MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin has congratulated President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko on the Day of Russian and Belarusian Peoples’ Unity, the Kremlin press service reported.
MINSK – President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has declared that the integration cooperation between Belarus and Russia will become stronger given an active position assumed by President Putin.
MINSK – Some problems remain in Belarussian-Ukrainian relations and they can be discussed at the high level soon, Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko said at the meeting with the country’s ambassador to Ukraine, Valentin Velichko, on Tuesday.
MINSK – Regional cooperation expands the integration between Belarus and Russia, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said during his Tuesday’s meeting with Governor of Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod Region, Valery Shantsev.
MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a bill allowing regions to cancel the direct governor elections.
MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit the Netherlands on April 8, Russian ambassador in The Hague Roman Kolodin told the video conference Moscow-The Hague-St. Petersburg on Tuesday.
NOVO-OGAREVO – Russian President Vladimir Putin met with his visiting Yemeni counterpart Abd Rabuh Mansur Hadi and pledged to give the all-round aid to provide conditions for the development of the country and to increase the life level of the local population.
YAKUTSK – Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev urged United Russia members to more actively participate in political debates. "The most important thing from the point of view of political debates is participation in them," leader of the United Russia Party stated at a meeting with regional Party officials in Yakutsk on Tuesday.
NOVO-OGAREVO – Russia and Yemen are studying the prospects of attracting Russian companies to the implementation of large projects in the sphere of electric power generation, oil and natural gas sector, transport infrastructure and industry, it is said in the materials for talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President of the Republic of Yemen Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.
MOSCOW - Russia does not believe that any party to the conflict will unleash deliberately military actions on the Korean Peninsula, Ambassador-at-Large of the Russian Foreign Ministry Grigory Logvinov said on Tuesday. Logvinov heads the Russian delegation at the six-party negotiations.
KIEV – Ukraine’s Supreme Rada, the national parliament has refused to put up for discussion a resolution on organizing commemorative events on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of a major famine of the early 1930’s known here in Ukraine as Holodomor.
MOSCOW – The threat of North Korea to deliver a missile strike is a bluff with the aim of getting economic aid, former Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Strategic Missile Forces (RVSN) Colonel-General Viktor Yesin told journalists here on Tuesday.
MOSCOW – Members of the Federation Council ( the Upper House) are to submit their declarations on expenditures by July 1, 2013, Chairman of the Upper House Committee on rules and organization Vadim Tyulpanov told journalists on Tuesday.
MOSCOW – Palestine urges the world community to pay attention to the violations of international law on prisoners committed by Israel, a spokesman for the Palestinian embassy in Moscow said Tuesday.
MOSCOW – The head of the State Duma’s international affairs committee, Alexei Pushkov, is predicting an aggravation of the situation in Syria with dire global effects.
UNITED NATIONS – The Russian delegation has abstained from vote on the International Arms Trade Treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday. The document introduces general standards for deals with conventional weapons: from small arms to warships.
KIEV – Ukraine’s ruling Party of Regions plans to hold a national referendum on presidential and parliamentary elections in August, Oleg Tyagnibok, the leader of the extreme right Svoboda (Freedom) party told a briefing on Tuesday.
MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday night, presidential press-secretary Dmitry Peskov told journalists.
NOVO-OGARYOVO – Russian President Vladimir Putin met the former Finnish President Tarja Halonen in his country residence in Novo-Ogaryovo on Tuesday. In previous years, Putin and Halonen actively cooperated in strengthening and developing Russian-Finnish relations.
MOSCOW- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov chaired a meeting of the Russian interdepartmental committee for cooperation with NATO here on Tuesday.
MOSCOW – Angola’s Foreign Minister Georges Rebelo Chicoti has put off his visit to Russia to a later period, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported. “The working visit to Russia of Angolan Foreign Minister George Rebelo Chicoti scheduled for April 2-4 has been put off to a later period. The new date will be agreed through diplomatic channels,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
MOSCOW – Gazprom delivered a record-high amount of gas to far foreign countries in March 2013, increasing its export by 33.6 percent to 12.463 billion cubic meters, the Central Control Department of the fuel and energy complex reports.Daily supplies of gas to far foreign countries amounted to 402 million cubic meters.
MOSCOW – Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has signed a resolution that sets additional criteria for the creation of special economic zones in regions, the government press service reports.
YAKUTSK – Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev stated that he signed the state-funded program for socio-economic development of the Far East and the Baikal Region and urged to launch the implementation of the program.
YAKUTSK – Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev called for stepping up the work of the Russian Direct Investment Fund /RFPI/ and the Far East and Baikal Regional Development Fund, noting that these institutions have not been working hard enough.
YAKUTSK – Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev believes that it will be difficult to implement the state-funded program for development of the Far East, but it should be done.
ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s Agriculture Ministry has proposed to issue a special quota within the framework of the Customs Union for the import of grain harvesters to the republic.
MOSCOW – Forming the research schools in the sphere of aircraft engine production, the NPO Saturn Research and Production Association will invite foreign scientists, Chief Designer of the company Yuri Shmotin said in an interview with Itar-Tass.
ASTANA – Turkmenistan may supply up to 500 million cubic meters of natural gas to Kazakhstan's southern districts, the press service of the Kaztransgaz trunk pipelines operator reported on Tuesday.
KIEV – The creation of the Customs Union comprising Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan aggravated trade and economic relations among CIS member-states, Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov said at the talks with Kazakh First Deputy Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev on Tuesday.
MINSK – Belarus and Russia have attracted professional lawyers to settle the issue of the property of the Union State, Secretary of State of the Union State of Belarus and Russia Grigory Rapota said on Tuesday at a press conference in Minsk, devoted to Day of Unity of Peoples of Russia and Belarus.
SYDNEY – RUSAL /Russian Aluminium Company/ plans to cut by the yearend production of aluminium by 300,000 tonnes and to keep this production level for about three years, RUSAL’s CEO Oleg Deripaska said in an interview with The Australian on Tuesday.
ST PETERSBURG – Sweden’s Bonnier Business Press AB has filled up its media assets in Russia the most read online news website in St. Petersburg, fontanka.ru, acquiring a 51 percent stake in its publisher and brand owner Ajur-Media. The sides officially announced the closing of the transaction on Tuesday.
MOSCOW – The Russian State Statistics Service has increased the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for 2012 by 242.2 billion roubles to 62.599 trillion roubles denominated in current prices (USD 1 = RUB 31.12).
MINSK – Construction works at the site of the Belarusian nuclear power plant are proceeding four months ahead of schedule, First Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko said Tuesday as he opened the Atomexpo Belarus 2013 international exhibition.
NEW DELHI – The Customs Union (Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan) intends to complete by the end of the year the working out of the Road Map for Kyrgyzstan joining the Union, Viktor Khristenko, the chairman of the panel of the Eurasian Economic Commission, now on a working visit in India, told reporters on Tuesday.
MOSCOW – Russia’s Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Control (Rosselkhoznadzor) and the Georgian Agriculture Ministry’s National Agency for Foodstuffs have agreed to resume supplies of Georgian agricultural produce to Russia, Alexei Alexeyenko, the press secretary for Rosselkhoznadzor told Itar-Tass.
KIEV – A scheme of gas supply from Europe to Ukraine used at present absolutely does not contravene the international law, Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Deputy minister Vladimir Makukha told journalists in Kiev on Tuesday.
HANOI – Russia and Cambodia will intensify ties in all spheres of cooperation as well as develop new areas of partnership, said members of the 7th session of the Russian-Cambodian inter-parliamentary commission for trade, economic, scientific and technological cooperation held in Pnompenh on Tuesday.
BELGRADE – The construction of the South Stream gas pipeline has many opponents in Serbia and abroad, Dusan Bajatovic, the general director of the Srbijagaz Company, told journalists on Tuesday.
MOSCOW – Chief of Kremlin staff Sergei Ivanov said the letter to President Vladimir Putin from business tycoon Boris Berezovsky who died in London, has been delivered to Russia, but that it will not be published.
MOSCOW – Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has approved the state program “Regional Policy and Federal Relations” for 2013-2020. The corresponding executive order of the RF government head is posted on the official website www.government.ru.
MOSCOW – Russia’s human rights ombudsman, Vladimir Lukin, has told a news conference he would look into progress in the ongoing massive inspections of non-governmental organizations.
KIEV – Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovich in 2012 transferred 7.432 million hryvnias /930,000 dollars/ of personal money to children, who required urgent medical assistance, reads the president’s declaration of property, income, expenses and financial obligations for the past year.
MOSCOW – By July 1, 2013 Russian officials and heads of state-run companies should get rid of their foreign accounts, head of the RF presidential administration Sergei Ivanov told journalists on Tuesday.
MOSCOW – Deprivation of freedom can be the only alternative to an unpaid fine for bribe. The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation made this explanation on Tuesday upon the passing of the resolution of the plenary meeting on the use of new kinds of criminal punishment.
MOSCOW – The decision to extend the deadline for filing income and spending declarations till July 1 is meant to give civil servants a chance to make up their mind whether to retain foreign bank accounts or quit the current job, several political scientists told Itar-Tass following a statement by the chief of the presidential staff, Sergei Ivanov, earlier on Tuesday.
MOSCOW – One version of the ATR-72 plane crash near Tyumen, which occurred a year ago and took the lives of 33 people, was icing of the airliner, according to the investigation. Legal assessment of the actions of the territorial division of the Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsiya) will also be made, spokesman for the Russian Investigative Committee (SK) Vladimir Markin told Itar-Tass.
MOSCOW – The case over the car crash in central Moscow involving a Lukoil top manager in February 2010 was sent to Moscow's Gagarinsky court, the press service of the Interior Ministry's department for Moscow told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
LVOV – A traditional spring flooding that has begun in the Trans-Carpathian /sub-Carpathian/ region of Ukraine has resulted in an inundation of several sections of automobile roads in the Uzhgorod and Vinogrado districts, officials at the regional department of the State Service for Emergency Situations told Itar-Tass.
MOSCOW – Russia’s flood-related situation remains within the norms, causing no emergencies, Chairman of the National Emergencies Control Centre at the Russian Emergencies Ministry Vladimir Stepanov said on Tuesday.
MOSCOW – More than 12,500 populated areas are now under the threat of possible wildfires in Russia, Director of the Russian Emergencies Ministry’s Civil Protection Department Sergei Didenko said on Tuesday.
MOSCOW – Numerical strength of the forces for forest fire prevention and fight in Russia will make up almost one million people, Director of the Russian Emergencies Ministry’s Civil Protection Department Sergei Didenko said on Tuesday, explaining that the group embraces staffers of the ministry and other services.
NAZRAN – Three servicemen were wounded in the blast of a landmine in the Russian North Caucasus Republic of Ingushetia on Tuesday, the republican investigation department of the Russian Investigation Committee told Itar-Tass. The injured servicemen were hospitalized.
MOSCOW – Police in the Republic of Chuvashia have detained Senior Lieutenant Alexei Yakunchikhin, accused of the commission of serious crimes, who has been hiding from law-enforcement bodies for 14 years, the press service of the main military investigation department, Investigative Committee /SK/, told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
MOSCOW – A criminal case over exceeding authority has been opened against deputy governor of the Novgorod region Arnold Shalmuyev, the press service of the Interior Ministry said on Tuesday.
YAKUTSK – Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev visited the multifunctional centre of state and municipal services in the Russian Republic Sakha (Yakutia) and proposed to think over the spreading of this practice on other Russian regions.
MOSCOW – A criminal case over exceeding authority and compulsion has been opened against deputy governor of the Novgorod region Arnold Shalmuyev, the Interior Ministry's press service told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
MOSCOW – The Investigative Committee /SK/ opened a criminal case over a 35-million-rouble fraud in Novgorod region road repair projects, SK spokesman Vladimir Markin told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
MOSCOW – The Investigative Committee on Tuesday flatly denied politics behind the case against deputy governor of the Novgorod region Arnold Shalmuyev.
MOSCOW – The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has made an extradition request to Belarus for air hooligan Sergei Kabalov, who became notorious for his video in the Internet, spokesperson for the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office Marina Gridneva told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
KIEV – A top Ukrainian investigator said a witness in the case over the murder of lawmaker Yevgeny Shcherban in 1996 fully changed his testimony during the questioning at Kiev's Pechora district court on Tuesday.
MOSCOW – The Investigative Committee /SK/ has conducted 40 searches in the case over theft of road repairs funds in the Novgorod region, including searches at the office of first deputy governor Arnold Shalmuyev, SK spokesman Vladimir Markin said.
MOSCOW – Moscow's Tverskoi court on Tuesday extended custody of former Deputy Regional Development Minister Roman Panov, accused of stealing funds allocated for the APEC summit in Vladivostok in September 2012, the Interior Ministry's press service told Itar-Tass.
MOSCOW – A total of 1,949 crimes were solved in Moscow thanks to a system of video monitoring used in Moscow, said Chief of the Informational Technologies department Artyom Yermolayev at a meeting of the Moscow government on Tuesday.