MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin urged ministries and agencies involved in the preparation of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014 to bring their projects to completion.
The process involves tens of thousands of people and more than 80 percent of funding provided for the Olympic Games will be invested in infrastructure in Sochi and south of Russia.
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin on December 10 will meet with his electioneering agents who actively supported him during the election campaign, the Kremlin’s press-service said.
This is going to be Putin’s first meeting with his representatives since inauguration. Before, electioneering agents were selected only for the period of the election campaign. From now on the institution of electioneering agents will become a permanent feedback channel between the president and society throughout the term of office.
MOSCOW — The institution of presidential agents (or proxies) will remain throughout Vladimir Putin’s presidential term, presidential press-secretary Dmitry Peskov said at a meeting between the presidential agents and representatives of executive and legislative bodies of power.
He said “the paradigm of the presidential proxy is changing.”
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin will raise the subject of Russia’s state ideology in his annual state of the nation address on December 12, Oleg Morozov, head of the Kremlin administration’s domestic policy department, said on Sunday at a meeting with Putin’s proxies.
MOSCOW — Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a resolution to approve a program of fundamental scientific researches of the state academies of sciences for 2013–2020, the Russian governmental press service reported on Friday.
The program spelled out the principles and mechanisms of fundamental scientific researches, which the state academies of sciences will conduct.
The program includes the plans for fundamental scientific researches of the state academies of sciences with the list of the trends of the fundamental scientific researches, the allocations from the federal budget for their implementation and the indicators for the efficiency of the fulfilment of the foresaid plans in each state academy of sciences.
MOSCOW — Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a resolution to submit the bills on Russian business rights commissioners and on the amendments in several Russian regulatory acts over the draft law on business rights commissioners.
The bills determine the legal status, main tasks and the powers of the Russian presidential business rights commissioner and regional business rights commissioners, the Russian governmental press service reported.
The main tasks of the business rights commissioner will be the protection of rights and legitimate interests of business entities; the control over the observance of their rights and legitimate interests by the state authorities and local self-government bodies; the promotion of development of public institutions, which should protect the rights of business entities; cooperation with the business community and the participation in the making and fulfilment of the state policy in the development of business activities and the protection of the rights of business entities.
MOSCOW — Warships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet return after the Mediterranean trip to their bases, a source of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces told Itar-Tass on Saturday.
The large landing ships Novocherkassk and Saratov were passing through the Black Sea straits and in a few hours were expected to come into the Black Sea, the source said.
The ships are planned to arrive in Novorossiisk on December 10.
KAZAN — The Aeroflot airline has become an official air carrier of the 27th World University Games to be held in Kazan in 2013.
Under the partner agreement with the Kazan 2013 Executive Directorate, Aeroflot will transport athletes, sport judges, organisers and other participants of the summer university games.
MOSCOW — Russia’s Finance Ministry plans to guarantee yields on infrastructure bonds at a level of 1–1.5% above inflation, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told the media.
Infrastructural bonds are issued by private corporations or public companies to finance infrastructural construction projects. As a rule the bond issuer gets the right to operate the facility under a concession agreement once the construction work is over.
MOSCOW — Russia has no reasons to believe that Syria is going to use chemical weapons, Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev told the media on Sunday.
“We do know that Syria has chemical weapons. The Syrian government has promised us that it will not permit its proliferation. We have no evidence there may be some problems with chemical weapons,” he said.
MOSCOW — Russia is not conducting any talks on the future of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday.
MOSCOW — Moscow is prepared for sensible steps, accommodating people’s interests, for normalizing relations with Georgia, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a meeting with Vladimir Putin’s authorized proxies with representatives of the legislative and executive bodies of power.
MOSCOW — Moscow will host a meeting with the Georgian prime minister’s special representative in the near future, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a meeting with Vladimir Putin’s authorized proxies on Sunday.
“We see an extended hand in the economic sphere, in matters that are of practical interest to Georgia. But also there remains a harsh policy and reluctance to see the new reality. We would like to clear up the context of our Georgian neighbors’ interest,” Lavrov said.
MOSCOW — Russia’s ministry of finance is not planning to introduce a progressive taxation scale, instead it plans to modernize taxation of transactions on financial markets and expensive property, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Sunday.
MOSCOW — Russia is working on new types of strategic weapons, including liquid-fuelled missiles, head of the Kremlin administration Sergei Ivanov said on Sunday at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin’s proxies.
MOSCOW — Sales of military property is to be outside competences of the ministry of defence, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Sunday.
“We believe that sales of military property is the domain of the Russian State Property Management Agency,” he said at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin proxies. “Please relieve us of this function,” since the key job of the defence ministry is to “build armed forces.”
MOSCOW — Russia’s GDP growth in 2012 might reach 3.5–3.6 percent, Russian Minister of Economic Development Andrei Belousov said on Sunday.
“This year we will reach 3.5 or 3.6 percent, and, according to optimistic forecasts, next year we will near four percent,” he said at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin’s proxies.
MOSCOW — Official unemployment in Russia went up by 1.56 percent in November to exceed one million people, the press service of the Russian ministry of labor and social policy reported.
"In the period from October 25 to November 28, 2012, the number of the unemployed registered with employment services went up by 1.56 percent, or by 15,489 people due to the seasonal factor. So, as of November 28, 2012, the number of the jobless was one million and 7,809 people," the ministry said.
Nonetheless, the number of the unemployed went down in 30 Russian regions in this period.
MOSCOW — The All-Russia Popular Front will convene a founding congress in May or June next year, first deputy head of the Kremlin administration Vyacheslav Volodin said on Sunday at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin’s election agents.
The Front is preparing a founding conference that might be held in May or June, he said. Now, the Front is establishing steering committees in Russian regions.
Volodin reiterated that in terms of organizational and legal status, the Front will be a public movement. “It will be a supra-partisan structure,” he said. Now it incorporates a number of parties, including the ruling United Russia party and Patriots of Russia.
MOSCOW — Russia’s ministry of finance does not plan to change the structure of the country’s gold and currency reserves, Minister Anton Siluanov said on Sunday at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin’s proxies.
“We have a well-balances basket of placement of the gold and currency reserves. Currently, neither the finance ministry nor the Central Bank plan to make any changes to its structure,” he noted.
MOSCOW — Net capital drain from Russian is 2012 might reach 60 billion U.S. dollars, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Sunday at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin’s proxies.
According to the minister, the capital flight is 2012 is expected to be less than in 2011.
KIEV — Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovich has nominated Nikolai Azarov for the post of Prime Minister and submitted his candidature to the Verkhovna Rada, or parliament, the presidential website reported on Sunday.
YEREVAN — The next presidential elections in Armenia will be held on February 18, 2013, Central Election Commission Chairman Tigran Mukuchyan said on Saturday, December 8.
TBILISI — Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili said on Saturday that President Mikhail Saakashvili and his team had demanded the release of several imprisoned members of their party in exchange for appointing new ambassadors to foreign countries.
BAKU — The Fourth International Mstislav Rostropovich Festival will take place in Moscow on March 27 – April 3, 2013, Olga Rostropovich, the maestro’s daughter and the president of the Rostropovich Fund, told a news conference in Baku on Saturday.
DUSHANBE — Tajikistan will officially join the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Monday. Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rakhmon will take part in the ceremony at the WTO Geneva office, the press service of the Tajik head of state said on Sunday.
“The president of Tajikistan, who is currently on a working visit to Switzerland, will speak at a meeting of the General Council of the World Trade Organization,” the press service said. “Emomali Rakhmon has played a decisive role in the process of many-years’ talks on Tajikistan’s accession of the World Trade Organization.”