Russian diplomat heads international financial institution.

MOSCOW, July 18 (Itar-Tass) - Russian diplomat Andrei Kondakov became
the president of an international financial institution, the Black Sea
Trade and Development Bank.
He assumed his duties last Friday.
Since 2002 Kondakov served as a Russian G8 Foreign Affairs Sous-Sherpa
and a member of Russia's governmental commissions on the accession to the
World Trade Organization and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development.
"Except for banking structures within the framework of the CIS Russia
has not yet had a chance to delegate its representatives to the top posts
in international financial institutions," the diplomat said in an
interview with the Vremya Novostei.
"I think that such an exceptional decision of the bank's shareholders
proves recognition of our country's growing influence in the global
financial architecture and of its constructive position on the major
issues of the global currency and financial agenda," Kondakov said.
"Of course, Russia's active policy in the Black Sea region played its
role," he said.
Russia's share in the bank's authorized capital totals 16.5 percent.
The bank was set to promote economic cooperation in the region.
Kondakov said he saw his mission as the president in strengthening
positive trends, boosting and diversifying the bank's credit portfolio,
further increasing the bank's credit rating and intensifying BSTDB's
cooperation with other large financial players in the Black Sea region.
The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank is an international financial
institution established by Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria,
Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine in 1991.
The BSTDB is headquartered in Thessaloniki, Greece.



.Portrait of Russian tsar by G Dawe may be lost in Grabar centre fire.

MOSCOW, July 18 (Itar-Tass) - Art experts continue to assess the
damage caused by a fire in Moscow's Grabar restoration centre on Thursday.
They fear that the portrait of Alexander I depicting him on the
horseback by English portraitist George Dawe from the collection of the
Armoury Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin Museums was lost in fire.
Russian Culture Ministry spokeswoman Natalia Uvarova said "most
probably the painting "Tsar Alexander I on Horseback" by George Dawe was
lost, but we still have a chance to find it, as the oil painting
department has not been fully inspected."
"The painting was taken to the restoration and the search for it is
underway," she said.
Uvarova noted that among those works of art that survived the fire is
the Icon of Virgin Hodegetria from the Novgorod Museum.
A special commission that was set up to estimate the damage from the
fire said there were around 1,500 works of art inside the centre as the
fire broke out.
"This is the preliminary results, their number can be even bigger. It
is very difficult to give the exact figures, as not all works of art were
taken from the centre to other art storage facilities," the spokeswoman
said.
"Four hundred of the 1,500 works of art belonged to the centre, others
were brought to restoration from different Russian museums, including
Arkhangelskoye Estate, Novgorod and Pskov reserve museums as well as from
private collections," she said.
Uvarova noted that the works of art that had been placed in the
concrete-walled storage room were not damaged.



.Remains of red terror victims found in Peter and Paul Fortress.

ST PETERSBURG, July 18 (Itar-Tass) - Remains of eighty victims of the
red terror in Soviet Russia in 1918-1921 were found during excavations at
St. Petersburg's Peter and Paul Fortress from the beginning of summer, a
researcher from the Institute for the History of Material Culture,
Vladimir Kildyushevsky, who heads the archaeological excavations, told
Itar-Tass.
In the previous years the remains of around 100 persons were found in
the area, he said.
The excavations were initiated by the State Museum of the History of
St. Petersburg. An anthropological expertise to find out age, sex and
death reason will be also conducted.
In December 2009 during the road construction twenty skeletons of
junior and senior officers and supposedly of Grand Dukes George and
Nicolas Mikhailovich, Dmitry Konstantinovich and Paul Alexandrovich were
discovered in the fortress's bastions.
After the Bolsheviks seized power, they were arrested and taken to
prison in St. Petersburg. Soon after they were taken to the Peter and Paul
Fortress, where they were shot dead.


.Moscow sets traffic restrictions as Formula One drivers race.

MOSCOW, July 18 (Itar-Tass) - Traffic restrictions are introduced in
the centre of Moscow as Formula One drivers will speed around the Kremlin
on Sunday, the Moscow city traffic inspection told Itar-Tass.
The Russian capital will host the Bavaria Moscow City Racing for the
third year running.
Drivers will begin the race at Vasilyevsky Spusk in front of St. Basil'
s Cathedral to go straight onto the Kremlin Embankment. Then they will
speed to Mokhovaya Street before making a U-turn at the southern end of
Tverskaya Street.


.Coalmine blast kills 28 in northwest China.


BEIJING, July 18 (Itar-Tass) - Twenty-eight people were killed in a
coal mine blast in northwest China, the Xinhua news agency said on Sunday
with reference to the provincial government.
The details of the accident are being studied.
The accident took place on Saturday in Hancheng city, China's Shaanxi
Province.

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