Russia and India could create a joint venture to prospect and mine uranium, Russia's nuclear chief said on Monday.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin justified on Monday Russia's claims for the Arctic continental shelf and urged other nations to resolve all controversial issues through dialogue.

Russian opposition parties expressed satisfaction with the results of Sunday's regional legislative elections as seen a popularity test for the pro-Kremlin United Russia party.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said ahead of her upcoming visit to Moscow she expected the replacement to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START 1) to be signed soon.

Russia is not considering a proposal to combine part of its South Stream gas project with the Western-backed Nabucco pipeline, Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said on Monday.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Kostyantyn Hryshchenko will arrive in Russia on March 16 for a two-day working visit, Ukrainian UNIAN news agency reported on Sunday, citing a Russian diplomatic source.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is arriving in Turkmen capital Ashgabat on a two-day working visit on Monday to discuss bilateral cooperation issues, the Russian ministry said.

A delegation of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly led by President Joao Soares and special representative Goran Lenmarker will discuss in Azerbaijan the Nagorny Karabakh conflict, an Azerbaijani parliamentary spokesman said.

The assembly delegation is in Azerbaijani capital Baku in the framework of its visit to the South Caucasus. It will in particular meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and parliamentary spokesman Oktai Asadov.

A long-standing dispute over Nagorny Karabakh, a breakaway region inside Azerbaijan with a predominantly ethnic Armenian population, has been a sticking point in relations between the two South Caucasus states.

A fragile ceasefire has been in place in the region since a brutal war between the two countries over the disputed enclave in early 1990s, which claimed more than 30,000 lives on both sides. Karabakh has since remained under Armenian control.

Baku has fiercely opposed any decision on Karabakh that could be interpreted as giving the region independence from Azerbaijan.

The visit to Azerbaijan will end March 16. Prior to the visit, the OSCE delegation had been to Georgia and Armenia.

RIA Novosti

The first results from a round of Russian regional elections seen as a popularity test for United Russia showed the pro-Kremlin party gaining less support that it was expecting.

The death toll in southern Kazakhstan's flood has risen to 34 as another body has been found, local emergencies services reported Monday.