10:28

Closed Chechen Web site reopens out of Finland

A Web site used by a Chechen warlord to claim responsibility for last month's school siege in Russia has come back online based out of Finland, three weeks after Lithuania shut it down following pressure from Moscow. Nordic telecom operator TeliaSonera said on Saturday it was hosting the site, www.kavkazcenter.net, and that there were no grounds on which it could be closed down. The Kavkaz Center site was used by Shamil Basayev to claim responsibility for the Beslan siege in southern Russia, where more than 320 people, half of them children, were killed. "Our lawyers and police have checked this during the last 24 hours, and there is no content that would allow us to close the (site)," TeliaSonera spokesman Jyrki Karasvirta said. He said according to Finnish law the site could only be shut if it posted child pornography or racist or bigoted content. "We have an agreement with the client, and we have no legal right to close it," he added. Karasvirta said a company owned the site, but gave no further details. A note posted on the site said it was experiencing serious funding problems and asked readers for financial help or sponsorship. The Lithuanian state security department blocked Kavkaz Center's site on Sept. 18, under pressure from Moscow, shortly after Basayev posted a statement saying he was behind a wave of attacks in Russia. Among those were the school siege, the near-simultaneous downing of two passenger planes and a bomb attack in Moscow. In his statement posted on the site, Basayev also said his violent campaign for an independent Chechnya would continue. Chechen separatists have fought Russian rule for a decade and the region has long been a problem in cooperation between Russia and Western countries, many of which question Moscow's rights record as it fights separatism.  //Reuters

10:27

Russia urges Iran to heed IAEA's nuclear demands

Russia urged Iran on Sunday to heed the U.N. nuclear watchdog's call for it to suspend sensitive nuclear work that could be used to make atomic bomb material. Iran, in turn, said it was ready to give whatever assurances were required to show that it will not use nuclear technology to make atomic weapons. Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said that all Iran asked in return was for the world to accept its right to a peaceful nuclear programme to generate electricity. Iran hid parts of its nuclear programme for nearly two decades, fuelling U.S. accusations that it is secretly developing atomic arms. Iran denies this but has refused to comply with demands made by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it halt all activities related to uranium enrichment, a process that can be used to make fuel for power reactors or for bombs. Visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged Iran to reconsider. "As (Russian President Vladimir) Putin has suggested before, it is better if Iran listens to the agency's call. This is better for everyone," he told a joint news conference in Tehran with Kharrazi. The United States wants Iran's case to be sent to the United Nations Security Council for possible sanctions if Iran has not complied with IAEA demands by the time of the U.N. watchdog's next meeting in late November. Iran last week said it had converted several tonnes of raw uranium to prepare it for enrichment. "Nuclear technology, including enriching uranium, is Iran's right and Iran will never abandon its right," Kharrazi said. "But at the same time Iran is ready to review all the proposals with which it can assure the international community that Iran's nuclear programme has no military purposes." In an interview with Reuters on Saturday, a senior Iranian official said Tehran was even willing to listen to ideas from the United States, such as one put forward by Sen. John Kerry's running mate Sen. John Edwards, to resolve the dispute over Iran's nuclear ambitions. "Iran welcomes any constructive proposal from any American candidate," said Hossein Mousavian, Iran's delegation head at recent International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meetings. Edwards has said a Kerry government would be willing to supply Iran with nuclear fuel for power generation if Tehran abandons its own fuel-making capability. If Iran refused the offer it would confirm it wants to make atomic weapons, Edwards has said. Asked about Mousavian's comments Kharrazi confirmed the Iran was willing to listen to such proposals. "We welcome any constructive proposal which preserves Iran's rights and also removes Western countries' concerns," he said. Lavrov, whose country's technical support for Iran's nuclear programme has annoyed Washington, said Moscow and Tehran were in the final stages of reaching an agreement on the supply and return of nuclear fuel for Iran's first nuclear reactor which is being built with Russian help. The Bushehr reactor in southern Iran is due to come onstream in late 2006.  //Reuters

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10:30

Russia pushes vote on its anti-terror draft at UN

Russia is pushing for a U.N. Security Council vote this week on its anti-terror resolution that inches toward compiling a global blacklist of suspects subject to prosecution or extradition. The measure, revised several times over the past week, seeks to to speed up the extradition and prosecution of people accused of abusing their status as political refugees to organize or finance terrorist acts. Andrei Denisov, Russia's U.N. ambassador, said he expected a vote by Friday. The original Russian draft recommended a consolidated U.N. list of individuals, groups and entities involved in terrorism, who would be subject to an asset freeze, an arms embargo and expedited extradition. After objections from several council members that feared an arbitrary world enemies list, the draft resolution would first establish a working group to submit recommendations for such a list, now confined to Taliban and al Qaeda suspects. The working group would also consider establishing a fund for victims of terror acts. That should be financed through voluntary contributions and assets seized from terrorist organizations, the draft resolution says. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced the anti-terror proposals in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly last month, after a spate of attacks by Chechen rebels, including the bombing of two airliners and the deadly Beslan school siege. Without naming countries such as Britain, Qatar or the United States, which have given asylum to Chechen rebels, Lavrov rebuked nations for playing "geopolitical games" with the fight against terrorism. The resolution attempts to define terrorism, which has given the 191-member General Assembly trouble for years, with Islamic nations wanting a reference to "state terrorism." It says that "criminal acts, including against civilians committed with intent to cause death or serious bodily harm, or taking of hostages" are not justifiable for "political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious" or other reasons. Algeria and Pakistan have misgivings about the exclusion list, saying there could be a fine line between terror and liberation struggles. Lavrov, a former U.N. ambassador, said targeting only al Qaeda and the Taliban showed a double standard. "Those who slaughtered children in Beslan and hijacked airplanes to attack America are creatures of the same breed," he said. Western governments say Moscow should seek a political solution in Chechnya, but President Vladimir Putin has vowed to crush the separatist rebels and equated calls to talk peace with them to negotiating with Osama bin Laden.  //Reuters

11:33

Opposition leader leads in rebel Georgia region poll

The opposition candidate in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia took a strong lead as results were counted on Tuesday but his main rival, backed by Russia, demanded a re-run of the election. Georgia has pledged to return the region to central rule but faces the pro-independence stance of both main candidates and the interests of Russia, which wants to counterbalance growing U.S. involvement in Georgia, a major recipient of U.S. aid and military training. Neighbouring Russia has made its preference clear for Raul Khadzhimba, who recently met Russian President Vladimir Putin, but election officials in the Black Sea region said rival Sergei Bagapsh had a "large advantage". Georgia has failed to restore control over the region since defeat in a 1992-93 war, the effects of which are visible throughout the ruined region, after the collapse of Soviet rule although Abkhazia is not internationally recognised. Georgia accuses Russia of meddling in the region by tacitly encouraging its independence aspirations along with those of another breakaway republic, South Ossetia. Russia has given three-quarters of Abkhazians passports and pays local pensions. Abkhazians ethusiastically took part in the elections and flocked to polling stations but European rights watchdog, the OSCE, has already said the election was unacceptably flawed. Khadzhimba also complained about the results. The Election Commission said Bagapsh had a strong advantage in all areas of the region, giving him more than 35,000 of votes counted so far, against Khadzhimba's 29,500. Sunday's election was held to replace Vladislav Ardzinba, who has led Abkhazia since it broke away from Georgia in 1992 and intended to demonstrate the region's commitment to building an independent state. But the head of the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said the poll was illegitimate because tens of thousands of ethnic Georgians who fled Abkhazia during the war had been unable to vote.  //Reuters

10:00

EU lawmakers seek to support human rights in Russia

Two Russian rights activists opposed to Moscow's use of force in Chechnya are nominees for the European Parliament's top human rights award, parliament officials said on Tuesday. Natalya Estemirova, 40, a journalist and teacher, and Sergey Kovalev, president of Russia's Human Rights Institute, are on a single ticket one of three nominations for the 2004 Sakharov Prize for Freedom on Thought. The move follows the European Parliament's harsh criticisms of Russian President Vladimir Putin's military campaign in Chechnya and the human rights abuses it says have been committed there. Some Western officials and Russian liberals have accused Putin of rolling back democracy in Russia following last month's school siege by Chechen rebels where more than 300 people died, half of them children. The two activists in the running for the Sakharov prize want Putin to open peace talks with Chechen separatists and end the military offensive. EU lawmakers sitting on the assembly's Foreign Affairs Committee also placed the Belarussian Association of Journalists and kidnapped Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt on the prize shortlist. The Belarussian journalists body was nominated for fighting for media freedom in the former Soviet republic. President Alexander Lukashenko is accused in the West of cracking down on his liberal opponents and stifling independent media. Betancourt, who was kidnapped by Marxist rebels as she was running for president two years ago, has long campaigned against human rights abuses committed during Colombia's four-decade-old guerrilla war. The heads of the European Parliament's political groups will decide on the winner but no date has yet been set for the meeting. The prize will be awarded during the assembly's plenary session in Strasbourg, France in December. The Sakharov award, named after the former Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, is presented annually to someone the parliament views as having contributed significantly to promoting human rights. Previous recipients include the United Nations and its Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Kosovo Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova and Turkish Kurd human rights activist Leyla Zana.  //Reuters

09:58

Sudanese cargo plane crashes, killing four Russians

A Sudanese cargo plane crashed, killing four crew members, a Sudanese news agency said late on Tuesday night. The Russian-built Saria-operated plane had taken off from El Obeid airport in South Kordofan state on Tuesday when it lost radio contact and three planes were sent to search for it, the Sudanese Media Centre (SMC) said. The plane was on its way to the southern town of Juba. Sudanese state radio said all four of those killed on board the Antonov 12 plane were Russian. Saria is a private, Khartoum-based airline. In November a Saria-operated plane caught fire and exploded in southern Sudan, killing 13 people on board.  //Reuters

16:09

Pro-Kremlin Alkhanov sworn in as President of Chechnya

Alu Alkhanov received the certificate of the president of Chechnya on Tuesday. Supported by the Kremlin, the republic’s former interior minister won the presidential elections in Chechnya on Aug. 29. He received 73.67 percent of the vote. During the inauguration ceremony Alkhanov vowed to serve the Chechen people. “Today, we open a new page in the history of our people,” he said. “The future of our offspring depends on us. All our joint efforts will be aimed at consolidation, security and well-deserved life of the people.” The president took the oath in Russian and Chechen. Russian president Vladimir Putin called Alkhanov’s victory a “beginning of big and highly important work in the arrangement of peaceful life, the restoration of economics and social life in the Chechen republic,” Interfax news agency reported. The previous Chechen president, Akhmad Kadyrov, was killed on May 9 during a Victory Day parade in the Chechen capital of Grozny. His son, Ramzan, was appointed first deputy chairman of the Chechen government. In accordance with Russian law, the Chechen government resigned after Alkhanov’s inauguration. However, sources close to the republican government and presidential administration quoted by the agency said the last prime minister, Sergei Abramov, would be reappointed.  //MosNews

16:08

Russian missiles found in ETA arms caches-Spain

French police have found two Russian-made missiles during searches of houses used by suspected members of Basque separatist guerrilla group ETA, Spain's Interior Ministry said on Tuesday. The missiles, discovered in the French Basque country, were "in perfect condition and ready to be used", the ministry said in a statement, which did not specify the type of missile. Police have been cataloguing arms found in several weapons caches in the French Basque country since arresting Mikel Antza, the suspected leader of ETA, and other ETA suspects on Sunday.  //Reuters

12:59

EU sees Russia backsliding on democracy

Russsia is "backsliding" on democracy and the bloc must speak to Moscow frankly about it as an equal partner, the European Union's incoming External Relations Commissioner said on Tuesday. "It's quite obvious, let me be quite clear on that, that we are seeing a backsliding in democracy in Russia at the moment," Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the outgoing Austrian foreign minister, told a confirmation hearing in the European Parliament. "We need to speak frankly, and you know what that means in diplomatic jargon, with each other about this, but also as equal partners," she said.  //Reuters

11:56

Journalist detained in airport for impersonating suicide bomber

A female journalist was detained in an airport in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar for pretending to be a suicide bomber. 44-year-old Galina Simkina, a reporter of the local newspaper Kubanskiye Novosti, attempted to board a plane to Moscow. She was dressed in black and had plans for explosive devices in her luggage, the Russian Information Agency Novosti reported, citing the press service of the local transport police. The journalist explained that she planned to report on the measures taken against terrorism at airports. A taxi driver who took Simkina to the airport called the police shortly before she was detained, the agency reported. He was a former police official. Simkina had told him that she got into the suicide bomber’s role to make her report. The head of the transport police press service, Natalya Glushko, was quoted by the agency as saying criminal proceedings may be instigated against the journalist. On August 24, two planes crashed in Russia killing 90 people. According to the latest official data, the planes were blown up by female suicide bombers.  //MosNews

11:53

Russia may ratify Kyoto Protocol in Oct - minister

The Russian government expects parliament to ratify the Kyoto Protocol this month in a move allowing the long-delayed climate change treaty to come into force worldwide, a senior minister said on Monday. "We have already started consultations with parliamentary deputies," Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov said during President Vladimir Putin's weekly meeting with top ministers, parts of which were shown on national television. "I hope that as early as in October the State Duma (lower house of parliament) will debate the ratification." Pro-Kremlin parties control two thirds of seats in the Duma, enough to pass any legislation favoured by Putin. Russia, which accounts for 17 percent of world greenhouse gas emissions, holds the key to Kyoto's success or failure since the United States pulled out of it in 2001. The pact becomes binding once it has been ratified by 55 percent of the signatories which must, among them, account for 55 percent of developed countries' carbon dioxide emissions. Kyoto has surpassed the requirement for signatories with 122 nations having ratified it – but these account only for 44 percent of total emissions without Russia. Russia at first prevaricated on ratifying the 1997 U.N. document it signed in 1999. But in May Putin backed it in exchange for EU agreement on the terms of Moscow's admission to the World Trade Organisation. Last week, the cabinet formally backed the Kyoto Protocol, despite doubts by some leading ministers and scientists, and sent it to the Duma for ratification. Proponents of Kyoto say that apart from improving the environment worldwide, the pact would force Russia to upgrade industry to new standards and help it earn billions of dollars by selling excess quotas for gas emissions to polluters abroad. Opponents say Russia will lose out. At a government meeting last week, leading experts from the Academy of Sciences said that new standards set by the protocol would not help the global environment. Putin's economic adviser Andrei Illarionov echoed their criticism with a warning that the new measures would cost industry more and undermine the Kremlin's plan to double gross domestic product in 10 years. "There have been different opinions on the issue, but we decided that benefits predominate," Zhukov told Putin on Monday. Economic Development Minister German Gref said last week that the Kremlin viewed ratification mainly as a gesture to boost Russia's image abroad. "I do not subscribe to the opinion that ratification could in any substantial way affect the pace of our economic development," he said. "The protocol hardly has any real impact on improving ecology. It is fairly symbolic."  //Reuters

11:52

Russians would trim freedoms to stop terror-poll

A majority of Russians are willing to give up freedoms and ban anti-Kremlin media if it means preventing terror attacks, according to an opinion poll published on Monday. Few believed, however, that the authorities were capable of stopping fresh attacks, which nearly all respondents expected to occur. Russia has been hit by a wave of attacks, blamed on Chechen separatists. Last month, more than 330 people, half of them children, were killed in the bloody end to a school siege by gunmen in Beslan, southern Russia. The survey, conducted by independent pollster Levada Centre, said 60 percent of respondents were ready to give up some freedoms, including freedom of travel inside Russia and abroad. Another 57 percent were willing to let the secret services freely eavesdrop on telephone conversations and intercept mail. And 59 percent said they favoured banning media and political parties which criticised President Vladimir Putin's handling of terrorism. Following the Beslan massacre, Putin proposed that the Kremlin select all future regional governors and that rules be changed for elections to the Duma, the national parliament. The moves have been widely criticised in the West and among Russian liberals for eroding the country's already fragile democracy. But only a third of Russians viewed them as "tough and decisive", and slightly more believed they showed the authorities "were at a loss, uncertain about their power". Just over three quarters of respondents said they did not believe the authorities could protect the country from new attacks. Levada Centre said 1,600 respondents in 46 Russian regions took part in the poll conducted on Sept. 24-27. The margin of error was 3 percent.  //Reuters

15:46

Russian left wing hold meetings in memory of 1993 rebellion

Communists and left-wing supporters held a meeting dedicated to the events of October 1993 in Moscow. The leftists gathered near the federal government headquarters early on Monday morning. Not more than 30 people took part in the meeting, Interfax news agency reported at 07:25. Earlier the communists said they expected at least 250 to show up. The protesters held placards reading “Communism is ineradicable teaching of Christ. The 1993 rebellion is the great spiritual victory of Russia!”; “Our Homeland is the Soviet Union!”; “No pardon for executioners, heroes will not be forgotten!” Reinforced police detachments patroled the area during the rally. A committee remembering the victims of the tragic events of 1993 held a memorial meeting near the Ostankino TV Center. Some 100 people took part in the meeting. Communists, representatives of the Union of Soviet Officers, the Union of the Russian People, and other movements attended the meeting. Russia’s most serious internal crisis since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 came to a head over two days of bloody street fighting in early October 1993 when communist members of the Russian parliament tried to bring down the government of the then-president Boris Yeltsin by force. Exasperated by hardline legislators’ continual blockage of his efforts to liberalize the economy and other aspects of Russian life, Yeltsin drafted a new constitution in June 1993 which would not only give the presidency much stronger powers but also dissolve both the Congress of People’s Deputies (the supreme legislature) and the Supreme Soviet and replace them with a bicameral legislature. Although the Constitutional Committee of the Congress of People’s Deputies participated in the drafting process, the Supreme Soviet, dominated by conservatives and communists, instantly rejected the draft. After two months of increasing intransigence on both sides, Yeltsin unilaterally dissolved the two legislative bodies on September 21 and announced elections for a new two-chamber parliament for December. The Congress’s speaker, Ruslan Khasbulatov and Yeltsin’s vice president, Alexander Rutskoi, along with 150 supporters, promptly occupied the parliament building (the “White House”); the Supreme Soviet then dismissed Yeltsin and declared Rutskoi president, naming new key ministers as well. On Sunday, October 3, thousands of pro-communist demonstrators, many from the provinces, appeared on Moscow’s streets, easily breaking through police barriers at the White House and mayor’s offices but failing in a bloody struggle to wrest control of the Ostankino TV studio, an important strategic site. On Sunday night Yeltsin ordered the army to mobilize, and at 7:30 on Monday morning tanks began firing on the White House. During the sporadic cease-fires the defenders inside the burning building were allowed to leave; Khasbulatov and Rutskoi surrendered late in the afternoon and were taken to Lefortovo prison. It is estimated that 200 people were killed in the fighting, and over 150 were arrested.  //MosNews

15:43

Russian ballistic experts deny Klebnikov gun discovery claim

Ballistic tests of a gun seized from ethnic Chechens Aslan Sagayev and Kazbek Elmurzayev have indicated that the pistol, which police claim killed Paul Klebnikov, the editor of Russian Forbes, was not the one used by his assassin. Last week Moscow police raided the apartment of the two Chechens after receiving a tip off that they were holding a hostage. Three pistols were found in the apartment during a search. A few hours after the Chechens were arrested Moscow’s top police official Vladimir Pronin told the press that one of the guns may have been used to kill Paul Klebnikov. Pronin made the sensational statement without waiting for the results of ballistic tests. The Prosecutor General’s Office reacted angrily, lashing out at Pronin for releasing details of the arrests. The Gazeta daily’s sources in the Moscow police directorate said they strongly doubted that one of the seized pistols could have shot Klebnikov. Sources said that witnesses of the journalist’s murder claimed they had heard bursts of fire. The journalist was hit by 10 9-mm caliber bullets. Later, ballistic experts determined that Klebnikov was killed either from a Stechkin or from a Makarov pistol. However, one cannot fire bursts from a Makarov pistol, experts said and its clip has only eight cartridges. None of the guns seized from the Chechens — two Makarov pistols and a silenced version PB-18 — were used in Klebnikov’s murder, experts said on Friday. Meanwhile, the Chechens Elmurzayev and Sagayev have been charged with kidnapping and illegal possession of weapons.  //MosNews

10:53

Rebel region votes in defiance of Georgia

The breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia defiantly voted for a new president on Sunday, injecting further tension into relations between Georgia and its former colonial master Russia. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, elected this year after a bloodless revolution, has pledged to return the mountainous sliver of land bordering Russia to central rule. But candidates and voters were united in proclaiming their unrecognised Black Sea state independent. "Abkhazians are voting for their future of their country so the country can be independent and the people can be free," said Sergei Bagapsh, main rival to Russia-backed candidate Raul Khadzhimba, after slotting his voting slip into a transparent ballot box in the capital Sukhumi, where turnout seemed high. The election was certain to increase a tangle of tensions in the Caucasus region, which Russian President Vladimir Putin considers strategically crucial. After polls closed, groups of supporters gathered outside their candidates' offices, swapping rumours late into the night as to who was leading the count. Bagapsh's supporters cheered and clapped as one of his aides read out results he claimed showed his man was in the lead. The central electoral commission said it would release results on Monday morning. West-leaning Georgia accuses Moscow of double standards in supporting Abkhazian separatists while cracking down on its own rebels in Chechnya, a region Russia says is on the frontline of the war against terrorism. Russia has given three-quarters of Abkhazians passports and pays local pensions, keen to keep influence in the region while Washington helps Georgia with aid and military training. A meeting between Khadzhimba and Putin, widely displayed on the Abkhaz candidate's campaign posters, rankles with Georgians. Abkhazia has enjoyed de facto independence since local forces, aided by Russian volunteers and weapons from the ex-Soviet military, defeated the Georgian army 11 years ago. Georgia's government said it did not regard the poll as legitimate but pledged not to attempt to disrupt it. Local media reported a mortar attack in an ethnic Georgian village on Sunday. But Russian and U.N. peacekeepers say that, despite Saakashvili's fiery rhetoric which has included a threat to fire on Russian holidaymakers arriving in the region by sea, the ceasefire line has quietened down since he came to power. Nevertheless, the legacy of fighting in the eerily deserted region, abandoned by most of the ethnic Georgian half of its population after the war, is everywhere. Scars from bullets and shells disfigure houses in Sukhumi. Once grand buildings in what was a Soviet resort stand open to the sky, their ground floors rank with brambles and weeds. The region has suffered economic collapse and gets by on an annual budget of a mere $15 million, but officials press on with their dream of independence. "Other countries have split apart – the Czech republic and Slovakia divorced peacefully – why can't Abkhazia be a normal free country?," said Khadzhimba after voting in the first multicandidate presidential elections Abkhazia has seen.  //Reuters

14:39

Russia may scrap planned signing of Iran nuke deal

Russia may call off next month's planned signing of a deal to smooth the launch of an atomic reactor in Iran, a source close to the deal said on Friday in a sign Moscow is hardening its stance towards its nuclear partner. Russia's growing unease over Iran's nuclear policies could lead to Moscow backing a U.S. efforts at a U.N. nuclear watchdog meeting in November to take the Islamic Republic to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions, diplomats say. Russia's nuclear top brass had been due to travel to Iran in November to sign a long-delayed agreement obliging Iran to return spent atomic fuel from a Moscow-built reactor – a move intended to ease U.S. fears it could be used to make bombs. The Russian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Russia's top nuclear official, Alexander Rumyantsev, still planned to visit Iran, but not necessarily to sign the deal. "His main task is to discuss nuclear and other relations with Iran," the official said. "It's not certain that he will sign it." The deal would pave the way for Russia and Iran to start up the plant after years of delays. But the launch could be put off again should the deal not be signed in November as planned. Russia toughened its stance on Iran last month after Tehran threatened to defy a call by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for it to stop work on enriching uranium – a process that can be used to develop nuclear weapons. Before that, Russia continuously faced down U.S. opposition to its construction of the $800 million Bushehr nuclear power plant, and defended Tehran by saying it was impossible for Iran to make nuclear weapons using Russian nuclear know-how. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Russia would ditch the Bushehr project should Iran breach any U.N. requirements.  //Reuters

10:28

Three Russians convicted of racist killing

A court in southern Russia sentenced three young men to long prison terms on Thursday for the racist killing of an African student, a day after President Vladimir Putin called for more tolerance in society. Footage shown on Russian television showed the court in Voronezh convicting two men aged 20 and 22 and a student of 16 on charges of murder and fomenting racial hatred. The older defendants, both manual workers – one of whom was described as the main "ideologist", were given sentences of 10 and 17 years each. The student was given nine years in jail. A prosecutor was shown setting out testimony that the three had repeatedly struck a medical student from Guinea-Bissau in February and then stabbed him after he had fallen to the ground. Books promoting racial supremacy and demographic policies of Nazi Germany were found at the homes of the trio, former members of the far right-wing Russian National Unity group. In remarks on Wednesday, Putin urged Russians not to give in to hatred he said extremists were trying to encourage to thwart the Kremlin's drive against terrorism – intensified after recent attacks blamed on Chechen separatists. Those attacks have been accompanied by incidents reflecting a rise in brutality and mistrust against people clearly identified as non-Russians. Much of it has been directed at Muslims from southern Russia and nearby ex-Soviet states. The accounts of the Voronezh trial said the defendants only partially admitted guilt. All denied espousing racial hatred. Roman Ledenyov, sentenced to 10 years as an accomplice, told the dead student's relatives he understood the seriousness of the charges. "But please believe us that long sentences will be just as difficult for our families as this is for you," he said from the metal cage used for those accused of serious crimes.  //Reuters

10:26

Russian move clears way to bring Kyoto into force

The Russian government approved the Kyoto Protocol on Thursday, giving decisive support to the long-delayed climate change treaty that should allow it to come into force worldwide. President Vladimir Putin's cabinet decided to send the 1997 U.N. pact to the State Duma lower house, dominated by Kremlin supporters, for ratification. Opponents maintained it would harm the economy and do little to protect the environment. Victorious backers of Kyoto, which orders cuts in greenhouse gas emissions to slow global warming, made clear they believed it would have no effect on the environment or the economy and that the decision was politically motivated. The European Union hailed Moscow's decision and seized the moment to urge Washington, whose rejection of the pact in 2001 left it dependent on Russia's approval, to rethink its position. "The fate of the Kyoto protocol depends on Russia. If we ... rejected ratification, we would become the ones to blame (for its failure)," Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov told the cabinet meeting. Russia, which accounts for 17 percent of world emissions, has held the key to Kyoto's success since the U.S. pullout. Kyoto becomes binding once it has been ratified by 55 percent of the signatories, which must altogether account for 55 percent of developed countries' carbon dioxide emissions. The pact, so far ratified by 122 nations, has met the first condition. But they account for only 44 percent of emissions. Russia initially prevaricated on ratification. But in May Putin backed it in exchange for EU agreement on the terms of Moscow's admission to the World Trade Organisation. "We warmly welcome the decision," a European Commission spokesman said in Brussels. He added that the EU was encouraging Washington to review its attitude to the pact. Environmentalists and experts were equally positive. "Now he (Putin) can go down in history as the saviour (of Kyoto)," said Benito Mueller, an expert for British-based think-tank the Royal Institute for International Affairs. Thursday's meeting left unanswered the question of when parliament could practically debate ratification. The head of the Duma's international affairs committee, Konstantin Kosachev, suggested that was unlikely before the end of the year. There is no time limit for the cabinet to send a ratification request to the Duma. Interfax said ministries linked to the environment had been given three months to work out practical measures arising from Russia's obligations. Proponents of Kyoto say that apart from improving the environment worldwide, the pact would force Russia to upgrade industry to new standards and help it earn billions of dollars selling excess quotas for gas emissions to polluters abroad. Opponents said Russia would lose out. "The Academy of Science confirms its position that the protocol is not effective and gives us no advantages," the head of the academy's institute on climate change and ecology, Yuri Izrael, told the cabinet meeting. Putin's economic adviser Andrei Illarionov warned that new environmental standards would cost industry more and undermine the Kremlin's plan to double gross domestic product in 10 years. "Many economic calculations show that if the protocol is ratified, the doubling of GDP becomes impossible in the next 10 years," Illarionov said. But Economic Development Minister German Gref, Illarionov's rival for Putin's ear, said that when making the decision the cabinet aimed at setting a good international precedent rather than focusing on economic or environmental concerns. "I do not subscribe to the opinion that ratification could in any substantial way affect the pace of our economic development," he told reporters. "The protocol hardly has any real impact on improving ecology. It is fairly symbolic." Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, visiting the Netherlands, predicted tough Duma battles. But Kosachev said the Duma was likely to ratify without difficulty after the cabinet ruling.  //Reuters

14:15

Russia eases demands for U.N. terrorist blacklist

Russia softened its demands to ease extradition for blacklisted terror suspects after the U.N. Security Council made several objections to its draft resolution. The draft had recommended compiling a consolidated U.N. list of individuals, groups and entities involved in terrorism, who would be subject to an assets freeze, an arms embargo and “expedited extradition.” The new version, Reuters reports, would first establish a working group to submit recommendations on such a list, currently confined to Taliban and al Qaeda suspects. The suggestion was more acceptable for the United States, France, Germany, Britain, Algeria and others, Reuters quoted diplomats as saying. No vote has been set on the draft resolution, still under negotiation. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced the proposals after Moscow criticized the West for giving asylum to Chechen rebels, but did not single out Britain or the United States. The resolution also made the daring attempt to define terrorism as “acts against civilians with the intent to cause death or serious bodily harm, or taking of hostages.” Moscow stepped up pressure on the West to hand over Chechen rebels after a spate of deadly terror attacks that included two aircraft bombings and a school siege in Beslan where hundreds of children died.  //MosNews

14:12

U.S. accuses Russian firm of selling weapons to Iran

Russian company Khazra Trading is on the list of firms penalized by the United States for selling unconventional weapons and missile technology to Iran, the U.S. State Department said Wednesday. Washington slapped sanctions on seven Chinese firms, two Indian nationals, and companies from Belarus, North Korea, Russia, Spain and Ukraine, said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher. The penalties were imposed for the transfer of “equipment and technology controlled under multilateral export control lists or otherwise having the potential to make a material contribution to the development of weapons of mass destruction or cruise or ballistic missile systems,” the State Department said. “There was credible information that these entities had transferred one of several categories of items to Iran since January of 1999,” spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters, adding that 23 companies and individuals were now subject to similar sanctions. He said the penalties, imposed Sept. 23 under the Iran Nonproliferation Act of 2000, apply to the individual companies, not their countries or governments. The sanctions include a bar on the firms and individuals doing business with the US government, a ban on US assistance and the automatic denial of US export licenses to them, he said. Boucher would not elaborate on the specifics of the alleged sales which are punishable under the Iran Nonproliferation Act of 2000. Many of the companies, in particular the Chinese and North Korean firms, have been under US sanctions for previous transgressions and are unlikely to be significantly affected by the new penalties. The firms and individuals identified by the department in a Federal Register notice are: The Beijing Institute of Aerodynamics of China, the Beijing Institute of Opto-Electronic Technology (BIOET) of China, Belarus Belvneshpromservice of Belarus, the Changgwang Sinyong Corporation of North Korea, the China Great Wall Industry Corporation of China, China North Industries Corporation (NORINCO) of China, Dr C Surendar and Dr YSR Prasad of India, Khazra Trading of Russia, the LIMMT Economic and Trade Company of China, Oriental Scientific Instruments Corporation (OSIC) of China, South Industries Science and Technology Trading Company of China, Telstar of Spain, and the Zaporizhzhya Regional Foreign Economic Association of Ukraine.  //MosNews

10:06

Russian government to discuss approving Kyoto pact

The Russian government said on Wednesday it would discuss ratifying the Kyoto Protocol on global climate change to which Moscow holds the key. President Vladimir Putin has ordered ministers to approve the pact, which aims to stabilise emissions of greenhouse gases, and Thursday's government session seems likely to be a formality before the pact goes to a Kremlin dominated parliament. Under the terms of the treaty, industrialised nations responsible for 55 percent of greenhouse gas emissions must ratify the pact for it to come into force. Top polluter Washington pulled out in 2001, meaning Russia's 17 percent share gives it the casting vote. But analysts believe some ministers could try to delay approval by pushing for further discussion. Yuri Fedotov, a deputy foreign minister who will present a report on the pact, on Wednesday gave no clue whether he would recommend approval. "The issue with the Kyoto Protocol is difficult, with political, practical, economic and environmental aspects. But I can confirm that the technicalities of ratification are being studied at a ministerial level," he told Interfax news agency. Observers said his appearance indicated the meeting would focus more on the political than the economic and scientific side of the treaty – viewed sceptically by Russian officials. "Fedotov will be in favour, he will speak only politically, saying it is politically appropriate and ignore economic questions," said Alexei Kokorin, expert on climate change at the WWF environmental group. Putin spoke in favour of the pact in May, ending years of vacillation by top Russian officials, and ordered ministers to approve it a meeting earlier this month. "Putin has said 'Go' so I think there is a high chance of a positive decision. This is really a formality that must be gone through before the draft law can be passed to parliament," said Greenpeace's Natalya Olefirenko. The head of the Rosgidromet weather office, generally viewed as a supporter of the pact, will also speak at Thursday's meeting, according to a government statement setting the agenda. Economy Minister German Gref has backed the pact. But a source said he had submitted many questions on how prepared Russia is to implement the laws needed for it to operate. The source said Gref noted that Russia was not ready to monitor levels of greenhouse gas emissions, had no emissions trading system and no mechanisms to regulate the investment Kyoto could bring in. "I do not think any ministers will speak against ratification but some ministers could say Russia should wait and see how it will impact investors," said Kokorin. "It is important to see in what form they approve it, they may say they should wait and see and discuss some more."  //Reuters

10:03

Russia sets new date for launch to space station

Russia hopes to launch three astronauts to the International Space Station next month, setting a new date after two postponements for technical reasons, space officials said on Wednesday. Technical difficulties, including problems with the docking system of the Soyuz craft, have twice delayed blast-off from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. "Preliminary plans are that the launch will be on October 14, but the date will be finalised on October 1," a Russian space agency spokesman said. The spaceship will carry a new crew up to the space station to replace Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka and NASA's Michael Fincke, in orbit since April. The fresh crew will be Russian Salizhan Sharipov and NASA's Leroy Chiao, who will live on the station for the next six months. They will be joined in the launch craft by Yuri Shargin, a lieutenant-colonel from Russia's space forces, who will spend 10 days in orbit before returning with the outgoing crew.  //Reuters

09:52

Putin urges more ethnic tolerance

President Vladimir Putin urged Russians on Wednesday not to give in to hatred of ethnic and religious minorities that he said extremists were trying to foment as the Kremlin wages an anti-terror campaign. Putin has cited atrocities blamed on Chechen separatists as justification for overhauling post-Soviet institutions, including tighter public security measures, changes to the security services and even electoral law. But, addressing religious leaders, he said Russians had to ensure that the battle to crush extremism bred no hatred in a country with more than 100 ethnic groups. "It is clear that doing the bidding of criminals, venting the anger directed at terrorists against people of different faiths and ethnic backgrounds is absolutely unacceptable in any sense," Putin told the Kremlin meeting. "To do so in a country of so many ethnic communities is totally destructive." Putin said it was the aim of extremists to sow discord in areas like the northern Caucasus, where Chechen militants have fought the Russian military for a decade and spats among a patchwork of ethnic groups sometimes boil over into violence. "For the sake of their criminal goals, extremists actively exploit national and religious intolerance," he told Orthodox, Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist and other leaders. All said they backed Putin's efforts to root out extremists, which include a refusal to negotiate with any Chechen separatists, however moderate. The harmony between diverse ethnic groups of which Soviet leaders once boasted fast unravelled at the end of the communist era as long-held grudges, kept in check by security services, burst into the open, sometimes sparking major conflicts. Putin's appeal for tolerance reflected growing unease at brutality and mistrust often directed at dark-complexioned people from the Caucasus or ex-Soviet states to the south or in Central Asia. The violence attributed to Chechen separatists, including the deaths of more than 330 hostages at a school in Beslan, has sparked ugly incidents of hostility towards Muslims, who number 20 million in Russia with many more on its fringes. Explosions that downed two passenger planes and a blast outside a Moscow metro station – with a total death toll of about 100 – have been blamed on Chechen women suicide bombers. Russians objecting to the presence of fellow passengers in Muslim dress have delayed four flights in the past month, with airport officials conducting additional checks on "suspect" passengers or moving them to other flights. Several dozen skinheads rampaged through a metro carriage, stabbing passengers they believed were Muslims from southern regions and shouting "This one is for the terrorist act!" Three people from ex-Soviet Tajikistan and Azerbaijan were hurt. The Moscow daily Izvestia interviewed Muslim women who no longer appeared in public without their menfolk because they feared the reaction of ordinary Russians.  //Reuters

09:51

Beslan death toll rises to 331

Russia’s Emergency Ministry has issued a new death toll in the Beslan tragedy, raising the number of people killed in the hostage taking September 1 to 331, including 172 children. As many as 76 bodies are still unidentified, and 240 people — 157 of them children — are still in hospital, the Interfax news agency reported. Meanwhile, the prosecutor general’s office in the North Caucasus region where Beslan is located, told the news agency that 51 missing people have been reported by their families after the school siege. Dozens of armed militants stormed a school in the North Ossetian town on the first day of class September 1, wiring the building with explosives. As many as 1,200 people — many of them children — were held for nearly three days without food or water until a chaotic siege freed the hostages and left hundreds dead.  //MosNews

09:50

Russian Duma deputies appeal to court against Putin’s “coup”

A group of Duma deputies and public figures have sent an open letter to Russia’s Constitutional Court chairman asking for protection from what they called President Vladimir Putin’s “anti-constitutional coup.” The President stunned publicity in Russia and abroad with his move to abolish governor elections in Russia’s regions Tuesday. The letter, which was signed by 19 deputies and public figures including former chess champ Gary Kasparov and former presidential candidate Irina Khakamada, said the new presidential bill “violates the constitution… threatening the principles of democracy, and a federal and constitutional government…” Ekho Moskvy radio reported. The bill directly interferes with regional authority, which is stipulated in Article 73 of the Russian Constitution, the letter said. The deputies expressed hope in the letter that the Constitutional Court with use its powers and “give an official assessment of the bill…” They called the letter their “last chance” to protest what they said was a “coup” against the constitution. The request echoed an open letter sent Tuesday by U.S. politicians to President George Bush, drawing attention to what it called authoritarian tendencies in Putin’s regime.  //MosNews

09:50

Russian Duma deputies appeal to court against Putin’s “coup”

A group of Duma deputies and public figures have sent an open letter to Russia’s Constitutional Court chairman asking for protection from what they called President Vladimir Putin’s “anti-constitutional coup.” The President stunned publicity in Russia and abroad with his move to abolish governor elections in Russia’s regions Tuesday. The letter, which was signed by 19 deputies and public figures including former chess champ Gary Kasparov and former presidential candidate Irina Khakamada, said the new presidential bill “violates the constitution… threatening the principles of democracy, and a federal and constitutional government…” Ekho Moskvy radio reported. The bill directly interferes with regional authority, which is stipulated in Article 73 of the Russian Constitution, the letter said. The deputies expressed hope in the letter that the Constitutional Court with use its powers and “give an official assessment of the bill…” They called the letter their “last chance” to protest what they said was a “coup” against the constitution. The request echoed an open letter sent Tuesday by U.S. politicians to President George Bush, drawing attention to what it called authoritarian tendencies in Putin’s regime.  //MosNews

09:51

Beslan hostage-takers did not want to die - Ruslan Aushev

The armed gang that seized the school in South Russian town of Beslan on September 1, planned to escape after the terrorist attack using hostages as a shield, former president of Ingushetia, Ruslan Aushev, said on Friday. Aushev took part in the negotiations with the terrorists. After the negotiations, over 20 hostages were set free. Over 300 people were killed after the school siege and an assault on September 3. The hostage-takers prepared a corridor to leave Beslan. “They told me other gangs were ready to help them in case of necessity,” Interfax news agency quoted Aushev as saying. He added that the terrorists went out of the school building at night and scouted out the land. Aushev did not rule out that some of the rebels could escape having disappeared in the crowd. Terrorists told Aushev they have taken account of Moscow theater siege in October 2002. For instance, they have broken the windows because they were afraid of gas that was used by Russian troops during the 2002 assault. “They behaved crueler than during Nord-Ost. For example, when the lights or telephone stopped working in the school, they shot hostages,” former Ingush president said. He confirmed what he said earlier that all hostage-takers spoke Russian. He confirmed also that Russian troops did not prepare the assault and it started after the citizens opened fire and the terrorists responded. Aushev also confirmed that it was Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev who ordered the school siege. Aushev was president of Ingushetia, an internal Russian republic wedged between Chechnya and North Ossetia, from 1992. In 2001, he resigned after the republican Supreme Court cancelled elections set for March 2002. In April 2002, Murat Zyazikov, supported by the Kremlin, came to power in Ingushetia. Zyazikov was one of the people the terrorists had demanded to talk with. But he did not go to Beslan.  //MosNews

09:50

Technical problems delay Russian space launch again

Technical problems have prompted a further delay to the blast-off of a Russian spacecraft to the International Space Station, space officials said on Tuesday. The Soyuz, carrying a new crew to man the multinational station, had been scheduled to lift off from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Oct. 11, after an initial postponement because of problems with the docking system. "The launch has been delayed again. This is for technical reasons," a Russian space agency spokesman said. He added the new launch date had not yet been set and did not elaborate on the technical hitch. The spokesman said the delay posed no threat to the safety of Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka and NASA's Michael Fincke, stationed on the orbital platform since April and scheduled to return to Earth once the new crew arrives. They have plenty of supplies on board and a Soyuz craft docked there could be used to return home in an emergency. NASA's spokesman in Moscow, Jim Newman, said delays were common and no cause for concern. "Delays are normal," he said. "Michael and Gennady will have a few more days to enjoy themselves." The Soyuz will take up Russian Salizhan Sharipov and NASA's Leroy Chiao, who will live on the station for the next six months. They will be joined in the launch craft by Yuri Shargin, a lieutenant-colonel from Russia's space forces, who will spend 10 days in orbit before returning with the outgoing crew.  //Reuters

09:48

Putin steamrollers forward with political change

The Kremlin warned local leaders in the regions on Tuesday that President Vladimir Putin could sweep them aside if they oppose his radical plans to tighten central control in post-Soviet Russia. Putin, meanwhile, sent a draft law to parliament that will give him the right to nominate regional governors, pushing forward planned changes that could redraw Russia's political map but which have raised concern in the West. Despite an outcry from opposition figures and unease even among some of Putin's own followers, signs were that things were going his way with the main pro-Kremlin United Russia party moving to strengthen control over regional legislatures. The increasingly authoritarian Putin announced plans to nominate the leaders of the 89 regions – now elected and enjoying much power in fiefdoms far from the Kremlin – as part of a drive to reinforce the state in its battle against terrorism. The move followed an attack this month on a school in Beslan, southern Russia, by Chechen separatist rebels that ended with the killing of 320 hostages, half of them children. But critics say the changes, which opinion polls show are unpopular, are a power-grab exploiting the Beslan tragedy. The Kremlin went on the offensive on Tuesday, with an aide warning Putin might use his authority to dissolve local legislatures that refused to approve his choice for governor. "The president has the right to two attempts (to put forward a candidate) ... if his candidate is not confirmed after two attempts the president has the right to appoint an acting leader," the aide, Vladislav Surkov, told journalists. "At this time, the legislative assembly can be dissolved, or perhaps not dissolved." Surkov, a deputy head of the presidential administration, said the law should be in force by 2009 – roughly by the end of Putin's second term. A highly-placed Kremlin official backed up Putin's argument – questioned by critics – that the changes were required to strengthen the state to defeat terrorism. "I am personally convinced the terrorists are out to destroy Russian statehood. I know some look on this as the beginning of paranoia, but despite all the ridicule I am completely serious," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. But he conceded the plans carried a "huge risk" for democracy. "I cannot say that we are hugely happy about this system. We all would like to live in a beautiful and pleasant land and go to vote in free elections. But for the time being I do not realistically see us achieving this," he said. But the official bridled at Western criticism, specifically from U.S. President George W. Bush, who urged the Kremlin leader to "uphold the principles of democracy". "I'm sure that Mr Bush does not even imagine what we are proposing. How would Bush know?" he said. Putin's bill is likely to sail through the State Duma lower house as United Russia holds more than two-thirds of 450 seats. A second proposal would scrap the election of half of the Duma's members in districts by a first-past-the-post system. The Duma would then be elected solely from countrywide party lists. Critics brand this an attempt by Putin to keep independent politicians out of parliament. Re-elected by a landslide in March, the former KGB spy faces little opposition from a political scene dominated by United Russia, enjoys the support of a compliant parliament and judiciary and has stifled almost all independent media. Many regional officials have opted to secure their future by aligning themselves with United Russia, Duma officials say. These officials said they had little doubt the "party of power" would develop the president's regional power base.  //Reuters

13:25

Explosives found in children’s sports school in Russia Far East

A large set of explosives has been discovered on the premises of a children’s sports club in Russia’s far-eastern Maritime Territory. Around 17-30 on Monday the regional FSB directorate received an anonymous call about an explosive device allegedly planted inside the building of a sports club Bastion in Pervomaisky district of Vladivostok. On the second floor of the building rented by a children’s sports school Daido Juku FSB operatives discovered a large set of explosives and devices that could be used for making bombs. According to the sources in the Kudo Daido Juku federation of the Maritime Territory, athletes and the school management deny their involvement in storing explosives and believe the incident to be a provocation on the part of the former owner of the building. The federation has been under pressure from the previous owner lately, ever since the school occupied the premises. Police, FSB investigators and the school management refuse to comment on the incident. Security in schools has been attracting much public attention in Russia in the wake of the rebel raid on a school in Beslan, North Ossetia, where over 320 people died, including many children.  //MosNews

13:23

Moscow police say murder of Forbes editor solved

Moscow policemen have solved the murder of the chief editor of the Russian edition of the Forbes magazine Paul Klebnikov, the head of the Russian Interior Ministry’s Main Directorate for Moscow City, Lieutenant-General Vladimir Pronin told the Interfax news agency on Tuesday. The general said that on Monday night Moscow policemen detained two Chechens who were involved in Klebnikov’s killing. Three pistols were seized from the detained suspects, Pronin said. He also added that the same two Chechens had been holding a man hostage some time earlier. The RIA-Novosti news agency quoted a police source close as saying that the detained Chechens had kidnapped two men for ransom. After the kidnappers were detained on Monday night, a pistol was seized from them and the initial ballistic expertise has shown that this is the gun with which Paul Klebnikov was shot, the source said. However, RIA-Novosti reported that the detained had denied their involvement in the attack on the journalist. They claim that they had received the pistol from some other persons. Paul Klebnikov, the famous U.S. journalist of Russian descent and the editor-in-chief of the Russian edition of the Forbes magazine was gunned down on July 9 this year near his office in Moscow. The case is being investigated by the Directorate for Top Priority Cases of the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office.  //MosNews

10:53

Russian minister backs Kyoto, but more work to do

A key Russian minister has officially backed the Kyoto Protocol in a sign Russian approval is moving ever closer, but says the country has hard work ahead to actually implement it, a government source said on Monday. Economy Minister German Gref is now at least the second minister to back the climate change treaty followingPresident Vladimir Putin's demand that officials move to approve a pact that depends on Russia to come into force. "Gref has signed a letter to the government, in which it says the Economy Ministry supports the pact as it always has," said the source. "But he also wrote that we need to do a lot of work to make the pact work. These are things that he says must be implemented if we want to do more than just ratify the document." Under the terms of the treaty, developed nations emitting more than 55 percent of greenhouse gases must ratify the treaty for it to come into force. Since Washington pulled out in 2001, Russia's 17 percent share has left it with the casting vote. Russia has vacillated on the treaty for years, and seemed to be backing away from it earlier this year before Putin committed the country to ratification in May. Despite his backing, documents obtained by Reuters last month showed key government members including Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko doubted it would bring any benefits to Russia. The Natural Resources Ministry has signed off on the pact, but Khristenko is yet to do so, a spokesman said. "Khristenko has not signed the letter. It is on his table, and is being discussed. I have no information on whether he objects to it," said ministry spokesman Stanislav Naumov. The pact allows over-polluting nations to buy excess emissions from under-polluters, and provides mechanisms to attract investment to inefficient industries. Since Russian industry was decimated by the Soviet collapse, the country is estimated to be emitting about three-quarters of its quota under the pact, meaning it could sell the surplus. But the Economy Ministry thinks Russia will have to create entirely new regulations and mechanisms to allow it to take advantage of these money-making opportunities. "Gref said we need to discuss how to register emissions of greenhouse gases. This may be the most important issue. We need to decide if we will have a national system to trade emissions, how to bring in investment," the government source said. "This will require a lot of work. Gref thinks that the question on ratification must be resolved simultaneously with other decisions on how it will be implemented." If all the ministries sign off on the pact, the government will pass on the documents to parliament to ratify. Parliament, which is dominated by Putin loyalists, is likely to follow the Kremlin's lead, analysts say.  //Reuters

10:29

Unease at UN over Russian terror blacklist plan

Several U.N. Security Council nations expressed misgivings about a draft resolution introduced by Russia on Monday that would create a new blacklist of terrorist suspects subject to extradition. While publicly members of the 15-nation council greeted the Russian draft warmly, diplomats said the United States and others had problems with an expanded council blacklist, now confined to Taliban and al Qaeda suspects. China welcomed the resolution without reservations. Its U.N. Ambassador Guangya Wang told Reuters: "We will have no difficulties with the draft." But Wang said several governments objected to the list. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced the initiative in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly last week, after a spate of bloody attacks by Chechen rebels including the bombing of two airliners and the deadly Beslan school siege. Without naming states such as Britain and Qatar that have given asylum to Chechen rebels and fugitives from Russia, he rebuked countries for giving such people asylum or playing "geopolitical games" with the fight against terrorism. The resolution seeks to speed the handover of people accused of abusing their status as political refugees to organize or finance terrorist acts. It recommends compiling a consolidated U.N. list of individuals, groups and entities involved in terrorism, who would be subject to an assets freeze, an arms embargo and "expedited extradition." "This is a case of extraditing first and asking questions later," one European council delegate said. The measure also attempts to define terrorism, which the 191-member Assembly has been unable to do for years, holding up a treaty on the subject. Algeria's U.N. ambassador, Abdalla Baali, the security council's only Arab member, said, "As long as we are not able to agree on a definition of terrorism, between acts of terrorism and the fight for liberation, it will be hazardous to open the list." "If you want to widen the list you are going to open a Pandora's box. Everyone will put on the list his enemies," Baali told Reuters. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters last week he was still studying the measure. But he indicated problems with the U.N. Security Council mandating that anyone given asylum in the United States could be expelled. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw supported the initiative and said Britain would "work closely" with Russia on the wording to prevent terrorists from abusing asylum status. But he said that neither Britain nor any other European Union nation would return suspects to face the death penalty. The draft resolution defines terrorism as "acts against civilians with the intent to cause death or serious bodily harm." It says such deeds are "under no circumstances justifiable by consideration of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or other similar nature." In his address to the assembly, Lavrov, a former U.N. ambassador, called for an end to "double standards" and said: "Those who slaughtered children in Beslan and hijacked airplanes to attack America are creatures of the same breed." Western governments say Moscow should seek a political solution in Chechnya, but President Vladimir Putin has vowed to crush the separatist rebels and equated calls to talk peace with them to negotiating with Islamic militant Osama bin Laden.  //Reuters

15:22

Liberals, Communists dispute parliamentary election at Supreme Court

The liberal party Yabloko and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) have brought a suit to the Supreme Court against the Russian Central Election Commission. They are contesting the results of the parliamentary elections in December 2003. The members of the liberal Committee 2008: Free Choice have also brought joined the lawsuit. The plaintiffs claim that the Commission did not detect evident violations and approved the protocol and the resolution on the distribution of MP’s mandates, Interfax news agency reports. They claimed that the pro-Kremlin party United Russia, which received over two thirds of the parliamentary seats, was supported by the state administration. State media, primarily television channels, worked in favor of United Russia far more than for other parties. United Russia had 642 minutes of air time, and Yabloko 197, the press release of the Committee 2008 said. Seven parties received no television air time whatsoever. The plaintiffs also claim that the Election Commission added hundreds of thousands of spare voting papers to guarantee the necessary voter turnout and additional votes for one of the parties. The plaintiffs added that 37 members of the United Russia election list had rejected MP’s mandates but the mandates were not spread among all the parties but remained with United Russia. Those members were governors and federal ministers. The plaintiffs claimed that their refusal to enter the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, was a violation of Russian law and that the voters had been deceived. The press release also said that electioneering in favor of United Russia and against the KPRF began on November 7, before the official start. On December 7, 2003, United Russia received 37.57% of the vote and formed a majority in the State Duma, their new parliamentary faction consisting of 306 deputies. The party leader and former minister of the interior, Boris Gryzlov, was elected the House speaker. The other three parties that managed to enter the Duma were the KPRF with 12.61% of the vote and 52 deputies, the LDPR with 11.45% of the vote and 36 deputies, and Motherland with 9.02% of the vote and 38 deputies. 15 MPs are independent and do not belong to any particular parliamentary group. The two Russian parties with democratic programs — Yabloko and SPS (Union of Right Forces) — failed to pass the 5% threshold. Several top members of those parties have joined Committee 2008.  //MosNews

10:33

Chechen rebels kill four Russian servicemen

Rebels killed four Russian servicemen in a brief fire fight in the Chechen capital Grozny, the army said on Sunday, while the armed forces used artillery to flush guerrillas out of forests nearby. The killed servicemen were searching for rebel fighters late on Saturday but came under heavy fire, army spokesman Ilya Shabalkin said by telephone from Grozny. "Four members of the law-enforcement agencies were killed. They were trying to detain a group of bandits and there was a short exchange of fire, just two or three minutes. The bandits got away in a car," he said. Russian media said one of the rebels was from a group commanded by Shamil Basayev, the warlord behind a hostage-taking attack on a school in the town of Beslan earlier this month. Over 320 people – half of them children – died in the raid. Chechen separatists have fought Russian rule for a decade. They have increased the number of attacks in recent months, and spread large-scale raids to Ingushetia, a region bordering Chechnya to the west and inhabited by a related nation. Most Russian casualties are not reported. Russian forces fired artillery into forests about 20 km (12 miles) from Ingushetia's largest city Nazran overnight as they hunted a group of about 20 rebels, Shabalkin said. Witnesses said the firing had continued for about 90 minutes and was clearly audible in Nazran. "The special forces fought the bandits and fired artillery after them when they fled into the forest. Three bandits were killed," Shabalkin said. Human rights groups report that Russian troops have responded to the raid on Beslan, and to the increased intensity of rebel attacks, with sweeping operations to detain suspected rebels. Activists say young men often disappear without trace.  //Reuters

10:32

Russian police hold 13 after Red Square protest

Russian police detained 12 protesters and a journalist on Sunday after an anti-capitalist protest spilled over onto Red Square, a police spokeswoman said. About 500 protesters waved red flags and chanted "Lenin, Stalin, death to the Bourgeoisie" as they marched through Moscow. A small group then ran onto Red Square near the Kremlin, scene of the Soviet Union's giant, choreographed demonstrations. "Police detained 12 people from 'the Avant-garde of the Red Youth' (AKM) and one journalist for holding an unsanctioned protest. They were held for two hours and then released," said the spokeswoman for Moscow's police. Many people, even young people who did not experience the Soviet Union, feel nostalgia for the, stability, healthcare and free education of communist times. Poverty has struck hard at some areas of the population. The AKM was demonstrating against 'Social Terror' and some protesters waved banners blaming capitalism for militant attacks across Russia such as the mass hostage-taking in the town of Beslan where 320 people, half of them children, were killed. "The latest catastrophes and terrorist acts and the generally miserable condition of most Russian citizens comes from the policies carried out by President Putin," Sergei Udaltsov, a leader of AKM, told Ekho Moskvy radio. Russia's parliament moved to all but ban public protests earlier this year, but eased the restrictions after President Vladimir Putin said the bill was too harsh. A watered-down version of the law bans protests outside presidential residences and near courts and jails.  //Reuters

16:20

Putin urges Iran to yield to IAEA demands

Russian President Vladimir Putin urged Iran on Friday to heed the demands of the U.N. nuclear watchdog after Tehran defied the United Nations by going ahead with its uranium enrichment programme. Russia is helping the Islamic republic build a nuclear reactor at the port of Bushehr despite strong criticism from the United States which says Tehran is seeking atomic weapons. "We are categorically opposed to expanding the nuclear club. Iran should meet all (International Atomic Energy Agency) demands," Putin told a media industry conference. Putin, who has said Russia would ditch the Bushehr project should Iran breach any IAEA agreements, said he had been told by Iranian leaders they were not interested in getting atomic arms. "We welcome such an approach, but it should be backed up. The international community must feel confident (that Iran is not acquiring nuclear weapons)," Putin said. Russia has continuously delayed the launch of the Bushehr plant. Diplomats in Moscow say Putin's growing recognition of U.S. concerns over Iran has pressed the Kremlin into delays until such time as the IAEA gives a clean bill of health to Iran's nuclear programme. Last week the IAEA adopted a resolution calling on Iran to suspend all uranium enrichment work. But Tehran rejected the call and said it had begun converting a large amount of raw uranium to prepare it for enrichment – a process that can be used to develop atomic bombs. Iran says, however, that its nuclear programme is solely for generating electricity.  //Reuters

16:19

Sacked Ukrainian defence minister gets job back

Ukraine's former defence minister, sacked when a stray missile shot down a Russian passenger plane in 2001, was given his old job back by President Leonid Kuchna on Friday. A presidential decree said Oleksander Kuzmuk would replace Evhen Marchuk, who was dismissed this week for failing to make safe Soviet-era weapons and ammunition depots. The 50-year-old general and member of parliament is one of Kuchma's most loyal allies. Under Kuzmuk's five-year stint as defence minister in the ex-Soviet state, the reputation of the armed forces was badly dented by a series of calamities. Kuchma removed him in 2001 after a stray Ukrainian missile fired from a testing range in the Crimean peninsula shot down a Russian passenger plane over the Black Sea, killing nearly 80 people on board. Marchuk, who has served as prime minister and held other senior posts, was dismissed after a series of accidents involving ammunition depots. In one, shells exploded for four days running in southern Ukraine last May, killing four people. Kuchma steps down at next month's presidential election after serving two terms blighted by scandals and charges of corruption. He backs Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, one of two leading candidates, as his successor.  //Reuters

15:12

Federal forces launch crackdown on Chechen rebels

A group of militants has been eliminated as a result of an ongoing raid in Kurchaloi district of Russia’s southern republic of Chechnya. A day earlier the rebels entered the village of Alleroi, Ramzan Kadyrov, first deputy head of the pro-Moscow Chechen government and head of the presidential security guard service, told Interfax. The group was almost fully eliminated, he said. “Thanks to measures taken without delay our forces succeeded in ousting the rebels from Alleroi. They have suffered substantial casualties. Five bodies have already been discovered in the village and in the vicinity, but, according to operative reports, the number of eliminated rebels is much higher,” Kadyrov told Interfax by phone, talking from Alleroi. Special raids, carried out by federal troops, continued throughout Chechnya in the early hours of Friday. Those operations are aimed at apprehending and eliminating separatist leaders Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov, Ilya Shabalkin, a spokesman for anti-terror operations in the Northern Caucasus, told RIA-Novosti news agency. He confirmed Ramzan Kadyrov’s report on the successful raid carried out in Kurchaloi. According to Shabalkin, four rebels were killed near the village of Mairtup and two — near Alleroi. All of them belonged to a rebel unit headed by Avdorkhanov and were personal bodyguards of Aslan Maskhadov. Another rebel group was discovered in Shali district. Federal forces attacked them with mortar fire. Later two rebels were killed in a clash with Russian commando troops. The identities of the dead rebels are being established, Shabalkin said.  //MosNews

15:10

10 kg of TNT seized from Turkmen national near Moscow

Police in Moscow region have conducted a successful operation to confiscate a large quantity of explosives from a citizen of Turkmenistan, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported on Friday. The search was conducted in an apartment that the unemployed man from Turkmenistan was renting in the suburban town of Orekhovo Zuyevo. Officers of the regional directorate for fighting organized crime found 10 kilograms of TNT, 100 grams of plastic explosive, 1 kilogram of gunpowder and an electric detonator in the apartment, a source in the Main Directorate of the Interior Ministry for the Moscow region has told the agency. Police are now trying to establish where the man got the explosives. Security in Moscow Region and across Russia has been tightened over the string of terrorist attacks that hit the country in late August and September. These included the bombing of two passenger planes and a suicide attack near a metro station in Moscow during evening rush hour. Chechen separatist Shamil Basayev has claimed responsibility for the attacks.  //MosNews

15:08

Hospital attacked in South Russia, Beslan children among patients

A hospital came under gunfire in Rostov-on-Don, southern Russia, a source in the city’s law-enforcement agencies has told RIA-Novosti news agency. “Some individuals fired an automatic weapon at the hospital windows and also detonated two grenades. Investigators are examining several leads now. According to one of them, what happened can be seen as an attempt on the life of a local businessman who was there (in the hospital),” the source said. Local police told RIA that the gunfire had been opened at windows and walls of the intensive care ward, and two windows were broken as a result of the assault. Nobody was hurt, a source said. Investigators are working at the scene of the incident. The hospital includes a children’s burns centre where three children injured during the school hostage crisis in Beslan, North Ossetia, are being treated. Over 320 people, many of them children, were killed during a rebel raid on a school in Beslan on 1 September. 293 survivors of the hostage drama still remain in various hospitals across Russia.  //MosNews

13:11

Chechen rebel says warlord will be tried for Beslan

Chechnya's rebel leader said on Friday he would put warlord Shamil Basayev on trial one day for the mass hostage-seizing at a Russian school in which more than 320 people were killed, half of them children. "I responsibly announce that after the end of the war, individuals guilty of conducting illegal acts, including Shamil Basayev, will be passed to a court of law," said Aslan Maskhadov in a statement reacting to Basayev's claim to have masterminded the raid in Beslan. Maskhadov appeared to be suggesting he would punish Basayev under Islamic sharia law which he introduced when he was president of a de facto independent Chechnya for more than two years in the late 1990s. Despite Maskhadov's statement denying any link with the Beslan attack, Russian officials have put a $10 million bounty on both him and Basayev and continued on Friday to assert the two had been hand-in-glove in the bloody operation. "The organisation of this criminal act against little children, teenagers and their parents in Beslan was organised by Maskhadov and Basayev in close cooperation," said army spokesman Ilya Shabalkin in a statement. "Maskhadov, with help from such terrorist acts organised by Shamil Basayev, wants to force Russia to make concessions to the bandit groups so he can once again become so-called legitimate president." Maskhadov was elected president of a de facto independent Chechnya in 1997 and has, like Basayev, been on the run since Russian forces swept back into the region in 1999 to crush the separatist movement. But he is seen as a relative moderate among Chechen separatists and many commentators see him as Moscow's only possible negotiating partner if it decided to return to negotiations. "I announce that the leadership of the Chechen Republic and the armed forces under my control ... had nothing to do with this terrorist act," Maskhadov's statement on www.chechenpress.com said. Basayev, Russia's most wanted man, admitted early this month to staging the Beslan operation and a string of other attacks including the blowing up of two passenger planes that killed 90 people. He warned Moscow his forces would strike again. Maskhadov has condemned Basayev before and broke with him in October 2002 when the warlord organised the seizure of a Moscow theatre in a raid in which 129 hostages were killed. But the two men had seemed to be uniting their efforts this year. Maskhadov's strong condemnation on Friday could weaken the rebel forces who are now more active than they have been for years. The Russian military reported fierce fighting across the region overnight, involving commanders under Maskhadov's control. One rebel Web site said guerrillas were controlling two villages.  //Reuters

13:10

N.Korea talks unlikely before yearend-Russia envoy

A new round of six-way talks on the North Korean crisis is unlikely until late this year at the earliest, Alexander Losyukov, Russia's former point man on the negotiations who is now ambassador to Japan, said on Friday. Concern over the situation on the Korean peninsula rose after Japanese and U.S. government sources said on Thursday that signs had been detected that North Korea was preparing to launch a ballistic missile capable of reaching almost anywhere in Japan. "At the earliest, the talks might be resumed at the end of the year, that is December, or early next year," Losyukov told a seminar in Tokyo, adding that this was his personal view. Speaking in Russian, Losyukov added: "My view is that the (North Korean) leaders are not going to take any particular position until the U.S. presidential elections are over." Signs of the North Korean military moves were detected after the reclusive communist state refused to take part in a fourth round of six-party talks this month on ending its nuclear ambitions and said it would never give up its deterrent. But officials in Japan and the United States played down the possibility that North Korea would actually proceed to launch one of its Rodong missiles. Losyukov, who led Russia's delegation at the first two rounds of the talks and was appointed ambassador to Japan in March, said the talks were an important dialogue that must be continued. "No matter what happens, I would like to believe that North Korea shares this view," he added. China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States are trying to persuade the North to ditch its suspected nuclear programmes in exchange for security guarantees and energy aid.  //Reuters

11:45

Gorbachev repeats criticism of Putin’s reforms on British TV

Proposals by Russian president Vladimir Putin to abolish voting for regional governors and direct elections to parliament risks stripping the Russian people of their democratic rights, ex-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said on Thursday, Reuters writes. Putin announced the abolition of elections for governors and district parliamentary representatives as part of a package of reforms in the wake of the terrorist attack on a school in the town of Beslan in which more than 300 people were killed. The president has said the changes are vital to boost state authority, but liberal opponents accuse him of exploiting the siege to consolidate his own grip on power. Gorbachev said he supported Putin and many of the changes the president had proposed, but was concerned about the restrictions on voting. “I have spoken of my concerns,” he said in an interview with Britain’s Channel Four news aired on Thursday. “We are wiping out an important —- perhaps the most important —- right of the people, the right to choose.” “I believe there should be a big debate about this. It needs to be talked through. The president is concerned, and all of society is concerned, that sometimes elections did result in the election of people who had no business in the governorship. ”But the solution is not to abolish elections. You should give the president the power to intervene if the governor has lost the moral right to power.“ Gorbachev led reforms in the Soviet Union under the slogans ”openness“ (glasnost) and ”restructuring“ (perestroika) in the 1980s, but resigned in 1991 after the union broke up, turning over the Kremlin to his hated rival Boris Yeltsin as president of Russia. Gorbachev remains respected widely in the West and by a small liberal following in Russia. Despite his criticism of the plan to abolish regional leadership elections, he still praised Putin. ”Putin has started to turn policy back toward the interests of the majority, and turned away from what was done under Yeltsin. Under Yeltsin, policy mostly served small groups and clans,“ Gorbachev said. The last Soviet leader was speaking on the same day the results of an opinion poll were published that suggested half of Russians are against Putin’s planned changes. The MosNews Web-site published an exclusive interview with Mikhail Gorbachev in which he reacted publicly for the first time to Vladimir Putin’s proposals last week.  //MosNews

11:43

Russian ministries move to approve Kyoto treaty

At least one Russian ministry has signed letters agreeing to Moscow's approval of the Kyoto Protocol, a spokesman said on Thursday in what could be a final step on the long road to bringing the global pact into force. The Natural Resources Ministry has already signed all documents necessary to send the agreement to parliament for ratification and other ministries whose signature is required were working on it, ministry spokesman Rinat Gizatulin said. "The request to us was sent by (Foreign Minister) Sergei Lavrov. Our position is that ratification of the Kyoto Protocol does not have negative consequences for Russia. We have signed the documents," he said. The comments appeared to confirm reports by environmental groups on Wednesday that President Vladimir Putin, whose position on Kyoto has fluctuated since coming to power four years ago, had ordered key ministries to sign the pact. But Lavrov, at U.N. headquarters in New York, appeared to signal a decision had not yet been made. "In accordance with the decision of President Vladimir V. Putin, we are seriously considering the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol," he told the U.N. General Assembly. The fate of the treaty, which aims to stabilise emissions of the gases which cause global warming, has depended on Russia since Washington pulled out in 2001. Countries responsible for 55 percent of emissions must ratify before it comes into force. Russian approval was long expected until Putin distanced himself from the pact a year ago. Although he warmed to it in May, government documents obtained by Reuters last month showed several key ministers doubted its scientific basis and said it would bring few benefits to Russia. The final decision on ratification officially rests with the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, but the chamber is packed with Kremlin loyalists and likely to follow Putin's lead. A source in Russia's top weather monitoring organization, Rosgidromet, said director Alexander Bedritsky, one of the most experienced meteorologists in the country, had also signed the letter to the ministers. "The letter was signed by Bedritsky and Lavrov, and sent out at Putin's request. It included draft materials necessary for the ratification of the protocol," the source said. "This is the first step on the road to ratification. It is the start of a long and difficult process, and it is not clear when it will finish." A spokeswoman for the Economy Ministry said it had received a large package of documents from the Foreign Ministry but Economy Minister German Gref had yet to sign it. "We are currently considering it, but our position is unchanged and we still think Russia should move toward ratification," she said. Other key ministries seen as likely to have to sign the letter, including the Energy and Industry Ministry that has previously opposed it, declined to comment on their position.  //Reuters

11:42

Powell, Lavrov discuss Russian political changes

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday raised U.S. concerns about Russia's proposed political changes in a one-on-one meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, a U.S. official said. Russian President Vladimir Putin last week said he wanted a new election law limiting the number of political parties and to nominate regional governors himself to combat terrorism following the bloody Beslan school siege in southern Russia. Critics immediately accused Putin of exploiting the grisly siege, in which at least 327 hostages died, to amass power and Powell last week told Reuters the Kremlin leader's proposals were "pulling back" on Russia's democratic reforms. "The secretary discussed with Foreign Minister Lavrov ... U.S. concerns about the proposals made by President Putin on the Russian election system and the appointment of governors," the U.S. official told reporters. Lavrov last week had bristled at Powell's comments, saying the matter was an internal Russian affair and suggesting the U.S. secretary of state's comments implied "that democracy can only be copied from someone's model." President George W. Bush, who urged Putin last week to "uphold the principles of democracy", has himself been under fire from Democrats who accuse his administration of impinging on civil liberties through the anti-terror Patriot Act.  //Reuters

11:41

Russia seeks UN terrorist asylum abuse crackdown

Russia on Thursday proposed a U.N. crackdown on the abuse of political asylum for terrorist purposes, raising pressure on Western states to hand over wanted Chechen activists. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was to announce the initiative, which follows Russia's deadly Beslan school siege, in his U.N. General Assembly address, a Russian spokesman said. "We can't let terrorists exploit a protection designed for oppression victims, not for persecutors," said British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, pledging London would work closely with Moscow to ensure greater global cooperation on terrorism, The draft Security Council resolution seeks to speed the extradition of people accused of abusing their status as political refugees to organize or finance terrorist acts. It also suggested compiling a consolidated U.N. blacklist of individuals, groups and entities involved in terrorism, who would be subject to an assets freeze, an arms embargo and "expedited extradition." Britain has granted political asylum to Akhmed Zakayev, a spokesman for Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, and spurned a Russian extradition request citing insufficient evidence. It has also given asylum to fugitive tycoon Boris Berezovsky. Russia has intensified calls to hand over Zakayev after a spate of attacks by Chechen rebels across Russia, including the downing of two civil aircraft and the school siege in which more than 320 hostages died – half of them children. Straw stressed that Britain and its European Union partners would not hand over people who could face the death penalty, torture or unwarranted imprisonment. Capital punishment is banned in EU states. Moscow has circulated a draft to the other four permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, the United States, France, Britain and China. The text, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, also urges the United Nations to consider creating an international fund to compensate terror victims. But the call for an expanded terrorism blacklist could falter because of long-standing deep divisions among U.N. members over how to define terrorism. A Security Council committee currently compiles only a list of people and groups linked to the al Qaeda network and the Taliban, with an eye to freezing their assets and travel and prohibiting them from acquiring arms and related material. The list is regularly updated, based on information from the 191 U.N. member nations, and distributed around the world. Western governments say Moscow should seek a political solution in Chechnya but President Vladimir Putin has vowed to crush the rebels and equated calls to talk peace with them to negotiating with Islamic militant Osama bin Laden. The Russian draft defines terrorism as the deliberate targeting of civilians to "provoke a state of terror, intimidate a population or compel a government or an international organization to do or to abstain from doing any act."  //Reuters

15:33

International Forces in Afghanistan do nothing to fight drugs - Putin

President Putin urged the federal anti-drug agency, Gosnarkokontrol, to step up cooperation with the states of the International Force deployed in Afghanistan, in order to more effectively counteract the drug threat emanating from that country. “Unfortunately, they do absolutely nothing there to reduce, at least a little bit, the drug threat emanating from Afghanistan,” the Russian president said during his meeting with Viktor Cherkesov, chief of Gosnarkokontrol. The allies must realize the seriousness of that threat and not to conceal it from their people, Putin continued. “They have to understand the threat without hushing it up and actively join in (the fight against illegal drug trafficking), instead of passively watching caravans roam to and fro throughout Afghanistan, with drugs eventually reaching Western markets through the CIS states,” Putin said. Russia’s diplomatic efforts in this sphere have so far brought no results, Putin said. Yet, this work will continue, he said. He recommended Gosnarkokontrol join efforts with western security services for the goal of neutralizing the threat emanating from Afghanistan.  //MosNews

15:31

Russia building strong democracy to combat extremism — Lavrov

The recently announced reforms in Russia are aimed at building a strong democratic power capable of effectively combating extremists, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the Foreign Policy Association in New York. “For Russia with its enormous territory and multi-ethnic population strengthening the country’s unity and effectiveness of public administration is crucial and prerequisite for achieving victory in the war against terror,” Sergei Lavrov said, according to a Foreign Ministry statement released on Thursday. Earlier this month Sergei Lavrov criticized the West for interfering in Russia’s domestic affairs, after U.S. and the European Union voiced alarm over President Vladimir Putin’s plans for drastic changes aimed at boosting Kremlin power. Addressing the State Council — an advisory board of the country’s regional leaders — on 13 September, Putin said he wanted governors to be nominated by the Kremlin instead of being elected by direct popular vote. The Russian president said such measures were necessary to tackle terrorism.  //MosNews

10:17

Riot police and protesters clash in Kalmykia

Riot police were out in force in the capital of Russia's southern Kalmykia region on Wednesday after violent clashes with opposition protesters seeking the resignation of its long-standing leader. More than 100 people were being held after Tuesday night's unrest in Elista when police broke up an opposition rally calling for Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the Buddhist region's long-serving and eccentric leader, to quit. Analysts said the Kremlin appeared to want to get rid of Ilyumzhinov. Regional prosecutor Sergei Khlopushin brushed off opposition charges of police misconduct and said the 2,000 protesters had been clearly warned their rally was illegal as it was staged close to buildings housing the courts and regional government. "The number of detained stands at 106. The majority of them will be handed over to the courts," he told Interfax news agency. The protesters accused Ilyumzhinov, in power in the Caspian region since 1993, of leading it in an unlawful manner and flouting basic rights. The protest followed President Vladimir Putin's proposal this month to do away with direct election of regional leaders like Ilyumzhinov and to appoint them instead. Commentators said the unusual prominence given to the clashes on Russian central television – given the tendency by the state-controlled media to play down negative news – suggested clear Kremlin pressure on Ilyumzhinov. Mark Urnov, who heads the Expertisa analytical think-tank, said the Kremlin was at odds with the maverick leader because of his independent line and rampant corruption in Kalmykia. "I think, especially in light of the plans of reorganisation of the system of direction in the regions, that central authorities are now trying to get rid of Ilyumzhinov", he said. "We can expect protests to be played up by all possible means." Ilyumzhinov is one of the few regional leaders in Russia to have retained his independent image gained during the chaos of the immediate post-Soviet period in the 1990s. And a string of foreign meetings, including with Saddam Hussein's son, Uday, have kept him in the news, along with his status as head of the World Chess Federation FIDE. Putin, since his election in 2000, has set out to clip the wings of wayward leaders in Russia's 89 regions, who built up fiefdoms and personal wealth under predecessor Boris Yeltsin. An opposition representative denounced the action by OMON special police which he said was launched after protesters had already begun to wind down the rally in Elista's main square. "People ... lay down on the ground, but the police began to kick them, push them, fire rubber bullets and beat them with truncheons," Batyr Kitinov said on Ekho Moskvy radio. "They herded people through the streets. The town was cordoned off and has been virtually in a state of siege since yesterday." Opposition sources, quoted by television, said five protesters were in hospital with injuries, three in a serious condition. Khlopushin said police had acted because "a group of aggressively behaving people broke through the cordon of police and went onto the town's central square".  //Reuters

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