On June 5, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov still has a lot to do in the capital and it is too early for him to change jobs. The head of state told 70-year-old Luzhkov that the mayor must solve “the problem of defrauded investors” and only then think about changing his occupation. “We are dealing with defrauded shareholders, and in 2008 we will basically finish transferring apartments to defrauded citizens,” the capital’s mayor promised the president. Obviously, when making this promise, Luzhkov proceeded from the statistics of the city administration: according to the capital's mayor's office, there are about 3,300 citizens living in the city who suffered from deception by construction contractors. However, the public organizations “Organizing Committee of Affected Co-Investors” and “Committee of Defrauded Shareholders” do not agree with this calculation: they claim that the mayor’s office does not want to solve the problems of citizens who suffered from the actions of companies with which the city did not have investment contracts. According to various estimates by social activists, in Moscow there are now from 8.5 thousand to 12 thousand affected shareholders. It turns out that if the scale of deception in construction does not grow, and the mayor undertakes to solve the problem of all those deceived at the pace he himself specified, providing housing to 3,300 people a year, then the mayor will be able to extinguish the indignation of citizens only in 2011. Thus, Yuri Luzhkov will be able to hand over his cases no earlier than at the age of 75, when Vladimir Putin’s successor will already be completing his first presidential term.

According to the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, 6 thousand people from 60 countries will take part in the XI St. Petersburg Economic Forum on June 8-10.

The Russian government intends to cover 11 million children placed in more than 52 thousand summer camps with health-improving recreation, having allocated 32 billion rubles for this.

95 billion rubles, according to First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, will be allocated in 2007 to solve demographic problems. In 2008-2010, it is planned to spend about 500 billion rubles for these purposes.

650 thousand migrants are currently officially registered in the Russian capital. According to the Moscow mayor's office, up to 31% of all foreign workers are employed in the city's construction sector, about 53% are employed in trade, at consumer market enterprises, in the service sector, industry - about 53%, and in housing and communal services - 13%. According to independent estimates, there are now up to 1.5 million foreigners in the city, the majority from the CIS countries.

4 aviation accidents, 350 incidents and 18 damage to civil aircraft of commercial aviation of the Russian Federation on the ground have occurred since January 2007.

Russian fishermen caught 1,245.7 thousand tons of fish in all areas of the World Ocean over 5 months of this year. The catch was 48.9 thousand tons (3.8%) more than in the corresponding period last year.

9.6% of the average monthly revenue of small businesses, according to the head of the Ministry of Economic Development German Gref, goes to illegal payments.

Evgeniy Stepun

2011 is the year of Luzhkov’s resignation