Jury to hand down verdict in Chubais attack case.

MOSCOW, August 20 (Itar-Tass) - A jury at the Moscow regional court is
expected to pass a verdict on Friday in the case over attack on former
chief the RAO EUS electric utility Anatoly Chubais.
The four defendants made their final statements on Wednesday.
The presiding judge will address the jury with an opening statement
before the hearing, to remind about the circumstances of the case examined
by the court, and the positions of the prosecutor and the defense.
During the arguments of the parties, prosecutor for the state insisted
that the defendants were guilty.
"Their guilt has been proven on all counts by the materials examined
during the inquest," the prosecutor stated.
The Moscow City court already staged a jury trial of the Chubais
attack case. On June 5, 2008, jurors acquitted the former Colonel of the
Russian Armed Forces' Main Intelligence Department, Vladimir Kvachkov, and
former airborne troops servicemen Alexander Naidyonov and Robert Yashin.
They were released from custody in the courtroom.
However the Supreme Court later overturned the verdict and sent the
case for retrial.
Ivan Mironov is the fourth defendant who was detained in connection
with the case in December 2006. The case against him has been pooled with
the case against Kvachkov, Yashin and Naidyonov. Mironov was granted bail
on personal guarantees of several lawmakers from the State Duma lower
house of the Russian parliament.
The assassination attempt was committed March 17, 2005, on the
Mitkinskoye highway near the town of Zhavoronki west off Moscow. An
explosive device with a yield of 11.5 kilograms of TNT went off right in
front of the motorcade which was carrying Chubais to Moscow. After that,
two unknown men opened gunfire at the bodyguards who had jumped out of the
cars.
No one was wounded and the gunmen escaped.
The prosecutors claimed the assassination attempt was made on the
grounds of the defendants' extremist ideology and enmity towards Chubais.


.CSTO leaders to consider situation in Kyrgyzstan.

YEREVAN, August 20 (Itar-Tass) - The situation in Kyrgyzstan and
Central Asia will top the agenda of the informal summit of the Collective
Security Treaty Organization in Armenia on Friday, to be attended by
Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev.
"The heads of CSTO states are expected to consider the situation in
the Central Asian region, the measures by CSTO member-states to stabilize
the situation in Kyrgyzstan and the ways of perfecting the existing CSTO
mechanism to respond to crises," Sergei Prikhodko, an aide to the Russian
president, said.
"Taking into account the nature of the meeting, any president can put
up additional issues for discussion. For example, the Russian president,
who currently chairs the CSTO Collective Security Council, will coordinate
with his colleagues the date of the next session of the Collective
Security Council in Moscow.
"According to tradition, no documents are expected to be signed at the
summit. However, the CSTO leaders will certainly give an impulse to
preparing decisions for the next top-level meeting, or may even reach new
breakthrough decisions, as happened after the 2008 meeting in Borovoye,
Kazakhstan," Prikhodko said.
It will be the fourth informal meeting between the CSTO leaders.
Armenia is hosting the informal summit for the first time.
The first such meeting took place in Borovoye, Kazakhstan, on December
19-21, 2008. The second informal meeting was in Cholpon-Ata (Kyrgyzstan)
on July 31-August 1, 2009, and the third in Moscow - on May 8, 2010.
The summit program includes functions and the guests' visit to Lake
Sevan. CSTO leaders may have bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the
summit.


.Russian govt to review uniform technical regulations.

MOSCOW, August 20 (Itar-Tass) - The presidium of the Russian
government will consider, at a meeting on Friday, a draft agreement with
Belarus and Kazakhstan on uniform principles in the field of technical
regulation.
"The document envisions the adoption of Customs Union's technical
regulations for the list of products which have to meet mandatory
requirements within the framework of the Customs Union, in the event no
technical regulations for these goods have been worked out by the Eurasian
Economic Community.
Viktor Khristenko, the Minister of Industry and Trade, will report on
the issue. His department has drawn the document.
Conformity requirements only apply to the products for which technical
regulations have been worked out by the Customs Union or the Eurasian
Economic Community, or to the products in the single catalogue.
In the course of the Friday meeting, Regional Development Minister
Viktor Basargin will present an analysis of governance in provinces'
health care, education, housing construction, public utilities sector,
road construction and public safety.
Deputy Finance Minister Anton Siluanov will present a draft
instruction on the distribution of subsidies for regional budgets. The
document allocates one billion roubles for balancing regional budgets. The
recipients are 20 provinces that have posted the best dynamics of
government bodies' effectiveness in 2009 compared with 2007.
-0-myz


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