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 TNK-BP, a highly lucrative 50-50 joint venture between the British major BP and four Russian billionaires, announced on Tuesday it was set to sign a deal by year"s end with Rosneftegaz, the principal shareholder in Russia"s largest oil company Rosneft, on selling the Kovykta gas condensate field in the Irkutsk region in eastern Siberia for $700-900 million, Kommersant reported. TNK-BP has attempted to sell the Kovykta gas condensate field for almost three years,
although in the summer of 2007 it agreed with Gazprom on its sale for $0.9.1 billion, the paper said.
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Disagreements over verification and control procedures prevented Moscow and Washington from signing a new deal before the New Year break to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START 1), which expired on December 5. President Dmitry Medvedev and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama ordered a speedy completion of the deal last week. A new round of talks on the treaty began on Monday. 
Lenin's mausoleum, a major tourist attraction in the heart of Moscow, closes every 18 months for about six weeks to give Lenin a bath in a special embalming compound and a change of clothes. Lenin's has been on public display in a glass case since his death in 1924, although his organs, including his brain, were removed during the autopsy. Regular checks are carried out of Lenin's body and Russian scientists say he could be preserved for a long time. 
Responding to a parliamentary query earlier in the day, the Japanese government reiterated that "the Russian Federation is illegally occupying four northern islands." Konstantin Kosachyov, head of the international affairs committee in the lower house of the Russian parliament, said the Japanese position is "an attempt to exert pressure on the Russian Federation and obtain concessions."