#3
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,
Monday, January 14, 2002

- The first limitations on smoking tobacco have come into effect in Russia. They were outlined in a federal law last summer: It will now be illegal to sell tobacco to minors and to smoke in places of employment; smoking in public areas will be heavily regulated; smoking by television, film, and stage actors will be prohibited unless it is an intrinsic part of the artistic design; and public figures and political leaders will not be allowed to smoke when portrayed in the media.

- Tadeusz Iwinski, the chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's Committee on Migration, Refugees and Demography has arrived in Chechnya. After familiarizing himself with the position of the forced migrants, Iwinski noted that there has been a major improvements in conditions.

- A driver of one of the 300 vehicles stuck in a tunnel on the Transcaucasian highway died from smoke inhalation today.

- Media Minister Mikhail Lesin announced that the president is aware of the events surrounding TV6, but does not wish to get involved. Lesin explained that the president finds that the media market needs to regulate itself and that it is pointless to try to regulate it from without -- either by the government or by state-owned companies.

- Russian President Vladimir Putin asked Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and the Cabinet to develop a plan for continuing the campaign against child homelessness.

- One man died when the part of the Koksovaya mine (Kemerovo oblast) caved. In another mine, the Borkutinskaya, 9 divisions of mountain rescue workers are still trying to quell the fire that erupted on Sunday as a result of a methane explosion. Five miners died in the fire and 12 were hospitalized with serious injuries.

- Central Electoral Commission Chairman Aleksandr Veshnyakov declared that, in the recent regional elections, there have been infractions serious enough to undermine the results.

- Republic presidents have been chosen in Yakutia (Alrosa Diamond company president Vyacheslav Shtyrov 59%), Kabardino-Balkaria (incumbent Valery Kokov, 87%) and Adygea (Polis gold-mining company director Khazret Sovmen, 69%).

- State Duma deputies return to work after the two-week holiday. The first official meeting of the spring session will take place on 16 January, but today, a number of committees, factions and deputy groups are gathering to work on projects.

- In the flood-damaged regions of the Krasnodarsk krai conditions are improving. Local authorities are promising to help residents whose houses and property have been destroyed.

- Brazilian President Fernando Enrique Cardozo is in Moscow on his first official visit. President Cardozo will meet with President Putin and with other members of the Russian government to discuss economic cooperation, cultural exchange, and military-technological collaboration. In particular, the Brazilian government is interested in the Russian Su-35 airplanes.