Russia

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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)

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Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin (left) and Susan Rice (right), U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, surprise South African Ambassador Baso Sangqu (second from right) with "Happy Birthday" before members of the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on Saturday, April 21, 2012, to adopt the Syria Observer Mission Resolution, authorizing 300 observers to be sent to Syria. (AP Photo/David Karp)

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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton (left) holds a bilateral meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during the East Asia Summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Nov. 20, 2012. (Associated Press)

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Geoff Cameron, left, and goalkeeper Tim Howard, both of the United States, react after a successful defense attempt during the friendly soccer match between Russia and United States, in Krasnodar, Russia, on Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2012. The match ended a 2-2 draw. (AP Photo/Ignat Kozlov)

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Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a meeting with members of the Presidential Human Rights Council in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Nov. 12, 2012. (AP Photo/Yuri Kochetkov, Pool)