MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that 2014-2015 would be a year of youth exchanges between Russia and China. The initiative was proposed by visiting Chinese President Xi Jiping.
“We are going to support this initiative. We will do everything to enable our young people to communicate freely, discuss joint projects and plan joint initiatives for historical perspective,” Putin said after talks with his Chinese counterpart.
MOSCOW – Russia and China will be able to bring reciprocal trade up to 100 billion dollars by 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday after talks with Chinese President Xi Jiping.
Reciprocal trade, Putin said, grew by 5.1% last year to reach almost 90 billion dollars. The Russian president believes the task of bringing it to 100 billion dollars by 2015 is quite realistic.
MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping opened Chinese Tourism Year in Russia.
Speaking at the ceremony at the Grand Kremlin Palace Putin said that Russian Tourism Year in China increased the number of Chinese tourists by nearly 50 percent.
MOSCOW – Chinese President Xi Jinping has become the first leader of a foreign country to visit the Operational Control Centre of the Russian Armed Forces.
The Chinese president visited the Centre on Saturday within his meeting with Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.
Chief of Russia’s General Staff Valery Gerasimov said: “Esteemed Mr. Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China, you are the first leader of a foreign state whom the doors of the Russian Armed Forces Operational Control Centre are opened.”
MOSCOW – China and Russia will continue to strengthen and develop their military, political and strategic relations, Chinese President Xi Jinping said at a meeting with Russian Defence Ministry Sergei Shoigu on Saturday, March 23.
“My visit to the Russian Defence Ministry is intended to indicate that military, political and strategic relations between the two countries will strengthen as will cooperation between the Armed Forces of Russia and China,” Xi said.
MOSCOW – Inter-parliamentary and inter-regional cooperation between Russia and China will develop dynamically, Federation Council spokesperson Valentina Matviyenko said.
Opening the talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday, Matviyenko said his visit to Russia “is the major political event”. “Your visit was extremely successful,” the Federation Council chairperson noted.
She believes, “Russian and Chinese political scientists do everything possible to preserve friendship between our countries and peoples and continue comprehensive strategic partnership in all fields”.
MOSCOW – The positions of Russia and China on missile defence coincide to a large extent, Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov said on Saturday.
Commenting on the results of the talks between Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Russian deputy defence minister said, “The Russian defence minister and the Chinese president noted the commonness of views on international security. Both parties voiced common concerns about missile defence and agreed to continue talks on this problem.”
Antonov said during the meeting, Shoigu and Xi Jinping “stressed the need to develop military and military-technical cooperation”. “I’d like to note that we maintain friendship with China to strengthen regional cooperation and ensure stability and global security,” he stressed.
MOSCOW – The fact that Russia is chosen for the first state visit by the new Chinese president indicates that Russia is a priority in China's foreign policy, State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin said during the meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday.
It is the first foreign visit by the new head of China. It is indicative of what priority importance is attached to relationship with Russia. For Russia, developing cooperation with the People's Republic of China is also a priority, he said.
MOSCOW – Firm relations between Russia and China are an important and reliable guarantee for the international balance and peace, Chinese President Xi Jinping said when speaking at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) on Saturday.
He said it was great pleasure for him to visit MGIMO. The university with its high scientific achievements and noted teachers is known all over the world. Many prominent people came out from the university, he added.
GORKI – Xi Jinping said during the meeting with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev that his first visit to Russia after he took office as president already achieved the goals, and the results were far beyond the expectations.
The Russian premier at the beginning of the meeting congratulated Xi on the election to the top post. "I would like to sincerely congratulate You on the election to the post of Chinese president, wish You great successes in the responsible work and express the hope that Your first visit to the Russian Federation will proceed on the highest level and will be marked with very good achievements, which already happens," Medvedev said.
MOSCOW – Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev extended the agreement with the United States on cooperation in the field of space exploration for peaceful purposes.
The agreement entered into force on June 17, 1992 and was extended three times in 1997, 2002 and 2007. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia has received the American on the extension of the Agreement until 2020 subject to appropriate amendment,” the prime minister said.
“The agreement is one of the main legal instruments to ensure conditions for Russian-American cooperation in the field of space exploration and use for peaceful purposes. Its extension serves the interests of Russia and will facilitate effective implementation of its space projects, including those aimed at exploring Moon and Mars, and exchange of data received with the help of Russian and American spacecraft,” the government press service said.
MOSCOW – Russia and China should always remain good neighbors, good friends and reliable partners, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Saturday when he addressed students at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO).
Firm relations between Russia and China are an important and reliable guarantee for the international balance and peace, the Chinese president noted.
MOSCOW – Russia’s multi-national computer security company Kaspersky Laboratory will be actively cooperating with the specialized Interpol division – INTERPOL Global complex for Innovation - in the struggle against cyber threats at the world level, the company’s press-service said in a press-release on Friday.
The agreement was achieved in the course of negotiations among Kaspersky Laboratory CEO Yevgeny Kaspersky, Interpol Secretary-General Ronald Noble and IGCI Executive Director Noboru Nakatani at the Kaspersky Laboratory head office in Moscow.
The Kaspersky Laboratory will provide extensive consultancy services to the IGCI in investigating cyber crimes and also delegate its specialists to the IGCI office in Singapore, due to open in 2014. Also, the company will back Interpol in its initiatives to expand the expertise of law enforcement agencies in countries around the world in fighting cyber threats and cyber criminals.
MURMANSK – The northern section of the Kola federal highway between Murmansk and the Russian-Norwegian border is still closed.
Traffic halted on the road on Friday morning due to bad weather conditions has not resumed yet. The snowstorm is continuing in the mountainous area. Road services cannot cope with the snow. Snowdrifts cover the road again shortly after it is cleared. Corridors are dug in the snow at some places.
NICOSIA – Cypriot President Nikos Anastasiades is ready to visit Russia as it possible, government spokesman Christos Stylianides said on Saturday.
Stylianides denied local mass media reports saying the Cypriot president would give up plans to visit Russia at the invitation of the country’s leadership.
MOSCOW – Russia’s Armed Forces laid the groundwork for up-to-date arms supplies for 10-15 years from now, chief of Russia’s General Staff Valery Gerasimov said.
The chief of Russia’s General Staff took part in Saturday’s meeting between Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“Today we’ve laid the groundwork for such arms supplies as the S-400 air defence systems, the Borei submarine and the Su-35 fighters for 10-15 years from now. The plants, which produce this hardware, are engaged with orders by 100 percent,” Gerasimov said.
MOSCOW – Chinese President Xi Jinping’s first foreign visit and his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin coincided in time with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s proposal to create an offshore zone in the Russian Far East. Moscow has clearly seen new opportunities associated with the rapid development of the Asia-Pacific Region. But it will not be easy for Russia to become a full participant in the rapid growth in that part of the world or even benefit from it.
MOSCOW – The Russian government has approved subsidies to regional air carriers in the North-Western, Siberian, Urals, and Far Eastern Federal Districts in the amount of 1.3 billion roubles.
The subsidies will cover 50 percent of air fare.
The Ministry of Transport has been instructed to “work out a model for developing regional passenger transportation with subsidies to airlines and charter new regional routes on the basis of key airports.”
The government also called for accelerated submission of a draft law aimed at lifting some of the restrictions on the work of foreign pilots in Russian airlines and giving more work to qualification status of foreigners hired to work as civil plane captains.
MOSCOW – Russia’s Security Council, which gathered in the president’s residence of Zavidovo on Saturday, touched on the economic situation in the eurozone with the focus on the Cypriot crisis and the outcome of the Russian-Chinese talks of March 22, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
The Security Council also riveted attention to the social and economic in Russia, as well as to international issues, Peskov said.
MOSCOW – Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who lived in London, died at 68, the entrepreneur’s relatives said on Saturday.
Berezovsky was born in Moscow on January 23, 1946. In 2000 he emigrated in Britain.
MOSCOW – Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky recognised in his letter to President Vladimir Putin that he had made many mistakes and asked for returning home, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday.
“Some time ago Berezovsky gave his own letter to Putin where he recognised that he had made many mistakes and begged pardon for his mistakes. Berezovsk also asked Putin for allowing the oligarch to return home,” Peskov said.
MOSCOW – The Investigation Committee said it did not rule out that criminal cases against Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky can be closed if official notification of the death is received.
“If the Investigation Committee receives official notification of the death of Boris Berezovsky from Britain, the criminal cases in relation to him can be closed whether his relatives give their consent,” Investigation Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin told Itar-Tass.
MOSCOW – Moscow will consider an address from the relatives of Boris Berezovsky over his possible burial in Russia, if such request is made, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said live on the television channel Dozhd, noting that he is unaware of an exact procedure in this concrete situation.
“If such address is made, but at first let’s wait for such address to be made, to whom it will be made and how it will be made, then probably Moscow will take a decision on the issue,” Peskov said.
MOSCOW – Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev approved the state program for the development of physical culture and sports, the Russian governmental press service reported on Sunday.
The fulfilment of this state program will permit to double the number of people, who go in for sports systematically from 20% in 2011 to 40% in 2020.
Meanwhile, the number of people with disabilities, who go in for sports, is expected to grow sevenfold from three percent in 2011 to 20% in 2020, the number of school and university students, who go in for sports regularly, will double to 80% by 2020.
The one-time throughput capacity of the sport facilities will also double, particularly for people with disabilities up to 48%.
The state-funded program set the task to increase by 1.5% the share of Russian athletes, who will win the medals at the Summer Olympics, in a total number of competing Russian athletes from 29.6% in 2012 to 31.1% in 2020, Russian athletes should win up to 27% of medals at the Winter Olympics by 2018.
ASTANA – Kazakhstan intends to impose restrictions on imports of separate types of petroleum products from Russia in 2013, the country’s Oil & Gas Ministry reports. According to Kuandyk Kulmurzin, the director of the Ministry’s oil industry department, Kazakhstan needs to minimize imports of fuel and lubricants from Russia in order to reduce oil volumes which Kazakhstan supplies to Russia in return for these imports.
“Since there are no customs checkpoints on the border between the two countries, we can do that with the help of a resolution that would limit imports from Russia. We are working over the draft of this document,” an official website of the prime minister of Kazakhstan quotes Kulmurzin as saying.
MOSCOW – An Hour of Earth environmental action was held in the Russian capital on Saturday night. Illumination of 90 Moscow architectural sites was switched off for an hour. The city saved 5 megawatts of electric energy thanks to the 60-minute dim-out, Pavel Livinsky, the head of the Moscow city fuel and energy department, told journalists.
MINSK – The Belarusian opposition is holding an authorized action on the occasion of the 95th anniversary of the proclamation of the Belarusian People’s Republic in downtown Minsk on Sunday. The oppositionists call this unofficial holiday as Freedom Day.
From a venue in front of the movie theatre Oktyabr, where the participants in the action passed through the metal detector frames, the column of several hundreds of people went to the Bangalore Square, where a rally and a concert will be held.
The demonstrators are carrying the white-red-white flags, the symbols of the opposition parties and movements, the portraits of the politicians, who are imprisoned. They are chanting “Zhive Belarus!” (Hail to Belarus!), and “Freedom to Political Prisoners!” The police are convoying the column of marchers.
BISHKEK – Kyrgyzstan’s oppositionist movement Voice of the People organized a kurultai – a public assembly – in the town of Suzak, the southern Jalal-Abad region, in the course of which it put forward a number of demands to the country’s leadership, a spokesman for the organizing committee of the movement told Itar-Tass.
“In the first place, we insist on nationalizing the Kumtor deposit /a gold mining that is being developed in collaboration with Canadian investors – Itar-Tass/ and a cleansing of governmental agencies, which should rid themselves of the cadres that served faithfully this country’s previous president,” the spokesman said.
Opposition leaders claim that the public action, which was held at the Suzuk racing course, brought together 10,000 to 15,000 people. It was reportedly attended by several well-known politicians, mostly hailing from the southern districts of Kyrgyzstan.