Itar-Tass news digest for Sunday, July 17 – 2.

17/7 Tass 150

KRASNOYARSK, July 17 (Itar-Tass) —— Forty-eight wildfires are burning on 1,341 hectares in Siberia. Seven wildfires of 1,215 hectares were put out over the day, and another eleven wildfires of 308.5 hectares were confined, a source at the Siberian regional emergency situations center told Itar-Tass on Sunday. The wildfire rate is the highest in the Krasnoyarsk territory and the Irkutsk region. There are 15 taiga fires of 780.7 hectares in the Krasnoyarsk territory, and all of them can be reached from the air only.

MOSCOW —— President Dmitry Medvedev has congratulated metallurgists on their professional holiday. “Dear friends, I congratulate you on the professional holiday, the Day of Metallurgist,” says the presidential message posted on the Kremlin website. “Your industry has key significance for the strengthening of Russia’s industrial potential and defense ability. It ensures prosperity and social stability in a number of regions,” the message said.

MAKHACHKALA —— Head of the Gedzhukh village administration in the Dagestani Derbent district Kaplan Kadyrov died at the Dagestanskiye Ogni hospital. Unknown people opened automatic gunfire at the village head near his home at 00:10 a.m. Moscow time on Sunday, a local police source told Itar-Tass. A criminal case was opened on the murder and illegal weapon charges, the republican office of the Russian Investigation Committee told Itar-Tass.

KUIBYSHEVSKY ZATON —— The operation of all ships similar with the sunken MS Bulgaria has been suspended, Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin said at a Sunday meeting of the governmental commission investigating the shipwreck. “The future of these ships depends directly on the outcome of the MS Bulgaria wreck investigation,” he said.

NOVOSIBIRSK —— The fuselage of an Antonov An-24 jet, which crash landed on the Ob River in the Tomsk region on July 11 was retrieved from water on Sunday, the West Siberian transport investigations department of the Russian Investigation Committee told Itar-Tass. “A barge will bring the fuselage to the Strezhevoi port in the Tomsk region, and detectives and forensic experts from the Interstate Aviation Committee will examine it,” the department said.

KHABAROVSK —— The wildfire zone in the Russian Far East grew by nearly 2,000 hectares over the past day, a source at the district forestry department told Itar-Tass on Sunday. Eleven wildfires broke out, and ten were put out, including four in Yakutia. Two small wildfires are burning in the Chukchi autonomous district and the Khabarovsk territory. Some 128 hectares of forests are burning in the Amur region.

KUIBYSHEVSKY ZATON —— Medals have been awarded to Russian Emergency Situations Ministry rescuers and crewmembers of the Arabella cruise ship for rescuing passengers of the MS Bulgaria that wrecked in Tatarstan a week ago. Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu and Transport Minister Igor Levitin presented the medals on Sunday.

MOSCOW —— Russian Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu demands to double forces putting out wildfires in the Arkhangelsk region. An Ilyushin Il-76 jet will be assigned to the firefighters, the minister said on Sunday. The wildfire zone in the Arkhangelsk region increased to 7,000 hectares over the past day. More than 1,500 people and several helicopters of the Emergency Situations Ministry are putting out the blaze.

SYKTYVKAR —— Rostislav Korniyuk, one of the three workers blocked by caved-in rock inside the Severnaya coalmine of the Vorkutaugol Company in Komi on Saturday, has been raised to the surface. He is in satisfactory condition, doctors have given him an anti-shock injection, Vorkutaugol press office head Yevgeny Sukharev told Itar-Tass. Rescuers still hope to find alive the two missing workers – Dmitry Gurzhiy born in 1981 and Svyatoslav Vorozhtsov born in 1970.

WOLFSBURG —— The main goal of the St. Petersburg Dialog is to maintain permanent contact between civil societies of Russia and German and to discuss topical problems, which concern both countries and the world at large, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov said on Sunday before the opening ceremony of the 11th plenary meeting of the public forum. Zubkov is the Russian cochair of the St. Petersburg Dialog and the head of the Russian delegation to the meeting in Wolfsburg.

WOLFSBURG —— Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov has described as ‘highly appropriate’ the title of the 11th meeting of the St. Petersburg Dialog, “Citizens. Society. State – Modernization Partners.”

“First of all, the modernization partnership program becomes a key area of Russia-Germany cooperation. It is a great honor for this forum to coordinate such a large and important project; it is also a token of recognition of our achievements and significance in the system of bilateral relations. It is also a huge responsibility. The future of the St. Petersburg Dialog depends on the successful accomplishment of this mission to a large extent,” he said.

MOSCOW —— The sunken MS Bulgaria is being straightened before lifting. The operation may be complete within an hour, Deputy Transport Minister, lift supervisor Viktor Olersky said. “The straightening of the ship began at 5:30 p.m. Moscow time. The list has been reduced from 90 degrees to 10-15 degrees,” he told the TVC channel.

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