Obama wants Russia trade vote before WTO deal: trade official (Reuters)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama wants Congress to approve "permanent normal trade relations" with Russia this year, before the former Cold War enemy finishes its negotiations to join the World Trade Organization, a U.S. trade official said on Wednesday.

"It's clear that Russia's ambition is to complete the accession process and become a WTO member by the end of the year," said Chris Wilson, assistant U.S. trade representative for the WTO and multilateral affairs.

"Our focus is on trying to achieve a vote before" that happens, Wilson said during a panel discussion of remaining issues blocking Russia's entry into the world trade body.

Wilson said it was important that Congress approve permanent normal trade relations, or PNTR, before a final WTO accession deal is reached to ensure U.S. exporters immediately get the full benefits of Russia's entry, which could occur this December at a WTO ministerial meeting.

If lawmakers fail to approve PNTR and revoke a Cold War-era provision known as the Jackson-Vanik amendment, WTO rules would allow Moscow to deny the United States the new access it has negotiated in the Russian market while providing it to other WTO members, he said.

But many lawmakers see a vote on PNTR as a proxy for a vote on Russia's WTO accession and have resisted past efforts to approve PNTR before a final WTO deal is struck.

They have taken that line even though Jackson-Vanik was originally passed to encourage Russia to allow Jews to emigrate freely, and Washington has judged Moscow to be in compliance with that requirement since 1994.

In addition, concern over Russia's record on human rights and its commitment to the rule of law are expected to enter into the debate on PNTR, requiring the Obama administration to mount a major lobbying effort with Congress if it serious about winning approval, one congressional aide said.

WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY

Although talks on Russia's bid to join the WTO have taken years, Wilson said Moscow appeared to see a window of opportunity to finish the process this year, before the 2012 Russian presidential election.

"It's certainly plausible and conceivable to us" that a final deal can be reached in 2011, Wilson said.

Russia has already made a lot of progress on that front but two big remaining issues involve how Russia will harmonize its food, plant and animal import safety rules with global standards and Russian rules for investing in the automotive sector that have raised some concern, Wilson said.

Separately, Russia must consolidate all the tariff cuts it agreed to make in bilateral negotiations with the United States and some 50 other WTO members into a single tariff schedule.

Related to that, Russia hopes to finish negotiations this month with the United States, the EU, Australia, Brazil and other WTO members on new tariff-rate quotas for imported poultry, pork and beef, Wilson said.

Washington also wants further evidence Moscow is serious about enforcing intellectual property rights, he said.

Russia has been working to resolve trade concerns with Georgia, with which it fought a brief war in 2008, so the Caucasus nation will not block its entry into the WTO.

"We are very supportive of that effort," Wilson said, noting the Swiss government has played an important role in shuttle diplomacy between the two.

(Reporting by Doug Palmer; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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Soviet general Vladislav Achalov dies at 65 (AP)

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MOSCOW – Vladislav Achalov, a former Soviet general who supported two botched anti-Kremlin coups and recently organized a protest against the government's military reform, has died. He was 65.

Airborne Forces spokesman Col. Alexander Cherednik said Achalov died at a Moscow hospital on Thursday. Achalov, an one-time commander of Soviet Airborne Forces, led a union of veteran paratroopers.

Achalov supported the 1991 hardline coup that briefly ousted Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev but didn't face trial. In October 1993, he played an active role in a rebellion against President Boris Yeltsin and spent several months in custody before being released under amnesty.

Last November he helped organize a protest against the government's military reform that drew fears of military mutiny.

The rally was organized by Achalov's union of paratroopers, who are considered the most professional and proud branch of the Russian military. But members of other branches also took part, as well as monarchists, nationalists and hardline Orthodox Christians.

Under Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov's reforms, as many as 200,000 military officers have lost their jobs and nine out of every 10 army units have been disbanded. The reforms have been strongly backed by the Kremlin but have angered many officers and military veterans who see them as destroying Russia's armed forces.

Achalov stopped short of criticizing the Kremlin and rejected talk of a possible military coup when he spoke to The Associated Press before November's protest, but insisted Serdyukov must step down.

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Russia air crash death toll rises to 47 (AFP)

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在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

MOSCOW (AFP) – The death toll from the air crash in northern Russia rose to 47 Sunday, after two more people died of their injuries in hospital, the health ministry said.

The victims were a woman who suffered multiple injuries and burns, and a man with burns over 80 percent of his body, the Interfax news agency quoted the ministry as saying.

The RusAir Tupolev 134 with 43 passengers and nine crew crashed into a highway late Monday after missing the runway at Petrozavodsk in the Karelia region of northwest Russia in bad weather.

Investigations into the cause of the crash are ongoing but Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said last week it appeared to have been the result of an error by the pilot who failed to see the runway in bad weather.

The plane was flying from Moscow's Domodedovo airport.

Five survivors are still being treated in hospital.

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46 injured after gas explosion in southern Russia (AP)

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在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia – An official says a gas canister explosion at a wedding reception in southern Russia has injured 46 people.

An Emergencies Ministry official in the province of North Ossetia said 11 people are in critical condition after Saturday's blast ripped through a courtyard where guests were assembling.

Ministry spokesman Alexander Andreyev told The Associated Press that the worst cases would be flown to Moscow for treatment.

Russian news agencies said the gas was being used to fuel an outdoor grill.

There was no suspicion of foul play.

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U.S. sanctions on Iran companies raise questions: Russia (Reuters)

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在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

MOSCOW (Reuters) – The sanctions imposed by the United States on a major Iranian port operator and the country's national airline may affect Russian companies and "raise serious questions," the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

"Such actions, based on an extra-territorial use of U.S. law, potentially create a situation when Russian business structures cooperating with these companies could be affected," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

It did not specify which Russian entities could be affected.

Washington's latest actions prohibit U.S. entities from any transactions with Tidewater Middle East Co., which operates seven port facilities in Iran, and Iran Air, which serves 35 international and 25 domestic destinations with a fleet of about 40 aircraft.

The sanctions target two major segments of Iran's transport infrastructure that the U.S. Treasury said were being used to aid the country's efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction.

The statement added that the move strengthens "suspicions that the U.S. sanctions policy is pursuing goals other than enforcing the regime of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction."

"Our position is well known: the unilateral use of U.S. sanctions against Russian individuals and companies goes against the spirit of the relationship between our two countries. Such a policy is categorically unacceptable for us and needs to be reviewed."

(Writing by Gleb Bryanski; editing by Elizabeth Piper)

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Nets owner Prokhorov elected Russian party chief (AP)

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MOSCOW – Russian tycoon and New Jersey Nets basketball team owner Mikhail Prokhorov was confirmed Saturday as the new head of a Kremlin-friendly political party.

The 46-year-old billionaire was all but unanimously elected head of the Right Cause party by its members.

Right Cause is seen as a Kremlin creation designed to lure opposition-minded, pro-business voters, while building an illusion of competition with the ruling United Russia party ahead December's parliamentary elections.

Prokhorov said last month he was targeting second place in that vote.

President Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday that Russia needs more political competition, but the Justice Ministry made a mockery of that only days later when it denied registration to a real opposition party.

Addressing party members on Saturday, Prokhorov underlined that Right Cause would focus on building a viable capitalism in Russia, but — perhaps wary of alienating older voters accustomed to state support — he added socialism still had its place in Russian society.

"Our main slogan, 'Capitalism for all,' is not true. That's not possible. Capitalism is only for people who like to take risks, who like to take this responsibility upon themselves. An intelligent, professional and fair state should give others social guarantees and support," Prokhorov said.

Much like fellow tycoon Alexander Lebedev, who has invested heavily in British media, Prokhorov on the surface appears to be walking proof that Russia can cultivate modern business professionals, and he plays an ambassadorial role for his homeland as an investment haven.

But some critics say these are merely PR counterweights to cases like Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, who was jailed on charges seen as politically motivated after he funded opposition parties and threatened to sell off major assets to American companies. The Khodorkovsky case was seen as mammoth blow to the country's aspirations to become a major investment hub.

Prokhorov, with a net worth thought to be around $18 billion, made his fortune in metals and banking, and became a majority stakeholder in the New Jersey Nets in May of last year.

On Saturday, a few hundred supporters of the opposition party whose registration was rejected protested the decision in central Moscow.

The People's Freedom Party, whose leaders include former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and former deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov, had hoped to take part in the parliamentary vote. The Justice Ministry claimed some of the signatories required by law to support the application were dead or had been included without their knowledge.

No arrests were reported at the rally.

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Russia finds nuclear safety faults after Fukushima (AFP)

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MOSCOW (AFP) – Russia's nuclear power plants are dangerously under-prepared for earthquakes and other disasters, said a state review conducted after Japan's Fukushima accident and obtained Thursday by AFP.

The unusually candid survey was presented to a council chaired by President Dmitry Medvedev on June 9 and initially reported on its website by the Oslo-based Bellona environmental organisation.

Russia has until now steadfastly defended its 10 nuclear power plants and 32 reactors against criticism.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on April 30 pronounced the country's nuclear safety system "the best in the world".

But the State Council review revealed more than 30 weaknesses including reduced disaster safety standards and a lack of a clear strategy for securing spent nuclear fuel and other radioactive waste at many plants.

"The strength (stability) of engineering structures of most nuclear power plants does not meet current regulatory document requirements for stresses that occur from extreme natural impacts," the report said.

The report was released to senior government officials and a select group of Russian non-governmental organisations but not published in the state media.

It was supplied by two different sources to AFP.

Rosatom nuclear agency chief Sergei Kiriyenko mentioned recent improvement recommendations over the weekend and said the various fixes would cost around five billion rubles ($180 million).

But a spokesman for Rosatom called the readiness level of country's nuclear power plants "more than sufficient" and angrily denied suggestions that this was the report presented at the June 9 meeting.

"We do not consider this paper as official," Rosatom spokesman Sergei Novikov said by telephone. "It was not considered by the State Council."

Sources said the nuclear readiness portion of the report was prepared not by Rosatom itself but a different state agency.

Environmentalists applauded the paper for the first time acknowledging Soviet-era shortcomings that have been criticised by watchdogs and Russian neighbours such as Norway for many years.

"We knew everything" in the report, Bellona's Russian nuclear programme director Igor Kudrik told AFP.

"But this is honest information from Rosatom itself that there are problems, and we are kind of surprised that they admitted it publicly in such a dramatic manner," he said.

The study pinned specific blame on some nuclear power plants while revealing weaknesses in the country's overall approach.

It noted "an absence of a single science and technology policy for handling radioactive waste at several new nuclear power plant reactors" and a shortage of qualified safety inspectors.

The Leningrad plant near Russia's second city of Saint Petersburg and the Kursk facility near the Ukrainian border were singled out for specific blame.

It said the solid radioactive waste storage facilities at both plants were more than 85-percent full and in need of a clear strategy for operations once they reach capacity.

"At the moment, none of the nuclear power plants has a full range (of equipment) for dealing with liquid radioactive waste," the survey added.

It also pointed to a lack of back-up in case of power outages -- the main problem experienced at Fukushima -- and insufficient protection for workers should leaks occur.

Bellona's Kudrik said the findings confirmed that Russia has never before tested its plants for calamities such as earthquakes or hurricanes and other severe storms.

"The most important thing here is that none of the nuclear power plants have been tested for potential impact. And impact here can mean not only earthquakes but also natural disasters such as strong wind," said the nuclear safety expert.

Countries such as Norway have been particularly concerned by the Kola plant in the northwestern Murmansk region. A severe storm knocked out its power and produced a small leak that led to an emergency shutdown in 1992.

Kudrik said the plant at the time had experienced "a near meltdown".

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Armenia, Azerbaijan talks produce little progress (AP)

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By MANSUR MIROVALEV and LYNN BERRY, Associated Press Mansur Mirovalev And Lynn Berry, Associated Press – Fri?Jun?24, 3:15?pm?ET

MOSCOW – The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan failed on Friday to approve a set of basic principles for a peaceful settlement to their long-standing dispute over the breakaway territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, despite U.S. and Russian efforts to mediate the conflict in the strategic Caucasus region.

The war over the predominantly ethnic Armenian enclave inside Azerbaijan ended in 1994 leaving 30,000 dead and more than 1 million displaced. Since then, talks to resolve one of the most worrisome "frozen conflicts" in the former Soviet Union have dragged on with the enclave controlled by Armenian and separatist forces.

Hopes were high for Friday's Kremlin-hosted talks in the Volga River city of Kazan on approving the set of basic principles, but after three hours of talks the parties reported little progress.

Azerbaijan's Ilham Aliyev and Armenia's President Serge Sarkisian said they "reached an understanding on a number of issues" but provided no details.

Both leaders face fierce domestic pressure not to compromise, but their countries also have been eager to overcome the consequences of the war.

President Barack Obama spoke to the leaders by telephone on Thursday and urged them to endorse the basic principles and take a "decisive step toward a peaceful settlement."

Ambassador Robert Bradtke, the U.S. diplomat involved in international efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict, described the talks as "probably the most important point in the process since 2001, when there were efforts made to get a peace agreement at Key West."

Both separatist and Azeri governments report sporadic skirmishes and shootings of each other's servicemen on the border.

Azerbaijan, an energy-rich, predominantly Muslim country on the Caspian Sea, has struggled to cope with the hundreds of thousands of people driven out of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas that also fell under Armenian control.

Impoverished, landlocked and mostly Christian Armenia has been hurt economically by Turkey's closing of the border in 1993 in support of Azerbaijan. Turkey shares close ethnic and linguistic ties with Azeris. An agreement between Turkey and Armenia in 2009 intended to open the way to diplomatic ties and the reopening of the border foundered over Turkey's demand that Armenian troops withdraw from Nagorno-Karabakh.

In the Communist era, Nagorno-Karabakh was an autonomous region within Soviet Azerbaijan. Nagorno-Karabakh is a Russian-Turkish term that means "mountainous black garden." Ethnic Armenians that now account for virtually the entire population, call the region Artsakh.

Before becoming part of czarist Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan had long been dominated by Iran and Ottoman Turkey.

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In Russia, a blogger takes on powerful Putin (The Christian Science Monitor)

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在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

Moscow – A Russian blogger created a huge stir in Moscow by accusing Prime Minister Vladimir Putin of abusing his office this week, demonstrating the growing influence of the blogosphere in this "managed democracy."

Alexei Navalny charges that in building a new "popular front" to support his bid for national leadership, Mr. Putin is ignoring most of the tough regulations for creating a nongovernmental organization that he authored during his years in the Kremlin.

In the past, a single citizen complaining about the (possibly illegal) hypocrisies of the powerful would be unlikely to get very far. But Mr. Navalny is helping change that dynamic.

A tireless anticorruption campaigner, Navalny rocketed into public view last year by posting online documents that seemed to implicate the state-owned Transneft pipeline company in fraud amounting to billions of dollars.

"Navalny's blog has become very popular, and a lot of people are watching closely," says Alexei Lukatsky, a Moscow-based Internet consultant. "So far, the authorities try not to notice him."

But, perhaps due to the growing clout of Russia's blogosphere, Navalny's trenchant open letter to Russian chief prosecutor Yury Chaika, posted on his popular LiveJournal blog, has reappeared in the large daily newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets, been widely discussed on the independent Ekho Moskvi radio station, and drawn a worried response from Mr. Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.

RELATED: Putin's marquee moments

Putin announced the creation of the People's Front a month ago with the aim of "strengthening the country" and solving unspecified national problems, which many analysts interpreted as creating a vehicle for his ambitions for a presidential return.

Since then, millions of people and about 500 public organizations and private companies have joined up, and the Front has reportedly leased premises on Moscow's central Novy Arbat street.

Putin's Popular Front"Companies across Russia have been responding with enthusiasm to Putin’s proposal that their teams join the People’s Front. They are sending greetings and actually joining that association," Navalny wrote. "But at the current time the United People’s Front has not acquired the [legal] status of a public association... . It is unclear how the People’s Front, not being a legal entity or a public association, that is, without being subject to civil law, could conclude a lease agreement for non-residential premises and office staff."

Moreover, Navalny continued, Putin and Mr. Peskov have held meetings on behalf of the Front using government offices and state personnel – including themselves – and other taxpayer-funded resources, which Russian law forbids.

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Navalny urged Mr. Chaika to investigate the allegations, which, if proven, would be "grounds to liquidate it or ban its activities" under strict Putin-era legislation designed to keep politically active NGOs under tight state supervision and control.

Many analysts say Navalny is doing the equivalent of shouting "the emperor has no clothes," though few expect much to come of it.

"Navalny is right, but it's not likely that his letter will have much impact," says Alexei Makarkin, director of the independent Center for Political Technologies in Moscow.

"In Russia there is little respect for the law, or proper procedures. Many people still place their hopes for the better future on Putin, so if he wants to create his movement they will agree that it's necessary," he says. "But, let's be clear, people are only indifferent in these general areas that don't touch upon their direct material interests. If Putin wanted to slash pensions by even a few rubles, he'd never hear the end of that."

50 million Russians onlineThe Russian-language Internet, known as Ru.net, has exploded to almost 50 million users in recent years, with 1 in 4 Russian families now having broadband coverage.

According to Russia's leading Internet company, Yandex, there are 3.5 million blogs now inhabiting Ru.net, the only Russian media space that features freewheeling discussion and no official interference, despite a recent suspicious hacker attack on a popular website.

Experts differ over the political implications of having an expanding island of robust free speech within a society where it is still considered futile, if not dangerous, to openly challenge authority.

"The influence of the bloggers' community is growing noticeably," says Rustem Agadamov, author of the popular blog Drugoi. "Even the traditional mass media recognize this, because they quote more and more from blogs and use them as sources of information."

Blogs also get increasingly noticed by officials, especially President Dmitry Medvedev, who has started his own LiveJournal blog in an apparent effort to tap directly into the vox populi.

"The president himself seems to read peoples' comments to his blog or Twitter feed, and sometimes he reacts publicly to discussions going on on other popular sites," says Mr. Lukatsky. "It's hard to say whether it's becoming a real instrument through which society can influence the state, but its growing influence simply can't be ignored."

Social media's riseThe role of electronic media in this year's Arab Spring, as well as spiraling unrest in next-door Belarus has got the Kremlin's attention, says Andrei Soldatov, editor of Agentura.ru, an online journal that reports on the security services.

"In the Kremlin, they have the idea that bloggers are associated with Western interests," he says. "When people like [US Secretary of State Hillary] Clinton talk about the liberating role of social media, they take that very seriously, as a threat. They are actively working on ways to deal with it."

Peskov responded to the open letter of Navalny, who holds a law degree, by telling the Ekho Moskvi radio station that he sees no reason to open a dialogue about the Front, a subject which he said "is extremely clear to qualified lawyers." He added that if the prosecutor wants to ask Putin any questions, answers will be provided.

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But while blogs are beginning to give voice to many activists who would have been voiceless not too long ago, some analysts say the Internet's influence is limited to a small slice of educated, middle class, and mostly big-city Russians.

"Russia is much bigger than the blogosphere," says Sergei Strokan, a columnist with the Moscow business daily Kommersant. "If we're talking about influencing elections, or other real political processes, then the Internet's impact is probably quite minimal. Most Russians are not concerned with abstract violations of freedom, and so blogs like Navalny's are really interesting only for a tiny minority."

Mr. Strokan says that, no matter what you may read in blogs, Russian political reality is still mostly controlled by officials who mostly don't use the Internet.

"Russia is a country that's ruled not on the basis of law, but by the instruments of law," he says. "It's quite clear that if a political decision is taken to see no violations of law in the case of Putin's popular front, then none will be perceived."

RELATED: Putin's marquee moments

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Khodorkovsky supporters detained at Moscow rally (AP)

在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。
在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

MOSCOW – Police detained about 10 activists at a Moscow demonstration in support of jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky on Sunday, his 48th birthday and eighth behind bars.

Around 50 activists wearing red T-shirts with Khodorkovsky's portrait on them marched down the Old Arbat pedestrian street handing out shirts and balloons.

Suddenly from the rooftop of a building along their route, a large plastic banner wishing Khodorkovsky a happy birthday and freedom unfurled, spilling leaflets onto the street. Firecrackers went off on the roof.

Police detained about 10 of the activists, who were then driven away in police vehicles.

Demonstrations also were planned Sunday in St. Petersburg and London.

Khodorkovsky has been in prison since his arrest in 2003 on charges seen as punishment for challenging the power of Vladimir Putin, who was president at the time and is now prime minister. A second conviction late last year will keep Khodorkovsky incarcerated until 2016 unless he is granted parole.

Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, has won admiration from some of his countrymen for his refusal to bend. For his supporters, he has become a symbol of the corruption and other excesses under Putin.

Many Russians, though, have little sympathy for Khodorkovsky, who was one of a small circle of politically connected businessmen who grew fabulously wealthy after taking over state companies in the 1990s.

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EU: Russia, Ukraine join stress tests (AP)

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在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

BRUSSELS – The European Union said Thursday that Russia and Ukraine are among seven nations to join their nuclear stress test program to examine whether atomic power plants can withstand accidents and disasters.

The 27 EU nations agreed on such a program last month and had called on other countries to join the plan. Thursday's announcement was a first big breakthrough to expand the program.

Under the tests, "experts from other countries will evaluate the assessment carried out by their national experts," the EU said in a statement.

Armenia, Croatia, Switzerland, Turkey and Belarus were the other nations joining the program.

"This is a huge joint step forward, for us, and for the neighbors on the European continent," EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said.

Russia also applauded the move and wanted more countries to join.

"We urge them to conduct the tests and ... exchange results," Sergey Kirienko, the head of Russia's nuclear agency Rosatom said in a statement.

The EU test should last through much of the rest of the year and the final results will be announced publicly by April.

The idea of performing "stress tests" on nuclear plants arose because of the accidents at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan following the earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

European nuclear plants are being regularly checked as it is, but under the system, the checks will be toughened up and coordinated across the EU and face peer review by multinational teams of experts, who could decide at short notice on checks on location.

The EU itself has 143 nuclear reactors. Russia has 32, and another 11 under construction. Ukraine, site of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, has 15 with two under construction.

___

Mansur Mirovalev contribute to this report from Moscow.

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Medvedev backs St. Petersburg governor for speaker (AP)

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MOSCOW – Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev says he supports the St. Petersburg regional governor for the job of upper house speaker.

Medvedev said Friday that the election of Valentina Matviyenko to the post — the first woman to take what is considered the No. 3 position in Russian officialdom — will help make the country more modern. A vote has yet to be set to name Matviyenko, but it's seen as a formality in the Kremlin-controlled parliament.

Matviyenko, 62-years old, has served as St. Petersburg governor since 2003. She worked as a local Communist party official in the city during Soviet times when it was called Leningrad, and also held several diplomatic and Cabinet jobs after the Soviet collapse.

She would succeed Sergei Mironov, who lost the speaker's job last month after conflict with the main pro-Kremlin party.

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4 Russian sailors die after drinking Borneo brew (AP)

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JAKARTA, Indonesia – Four crew members of a Russian ship anchored off Borneo island died and three others are seriously ill after drinking homemade Indonesian alcohol, police said Friday.

Central Kalimantan police spokesman Edi Ciptianto said authorities were searching for a local man they believe sold liquor mixed with a homemade brew.

Three men were found dead on the ship, the Captain Kurbatskiy, on Thursday, Ciptianto said.

Four other crew members suffered from breathing problems, dizziness and vomiting after drinking the liquor and were rushed to a hospital, he said. One, a woman, died shortly after arriving at the hospital.

Ciptianto said experts were carrying out tests on the alcohol.

"We are still investigating the cause of their death and plan autopsies," he said

The Captain Kurbatskiy, with 24 crew, is in Indonesian waters to take on a cargo of iron ore from a port near the Borneo city of Banjarmasin.

Late last year, three Russian engineers who were in Indonesia to assemble fighter jets bought from Russia died at an air force base after suddenly falling ill. Autopsies found they had consumed rubbing alcohol, which is usually used as a disinfectant, local media reported.

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Russian opposition party barred from vote (AP)

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MOSCOW – Russia on Wednesday denied registration to a new political party created by three prominent opposition leaders, effectively barring them from participating in upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections.

The Justice Ministry's decision on whether to register the People's Freedom Party was seen as a test of President Dmitry Medvedev's pledges to increase political competition in Russia. Opposition parties were squeezed out of politics under his predecessor, Vladimir Putin, who remains powerful as prime minister.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton criticized the decision, saying it is "hard to understand" how it is "consistent with Russia's international commitments and recent statements from Russia's own leaders."

Mikhail Kasyanov, who served as Putin's prime minister from 2000 to 2004 and is now one of the opposition party's leaders, bluntly described Medvedev's pledges as empty words.

"Nothing that has been said or promised by Medvedev during these past three years has materialized," Kasyanov said in an interview this week with The Associated Press. "It has only gotten worse: that is more pressure on political opponents, even more falsification in regional elections."

The Justice Ministry gave a number of reasons for denying the party registration, including that its charter does not provide for a rotation of its leadership as is required by a new law.

The ministry's one-page written decision also said it had found violations in the required 45,000 signatures the party had submitted with its application: Some of those who signed as members of the party were dead, under age or not legal residents of the regions where they signed.

Also, some people listed as party members had provided written denials of their membership, the ministry said.

Kasyanov insisted the party, known as Parnas, had met all the legal requirements for registration. He said some people who joined had been summoned by police or security officers, who asked why they had joined the opposition party and whether they understood they could lose their job or their children would lose the opportunity to study at university.

Clinton's statement said the U.S. is "troubled by reports of pressure from authorities in the regions designed to intimidate Parnas supporters, prompting them to resign positions or disavow their signatures on required lists.

"The right to hold free, fair, competitive elections is a universal principle that the Russian government has repeatedly endorsed," her statement said.

Medvedev most recently spoke about the importance of political competition in an interview with the Financial Times published this week. Without political competition, he said, "the fundamentals of a market economy start to fall apart."

But he said he would not face off against Putin in the March 2012 presidential vote.

When asked why not, Medvedev answered:

"Well, I've just told you, the goal of participating in the elections is not to facilitate the development of free competition, the goal is to win."

Medvedev and Putin say they will decide between them which one of them will run, but the decision is understood to be Putin's. Neither is likely to face any serious challengers.

Only parties that are represented in parliament have the right to put forward a presidential candidate without going through the cumbersome process of gathering at least 2 million signatures spread equally among at least 40 of Russia's 83 provinces. These signatures rarely pass the Justice Ministry's scrutiny.

The parliament was brought under Kremlin control after changes during Putin's presidency that denied seats to liberal critics, including the other two leaders of the People's Freedom Party.

One is Boris Nemtsov, a deputy prime minister under Boris Yeltsin, whose Union of Right Forces party lost all its seats in parliament when it failed to receive 5 percent of the vote in 2003.

The other, Vladimir Ryzhkov, held onto his seat in parliament as an independent until the 2007 election, when the rules were changed to restrict voting to party lists. The party threshold was also raised at the time to 7 percent, where it remains despite statements from Medvedev in 2009 that it should eventually be lowered to 5 or even 3 percent.

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Nets' billionaire owner takes on Russian politics (Reuters)

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MOSCOW (Reuters) – The billionaire owner of basketball's New Jersey Nets took charge of a pro-business political party in his native Russia on Saturday, a move that could help reformists marginalized under Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Mikhail Prokhorov, who earned his fortune in Russia's metals industry before buying his way into the U.S. NBA basketball league, said he planned to make the Right Cause party into the main alternative to Putin's long-dominant United Russia.

Right Cause was formed just two years ago and has no seats in parliament after reformist groups were eliminated from the political mainstream under Putin, president from 2000-2008.

Prokhorov said in an acceptance speech after being elected Right Cause's leader that he hoped to make it the second-largest party in parliament. Putin's United Russia has 315 seats in the 450-seat State Duma. The Communists are second with just 57.

Right Cause does not describe itself as an opposition party and backs Putin's hand-picked Kremlin successor, President Dmitry Medvedev, for another term.

Most experts believe Putin, who stepped aside after serving two consecutive terms, plans to return to the Kremlin himself in an election next year. Many reformists would prefer Medvedev to stay on, believing he is more sympathetic to their cause.

BUSINESSMEN OUT OF POLITICS UNDER PUTIN

Prokhorov earned a fortune selling a stake in mining firm Norilsk Nickel before the 2008 financial crisis. He has big stakes in the world's largest aluminum producer RUSAL and Russia's top gold miner, Polyus Gold.

His new role is the highest-profile move into politics by one of Russia's powerful billionaires in nearly a decade.

Tycoons frequently held top political jobs under Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s but have steered clear of politics under Putin, especially since oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky was imprisoned and stripped of his fortune in 2003.

"Our country is called the Russian Federation, but by structure it is an empire. Only presidential power works here, and this kind of governance cannot provide stability let alone development," Prokhorov said in his acceptance speech.

"We need to take back parliament. In the near future become the second largest party, and then later, the first," he said.

The 6-foot-8 (2-meter) Prokhorov told reporters Russia should roll back some of the centralising changes to its political system made under Putin, who abolished independent seats in parliament and elections for regional and big city bosses. Khodorkovsky should be freed on parole, he said.

Analysts said there was a place for a reformist party to return to Russia's political stage, but were doubtful Right Cause could muster enough popularity to place second in a December parliamentary vote.

"In Russia there is demand for a liberal party that would offer more civil liberties, stand against absolute power of the government and corruption, and expend opportunities for business," said political analyst Aleksey Makarkin.

"The question is how to successfully create a party like that. Prokhorov was not involved in politics before. Will he manage to make changes inside the party?" he said.

(Writing by Jessica Bachman; Editing by Peter Graff)

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EU: Russia, Ukraine join stress tests (AP)

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BRUSSELS – The European Union said Thursday that Russia and Ukraine are among seven nations to join their nuclear stress test program to examine whether atomic power plants can withstand accidents and disasters.

The 27 EU nations agreed on such a program last month and had called on other countries to join the plan. Thursday's announcement was a first big breakthrough to expand the program.

Under the tests, "experts from other countries will evaluate the assessment carried out by their national experts," the EU said in a statement.

Armenia, Croatia, Switzerland, Turkey and Belarus were the other nations joining the program.

"This is a huge joint step forward, for us, and for the neighbors on the European continent," EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said.

Russia also applauded the move and wanted more countries to join.

"We urge them to conduct the tests and ... exchange results," Sergey Kirienko, the head of Russia's nuclear agency Rosatom said in a statement.

The EU test should last through much of the rest of the year and the final results will be announced publicly by April.

The idea of performing "stress tests" on nuclear plants arose because of the accidents at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan following the earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

European nuclear plants are being regularly checked as it is, but under the system, the checks will be toughened up and coordinated across the EU and face peer review by multinational teams of experts, who could decide at short notice on checks on location.

The EU itself has 143 nuclear reactors. Russia has 32, and another 11 under construction. Ukraine, site of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, has 15 with two under construction.

___

Mansur Mirovalev contribute to this report from Moscow.

View the original article here

Death toll rises to 47 from Russian plane crash (AP)

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MOSCOW – Two people who survived a fiery Russian plane crash have died in a Moscow hospital, bringing the death toll to 47.

The Tu-134 plane slammed into a highway just minutes before landing at the Petrozavodsk airport in Russia's northwest on June 20. Eight people initially survived the crash, dragged from the burning aircraft by people on the ground, but a 9-year-old boy died a day later.

Dmitry Beloyartsev, a surgeon at the Vishnevsky hospital, said a woman died late Saturday and a man on Sunday. Both had been severely burned in the crash and brought to Moscow for treatment.

The crash of the 31-year-old plane has been blamed on pilot error, but Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev also has announced plans to take the aging Soviet-built planes out of service starting next year.

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Soviet general Vladislav Achalov dies at 65 (AP)

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MOSCOW – Vladislav Achalov, a former Soviet general who supported two botched anti-Kremlin coups and recently organized a protest against the government's military reform, has died. He was 65.

Airborne Forces spokesman Col. Alexander Cherednik said Achalov died at a Moscow hospital on Thursday. Achalov, an one-time commander of Soviet Airborne Forces, led a union of veteran paratroopers.

Achalov supported the 1991 hardline coup that briefly ousted Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev but didn't face trial. In October 1993, he played an active role in a rebellion against President Boris Yeltsin and spent several months in custody before being released under amnesty.

Last November he helped organize a protest against the government's military reform that drew fears of military mutiny.

The rally was organized by Achalov's union of paratroopers, who are considered the most professional and proud branch of the Russian military. But members of other branches also took part, as well as monarchists, nationalists and hardline Orthodox Christians.

Under Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov's reforms, as many as 200,000 military officers have lost their jobs and nine out of every 10 army units have been disbanded. The reforms have been strongly backed by the Kremlin but have angered many officers and military veterans who see them as destroying Russia's armed forces.

Achalov stopped short of criticizing the Kremlin and rejected talk of a possible military coup when he spoke to The Associated Press before November's protest, but insisted Serdyukov must step down.

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Armenia, Azerbaijan summit falls short of breakthrough (AFP)

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MOSCOW (AFP) – Armenia and Azerbaijan reported progress Friday at a summit hosted by Russia but fell short of a breakthrough in a territorial row that world powers fear could erupt into armed conflict.

"The heads of state noted the reaching of mutual understanding on a number of questions, whose resolution helps create conditions to approve the basic principles," the leaders said in a statement published by the Kremlin.

The two sides have faced international pressure to sign up to a "basic principles" agreement on the Nagorny Karabakh conflict zone, but apparently did not manage to agree terms at the summit in the Russian Volga city of Kazan.

The leaders were shown sitting around a table and smiling for cameras on Russian television, which did not broadcast their remarks.

The meeting supervised by Russia President Dmitry Medvedev had sparked optimism that Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev might achieve the first major progress in many years of fruitless talks.

The two sides still exchange deadly fire around the Nagorny Karabakh conflict zone, 17 years after fighting a war over the now Armenian separatist-controlled region in western Azerbaijan.

The Russian foreign ministry had said in a statement that the meeting, held behind closed doors, was "expected to play a decisive role in the Nagorny Karabakh peace process."

Moscow added that the document Medvedev hoped to get the two enemies to sign at the meeting was designed to pave the way for "a comprehensive peace agreement" to be sealed at a later date.

In the statement released after the summit, the leaders expressed "gratitude" to the leaders of Russia, the United States and France for their "constant attention to the problem of regulating Nagorny Karabakh."

They also said they "highly rated the personal efforts of the Russian president to help reach agreements."

But they failed to meet international pressure, expressed in recent days, that they would sign up to a "basic principles" agreement.

US President Barack Obama on Thursday had called the two presidents and urged them to sign the document, the White House said, while French leader Nicolas Sarkozy sent a letter calling for the agreement to be finalised.

"There are moments in history when the leadership of a country should demonstrate to its people courage, wisdom and the road toward peace," Sarkozy said in the letter released by the Armenian presidency.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe -- which has led the international peace initiative since the Karabakh war -- had also expressed hopes for a breakthrough.

"Very rarely have we observed moments when our hopes for a final peace settlement have been as high as they are now," said OSCE Secretary General Marc Perrin de Brichambaut.

Armenia's Sarkisian told a meeting of the Council of Europe on Wednesday that he was "full of optimism" but fearful of new demands from Azerbaijan.

In a sign of continuing differences, Azerbaijan's Aliyev responded in an interview Thursday that Armenia needed to show "the political will to make important steps forward".

The interim basic principles agreement would see an Armenian withdrawal from areas around Karabakh that were also seized during the post-Soviet war.

It also envisages international security guarantees and a vote on the final status of the territory at some point in the future.

The conflict in the 1990s killed some 30,000 people and forced around a million from their homes.

Western negotiators are concerned that a new flare-up could be even bloodier and potentially threaten pipelines that take Caspian Sea oil and gas from Azerbaijan to Europe.

Russia meanwhile remains sensitive to any rise in hostilities on its vulnerable and already restive southern border.

Huge obstacles remain to a final peace deal because Armenia says Karabakh will never return to Baku's control while Azerbaijan insists that the region must remain part of its sovereign territory.

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Russian billionaire challenges Putin party (AFP)

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MOSCOW (AFP) – Billionaire oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov Saturday won the leadership of a Russian pro-reform party, setting the goal of challenging the dominance of Vladimir Putin's ruling faction United Russia.

Delegates elected Prokhorov unopposed as the new leader of the Pravoe Delo (Just Cause) party at an extraordinary congress in Moscow marked by bold ambitions the businessman would turn it into a major political force.

Just two delegates voted against Prokhorov's candidacy, with 107 in favour, according to the results of the secret ballot announced by party officials in a session broadcast live on state television.

In a speech to the congress, Prokhorov set the goal of taking the party into parliament in December polls and eventually knocking United Russia off its supreme perch.

"We must act like a responsible party of power," Prokhorov told the party congress. "We need to get into parliament. In the foreseeable future, as the number two party. Then as number one."

He took clear aim at United Russia, which dominates the State Duma lower house and is largely untroubled by three weak opposition parties.

"Do we have multi-party politics (in Russia)? Of course we don't. There need to be at least two parties of power," said Prokhorov.

"Any political monopoly is our main opponent. It's even clear in school text books that a monopoly is the enemy of all development."

His election is the first time a top businessman has entered politics since the arrest in 2003 of oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who supporters say was punished for daring to finance opposition to strongman Putin.

The party did its best to create a snazzy atmosphere at the congress, plunging the hall into darkness as every vote was taken and a clock loudly ticking as delegates placed their votes.

A vote also had to be taken on fast-tracking Prokhorov into the party as he was not already a member. Until now, the party has been led by a muddy multi-person leadership and failed to make an impact on Russian society.

Promoting an agenda of radical economic reform, Prokhorov said: "Everyone is tired of slogans. And we all must answer one simple Russian question: What is to be done?"

He said that the Russian state was currently "very weak" where "practically everything is in degradation -- schools, housing, medicine, culture."

But analysts point out that President Dmitry Medvedev seems more than happy with Prokhorov's involvement in politics and their policies do not yet seem radically different.

Medvedev's chief economic advisor, Arkady Dvorkovich, wrote on Twitter that "most of Prokhorov's ideas in his speech are close to me" and the party should be able to produce a "decent programme".

Top United Russia official Yuri Shuvalov acknowledged that Prokhorov's entry into politics could not be ignored but sniped that "so far this party looks like nothing more than a business association."

Significantly, the congress was carried live on Russia's state news channel, coverage unthinkable for more explicitly anti-Kremlin politicians such as ex-minister Boris Nemtsov or former chess champion Garry Kasparov.

Prokhorov indicated he had little time for such figures and said he did not even want his new party to be known as an opposition force.

"I suggest that we exclude the word opposition from our lexicon.

"For our citizens, the word opposition is long associated not with political parties but marginal groups who have long ago lost touch with reality."

Prokhorov, 46, was in 2011 rated as Russia's third richest man by Forbes Magazine, with an estimated fortune of $18 billion (12.7 billion euros). He heads the Onexim group, an investment firm with big interests in mining, new technologies, media and banking.

Over two metres (six-and-a-half feet) tall, Prokhorov has a dizzying array of interests, ranging from ownership of the US New Jersey Nets basketball team to masterminding production of Russia's first hybrid car, the Yo-mobile.

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Armenia, Azerbaijan 'took step towards Karabakh agreement' (AFP)

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在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

MOSCOW (AFP) – Armenia and Azerbaijan said they made progress Friday at a summit hosted by Russia on the Nagorny Karabakh conflict zone, but fell short of saying they had managed to agree a basic principles agreement.

"The heads of state noted the reaching of mutual understanding on a number of questions, whose resolution helps create conditions to approve the basic principles," the leaders said in a statement quoted by Russian news agencies.

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