev responded to mounting Western criticism by saying the truth was on Russia's side and that, eventually, it would become apparent to the whole world.

That day has finally come, and Russia is vindicated. Its story has not changed and is holding up, while Saakashvili's version is collapsing. Medvedev's credibility is rising.

Russia has evidence that citizens from NATO member states including the United States and Turkey fought for Georgia in the five-day August war, Russia's top investigator said on Monday.

Warships, nuclear power, arms sales and perhaps cooperation on oil prices -- Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev is in Venezuela this week with an alarming sounding list to wave under Washington's nose.

The European Union is to launch an inquiry into the causes of the Russia-Georgia conflict, papers seen Friday show, amid growing recriminations against Tbilisi over its role in fanning the flames

Two Russian strategic bombers are conducting an aerial patrol over the Arctic Ocean, Interfax news agency reported Friday.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's visits to Venezuela and Cuba during a week-long trip to Latin America look set to irk Washington, highlighting a foreign policy challenge facing President-elect Barack Obama.

His trip to Venezuela, a key buyer of Russian arms, coincides with the two countries' first joint naval exercise in the Caribbean -- traditionally viewed by the United States as its backyard.

During his stay in Cuba, the Russian leader is likely to demonstrate Moscow's commitment to renew a Cold War-era alliance with Havana, abandoned after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The recent US/Israeli attempt to foment war with Russia in South Ossetia, and the upcoming “testing” of Obama are acts of desperation by a fading global empire. The American era is over. All that remains is the dispensation of America’s remaining nuclear resources in such a way as to reap the greatest advantage for America’s corporate owners in the great repositioning that is now taking place.

Russia's resurgence as a strategic actor and a new cold war player is widely discussed in the United Kingdom and Asia. Russia Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during his presidency made unbelievable economic and military progress. In UK intellectual circle, the resurgence of Russia in the international arena is considered a big issue of the near future. Russia's new policy direction - and particularly its nascent interest in alternative energy - is important because Russia is such a large energy exporter.

The Russian invasion of Georgia this summer sparked an international uproar and led many to predict a new Cold War with Russia.

After gaining exclusive access to South Ossetia, Tim Whewell has discovered evidence Georgia may have committed war crimes in its attack on its breakaway region in August.

The Dmitry Medvedev that made his first appearance in the U.S. capital as Russia's president was not the same man Russians usually see at home.

He was confident, even charming, in reaching out Saturday in a spirit of cooperation to the incoming administration of Barack Obama.

Russia, which is fiercely opposed to NATO's expansion toward its borders, suspended its compliance with the CFE treaty last December but remains a signatory.

Moscow says the treaty, designed to limit battlefield weapons, such as tanks and armoured vehicles, on either side of the old Iron Curtain, is a Cold War relic which gives too much scope for an enlarged NATO to beef up its forces.

Despite objections by Russia, the outgoing head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency urged President-elect Barack Obama on Wednesday to stick to the Bush administration's plans to place missile defenses in Eastern Europe.

The United States said Wednesday that Russia has not responded to fresh US proposals to try to ease its concerns over US missile shield plans despite reports from Moscow suggesting it rejects them.

An unnamed Kremlin official quoted by Russian news agencies said Russia cannot accept the proposals as they contain nothing new and will take up negotiations with the next administration of Barack Obama.

However, US arms control negotiator John Rood told AFP that no formal response has been received.

So, Vladimir Putin was right: It was Georgia that started the war with Russia, and once again it was President Bush who got caught in a lie. As the New York Times reported last week, "Newly available accounts by independent military observers of the beginning of the war between Georgia and Russia this summer call into question the long-standing Georgian assertion that it was acting defensively against separatist and Russian aggression."

Readiness of the West to admit that the August conflict in South Ossetia was started by the Georgian troops, will assist in establishment of relations with Russia, whilst will not change opinion of the Western community on Russia’s disproportionate answer to actions of Georgia.

“The problem is whether Russia proportionally or disproportionately responded toward Georgia’s launching military actions,” Leon Aron, an American political scientist, said.

US President-elect Barack Obama has not given a commitment to go ahead with plans to build part of a US missile defence system in Poland, an aide says.

Russian companies will drill for oil and natural gas on and off the island of Cuba. A standing Russian credit line to Cuba for buying Russian wheat and cars is now extended to until 2011. Russia will build new rail lines on Cuban territory. There will also be joint projects in aircraft- and shipbuilding.

To the extent that he focused on Russia at all, Barack Obama’s attention was concentrated primarily on the need to keep Soviet nuclear weapons stockpiles out of the hands of terrorists.

The U.S. State Department said Friday the Georgian attack in South Ossetia last August was a mistake, but that it did not justify Russia's large-scale intervention. The comments follow a critical newspaper assessment of the Tbilisi government's role in the crisis.

Russia hopes for constructive talks with the next U.S. administration on Washington's planned missile defense system in Europe, Russian media quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on Sunday.

A Russian deputy foreign minister said separately, in an interview with Interfax news agency, that Moscow would not carry out a threat to deploy tactical missiles near Poland if Washington scrapped its plans to deploy its missile system in Europe.

Two former British military officers are expected to give crucial evidence against Georgia when an international inquiry is convened to establish who started the country’s bloody five-day war with Russia in August.

Ryan Grist, a former British Army captain, and Stephen Young, a former RAF wing commander, are said to have concluded that, before the Russian bombardment began, Georgian rockets and artillery were hitting civilian areas in the breakaway region of South Ossetia every 15 or 20 seconds.

Russia will study Washington's proposals on an anti-missile system and on how to find a replacement for a key nuclear arms reduction treaty, Interfax quoted a Russian foreign ministry source as saying on Friday.

The United States has sent Moscow proposals for a follow-on to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) and on ways to ease Moscow's concerns over the anti-missile system that Washington wants to deploy in eastern Europe.

"We have received these proposals and we will study them," Interfax news agency quoted the unidentified source as saying.

Russia will deploy short-range missiles near Poland to counter U.S. military plans in Eastern Europe, President Dmitry Medvedev warned Wednesday, setting a combative tone that clashed with global goodwill over Barack Obama's election.