Russia 110719
Basic Political Developments
· Itar-Tass news outlook for Tuesday, July 19.
o MOSCOW - The operation to lift the Bulgaria boat that sank in the Volga River continues. The dredging operation along the left side of the Bulgaria has been completed, a total of about 400 tonnes of soil have been removed. The operation was conducted by the KPL-16 crane throughout the night in bad weather conditions.
o HANNOVER - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev together with German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel will take part in the 13th round of Russian-German interstate consultations. The parties will sign a number of documents on their results. The two leaders will also attend a meeting of the Petersburg Dialogue Forum.
o MOSCOW - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will meet with the heads of Russia’s traditional religions, as well as leaders of a number of non-governmental public organisations and national-cultural autonomies.
o MOSCOW - The Ad Hoc Working Group on the Caspian Sea at the level of deputy foreign ministers of the Caspian littoral states will discuss preparations for the Fourth Caspian Summit.
o MOSCOW - Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Nikolai Makarov will hold talks with his British counterpart David Richards, who arrived in Moscow on a working visit.
o PRETORIA - British Prime Minister David Cameron within the framework of his African tour will continue talks in Pretoria (South Africa) and then will travel to Nigeria.
o LONDON - The media mogul Rupert Murdoch will appear before a committee of the House of Commons of the British Parliament in connection with the News Of The World phone hacking scandal.
o NEW YORK - Space Shuttle Atlantis will undock from the International Space Station (ISS) and start the last flight to Earth. The shuttle’s flight back to Earth will take two days. Atlantis remained docked to the ISS for eight days. At a traditional farewell ceremony on Monday before being separated by closed hatches, Atlantis commander Chris Ferguson thanked the commander of Expedition 28, Andrei Borisenko, for Russian hospitality.
o ARKHANGELSK - The Mikhail Somov research-expedition vessel of the Northern Territorial Administration for Hydrometeorological and Environmental Monitoring (Sevgidromet) on Tuesday departed from Arkhangelsk embarking on a thru voyage on the Northern Sea Route for shipping supplies to polar stations in the Arctic. The three-month Arctic expedition will take place on the route Arkhangelsk - Franz Josef Land - Wrangel Island - Tiksi - Arkhangelsk. The ship will deliver goods to the stations of the Yakutia and Northern hydrometeorological administrations.
o IRKUTSK - The First International Youth Industrial Forum “Engineers of the Future – 2011” on Lake Baikal.
o SOCHI - Sochi will observe Admiral Fyodor Ushakov Day to commemorate the Russian naval commander of the 18th century. The first divine service will be held in the Saint Admiral Fyodor Ushakov Church that is currently being built.
· Itar-Tass news digest for, Tuesday, July 19.
o HANOVER — A major package of a dozen of documents is prepared for the signing at the 13th round of Russian-German interstate consultations with participation of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian president’s aide Sergei Prikhodko told Tass. According to him, the signing of a package of documents will be “a tangible result of a large-scale preparatory work for the interstate consultations in Hanover.”
o MOSCOW — About 400 tonnes of soil have been removed alongside the Bulgaria ship that sank in the Volga River; in the next few hours it is planned to complete the ship’s straightening operation, spokesman for the operational headquarters for the vessel’s lifting Timur Khikmatov told Itar-Tass. “The dredging operation along the left side of the Bulgaria has been completed, a total of about 400 tonnes of soil have been removed,” he said, explaining that the work was done to simplify the process of levelling the ship.
o MOSCOW — A total of 170 fishing nets illegally planted by poachers around the area of the Bulgaria ship wreck has been seized, a spokesman for the local emergencies administration told Itar-Tass on Tuesday. According to the spokesman, specialists will continue searching through such net in a bid to find the bodies of people missing after the ship wreck.
o MOSCOW — Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed the federal law “On housing subsidies to citizens who move from the closing settlements in the Far North regions and equivalent areas.” The document was adopted by the State Duma lower house of parliament on July 5, 2011 and approved by the Federation Council upper house on July 13, 2011.
o KHABAROVSK — Heat wave in Russia’s Far East has aggravated the situation with wildfires. Their area has increased by more than 3,700 hectares over the past 24 hours reaching 18,875 hectares by Tuesday morning, sources from the forestry department of the Far Eastern Federal District told Tass. “The situation in Yakutia remains the most difficult,” the sources said. Fires there have engulfed over 13,900 hectares of woodland and almost 4,600 hectares of non-forest areas. Yakutia accounts for 24 of 35 wildfires fixed in the east of the country.
o ARKHANGELSK — The Mikhail Somov research-expedition vessel of the Northern Territorial Administration for Hydrometeorological and Environmental Monitoring (Sevgidromet) on Tuesday departed from Arkhangelsk embarking on a thru voyage on the Northern Sea Route for shipping supplies to polar stations in the Arctic.
o YEKATERINBURG — The Sverdlovsk Region will build kindergartens with swimming-pools, under the regional programme for developing pre-school establishments. Incidentally, the cost of one place is to remain intact, Tass learnt at the governor’s public relations service. The project for pre-school establishments centres this year on a return of kindergartens, handed over to other organisations, and construction of new ones.
o KHABAROVSK — Governor of the Khabarovsk Territory Vyacheslav Shport has signed an order on the payment of compensations to all former owners of land on the Big Ussuri Island who lost their plots during the demarcation of the Russian-Chinese border in 2005, the government of the territory told Itar-Tass on Tuesday. “According to estimates, 42.8 million roubles will be paid to the citizens - former owners of 58 plots of land on the island. Another 10.4 million roubles will be paid to the Zarya agricultural enterprise for lost acres, as part of its lands passed into the possession of the Chinese side after the demarcation of the border,” the territorial government noted.
o MOSCOW — One person was killed in an emergency landing of a Mi-8 helicopter in Russia’s Sverdlovsk region, a spokesman for the regional emergencies administration told Itar-Tass on Tuesday. “At 09:23 a.m. Moscow time on Tuesday, a Mi-8 helicopter owned by the Uktus air carrier made an emergency landing 90 kilometers west of the city of Yekaterinburg,” the spokesman said. There were four persons onboard, one was killed.
o YEKATERINBURG — Two persons were hurt in an explosion at a chemical plant in the town of Rezh, Sverdlovsk region, a spokesman for the regional emergencies administration told Itar-Tass on Tuesday. “The accident was reported at 21:57 local time (19:57 Moscow time) on July 18. An explosion of colloxylin that was used for production purposes occurred after the plant’s guard officers moved pipes,” the spokesman said.
o SYKTYVKAR — Rescuers have found the bead bodies of two coalminers, who were blocked by caved-in rock inside the Severnaya coalmine of the Vorkutaugol Company in the Komi republic on Saturday. According to preliminary data, the two men, Dmitry Gurzhiya ans Svyatoslav Vorozhtsov, died instantly at the moment of the accident, a spokesman for Vorkutaugol told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
o SYKTYVKAR — Criminal proceedings have been initiated over the death of two coalminers in an accident at the Severnaya coalmine operated by the Vorkutaugol Company in Russia’s republic of Komi, a source in the republican prosecutor’s office told Itar-Tass. According to Natalia Spiridonova, a senior aide to the republic’s prosecutor, the criminal case was opened on charges of violating safety rules while performining mining works. The investigation was taken under personal control of the republic’s prosecutor, Vladimir Ponevezhsky.
o YEKATERINBURG — An A-320 jet en route from Bulgaria’s resort city of Burgas made a distress landing at Yekaterinburg’s Koltsovo airport, a spokesman for the Urals Airlines told Itar-Tass on Tuesday. No one was hurt. “At 23:34 Moscow time on July 18, the jet was about to land at the Koltsovo airport, when the pilot reported a failure of one of the plane’s three hydraulic systems. The airports emergencies services were put on alert. The plane landed safely, neither of its 119 passengers were hurt,” the spokesman said.
· Russia proposes sectoral ABM system - Russian NATO Ambassador Dmitry Rogozin told this to the media before flying for talks in Washington on Thursday. He is the Kremlin’s envoy for missile defence issues.
o Russian delegation to clarify positions on AMD during visit to U.S. - Rogozin
o Moscow's "sectoral" missile defense proposal fully matches Russia's, NATO's logic - Rogozin
· Russian foreign minister to receive his Libyan counterpart on Wednesday. - “Sergei Lavrov will receive Secretary of the General People's Committee for Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation Abdul Ati al-Obeidi at the request of the Libyan side,” the spokesman said. “The meeting will be held as part of Russia’s assistance to the efforts of the African Union and the United Nations to put an end to the bloodshed in Libya and reach a political settlement there.”
· RUSSIA-GERMANY
o Medvedev, Merkel attend working breakfast. - Among participants there were the two countries’ economics ministers and Russian president’s aides Arkady Dvorkovich and Sergei Prikhodko, as well as more than ten CEO of Russia’s and Germany’s biggest companies.
o Merkel meets Medvedev in Germany for talks - Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said the two had an informal dinner together Monday evening and were starting the day Tuesday with a breakfast that included industry representatives from both countries.
o Russia's Medvedev, Germany's Merkel discuss economic cooperation
o Medvedev, Merkel to discuss Russia-EU ties, Mideast, North Africa.
o DW: Merkel and Medvedev meet for tough talks, warm words - Economic issues and human rights are likely to be among the main topics at this year's intergovernmental conference between Germany and Russia. Despite the serious nature of the talks, a relaxed tone can be expected.
o Kommersant: Russia may freeze South Stream at the expense of Nord Stream
o Medvedev To Suggest Enlarging Nord Stream
o Russian gas eyeing European expansion - Additional pipeline capacity is hardly justified as, even without South Stream, as Gazprom's spare export capacity will be over 30% after the launch of Nord Stream.
o Medvedev, Merkel in Gas Talks - "Germany's decision toclose its nuclear industry by2022 opens up new [energy] partnership opportunities … including increasing Russian gas deliveries using thecapacity ofthe Nord Stream pipeline," theKremlin said ina briefing paper ahead ofthe meeting.
o Major package of documents to be signed at RF-German consultations. - A major package of a dozen of documents is prepared for the signing at the 13th round of Russian-German interstate consultations with participation of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian president’s aide Sergei Prikhodko told Tass.
o Medvedev looks for synergy in Germany - Germany assumed presidency of the UN Security Council at the start of this month. With that in mind, Russia hopes that Germany can help bring NATO round to the view that there should be a joint missile-defense system for the whole of Europe, as there are concerns in Moscow that the NATO-only missile-defense system could be turned against Russia.
o Russian-German interstate consultations due in Hanover. - The government source said “a dozen of German-Russian agreements will be signed” at the consultations. According to the source, these will be economic agreements, environmental protection agreements, as well as agreements concerning inter-ministerial contacts.
o Germany As A Role Model For Russia, Not Vice Versa – OpEd by Robert Amsterdam
· Russia allows Polish vegetable imports - Russia will permit the resumption of vegetable imports from Poland from Wednesday, the Interfax news agency cited the head of Russia's consumer protection agency as saying on Tuesday.
· Caspian working group to discuss preparations for Caspian summit.
o Iran urges Caspian Sea unanimous treaty
· 'Iran has not received Russia N-offer' - Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast says Tehran will study Russia's “step-by-step” approach proposed over the country's nuclear program upon receiving it.
· Russian, British chiefs of general staff to discuss military ties.
· Iran to Attend MAKS 2011 Air Show in Russia
· More Russian Engines for China’s J-10 Fighter
· Nalbandian: Armenian President’s response to Medvedev's recommendations will be soon released
· Baku lays claims to Moscow - “Official Baku is concerned over the presence of Russian servicemen in Armenia,”Personal Representative of Azerbaijani President on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov said in an interview with Ekho Moskvy.
o Azerbaijani official:Russia must change its role in the region
o Azerbaijani official: Abkhazia and South Ossetia excluded from Moscow-Baku trade
o Azerbaijani official: Russia to shift from militaristic to economic presence in South Caucasus
· Ukraine counts on Russia's role in gas network upgrade – premier: "Russia's position will now start to change in light of our practical steps. At least we are counting on it," Azarov told journalists in the Bohuslav district of the Kyiv region, which hosted a ceremony on Tuesday that launched the modernization of the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod gas pipeline.
· Russians interested in acquisition of Ukraine Energy Company
· Saakashvili sent letter to Medvedev - Saakashvili informs Medvedev "about the problems of terrorist attacks on Georgian territory".
· PM to discuss ways to consolidate Russian society.
· Medvedev signs law on housing subsidies to Far North residents.
· Russian Navy to get new air defence system ‘Pantsyr-M’
· Russia holds air combat manoeuvres in North Caucasus
· The President of Dagestan has a number of working meetings in Moscow - Dagestani Head met with the Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin. Questions of state support of the real sector of the economy of the republic were discussed.