ELISTA – Russian President Vladimir Putin has criticized the federal government and regional governors for “low level of governance”. Speaking at a conference on problems of resettling tenants from hazardous dwellings on Tuesday, Putin said that the regions and territories of Russia and the Finance Ministry signed agreements in March (on programs of resettling people from hazardous dwellings).
MOSCOW – The Russian State Duma, or lower parliament house, on Tuesday passed a law re-imposing the mixed parliament election system – by both party tickets and in one-seat constituencies.
MOSCOW – Russia’s position on the Syrian crisis is unbiased, therefore, the country has all the opportunities to influence the development of the events, top official of the Syrian Popular Front For Change and Liberation Qadri Jamil said after the negotiations with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov here on Tuesday.
MOSCOW – The leadership of the Russian Foreign Ministry and representatives of the Syrian Popular Front for Change and Liberation are holding negotiations in the Russian capital on Tuesday. The Syrian delegates Qadri Jamil and Ali Haidar (occupy the posts of the deputy prime minister and the state minister of national reconciliation in the Syrian incumbent government, respectively).
MOSCOW – The implementation of the roadmap for inter-Sudanese settlement would help build up an atmosphere of trust between Khartoum and Juba, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday at talks with his Sudanese counterpart Ali Ahmed Karti, who is on a working visit to Russia.
MOSCOW – Speaker of the Russian State Duma lower parliament house Sergei Naryshkin will lead the Russian delegation at the inauguration ceremony of Venezuela’s President elect Nicolas Maduro on April 19.
MINSK – Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko hopes relations between his country and the European Union will be normalized under Lithuania’s presidency in the European Union.
MINSK – Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko said Belarussian-Iranian cooperation is not aimed at anybody. "Belarussian-Iranian contacts are absolutely peaceful; they are not aimed at any countries or blocs," Lukashenko said as he was receiving credentials from foreign ambassadors on Tuesday.
DUSHANBE - Russian Audit Chamber chief Sergey Stepashin has held negotiations with Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon on a number of key bilateral issues to say afterwards their results were satisfactory.
MOSCOW – President Vladimir Putin appointed Russian representatives to the Business Council of BRICS /Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa/ in 2013-2015. Under the document placed on the official website of legal information, the Russian part of the Business Council is led by President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Sergei Katyrin. The Council includes Vnesheconombank chairman Vladimir Dmitriyev, director general of the Russian Direct Investment Fund Konstantin Dmitriyev, head of Rostekhnologii Sergei Chemezov and Russian Railways president Vladimir Yakunin.
GORKI – Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Russia is capable of ensuring its food security. "We'll ensure our country's food security; we have all the chances to ensure it; unlike, say during the Soviet or post-Soviet period," he said at a conference over support for cattle-breeding.
MOSCOW – Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has approved a list of 20 Russian regions, where territorial development zones may be created, the government’s press service said on Tuesday.
ASTANA – Food security is a top priority issue for Kazakhstan ahead of its accession of the World Trade Organization (WTO), President Nursultan Nazarbayev said on Tuesday at a meeting of the country’s Security Council.
MOSCOW – The State Duma lower house of the Russian parliament on Tuesday ratified the intergovernmental agreement to settle Kyrgyzstan's debt to Russia.
MOSCOW – Russia’s State Duma lower parliament house will have 60 days to consider a draft federal budget, instead of 55 it now has, according to an amendment to a bill aimed to improve the budgetary process and to transfer to the formation of the program spending structure of the Russian budgetary system approved by the Duma committee on budget and taxed on Tuesday.
HONGKONG (XIANGGANG) – Russia is interested in building up investment cooperation with China, which is still slow-going, Russia’s Deputy Economic Development Minister Sergei Belyakov told Itar-Tass. He is leading a Russian delegation that has held a presentation of Russia’s investment opportunities.
ASHGABAT – Turkmenistan will foster the commissioning of the Galkynysh giant gas field with geological reserves of over 26 trillion cubic metres of gas. “Commercial gas production on this field meets the country’s strategic plans to increase the volumes of supply of Turkmen energy resources to world markets, as well as diversify gas export routes,” President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said during a video conference. It was shown on national television on Tuesday.
VLADIVOSTOK – Japanese companies are interested in the project of the port special economic zone in Sovetskaya Gavan. This was announced at a meeting of the delegation of the Japanese-Russian Committee for Business Cooperation of the Keidanren Federation with vice governor of the Khabarovsk Territory Sergei Shchetnev.
VLADIVOSTOK – The Zvezda (Star) shipyard in the Primorsky Territory will launch two vessels in late April that were built on the order of Neftepromleasing for Rosnefteflot. These are port type vessels, designed to eliminate the consequences of spills of petroleum products and carry small amounts of cargo. The directorate of the Far Eastern Shipbuilding and Ship Repair Centre told Itar-Tass that both vessels after the tests will work in the ports of the Primorsky Territory and, if necessary, will be used to clean up sea oil spills in other regions of the Far East.
MOSCOW – Russia’s state domestic debt, including state guarantees, decreased by 3.8 percent in the first three months of the year to total 4,790.192 billion roubles (USD 1 = RUB 31.45) as of April 1, 2013, the Russian Finance Ministry said in its regular report made public on Tuesday.
TYUMEN – A new oil field Severo-Keumskoye (North Keum) has been discovered in the south of the Tyumen region. The recoverable reserves of the field are estimated at 2.4 million tonnes, Rosneft’s press service said on Tuesday, adding that the commercial oil flow was registered at the well No. 64.
DUSHANBE – The unified operator of Gazprom’s foreign projects in the sphere of hydrocarbons exploration and development, Gazprom International company, has drilled Central Asia’s deepest well of 6,130 metres, the company posted its statement on its official website on Tuesday.
ELISTA – Russian President Vladimir Putin suggests establishing the order of priority in relocation of people from unfit housing facilities dependent on how long they live in them.
KIEV – A witness in a Ukrainian lawmaker murder case said he had no direct evidence of former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko's involvement. Vitaly Gaiduk said so at Kiev's Pechora district court on Tuesday, as he was being questioned by Timoshenko’s lawyers.
KALININGRAD – About 70 unique works of amber artists are put on display at an exhibition in the foyer of the Federation Council building in Bolshaya Dmitrovka Street in Moscow within the days of the Kaliningrad Region in the upper house of the Russian Federal Assembly.
MOSCOW – World-famous Russian traveler Fyodor Konyukhov and his mate Viktor Simonov, who set off for a dogsled expedition to Greenland via the North Pole on April 6, have covered their first 150 kilometers on the way to the North Pole.
MOSCOW – The State Duma lower house of Russian parliament on Tuesday passed in the first reading the government-proposed bill aimed at promoting the institution of child adoptions and guardianship. The bill ensures the implementation of the Russian president’s decree on orphaned children’s adoption.
MOSCOW – The Schneerson library may be passed to the Jewish Museum and the Centre of Tolerance in Moscow before the end of this year, Russian Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky told reporters about this forecast here on Tuesday.
ASTANA – Kazakhstan plans to expand its share of the world market of space services, President Nursultan Nazarbayev said on Tuesday at a meeting of the national Security Council.
BISHKEK – A draft agreement on the establishment of collective air force of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) will be presented to the CSTO heads of state at the end of 2013, CSTO under secretary general Valery Semerikov told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
BEIRUT – The mobile coastal missile systems Bastion with the missile Oniks (the export name – Yakhont) and the air defence missile systems Buk-M2E, which Russia had earlier supplied to Syria, are under a tough control of the Syrian governmental troops, it is ruled out that the militants from the Lebanese Shiite pro-Iranian group Hezbollah can get them, a Syrian military source told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
ISLAMABAD – Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Air Force, Lieutenant-General Viktor Bondarev paid a working visit to Pakistan, the Russian Embassy in this South Asian country said on Tuesday. The commander of the Russian Air Force visited this Islamic republic for the first time in the history of Russian-Pakistani relations.
YEKATERINBURG – The Russian Air Forces and air defense troops have nothing to do with the disappearance of the An-2 plane in the Ural region more than nine months ago," chief of the 2nd Air Force and Air Defense Command Maj-Genl Viktor Savostyanov told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
MOSCOW – The Ukrainian leadership hampers to modernize the fleet and the weapons of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, a high-ranking official of the Russian Defence Ministry told Itar-Tass on Tuesday. “The incumbent Ukrainian leadership, as it was under president Viktor Yushchenko as well, insists that these activities can be conducted only with the permission and under control of the Ukrainian authorities,” he said.
MOSCOW – A girl, who was brought to Moscow after a major road accident in Belgium, is in heavy condition. She was brought to the Russian children’s hospital, the press service of the Russian Health Ministry told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
GORNO-ALTAISK – One miner died in the rock collapse at the mine Mir (peace) in the Mirny district of the Russian republic of Yakutia, the press service of the republican emergency situation department reported in Yakutsk on Tuesday. The report about the incident came in the Yakutia centre for management of emergency situations on Monday evening.
ULAN-UDE – The train traffic was fully restored on the Chita-Karymskaya section the Trans-Siberian Railway in the Trans-Baikal Territory. The train traffic was disrupted over the derailment of seven wagons of the freight train on Monday evening, according to the updated reports.
VLADIVOSTOK – The Russian sailors, who have been in trouble at the Philippine port Rio Tuba for a month, are to fly from Manila to Vladivostok via Beijing on Tuesday. Thanks to the aid of the Russian Embassy in the Philippines all issues for the delivery of Russian citizens were settled quickly, Deputy Governor of the Primorsky Territory Alexander Los, who is staying at the Philippine capital to help the Russian sailors, said on Tuesday.
MOSCOW – The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said it is ready to provide assistance to Iran in eliminating the aftermath of the earthquake. "The Ministry is ready to provide such assistance, but no requests from Iran have come so far," an EMERCOM official said.
MOSCOW – Leader of the Liberal Democratic Party /LDPR/ Vladimir Zhirinovsky said he believes the United States is facing more acts of terror. "It will continue because the country is huge. And democracy provokes acts of terror," he said. It is difficult to counteract terrorist attacks, for example because of people's right to freedom of movement. "You can't possibly close all cities. A suicide bomber is the most terrible thing; they cannot be stopped at all," he noted.
MOSCOW – A dreadful terrorist act in Boston is the reason to think over whether the state authorities are taking the efforts in the needed direction, Vice-Speaker of the State Duma and head of the United Russia faction in the lower house of Russian parliament Vladimir Vasilyev said at the beginning of a plenary meeting in the ten-minute speech, which the factions are entitled to deliver for political statements.
MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a telegram of condolences to U.S. President Barack Obama in connection with the act of terror in Boston. Putin underlined that "the Russian Federation will be ready, if necessary, to provide assistance in connection with the U.S. authorities' investigation," the Kremlin press service reported on Tuesday.
SOCHI – Russian Athletics Federation /VFLA/ president Valentin Balakhnichev, in comments on the consequences of the Boston tragedy for world sports, said he believes security at mass sport events will be tightened. "We have no other way out but to tighten security measures during large events. There is practically nothing now which would not be in terrorists' crosshairs; of course, the danger level differs by country; it is lower in Russia; but we cannot be safe from anything here, either," Balakhnichev said.
KAZAN – The Youth Affairs, Sports and Tourism Ministry of the Republic of Tatarstan has promised that together with all other agencies concerned it will do its utmost to enhance the security of athletes, fans and personnel at the 2113 World Student Games next summer.
MOSCOW – No extra security measures will be introduced at mass events in Russia in connection with the Boston act of terror, the press service of the Interior Ministry told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
MOSCOW – The Russian Investigative Committee /SK/ opened a criminal case over violence against a small Russian girl in a U.S. foster family. "The girl was adopted by a Texas couple in 2002. Her adoptive mother allowed a family friend - a parishioner of a local Baptist church - to commit, for monetary remuneration and gifts, sexual violence against the minor in helpless condition /after spinal fracture/," SK spokesman Vladimir Markin told Itar-Tass.
MOSCOW – The searches are underway at the central office of the company Resorts of the North Caucasus in downtown Moscow, a source in the law enforcement agencies told Itar-Tass on Tuesday. “The searches are underway at the central office of the company in Prechistenka Street in the investigation of the criminal case,” the source said.
MOSCOW – Moscow police said they have completed the investigation into the case over the attack on Bolshoi Theatre artistic director Sergei Filin. "The probe into the case over attack on Sergei Filin has been completed. Extending the period of investigation and the petition to extend the suspects' arrest are explained by the necessity to receive medical documents from Germany for a forensic expert examination," a police official said.
MOSCOW – Moscow's Taganka court on Tuesday extended custody, to June 18, of Bolshoi Theatre /GABT soloist Pavel Dmitrichenko, accused of involvement in the attack on GABT artistic director Sergei Filin.
MOSCOW – Moscow's Taganka court on Tuesday extended the arrest of Yuri Zarutsky, suspected of attacking Bolshoi Theatre /GABT/ artistic director Sergei Filin, to June 18.