#15
ORT Review
www.ortv.ru
Compiled by Luba Schwartzman (luba7@bu.edu)
Research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Conflict, Ideology and Policy
at Boston University
HEADLINES,
Tuesday, November 13, 2001
- Russian President Vladimir Putin, currently on an official visit in the United States, has announced that Russian and American relations have entered a new stage, which will allow the Russian and American positions to be brought closer, step by step.
- President Putin invited US President George W. Bush to visit Russia on an official, working, or private visit whenever it would be convenient to the president. Putin suggested that the beginning of the summer, St. Petersburg's white nights, might be the best time to visit Russia.
- President Bush informed President Putin that American strategic offensive weapons will be cut down to 1,700 to 2,200 units over the next ten years. President Bush also admitted that Washington and Moscow have "different points of view" concerning the 1972 ABM treaty. The presidents agreed to continue discussions on this complex question.
- Mikhail Zurabov, the head of the Pension Fund, spoke at today's session of the State Duma. He explained the essence of pension reform to the Duma deputies. Aspects of pension reform include the decrease of the minimum employment term to five years and an increase in pensions paid out to parents of soldiers who died in combat.
- Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov met with leaders of several State Duma factions -- Unity, Fatherland-All Russia, People's Deputy and Regions of Russia -- to discuss the schedule for reviewing the bills submitted by the cabinet. Approximately 30 bills will be reviewed in the fall session.
- Prime Minister Kasyanov reported that the government has made a decision to redistribute 12.5 billion rubles from this year's budget.
- Security Service officers in the Sverdlovsk oblast have prevented the sale of stolen containers of radioactive materials.
-Students and professors at a Grozny university are picketing the State House.
- Two other victims of Saturday's explosion have been buried in Vladikazkaz.
- The Vakhtangov Theater celebrates its 80th anniversary today.
- The Council of Judges of the Russian Federation held a plenary meeting in the Otradnoye settlement in the suburbs of Moscow.
- Another Russian soldier, Aleksands Lichtenfield, has been released from captivity in Chechnya.
- Security measures have been increased in Makhachkala in anticipation of the trial of Chechen terrorist Salman Raduev.
- Television journalist Vladimir Voropaev has been attacked in Khabarovsk.
- The first passenger train ran from St. Petersburg to Moscow 150 years ago.
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