NO MORE SCANDALS IN THE DUMA
Parlamentskaya Gazeta, October 11, 2000, p. 1
After heated budget debates, October 11 will be an ordinary legislative day in the Duma. First Deputy Secretary of the Duma Lyubov Sliska stated that there will no be arguments interesting for the press. At the same time the Duma meeting will be very intensive: it is planned to discuss about 50 documents, some of them will cause heated debates.
The deputies will pay attention to such topics as the Middle East and Yugoslavian events. On October 10 Alexei Mitrofanov, a member of the LDPR faction, tried to promote a bill on appealing to Vladimir Putin “concerning staff issues”. The essence of this appeal is that liberal-democrats asked the president to reprimand the Foreign Ministry for its unsatisfactory performance during the Yugoslavian crisis. Secretary of the International Committee Dmitry Rogozin thinks that Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov acted extremely effectively and correctly. The Council of the Duma has rejected the initiative of liberal-democrats. Nevertheless the Duma will determine its position concerning the Yugoslavian issue on Friday. A bill concerning this theme is being prepared.
ABOUT 1,000 PRISONERS ON THE RUN
Tribuna, October 11, 2000, p. 2
On October 10 the Main Penitentiary Department of the Russian Justice Ministry held an international scientific conference of the leaders of the CIS penitentiary departments. The conference is attended by representatives of Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus and Moldova.
The conference was opened by Yury Kalinin, Deputy Justice Minister of the Russia Federation. the main theme of this meeting is strengthening of cooperation of the operational services of the CIS penitentiary systems in searching for prisoners who have broken out of prisons.
Currently 882 criminals who have escaped from Russian prisons are being sought. Some of them prefer to hide abroad. The majority of them have escaped to Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Belarus.
NTV – MINUS
Izvestia, October 11, 2000, p. 2
On October 10 Vnesheconombank, on behalf of the Finance Ministry, sued Bonum-1, a subsidiary of Media-Most, for $30.8 million. If Vnesheconombank wins the case, the satellite which transmits Vladimir Gusinsky’s company’s programs will be seized.
Bonum-1 has taken out two loans for creating and launching its communication satellite. The first loan (85% of the cost of the building and launch of the satellite) was provided by the US Ex-Im Bank, the remaining 15% was granted by Chase Manhattan Bank.
The loans were given against government guarantees. In other words, if Bonum-1 does not pay its foreign creditors, they will receive this money from the Russian Finance Ministry.
CENTRAL ELECTION COMMISSION WILL BE WATCHING REGIONAL POLLS
Izvestia, October 11, 2000, p. 2
On October 10 the Central Election Commission rejected the appeal of six residents of Udmurtia about infringements of campaign advertisign regulations during the Udmurtian presidential campaign.
According to our sources, so-called “new techniques” (which are called dirty techniques) are used in almost all regional election campaigns.
The Central Election Commission intends to monitor the preparation for all 38 regional elections which are due to take place by the end of this year.
