A mini model of the city to appear in St. Petersburg.

ST.PETERSBURG, September 1 (Itar-Tass) A bronze mini model of St.
Petersburg will appear in the Alexander Garden near the Peter and Paul's
Fortress in the city centre. The project's inspirer, Alexander Taratynov,
believes that the mini-city in St. Petersburg will be unique in its design
despite the fact that it's going to be built by analogy with other
mini-towns already existing in the world.
The sculptor said the mockup model of the city's main
architectural sites would be made of bronze and patina to give the
sculptures various tints from gold yellow to black. A mini copy of St.
Isaac's Cathedral will be two and a half meters high. The height of all
the other models will be up to one meter. Visitors will be able to see the
buildings of the Winter Palace, the Hermitage, the Peter and Paul
Fortress, the Kazansky Cathedral, the Stock Exchange, the Engineering
Castle and the Admiralty on a scale 1 to 30. All the models will be
located on an improvised map of St. Petersburg where the main streets,
squares and the Neva River will have a different type of paving.
Taratynov is planning to unveil eight more sculptural compositions
depicting famous St. Petersburg architects and the statue of St. Peter,
the city's guardian and celestial patron.
Andrei Podobeda, the head of the city improvement and
beautification committee, says the idea of the mini-city has coincided
with reconstruction works in the southern part of the Alexander Garden. He
believes that creation of an informative and educational park will give a
new impetus to developing and improving the entire territory of the
Alexander Garden. A hedge will separate the rest of the park from the
mini-city, the entrance to which will remain free.
Gazprom Transgaz St.Petersburg, a sister company of the Russian
gas monopoly Gazprom, will cover all the expenses. The company's director
Georgy Fokin said all the mini copies of buildings and the statues of
architects are already made and will be mounted in the next forty or fifty
days.
An official unveiling ceremony may take place in spring 2011.

. Bulava missile to be test fired in September for the 13th time.

MOSCOW, September 1 (Itar-Tass) - Russia may test launch its new
Bulava inter-continental ballistic missile, the first in 2010, early in
September, Russian defense sources told Itar-Tass.
A state commission is to set the exact date at its meeting on
September 6. The launch window is expected to open on September 9.
Earlier reports said that three Bulava flight trials would be
carried out in 2010. Two missiles will be fired from the Dmitry Donskoy
ballistic missile nuclear submarine (project 941 Akula class). The third
missile will be launched from the Yuri Dolgorukiy missile submarine
cruiser (project 955 Borei class) for the first time.
The intercontinental ballistic missile RSM-56 Bulava is the newest
Russian three stage solid propellant missile. It's meant for outfitting
ballistic missile strategic nuclear submarines of Borei class.
The Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology is responsible for the
missile's design. Bulava can carry up to 10 MIRV warheads capable of
changing flight trajectories and hitting targets at a distance of up to
8,000 kilometers.
According to official reports, only five out of 12 Bulava flight
trials have been successful or partly successful.
According to the Russian Navy general staff, the biggest problem
that has emerged during the trials is "floating breakdowns in the missile'
s operation." It means that every time failures occur at different stages.
The last time, in December 2009, Bulava broke down at the third stage.

.Customs Union to introduce new rules on duties & taxes on Sept 1.

MOSCOW, September 1 (Itar-Tass) - The Customs Union of Russia,
Kazakhstan and Belarus is introducing new rules of distributing import
customs duties and some other taxes among the budgets of the three states
as of September 1 under an agreement which the three Union partners signed
in May and which is now taking effect.
The Customs Union Commission has distributed the customs duties in the
following way: Belarus - 4.7% of all import duties, Kazakhstan - 7.33 %
and Russia - 87.97%.
The Customs Union started functioning in January 2010. In January
2012, the partners will enter a new stage of integration and will form the
Common Economic Space.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin believes that the creation of
the Common Economic Space would give a powerful positive impetus to the
development of Russian economy and open up additional opportunities for
individual citizens and businesses.
"In fact, they will be free to choose a more convenient place for
working and implementing their plans and projects. That means that the
state should exert more efforts to improve the investment climate. I think
that this kind of competition will be useful," Putin said in his earlier
statements.

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