#20 - JRL 6207
TV1 Review
www.1tv.ru
Compiled by Luba Schwartzman (luba_sch@hotmail.com)

Research Analyst, Center for Defense Information, Moscow office

HEADLINES,
Monday, January 20, 2003

- At the UN Security Council meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov declared that there remain political options for regulating the situation in Iraq.

- Deputy Commander of the North Caucasus Joint Group of Forces Aleksandr Starovsky told Interfax that the military has seen the text of Aslan Maskhadov's speech, in which he threatens Chechens who cooperate with the federal government in the conduct of the referendum on the Chechen Constitution.

- In Omsk, 8,000 people have been hospitalized with a severe form of the flu over the past week.

- Teachers in the Amur Oblast are striking. They have yet to receive their December salaries. Many don't have enough money for bread.

- Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko have summed up the results of the meeting of the Supreme Council of the Russia-Belarus Union. One of the primary decisions was introducing the single currency in 2005. Putin declared that Moscow and Minsk are entering a new and very important stage of mutual construction [...] which will noticeably raise the quality of life for the citizens of both nations.

- State Duma Deputies who did not attend military training in 2002 have been summoned for training to a Moscow District division in early February.

- 17 fishermen were carried away on an ice floe into the Gulf of Finland. An Mi-8 helicopter is being used in the search-and-rescue operation.

- Heat has yet to be restored in 9 settlements in the Sakhalin Oblast.

- 27-year old Stanislav Tereshkov took hostage a teacher and five children in a kindergarten in the Amur Oblast. He demanded 100,000 rubles, drugs, vodka, weapons and a car. During negotiations local police officers managed to distract and neutralize Tereshkov -- he is currently in the hospital with serious gun wounds. If he survives until the trial, this will be his third conviction.

- Moscow architects will begin using special glass and metal constructions to protect old buildings.

- Co-Chairman of the Russian Council of Muftis Sheik Nasibulla Nasirov reported that 4,000 Russian Muslims will make the Hajj to Mecca. Special agreements have been made with the Russian Federal Border Troops.

- Special Envoy of the Russian Federation Aleksandr Losyukov declared that his 6-hour meeting with Kim Jong-il was successful. Losyukov also emphasized the importance of helping the US and North Korea begin a dialogue.

- Federal forces prevented 5 terrorist acts in Chechnya over the weekend. They discovered several landmines and destroyed several arms caches.

- The danger of avalanches has increased on the Kamchatka due to the intense snowfall. The workers of the Kamchatka Anti-Avalanche Center have made preventive bombardments in high risk areas.

- The Russian team, headed by Semen Yakubov, with pilot Vladimir Chagin and mechanic Sergei Savostin, won the Dakar-2003 Rally, an 8,500-kilometer race across the desert.