MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia will join any consensus on more sanctions against Iran, a senior Russian diplomatic source said on Tuesday after Tehran declared it would expand nuclear activity in defiance of a U.N. rebuke.

It was a thinly veiled Russian warning to Iran of waning patience with its failure to allay fears it aims to develop atom bombs in secret, and hinted that Iran could no longer rely on Russia to stop tougher world action against it.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad voiced defiance on Tuesday, saying sanctions would have no effect and that no more talks on the nuclear dispute were needed with the West. Speaking on state television, he also criticized Russian action.

Governors of the U.N. nuclear agency passed a resolution on Friday censuring Iran for covertly constructing a second enrichment plant near the holy city of Qom, in addition to its IAEA-monitored one at Natanz, and demanding a construction halt.

Tehran said on Sunday it would build 10 more uranium enrichment sites — a pledge that Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday was “not a bluff”.

Iran’s announcement had been in retaliation for the 25-3 vote by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation Board of Governors, which sailed through with unusual Russian and Chinese support.

“If there is a consensus on Iran sanctions, we will not stand aside,” said the Russian diplomatic source, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – The crash of a luxury train in Russia killed 25 people and injured up to 63 more, an official said on Saturday, and sources suggested it may have been an act of terrorism.

“Twenty-five people died in the accident,” an official reported to Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu during a meeting televised by Vesti-25 television, hours after the crash.

Several carriages of the Nevsky Express traveling from Moscow to St Petersburg were derailed at 9:30 p.m. (1830 GMT) on Friday near the town of Bologoye, 350 km (200 miles) from Moscow.

Estimates of the number of injured ranged from 55 to 63 while Itar-Tass news agency quoted a spokesman for the regional emergencies authority in the Tver region as saying as many as six passengers could still be buried under wreckage.

Russian railways said the train carried 661 passengers in 13 carriages and that four of them were damaged. Regional prosecutors said two carriages were affected while Vesti-24 television said their correspondent could see three.

There were no official statements about the cause but several sources suggested it may have been the result of an explosion.

“A one meter (3-ft)-diameter hole has been found next to the railway track,” Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed source in Moscow’s law enforcement agencies as saying.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A masked gunman entered a church and murdered a Russian Orthodox priest who had received death threats for converting Muslims to Christianity and criticizing Islam, prosecutors and church officials said Friday.

The killing could threaten delicate relations between the powerful majority Russian Orthodox Church, which has close ties to the Kremlin, and the country’s growing Muslim minority of about 20 million.

The gunman approached priest Daniil Sysoyev, 34, in St Thomas Church in southern Moscow Thursday night, checked his name and then opened fire with a pistol, a spokesman for the investigating committee of the Prosecutor-General’s office said.

“The main theory is that religious motives are behind the crime,” spokesman Anatoly Bagmet said.

Sysoyev died on the way to hospital. His choirmaster was injured in the attack, Bagmet said, and is in hospital under armed guard.

Sysoyev was from Tatarstan, a predominantly Muslim region of Russia on the Volga river. He was threatened after preaching to Muslims and Christians from other denominations.

“I have received 10 threats via e-mail that I shall have my head cut off (if I do not stop preaching to Muslims),” Sysoyev stated on a television program in February 2008, according to Interfax. “As I see it, it is a sin not to preach to Muslims.”

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Russia set a new target for reducing its greenhouse gas emissions at a summit with the European Union on Wednesday but failed to clear up confusion over its plans to join the World Trade Organization.

The EU said the promise to make further reductions to those planned was a boost for climate talks in Copenhagen next month, and the good atmosphere at the meeting was a sharp contrast to previous EU-Russia summits that have been marred by disputes.

The EU also welcomed Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s commitment to join the WTO quickly but he failed to answer their questions about whether Moscow would join as a separate state or as part of a customs union with Belarus and Kazakhstan.

One sour note at the talks in Stockholm was a disagreement over human rights, with the EU expressing concern over the situation in Russia. But the sides said they hoped soon to agree a new framework agreement for economic and political ties and avoided any conflict over Russian energy supplies to Europe.

“With the Copenhagen conference starting in just over two weeks, I very much welcome the signal from President Medvedev today of their proposed emissions reduction target of 25 percent. This is indeed very encouraging,” Barroso said.

Asked to confirm the figure, Russian officials later said Medvedev had set a target of reducing harmful emissions by 22-25 percent by 2020 compared with the 1990 level. The previous target was 10-15 percent.

The EU is at the forefront of efforts to combat climate change and has urged other countries, including the United States and Russia, to make deeper emissions reductions and to help secure a new deal to fight climate change in Copenhagen.

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Russia wants to join the World Trade Organization on its own but will synchronize its entry with Kazakhstan and Belarus, its partners in a customs union, a Russian official said on Wednesday.

His comments after trade talks with the European Union removed some of the confusion caused by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in June when he said Russia would join only as part of the customs union — an unprecedented move for the WTO.

“We want the WTO talks to go quickly and be concluded soon,” Vladimir Chizhov, Russia’s ambassador to the EU, told reporters at a Russia-EU summit in Stockholm attended by President Dmitry Medvedev.

“After the customs union was formed, some interpreted this as a sign of Russia losing interest in WTO. This is wrong … Members of the customs union will join the WTO as separate entities but in a synchronized way and with common positions.”

The customs union with Kazakhstan and Belarus will come into force on January 1, 2010, creating common external tariffs for the three former Soviet republics and a single market for 165 million people.

Joining the WTO would open markets to Russia, the biggest country outside the 153-country organization, and open Russian markets to WTO member states.

Moscow’s 16-year trail of WTO talks has often stalled on various disputes and before joining the WTO — through the customs union or on its own — Russia must resolve several trade and tariff issues.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – President Barack Obama said on Sunday time was running out for diplomacy in a dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme, but a top Iranian official said it was up to the West to show it sincerely wanted a deal.

Russia and France, both involved in talks with Iran over what the West fears are its plans for an atomic bomb, also put pressure on Tehran, with French Foreign Bernard Kouchner saying the Islamic republic looked set to reject a U.N.-drafted accord.

Obama suggested patience was running low in the dispute with Iran, which faces possible harsher international sanctions or even Israeli military action.

“Unfortunately, so far at least, Iran appears to have been unable to say yes to what everyone acknowledges is a creative and constructive approach,” Obama said after talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in Singapore.

“We are running out of time with respect to that approach.”

Repeating previous Russian language, Medvedev said “other means” could be used if discussions did not yield results, but did not specify what they might be.

A draft deal brokered by the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), calls on Iran to send some 75 percent of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Russia and France to be turned into fuel for a Tehran medical research reactor.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – The Russian and U.S. presidents said on Sunday they hoped to strike a new deal for arms cuts by the end of the year.

After talks in Singapore as part of efforts to “reset” relations between the two countries, officials on both sides acknowledged unresolved problems in the talks on a new arms pact to replace START I, which expires in December.

“I hope that, as we agreed earlier … we can finalize the treaty by December,” Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said after talks with U.S. President Barack Obama in Singapore.

The two leaders view the new treaty as an important element of maintaining global strategic stability and healing relations which sank to post-Cold War lows during the presidency of Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush.

Officials expressed optimism that a new document could be ready by the time or soon after the START I (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) arms cuts pact expires on December 5.

“On the new START Treaty, we progressed,” Michael McFaul, senior White House adviser said after Sunday’s meeting.

“We talked about some sticking issues that still have to be resolved and both presidents committed to trying to get a new treaty in place by the end of the year.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama said Sunday time was running out for diplomacy to resolve a crisis over Iran’s nuclear program, but Russian President Dmitry Medvedev offered softer criticism of Tehran.

The United States had been willing to give Iran time to decide whether to accept a U.N.-brokered deal meant to allay suspicions it is after atomic bombs but which has drawn Iranian objections, a U.S. diplomat said a week ago.

Sunday Obama, speaking after talks with Medvedev on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific meeting in Singapore, suggested patience was running low.

“Unfortunately, so far at least, Iran appears to have been unable to say yes to what everyone acknowledges is a creative and constructive approach,” Obama said while seated next to Medvedev.

“We are running out of time with respect to that approach.”

Repeating previous Russian language, Medvedev said “other means” could be used if discussions did not yield results, but did not specify what they might be.

“Thanks to joint efforts the process of (the Iran talks) has not stopped but we are not completely happy about its pace. If something does not work there are other means to move the process further,” he said.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday outlined his vision of Russia as one of the world’s leading innovative economies and a mature democracy, but gave few clues on how this could be achieved.

Public expectations of his state of the nation address were high after Medvedev published a blueprint in September, saying in a striking confession Russia had to tackle its “ineffective economy, semi-Soviet social structure and weak democracy.”

The president had promised to listen to comments from a wide range of society and from political opponents when formulating his big annual speech — but the contents turned out to be short of specific initiatives.

Market players were keen to learn where Russia would find money for reforming its economy, how it would improve its unfriendly investment climate and how it would encourage reluctant domestic businesses to put money into innovation.

Russia-watchers were also looking at how Medvedev planned to reform the Kremlin-dominated political system, which he himself has described as a source of red tape and corruption.

In his 100-minute speech to the country’s political and economic elite, Medvedev named five priority areas for Russia to focus on: energy efficiency technology, the nuclear sector, information technology, space and pharmaceuticals.

Medvedev reiterated his attack on huge state corporations, created by his predecessor Vladimir Putin, saying they would have to reform into commercial companies or disappear.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev Tuesday replaced the veteran governor of a Urals mountains region, one of the last of a generation of powerful regional heads who held sway before a return to centralized Kremlin rule.

Eduard Rossel, 72, belonged to a wave of leaders who bid to win more autonomy for their fiefdoms in the first post-Soviet decade but who were tamed by former president and Medvedev mentor Vladimir Putin.

Rossel became boss of the Sverdlovsk region in 1990, when the Soviet Union started falling apart amid a power struggle between leader Mikhail Gorbachev and independent-minded leaders of Soviet republics, led by Boris Yeltsin.

Rossel enthusiastically responded to Yeltsin’s call to regional heads to “grab as much autonomy as you can hold,” which was effectively an encouragement not to pay taxes or obey the central government.

Once Yeltsin became the first Russian president, however, Rossel’s pro-autonomy mood became a major headache.

Rossel’s push climaxed with the proclamation of a so-called “Urals Republic,” a project that threatened to pull a slice of Russia’s industrial heartland, including factories moved to the Urals for safety during World War II, beyond Moscow’s control.

Sacked by Yeltsin but later re-elected, Rossel after 2000 had to contend with the new reality of Putin’s Russia as the charismatic leader blamed the strength of regional governors for political chaos and economic decline.