#8 - JRL 7220
TV1 Review
www.1tv.ru
Compiled by Luba Schwartzman (luba_sch@hotmail.com)
Research Analyst, Center for Defense Information, Moscow office
HEADLINES
Wednesday, June 11, 2003
- Russian President Vladimir Putin signed laws on agriculture and farming. President Putin discussed the implementation of the laws and the progress of spring sowing with Deputy Prime Minister Aleksei Gordeev and Krasnodar Krai Governor Aleksandr Tkachev.
- Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov visited Baikanur and attended the rehearsal of the air show. Sergeev declared the Baikanur Cosmodrome remains one of the main centers for space launches.
- President Putin conducted a series of telephone conversations about the situation in the Middle East. He spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian Administration Head Yasser Arafat.
- Former intelligence Colonel Aleksandr Zaporozhskii was convicted of spying for America and sentenced to 18 years imprisonment in a maximum-security prison.
- Federation Council senators discussed the position of Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council. They rejected the candidacy of Chairman of the FC Committee for Social Policy Valentina Petrenko. The senators also spoke about the upcoming parliamentary elections and voted to move them to December 7.
- President Putin declared that Russia is no longer accruing any new foreign debts.
- Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov attended the Council of Baltic States meeting in the Finnish town of Pori. Ivanov appealed to his colleagues to prevent a schism in the region after the entrance of Poland or the Baltic states in the European Union.
- The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation accepted the appeal challenging the legality of conducting referendums in the year of parliamentary and presidential election campaigns.
- Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov told President Putin about the progress of high-priority presidential and government laws in the State Duma.
- Prime Minister Kasyanov attended a State Duma meeting and told deputies about the economic growth in Russia.
- The Progress spacecraft docked with the International Space Station.
- Joint exercises by Russian, Ukrainian and Kazakh special services were finished successfully in the Crimea.
- 19 regions near the Baikal Lake are on the verge of a state of emergency. Tens of thousands of hectares of forest are on fire.
- Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev dismissed his entire Cabinet, including the Prime Minister.
- A presidential pardons commission is working in Khanty- Mansiisk.
- The three UN military inspectors who were kidnapped near the Kodori Gorge have been delivered to Tbilisi. They made no statements for the press upon their arrival.
- Passports with microchips carrying unique identifying information may be introduced in Russia by 2004.
- Two adults and three teenagers died and one child was injured at the polygon for the destruction of written-off ammunition in Yoshkar-Ole. According to preliminary information, they were searching for semi-precious metals.
- The Moscow car inspection service is checking all minibuses for technical violations over the next few days.
- Composer David Tukhmanov selected the patriotic repertoire for the Presidential Orchestra for the Russia Day concert on Red Square.
- A monument to long-time Vremya anchor Anna Shilova was dedicated at Moscow’s Troekurovskoe Cemetery.