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Extortion by corrupt officials in Russia has got so bad that some Western multinationals are considering pulling out altogether, the head of a U.S. anti-bribery group said in an interview.

One by one, public developers are announcing strategy changes and unfreezing projects that were suspended because of the economic crisis.

Russia is not considering merging its South Stream gas pipeline to Europe with the rival European Union-backed Nabucco link, energy minister Sergei Shmatko said.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin won support for Rosatom to build a dozen ultrasafe nuclear reactors in India, part of more than $10 billion in deals in energy, arms, telecoms and other cooperation signed during his visit Friday.

The ruling United Russia party is widely leading in Sunday's Russian regional elections according to preliminary results from the Central Election Commission.

Deputy Chair of the Russian State Duma and President of the Russian Gas Society Valeriy Yazev said he is convinced that no matter who is in power in Ukraine, Russia should continue its work to diversify its gas delivery routes to Europe.

Russia has the largest number of billionaires among the European countries, Forbes magazine has said.

President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday ordered Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev to investigate a fatal car crash involving a LUKoil vice president that caused public outrage over a perceived police cover-up.

Gazprom Neft said Russian taxes are hindering ventures with international oil companies and are the main obstacle for its expansion at home and abroad.

The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service wants to ban oil companies from buying and building gas stations in regions where they have at least 35 percent of the market.

Ukraine will join the Unified Economic Space of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan only on the conditions of the World Trade Organization, President Viktor Yanukovych said on Saturday.

Thousands of miles (kilometers) from the Siberian jail where its founder is imprisoned, representatives of the ruined Russian oil giant Yukos and the Russian government will meet face to face for the first time at the European Court of Human Rights this week.

The number of Russians who have savings accounts has decreased to 24% from 31% in the past four months with fewer people saving money in rubles.

A second wave of economic crisis is unlikely in Russia but the country is braced for a long period of recovery after the global financial meltdown.

Russia crude production neared a post-Soviet record in February as TNK-BP, the venture owned by BP Plc and a group of billionaires, raised output at new fields in both western and eastern Siberia.

The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service has given shareholders of the bank Rossia permission to expand their business by merging it with the Gazprom-controlled lender Gazenergoprombank.

Foreign investment in Russia declined 21% in 2009 to $81.9 billion, the country's top statistics body Rosstat said on Saturday.

Germany, the biggest importer of Russian gas, cut its purchases from Russia's Gazprom by 17.5% last year, while exports to the UK were slashed by 65%.

The government is planning to ask investors what assets they would like to buy from the state.

The political ramifications of dependence on Russian natural gas are a current, lively topic of debate within the EU...