South Ossetia remembers tragic events of August 2008.

TSKHINVAL, August 5 (Itar-Tass) -- A series of commemorative events
for the victims of tragic events of August 2008 began in South Ossetia on
Wednesday, August 4.
A roundtable entitled "Hot August 2008: Lessons of Contemporary
History" was held. Attending it were South Ossetian President Eduard
Kokoity, Russian Ambassador to South Ossetia Elbrus Kargiyev, First Deputy
Chief of the Joint Staff of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation
(CSTO), Colonel-General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, Russian and South Ossetian
defenders of Tskhinval, and public figures.

.German company Fraport to become Pulkovo Airport co-manager.

NOVO-OGAREVO, August 5 (Itar-Tass) -- The Russian government's
commission on control over foreign investments has approved a transaction
that allows a group of investors led by the German company Fraport, which
manages Frankfurt's airport, to invest in St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Airport.
According to Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) chief Igor Artemyev,
Fraport will become a Pulkovo co-manager.
Earlier, the International Finance Organisation (IFC) and the European
Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) jointly drew a 200 million
euro syndicated loan from eight commercial banks for the modernisation of
Pulkovo Airport.
With the syndicated loan, the overall amount of funds raised by the
IFC and the EBRD for the Pulkovo project has reached 370 million euros.
The construction of a new terminal at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Airport
will begin in the autumn of 2010, Vice-Governor Yuri Molchanov said
earlier.
Construction was initially scheduled to begin in June 2010, but then
postponed to choose the best possible time for the commencement of work,
Molchanov said.
Three companies took part in the final stage of the tender, including
a consortium with the participation of Gazprom and Vienna airport, the
Nevsky Airport that incorporates Singapore operator C-H-N-G and the
Russian company Bazovy Element, which won second and third place in the
tender, respectively.
Investments required for the first stage of the reconstruction were
estimated at one billion euros; the new terminal is to be commissioned in
2013. Throughout the entire reconstruction period both Pulkovo-1 and
Pulkovo- 2 will operate as usual.
The airport now has two operating runways that meet all international
standards. The reconstruction started in June 2008.
Pulkovo Airport, which is owned by the St. Petersburg government, is
the largest airport in northwest Russia. In 2008, passenger traffic
through the airport rose 15.2 percent to 7.071 million people.

.US administration hopes Senate will ratify new START by yearend.

WASHINGTON, August 5 (Itar-Tass) -- The U.S. administration hopes that
the Senate will ratify the new Russian-American START treaty before the
end of this year.
"The Administration remains optimistic about the prospects for New
START. Over the course of the past two and a half months, no significant
opposition or credible arguments have emerged. We have said all along that
we hope to have the Senate approve the treaty by the end of the year, and
we believe they are on track to do that," State Department spokesman
Philip J. Crowley said on Wednesday, August 4.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Chairman of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, John Kerry to discuss the matter.
"They talked about the new START agreement: the fact that the Senate
has delayed the vote until September 15th or 16th, it's neither a surprise
nor a cause of concern, and we understand that the treaty will be the
first item of business for the committee the week the Senate returns next
month," Crowley said.
"We would hope and expect at the end of this process next month, that
we'll have widespread bipartisan support for the New START Treaty," he
added.
For the treaty to be ratified, it has to receive two-thirds of votes
in the Senate, i.e. 67 of 100.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said earlier that U.S. President
Barack Obama and he had agreed to carry out ratification procedures
"simultaneously" to avoid awkward situations on both sides.
Meanwhile, the United States and Russia have completed negotiations on
three annexes to the Protocol of the New START Treaty.
"The United States and the Russian Federation have completed
negotiations on three Annexes to the Protocol of the New START Treaty and
formally exchanged the text today in Moscow," Crowley said earlier.
"These Annexes contain the technical information and detailed
procedures that will be used in implementing the New START Treaty
verification regime," he said.
The annexes provide formats for the treaty's notifications and "spell
out the procedures for the conduct of inspection activities and the
exchange of telemetric information", the spokesman said.
"This completes the Treaty documents that will be transmitted to the
Senate in May for its advice and consent to ratification," Crowley said.
The new START Treaty was signed by President Dmitry Medvedev and U.S.
President Barack Obama in Prague on April 8.
The previous START treaty expired on December 5, 2009.
-0-zak/


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