#7 - JRL 6594
TV1 Review
www.1tv.ru
Compiled by Luba Schwartzman (luba_sch@hotmail.com)
Research Analyst, Center for Defense Information, Moscow office
HEADLINES,
Monday, December 9, 2002
- Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma is in Moscow on a visit timed to correspond with the closing of the Year of Ukraine. President Kuchma and Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the closing ceremony at the Bolshoy Theater. In the daytime the Russian and Ukrainian presidents met at the Kremlin. President Putin declared that the Year of Ukraine "created excellent conditions for the development of relations between the two states in all spheres."
- The interrogations of Yusuf Krymshamkhalov continue in Lefortovo. There is evidence that Krymshamkhalov delivered explosives from the Caucasus to Moscow and found storage places for them.
- A police officer who sold guns he confiscated from criminals was detained in the Saratov Oblast. Igor Gagarin, who sold about 40 guns, said he did so because his salary was too small. His first customers were his friends and acquaintances, former police officers. He kept track of all his sales, so mostl of the weapons have been returned to the Interior Ministry.
- Four intelligence officers who were wounded in the line of duty in the Second Chechen Campaign received medals in Stavropol.
- Security at objects of strategic value, including the Metropolitan, has been strengthened in Tbilisi in connection with information that various forces and groupings are seeking to destabilize the situation in Georgia and carry out terrorist acts.
- The Russian General Prosecutor's Office has sent an official request for the extradition of Akhmed Zakaev to Great Britain. Zakaev arrived in London last Friday. He was immediately arrested, but then released upon signing a document promising not to leave the country.
- In the Far East, temperatures have fallen to -40 degrees Celsius. Many other regions register temperatures below -30 degrees Celsius. Meteorologists say that this is the coldest December in a long time. Many water pipelines are unable to withstand such temperatures.
- Russian authorities have declared two Canadian diplomats persona non grata.
- Renowned Soviet-era singer Yuri Bogatikov passed away at the age of 71.
- The State Duma will review a Russian-American agreement on the reduction of strategic offensive weapons.
- President Putin met with key ministers to discuss issues including the extradition of Yusuf Krymashov and tariffs on natural monopolies. Putin began the meeting by congratulating Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov on his birthday and presenting him with a pair of skis.
- In Volgograd, Khamzat Khasarov has been convicted of murder and sentenced to 13 years imprisonment in a maximum security colony.
- State Duma deputies discussed the regulation of migration processes in Russia, including clear rules for obtaining Russian citizens.
- President Putin met with NATO General Secretary George Robertson to discuss closer cooperation between Russia and NATO. Robertson also spoke at the International Conference on the War Against Terrorism. He compared international terrorism with a mutating virus.
- Central Electoral Commission Chairman Aleksandr Veshnyakov anticipates that about 30 parties will compete for seats in the December 2003 State Duma elections. Only 18 parties have registered their regional branches so far.
- Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov gave the opening remarks at the "Role of the Military in the Fight Against Terrorism" conference in Moscow this morning.
- In the St. Petersburg elections to the legislative assembly, two thirds of the incumbents retained their seats. Voter turnout averaged thirty percent.
- City and oblast officials will meet with housing and utilities workers in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsk to try to settle the strike.
WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS,
Saturday, December 7, 2002
- Russian President Putin chaired a meeting dedicated to various foreign and domestic policy issues.
- Christmas trees and New Year's exhibitions are appearing around Moscow.
- Georgia has extradited Yusup Krymshamkhalov to Russia. Krymshamkhalov is accused of organizing the 1999 Moscow and Volgodonsk apartment bombings along with Achimez Gochiyaev. Representatives of Russian special services have declared that it is of utmost importance for them to receive the organizers of the terrorist acts alive and send them to trial.
- President Putin congratulated Russian Academy of Science member Nikolai Tikhodeev on his 75th birthday.
- Russian border troops officers detained a group of Afghan drug smugglers in a nine-day special operation. They confiscated 840 kilograms of drugs, including heroin, hashish and opium from the armed criminals.
- Police officers in Tbilisi detained 80 people residing in Tbilisi, including Chechens, Pakistanis, Nigerians and other foreign nationals as part of a special operation. The detainees will beheld until the police can establish their identities.
- The International Day of Civilian Aviation was celebrated in Russia as well as 184 other countries.
- Air traffic controllers in a number of Russian regions, including the employees of the Surgut, Vologda, Nizhevartovs, and Khanty-Mansiisk airports went on strike, demanding higher wages, better benefits and a change of leadership.
- Yevgenii Primakov's book, "The World After September 11", was presented at the Kremlin. In the work Primakov discusses various Concepts of national security and concludes that the world community must put up a joint front to international terrorism.
- The 14th anniversary of the earthquake in Spitak, Armenia, was commemorated; 25,000 people died and over 100,000 became invalids in the earthquake.
Sunday, December 8, 2002
- Nikolai Grazhdankin, former deputy head of the Novgorod Oblast administration has been elected Mayor of Veliky Novgorod.
- The 400 participants of the All-Russian Directors' Conference discussed the creation of a Guild of theater directors.
- Elections to St. Petersburg's legislative assembly were held and declared valid in all 50 okrugs. About 400 candidates from 15 parties and electoral blocks participated in the elections.
- NATO General Secretary George Robertson arrived in Moscow on a working visit. He will meet with Russian officials, including Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov and Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov to discuss the development of cooperation between Russia and NATO. He will also meet with representatives of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.
- In Tomsk, 38 children were hospitalized with food poisoning.
- The first interrogation of Yusup Krymshamkhalov was conducted at the Lefortovo detention center.
- Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov celebrates his 45th birthday.
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