MOSCOW — Russia’s Federation Council has approved of legislation tightening punishment for the disclosure of state secrets or for obtaining them in an illegal way.
MOSCOW — Turkey has not taken any practical actions to return the Russian cargo from the Moscow-Damascus airplane, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told reporters on Wednesday.
MOSCOW — Russia’s Central Elections Commission supports the idea to reduce terms of election campaigns. The Commission is already preparing for possible changes to the legislation, the Central Elections Commission’s Secretary Nikolai Konkin told reporters on Wednesday.
MOSCOW — The Federation Council on Wednesday, October 31, approved legislation that imposes large fines for violation of the NGO law.
MOSCOW — A final investment decision regarding the South Stream gas pipeline project in Hungary has been made. As Gazprom has said, the company’s Deputy CEO Alexander Medvedev, currently on a visit to Hungary, held a meeting with the CEO of the MVM company Csaba Baji. A new shareholder agreement of the joint design company South Stream Hungary Zrt was concluded.
NOVO-OGAREVO— Construction at the Shtokman field will begin before end of the year, presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday, October 31.
MOSCOW — Gazprom is starting the second stage of the Eastern Gas Programme – establishing a large gas production centre in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).
SOCHI — The 6th international Peace and Sports festival opens here on Wednesday. The three-day forum will be held under the chairmanship of Prince Albert II of Monaco and with participation of over 700 delegates from more than 100 countries. Among political leaders attending the forum, there will be HRH Prince Faisal Bin Al-Hussein of Jordan, members of the International Olympic Committee, international federations and National Olympic Committees, non-governmental organizations and business communities, as well as famous sportsmen, an official at the Sochi-2014 organizing committee told Itar-Tass.
NOVO OGAREVO— President Vladimir Putin will hold a “big” press conference before the end of the year, presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday, October 31.
MOSCOW — Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko has instructed the upper house of the Russian parliament to conduct an extensive campaign to explain the clauses of the law tightening punishment for the disclosure of state secrets. The Federation Council voted for the law earlier on Wednesday.
KOROLEV — The Russian transport ship Progress has docked with the International Space Stan (ISS). “At 17:34 Moscow time, Progress M-17M moored at the Zvezda docking module in automatic mode,” the Mission Control Centre told Itar-Tass on Wednesday, October 31.
YEKATERINBURG — The flight recorders of the crashed Su-24 bomber in the Chelyabinsk region have been found, Col Yarolsav Roshchupkin, an aide to the commander of the Central Military District, told Itar-Tass on Wednesday. "They are in good condition," Rosshchupkin added. The Su-24 met with an accident 67 kilometers southwest of the Shagol airfield in the Chelyabinsk region on October 30. The Russian Defense Ministry said the crash had been caused by the loss of the plane's transparent radome.
An An-72 plane flew a special commission to the Chelyabinsk region on Wednesday which will investigate the crash of the Su-24 bomber. It comprises specialists of the main committee of the Air Force, defence sector representatives and other experts, Col Yarolsav Roshchupkin, an aide to the commander of the Central Military District, told Itar-Tass.
ST.PETERSBURG — The Russian Navy headquarters has officially moved to St. Petersburg. On Wednesday, the Russian naval flag has been hoisted on a historical building of the Head Admiral's Office on the Senate square on the occasion of the completion of the transfer of the Navy headquarters from Moscow.
KHABAROVSK — Eighty-three persons and 11 units of equipment are involved in the search for the Amurskaya bulk carrier that went missing on Sunday, the Emergency Situations Ministry’s' department for the Khabarovsk territory told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.
KRASNOYARSK — A man, who was injured in the household gas blast at a residential house, died in Krasnoyarsk. He got 70% of skin burns, a source in the main territorial investigation department of the Russian Investigation Committee told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.
MOSCOW — Three police from Moscow's Khoroshevo-Menvniki district have been detained on suspicion of murder, the press service of the Interior Ministry's department for Moscow told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.
MOSCOW — Moscow's Presnya district court sentenced former director of the Energomash group Alexander Stepanov to 4.5 years in prison, finding him guilty of attempted 12-billion-rouble fraud and exceeding his authority, the investigation department of the Interior Ministry told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.
BELOKURIKHA, Altai territory — The Youth Forum of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization has opened in Russia’s Altai Territory. It brings together around 300 young business people from Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Iran, India and Pakistan.
KIEV — The ruling Party of Regions is leading the Ukrainian parliamentary polls after 99 percent of ballots have been counted, the Central Election Commission said on Wednesday, October 31.
KIEV — Ukraine’s prosecution has opened five criminal cases on violations during the parliamentary elections, including those on bribing the electorate, press service of the authority said on Wednesday, adding that the cases were opened in Crimea, in Chernovtsy and Lugansk regions.
MINSK — Belarus following Russia’s example will reduce the export duties on oil and oil products. According to a statement issued by the Council of Ministers, as of November 1, 2012, the export duty on crude oil will be decreased from 418.9 U.S. dollars per tonne to 404.5 U.S. dollars per tonne.
BISHKEK — The leader of the parliamentary opposition of Kyrgyzstan, Kamchybek Tashiyev, who is accused of attempted seizure of power, will be released. His lawyer Ikramidin Aitkulov told Itar-Tass on Wednesday that the republic’s Prosecutor General’s Office has decided to release Tashiyev under house arrest.
BANGKOK — An Indonesian court on Bali has sentenced a Russian citizen to eleven years in prison for drugs trafficking. The defendant was implicated in an attempt of transportation of almost 700 grams of hashish in his stomach in a bid to deceive the Customs.