Kremlin: GORKI, MOSCOW REGION.Dmitry Medvedev had a meeting with Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Pyotr Sumin to discuss the region's social and economic situation

Kremlin: GORKI, MOSCOW REGION.Dmitry Medvedev had a meeting with Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Pyotr Sumin to discuss the region's social and economic situation.

The conversation took place via videoconference.

The subjects of discussion included the employment situation, measures to reduce wage arrears, and the investment climate in the region. 

The Governor briefed Mr Medvedev on the operation of the recently opened Presidential Reception Office in Chelyabinsk, to which local people can come with their requests and complaints. The President suggested that in cases where the issues raised by citizens lie outside the regional authorities' powers, the matters in question can be referred to the Presidential Central Reception Office in Moscow.

During the videoconference, Mr Medvedev read on the screen Mr Sumin’s appeal regarding cleanup efforts following the 1957 accident at the Mayak nuclear facility, which caused radioactive contamination of a large area of land, resulting in problems that have still not been entirely resolved to this day. Upon learning that a draft law on social provisions for those affected by the accident has already been prepared but not yet examined by the Government or submitted to the State Duma, President Medvedev said he will instruct the Government to get the process moving.

The Mayak production enterprise is part of ROSATOM State Atomic Energy Corporation with priority operations in supplies under defence industry orders, regenerating irradiated nuclear reactor fuel, and manufacturing radioactive isotopes.

Kremlin: Opening Remarks at Meeting on Reforming the Interior Ministry

PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Colleagues, we are here to discuss one of today’s biggest tasks – how to improve the Interior Ministry.

On December 24, 2009 I signed the Executive Order On Improving the Interior Ministry’s Work. This order outlines a whole number of procedures now under discussion. The Minister has presented his proposals and I have given the instruction to study them. This does not mean that we will make all the necessary decisions today, but these are matters that we need to discuss in order to develop the model we will use to modernise the ministry’s operation.

These proposals are based on the Executive Order I signed and concern the status of Interior Ministry officers, the ministry’s powers and the distribution of these powers and those of other agencies, the ministry’s procedural authority, the system of financial incentives for ministry staff, and also questions of liability and responsibility, as well as organisational issues, in other words, practically every aspect of the ministry’s operation. This is a serious undertaking.

As I said, we are not here to make the final decisions today, but I want to hear at this meeting, an internal meeting for now, a report on which of the proposals presented by the ministry and the minister can be used, and which require further elaboration.

I am therefore expecting a serious discussion of all of these different issues. I make a point of saying this publicly, because the ministry’s work has come in for a lot of public scrutiny of late. Voices have been raised in all manner of calls and appeals, some of which are nonsense, but there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that the ministry’s operation is in need of serious reform, and this is precisely the aim of the proposals made by the minister and other colleagues, who all have an interest in participating in the discussions on these matters. So, let’s begin work. 

I also want to bring to your attention one issue that I think is particularly topical just now, although it is perhaps more of a private matter. This is the use of less-lethal weapons. Less-lethal weapons have been involved in a number of recent crimes.

Sale of these weapons is not subject to any real control in our country: all that is done is to simply record the purchaser’s passport details. What the weapon is then used for, where it is used, and with what consequences, is anyone’s guess. These weapons are sold to anyone and everyone: people with criminal records or who have already faced criminal charges in the past, people with mental problems. Even the rules enforced in the 1990s for gas pistols, which, by the way, are a lot less dangerous than many of the weapons classified as less-lethal today, are no longer being applied. 

I therefore instruct the ministry to draw up rules on the sale and circulation of less-lethal weapons. If required, make the necessary amendments to the laws on arms sale and possession in order to bring the acquisition and subsequent use of these weapons under stricter regulation. Other kinds of weapons come under special regulations in our country, but our laws provide only minimum regulation for this category of potentially harmful weapons, which in practice often do cause injury or death. We need to put this situation in order.

Draft your proposals and report back to me within 10 days.

INTERIOR MINISTER RASHID NURGALIYEV: Yes.

Reuters: Russia says killed top local al Qaeda militant

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Wednesday its forces had killed an Egyptian militant in Dagestan who had set up a faction of al Qaeda in the volatile southern region.

"One of the founders of the al Qaeda network in the North Caucasus... and a gunman accompanying him were eliminated as they put up an armed resistance," state TV channel Vesti-24 showed Vyacheslav Shanshin, head of the local FSB, as saying.

State-run RIA news agency, quoting the FSB, the successor to the KGB, said 49-year-old Makhmoud Mokhammed Shaaban had been aided by Georgia, a charge Tbilisi swiftly denied.

Factions of the FSB have repeatedly linked the Islamist insurgency raging along Russia's turbulent, Muslim-dominated southern flank to al Qaeda, and have accused neighbouring Georgia of aiding the militants.

Media identified Shaaban as an Egyptian native who was nicknamed Seif Islam, or Sword of Islam. RIA said he had been active in Sudan, Afghanistan, Libya and Georgia.

Quoting the FSB, RIA said Shaaban had masterminded acts of sabotage to blow up railway tracks, electricity lines and energy pipelines at the instructions of Georgian secret services. Georgia's Ministry of Internal Affairs denied the allegations.

Vesti-24 television showed footage of Shaaban sporting a thick black beard and green camouflage alongside other, heavily armed rebels in Chechnya and Dagestan.

Unofficial Islamist website kavkazcenter.com said Seif Islam had been "participating in the jihad in Chechnya and the Caucasus for more than 15 years".

Political analysts say the Kremlin is losing control over the North Caucasus as violence escalates, mainly in Chechnya, site of two separatist wars since the mid-1990s, and nearby Ingushetia and Dagestan.

In its latest attempt to tighten its grip over the turbulent region, last month the Kremlin appointed outsider and businessman Alexander Khloponin to oversee it.

Relations between Moscow and Tbilisi remain fraught after their brief August 2008 war.

03 February 2010, 14:54

Interfax: Police detain Karachayevo-Cherkessia Muslim leader murder suspect in Moscow

The suspect is involved in the murder of the deputy chairman of the Spiritual Authority of Muslims of Karachayevo-Cherkessia on September 20, 2009, the source said.

No formal confirmation of this information has been made available to Interfax.