#13 - JRL 7241
TV1 Review
www.1tv.ru
Compiled by Luba Schwartzman (luba_sch@hotmail.com)
Research Analyst, Center for Defense Information, Moscow office

HEADLINES,
Wednesday, June 25, 2003

- On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin ended his first day in Great Britain at a celebratory banquet Queen Elizabeth II held in honor of the Russian President at the Buckingham Palace.

- Today, Putin traveled to Edinburgh. In addition to visiting cultural sites, the Russian President met with businessmen, scientists and other public figures in Scotland.

- Senior proms and “after-parties” were held at 1,297 Russian schools; 75,115 students graduated this year.

- Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov attended the final meeting of the Federation Council before the summer recess. Senators discussed the effect of the cancellation of the sales tax on regional incomes. Kasyanov declared that, over the past year, regional incomes grew by 12%, and that the gap between the development of various regions and real incomes has been reduced by half. The Federation Council Agenda included 63 other items, and the meeting will be continued tomorrow.

- The Chechen State Council recommended that the first presidential elections in the republic be held in October of this year.

- The two men, who killed State Duma deputy Sergei Yushenkov on April 17, 2003, have been arrested in the Republic of Komi. Their last names have been released: Kulachinsky and Kiselev.

- Moscow City judges have ruled on the imprisonment of 4 police officers detained in the sting operation. The decision about three other men will be made shortly. Two accomplices of the corrupt policemen are now on the federal wanted list. One of the arrested men is Emergency Ministry Lieutenant General Vladimir Ganeev.

- The first International Military Naval Salon in St. Petersburg has opened. Official delegations from 30 nations and representatives from over 300 leading Russian, German, French, British and Chinese companies are attending.

- Special service officers in St. Petersburg discovered 20 large bags of drugs in a St. Petersburg garage.

- Fifteen rebels were arrested in Ingushetia. They are suspected of organizing last year’s terrorist act at the Main Government Building in Grozny, which took the lives of 130 people.

- A large arms cache was discovered in the Pankisi Gorge in Georgia.

- Border troops officers held large-scale exercises in the Bay of Taganrog

- An air show was held in Lipetsk in honor of the 60th anniversary of the Normandie-Nieman Regiment, in which Russian and French pilots fought side by side.

- In Yaroslavl, old-timers recall Stalin’s secret bunker, which was built as an emergency command center.