Russia 111206 Basic Political Developments


Russian president arrives in Prague



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Russian president arrives in Prague


http://praguemonitor.com/2011/12/06/russian-president-arrives-prague
ČTK |

6 December 2011

Prague, Dec 5 (CTK) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev arrives in Prague at 19:00 on Wednesday and he will meet his Czech counterpart Vaclav Klaus on the same day in the evening, the Presidential Office's press section said yesterday.

All important events in Medvedev's programme will take place at Prague Castle, the presidential seat, on Thursday.

According to the information available to CTK, Medvedev and his wife will probably stay in the Four Seasons hotel in Prague.

Medvedev and Klaus will then sign a number of Czech-Russian contracts, mostly relating to cooperation in transport, the military and culture.

There will be a framework contract on the construction of railways in the Urals. Under one of the biggest contracts of the past years, Czech firms, headed by OHL ZS, are to build about 350 kilometres of railways for almost 40 billion crowns.

The Transport Ministry and Russian representatives will sign an addendum to the contract on the repairs of helicopters thanks to which the state-owned Letecke opravny Malesice (LOM) aviation repair works is to repair and modernise Russian transport helicopters not only for the Czech military, but for the armed forces of other countries, too.

The University of Economics in Prague and the Moscow City University are also to sign an agreement on joint bachelorship studies that will be taught in Moscow.

Medvedev will have talks with Klaus on Thursday morning, he will open the exhibition of Kremlin collections in the afternoon and then he is to meet Prime Minister Petr Necas, chairman of the senior government Civic Democrats (ODS).

The Russian presidential couple is to leave Prague at 17:40 on Thursday, according to the programme, released by the Czech Presidential Office's press section.

From the Prague-Ruzyne airport, Medvedev and his wife Svetlana will go directly to the Strahov Monastery in Hradcany, near Prague Castle, where the Czech presidential couple will welcome them. They will have a joint dinner.

Thursday's programme of Medvedev opens with a welcome ceremony at Prague Castle at 10:00, followed by a private meeting of the Russian and Czech presidential couples and talks of the national delegations.

Klaus and Medvedev should sign prepared bilateral agreements.

Klaus will then invite Medvedev to a luncheon in the Rudolph Gallery at Prague Castle.

In the afternoon, Medvedev will open a unique exhibition on "The Tzar's Court under the Romanov Dynasty" that will offer a selection of valuable items from Moscow's Kremlin collections.

Before he leaves the Czech Republic, Medvedev is to meet Necas at Prague Castle.

Medvedev will arrive in Prague at Klaus's invitation. He is the first Russian head of state to visit the Czech Republic twice.

Medvedev attended the Russia-U.S. summit in Prague last year when he and U.S. President Barack Obama signed a new U.S.-Russian nuclear arms reduction treaty.

Medvedev and Klaus stressed last year that they expected their countries' business cooperation, subdued by the economic crisis, to increase again.

The tender for the completion of the nuclear power plant in Temelin, south Bohemia, in which Russian Atomstroyexport is interested, is high on the two countries' agenda. U.S. Westinghouse and the French Areva and also interested in the giant order.

The United Russia party of PM Vladimir Putin and Medvedev won a narrow majority in the weekend's general elections in Russia, but its position in parliament has considerably weakened.

($1=18.647 crowns)

Copyright 2011 by the Czech News Agency (ČTK). All rights reserved.
Copying, dissemination or other publication of this article or parts thereof without the prior written consent of ČTK is expressly forbidden. The Prague Daily Monitor and Monitor CE are not responsible for its content.

12/06 12:23   Russian, Polish General Staff chiefs to exchange missile defense views



http://www.interfax.com/news.asp


Lieberman to talk to Russians about arms to Syria


http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=248278
By HERB KEINON
12/06/2011 04:01

Foreign minister to bring up issue of Russian ship-killing missiles sale to Syria with Russian officials in Lithuania.


Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is expected to discuss Russia’s recent delivery of ship-killing missiles to Syria during high level meetings this week with Russian officials in Lithuania and Russia.

According to an Interfax report last week, Russia recently delivered Yaknot cruise missiles it sold to Damascus in 2007. Both Israel and the US had intensively lobbied against the sale, and then against the delivery.

Under the deal, worth a reported $300 million, Russia was believed to be contracted to deliver 72 missiles, which it said will protect Syria’s coast from possible attack.

Israel expressed concern in the past that these missiles would fall into Hezbollah’s hands.

The delivery of the missiles to Moscow’s traditional ally in the Middle East comes in defiance of Western calls for an arms embargo against Syria because of the continuing violence there.

Lieberman is expected to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of a conference of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe that opened Sunday night in Vilnius. In addition to Lavrov, Lieberman is scheduled to meet the foreign ministers of 13 countries, including Britain, Sweden, the Netherlands, Azerbaijan and Mongolia.

From Vilnius, Lieberman will travel to Moscow on Thursday for a joint Russian- Israeli economic meeting, during which he will meet with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov.


Russia warns against contacts with Taliban


http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=128728
Moscow—Russia has warned all countries involved in the settlement efforts in Afghanistan against secret contacts with the Taliban, the Russian Interfax news agency has reported.

“According to information we have, both the Afghan authorities and a number of their international partners had sporadic contacts with members of the Taliban movement. Moreover, Kabul was not always notified of these meetings,” Russian presidential representative for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov said in an interview with Interfax.

“Such behind-the-scenes contacts between representatives of foreign states and organizations with the Taliban are fraught with wrong signals of the international community’s true intentions in the context of the settlement efforts on Afghanistan,” he said.

Russia is convinced that dialogue with the armed opposition could have a positive effect for normalizing the situation in Afghanistan only if militants lay down their arms, recognize the constitution and break away from al-Qaida and other extremist organizations, he said.

On the other hand, Russia has repeatedly supported proposals on removing Taliban officials from the UN Security Council sanction list, Kabulov said.

“In addition, we have also supported the proposal on separating the sanction regime imposed by UN Security Council resolution 1267 into two independent mechanisms, with the establishment of new Security Council committees separately on al-Qaida and on the Taliban,” he said.

“At the same time we suppose that reciprocal reconciliatory steps on the Taliban part should be a precondition for further actions on relieving the sanctions for the Taliban members on the list,” he said.—Online



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