By Judy Dempsey After years of negotiations, E.ON Ruhrgas and Gazprom signed a major deal Thursday giving the German utility a stake in the vast Yuzhno-Russkoye natural gas field in Siberia. In return, E.ON Ruhrgas will reduce its minority stake in the Russian gas monopoly by nearly half.

By Ellen Barry Andrew E. Kramer contributed reporting from Moscow.

By Clifford J. Levy Nicholas Kulish contributed reporting from Tallinn, Estonia, and Steven Erlanger and Tom Rachman from Paris.

The Russian Parliament voted unanimously Monday to urge President Dmitri Medvedev to recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the two separatist enclaves that at the center of recent fighting, further stoking tensions between Moscow and the West.

By Anne Barnard and Ellen Barry Andrew E. Kramer reported from Tbilisi, Michael Schwirtz from Senaki, Georgia, and Justyna Mielnik from Gori.