OFFICIALLY

President

Signed the decree “On approval of the list of dual-use equipment and materials and related technologies used for nuclear purposes, subject to export control.” The decree is aimed at the effective implementation of the provisions of the federal law “On Export Control”. In addition, the need for the decree is dictated by international obligations arising from Russia's participation in the Nuclear Suppliers Group - one of the five international export control mechanisms and related decisions approved at the plenary meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group in May 2002 in Prague.

Signed the federal law “Charter of Railway Transport”. The document determines the operating procedure of the new transportation organization system, the main features of which are the division of the transportation process into two independent spectrums of legal relations - infrastructure and transportation conditions, the possibility of functioning of independent carriers in railway transport. This will ensure the formation and development of a competitive environment in the field of railway transportation. Now, any legal entity or individual who owns rolling stock by right of ownership or other legal grounds and has received a license to carry out this activity can become a carrier. In addition, the bill provides for the further development of the institution of operator companies, which can already act both as carriers and as shippers in their own rolling stock, and as companies providing this stock to carriers, shippers and other persons.

Departments

The Ministry of Atomic Energy is considering the delivery of spent nuclear fuel to Russia from a research reactor in Uzbekistan. The spent nuclear fuel will be returned to Russia for technological storage and reprocessing. As Minatom head Alexander Rumyantsev said, “this is our fuel, and we must take it.” Research nuclear reactors and reactors of nuclear power plants are located in the CIS, Eastern European countries: Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, as well as in Finland. “The largest number of such reactors is in Ukraine, and our ministry is conducting scientific and technical cooperation on all these facilities,” Rumyantsev said. Last year, Russia imported spent nuclear fuel from Bulgaria and Ukraine totaling about $50 million.

At the end of January, the State Committee for Construction and Housing and Communal Services (Gosstroy) will propose the concept of compulsory housing insurance for government consideration. According to Gosstroy Chairman Nikolai Koshman, the government is now being asked to ensure that all housing put into operation must be individually insured. The law on compulsory home insurance was repealed in 1994, and now, according to Koshman, the time has come for its resuscitation.

The Ministry of Emergency Situations will consider forecasting and monitoring of emergency situations as priorities of its activities. This was stated by Deputy Minister of this department Mikhail Faleev. The Ministry has already developed a strategy and is now moving to information management methods, creating a unified information space throughout Russia. Faleev noted that in order to implement this task, the All-Russian Center for Monitoring and Forecasting Emergency Situations, which was called “Antistikhia,” has already been created. Similar territorial centers are already operating in Tatarstan, as well as in the Pskov, Tula, Kursk, Chelyabinsk, Kurgan, Kaliningrad, Sakhalin and Sverdlovsk regions.

The Ministry of Justice is ready in court to defend the legality of the warning of the National Power Party of Russia about the inadmissibility of extremism. According to the Ministry of Justice, a recent interview with NDPR co-chairman Boris Mironov contains calls for the infringement of the constitutional rights of citizens on ethnic grounds. In this regard, the NDPR was asked to publicly express its position regarding this publication and disassociate itself from Mironov’s words. The party distributed a corresponding statement in the press, which states that “Mironov’s statements are purely personal in nature and do not reflect the official position of the party on the national issue.” However, having complied with the order of the Ministry of Justice, the NDPR leadership simultaneously announced its disagreement with the warning and its intention to appeal it in court.

State Duma

Approved the approximate program of legislative work of the chamber for the spring session, which will last until July 1. Deputies at 34 plenary sessions will have to consider 586 bills, of which 104 are subject to priority discussion. Of these, 22 were submitted to the House by the President and 46 by the Government. Discussion in the second reading of a package of bills on reforming the electric power industry is scheduled for January, and for February - on the restructuring of housing and communal services. Among the most important legislative acts are also draft laws on military reform and local government reform, a new Customs Code, a bill on the civil service, and on the “party affiliation” of government members and regional heads. Deputies will have to make amendments to the Criminal, Administrative, Tax Codes, and pension legislation. In addition, deputies will consider the issue of ratifying the Russian-American Treaty on the Reduction of Strategic Offensive Potentials.

Army

Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov visited the Don-2N multi-mode radar station in Sofrin near Moscow, which is part of the Moscow missile defense system. It ensures the detection of ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads and the targeting of Russian interceptor missiles at them. The station, which became operational in 1995, controls long-range interceptor missiles in the upper atmosphere and space, as well as high-speed intermediate-range interceptor missiles to hit previously undetected targets. After visiting the station, the minister said that he was satisfied with the state of the space forces and now they do not envisage any organizational changes, including a reduction in the number of personnel.

Regions

Viktor Chernyshev has been appointed chief federal inspector in the Republic of Tuva. The corresponding order was signed by the Presidential Envoy to the Siberian Federal District. Previously, Chernyshev held the position of deputy head of the Federal Security Service for the Republic of Tuva. Chernyshev was born in 1954 in Tuva, graduated from the mining department of the Krasnoyarsk Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals. He worked in the Tuva geological exploration expedition, and since 1981 he has been working in the Federal Security Service.

The government of the Kaluga region adopted a program for the development of mortgage lending for the period from 2003 to 2010. As Deputy Governor of the region Leonid Bredikhin said at a meeting of the regional government, the program will be implemented in three stages and involves providing 18-20% of those in need of housing with their own apartments. As part of the program, it is planned to attract 185 million rubles to housing construction. This will allow the construction of 625 thousand square meters in the region by 2010. m of new housing and redistribute 400 thousand sq. m. m secondary.

Based on materials from news agencies and our own information