Black Sea fleet gets new commander from Northern navy.

MOSCOW, July 9 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian Navy Commander-in-Chief Admiral
Vladimir Vysotsky on Thursday introduced new Black Sea fleet commander
Vice Admiral Vladimir Korolev to the officers of the fleet deployed in
Crimea at the Sevastopol naval base leased from Ukraine.
Vyacheslav Trukhachev, spokesman of the Black Sea fleet commander,
said Vysotsky described Korolev as an experienced commander and wished him
success.
Korolev was born on February 1, 1955, graduated from the Frunze
Supreme Navy School, and began his navy service on Northern fleet nuclear
submarines. In 1995 he graduated from the Kuznetsov Navy Academy and
served as deputy commander of a unit of nuclear submarines and head of the
anti-submarine department of Northern fleet headquarters. He was in
command of a division and a submarine squadron. In November 2007 he was
appointed deputy commander of the Northern fleet. From August 2009 he was
chief-of-staff and first deputy commander of the Northern fleet.

.Russia to go on with Borei, Bulava tests in summer.

VORONEZH, July 9 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia will resume test trials of
Borei fourth-generation nuclear submarine with Bulava missiles this
summer, First Deputy Chief-of-Staff of Russian Navy Headquarters Vice
Admiral Oleg Burtsev said on Thursday at a meeting of the Marine Board.
The tests were suspended after several launch failures of Bulava
intercontinental ballistic missile designed for Borei.
Burtsev said the defense ministry does not believe it appropriate to
re-design Borei for other missiles.

.Kiev renames Mazepa Street.

KIEV, July 9 (Itar-Tass) -- Kiev City Council ruled on Thursday to
rename Mazepa Street thus reversing the decision of former pro-western
President Viktor Yushchenko to glorify Hetman Ivan Mazepa who betrayed
the Russian Empire in the early 19th century.
The street was renamed into Lavrskaya at the request of the prior of
Kiev-Pechora Lavra. Sixty-four City Council members backed the decision
while 61 votes were necessary.
In the meantime, 150 Ukrainian nationalists staged a protest at the
City Council saying Mazepa "not only fought for Ukrainian independence,
but also contributed to the development of Ukrainian culture and
education."
In 1708 Mazepa betrayed the Russian tsar and sided with Swedish and
Polish armies advancing towards Ukraine. The Russian Orthodox Church
anathemaised and excommunicated the traitor.
However Yushchenko insisted the hetman wanted to create an independent
Ukraine and ordered to erect in 2010 a monument to Mazepa in Glory Square
in Kiev.

.Gazprom says no plans to buy Latvian gas company.
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RIGA, July 9 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian Gazprom gas giant said it has no
plans to raise its stake in the Latvian gas monopoly and made it clear it
is the position of the Russian government.
"There is no such task," Gazprom deputy CEO Valery Golubev told the
Latvian LD video Internet portal on Thursday.
Gazprom already holds a 34-percent stake in Latvijas Gaze, which is
the only natural gas transmission, storage, distribution, and sales
operator in the Baltic republic. German E.ON Ruhrgas holds 47.1 percent
and Itera Latvia - 16 percent. The Latvian government has 117 shares.
"What for? There should be a reason. Gazprom does not have spare cash
to buy everything. We have a strict responsibility for investments,"
Golubev said.
"Any decision of Gazprom, be it the pricing policy or major investment
projects, is actually considered, approved and directed at the level of
the Russian government. In any case Gazprom activities include an
implementation element of intergovernmental agreements," he said.
On Friday Kremlin chief-of-staff Sergei Naryshkin will meet Latvian
President Valdis Zatlers to prepare his visit to Moscow. However it is
unclear whether the meeting will fix the exact date of the visit, Zatlers'
spokeswoman Ilze Rassa told Tass.
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