#2
TV1 Review
www.1tv.ru
Compiled by Luba Schwartzman (luba_sch@hotmail.com)
Research Analyst, Center for Defense Information, Moscow office

HEADLINES,
Monday, January 13, 2003

- The head of the press service of the North Caucasus Joint Group of Forces Nikolai Baranov reported that about 1,000 rebel fighters are currently active in Chechnya, 250 of whom are foreign mercenaries. He declared that very few ideological extremists remain in the republic, with most of the activity being compelled by the influx of money from outside Chechnya.

- Federal forces in Chechnya have prevented seven terrorists acts. One of the terrorists killed in a special operation was in possession of instructions for the making of ricin.

- French and British special forces have discovered information on a major international terrorist organization that links Algerian and Chechen cells. According to European sources, the danger posed to Western Europe by international terrorism has sharply increased with the alliance of Chechen and Algerian terrorists.

- Japanese Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba is coming to Moscow on a working visit. He will meet with his Russian counterpart Sergei Ivanov to discuss the situation in North Korea and visit a military division.

- Over 8,000 people on the Sakhalin Island are without heat. The most serious problems are in the Nevelsky region, on the southwestern part of the island.

- The first issue of the Vedomosti newspaper came out 300 years ago on the order of Peter I. The tsar personally selected and edited materials. There are now 23,000 periodicals in Russia. Today their employees celebrates their professional holiday.

- Russian Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov awarded a group of journalists for their work. He noted the importance of cooperation between the media and internal affairs organs.

- Russian President Vladimir Putin chaired a Cabinet meeting dedicated to housing and utilities problems.

- President Putin met with Deputy prime minister Ilya Klabanov to discuss funding for science in 2003.

- Six people died and six were wounded in a major car accident in Daghestan. The driver of a minivan lost control of the vehicle.

- A Tu-154 made a forced landing in Novosibirsk. None of the passengers or crew were injured.

- Smoking has been prohibited in all of the administrative buildings of the Federation Council.

- Some schools in the Russian Federation could not open their doors for the new quarter due to the extreme cold.

- Russian fashion designer Vyacheslav Zaitsev introduced his new collection.

- Chechen Prime Minister Mikhail Babich declared that Akhmad Kadyrov's order appointing Venyamin Isaev the Minister of Finances goes against presidential decrees and instructions of the presidential plenipotentiary to the Southern Federal District Viktor Kazantsev.

- A robbery attempt has been prevented at the Ilya Repin museum.

- The General Council of the United Russia party will meet on 14 January.

- In preparation for the referendum on the Chechen Constitution, assemblies attended by citizens were held in Gudermes and Tolstyi-Yurt.

- Georgian President Eduard Shevarnadze declared that Georgia will not prolong the mandate given to the Russian peacekeepers in Abkhazia until railways communication between Sochi and Sukhumi is resumed. The mandate ran out on 31 December.

- Areas of the mass destruction of the river fauna has been found in the Khasansk region of Primorsky Krai. Experts believed that this is caused by the "chemical" hunting methods of Chinese poachers.