OFFICIALLY

Prime Minister

Appointed Konstantin Tsitsin as deputy head of the Federal Service for Financial Recovery and Bankruptcy. Previously, Tsitsin headed the FSFO affairs department.

Relieved Nikolai Puchkov from the post of Secretary of State - Deputy General Director of the Russian Agency for State Reserves. Nikolai Puchkov was relieved of his post at his request.

Government

Approved the proposal of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade to create a Russian-Chilean intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation. A draft agreement between the two countries has been previously worked out with Chile. The Cabinet of Ministers instructed the Ministry of Economic Development to conduct negotiations with the Chilean side and, upon reaching an agreement, conclude an agreement.

Deputy Prime Minister Valentina Matvienko said that the law “On Sports” adopted by the State Duma is imperfect and needs to be adjusted. Speaking at a meeting of the expanded board of the State Sports Committee, the Deputy Prime Minister also focused on the development of children's and youth sports. In her opinion, this is the responsibility of regional and local authorities, and the functioning of specialized Olympic reserve schools should be the responsibility of the Russian Olympic Committee and the State Sports Committee. In addition, Matvienko believes that there is no need to get carried away with the construction of expensive sports facilities; it is necessary to develop standard multifunctional complexes for both cities and towns.

It is studying the possibility of introducing benefits for the payment of the unified social tax for participants in the non-state insurance system. According to the provisions of the new concept for compulsory health insurance, the government plans to introduce benefits for the return of up to 50% of the unified social tax to private insurers working in enterprises and refusing to participate in the compulsory medical insurance system in favor of voluntary health insurance. A corporate insurer financing voluntary health insurance for its employees can receive the same refund. The draft concept for compulsory medical insurance has already been agreed upon with all interested departments and will be submitted to the government on February 15. The concept is designed for implementation before 2006 and is aimed at reducing the funding gap for the compulsory health insurance system of the constituent entities of the federation. The experiment to introduce the new compulsory medical insurance system will be carried out with the participation of 10-15 regions of Russia.

Departments

The Russian Pension Fund is beginning to develop a new mechanism for providing free medical care to pensioners. The chairman of the fund, Mikhail Zurabov, said that the new program will eliminate even the theoretical possibility of additional payments from pensioners for purchased medicines and medical care provided. Pension Fund specialists have carefully worked out the procedure for relations with the budget and health authorities. In 2003, the new program will be implemented in 14-15 constituent entities of Russia. It is expected that the government will soon adopt a corresponding resolution.

At the end of last year, Russia supplied weapons and military equipment worth $4.8 billion abroad . This was announced by the Chairman of the Committee on Military-Technical Cooperation with Foreign States, Mikhail Dmitriev. According to him, this amount includes supplies both through Rosoboronexport and through other special exporters. The amount of foreign exchange earnings that Russia received for arms supplies, according to him, amounted to about $4.5 billion.

In 2003, the budget allocated more than 5 billion rubles for the implementation of the Russian chemical disarmament program. A significant part of these funds will be used for the construction of the currently priority second facility for the destruction of chemical weapons in Kambarka, in Udmurtia. This was announced by the Secretary of State - Deputy General Director of the Russian Munitions Agency Vyacheslav Kulebyakin. He also noted that in 2002, the Russian side sent special targeted proposals to donor countries providing financial assistance to Russia in the destruction of chemical weapons in accordance with the agreements reached in this area at the G8 summit (USA, Japan, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Canada, Russia) in the Canadian city of Kananaskis.

Accounts Chamber

In the near future, he will check the operation of sports facilities. This was announced by the head of the joint venture, a member of the presidium of the Council on Physical Culture and Sports under the President, Sergei Stepashin. Experts from this department will primarily check the effectiveness and appropriateness of using federal budget funds for the maintenance, development and effective use of sports facilities. Particular attention will be paid to the facts of their commercial use to the detriment of mass, especially children's sports.

Federation Council

Approved a law allowing the export of foreign currency from Russia in the amount of up to 3 thousand dollars without declaration. This provision applies to both Russian citizens and foreigners. After the law comes into force, cash foreign currency in the amount of up to 10 thousand dollars can also be exported without providing bank documents to customs authorities, however, declaration to customs in this case is mandatory. Amounts in foreign currency exceeding 10 thousand dollars can be exported exclusively in non-cash form. Now the free export of cash currency is allowed in the amount of up to 1.5 thousand dollars, from 1.5 thousand to 10 thousand - with a bank certificate, over 10 thousand - with the permission of the Bank of Russia.

Regions

Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov considers the work of the Moscow judicial system effective, but certain shortcomings still exist. Speaking at a meeting dedicated to the results of the activities of the city courts in the past year, among the shortcomings Luzhkov named the delay in the consideration of both criminal and civil cases, which are not reduced in comparison with the standards. At the same time, he suggested that the chairman of the Moscow City Court, Olga Egorova, introduce such an assessment of work as a rating of district courts.

Army

Over the past three years, there has been no significant increase in the number of drug addicts in the Russian Armed Forces. As reported by the Main Military Medical Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, the system created in the Armed Forces to counter the infiltration of drug-addicted citizens and their active identification from the moment of registration and conscription for military service and upon arrival in the troops generally works effectively. According to the State Military Medical University, in 2001 the number of citizens exempted from military service due to the use of psychoactive substances remained virtually unchanged compared to 2000 and amounted to 19.5 thousand people.

Based on materials from news agencies and our own information