Officially

President

I sent greetings to the participants and guests of the All-Russian Forum dedicated to the 45th anniversary of the student movement. “It is important that today’s students continue the best traditions of their predecessors and are actively looking for new forms of development of the “construction brigade” movement. I am confident that the constructive proposals and recommendations made at the forum will help in this significant and responsible matter,” Vladimir Putin noted in his greeting.

Prime Minister

Signed an order to allocate funds from the government's reserve fund to provide assistance to citizens injured on February 6 as a result of the explosion in the Moscow metro. The Moscow government and executive authorities of other constituent entities of the federation will be allocated funds to compensate for 50% of the costs of paying the families of foreign citizens and Russian citizens who died as a result of the terrorist attack, one-time financial assistance in the amount of 100 thousand rubles. for each deceased, to pay for burial in the amount of 18,261 thousand rubles. for every person killed. Funds have also been allocated to pay other Russian citizens affected by the terrorist attack one-time financial assistance in the amount of 50 thousand rubles. to everyone.

Government

We are ready to put up for sale 1.6 million tons of grain purchased during the 2002-2003 intervention to stabilize prices on the grain and bakery products market. The first trading will begin today and will take place on two exchanges. According to the government’s plans, trade intervention will reduce the cost of bread by 25% and, as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture Alexei Gordeev said, achieve “friendly prices.” In addition, the Deputy Prime Minister believes, the intervention “will be able to revive the grain market, reducing prices by about 10%.”

We intend to return to the issue of changing the criteria for defining small businesses, said First Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Alexander Zhukov. Currently, enterprises that fall under the definition of “small business”, which are taxed according to a preferential scheme, have an income of 15 million rubles. per year. The government proposes to expand the range of small businesses, defining their annual income from 30 to 50 million rubles.

There will be no temporary ban on the import of poultry meat from the American state of Pennsylvania, said Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture Alexei Gordeev. According to him, the strain of bird flu discovered in this state is not dangerous to humans and is not included in the quarantine list. The Deputy Prime Minister also said that a conclusion regarding the case of bird flu recorded in another US state (New Jersey) has not yet been received.

Departments

According to the State Statistics Committee, the total number of workers employed in state authorities and local self-government in Russia increased by 6.7 thousand people over the nine months of 2003 and by September 1 last year amounted to 1 million 259 thousand against 1 million 252.3 thousand people at the end of 2002. Data on the number of employees does not include personnel of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, other bodies ensuring law and order and protecting state security.

Central Election Commission

The head of the Central Election Commission, Alexander Veshnyakov, said that more than 200 international observers have already received official accreditation to work in the upcoming presidential elections on March 14. Following his recent meeting with the head of the OSCE mission, he confirmed that there is very great interest abroad in the upcoming presidential elections in Russia. In total, about 400 international observers are expected at the upcoming elections. Starting this week, OSCE representatives will deploy their offices in 15 federal subjects. In addition, observers from the CIS countries have already received 130 accreditations, who will conduct monitoring in 80 constituent entities of the federation.

According to the Central Election Commission, of all seven presidential candidates, only Sergei Glazyev was found to have false information about income. True, we are talking about small amounts. Sergei Glazyev did not indicate income of a total of 47 thousand rubles. in the form of fees and rewards for lectures given. In particular, Sergei Glazyev forgot about 19 thousand rubles received from the State University of Management in 2001, and 17 thousand 448 rubles paid to him in the same year by the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute.

Accounts Chamber

Conducts an inspection at the Central Bank. Auditors will study the transportation of reserve funds - in particular, “how old banknotes are collected, where they are taken, how they are destroyed,” said Accounts Chamber auditor Sergei Shokhin. The reason for such a check was an appeal from State Duma deputies who were surprised by the very high costs of the Central Bank to replace old money with new ones. According to Sergei Shokhin, this process takes about 18% of all Central Bank expenses. The results of the audit are expected to be announced by May 15. In addition, auditors of the Accounts Chamber check transactions and accounts in the Central Bank that are subject to state secrets, the work of the Central Bank as an agent of the government for managing internal public debt, and also study the relationship of the Central Bank with Russian foreign banks.

Based on materials from news agencies and our own information