Russia 110720 Basic Political Developments

Basic Political Developments

10:30 20/07/2011ALL NEWS

20/7 Tass 65

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BULGARIA SHIP LIFTING OPERATION

MOSCOW – The operation to lift the Bulgaria boat that sank in the Volga River continues.

MEETING OF THE COMMISSION ON INVESTMENTS

MOSCOW – Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will chair a regular meeting of the Governmental Commission on Control over Foreign Investments in the Russian Federation. The Commission is to consider 13 applications filed by foreign investors from Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Cyprus, and the United States on deals in various spheres.

LAVROV’S MEETING WITH LIBYAN FOREIGN MINISTER

MOSCOW — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meets with his Libyan counterpart Abdul Ati al-Obeidi to discuss settlement of the situation in Libya.

DEVELOPMENTS IN THE ARAB STATES

RABAT – Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said on Tuesday he will not bow under the pressure of NATO air strikes and the rebellion against him, saying his loyalists would recapture lost territory.

BEIRUT – Syrian troops and militiamen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad killed at least ten people in attacks in the city of Homs on Tuesday.

ZUBKOV’S TRIP TO VOLGOGRAD

VOLGOGRAD — First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov will make a working trip to Volgograd Region, where he will take a final decision as to whether he will place himself at the head of the regional list of United Russia party members at State Duma elections.

ASEAN MINISTERIAL MEETINGS

MOSCOW – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov leaves here for Indonesia on Wednesday to take part in ministerial meetings within the scope of Russia-ASEAN and East Asia summits (EAS) machinery, due to be held on Bali Island from July 21 to 22.

HANOI – Foreign Ministers of the ASEAN member states meet on Bali to focus on the regional integration.

CHINA – RUSSIA

BEIJING – China opened officially its part of the Bolshoi Ussuriysky Island on the Amur River for tourist trips.

THE UNITED KINGDOM – SCANDAL

LONDON – House of Commons Speaker John Bercow said that the session may be extended in connection with the News Of The World phone hacking scandal. Prime Minister David Cameron is expected to make a statement in the parliament.

FRANCE – GERMANY

PARIS – France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany’ s Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel will hold a working meeting in Berlin on the eve of the EU summit to coordinate positions over the situation in the euro zone.

CULTURE

OMSK – Omsk will host the Soviet cinema festival dedicated to the 110th anniversary of Igor Ilyinsky.

YEKATERINBURG – An exhibition devoted to the history of the Urals’ stone-cutting, lapidary and jewelry arts opens in Yekaterinburg.

IN RUSSIAN REGIONS

SAMARA – Russia’s biggest carmaker AVTOVAZ marks its 45th jubilee.

MOSCOW – Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia is to arrive in Saransk, the capital of the Republic of Mordovia, for a pastoral visit.

KALUGA – The third international youth camp Dialogue will open at the cultural and educational tourist centre Etnomir in the Borovsk district of the Kaluga Region.

11:19 20/07/2011ALL NEWS

19/7 Tass 106

MOSCOW — The operation to fix the first two of the four wide metal slings under the hull of the sunken Bulgaria boat to lift her to the surface has been launched, spokesman for the operational headquarters for lifting the vessel Timur Khikmatov told Itar-Tass. “At 08:00, Moscow time, the operation to fix the two slings under the stern of the Bulgaria ship was started,” he said. “Preparations for fixing two more slings under the fore body continue.”

MOSCOW – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev adopted amendments to several laws envisaging the creation of a unified federal database on the activity of corporate entities, the Kremlin press service said.

MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will chair a regular meeting of the Governmental Commission for Control over Foreign Investments in the Russian Federation on Wednesday. The Commission is to consider 13 applications filed by foreign investors from Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Cyprus, and the United States on deals in the areas of petrochemistry, transport infrastructure, mineral development, telecommunications and manufacturing of specialized equipment.

MOSCOW — Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov meets with his Libyan counterpart Abdul Ati al-Obeidi here on Wednesday. "Lavrov's meeting with the Secretary of the General People's Committee for Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation will be held at the request of the Libyan side," an official at the Russian Foreign Ministry has told Itar-Tass.

VOLGOGRAD — First Vice-Premier Viktor Zubkov will make a working trip to Volgograd Region, where he will take a final decision as to whether he will place himself at the head of the regional list of United Russia party (URP) members at State Duma elections. While in Volgograd, Zubkov is expected to meet the authors of the application and hold a series of consultations with representatives of industrial, transport, and social welfare enterprises, as well as and those of the agricultural sector and the timber industry.

MOSCOW — Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov leaves here for Indonesia on Wednesday to take part in ministerial meetings within the scope of Russia-ASEAN and East Asia summits (EAS) machinery, due to be held on Bali Island from July 21 to 22. Main attention will be devoted to problems concerning non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, including a nuclear-free zone in Southeast Asia, as well as counteraction to international terrorism, the nuclear problem on the Korean Peninsula, and the situation in the Middle East and North Africa.

MOSCOW — Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia is to arrive in Saransk, the capital of the Republic of Mordovia, on Wednesday for a pastoral visit. This will be the Patriarch's first arrival in Mordovia, the land of his childhood years, in his capacity as Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC).

SAMARA — The AVTOVAZ car factory, a major automaker of Russia, marks its 45th jubilee on Wednesday. Nowadays, AVTOVAZ is one of the largest automakers of Europe. AVTOVAZ share on Russia's car market is over 25 percent.

KHABAROVSK — The Republic of Yakutia in the Far East remains a problem area from the viewpoint of efforts to grapple with forest fires. By Wednesday morning, 21 forest fires are still raging in the republic on an area of over 8,600 hectares, an official at the forestry department for the Far Eastern Federal District has told Itar-Tass.

BEIJING — China opened officially its part of the Bolshoi Ussuriisky Island on the Amur River for tourist trips. The first group of 150 tourists from China arrived on the island on Wednesday morning, the Xinhua news agency reported. The island was divided between Russia and China after the complete border demarcation between the countries under the treaty in 2008.

DUSHANBE — A strong earthquake rocked residents of several regions in Tajikistan at midnight on Wednesday. The earthquake measured 6.2 points jolted north-eastern Tajikistan on the border with Kyrgyzstan, a source in the Dushanbe seismological station told Itar-Tass on Wednesday. The tremors made many residents in the Tajik capital leave their houses despite the nighttime. Meanwhile, no reports were made about the damages to the republican emergencies committee.

WASHINGTON — An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2 occurred at the border between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan on Tuesday at 23: 35, Moscow time, the US Geological Service reported. The epicenter of the earth jolts was 42 km south-west of the Uzbek city of Ferghana, the administrative center of the region of the same name, while the focus of the temblor was at a depth of 9.2 km. There has been no word about any victims or damage.

LONDON — Fitch Ratings has raised long-term credit rating of Russia’s Alfa-Bank to BB +. The corresponding report was released on global markets on Tuesday. The agency set the credit outlook of Alfa-Bank to “stable.”

ST. PETERSBURG — The products of a new harvest, an attracting smell of fruit, honey and fresh bread will reign at the international agrarian and industrial show Agrorus-2011 in St. Petersburg on August 22-28.

KRASNOYARSK — The firemen have put out 18 fires on 1,017 hectares in Siberia’s forests over the past day. However, another 22 forest fires on 1,013 hectares keep burning, a source in the regional emergencies centre told Itar-Tass on Wednesday. The hardest fire situation has emerged in the Kezhem district in north-eastern Krasnoyarsk Territory. Some 12 taiga fires on 812 hectares were reported there. The local authorities have announced an emergency.

VORONEZH — A set of bells, recreated for installation in the bell tower of the Kronstadt Nautical Cathedral, has been sent out from here to St Petersburg on Wednesday. The bells were cast by the bellmakers of the Voronezh-based bell casting plant Vera.

ST PETERSBURG — The Symphony Orchestra of St Petersburg Cappella leaves for Germany on Wednesday for a guest tour under the direction of its chief conductor, People's Artiste if Russia Alexander Chernushenko. The Orchestra will take part in festivities marking the 50th jubilee of twinned-city contacts between St Petersburg and Dresden.

KALUGA — The third international youth camp Dialogue will open at the cultural and educational tourist centre Etnomir in the Borovsk district of the Kaluga Region on Wednesday.

/Itar-Tass