He has gone out of his way to say that he wants action, not just words, and expects a series of concrete proposals that he will put in his State of the Union address at the end of January.

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More to the point, many Russians who have their own eyes on the prizes, once Mr Yeltsin has gone, are keen to keep Mr Lukashenka out of the action.

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Winder said returning to Fleming's original Bond storylines was a smart move, adding that Bond's longevity as a character -- as other action heroes have gone in and out of fashion -- was largely due to the tight plotting of the original novels.

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