#5518
[Second Issue of the Day]
#1
ORT Review
www.ortv.ru
Compiled by Luba Schwartzman (luba7@bu.edu)
Research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Conflict, Ideology and Policy
at Boston University
HEADLINES,
Tuesday, October 30, 2001
- All employees of the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C. are being tested for anthrax in connection with reports that spores were discovered in the post office which processes the embassy's correspondence. The post office will be closed until Wednesday; all embassy mail will be inspected.
- Prosecutors in Karachaevo-Cherkessiya continue to interrogate the thirteen fighters who were handed over by Georgian authorities a month ago. All thirteen are Wahhabis; almost all were on the federal and international wanted lists for terrorist acts in the North Caucasus as well as in Karachaevo-Cherkessiya itself.
- The Central Electoral Commission is waiting for the verdict of the Sakha (Yakutian) Republic Supreme Court before making a decision concerning the nomination (for third term) of Sakha's incumbent president, Mikhail Nikolaev. Presidential plenipotentiary to the Far Eastern Federal District Konstantin Pulikovsky spoke out against the Nikolaev's registration today, stating that the president had backed himself into a corner by not bringing local laws in line with the federal constitution.
- Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov reported on the decisions taken at the joint session of the State Council and the Security Council. Forty to fifty holdings will be created and tasked with creating new technology and modernizing production in the military-industrial complex. President Putin signed a decree creating the aviation holding company "Sukhoi" which will include the Moscow design bureau and the four factories (in Irkutsk, Novosibirsk, Komsomolsk-on-the-Amur and Taganrog) that produce Sukhoi airplanes. The unification -- from design, to production, to sales -- will allow for more successful competition on the world market. In particular, higher revenue is needed got the new fifth-generation fighter plane Sukhoi directors expect to manufacture in 7-8 years.
- Questions of regional preparations for the heating season were discussed today at the Kremlin. Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko told President Putin that fuel supplies have been prepared, and that it is now necessary to create a rigid mechanism to ensure that these supplies are not used up ahead of time. Khristenko explained that local authorities will bear the brunt of this responsibility.
- The investigation of the sinking of the Kursk continues. Another note was found aboard the nuclear submarine; bodies of sailors are being taken off the Kursk, identified and delivered to the families. General Prosecutor Vladimir Ustinov and Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov will hold a press conference later today on the current status of the investigation.
- A criminal armed with two F-1 grenades held 18 people (including four children) hostage at a children's hospital in Vladikavkaz. After receiving the ransom he demanded (reports indicate anywhere from 2 million rubles to $5 million) he managed to escape the police and security services.
- The Russian General Prosecutor's office has opened investigations against a number of officials in the State Customs Committee, the State Committee on Fishery, the Emergencies Ministry and the Railroad Ministry.
- Two actions have been filed by the General Prosecutor's office against Duma deputy and Union of Right Forces member Vladimir Golovlev. He is suspected of fraud, bribe-taking and the abuse of his official standing. A Duma commission responsible for organizational questions has recommended that Golovlev be stripped of parliamentary immunity.
- President Putin met with members of the Davos World Economic Forum, which is holding a meeting in Moscow. He told forum members that Russia is ready for close international cooperation.
- Today was the Day of Remembrance for the victims of political repression. Former GULAG prisoners, their relatives, and representatives of political parties gathered at Moscow's Lubyanka Square at noon. Many of them brought flowers (in even numbers, by the Russian tradition of mourning) to the Solovestsk Stone, brought here more than 10 years ago from the Solovetsk islands as a symbolic gravestone for political prisoners. Similar vigils were held throughout Russia.
- The Russian Nuclear Energy Ministry and the Russian Academy of Sciences have signed a cooperation agreement "to improve work and expenditure efficiency."
- Celebrations begin for the hundred-year anniversary of the initiation of diplomatic relations between Russia and Cuba. An exhibit celebrating the works of Russian artists who have spent time on "Freedom Island" opened today at the Academy of Art in Moscow.
- Russia's new Land Code, published today in Rossiyskaya Gazeta, has officially come into effect.
- Ukraine will destroy its last intercontinental ballistic missile today, in accord with the international agreement on the reduction of strategic SNV-1 armaments.
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