Russia is set to ink a massive Chinese oil deal and to take over Armenia's natural gas industry.

1. U.S. human trafficking report singles out two post-Soviet states

Russia and Uzbekistan are among the world’s “worst of the worst” human trafficking offenders, according to the U.S. Department of State.

In its Trafficking in Persons Report 2013, the State Department downgraded the post-Soviet states to its Tier 3 list of countries that neither comply with minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking nor are trying to do so. The U.S. government might withhold foreign aid to these and other basket-case countries as a result.

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Russia and China have reacted angrily after the US downgraded them in a report on efforts to fight human trafficking.

 
Russia spoke of its "indignation". A Chinese official called the report an example of an "arbitrary judgement".
The annual US Department of State report relegated Russia and China into its lowest category, which also includes Iran and North Korea.
Uzbekistan also fell to Tier 3 in the report, published on Wednesday.
The 21 countries in Tier 3 may face sanctions in areas including cultural and education programmes, and the US could withdraw its support for loans from the World Bank or International Monetary Fund.

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US President Barack Obama used a speech in Berlin to call on Russia to revive the push for a world without nuclear weapons

US President Barack Obama used a speech in Berlin to call on Russia to revive the push for a world without nuclear weapons, offering to cut deployed nuclear arsenals by a third, but Moscow immediately poured scorn on his proposal.
Speaking in Berlin where US Presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan gave rousing Cold-War speeches, Obama urged Russia to help build on the "New START" treaty that requires Moscow and Washington to cut stockpiles of deployed nuclear weapons to 1,550 each by 2018.

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