OFFICIALLY

Departments

The Ministry of Finance will make proposals for the formation of a stabilization fund by April 5 of this year. Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin noted that this issue is currently being finalized in all interested ministries and departments in order to determine the financing mechanism for this fund. Kudrin pointed out that the need to make a decision by the beginning of April is due to the fact that it is from this month that the Russian government begins to work on the formation of the next 2004 budget.

The Ministry of Finance and the Federal Commission for the Securities Market canceled the order on the procedure for calculating the net assets of joint stock companies . This order was used as a normative act when making the decision to liquidate MNVK CJSC, which still holds the license to broadcast on the “sixth button” and challenges the legality of the adopted document. “Thus, they confirmed our position that a judicial error was made when considering the liquidation case of MNVK,” said Pavel Chernovalov, chairman of the MNVK liquidation commission.

The Russian Veterinary Service has introduced a ban on the import of poultry meat from Belgium. First Deputy Minister of Agriculture Sergei Dankvert said that the ban applies to the supply of live poultry, eggs, poultry products, feed and feed additives for poultry. It is associated with the spread of the chicken flu epidemic in Belgium. The ban will remain in effect until the situation is completely stabilized, the deputy minister noted. Chicken flu poses a serious threat to poultry populations. In Russia, “chicken” flu has not been registered for more than 15 years.

The Ministry of Health has ordered the sanitary and quarantine services of Russian airports to strengthen control and sanitary and hygienic measures regarding flights arriving from Southeast Asia. This order was given in connection with an outbreak of influenza-like infection of unknown origin in Southeast Asia. Airport services are also required to further instruct flight attendants about the symptoms of this disease and the measures that should be taken if they are detected. If necessary, if any of the passengers exhibit symptoms of acute respiratory disease or pneumonia, they must be sent to medical institutions, the Ministry of Health says.

The Ministry of Atomic Energy does not plan to introduce additional security measures at Russian nuclear facilities in the event of the outbreak of hostilities in Iraq. Official representative of the ministry Nikolai Shingarev emphasized that the measures planned for this year to strengthen the safety of Russian nuclear power plants and nuclear enterprises in the industry have been successfully implemented. According to him, no special measures will be taken. The physical protection of ten nuclear power plants and about two hundred nuclear facilities in Russia is carried out by employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. However, Shingarev did not rule out that the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs will decide to increase the number of its employees providing round-the-clock security of our facilities during the period of hostilities.

First Deputy Chairman of the State Customs Committee of Russia Leonid Lozbenko met with the head of the representative office of the San-Gobain concern (France) in the CIS, Daniel Meroc, and the heads of Russian enterprises with 100 percent foreign capital, San-Gobain Izover and Stained Glass San-Gobain. The parties discussed the progress of consideration in the State Duma of the new edition of the Customs Code. According to entrepreneurs, excessive liberalization in customs proposed by some deputies could turn against respectable participants in foreign economic activity and contribute to the development of unfair competition.

In 2002, divisions of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources conducted environmental inspections of more than 1 thousand enterprises in the Moscow region. Nikolai Garankin, head of the main department of natural resources and environmental protection for the Moscow region, said that there are currently over 5 thousand enterprises and organizations located in the Moscow region, whose activities are in one way or another connected with air pollution with harmful ingredients. At the same time, the share of emissions from mobile sources in general amounts to over 70% of the total volume of air pollutants. According to Garankin, as a result of the inspections, 1,319 orders were issued, of which more than 800 have been executed to date, the rest are in the execution stage, more than 120 thousand rubles in fines have been collected, in five cases the cases have been referred for judicial collection through the bailiff service. Garankin noted that one of the significant results of the inspections was a real change in attitude at regional enterprises to the need to carry out environmental protection measures.

Army

A group of inspectors from the Ministry of Defense began inspecting formations of the Strategic Missile Forces. The inspection of strategic missileers will last until March 28. The Vladimir Rocket Army and one of its divisions, armed with the Topol complexes, were subjected to verification. During the inspection, it is also planned to conduct a command post exercise with units of the missile army and the headquarters of the Strategic Missile Forces under the leadership of the commander of the Strategic Missile Forces, Colonel General Nikolai Solovtsov.

Regions

Chairman of the Norilsk City Council Sergei Shmakov notified the city electoral commission of his intention to participate in the elections for the mayor of Norilsk. To date, eight candidates have announced their desire to participate in the elections for the mayor of Norilsk, which will be held on April 20. The deadline for nominating candidates and submitting signature sheets is March 20. Among the contenders for the post of head of the city, in addition to Shmakov, are the deputy head of the MTS department of the Polar Division of OJSC MMC Norilsk Nickel Leonid Fraiman, the editor-in-chief of the TV company Sneg, an employee of the Norilsk News International Research Center Vitaly Tolstov, a specialist of the first category of the Norilsk City Council Arsen Borisovets, Deputy Head of the Department of Industrial Safety and Labor Protection of the Polar Division of OJSC MMC Norilsk Nickel Andrey Otosa, primary school teacher at Gymnasium No. 4 of Norilsk Galina Maltseva, as well as temporarily unemployed Alexander Zubkov and Vladimir Sokolov. The elections for the mayor of Norilsk are being held due to the fact that the former head of the city, Oleg Budargin, was elected governor of the Taimyr Autonomous Okrug on January 26.

Minister of Internal Affairs Boris Gryzlov announced the appointment of four new heads of regional departments of internal affairs. Alexander Kulikov was appointed head of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Tver Region, Nikolai Denisov was appointed head of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Kaluga Region, and Mikhail Nikitin was appointed head of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Sakhalin Region. The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who is on a working trip to Oryol, introduced another appointee - Colonel Leonid Pashin, who took the post of head of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Oryol Region. Speaking about new appointments, Gryzlov noted that he is a supporter of the principle of rotation. “We usually transfer people from region to region so that they can look at the state of affairs differently, in a new way,” the minister explained.

Based on materials from news agencies and our own information