Douglas Busvine
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/ 15 July 2006

No final deal on Russia WTO entry bid

Russian and United States negotiators failed on Saturday in marathon talks to strike a bilateral deal to pave the way for Russia to join the World Trade Organisation, a US trade spokesperson said. A Kremlin spokesperson said talks would keep going but gave no details. ”The Russian-American negotiations are continuing and will continue,” Dmitry Peskov told a news briefing.

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/ 14 July 2006

Bush to tell Putin of democracy concerns

United States President George Bush was expected to press President Vladimir Putin at a weekend G8 summit over concerns the Russian leader is reining in the rights of the country’s opposition and media. Pledging to ”continually remind Russia” that good ties with the West depend on sharing common democratic values, Bush was due to arrive in St Petersburg from Germany on Friday.