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News summary for December 5

All the headlines from the day's news

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin will deliver his state-of-the-nation address to the Federal Assembly in the Kremlin on December 12, the press service of the head of state reported on Wednesday.

 

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law on the federal budget for 2013 and the planned 2014-2015 period, the Kremlin press service said on Wednesday.

The State Duma adopted the federal budget in the third reading on November 23 and the Federation Council unanimously voted for it on November 28.

In 2013 the federal budget’s revenues will total 12.8659 trillion roubles (one U.S. dollar is equal to 30.9 roubles), spending – 13.3873 trillion roubles and deficit – 521.4 billion roubles.

In 2014 these figures will respectively stand at 14.0634 trillion roubles, 14.207 trillion roubles and 143.6 billion roubles and in 2015 – at 15.6155 trillion roubles, 15.626 trillion roubles and 10.8 billion roubles.

The 2013 forecast of the GDP makes up 66.515 trillion roubles, of inflation – 5.5 percent and the dollar rate – 32.4 roubles. In 2014 the GDP will reach 73.993 trillion roubles, the inflation rate – 5 percent and the dollar rate – 33 roubles. In 2015 these figures will reach respectively 82.937 trillion roubles, 5 percent and 33.7 roubles.

 

MOSCOW — President Putin has signed an amended bill which suspends indexation of salaries to military servants and policemen until 2014, the Kremlin press service said on Wednesday.

The amended bill signed by the president suspends until January 1, 2014 a number of clauses of the existing bills "On social guarantees to policemen" and "On salaries to military servants" which envisage indexation of salaries to armed forces and police personnel depending on inflation rates.

 

ASHGABAT — The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) should cease to promote the interests of separate countries, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting of the Council of CIS Heads of States in a narrow format here on Wednesday.

“It is no less important to intensify the coordination on topical issues of the OSCE activities. The current situation in the organization unfortunately does not instil any optimism. It is high time for the OSCE a long time ago to cease to promote the interests of separate countries and to focus attention on uniting agendas,” Putin said.

 

ASHGABAT — Russia intends to protect the position of the CIS states at G-20 and G-8 summits in Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting of the Council of CIS Heads of State in a narrow format here on Wednesday.

 

ASHGABAT — President Vladimir Putin said Russia welcomes Uzbekistan's decision to join the free trade zone agreement within the CIS framework and urges other CIS states to take the same position. He was speaking at a meeting of the Council of CIS leaders on Wednesday.

 

ASHGABAT — Russian President Vladimir Putin urged the CIS states to engage in the implementation of the project of the global navigation satellite system GLONASS.

“The fulfilment of the capabilities of this system will also give major advantages in the economic sphere, because this will cut the expenses, which are related with the freight transportation in all transport systems, and will certainly result in a tougher security on all types of transport,” Putin said at a meeting of the Council of CIS Heads of States in a narrow format in Ashgabat on Wednesday.

 

ASHGABAT — CIS leaders signed two dozen documents at their summit in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, on Wednesday, December 5.

These include an agreement on cooperation in the field of organising an integrated currency market of the CIS member state; an agreement on the creation of a council of heads of financial intelligence services of the CIS member states’ an agreement on cooperation in the training of specialists for anti-terrorist units;; an agreement on cooperation in the field of logical support to the bodies that combat terrorism.

In addition, CIS leaders signed decisions on the preparation of celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of the Victory in the 1941–1945 Great Patriotic War; on the proclamation of 2013 Year of Ecological Culture and Environmental Protection in the CIS; and on promising areas of the development of the Joint Air Defence System of the CIS member states.

CIS leaders also signed protocol decisions to hold the next summit in Belarus in October 2013 and to extend CIS Executive Secretary Sergei Lebedev’s term of office until the end of 2016.

 

ASHGABAT — CIS leaders vowed to develop cooperation with the Commonwealth.

They acclaimed the Commonwealth’s activities and stated their “aspiration to develop mutually advantageous and multifaceted cooperation further”.

“The creation of the CIS was brought about by the objective necessity to preserve traditional humanitarian, economic and other ties in the historical conditions pertaining to the formation of new independent states, which predetermined the viability of the Commonwealth as an authoritarian regional organisation,” the declaration adopted at the summit on Wednesday, December 5, said.

 

ASHGABAT — Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed the start of the work to draft an agreement on free trade in services.

“This initiative was put forth by our Ukrainian colleagues. I believe that its implementation will bring real benefits to each state and create new possibilities for building effective economies ties,” Putin said at a meeting of the Council of CIS Heads of State on Wednesday, December 5.

Also, another step towards stronger economic ties will be taken during the day, he added, referring to an agreement on cooperation in the field or organising an integrated currency market in the CIS.

 

ASHGABAT — Belarus will assume the presidency of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) on January 1, 2013, Turkmenistani President Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov said.

“The decision has been made that the presidency in the Commonwealth of Independent States will pass on to the Republic of Belarus from January 1, 2013,” he said at a meeting of the Council of CIS Heads of State on Wednesday, December 5.

 

ASHGABAT — A next CIS summit will be held in Belarus in October 2013, CIS Executive Secretary Sergei Lebedev said on Wednesday.

 

BISHKEK — Prime ministers of member-states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization have coordinated a plan to develop the SCO project activities until 2016 and signed a decision on setting up the Development Fund and Development Bank within the SCO.

They also approved the SCO budget for 2013 and put their signatures under the joint communique.

SCO delegation members signed an agreement on cooperation in the liquidation of emergencies and a memorandum on cooperation among SCO customs services on copyright protection.

 

BISHKEK — Muratbek Imanaliyev, who occupied the post of the general secretary of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), stated officially about the handover of his powers to Russian representative Dmitry Mezentsev at a meeting of the Council of SCO Heads of Governments here on Wednesday.

 

BISHKEK — The protocol to the intergovernmental agreement of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) on mutual assistance in emergencies, signed on Wednesday after a meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Organisation, can raise the level of interaction of the relevant agencies, Minister of Emergency Situations of Russia (EMERCOM) Vladimir Puchkov said.

 

BISHKEK — Russia will provide a $25 million financial aid to Kyrgyzstan.

Russia’s Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak and Kyrgyzstan’s Finance Minister Olga Lavrova signed the relevant agreement on Wednesday in the presence of the two countries’ prime ministers.

 

KRASNOGORSK (Moscow Region) — Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu at a meeting on military medicine problems held here on Wednesday gave instructions to allocate before January 15, 2013 an additional 1.4 billion roubles for the purchase of high-technology medical equipment for the RF Armed Forces.

The minister instructed the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces to submit jointly with the main military medical department by December 25 proposals for the improvement of the healthcare system of the Armed Forces and on additional medical staff for formations and units selected from among graduates of higher and secondary medical education establishments.

Shoigu also gave instructions to consider by February 1, 2013 the issue of inclusion of medical departments in military academies. The Navy Commander by the same date has been instructed to submit proposals on the commissioning of hospital vessels.

 

MOSCOW — Coastal defence troops of Russia’s Baltic Fleet will take part in the Zapad (West) 2013 strategic exercises, Baltic Fleet spokesman Captain 2nd Rank Vladimir Matveyev told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.

 

MOSCOW — Russia and China are expected to sign on Thursday an agreement on the construction of the second stage (third and fourth power units) of the Tianwan nuclear power plant (NPP), Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan said on Wednesday in the format of the 9th meeting of the Russia-China Energy Dialog.

 

MOSCOW — The board of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EurAsEc) decided to extend the effect of an anti-dumping measure for the antifriction bearings from the Chinese People’s Republic (including Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao) at 41.5% of customs duty until September 17, 2013. This decision was posted at the website of the Eurasian Economic Commission on Wednesday.

The anti-dumping duty is set at 31.3% of customs duty for the antifriction bearings supplier in Wuxi.

 

MOSCOW — Russia’s Foreign Ministry has issued a report on human rights in the European Union.

The Russian Foreign Ministry’s human rights envoy, Konstantin Dolgov, made a presentation of the document at a news conference in Moscow on Wednesday.

“This is the first report specially focusing on the European Union,” he said. “But this is not the first time when we draw attention to the EU problems (with human rights). We continue to actively monitor the situation on a permanent basis.”

 

MOSCOW — Volkswagen Group Rus has become the largest investor in the Russian automotive industry, a member of Volkswagen AG board, Michael Macht, told a news conference devoted to the preliminary results of the company’s operation in Russia on Wednesday.

He said “investment in the Russian automotive industry has reached one billion euros and in 2013 the concern will inject another 840 million euros in this industry of the Russian economy.”

 

MOSCOW — Russia is ready to increase electricity supplies to China by 50 percent in 2014, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich told reporters on Wednesday.

In his words, China should analyse its demands in Russia’s electricity, but “our country is ready to raise electricity supplies to that country by ten percent already next year and by 50 percent in 2014.”

Dvorkovich reaffirmed that Russia’s electricity export to China will make up 2.6 billion kilowatt hours this year.

 

MOSCOW — Russia and Israel have approved a joint programme for the development of tourism in 2013–2014.

The document was signed on Wednesday, December 5, by the head of the Russian Tourism Agency (Rostourism), Alexander Radkov, and Deputy Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Tourism Oren Drori, at a plenary session of the Russian-Israeli Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation that was held in Jerusalem.

Rostourism said that the programme will help strengthen mutual cooperation and better tap the tourist potential of the two countries.

 

MOSCOW — The first Chinese cultural centre has been opened in Moscow.

According to Liu Yandong, the centre has become a new platform for humanitarian exchanges and proves “considerable attention from the governments of both countries to step up cultural relations”. “The Russian culture centre was opened in Beijing in September 2010 and became an important window for mutual relationship. The Moscow and Beijing centres will make special contribution to friendly relations between the peoples of our countries,” she noted.

 

MOSCOW — Russia’s consumer prices continued growing in a week from November 27 to December 3 and edged up by 0.1 percent, the Federal State Statistics Service said in a regular report on Wednesday, adding that the indicator has grown by 6.1 percent since the beginning of the year. The weekly inflation is at the level 0.1 percent fifth week in a row.

 

ST. PETERSBURG — Potential cargo haulage capability of the Northern Sea Route stands at 5 to 6 million tons a year in the Eastern sector and 2 to 3 million tons in the Western sector, Russia’s Deputy Minister of Transport Sergei Aristov told an international Arctic conference underway here.

 

MOSCOW — Russia has handed over its Chinese partners an intergovernmental draft agreement on the construction of the Tianjin oil refinery, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich told reporters on Wednesday.

 

MOSCOW — The Ob River liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier chartered by Gazprom Group successfully completed the world’s first LNG supply via the Northern Sea Route on Wednesday, December 5.

The carrier left the Port of Hammerfest (Norway) on November 7 and arrived at the re-gasification terminal in the Port of Tobata (Japan) delivering a Gazprom Group-owned LNG cargo to Japanese consumers, the Russian company said on Wednesday, December 5.

 

MOSCOW — Russia will finance a high-level thematic discussion to be hosted by the U.N. Human Rights Council in connection with the 20th anniversary of the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna.

The discussion is scheduled to take place at the 22nd session of the Council to be held in Geneva in February-March 2013.

 

MINSK — Belarus and the Kaliningrad region have adopted the new plan of cooperation for 2013. Belarussian Prime Minister Mikhail Myanikovich and Governor of the Kaliningrad region Nikolai Tsukanov signed the document after their meeting on Tuesday.

“This is a plan of specific actions which will help develop the region and, undoubtedly, improve relations with Belarus,” Tsukanov said. He said the plan envisages measures for the development of the agrarian sector, participation of Belarussian companies in the construction of infrastructural facilities, specifically, road construction. There is also a separate point envisaging the possibility of the Belarussian side participating in the construction and, later, in the operation of a new sea port.

 

ASHGABAT — Acting Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov has good chance of retaining the post, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich said on Wednesday, December 5.

 

KIEV — The Ukrainian state budget for 2013 was drafted proceeding from a price of 421 U.S. dollars per 1,000 cubic metres of Russia’s gas, Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Vladimir Makukha said on Wednesday.

“In case of the gas price decline, the budget will be updated,” he said, adding, “But now, the price was established at 421 U.S. dollars per 1,000 cubic metres.”

This price is four U.S. dollars more than the price, which was declared in the parliament on Tuesday. An average cost for imported natural gas for Ukraine, which is envisaged by the state budget for 2013, is projected at 417 U.S. dollars per 1,000 cubic metres, Chairman of the parliamentary faction Party of Regions Alexander Yefremov said during Tuesday’s meeting of the parliament.

 

BAKU — Russia and Azerbaijan plan to sign in 2013 an agreement on cooperation in the sphere of labour migration, Russian Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Protection Tatyana Blinova told reporters in Baku on Wednesday.