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News summary for November 15

Main news of the day

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin has formed the RF Presidential Commission for the development of general aviation. The relevant presidential decree is published on the Kremlin website on Thursday.

The Commission was established to coordinate the activities of federal bodies of executive authority, bodies of executive authority of the Russian Federation subjects, local self-government bodies and organizations for the formation of the unified state policy in the sphere of general aviation, the development of the strategy and programs for the development of general aviation.

 

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin has included Chief of the General Staff of the Russia Armed Forces - First Deputy Defence Minister Valery Gerasimov in the RF Security Council, excluding from it Nikolai Makarov.

 

MOSCOW — The Russian national health care development program was submitted for finalizing, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said at a government’s meeting on Thursday.

“Let’s give some time for finalizing,” he noted. “We have the expenditures set for three next years, we should monitor the real situation in the economy,” the prime minister explained. “As for an innovative scenario, the modernization of the health care system, it will be impossible to do with budget funding,” he said. “It is needed to be oriented at an advanced scenario of health care development, our people will not just understand another one,” Medvedev noted.

A state program on the development of the health service sets forth two main tasks - to lower death rates and increase life expectancy, Dmitry Medvedev stressed.

The program envisages structural transformations in the health service until 2015 and development of the investment potential since 2016 until 2020. We are being guided by these parameters which will be assessed by the key figures - lower death rates and longer life expectancy, Medvedev said.

Another task is to ensure priority of disease prevention and a healthy way of life and reinforce and improve ambulance brigades, Medvedev said. Ensuring children’s health is also a very essential priority, he stressed. The salaries of medical workers will continue to grow, the prime minister added.

The state program Development of the Healthcare System has been approved under the modernisation scenario on the results of a meeting of the Russian government. Its financial follow-up within the framework of the search for additional funding will be held in 2013-2014, Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova told a briefing on Thursday.

 

MOSCOW — The first shares of Rosneft will be acquired by BP in 2013 within privatisation, Vice-Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said.

In an interview with Le Figaro on Thursday, Dvorkovich said, “We will not give up partial privatisation of Rosneft. The first shares will be purchased by BP in 2013.”

The vice-prime minister confirmed that the government’s policy was to reduce the state’s share in the economy. “It is important for the state that this sale would allow us to raise Rosneft stocks in order to buy the part of them,” he added.

 

MOSCOW — Russia will be able to keep up the balance of the fuel market next year without petrol redeliveries from other countries, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak told reporters here on Thursday after the 11th meeting of the Russian-Serbian intergovernmental commission for trade, economic and scientific-technical cooperation.

Russia is planning to receive the petrol supplies starting from 2.5 million tonnes of fuel in the redeliveries of oil products from Belarus (Russian oil is delivered to that country – Itar-Tass), but this will be the supplies for special situations. “Without these supplies we have quite sufficient volumes for the production of oil products in Russia to keep up the well-balanced market,” the minister noted.

 

MOSCOW — Russia's gold and foreign exchange reserves tumbled by 3.7 billion dollars (or by 0.7 percent) from 526.4 billion dollars to 522.7 billion dollars as of November 2-9, the External and Public Relations Department of the Central Bank said on Thursday.

The level of gold and foreign exchange reserves totaled 498.649 billion dollars as at January 1.

 

MOSCOW — Russia’s Investigative Committee and Israel’s Internal Security Ministry have agreed on cooperation in the sphere of struggle against terrorist and extremist crimes, IC spokesman Vladimir Markin told Itar-Tass.

Markin said a memorandum of understanding was signed earlier in the day between the IC and the Ministry of Israel’s Internal Security.

“Within the framework of this memorandum the parties voiced the wish and intention to carry out cooperation in various spheres, including the struggle against terrorist and extremist crimes, human trafficking, illegal migration and financial and corruption crimes, as well as other areas of activity,” the IC spokesman said.

 

MOSCOW — The Collective Security Council will hold a meeting in Moscow on December 19 at which Kyrgyzstan will take over the rotating presidency of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), its Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha told reporters.

 

MOSCOW — Moscow will give a tough response to the USA's passing the Magnitsky bill, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich stated here on Tuesday.

"Such a move will inevitably influence the whole range of bilateral relations. We won't leave this anti-Russian initiative to introduce visa and financial sanctions against our country simultaneously with the cancellation of the Jackson-Vanik amendment without consequences," the diplomat underlined.

 

ASTANA — Kazakhstan will deliver 1.2 million tonnes of oil to Russia to indemnify the Russian losses from duty-free oil supplies this year, director of the Astana branch of the Pavlodar petrochemical plant Konstantin Drobyshev said on Thursday.

 

VIENNA — Georgia has not taken concrete steps yet to normalise relations with Russia, secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev told Itar-Tass on Wednesday, November 14.

“Relations between our countries spoilt on the initiative of Georgia. That is why steps towards normalising relations should be taken primarily by Georgia,” Patrushev said.

“These steps envision deeds and not words. We hear many words when they pronounce on the air, but there are no concrete deeds,” he stressed.

 

SOFIA — Bulgaria has signed a new long-term contract for supplies of Russia gas, Prime Minister Boyko Boris told a news conference in Sofia here on Thursday.

The contract envisions a decrease in the price of natural gas by 20 percent, in the first place due to direct supplies without intermediaries. "The price of gas supplies to Bulgaria is the lowest for the countries of this category /Central Europe - eds Itar-Tass/," said Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller, adding that the company had decreased the price for future strategic partnership in the gas sphere.

 

TBILISI — Several senior police officials have been detained on charges of obtaining information about citizen's private life by using modern technologies, Georgian Justice Minister Tea Tsulukiani told reporters here on Thursday.

"Nine persons have been detained, including former Interior Ministry officials," Tsulukiani said.

 

MINSK — Russian companies are expected to supply 5 million tons of crude oil to Belarus in the 4th quarter of 2012 in line with an agreement reached at the level of the two countries’ Prime Ministers, Belarusian Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich said Thursday.

“There’s no overdramatizing the situation when it comes to the energy sphere,” he said. “Russia and Belarus have signed the agreement on supplies of crude in the 4th quarter.”

 

KIEV — The average weighted price of Russia’s natural gas in the 4th quarter of this year, being imported under a contract between Naftogaz Ukrainy and Gazprom is about 430 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters, the Ukrainian company’s press-service has said.

In contrast to the third quarter (426 dollars) the price of gas is up four dollars to 0.94 percent.

According to the conditions of the supplementary agreement to the base contract the price of gas is determined with due regard for the 100-dollar discount for 1,000 cubic meters, Naftogaz recalled.

 

KIEV — Amendments to the law on election to Ukraine’s parliament, proposed by the ruling Party of Regions, are not to the liking either of the Central Elections Commission (CEC) or of the opposition.

The draft, specifically, envisages including among the reasons for runoff elections the impossibility of establishing verified election results in precincts. The draft also proposes that runoff elections in majority precincts should be held not later than in 30 days since the CEC decision that it is impossible to establish verified election results.