DRAFT BUDGET DEBATES WILL BE EMOTIONAL

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DRAFT BUDGET DEBATES WILL BE EMOTIONAL

Parlamentskaya Gazeta, October 17, 2001, p. 1

On Friday the Duma will consider the draft 2002 budget in the second reading. On Monday the Budget Committee advised Duma deputies to approve the draft budget in the first reading.

The Budget Committee was engaged in distributing the extra 51.8 billion rubles added by the Cabinet after the draft budget was ready. Deputies reduced state spending on international activities and servicing state debt by 9.8 billion rubles. An additional 7.5 billion rubles was distributed among law enforcement activities and industry, including construction and the electricity sector. Healthcare received one billion rubles.

INFORMATION WAR IN GEORGIA

Trud, October 17, 2001, p. 2

The situation in the zone of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict is tense. On Monday morning Georgian media reported that a large-scale partisan war has started in Abkhazia, and that guerrillas had seized Sukhumi.

On the same evening Abkhazian Deputy Defense Minister Garri Kupalba denied all such reports from the Georgian side: “Having been defeated in the Kodor gorge, the Georgian government seems eager to gain at least a verbal victory.”

Representatives of the Georgian government have also had to deny some reports in the Georgian media. For instance, Georgi Shervashidze, Commander of the Internal Troops of the Georgian Interior Ministry, described the reports as media provocations. He stressed that the Internal Troops are not involved in any joint operations with guerrillas against Abkhazian military detachments.

UKRAINIAN OFFICIALS FACE PROSECUTION OVER PLANE CRASH

Nezavisimaya Gazeta, October 17, 2001, p. 5

Deputies of the Supreme Rada (parliament) of Ukraine have supported an appeal to the general prosecutor to institute criminal proceedings against officials of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry responsible for the crash of an Israeli Tu-154 airliner on October 4, and the deaths of its passengers and crew. The appeal was initiated by members of the Anti-Mafia deputy group, Grigory Omelchenko and Anatoly Yermak. The appeal was supported by 161 deputies out of 414.

FOLLOWING LOGIC: COUNTERING TERRORISM

Nezavisimaya Gazeta, October 17, 2001, p. 5

The Interior Ministry proposes that recruitment and training of terrorists should be made a criminal offense.

Vitalii Krainov, deputy head of the criminal law division of the Main Legal Directorate, said yesterday that there are loopholes in existing legislation which could be used by people charged with terrorism to evade punishment.

According to Krainov, consulations on this issue with Duma deputies are already underway.

Mikhail Artamoshkin, first deputy head of the Interior Ministry’s Main Directorate for Public Order and Public Security, says that until the relevant law is amended, counter-terrorism operations will be handled differently, using more personnel and more technology.

Operation Whirlwind-AntiTerror has been carried out eight times since September 1999. Over that period, 368 terrorist acts have been prevented across Russia, and over 5,000 crimes connected with explosive materials have been solved. Since the start of September this year, a number of people have been detained on suspicion of involvement in Chechen guerrilla gangs: 13 citizens of Afghanistan, eight citizens of Pakistan, three citizens of Saudi Arablia, 16 citizens of Tajikistan, and 135 residents of Chechnya.

Law enforcement agencies are also preparing to counter any possible attempts by groups of Georgian and Chechen guerrillas to break through from Abkhazia into North Caucasus regions of Russia.

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