Dmitry Medvedev continued his negotiations with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh which began yesterday evening.
The 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 2009 was a day marked with exuberant celebrations across the globe by the "progressive public". This was in striking contrast to the tenth anniversary of the Russia-Belarus Union State, which falls on December 8 - and, incidentally, is something the world's "progressive public" and its Russian contingent are unlikely to notice.
The State Duma is expected to approve in the first reading a government-proposed bill aimed at strengthening the country’s budget system tomorrow. The document cancels or suspends many of the Budget Code provisions – in particular, the rule whereby a large chunk of oil and gas revenues goes straight into special funds instead of the budget. Now, for the next three years, oil and gas money will be placed at the disposal of the government. Experts have no doubt that these changes signal the start of financial preparations for the electoral cycle of 2011-2012. Notably, some of the experts interviewed by NG aren’t ruling out the possibility of an early election.
The West is wondering who makes the key decisions in Russia.
The authorities are set to review the results of the power industry’s reform in light of the problems exposed by the accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya power plant. Addressing a meeting of top specialists in high technology, Vladimir Putin demanded that measures be taken to ensure a new level of safety in the energy sector. Earlier, government officials explained that the main problems in the sector stemmed from the “separation of the participants in a single technological process”.
The cost of utility services will grow 2.5 times faster than inflation in 2010.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited the Vishnevsky Surgical Research Institute yesterday, where nine of the victims of the fire at the Lame Horse club in Perm are being treated. The Prime Minister, accompanied by Healthcare and Social Development Minister Tatyana Golikova, as well as several chief doctors of Moscow hospitals, held a video conference on the treatment of the victims.
According to statements made by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at a meeting of the government Council of general and chief designers, Russia should not only develop a new system of measures to ensure safety in the power industry, but all experts at energy facilities should be held personally responsible for compliance with technical regulations.
Vladimir Putin paid a visit to the Lenin All-Russia Electrical Engineering Institute yesterday. Founded back in 1921, it is the leading research centre in the field of electrical equipment. As part of the visit, Putin was supposed to take a look at sophisticated units and instruments and even watch some experiments with electricity that demonstrate how energy facilities can be made safer.
The Prime Minister promised to provide 84-year-old World War II veteran from Azov, Nina Demidenko, with a flat and within 40 minutes officials of the city administration were on the way to her home. Previously the same officials repeatedly turned down the old woman's petitions, but now the governor of Rostov Region took the case under his personal remit.