Russian Press at a Glance, Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Russian Press at a Glance, Tuesday, July 5, 2011

POLITICS

Only doctors who were directly responsible for the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in prison will be punished, the Russian Investigative Committee said after the details of an independent probe into the case have been made public. (Kommersant, Moskovskiye Novosti, Vedomosti)

Russian tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov, who recently became the leader of the Right Cause party, explained in an interview why he joined the politics and what goals his party is going to pursue. (Kommersant)

U.S. Ambassador John Beyrle said that the New START treaty was important but the real highlight of a "reset" in U.S.-Russian ties would come next week with the signing of agreements on liberalized visa rules and child adoptions. (Moscow Times)

ECONOMY & BUSINESS

South Korea’s Incheon International Airport Corporation has bought 10 percent of Khabarovsk airport and announced plans to cut into a stake in Vladivostok airport. (Kommersant)

Only half of the announced IPOs by the Russian companies were concluded in the first six months of 2011. Investors continue to be cautious about the business climate in Russia. (Vedomosti)

Russian Railways company is planning to build express transit systems in eight Russian cities prior to World Soccer Cup in 2018. The project requires an investment of at least 250 billion rubles ($9 billion), but the company hopes to get most of the funding from the state budget. (Vedomosti) 

Russia’s Finance Ministry has estimated the budget deficit for next year at not more than 3 percent of the GDP. (Rossiiskaya Gazeta)

According to Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov, Russia is on the verge of a “tourist fever.” A federal program on the development of tourism that starts in 2012 is expected to increase the number of foreign tourists in Russia sevenfold and increase tourism revenues to 200 million euros annually. (Rossiiskaya Gazeta)

DEFENSE

The Russian Defense Ministry has concluded the bulk of arms procurement contracts for 2011. Only the suppliers who asked exorbitant prices for their products were left behind for further negotiations. (Vedomosti)

SOCIETY

The Moscow government is considering construction of an entertainment park comparable to Disneyland. (Izvestia)

The number of officially recognized impoverished Russians increased by 2.3 million to 22.9 million, or 16 percent of the population, in the first quarter of 2011, compared with the same period last year, according to the State Statistics Service. (Moscow Times)

WORLD

Former Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic was removed on Monday from a hearing in a UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague after several attempts to interrupt court procedures. (Kommersant)

NATURAL DISASTERS

A new streak of hot weather brought forest fires and peat fires to the Moscow Region, threatening to repeat the emergency scenario from last year, when the smog and heat from fires made life in the Russian capital almost unbearable. (Kommersant)

11:43 05/07/2011ALL NEWS

Itar-Tass news digest for Tuesday, July 5.

http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/179361.html

5/7 Tass

MOSCOW — Two persons died and one badly injured as a Mi-8 helicopter crashed in Russia’s Siberian Irkutsk region, a spokesman for the regional emergencies administration told Itar-Tass over the phone on Tuesday. “Today, at 09:31 a.m. Moscow time, a Mi-8 helicopter carrying workers from the town of Ust-Kut to a drilling platform in the Katanga district made a forced landing some 720 kilometers off Ust-Kut,” the spokesman said. There were 16 people onboard the helicopter, including three crew members.

TOKYO — Russia and Japan have similar stances on the settlement of the Libyan conflict, believing that a full ceasefire is needed, the head of the Kremlin administration, Sergei Naryshkin, told reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday. “At talks with the Japanese leadership we discussed vital international problems, the most acute of which is a military conflict in Libya,” Naryshkin said.

TOKYO — A more favourable atmosphere exists at the present moment for discussing a peace treaty between Russia and Japan, the head of the Kremlin administration, Sergei Naryshkin, told reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday. Naryshkin ends on Tuesday a brief visit to Tokyo. During his visit, Naryshkin met in Tokyo with Prime minister Naoto Kan, other top officials from the Japanese government, parliamentarians, public representatives and business people.

TOKYO — Hosting the APEC summit in Vladivostok in 2012 is “a major project for Russia,” which is actively preparing for that, the head of the Russian president’s administration, Sergei Naryshkin, told reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday. “Russia actively prepares for that event,” Naryshkin said. “The very fact that Russia hosts an APEC summit testifies to its strong integration in the activity and life of that vast Asia-Pacific region, which also has its problems,” he added.

TOKYO — A meeting of the Russian and North Korean leaders is not on agenda at the present moment, the head of the Russian president’s administration, Sergei Naryshkin, said in Tokyo on Tuesday. Naryshkin ends on Tuesday a brief two-day visit to Tokyo.

TOKYO — Russia is ready to further increase supplies of energy resources to Japan hit by a major earthquake and tsunami last March, the head of the Kremlin administration, Sergei Naryshkin, told reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday.

TOKYO — Russia and Japan have set up a joint commission of historians to look into problems of a peace treaty and the territorial dispute. The first meeting of the commission may be held already in December, the head of the Russian president’s administration, Sergei Naryshkin, said in Tokyo on Tuesday.

MOSCOW — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Nabil Saath, a representative of the Central Committee of the FATH party overseeing political issues, will meet in Moscow on Tuesday to discuss prospects of overcoming the Palestinian-Israeli crisis. Earlier, Palestinian Ambasador to Russia Fayed Mustafa told Itar-Tass that the Palestinian side intended to discuss the situation in the Middle East at the talks in Moscow ahead of the 'quartet' meeting.

VLADIVOSTOK — The legislature of Russia’s Far Eastern Sakhalin region, will vote to prolong the term of office of incumbent governor Alexander Khoroshavin on July 7, the Sakhalin Regional Duma press service said on Tuesday. On June 29, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev nominated Alexander Khoroshavin for a second term in the office of governor of the Sakhalin region. On July 6, the Sakhalin Duma’s regulations committee will consider Khoroshavin’s candidature.

SEOUL — South Korea has been actively developing of late medical tourism with Russia’s Far East, within the framework of which patients from Russia arrive in Seoul for free surgeries, president of the Korea Tourism Organisation Charm Lee told Tass on Tuesday. For example, a girl from a family with decent incomes was operated in Seoul for harelip within the framework of that program. Free of charge medical treatment was organized by the Korea Tourism Organisation in cooperation with one of the local hospitals.

MOSCOW — Firefighters evacuated the tenants of a 16-storied hotel building in the southwest of Moscow because of a short circuit failure at around midnight on Monday. The hotel located at 33, Ostrovityanova Street belongs to the Russian Academy of Sciences. “A short circuit failure of electric wiring in one of the rooms led to a fire,” law enforcers said. According to preliminary reports, there are no casualties. The fire has been suppressed. The firemen are examining the premises.

MOSCOW — A Russian Paralympic gold medallist, Mikhail Narozhny, died as he hit the ground having fallen from a balcony of his apartment in central Russian Voronezh region a spokesman for the Russian Investigations Committee told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.

KAZAN, Tatarstan— Russia’s leading jewellery firms will display their new collections at an exhibition that will open on Tuesday in Kazan. The participants include more than 270 jewellery firms from 30 Russian cities: the Russian Almaz Holdings, the Almaz jewellery plant (Kazan), the TM Brillilain (the Krasnoye-on-the Volga settlement), the Yenisei jewellery plant (Krasnoyarsk), the Kulon jewellery plant from Kazan, the EPL Diamond group of companies (Yakutsk), etc, a press service source at the Kazan Fair exhibition centre told Itar-Tass.

PRAGUE – A new air flight will connect the Russian city of Perm with the Czech capital of Prague in September under an agreement reached with the Czech side Dmitry Izosimov, the deputy transport minister of the Perm region, told Itar-Tass that the Tatarstan Air Company would be the carrier. "The first plane will fly early this autumn, the best time for visiting this part of Eastern Europe.

NAZRAN — One policeman was killed and another was wounded in a clash with gunmen in Russia’s southern republic of Ingushetia, sources from the republican interior ministry reported on Tuesday. They said information was received on Monday that a group of gunmen was moving in the forest on the outskirts of the settlement of Sagopshi, Malgobek district.

KEMEROVO — The rescuers have found another miner dead at the emergency coalmine Kiselevskaya in the Kemerovo Region. He was reported missing as a result of the clay mixture fall in the coalmine on June 16. The death toll of the coalmine accident reached two miners. The search for another two miners continues.