Russia 110721 Basic Political Developments

Russia 110721

Basic Political Developments

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  Itar-Tass news outlook for Thursday, July 21.
  
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    MOSCOW/KAZAN – The operation to lift the Bulgaria boat, which wrecked on the Volga River, continues. The experts pushed under the bottom of the boat three of four ‘towels’ – metal strips necessary for the lifting.
    
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    MOSCOW – Presidium of Russia’s government will discuss fulfilment of the state programmes on formation of the budget expenses from 2013. Russia’s Minister of Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina will make a report on the topic.
    
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    BALI ISLAND – Agenda of the ministerial meeting in the format ASEAN plus 3 will feature topics on regional stability, including situation in the Korean Peninsula, as well as reaction to natural calamities, and food and energy security in the Asian-Pacific Region.
    
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    MOSCOW – Spokesman of Russia’s Foreign Ministry Alexander Lukashevich will participate in a briefing on current agenda of Russia’s foreign policy.
    
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    MOSCOW – The United Russia Party begins the procedure of primaries to form its list of candidates for the elections to the State Duma.
    
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    BRUSSELS – Formation of the second programme of aid for Greece and overcoming of the system financial crisis of the euro zone will be key topics of the emergency EU summit.
    
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    NEW YORK – Last pre-trial hearings of the case of Viktor But, who is accused by the USA of arms smuggling.
    
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    NEW YORK – The Atlantis space ship will land at the Cape Canaveral for the last time, thus finishing the Space Shuttle programme.
    
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    KRASNOYARSK – Over 400 reporters from Russia’s regions will participate in the Yenisey.RF-2011 media forum.
    
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    MOSCOW – Five Russians will be among 23 competitors in half final of the Operalia contest, organised by Placido Domingo.
    
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    ST. PETERSBURG – Opening of a memorial board devoted to Galina Ulanova, a great Russian ballet dancer of the XX century.
    
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    ST. PETERSBURG – The Mariinsky Theatre will have a first night of an extravaganza opera staged by Benjamin Britten and based on Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night's Dream.
    
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    BARNAUL – All-Russian festival called Shukshin’s Days in Altai begins.
    
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  Itar-Tass news digest for Thursday, July 21.
  
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    MOSCOW — Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev signed a federal law on additional prevention of selling alcohol to children, the Kremlin’s press service said on Thursday. The law introduces criminal and administrative responsibility for selling alcohol containing beverages to children. First time punishment may be limited to fines from three to five thousand roubles for individuals and from ten to 20 thousand for officials and from 80 to 100 thousand for legal entities, the law reads.
    
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    MAKHACHKALA — Gunmen have been blocked in a private house in Makhachkala on the Tarki-Tau mount slope. A source in the Interior Ministry of Dagestan told Itar-Tass that there was an exchange of gunfire. There was no immediate information about the number of the blocked militants. Automatic gunfire has been heard in the city since 05:00 MSK.
    
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    MAKHACHKALA — Special operation to neutralise members of illegal armed groups has been underway in Makhachkala Thursday morning on Mount Tarki-Tau. According to preliminary data, injuring one law enforcement officer has been wounded in an exchange of fire, a source in the Interior Ministry in Dagestan told Itar-Tass. At around 05:00 MSK Makhachkala residents heard submachine-gun fire and grenade explosions.
    
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    MAKHACHKALA — Three militants have been liquidated and one detained during a special police operation in Makhachkala, sources in the republic’s law enforcement agencies told Itar-Tass. According to the source, at around 04:00 MSK on Thursday morning, police special task force blocked a group of gunmen in a private house on Mount Tarki-Tau. The gunmen offered armed resistance.
    
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    MOSCOW — Russia’s Emergency Situation Ministry /EMERCOM/ has forwarded another portion of humanitarian aid to Libya, the ministry’s information department said on Thursday. “At 09:00 Moscow time, an Il-76 plane left the Ramenskoye airport in the Moscow Region for Benghazi,” the source said. “The special flight will deliver 36 tonnes of humanitarian aid.” In early July, EMERCOM planes delivered to Tripoli and Benghazi 72 tonnes of humanitarian aid.
    
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    VLADIVOSTOK, the Far East – Ports located in the Nakhodka city district in Russia’s Primorye region transshipped 27 million tons in the first six months of 2011. They’ve set a new freight traffic record among all the ports on Russia’s Pacific coast by increasing the freight turnover by almost two million tons since 2010. Oil, petroleum products and coal formed the bulk of transshipped cargoes – about 22 million tons, according to the eastern branch of the Rosmorport Company.
    
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    KHABAROVSK — As many as 14 of forest fires at an area of 1,728 hectares were extinguished in the Russian Far East on Wednesday. “However, by Thursday morning, 36 fires are still burning, their total area is 8,136 hectares,” the Forestry Department of the Far Eastern Federal District told Itar-Tass. “The situation is the most difficult in the country’s east in Yakutia, where more than 6,700 hectares of forest and 757 hectares of non-forest land are affected by fires,” the department said. In the Olekminsky district the forest fire area has grown to 3,000 hectares, there are large spots of fire in the Yakutsk and Gorny districts.
    
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    BISHKEK — Fifteen people were injured on Wednesday as an earthquake hit the southern Batken region of Kyrgyzstan, the press service of the republic’s Ministry of Emergency Situations told Itar-Tass on Thursday. The earth tremors were recorded by seismic stations on July 20 at 01:35, local time (23:35 MSK). The force of the earthquake the epicentre of which was located near the Sovetskaya village, reached 7-8 points on a 12-point scale. According to the Institute of Seismology of the National Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Emergency Situations of Kyrgyzstan, a few dozen buildings were damaged.
    
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    MOSCOW - The Moscow employment department will provide Muscovites with information on vacancies in electronic form as of August 1, 2011, the agency’s head, Oleg Neterebsky, told journalists. He believes that this new form of work will cut the time for selecting the right vacancy and will make job searching more convenient for the Muscovites. The Moscow Department of Employment will provide e-services to Muscovites who search employment and to employers who want to hire employees.
    
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    ST.PETERSBURG – The St. Petersburg League of Hitchhikers, a sport tourism club, have set out on the first round-the-globe tour by hitchhike. This is an international project titled “Everybody has the right to see his planet.” Alexei Vorov, the founder of sport hitchhiking in Russia, told a news conference in St. Petersburg that over 33 years of its existence the League had transformed hitchhiking from being a simple and spontaneous way of moving by passing cars into an independent kind of sport tourism, which has its own rules and standards, ethics and traditions.
    
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  As-Safir: Jumblat from Moscow: Syria is witnessing a revolution and Assad has to fulfill his promise - MP Walid Jumblatt made significant comments from Moscow, particularly on Syria, describing the uprising there as a “revolution.” Jumblatt said after meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that Lebanon was committed to decisions made by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon “but that does not allow any external interference in internal affairs.”
  
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  Russian, Libyan FMs meet on crisis in N Africa
  
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  EMERCOM sends another humanitarian aid portion to Libya. - “At 09:00 Moscow time, an Il-76 plane left the Ramenskoye airport in the Moscow Region for Benghazi,” the source said. “The special flight will deliver 36 tonnes of humanitarian aid.”
  
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  Lavrov to travel to Bali to attend Russia-ASEAN meetings. - During the forthcoming meeting the Russian side will confirm its readiness to actively join joint programs within the framework of sectoral mechanisms East Asian Summits.
  
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  Russian, Norwegian premiers discuss energy cooperation - "Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Norwegian counterpart Jens Stoltenberg discussed by phone urgent issues of bilateral trade and economic cooperation with the focus on interaction in the power industry," Peskov said.
  
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    Russian, Norwegian premiers discuss energy cooperation
    
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  UNSC instruments not suitable for climate change issues-official. - The issue of global climate change requires urgent attention of the international community, but does not deserve to be included on the agenda of the UN Security Council, Russia’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Alexander Pankin confirmed this principled stance of the Russian Federation.
  
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    West, Russia divided on U.N. council climate role - Council statement blocked by Russia – diplomats; U.N. official says climate change speeding up
    
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  Sweden visa centre opens in St Pete on July 22.
  
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  Kyrgyz PM thanks Putin for Russia’s support for Kyrgyz economy.
  
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  500 tones of high-octane Russian petrol are transported to petrol stations – Zhumakadyr Akeneev
  
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  Tajikistan hopes to sign a military coop agreement with Russia.
  
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  Georgian, Russian Patriarchs to meet in Ukraine - A meeting of the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II and Patriarch of All Russia Kirill is scheduled to be held in Ukraine on July 26.
  
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  Last pre-trial hearing in Viktor Bout's case to get under way
  
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  Russian president introduces agreement on cooperation in Caspian Sea security to parliament - The document was signed in Baku on November 18, 2010. Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan will cooperate against terrorism, organized crime, illegal trafficking of arms and narcotics, smuggling, human trafficking and illegal migration.
  
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  Medvedev sends condolences to families of Uzbek quake victims
  
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  Medvedev signs law on punishment for selling alcohol to children.
  
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  Elmar Mammadyarov’s visit confirms unity of our positions - Russian envoy
  
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  India to get new frigate fitted with BrahMos - The Navy chief returned on July 18 from Russia after a six-day visit during which he took stock of all the major Indian navy projects undergoing there.
  
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  Americans greet Russian frigate ‘Pallada’ in Alaska
  
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    Russian tall ship arrives in US on tour of Pacific
    
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  Army corruption cost Russia 600 million in 2011 – prosecutors
  
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    Corruption in Russian armed forces causes over 600 million rubles of damage in 2011 – prosecutor
    
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  CORRUPTION WATCH: Police pay tripled in anti-graft move
  
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  Air Force officer gets suspended sentence over MiG-31 crash
  
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  Zubkov agrees to be the first on the United Party election list.
  
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  GUNMEN KILLED IN OPERATION IN MAKHACHKALA COULD HAVE BEEN RELATED TO JULY 18 POLICE PATROL CAR BLAST, IN WHICH TWO POLICEMEN WERE KILLED - NATIONAL ANTITERRORIST COMMITTEE
  
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    Three gunmen killed, one detained in Makhachkala special operation.
    
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    Police officer wounded in Makhachkala special operation.
    
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  Moscow Reverts to Crude Force to Control the Situation in Kabardino-Balkaria - By: Valery Dzutsev
  
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  Forest fires affecting 8,200 ha in Russia Far East.
  
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    EMERCOM aircraft pour nearly 450t of water on Yakutia forest fires.
    
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  Expansion of Moscow proper to be completed in 5 years
  
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  Muscovites to get employment information electronically.
  
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  Russian court rules to extradite Ukrainian lawmaker Landyk's son charged with beating woman, say police
  
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  Three Russian police officers get long prison terms for abuse of office
  
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  Jailed Former Russian Oil Tycoon Allowed To See Mother
  
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  Russian Press at a Glance, Thursday, July 21, 2011
  
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  Choice is when Medvedev and Putin are both on the ballot - 40 percent of people surveyed by the Levada Center would like to see both names on the ballot By Lev Makedonov
  
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  Kommersant: Polls foresee parliamentary majority for United Russia
  
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  United Russia Losing Support, Survey Says - Support for the Communists and the Liberal Democratic Party is growing at the expense of United Russia and A Just Russia, but the State Duma elections in December shouldn't shatter the current four-party configuration dominated by United Russia, according to a survey released Wednesday.
  
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  Right Cause Taps Ex-Yanukovych Aide - By Alexander Bratersky
  
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  Hedging Putin's Will - Russian asset-management firm Arbat Capital has tailored its services to reflect total uncertainty over who will run in the March 2012 presidential election.
  Rogozin dives into the brainstorming session at the White House - The special presidential envoy will be allowed to enter the holy of holies of US missile defense By Darya Tsilyurik
  

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  Who is who - Two months have passed since the Georgian Parliament recognized the genocide of the Circassian people. But silence and confusion caused by this act still continues in the upper echelons of the Russian authorities.
  
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  Energy and Politics - The Love-Hate Relationship between Russia and Ukraine - Written by John Daly   
  

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  Russia to get first dibs on Belarus privatisations - "We are opening the economy for real, and facilitate access for our Customs Union partners," Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich said in an interview with the Russia Today satellite TV channel. "Our Russian partners will always be our first option."
  Russia's Arctic vision, how different is it really? – by Mia Bennett
  
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  “A Russian-European economic zone can save euro” - Overcoming stereotypes and becoming closer partners with Russia is the natural way of development for European countries, to help them solve their problems, says Jean-Pierre Thomas, French presidential special representative for dealing with Russia.