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PACE SESSION
BELGRADE – The 20th session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) opens in the Serbian capital. The four-day conference will discuss ways to boost OSCE efficiency.
MEETING OF CIS DEFENCE MINISTERS
SOCHI – A meeting of the Council of CIS Defence Ministers will discuss the concept of military cooperation till the year 2015.
MEETING OF MARINE COLLEGIUM
NARYAN MAR – A meeting of the Russian Marine Collegium, chaired by vice-premier Sergei Ivanov, will discuss domestication of the Arctic and boosting shipments along the Northern Sea Route.
FEDERAL ASSEMBLY
MOSCOW – The Russian State Duma lower parliament house will consider on first reading a bill lowering barrier for parties from seven to five percent at federal elections. The move was proposed by President Dmitry Medvedev.
MOSCOW – The Federation Council upper parliament house will hold a plenary meeting to discuss about 20 international agreements that will constitute a legal base for the common economic space.
VISIT BY ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER
MOSCOW – Russian and Armenian Foreign Ministers, Sergei Lavrov and Edvard Nalbandyan, will discuss approaches to a settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as well expansion of trade and economic relations.
COLLECTIVE SECURITY TREATY ORGANIZATION
YEREVAN – The Coordination Council of heads of anti-drug agencies of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member state will sum up the results of the anti-drug operation “Canal-West.” Russia will be represented by the head of the Federal Drug Control Service, Viktor Ivanov.
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT-RUSSIA
STRASSBOURG – European Union supreme representative for foreign affairs and security policy Catherine Ashton will make a statement at the European Parliament session on the coming general elections in Russia. She will also speak about the situation in North African countries, including Libya.
TURKEY-GOVERNMENT
ANKARA – Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan will present members of his new government for president’s approval.
RUSSIAN REGIONS
OMSK – More than 120 Russian and foreign companies are taking part in the 9th international hi-tech hardware and armaments VTTV-Omsk-2011, which opens here on Wednesday.
KAZAN – Kazan, the capital city of Russia’s republic of Tatarstan, hosts an international conference of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member countries dedicated to problems of the creation of a transport corridor that will link Europe and Western China. The conference was organized by the Volga customs administration, the federal customs service and republic’s ministry of transport.
KAZAKHSTAN-CELEBRATIONS
ASTANA – Kazakhstan marks the Day of the Capital City and birthday of its President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who proposed to move the country’s capital from Almaty to Astana.
NEWS OF CULTURE
PARIS – World’s biggest theatre festival opens in France’s Avignon. Theatrical companies from around the world will perform here within the next three week. It will be the 65th Festival of Avignon.
MOSCOW – Moscow’s Sovremennik Theatre marks a jubilee performance of its production “Difficult People,” by Israeli playwright Yosef Bar-Yosef. The play will be performed for the 200th time.
SPORTS
PRETORIA – President of the International Olympic Committee (OIC) Jacques Rogge will announce a city that will host the Winter Olympics in 2018 at an IOC session in South Africa’s Durban.
ITAR-TASS
MOSCOW – A news conference will be dedicated to problems of the contemporary society and relations between the Church and the state.