Officially

President

Held a meeting with members of the Security Council. The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, head of the presidential administration Dmitry Medvedev, Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Internal Affairs Minister Rashid Nurgaliev, FSB head Nikolai Patrushev, and Foreign Intelligence Service head Sergei Lebedev. Various issues of domestic and foreign policy were discussed at the meeting.

He signed a decree appointing Mikhail Dmitriev as director of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation , relieving him of the post of Deputy Minister of Defense and the duties of Chairman of the Committee on Military-Technical Cooperation with Foreign States. By another presidential decree, Army General Nikolai Abroskin was appointed director of the Federal Agency for Special Construction and relieved of his post as head of the Federal Service for Special Construction. In addition, Vladimir Putin dismissed Andrei Belyaninov, General Director of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Rosoboronexport, and appointed him Director of the Federal Service for Defense Procurement. The head of state also relieved First Deputy Defense Minister Vladimir Matyukhin from his duties as chairman of the State Committee for Defense Procurement under the Ministry of Defense.

Prime Minister

Relieved Nikolai Koshman from the post of Chairman of the State Committee for Construction and Housing and Communal Services. Nikolai Koshman has headed Gosstroy since October 2002.

Departments

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in the first three months of 2004 in Russia there was a sharp increase in the number of crimes committed by foreign citizens and stateless persons. From January 1 to April 1, they committed 12,340 crimes. This is almost 20% more than in 2003. 92% of crimes were committed by immigrants from CIS countries. Most of the “foreign” crimes are thefts and robberies, and “most often foreigners commit crimes against their fellow countrymen.” Over the same period, 2,555 crimes were committed against foreign citizens in Russia.

Russia advocates that materials that can be used to create weapons of mass destruction be placed under the control of states everywhere. This was stated by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak.

Based on materials from news agencies and our own information