Moscow calls Columbia, Venezuela for dialog to support stability.

NALCHIK, July 23 (Itar-Tass) -- Moscow calls upon Columbia and
Venezuela to resume a mutually respectful dialogue to support peace and
stability in the region, a source in Russia's Foreign Ministry said on
Friday.
"Moscow is concerned about the information on the tension in the South
American region between the two friendly states," the source said.
"We call upon the sides to show restraint and constructive approaches
not to let further aggravation of the situation and to find opportunities
to establish a mutually respectful dialogue, which may lower the heat of
mutual accusations and work out ways to overcome contradictions in the
bilateral relations in the interests of peace and stability in the region."

.Putin and Yanukovich to have talks in Yalta.

MOSCOW, July 24 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
is arriving on Saturday in Ukraine on a brief working visit. He will have
a meeting with Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovich in Yalta, the press
service of the Russian government said.
Over the meeting, the sides will discuss Russia-Ukraine relations and
other matters of mutual interest, the press service said.
Putin visited Yalta in November 2009. On July 10 of the current year,
over the CIS non-formal summit in Yalta Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev
congratulated his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovich on his 60th
jubilee.


.Some metallurgical companies may be fined for monopoly advantages.

CHELYABINSK, July 24 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia's Federal Anti-Monopoly
Service /FAS/ may fine several metallurgical companies for their
discrimination of Russia's consumers and for the violation of
anti-monopoly law, the head of the service, Igor Artemiyev, sad at a
meeting chaired by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
"We mean some ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy companies," he said.
"They discriminate our consumers by exporting their products, most likely
to themselves in offshore zones, at half the price, to be further on sold
from offshore zones at world prices."
The companies use this approach to avoid taxes, Artemiyev said.
Over the crisis, some companies used short-term contracts to get
highest revenues.
"As long-term contracts were not there, and as there were no clear
international indices, those companies tried to get income from short-term
deals, thus raising risks of violating the anti-monopoly law," he
explained.
"If a company competes with another one, the profitability is not more
than 20-30 percent, while if a company knows it is the only producer, the
profitability may reach 90-130 percent," Artemiyev said. "Some companies
realise and use deliberately their monopoly advantages."


.Odessa International Film Festival to name prize-winners.

ODESSA, July 24 (Itar-Tass) -- The first Odessa's International Film
Festival will name its prize-winners on Saturday. The winner of the
grand-prix will get 15,000 dollars and a Golden Duc statuette.
The main competition featured 16 films from Ukraine, Russia, Italy,
Germany, France, Spain, Japan, Australia, the USA, Canada and other
countries.
"There were not substitutions in the main competition, and only
versions on film were presented here," supervisor of the Russian programme
Maria Bezruk said.
Besides the competition itself, the organisers offered Russian films,
which had not been shown in Ukraine.
"All Russian films and most films in the competition were presented by
their authors," she said. "All Russian films were sold out."
The first film festival was supported by Ukraine's Ministry of Culture
and Tourism and Odessa's regional administration.
Russian Czar appointed duc de Richelieu Governor of Odessa. Over
eleven years of his administration, Odessa greatly increased in size and
importance, and become the third largest city in the Russian empire by
population. Grateful citizens erected a bronze monument to him in 1828.
Odessa is located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport on
the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in the
country.


.Kiev hopes Ukraine, EU, Russia to agree on gas consortium.

KIEV, July 24 (Itar-Tass) -- Ukraine's government hopes to agree with
the European Union and the Russian Federation on the establishment of a
gas transporting consortium, Ukraine's Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov said
in an interview to Ukraine's Kiyevsky Telegraph daily.
"The international practice has examples of such talks which may last
for years, and then a result is achieved within a day," he said. "Our
talks have been going on for months now, but we hope that we shall be able
to reach an agreement in near time."
Ukraine had several rounds of talks with Russia and the EU, Azarov
said. Ukraine suggests providing guarantees to Russia for transit supplies.
"For example, we could transport 150 billion cubic metres of gas a
year across our territory for ten years," he said.
Kiev may promise to the EU to "guarantee purchasing this amount of
gas," Azarov added.
"It will be impossible to have a gas transporting consortium without
either of the tree partners, and since there are three sides involved,
each of them follows its own interests, which makes the agreement process
more complicated," he said.

-0-kar