KALININGRAD — The Vikramaditya aircraft carrier (formerly Russia’s The Admiral Gorshkov) will be handed over to India in the middle of next year, the vice-president of the United Shipbuilding Corporation, Sergei Forafonov, told the media in Kaliningrad. He took part in the ceremony of the transfer to the Indian Navy of another frigate (The Tarkash), build at the Baltic shipyards Yantar.
“The negotiations with the Indian side are practically over. The Vikramaditya aircraft carrier will be handed over to the customer in the middle of 2013 after the insulation of boilers has been replaced,” Forafonov said.
MOSCOW — The Collective Security Organization member-countries are bracing for a worsening of the situation in Afghanistan following the walkout of the coalition force, CSTO Secretary-General Nikolai Bordyuzha said at a meeting of the working group on Afghanistan at the CSTO Foreign Ministers’ Council on Friday.
“The CSTO Secretariat has drafted an original version of the document previewing the march of events in Afghanistan,” Bordyuzha said. “It incorporates our forecast of how the situation may be changing in 2013-2014 and identifies the need for formulating proposals for specific measures to be taken in case the negative scenario materializes.”
The Collective Security Treaty Organization member-countries have no plans for moving their forces into Afghanistan in case of a worsening of the situation there, Nikolai Bordyuzha said.
“We have not discussed that issue yet. We are not discussing it, and I hope that we shall never be discussing it,” he said. “We considered the external threat and the implementation of measures that might prevent these threats on the border.”
MOSCOW — The Russian government will not be able to reduce inflation drastically by 2020, Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Klepach told the media on Friday.
In his opinion, inflation will be going down, but not as quickly as everybody would like it to.
In accordance with the long-term forecast of Russia’s social and economic development up to 2030 the Economic Development Ministry has drafted inflation in 2016-2020 will stand at 5 percent, in 2021-2025, at 3.7 percent, and in 2026-2030, at 2.6 percent.
MOSCOW — Revenues of Russia’s federal budget from privatisation in 2012 are expected at 58 billion roubles instead of planned 300 billion roubles, First Deputy Finance Minister Tatyana Nesterenko told the State Duma’s committee on budget and taxes on Saturday.
“We are not expecting the forecasted revenues from privatisation,” she said during discussion of addendums to the federal budget for the current year. “We had forecasted 300 billion roubles, and we expect 58 billion roubles, and as of November 1 we have received about 19 billion roubles, and the Ministry of Economic Development confirms about 58.7 billion roubles would be received before the yearend.”
MOSCOW — Head of the State Duma’s commission on control over revenues of the deputies Vladimir Vasilyev elected leader of the United Russia faction at the parliament.
During the alternative ballot vote, his candidature received support from 136 members of the faction, the calculating commission told Itar-Tass on Saturday. His rivals Vadim Bulavinov and Eugene Fedorov received 18 and nine votes respectively, and one ballot was considered invalid.
The United Russia faction has 238 deputies. In order to win, Vasilyev was to be supported by simple majority of the vote.
ST PETERSBURG — The Russian government has set a serious task to change approaches and standards for education in music and art in secondary school, Vice-Prime Minister Olga Golodets said.
Speaking at the First St Petersburg International Cultural Forum on Saturday, Golodets said the standards should be worked out within 2013.
In 2014-2015 specialists are planning to be trained in order to switch to a new system of humanitarian education in secondary school. This is extremely important because education is the priority task in the programme for cultural development, the vice-prime minister said.
Golodets noted that at present, every Russian pupil spent only 291 hours.
ST PETERSBURG — The Culture Ministry and the Federation Council have supported the government’s initiative on toughening punishment for damage and demolition of federal and regional historical monuments.
This initiative has been discussed at the St Petersburg International Cultural Forum.
BEIRUT — Iraq has called off several contracts with Russia in the military-technical cooperation following a demand from the anti-corruption commission.
During the second half of the current year, Moscow and Bagdad signed a series of contracts in military-technical sphere worth over 4.2 billion dollars, which became known before the early-October meeting of prime ministers of Russia and Iraq Dmitry Medvedev and Nouri al-Maliki.
MOSCOW — Rosobornexport refused to give any comments on the earlier information that Iraq called off several contracts with Russia in the military-technical cooperation, signed in October, where the total cost was about 4.2 billion dollars.
KIEV — Ukraine’s Anti-Monopoly Committee permits Russia’s Railroad Company to purchase a major logistics company – France’s GEFCO.
The permission was required due to the fact that the company’s subsidiary is working in the territory of Ukraine, Ukraine’s Anti-Monopoly Committee said in its report to Itar-Tass office in Kiev on Saturday.
KIEV — Leaders of Ukraine’s United Opposition Batkivshchyna, parties UDAR and Svoboda announced they would organise on November 12 near Ukraine’s Central Elections Commission protest rallies against falsifying of the parliamentary elections’ results.
KIEV — Ukraine's Central Election Commission on Saturday announced the final results of the October 28 parliamentary elections for the parties.
Representatives of five political forces will work in the new Supreme Rada, beginning December 17.
The ruling Party of Regions won most of the votes in the multi-seat constituency and has 72 seats. The second is the united opposition with 62 seats. Deputies of the party UDAR will take 34 seats in the parliaments. The right party Freedom has 25 seats, and the Communist Party receives 32.
The Ukrainian parliament has 450 seats, 225 of which are taken by deputies from party lists. The other 225 deputies are elected in the majoritarian constituencies. The Election Commission must announce the results of the country's entire constituency till November 12.
MOSCOW — General Designer of Russia’s GLONASS satellite navigation system Yuri Urlichich has been dismissed from his post, spokesperson for RF Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin who is in charge of the military-industrial complex, Lydia Mikhailova told Itar-Tass.
This personnel decision regarding Urlichich is apparently directly related to the exposed financial irregularities in the implementation of the GLONASS navigation project, which includes both the civilian and defence components.
MOSCOW — Last year, about 10 generals have been dismissed or denied promotion for submitting dubious income declarations, head of the Russian presidential administration Sergei Ivanov told the TV Channel One on Sunday.