Cheonan probe important, responsible should be punished-Medvedev.

ST. PETERSBURG, June 18 (Itar-Tass) - Russian President Dmitry
Medvedev believes it is important to conduct the investigation of the
incident involving sinking of the Cheonan corvette of South Korea and
punish those responsible.
"It is necessary to conduct a maximally thorough investigation; and as
soon as its results are obvious, as soon as they are made public, we can
speak about punishing those responsible in this case, bringing them to
responsibility, depending, certainly, on who is named among those
responsible, I mean the state or some other forces," Medvedev told The
Wall Street Journal in an interview.
-0-


.Medvedev admits his relations with Putin greatly changed.

ST. PETERSBURG, June 18 (Itar-Tass) - Relations between Russian
President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have changed
greatly from the formal viewpoint, but have not changed from the personal
viewpoint, the RF president said in an interview to The Wall Street
Journal.
"From the formal point of view, they have certainly changed, because I
work as the president and he has become prime minister, and that says it
all," Medvedev noted. "The president is president, under the Constitution
he is the head of state and supreme commander-in-chief; the prime minister
is engaged in the economy sphere," he explained.
"If we speak about the personal factor, then they have probably not
changed in any way," Medvedev said. "We have good and friendly relations,
we communicate with him, meet regularly, discuss various issues, and there
are plenty of them," the RF president pointed out.
"That is, from the formal point of view, they have changed very
greatly, from the personal point of view, I hope they have almost not
changed in any way," Medvedev stated.
-0-


.Russia to send 2 planes with humanitarian aid for Kyrgyz refugees.

MOSCOW, June 18 (Itar-Tass) - The Russian Emergencies Ministry
(EMERCOM) will send humanitarian aid to Uzbekistan for refugees from
Kyrgyzstan.
"Two EMERCOM planes with humanitarian cargoes are planned to take off
from the Ramenskoye airfield outside Moscow on Friday afternoon to
Uzbekistan," the ministry's information department told Itar-Tass.
Another plane will fly to Uzbekistan on Saturday, June 19. The three
special flights will deliver to the republic a total of 120 tonnes of
cargoes - canned meat and fish, baby food, sugar, tents, blankets and sets
of disposable tableware.
On Thursday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev instructed the EMERCOM
and Foreign Ministry to help Uzbekistan receive refugees from Kyrgyzstan.
RF president's press secretary Natalya Timakova said that "Medvedev has
given instructions to the EMERCOM and Foreign Ministry to provide
humanitarian assistance to Uzbekistan regarding the reception and help to
refugees who fled there in connection with the events in Kyrgyzstan."
The number of forced resettlers as a result of the conflict in the
south of Kyrgyzstan has reached 400,000, the Office of the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in Geneva on Friday.
Violence in southern Kyrgyzstan has forced an estimated 300,000 people
to flee their homes and seek shelter elsewhere in the country. This is in
addition to some 100,000 people who have fled to neighbouring Uzbekistan
since June 10, according to the UNHCR press release.
-0-


.RF ready to help US cope with Gulf of Mexico spill-Medvedev.

ST. PETERSBURG, June 18 (Itar-Tass) - Russia is ready to discuss the
issue of the provision of assistance to the United States in the
liquidation of the aftermath of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, RF
President Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview to The Wall Street Journal.
"So far, as regards our assistance, we have no received a
corresponding request," he said. "Bu we are ready to discuss this problem
from beginning to end," Medvedev confirmed.
"I certainly very much hope that the US administration together with
the special services that are created for this, together with the efforts
of companies responsible for this, will after all settle this problem,"
the RF president said. "But it is extremely necessary for us to think
about the future," he noted urging to think about the development of the
global legal base for such mega-catastrophes.
"Such a problem is capable of unhinging anything, including the
authority of the power, it is absolutely obvious," Medvedev believes.
He said that at the G20 summit in Canada in July he intends to raise
the issue that despite the fact that the legal base for coping with not
large problems exists, "we nevertheless have no global international legal
base for the liquidation of such mega-catastrophes as happened in the Gulf
of Mexico." According to him, the problem who will compensate for the
losses emerges. "Consequently, the insurance issue arises," he said. "But
insurance of such kind of risks has never practically been made," Medvedev
added. "The volume of potential compensation is worth dozens, hundreds of
billions of dollars, which means that we need new international approaches
to this problem," he believes.
"And here I see also the role of Russia, because we also have major
(oil) production, we also have our facilities similar to that in the Gulf
of Mexico," the RF president said. "We, of course, are watching them, and
I hope that everything will be well there, but this is a wake-up call," he
noted.
-0-ezh


Delete & Prev | Delete & Next