1/8 Tass A-40
NOVO-OGAREVO – – Russian Culture Minister Alexander Avdeyev said the practice of holding the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and St. Petersburg should continue.
In his opinion, Maestro Valery Gergiyev should chair the competition’s jury next year.
At a meeting with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Saturday, July 30, Avdeyev said the competition was among the world’s top three competitions for young musicians.
MOSCOW – – Russia’s military contingent in Transdniestria celebrates on Sunday the 19th anniversary of entry into the region of Russian peacekeepers. The day is known officially as day of joint peacekeeping forces of Moldova’s Transdniestrian Region, official representative of Russia’s Army Sergei Vlasov said.
GENEVA – – The final meeting of the Working group on Russia’s joining the World Trade Organisation is scheduled for November 10-11, Head of the Russian delegation at the talks on joining the WTO, Head of Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development’s department of trade negotiations Maxim Medvedkov said commenting on another two-day round of informal consultations.
KRASNODAR – – Construction of Russia’s first diver and deep-water training centre for Russia’s CetroSpas rescue centre of EMERCOM has begun in the Krasnodar Territory.
“The unique base will be ready by the end of this year,” press service of the territory’s Tuapse Region said.
The centre will train divers, who will be able to work at the depth of up to 60 metres, and specialists for unmanned underwater complexes and operators of pressure chambers. The centre will be used for training of CentroSpas’ divers, who work at the depth of up to 100 metres.
LJUBLJANA – – Russia will meet the deadlines of the South Stream gas pipeline project implementation, its gas will be enough for all of Europe, chairman of the State Duma lower house of RF parliament Boris Gryzlov said after talks here.
LJUBLJANA – – Slovenia is Russia’s ally as concerns visa regime cancellation with the EU, President of the National Assembly (lower house of parliament) of the Republic of Slovenia Pavel Gantar stated summing up the results of negotiations with his Russian counterpart, speaker of the State Duma Boris Gryzlov.
LJUBLJANA – – Speaker of the State Duma lower house of Russia’s parliament Boris Gryzlov has invited Slovenian businesses to take part in the Skolkovo project. He made this statement to reporters on Sunday after talks with President of the National Assembly (lower house) of Slovenia’s parliament Pavel Gantar.
BALTIYSK (Kaliningrad Region) – – Russia expects its European partners to take a responsible position at the negotiations on establishing a visa-free regime, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said.
Kaliningrad Region governor Nikolai Tsukanov noted at a meeting with the president an agreement with Poland on border cooperation will be signed in the near future, however, Kaliningrad residents hope for the earliest introduction of a visa-free regime with EU countries.
MOSCOW – – The situation caused by the cancellation of numerous flights of the bankrupt Continent airline has stabilized by now, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office told Itar-Tass on Sunday.
Sixty-nine flights with more than 3,000 passengers were cancelled from July 29 through 31 because of the Federal Air Transport Service’s revocation of the Continent license, the Office said.
MOSCOW – – The police have detained 43 participants in an unauthorized march from Moscow’s Triumfalnaya Square to Pushkin Square, Andrei Galiabekov from the city police department said.
In his words, the police detained no one during the sit-in in Triumfalnaya Square in support of Article 31 of the constitution. “However, the most active participants in the action were detained when they started a provocative march along Tverskaya Street and impeded the movement of other citizens,” he said.
The detainees were taken to local police stations. Administrative charges will be brought.
MOSCOW – – The number of wildfires in Russia reduced a lot over the past day, the Emergency Situations Ministry told Itar-Tass.
“The number of wildfires dropped by 34, while the wildfire area reduced by almost 4,000 hectares,” the ministry said.
Meanwhile, Russia still has 102 wildfires, 17 of them large. “A total of 424 hectares are ablaze. Fires are confined on more than 12,500 hectares,” the ministry said.
Almost 12,000 people are putting out the blaze.