23/7 Tass 2
(Two takes)
BALI ISLAND (Indonesia)— Interaction in the sphere of the economy, energy, science and technology, as well as dealing with new threats and challenges – are in the focus of the ASEAN-Russia Ministerial Meeting that opened on Bali Island on Friday. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov heads the Russian delegation.
BALI ISLAND — Russia welcomes North Korea’s readiness to resume the sextet talks without preliminary conditions, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said following his meeting with the DPRK’s Foreign Minister Pak Ui-Chun on the fields of the Russia-ASEAN ministerial meeting on Friday.
BALI, Indonesia — Russia is set to develop energy cooperation with member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday.
BALI ISLAND — Development of bilateral cooperation was discussed at the bilateral meeting at Bali of foreign ministers of Russia and China Sergei Lavrov and Yang Jiechi.
WASHINGTON — Russia wants to be a real partner in the European missile-defence system rather than a “passive observer” watching American operations, like “a tourist visiting a planetarium,” the Washington Post cited Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s special envoy on missile defence.
ASTANA — Kazakhstan did not fail to notice that it had been added to the U.S. terror watch list. “We are very much surprised and concerned about reports that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has put Kazakhstan on the list of specially designated countries (SDCs) that had shown a tendency to promote, produce, or protect terrorist organizations or their members,” Kazakh Foreign Ministry press secretary Ilyas Omarov said.
BISHKEK — Russia is a locomotive of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Kyrgyzstan’s Parliament Speaker Akhmatbek Keldibekov said during Friday’s meeting with Russia’s State Secretary and Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin and Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on CIS Affairs Andrei Molchanov.
KIEV — Ukraine will make the European Union stronger, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Konstantin Grishchenko told the New Europe edition, the Ukrainian government press office reports.
KIEV— Ex-Ukrainian premier, leader of the opposition party Batkivshchyna Yulia Timoshenko told the Kiev Pechersky District Court she did not exceeded her authority in signing gas contracts with Russia in 2009. “I strongly reject the accusations. This case is fabricated from the beginning to the end,” she said.
BISHKEK — Twenty-one people have declared their wish to take part in the presidential election race in Kyrgyzstan, the Central Elections Commission told Itar-Tass on Friday. “Five candidates were nominated by political parties, while the rest of the candidates nominated themselves,” the Commission said.
SUKHUMI — The United Abkhazia Party’s Political Council has supported the nomination of Alexander Ankvab for president and Mikhail Logua for vice-president. Ankvab had been the Abkhaz premier since February 2005, and then President Sergei Bagapsh supported his nomination for vice-president in 2009, party chairman Daur Tarba said.
BALI ISLAND — Foreign ministers of Russia and Vietnam Sergei Lavrov and Pham Gia Khiem discussed strengthening of strategic partnership and implementation of major economic projects, a representative of Russia’s Foreign Ministry said following the bilateral meetings of Russia’s foreign minister on the sidelines of the Russia-ASEAN ministerial meeting on Friday in Indonesia’s Bali Island in the Indian Ocean.
SOFIA — Bulgaria has received no official notification of a claim from Russia’s Atomstroiexport to its National Electric Company, the press office of the Bulgarian ministry of economics, energy and tourism said on Friday.
MOSCOW — The State Duma and the Finance Ministry are considering over 100 proposals made at the Russian Popular Front for the future federal budget, State Duma Speaker and head of the United Russia Supreme Council Boris Gryzlov said on Friday.
CHERKESSK — Russia’s Karachay-Cherkessia Republic has invited FIAT to develop car industry business there and guarantees most favoured nation treatment to the company.
MOSCOW — The Federal Consumer Rights and Human Well Being Service has permitted the imports of Hungarian and Italian vegetables starting from July 25 on condition “the vegetables have a certificate issued by appropriate authorities in home countries.”
STUPINO, Moscow region — Next year’s import quotas have been set at 330,000 tonnes for poultry and 350,000 tonnes for pork, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Friday. The Economic Development Ministry and the Agriculture Ministry had proposed the quotas.
VLADIMIR — The wish of some young Russians to move abroad for permanent residence is not a problem, President Dmitry Medvedev said in comment on a statement by Moscow State University Rector Viktor Sadovnichy made at a meeting of the Science and Culture Council.
MOSCOW — Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree to award a famous world opera tenor from the Kingdom of Spain, Placido Domingo, who is also the general director of the Washington National Opera, with the Order of Friendship on Friday.
MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has ordered Moscow Regional Governor Boris Gromov to stay in touch with Moscow in the broadening of the city limits.
MAIKOP — Geological survey has begun on the prospective location of the Lagonaki alpine resort in the Krasnodar territory and Adygeya, a source at the North Caucasus Resorts press service told Itar-Tass on Friday.
VLADIVOSTOK — Two units of the Russian Interior Troops that are deployed in the village of Chuguyevka near Vladivostok, the Primorsky Territory, filed lawsuits for the defence of reputation to retired major Igor Matveyev. The Sovetsky District Court of Vladivostok began to try the lawsuits on Friday, a source in the court secretariat said, adding that the trial will be held behind closed doors.
VLADIVOSTOK — Under the programme of voluntary resettlement of compatriots residing abroad the Kamchatka Territory by now has received 340 people, the press service of regional administration reported. There are 225 participants in the programme and 115 members of their families among them.
MOSCOW — The U.S. multinational software giant, Microsoft Corporation, has put forth a report on the company’s annual revenues, which reached its record high of 69.94 billion U.S. dollars over 2010, the BBC news agency said on Friday.
MOSCOW — The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is alarmed with the reports coming from Libya that cultural sites are used as arms and ammunition depots in the country, UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova said at the Moscow-Paris video hookup here on Friday.
BRUSSELS — The European Union condemns the execution of two criminals sentenced to capital punishment in Belarus and calls on Minsk to join the global moratorium, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a statement circulated on Friday.