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125066
Mon, 05/31/2010 - 09:48
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.Putin supports idea of exempting charity funds from taxation.
ST.PETERSBURG, May 30 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir
Putin on Saturday voiced support to the idea of exempting charity
foundations from taxes.
During a meeting with the prime minister, renown Russian actress and
head of the Podari Zhizn charity foundation (helping children suffering
from cancer) Chulpan Khamatova spoke about problems her foundation was
facing. Thus, according to Khamatova, the current law exempts from
taxation only non-recurrent annual aid. Secondary aid is taxable, she
said, adding that such aid is more expensive than primary donations, since
it is rendered based on the results of examinations already financed by
the foundation. Moreover, she said, the tax is imposed not on the
foundation but on the parents of the sick children as beneficiaries. In
her words, there were cases when the foundation financed funerals of
children who died of cancer while their parents received tax payment
notices a year after.
Putin voiced support to the idea. "All donations for the entire
treatment session must be exempt from taxation," he said.
.Direct railway traffic between Kaliningrad and Berlin resumes Sunday.
KALININGRAD, May 30 (Itar-Tass) -- Direct passenger railway traffic
resumes between Russia's easternmost city of Kaliningrad and Germany's
Berlin on Sunday, a spokesman for the Kaliningrad railway, a branch of the
Russian Railways Co, told Itar-Tass.
The decision to resume railway traffic from Kaliningrad to Berlin via
Poland's Gdynia for the summer period was reached in negotiations between
the Russian Railways and the Polish and German railways, the spokesman
said.
The Kaliningrad-Gdynia train with a 30-seat sleeping coach to Berlin
will ply daily from May 30 till October 3, inclusive.
Direct traffic from Kaliningrad to Berlin was suspended on December
11, 2009 after Poland's Intercity Co cancelled the Stanislaw Moniuszko
train for economic reasons. The Russian Railways' management has
repeatedly contacted their Polish colleagues to resume the train and the
direct Kaliningrad-Berlin coach.
.Medvedev expected to attend presidential regatta finals in St
Petersburg.
ST. PETERSBURG, May 30 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian President Dmitry
Medvedev is expected to attend the first presidential regatta finals in
St. Petersburg on Sunday to award state decorations to Russian rowing
veterans.
Within the framework of the Day of the City, the Russian president
will visit the Strela (Arrow) rowing club and the English rowing club
dating back from the mid-19th century.
The presidential regatta, the first Russian President's Cup in rowing,
started here on Saturday. About 900 rowers from Russia, Poland, Germany,
Ukraine, Belarus, and teams from the Cambridge (UK) and Yale (USA)
universities are taking part in the competitions.
Participants in the regatta were welcomed by St. Petersburg governor
Valentina Matviyenko, who said that rowing had always been especially
popular in the city. In her words, the city's founder, Peter the Great,
was an excellent rower, and Russia's first rowing club was set up in St.
Petersburg back in 1860. The city also hosted the country's first boat
racing competitions 150 years ago. "The president's initiative to hold
such competitions for the President's Cup is a perfect opportunity to
restore historical justice and re-install St. Petersburg as Russia's
rowing capital city," Matviyenko said.
Boat racing in downtown St. Petersburg might become a traditional
annual event, Russian Justice Minister Alexander Konovalov, who heads the
regatta's organizational committee, told a news conference on Saturday.
Despite the fact that the presidential regatta will be held somewhere
else next year (the venue will be fixt later), boat racing along the
Fontanka river in St. Petersburg should be continued, Konovalov proposed.
"We have already contacted five-time Olympic Games winner Steven Redgrave
to consider holding joint boat races, to make them traditional," he said.
.Turkmenistan marks Carpet Day on Sunday.
ASGABAT, May 30 (Itar-Tass) -- Turkmenistan marks the traditional
Carpet Day on Sunday.
Also on Sunday, connoisseurs of Turkmen hand-made carpets from 12
world nations will meet for their 10th conference. The conference will
also be attended by carpet manufacturers and sellers.
"Carpet is the Turkmen soul," Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly
Bedymukhamedov said in his greeting address to the participants in the
conference. "Carpet ornamental design is present in Turkmenistan's flag
and emblem, and it proves that the Turkmen people is reverent to the art
of carpet-making."
An international specialized carpet exhibition opened in the Turkmen
capital of Ashgabat on Saturday.
Carpets are among Turkmenistan's traditional exports. They are made at
enterprises of the state-run Turkmenkhaly (Turkmen Carpet) association.
In 2001, one of Turkmen five giant carpets, the Golden Age carpet of
301 square meters in area (14 meters high and 21.5 meters wide) weighing
1,200 kilograms, was entered in the Guinness Book of World Records.
-0-ras
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