Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovych congratulated each other on the simultaneous ratification of a Russian naval base deal on Tuesday, the Kremlin's press service reported.

A delegation from the International Monetary Fund may visit Ukraine within the first two weeks of May to discuss a new loan program for the former Soviet state, Ukrainian Vice-Premier Sergei Tigipko said on Tuesday.

The Russian government will allow on Tuesday the import of 260,000 metric tons of steel pipes annually from Ukraine duty free, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said.

Officials in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi have voted to rename a street in honor of the late Polish President Lech Kaczynski.

The rent Russia pays for a newly extended lease on its Black Sea base in Ukraine is high but not overpriced, the Russian President said.

After almost 40 years of talks, Russia and Norway reached on Tuesday an agreement on the demarcation of their maritime borders in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean, Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said.

The former Ukrainian president and prime minister have expressed anger over the ratification on Tuesday of a naval base agreement with Russia.

The Ukrainian parliament has ratified the naval base deal with Russia amid brawls in the chamber and clashes outside parliament, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported on Tuesday.

The Russian State Duma has ratified an agreement extending Russia's lease on a naval base in Crimea for 25 years after the current deal expires in 2017.

Several lawmakers walked out of the Ukrainian parliament as a smoke bomb was thrown during hearings on ratifying a controversial naval base deal with Russia, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported on Tuesday.

A U.S. senator has urged U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to impose a ban on visas for 60 Russian officials and other individuals in a $230 million corruption case that lead to the death of a Moscow anti-corruption lawyer, the U.S. Helsinki Commission website said.

Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, 37, who was awaiting trial on tax evasion charges for 358 days, died in a Moscow pretrial detention center in November 2009. The Russian Prosecutor General's office said Magnitsky died of a heart attack.

"I am writing to request the immediate cancellation of U.S. visas held by a number of Russian officials and others who are involved in significant corruption in that country and who are responsible for last year's torture and death in prison of the Russian anti-corruption lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, who testified against them," Senator Benjamin Cardin, the Chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission) wrote in his letter to Clinton.

"I urge you to immediately cancel and permanently withdraw the U.S visa privileges of all those involved in this crime, along with their dependents and family members," he continued.

"The visa sanctions will send an important message to corrupt officials in Russia and elsewhere that the U.S. is serious about combating foreign corruption and the harm it does. It will also help to protect U.S. companies operating in Russia who risk falling prey to similar schemes in the future," Cardin said.

Russian English-language newspaper the Moscow Times said last week human rights activists had called on authorities to open a murder inquiry into the death of Magnitsky.

"Magnitsky died of systematic torture and not of negligence," Valery Borshchyov, of the Moscow Helsinki Group said.

The Moscow Times cited Lyudmila Alexeyeva, the head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, as saying that the evidence suggested that the abuse was initiated by the same Interior Ministry officials whom Magnitsky had accused of embezzling $230 million of government funds.

Maj. Gen. Anatoly Mikhalkin, head of the tax crimes department in the Interior Ministry's Moscow branch, reported by Russian media to be linked to Magnitsky's death, had been dismissed a month after Magnitsky died.

Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service has admitted its partial guilt in the death of the lawyer.

It was Mikhailkin's department that started proceedings against the lawyer.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered a probe into the lawyer's death. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called it a "tragedy."

Investigators earlier said that Magnitsky had conspired with Hermitage Capital head Bill Browder, who has reportedly been banned from entering Russia, to establish dummy firms to illegally buy and sell Russian energy giant Gazprom's stock.

RIA Novosti

A Kyrgyz court on Monday authorized the arrest of former interior minister Moldomusa Kongantiyev on charges of power abuse, 24.kg news agency reported an interim deputy minister as saying.

Deposed Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev has been accused in absentia of organizing murders and abuse of power, interim Deputy Prime Minister Azimbek Beknazarov said on Tuesday.