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News summary for October 30

Main news of the day

MOSCOW — Russia’s Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov and U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic, Energy and the Environment Robert Hormats have discussed stronger cooperation in cancelling the long-standing Jackson-Vanik amendment, the ministry’s press service said on Tuesday. The meeting took place on October 29.

 

MOSCOW — The Board of Directors of Russia’s gas giant Gazprom has adopted an updated version of its investment program, budget (fiscal plan) and the program of optimisation (reduction) of the company’s spending for 2012. Proceeding from the updated investment program for 2012, the volume of the implementation of investments will be at 974.649 billion roubles (USD 1 = RUB 31.53) in the current year, which 198 billion roubles more than it was initially envisaged by the program adopted by the company in December 2011, the company underlined in its statement issued on Tuesday.

 

MOSCOW — President Putin has signed a decree "On dismissal of workers of the Russian Interior Ministry" which was released on the Kremlin's official website. The dismissed officers are Major-General Alexander Zabegalov, who was Interior department chief of the Ivanovo region; Major-General Dmitry Morozov, who occupied the post of First deputy chairman of the logistics and medical department of the Interior Ministry; Lieutenant-General Mikhail Tyurkin, who was chief of a department for information technologies, communications and protection of information of the Interior Ministry.

 

 MOSCOW — Russian railways are marking their 175th jubilee Tuesday, October 30. It was precisely on this day in 1837 that the country’s first line linking St Petersburg and the suburban town of Tsarskoye Selo was commissioned and the first train traversed the distance of 27 kilometers.

 

MOSCOW — The Russian government submitted an anti-tobacco bill in the State Duma, under which the smoking will be banned at all public places, including cafes and restaurants, starting from 2015.

 

MOSCOW — No more than 800 people took part in an opposition meeting in Moscow timed to the Day of Remembrance of Victims of Political Repression marked on October 30, the press service of the Moscow police department told Itar-Tass.

 

MOSCOW — The Russian Defence Ministry has confirmed that a Su-24 bomber has crashed in the Chelyabinsk region. "Today, a Su-24 met with an accident during a flight before scheduled repairs. The accident occurred 67 kilometers southeast of the Shagol airfield," the press service of the Defence Ministry told Itar-Tass.

 

KHABAROVSK — Rescuers looking for the bulk carrier Amursky with nine crew and a load of gold ore that went missing in the Sea of Okhotsk on Sunday have expanded the search are to 4,000 square kilometers off the Shantar Islands, the department of the Emergency Situations Ministry for the Khabarovsk Territory told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.

 

MAKHACHKALA— The imam of the Makhachkala mosque Kalimulla Ibragimov, his father and brother were killed in the Dagestani city Derbent on Tuesday morning, a source in the republican law enforcement agencies told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.

 

MOSCOW — The Prosecutor General's Office /PGO/ sent to a court a criminal case against a suspected abettor of the group that had planned an act of terror in Moscow's Red Square on the New Year's night.

 A suspected member of the gang has signed a plea bargain agreement, Investigation Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.

 

MOSCOW — The Moscow City Court on Tuesday announced the verdict for seven skinheads accused of hate murders. Earlier, a jury found six of them guilty, and unanimously acquitted one. Under the verdict, six skinheads were sentenced to eight to 19 years in jail.

 

PERM — Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has ordered the Industry and Trade Ministry to submit regulations to make construction companies responsible for quality of their work for the whole period of the use of facilities. Medvedev gave the directions during the conference that discussed ways to stimulate the use of new materials in construction. The regulations must be submitted by May 1, the premier said, noting that construction organizations must bear responsibility for quality of constructions for the entire period of their use.

 

 KIEV – Ukraine’s Regions Party, which is emerging victorious from the parliamentary election held last Sunday, may turn out able to set up the parliamentary majority on its own, suggest the results published by the Central Electoral Commission upon the processing of 82.62% protocols on voting for party tickets.

 

MOSCOW — Russia’s Foreign Ministry has expressed the hope that after Ukraine’s parliamentary elections closer cooperation with Russia will be given a fresh impetus. “Ukraine’s elections took place in a calm atmosphere without any incidents and met the generally accepted standards,” the ministry said. “A three-month election campaign with a tough fight between competitors was in general honest and transparent.”

 

WASHINGTON— U.S. Administration believes that Sunday’s parliamentary election in Ukraine, which has most obviously brought victory to the Regions Party of President Viktor Yanukovich, signaled ‘a step backwards’ in terms of the democratic process, the Department of State Acting Spokesperson Mark Toner said in a statement Monday.