ITAR-TASS Russia and CIS news summary for Monday: 2.

1/8 Tass 65

MOSCOW – – The aggregate amount the Reserve Fund has reached 734.98 billion roubles as of August 1, the Finance Ministry reported on Monday.

The aggregate amount of the National Welfare Fund is 2.566.04 billion roubles, the ministry said.

The aggregate calculated income from placing funds of the Reserve Fund recalculated in dollars in the Bank of Russia’s foreign currency accounts for the beginning of August was 0.25 billion U.S. dollars, which is equivalent to 6.98 billion roubles. The aggregate calculated income from placing the funds’ resources on Vnesheconombank’s deposits from January to June 2011 was 22.49 billion roubles.

MOSCOW – – The Russian government has approved the sale of 75 percent minus 2 shares of First Cargo Company.

The shares will be auctioned. According to government Resolution No. 1315-r of July 28, 2011, the bidders can be legal entities registered in Russia but not state-owned corporations and having a stable financial position and experience of operating the railway rolling stock.

MOSCOW – – More than 9,500 minors suffered from sexual harassment by adults in Russia in 2010, according to the Russian Ombudsman.

“More than 9,500 minors in Russia suffered last year from crimes that limited their sexual freedom and sexual immunity, including nearly 400 under the age of 14,” the spokesperson for the Russian Ombudsman, Irina Vikhrova said.

She said that about 20,000 children were reported missing last year.

MOSCOW – – Russia and the United States will hold the joint exercise of air defence forces and means codenamed Vigilant Eagle 2011 for preventing air terrorism in August. The exercise involves Russian, Canadian and U.S. Air Force personnel operating from command centers in Russia and the United States. The exercise will be held on August 8-11.

MOSCOW – – LUKOIL does all possible to restart the refinery of LUKOIL Neftechim in Bulgaria’s Burgas as soon as possible. The refinery was stopped on Saturday, a source from the Russian oil company told Tass on Monday.

Bulgarian customs sealed warehouses of LUKOIL Bulgaria on July 27 under the pretext that the company did not fulfill the demand for installing remote control sensors. That caused the revocation of the license and the suspended operation of the refinery.

MOSCOW – – The Russian Foreign Ministry (MFA) and the MTS mobile operator have launched on Monday a program to send SMS text messages to inform Russian nationals about emergency situations abroad.

Russian MTS users will be receiving information necessary in emergency situations, while Russian missions abroad will be getting information on the number of mobile phone users in the zone of an emergency situation, sources from the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

The new service to inform users is free and will be offered on a permanent basis to all Russian MTS users when they go abroad, they said.

MOSCOW – – Twelve Il-76MD planes of the Russian Air Force will be prepared and will get water-dumping equipment for putting out wildfires, Russia’s Deputy Defence Minister, General of the Army Dmitry Bulgakov, told reporters on Monday.

“The Defence Ministry is ready in case of necessity to help the Ministry for Emergency Situations and fight back fires if those similar to the fires of August 2010 emerge,” the deputy minister said.

MOSCOW – – The Sukhoi Superjet-100 aircraft family will replenished with the airliner’s business version public relations director of the Sukhoi company Olga Kayukova told Itar-Tass on Monday.

“The development of a new business version of the regional passenger airliner Superjet-100 has been entrusted to Superjet International, a joint venture of Alenia Aeronautika and Sukhoi,” Kayukova explained.

MOSCOW – – Russia urges the Syrian government and the opposition to exercise restraint, to give up provocations and repressions, Russian Foreign Ministry sources said on Monday.

According to media reports, over 100 people died during special operations of Syrian troops in the city of Hama situated 210 kilometers to the north of Damascus and some other settlements on July 31. Official sources said eight policemen had been also killed in clashes with armed extremists in Hama.

ASTANA – – All 12 mountaineers from Kazakhstan detained by Uzbek border guards for illegally crossing the border and importing arms have returned home, local media reports on Monday.

According to Babur Daurenbek, consul of the Kazakh Embassy to Uzbekistan, late on Saturday eight teenagers from the group of mountaineers were accompanied to the territory of Kazakhstan after all necessary procedures. On Sunday, four adults from the group also returned home.

BISHKEK – – Seven people were detained in Kyrgyzstan for arms sale. As ITAR-TASS learnt at the State National Security Committee (SNSC) of the republic on Monday, two police officers were members of the gang.

TOKYO – – Over the period since April to late July, 2011, Russian customs officers in the Far East have banned the import into the country of 61 Japanese goods, including used cars and automobile spare parts because of high radiation level, it is said in a written response by the Chief of the Far East Customs Department, Sergei Pashko, to an inquiry of the Kyodo news agency.

WASHINGTON – – Inmarsat, the leading provider of global mobile satellite communications services, announced on Monday, August 1, that Inmarsat SA, one of its subsidiary companies, had signed a contract with International Launch Services (ILS) for the launch of three Inmarsat-5 satellites.

The launches, scheduled for 2013-2014, will use the ILS Proton launch vehicle from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, ILS said.

BAKU – – Within two years Russia will finish work to reconstruct the Gabala Radar Station, the Azerbaijani press agency APA reported on Monday.

An agency source from the military circles says that reconstruction work is currently underway at the radar station, equipment and antennas are being replaced, in connection with which the station does not operate to its full capacity.

MINSK – – Labour and social pensions have increased in Belarus.

Under Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s decree, labour pensions will increase by 13-17 percent depending on individual parameters. The average retirement pension will reach 798,000 Belarusian roubles (at least 160 U.S. dollars).

Leave a comment