#3
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,
Thursday, December 06, 2001
- Russian Emergency Ministry specialists are studying the possibility of rebuilding the Salang tunnel between Tajikistan and Afghanistan. The tunnel had been blown up in the fighting.
- President Putin is in Greece on an official visit. He spoke in Athens, declaring that since Russia and Greece are no longer divided by ideological barriers, the "geopolitical foundations for cooperation are beginning to play the necessary role. He also asserted that the views of Greece and Russia coincide on most questions.
- An international conference on investment in Russia's Ural Federal District has opened in London. Presidential plenipotentiary to the district, Petr Latyshev, governors of Ural regions and representatives from major regional enterprises are participating in the conference.
- The Russian government has reviewed a number of options for developing the national economy by raising tariffs for the services of the natural monopolies. Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov declared that Russia should not grow dependent on its natural resources, but rather create functional foundations for economic growth.
- The third meeting of the Coordination Council of the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) Tax Police directors is taking place in Yerevan. The fight against financial crime is one of the main issues on the agenda. Every year, the tax police organs return hundreds of millions of dollars to their governments, but on the scale of economic crime, this is an insignificant figure. Elections for the position of Chairman of the Coordination Council were also held today. Russian tax police chief Mikhail Frankov has been reelected.
- The Serbsky Institute of Forensic Psychiatry is celebrating its 80th anniversary.
- A police booth was shot up when officers stopped a car for a document check. When the driver stepped out of the car, the passengers opened fire. One of the officers died on the spot; the criminals fled. Operation "Sirena" has been initiated throughout the region to catch them.
- Two of the five people who were arrested after the August 19th terrorist act in Astrakhan have pleaded guilty. Eight people died and 58 were injured in the city market explosion.
- The Interior Ministry's main directorate for the fight against narcotics celebrated its 10th anniversary today.
- The Committee of Security Council Chiefs of CIS nations is meeting in Minsk to discuss collective security and cooperation against international terrorism and the international drug trade.
- Russian-American consultations on strategic stability are taking place in Moscow. In preparation for US Secretary of State Colin Powell's visit, Deputy Foreign Minister Georgii Mamedov met with US Undersecretary of State John Bolton.
- The parliament of Kirghizia has voted to allow the US to use the Manas airport for military operations. Kirghiz President Askar Akaev was present at the parliament session, and he declared that he had coordinated the document with leaders of many countries participating in the anti-terrorist operation before making the decision.
- Celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the Soviet victory over the German-Fascist troops in the battle outside Moscow continue. A museum of the legendary T-34 tank will be opened in Moscow, a parade will set off from the 41st kilometer of the Leningrad highway towards the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and a salute will sound in honor of those who stopped the enemy at the gates of the capital.
- Another tourist will travel into space this spring. South African businessman and millionaire, 28-year-old Mark Shuttleworth, has already passed the medical exam and the space survival course, and has signed a contract with the Russian space program. The cost of the trip is being kept confidential.
- A terrorist attack against the German consulate was prevented in Novosibirsk. Police officers found an F-1 grenade in the building.
- Special classes at a school in the Solontsy settlement near Krasnoyarsk have enrolled gypsy children and youth, who are just starting to learn to read and write.
- After trailing it for two days, Russian patrol ships have detained a ship illegally fishing for crabs in the Okhotsk Sea.
- Mikhail Zubarov, the head of the Pension Fund, has announced that the new pension system will be operational on time -- on January 1st of 2002.
- Grozny residents are beginning to return to their homes.
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