In an interview published on Tuesday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's deputy blamed Google Inc for stirring up trouble in the revolution that ousted Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak.

LONDON, June 5 /PRNewswire/ -- A new Russian crude price benchmark based on Asia-Pacific spot sales could soon emerge, according to an Argus presentation at the prestigious St Petersburg International Economic Forum in front of Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.

Russia and China have signed long-term energy agreements, including oil supply and delivery contracts, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said Tuesday. Sechin said Russia will ship 110 million barrels of crude oil annually to China for 20 years, RIA Novosti reported.

The Russian government may be using a 2-year-old mining accident as an excuse to take over the mining company Uralkali, observers said. Uralkali stock has plunged 60 percent since the government, in October, reopened an inquiry into a the mining accident, The New York Times reported Monday. Deputy prime minister Igor Sechin has threatened the company, which made $550 million in the first six months of the year, with crippling fines, the Times said. The company was previously absolved of all blame in the accident, in which no one was hurt. But the involvement of Sechin, who reportedly headed the government effort to take over oil company Yukos, has led some to believe the government is interested in talking over Uralkali. He is the state's main raider, said Olga Kryshtanovskaya at the Center for the Study of Elites in Moscow.

TALAKAN (Yakutia). Oct 6 (Interfax) - Transneft (RTS: TRNF) started up an 1,100-kilometer segment of Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline (ESPO) on Saturday. It is the first segment of the pipeline to be put in operation.