RUSSIA: 2009 in Review

RIAN News Service looks back at the main events of the outgoing year; below starts a month-by-month review of 2009:

January 1
* Russia cuts off natural gas supplies to Ukraine, but increases shipments to other European states

January 7
* Russian energy giant Gazprom halts gas supplies to Ukraine for transit to Europe

January 9
* Russian and British shareholders of Russian-British joint venture TNK-BP sign a deal to complete the process of settling their conflict started in September 2008

January 10
* Russia and the European Union sign a protocol to set up an international commission to control the transit of Russian natural gas through Ukraine

January 13
* Russian energy giant Gazprom gives the go-ahead to resume gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine

January 15
* Russian investigators close their probe into the 1918 murder of the last tsar and his family, and the identification of their remains discovered in the Urals in 1991 and 2007
* North Korean leader Kim Jong-il taps his third son to be his successor and sends his nomination to the leadership of the ruling party

January 19
* Stanislav Markelov, a lawyer for the family of a Chechen woman murdered in 2000 by Russian army colonel Yury Budanov, and Novaya Gazeta reporter Anastasia Baburova are shot dead in downtown Moscow
* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signs a decree banning exports of military and dual purpose products to Georgia
* Russian energy giant Gazprom and Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz signs a contract on Russian gas supplies to Ukraine for 2009-2019

January 20
* Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th president of the U.S. in Washington, becoming the country's first African-American head of state

January 21
* Israel completes its troop pullout from Gaza more than three weeks after the start of its assault on the coastal enclave

January 27
* Metropolitan Kirill is elected head of the Russian Orthodox Church, becoming the 16th Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia

February 1
* The Russian Orthodox Church enthrones its new leader, Patriarch Kirill

February 2
* Russian international Andrei Arshavin signs for Arsenal

February 3
* Moscow and Minsk sign an agreement on the joint protection of the Russia-Belarus Union State's airspace and the creation of an integrated regional air defense network

February 5
* The Faina Ukrainian cargo ship captured by Somali pirates in September 2008 with 20 crewmembers on board is released after a ransom is paid

February 10
* Israel holds early parliamentary elections

February 11
* Russian and Indian warships complete the final stage of the INDRA-2009 joint naval exercises, practicing anti-piracy operations off the Somali coast

February 12
* The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe extends a mandate for its unarmed military observers in Georgia

February 15
* Bolivia's President Evo Morales arrives in Moscow on the first official visit to Russia to sign a number of agreements, including in the energy and military-technical sectors

February 16
* Russian prosecutors give the go ahead for a new criminal case to be brought against the jailed Yukos founder, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and his business partner Platon Lebedev

February 17
* Russia's antimonopoly regulator launches suits against the country's largest crude producers - TNK-BP, Gazprom Neft, LUKoil and Rosneft - over fuel market violations in late 2008

February 19
* The jury acquits all defendants suspected of involvement in the murder of Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya

February 20
* Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev signs a decree to close the Manas U.S. airbase used since 2001 to support NATO operations in nearby Afghanistan

February 22
* The Idex-2009 international defense exhibition and conference opens in Abu Dhabi

February 24
* The European Union announces the inclusion of Belarus in its Eastern Partnership (EaP) program

March 1
* Russia holds local legislature and mayoral elections across the country on the single day of voting
* China's first lunar probe ends its 16-month mission with a planned crash into the moon's surface

March 2
* Russia's major political party United Russia, led by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, wins polls to legislatures in all nine participating regions, its first election test since the country was hit by a financial crisis last year

March 3
* Ukraine's parliament votes overwhelmingly to dismiss Foreign Minister Volodymyr Ohryzko over his handling of a territorial dispute with Romania and policies damaging ties with Russia

March 4
* The International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir over war crimes against civilians in Sudan's Darfur Province

March 6
* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton make a symbolic "reboot" to improve relations between the two countries when they met in Geneva

March 7
* Kyrgyzstan's parliament approves the termination of agreements with 11 countries on the deployment of their military contingents at the Manas airbase in the north of the country

March 9
* North Korea puts its armed forces on full combat readiness and cuts off the only direct hotline with South Korea's military in response to plans for joint military exercises by South Korea and the U.S.
* North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is unanimously reelected to the country's parliament with 100% voter turnout

March 10
* A teenage gunman opens fire at random in a secondary school in southwest Germany, killing 16, and shoots himself after being cornered by police, national media reported, citing police sources

March 16
* The trial of Josef Fritzl, accused of imprisoning his daughter for 24 years and fathering her seven children, begins in the Austrian town of St. Poelten

March 17
* Russia signs agreements with Abkhazia and South Ossetia on giving the republics financial aid in socio-economic development and balancing their budgets

March 30
* Sulim Yamadayev, the former commander of the Chechen Vostok battalion, is in hospital in a serious condition after surviving an assassination attempt in Dubai

April 1
* Albania and Croatia officially become NATO's newest members, bringing the number of countries in the military alliance to 28
* U.S. and Russian Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev meet for the first time in London and announce the restart of talks on a new nuclear arms reduction treaty

April 2
* Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev signs a law to end the deployment of foreign military contingents at the Manas airbase in the north of the country

April 3
* Leaders of NATO member countries gather for a two-day summit to mark NATO's 60th anniversary and discuss new challenges facing the world's most powerful military alliance

April 5
* North Korea launches a long-range rocket over Japan, defying world pressure

April 6
* Powerful earthquake hits the mountainous region of Abruzzo in central Italy, killing up to 300 people and leaving around 50,000 homeless

April 15
* India successfully test-fires a Prithvi-II ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead

April 16
* The counter-terrorism operation that was launched in Russia's volatile republic of Chechnya in 1999 finishes

April 21
* Russia and China agree to build a new branch from the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline toward China

April 23
* Armenia and Turkey agree on a "roadmap" aimed at normalizing bilateral relations

April 25
* North Korea restarts work at nuclear facilities that produce weapons-grade plutonium following the withdrawal from six-nation talks on its controversial nuclear and missile programs

April 30
* The World Health Organization raises its level of swine flu pandemic alert from phase 4 to 5, one step short of a full-scale pandemic

May 6
* A NATO airstrike leaves around 100 civilians killed in the western Afghan province of Farah

May 7
* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev marks his first year in office

May 9
* A military parade involving over 9,000 personnel and dozens of military vehicles and airplanes is held on Moscow’s Red Square to mark Victory Day

May 10
* The Eurovision 2009 song contest opens in Moscow

May 12
* Russia and Japan sign an intergovernmental nuclear cooperation deal during Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's visit to Tokyo

May 13
* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev approves a national security strategy to last until 2020

May 22
* U.S. President Barack Obama signs into law legislation to reduce the financing of wasteful and inefficient military programs

May 23
* German President Horst Koehler is reelected by a special federal assembly for the second five-year presidential term

May 25
* North Korea carries out three test launches of short-range ground-to-air missiles following a successful nuclear test

May 26
* North Korea fires two short-range missiles into the Pacific, in apparent defiance against international pressure over its May 25 nuclear test

May 31
* South Ossetia holds parliamentary elections, with four parties competing for 34 seats in the republic's legislature

June 2
* Japan's Nissan Motor Company opens a car plant in St. Petersburg at a ceremony attended by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin

June 3
* The U.S. government admits to accidentally publishing "highly confidential" information on hundreds of civilian nuclear sites, including detailed maps showing fuel stockpiles, on the internet
* Russian uranium trader Tekhsnabexport signs a contract with U.S. firm Exelon to supply enriched uranium in 2014-2020

June 4
* U.S. President Barack Obama calls for a new beginning in relations between the United States and the Muslim world at a long-awaited speech in Egypt

June 11
* The World Health Organization (WHO) declares its first flu pandemic of the 21st century following an emergency meeting on the swine flu outbreak that has hit 74 countries

June 12
* The parliament of Georgia unanimously passes resolutions on the formal withdrawal of the former Soviet republic from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)

June 13
* Iran's hardline incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wins the June 12 election with 63% of the votes cast in his favor, leaving his rival, reformist former prime minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi, far behind

June 19
* European Union leaders unanimously endorse Jose Manuel Barroso for a second five-year term as president of the 27-nation bloc's executive body, the European Commission

June 22
* The president of Russia's volatile southern republic of Ingushetia, Yunus-bek Yevkurov, is hospitalized after being seriously injured in an assassination attempt

June 25
* U.S. President Barack Obama extends sanctions against North Korea for one more year as the reclusive country is still considered a threat to the United States
* Russia's Supreme Court overturns not-guilty verdicts for three men charged over the 2006 murder of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya and orders a retrial
* 'King of Pop' Michael Jackson dies of a heart attack in Los Angeles at the age of 50

July 2
* North Korea conducts four test launches of short-range missiles
* Police and security forces prevent assassination of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov

July 4
* North Korea test launches seven ballistic missiles from its eastern coast

July 6
* U.S. President Barack Obama arrives in Moscow on his first visit to Russia since his victory in November's presidential elections

July 8
* Russia's newest Borey class strategic nuclear submarine, the Yury Dolgoruky completes the first round of sea trials

July 13
* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev arrives in South Ossetia on his first visit

July 16
* Iranian Atomic Energy Organization head Gholam Reza Aghazadeh resigns

July 22
* Yury Solomonov, the head of the research institute that designed the Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missile, resigned after a series of unsuccessful test launches

July 23
* Iceland officially applies to join the European Union

July 26
* India launches its first nuclear-powered submarine for sea trials

July 26
* Kyrgyzstan's president wins reelection with 76.4% of the vote

July 31
* Russia's Nerpa nuclear attack submarine, damaged in a fatal accident during tests in November last year, starts the second stage of new sea trials

August 1
* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Kyrgyz counterpart Kurmanbek Bakiyev sign a memorandum on Russian military presence in Kyrgyzstan

August 3
* Anders Fog Rasmussen, inaugurated as NATO's new secretary general, starts work in the alliance's headquarters in Brussels

August 5
* Former U.S. President Bill Clinton secures the release of two American journalists detained by North Korea in March
* Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is sworn in for his second term as Iran's president in a ceremony in the country's parliament

August 7
* Typhoon Morakot, the deadliest in history, hits Taiwan leaving 461 people killed

August 11
* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev holds off sending Russia's new ambassador to Ukraine over Kiev's anti-Russian policies

August 14
* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and German Chancellor Angela Merkel meet for an informal summit in Sochi, the host city for the 2014 Winter Olympics

August 16
* One of three pilots rehearsing a flight of two Su-27 fighters ahead of MAKS-2009 air show is killed as the military aircraft collides southeast of Moscow

August 17
* A disaster at Russia’s largest hydropower plant, Sayano-Shushenskaya, in south Siberia leaves 75 people killed and destroys a turbine hall

August 18
* The Russian frigate Ladny frees the Arctic Sea cargo ship in the Atlantic without firing a single shot with eight suspected hijackers detained
* Iran signals readiness to hold talks with the West on its nuclear program without any preliminary conditions
* Georgia officially ends its membership of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)

August 31
* Turkey and Armenia agree at talks mediated by Switzerland to start "internal political consultations" on establishing diplomatic relations

September 1
* Border traffic between North and South Korea resumes, following months of heavy restrictions imposed by the North

September 2
* Moldova's acting president Vladimir Voronin formally resigns to become a member of parliament, after strongly criticizing the incoming leadership

September 4
* North Korea begins the final stage of uranium enrichment, a method of producing nuclear weapons

September 7
* Greek President Karolos Papoulias signs a decree dismissing the country's parliament and setting early elections for October 4

September 10
* Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says his country recognizes Georgia's two former breakaway republics as independent states

September 11
* Moldova's parliament appoints newly elected parliamentary speaker Mihai Ghimpu as acting president

September 14
* Yukiya Amano is approved as the next head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to succeed Mohamed ElBaradei from December

September 16
* The European Parliament votes to give European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso a second five-year term in office
* The Japanese government, led by Prime Minister Taro Aso, resigns at an emergency session of the country's parliament

September 17
* U.S. President Barack Obama confirms that Washington is scrapping the Bush administration’s plans for a missile shield in Central Europe

September 18
* The first phase of massive joint Russian-Belarusian military exercises begins with the involvement of some 100 aircraft and 12,600 military personnel

September 22
* The highest-level conference on climate change opens at the United Nations to negotiate a new deal on how to combat global warming

September 24
* Russia's president arrives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for a summit of the Group of 20 richest nations to move the focus onto trade and economic issues

September 25
* All members of the Group of 20 leading economies agree at their summit in Pittsburgh to continue state support measures to prevent a deepening of the economic crisis

September 27
* German Chancellor Angela Merkel announces victory for a new coalition of her conservative Christian Democrats and pro-business Free Democrats after the general election

September 28
* Iran test launches the longest-range missile in its arsenal as tensions grow with the West over its nuclear program

September 30
* Three new crewmembers on board a Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft successfully blast off to the International Space Station

October 1
* The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe rejects Georgia's motion to strip Russia of voting rights over last year's conflict in South Ossetia
* The People's Republic of China celebrates the 60th anniversary of its founding with a vast display of the country's military might on Tiananmen Square

October 2
* Russia extends a moratorium on human cloning that expired two years ago by five years

October 3
* Ireland votes "Yes" to the Lisbon Treaty setting out rules for decision-making in the European Union

October 5
* The Nobel Prize for medicine is given to three U.S. scientists for their research into how the human body protects chromosomes

October 6
* Three scientists share the 2009 Nobel Prize in physics for helping develop fiber optic cables and digital photography technology

October 9
* U.S. President Barack Obama is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

October 10
* Turkey and Armenia sign historic accords restoring diplomatic relations and opening borders between the two countries

October 19
* Ukraine officially launches a presidential election campaign, the first since the 2004 "orange revolution" that swept Viktor Yushchenko to power

October 22
* Russia's Memorial human rights group is awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought by the European Parliament

October 25
* At least 136 people are killed and more than 500 wounded in one of this year's deadliest attacks in Iraq

October 30
* Representatives of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and the country's de facto leader Roberto Micheletti agree a deal that could pave the way for Zelaya's reinstatement

November 2
* Hamid Karzai is declared the winner of Afghanistan's presidential election when officials scrapped the second round of voting following the withdrawal of his opponent
* Russian-Israeli businessman Shabtai von Kalmanovich is shot dead in central Moscow bringing an end to a colorful life that had seen a flirtation with showbiz and a conviction for spying

November 3
* Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic attends a court session in The Hague for the first time, telling the judges he needed more time to prepare his defense
* Czech President Vaclav Klaus signs the EU's Lisbon Treaty after the country's Constitutional Court rules that the ambitious reform treaty was in line with the Czech constitution

November 4
* Billionaire Michael Bloomberg, incumbent mayor of New York, is reelected for a third term
* U.S. General Motors (GM) board of directors decides against selling Germany's Opel to the Magna-Sberbank consortium and to retain its big European car division

November 6
* Honduran de-facto leader Roberto Micheletti announces the formation of a reconciliation government

November 9
* Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez calls on his country to prepare for a possible war, once again criticizing a military cooperation agreement between Colombia and the U.S.
* Russian physicist and Nobel laureate Vitaly Ginzburg dies in Moscow at the age of 94

November 10
* The Lebanese prime minister, Saad Hariri, forms a new government with the militant group Hezbollah-led opposition, putting an end to months of political uncertainty in the country

November 12
* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev delivers his second state of the nation address to both houses of parliament in the Grand Kremlin Palace

November 13
* President Barack Obama renews U.S. economic sanctions against Iran for another year

November 19
* EU leaders choose Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy to be the first president of the European Union and Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton as new EU foreign policy chief
* Russia's Constitutional Court prolongs a moratorium on the death penalty, which was due to expire on January 1, until it is banned completely

November 24
* Russia's Gazprom and Ukraine's Naftogaz agree to reduce Russian national gas deliveries by 35% in 2010, from the previously contracted 52 billion cubic meters to 33.75 bcm

November 26
* The Honduras Supreme Court dismisses ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya's claim for reinstatement
* The Russian government approves a national energy strategy until 2030 that envisages raising oil output up to 530-535 million metric tons from last year's 488 million

November 27
* Three carriages of the Nevsky Express high-speed train travelling from Moscow to St. Petersburg derail, killing 28 passengers and injuring at least 90, an emergencies official

November 29
* Switzerland votes to ban the construction of new minarets, disappointing the country's Muslims but making those who proposed the nationwide referendum rejoice at its results

November 30
* The UN Security Council extends the mandate of an international anti-piracy mission off the coast of Somalia for another year
* Serbian poet, novelist and historian Milorad Pavic died of heart failure at the age of 80
* The trial of Ukrainian-born John Demjanjuk, charged with involvement in the murder of 27,900 people during World War II, starts in Munich
* The Large Hadron Collider sets a new world record accelerating its twin beams of protons to unprecedented energy levels

December 1
* The European Union's Lisbon treaty, aimed at streamlining institutions and raising the bloc's global standing, comes into force

December 2
* U.S. President Barack Obama outlines a new strategy on Afghanistan, saying 30,000 troops would be additionally deployed by next summer

December 3
* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signs a decree to establish diplomatic relations with Vatican City, and meets with Pope Benedict XVI
* Prime Minister Vladimir Putin fields a wide range of questions from the Russian public during his live TV and radio phone-in, which lasted for four hours

December 5
* A fire caused by an indoor fireworks display at the Lame Horse nightclub in the Urals city of Perm leaves 152 people dead

December 7
* The 15th UN climate change conference, a result of two-year international talks on a binding treaty to cut the global emission of greenhouse gases, opens in Copenhagen

December 8
* At least 100 people are killed and more than 100 were injured as a result of coordinated bomb attacks in Iraq's capital of Baghdad

December 10
* U.S. President Barack Obama accepts the Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in Norway but acknowledges the controversy over the award, as his country continues to fight two wars
* Russia successfully test launches a Topol intercontinental ballistic missile

December 14
* Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is attacked by a mentally ill man after his party meeting in Milan and taken to hospital

December 15
* Nauru, the world's smallest island state, recognizes the independence of the former Georgian republic of Abkhazia and South Ossetia

December 16
* Iran successfully tests an upgraded version of its long range solid-fuel Sejil-2 missile
* NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen pays his first official visit to Russia and meets with President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
* Yegor Gaidar, one of the leading architects of free market reforms in post-Soviet Russia, dies at the age of 53

December 17
* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signs a national climate doctrine

December 19
* The climate summit in Copenhagen accepts a summary document
* Two people are killed in an explosion when a memorial to WWII heroes is demolished in Georgia's second largest city, Kutaisi

December 24
* Russia and Georgia agree to reopen a border checkpoint closed since July 2006

December 25
* Pope Benedict XVI is knocked down at St. Peter's Basilica during the Christmas Eve service

December 26
* Olympic gold medalist Evgeni Plushenko wins the Russian Figure Skating Championships to become an eight-time national champion

December 28
* Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin officially launches the East-Siberia - Pacific Ocean oil pipeline during his visit to the region

Sources:
2009 Review: January
2009 Review: February
2009 Review: March
2009 Review: April
2009 Review: May
2009 Review: June
2009 Review: July
2009 Review: August
2009 Review: September
2009 Review: October
2009 Review: November
2009 Review: December