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News summary for November, 29

Main events of the day

NOVO-OGARYOVO – President Vladimir Putin criticized the work by the Ministry for Developing the Far East.

"The Ministry has not fulfilled its purpose," the head of state stated. The federal goal-oriented programs that are being implementing in eastern territories were handed over by the Regional Development Ministry to the Ministry for Developing the Far East only from November 13.

"As a result, we have erosion of responsibility and failures in work.

"We have to create a control system which would conform precisely to the purpose of accelerated development of eastern territories. Specifically, the idea of a state corporation was discussed. I know not everybody shares this approach," the president said adding that he was ready to discuss the issue again.

He also urged the government not to let it come to sanctions and fulfill on time the instructions to develop the Far East.

 

NOVO-OGARYOVO – President Vladimir Putin suggested setting the rate of the federal part of the profit tax at zero in the first decade of operation of new businesses, the so-called greenfields in the Far East and the Baikal region.

It should apply to industrial companies with the amount of investments of at least 500 million roubles, the head of state said at a meeting of the State Council presidium on Thursday.

 

NOVO-OGAREVO – Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that it was necessary to create comfortable working and living conditions for people in the Far East. The president considers it to be crucial for the development of the Far Eastern region.

“All our plans in the economic sector have one major goal to create attractive and comfortable conditions for life and work,” Putin said.

“It’s necessary to develop mortgage programs and allocate free land allotments for the construction of low-rise housing and launch new schools, kindergartens, stadiums and other social facilities in operation on time according to schedule,” the Russian president said.

 

MOSCOW – Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev considers dismissal of Anatoly Serdukov correct, but, in his opinion, results of the inspection at the defence ministry may be qualified as a crime by the court only.

 

MOSCOW – Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said the government continues work on the programme to 2018, which would contain ‘value guidelines.’

“I would not like to forestall presentation of the programme, as the work continues. I doubt you may expect me to announce something unexpected. I believe we should follow the values this country has, so to say, obtained through sufferings,” the prime minister said in an interview with the Kommersant.

 

MOSCOW – Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev does not see as realistic settlement of the US anti ballistic missile defence problem.

“There are issues, where we (Russia and the US) are strictly at variance – they are European ABM, and whoever is Russia’s head, the position is unlikely to change,” he said in an interview with the Kommersant.

 

MOSCOW – Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is against a merger of Moscow and the Moscow Region into one territory. In an interview with the Kommersant he called merger of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region more realistic.

“If you ask me, I am saying directly: it is too much for our state,” he said. “20 million /Moscow and the Region/ – is a seventh part of the country; I think it is difficult for management, though similar ideas are probable to arise.”

 

MOSCOW – Russia is interested in the growing number of international reserve currencies, as they balance the system. The current crisis in the euro zone will be overcome, Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview with the Kommersant.

“I am also sure, that emerging markets, and the Russian Federation is among those, will cope, too: the question is in the price.”

 

MOSCOW – The Russian government has set as the top priority to stabilize the demographic trends and increase the population of the country, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said at a meeting of the government on Saturday.

Despite the natural growth of the population, the demography is among the achievements and challenges, he said. “The top priority is to make the demographic trends more stable. We can stabilize the population of the country at 142-143 million people by 2015 despite current negative forecasts and provide for a longer expected life span to 74 years by 2018,” he said. The relevant state programs pursue this goal, Medvedev stated.

 

MOSCOW – It is planned to discuss at least 20 bills in the format of the so-called Open Government, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday at a government meeting.

“At least 20 bills are in the plans for this format and I will take an active part in these discussions,” he said. “I think that all members of the government should do the same.” He also noted that some of the bills to be discussed by the Open Government were “offered for nationwide voting within the framework of the 100,000 Citizen Initiative.”

 

MOSCOW – The government of the Russian Federation expects to gain 380,000 million roubles from the privatization of state property in 2013, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told a government meeting here on Thursday.

He said privatization is not just a mechanism for alienation of state property but is also an economic-policy vector. "It is understandable that a private entrepreneur and an owner must be on the whole more interested in the development of their business," Medvedev said.

 

MOSCOW – Losses from cybercrimes exposed in Russia in 2012 exceeds 70 million roubles, head of Russia’s interior ministry department, Alexei Moshkov, said on Thursday at an international conference dedicated to the fight against fraud in the area of high technologies Antifraud Russia-2012.

 

MOSCOW – Moscow's Zamoskvorechye court on Thursday ruled that Pussy Riot videos were extremist and restricted access to them. The court thereby met the prosecutor's petition.

Access was restricted to practically all the punk group's videos, including the notorious punk prayer at the Christ the Savior Church, which made groundwork for criminal prosecution of three Pussy Riot activists.

 

MOSCOW – A draft strategy of the development of the pension reform in Russia will be submitted to the government by December 15, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets said on Thursday.

“We hope that the strategy will be submitted to the Russian government before December 15,” she told journalists after a meeting of the government. “The final edition of the draft strategy is now being agreed by ministries and agencies concerned.”

 

MOSCOW – The Russian government has approved a state program for social support of the population in general, although some of its aspects, such as those related to the maternity capital and funding of children’s summer vacationing, need further elaboration, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets said on Thursday.

 

MOSCOW - - Russia’s federal subsoil resources agency Rosnedra has issued to the country’s top oil company Rosneft a license for geological survey, exploration and development of hydrocarbons at the Severo Pomorsky-2 and Pomorsky offshore deposits in the Barents Sea.

The license expires on November 23, 2042.

Rosneft received these deposits at the government’s decision without tenders and actions.

 

MOSCOW – More than 50,000 people have resettled to Russia this year under a state-run program of return of compatriots residing abroad.

“A total of 50,200 compatriots have moved to live in Russia in the first eleven months of this year,” Vitaly Yakovlev, the head of department for the affairs of compatriots of the Russian Federal Migration Service, told parliamentary hearings at the Russian Federation Council, the upper chamber of the Russian Federal Assembly (parliament), on Thursday.

 

MUMBAI – The first Russian language class in western India has been opened in the City International School in Mumbai, the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra, the school’s director, Nikhil Vagh, told Itar-Tass on Thursday.

Over 90 students expressed their intention to study the Russian language, but the school’s administration hoped that their number would increase in the near future.