Russia

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, and U.N. envoy for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi talk during their meeting in Moscow, Russia, on Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (right) welcomes his Egyptian counterpart Mohamed Kamel Amr prior to a meeting in Moscow on Dec. 28, 2012. (Associated Press)

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**FILE** Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a news conference in Moscow on Dec. 20, 2012. (Associated Press/RIA Novosti, Alexei Nikolsky, Presidential Press Service)

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Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during his annual hours-long news conference in Moscow on Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

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Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomes the leaders of member countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Moscow on Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/Yuri Kochetkov, Pool)

A worker does the preparation work for welding the first section of the South Stream pipeline in Anapa, Russia, on Dec. 7, 2012, when Russian energy giant Gazprom was due to launch the construction of the pipeline, which is expected to be delivering up to 63 billion cubic meters of Russian gas to Europe annually, starting in 2015. (Associated Press)

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Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev says Congress, in attaching a human rights provision to trade legislation, is “making a big mistake.” (Associated Press)

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American jazz pianist Dave Brubeck, right, shown at a press conference prior to his appearance before a Soviet audience, Thursday, March 26, 1987, Moscow, Russia. (AP Photo/Boris Yurchenko)