14/7 Tass 2
(Two takes)
NOVO-OGAREVO — The All-Russia People’s Front will accept applications for primaries till July 20, according to the decision made by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and United Russia party leader Boris Gryzlov on Wednesday, July 13.
ANKARA— Turkey has invited Russia and China to attend a meeting of the Libya Contact Group to be held in Istanbul on July 14-15. “These two countries have also been invited, but the level of their participation has not been determined yet. We would like more participants to take part in the negotiations this time. Russia and China have been invited as permanent members of the U.N. Security Council,” Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Selcuk Unal said on Wednesday, July 13.
MOSCOW — Russia is not planning to attend a meeting of the Libya Contact Group in Istanbul on July 15, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said. “The Istanbul meeting of the Contact Group is not the first such event to which Russia has been invited by its organisers. Earlier we were invited to the third meeting of this Group in Abu Dhabi on June 9. In addition, we were called upon many times to join this Group by our other partners through various channels,” he said on Wednesday, July 13.
UNITED NATIONS — Russia plans to conduct negotiations with South Sudan shortly in order to establish diplomatic relations with that country, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said. “The acquisition by South Sudan of state sovereignty paves the way to the development of Russian-South Sudanese relations on the basis of equal dialogue and respect for the sovereignty of that country,” he said at a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Sudan on Wednesday, July 13.
MOSCOW — St. Petersburg should become a political centre of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and a “future commonwealth of Eurasian states”, one of the United Russia leaders, Yuri Shuvalov, said.
BEIJING — Russian-Chinese relations are not at the unprecedentedly high level, Russian Ambassador to China Sergei Razov said on Wednesday in an interview to Itar-Tass devoted to the tenth anniversary of the Russian-Chinese Treaty of Good Neighbourliness, Friendship and Cooperation.
CHISINAU — Moldova needs political stability for further realisation of its European aspirations, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said. “European integration and appropriate reforms should have the support not only of the ruling party but also of the opposition,” she said on Wednesday, July 13.
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Barack Obama said Russia might be able to complete the accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) by the end of this year. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said on Wednesday, July 13, gave a positive answer when asked whether the U.S. administration thought Russia’s accession to the WTO this year was still feasible.
MOSCOW — President Dmitry Medvedev signed legislative amendments aimed at protecting housing construction co-investors.
MOSCOW — Russian and Swiss Presidents, Dmitry Medvedev and Micheline Calmy-Rey have arrived in Kolomna, Moscow region, to take part in launching a new plant in Shchurovo. Switzerland’s Holcim Ltd. invested about 500 million euros to modernisation of the facility.
KOLOMNA— Russia and Switzerland have signed a Declaration on Cooperation between the Russian Ministry of Economic Development and the Federal Department of Economic Affairs of the Swiss Confederation. In the presence of the presidents of the two countries- Dmitry Medvedev and Micheline Calmy-Rey, the document was signed by Russian Minister for Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina and Swiss Federal Councillor for Economics Johann Schneider- Ammann.
MOSCOW —— President Dmitry Medvedev signed a law that amends certain legislative acts and that changes the legal regulation of issues pertaining to the status of land within the Skolkovo innovation centre area.
MOSCOW — Russia’s Gazprom will continue talks with Minsk in September on terms of purchasing 50 percent of Beltransgas shares and making new gas supply and transit contracts. The agreement to this effect was reached by Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and Belarusian First Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko on Wednesday, July 13.
MINSK — Turning of the Belarusian Metallurgical Plant /BMZ/ into a joint stock company should be finalised by the end of the current year, the plant’s Director General, Anatoly Savenok, told a news conference on Wednesday.
MOSCOW — Russia’ s oldest travel operator Intourist ( affiliated to AFK Systema holding) and one of the biggest world travel concerns Thomas Cook Group Plc have set up a joint venture, AFK Systema said in a statement.
MOSCOW — Russia’s Federation Council approved on Wednesday a law, introducing new regulations for state-run companies and natural monopolies in the Russian Federation.
MOSCOW — The consumer price index did not change in Russia on July 5-11, the Federal Service for State Statistics (Rosstat) said on Wednesday, July 13. Inflation has been 0.1 percent since the beginning of July and 5.1 percent since the beginning of the year, compared to 0.2 percent and 4.6 percent in the same periods of 2010 respectively.
MOSCOW— Vnesheconombank (VEB) will donate 100 million roubles to the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said. “I think Vnesheconombank should get actively engaged in the work of the agency by providing necessary assistance, including financial support,” Putin said at a meeting of the VEB Supervisory Council on Wednesday, July 13. “VEB has already made the decision to donate 100 million roubles to the agency,” he added.
MOSCOW — Vnesheconombank (VEB) will provide at least 70 billion roubles to the Far Eastern Development Fund, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said. “Project funding from the fund will amount to at least 70 billion roubles by 2015,” Putin said at a meeting of the VEB Supervisory Council on Wednesday, July 13. He said the first 5 billion roubles could be provided in 2011. The fund will be a subsidiary of Vnesheconombank and headquartered in Khabarovsk.
BEIJING— There is no need to dramatise or politicise the process of the Russian-Chinese talks on gas supplies, Russian Ambassador to China Sergei Razov said on Wednesday in an interview to Itar-Tass devoted to the tenth anniversary of the Russian-Chinese Treaty of Good Neighbourliness, Friendship and Cooperation.
MOSCOW — Net profit of Russia’s biggest state-controlled bank – Sberbank (Savings Bank) amounted to 171.3 billion roubles (USD 1 = RUB 28.38) in the first six months of the current year, the bank said in a report published on Wednesday. In January-June 2011, the indicator was 60.7 billion roubles more than in the same period of 2010.