Complete coverage of the U.S.-Russia summit, being held July 6-8 in Moscow.

When AvtoVAZ meets Friday to pick a strategic partner, it has a tough choice to make. Among the Western firms bidding for a stake in Russia's largest automaker are its joint-venture partner of six years, General Motors, and Italy's Fiat, the carmaker whose clunky small-car designs gave Soviet-era AvtoVAZ its start 40 years ago.

Almira Yamaletdinova said she wasn't sure why her husband hanged himself on the eve of the State Duma elections. But many relatives and friends are convinced that he folded under the pressure of United Russia's campaign to win the vote by a landslide.

The entire architecture of strategic arms control could come tumbling down soon if Moscow and Washington fail to reach agreements on U.S. missile defense plans and adapting Cold War treaties to current realities, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said. ""If there is no movement forward, then a rollback begins sooner or later,"" Gorbachev told a nuclear arms control conference at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Russia dispatched an 11-ship aircraft carrier group to the Mediterranean Sea, the defense minister said Wednesday -- part of what he said was an effort to resume regular naval patrols on the world's oceans.

Meat Shortage for Far EastLithuanian Heat Up 15%Sitronics, MTS Sign DealsMongolia to Buy WheatPharmstandard Sales Jump1.2% Consumer Price RiseTNK-BP to Invest $1BlnUES Delays TGK-4 SaleMol Plans Gas Transit Line$1.4Bln to Develop FishingProkhorov Rejects Bid PleaMorgan Stanley Into Dixy$1Bln Atomic Investment

The government may adopt a legislative tool which will enable it to slap an immediate export ban on some agricultural commodities instead of waiting for more than a month, the Economic Development and Trade Ministry said Wednesday.

The government is focusing attention and funding on making the country a scientific and technological power again.

Yulia Tymoshenko, the former Ukrainian prime minister poised to return to office, wants to scrap a natural gas accord with Russia, raising concern that a price dispute between the two countries could be repeated.

Gazprom said profit fell 25 percent in the second quarter as inflation and taxes drove up costs.