Obama officially announces the end of military hostilities in Iraq.

WASHINGTON, September 1 (Itar-Tass) - U.S. President Barack Obama has
officially announced the end of military hostilities in Iraq. In his
televised address to the nation late on Tuesday, Obama said that Operation
Iraqi Freedom was over and that security responsibility in Iraq now lies
with the Iraqi people.

. Putin to spend September 1 in Krasnoyarsk.

KRASNOYARSK, the Siberia, September 1 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Prime
Minister Vladimir Putin who is visiting Krasnoyarsk as part of a working
trip will open a new academic building of the Oil and Gas Institute of the
Siberian Federal District today, on September 1, the government press
service reports. The prime minister is expected to talk to the Institute's
professors, students and postgraduates.
The Russian oil company, Rosneft, has invested 890 million roubles in
the new institute that will train experts of all levels for the oil and
gas industry of the Krasnoyarsk territory, Eastern Siberia, the Far East
and countries of the Asia-Pacific region. The Russian Ministry of
Education has allocated 740 million roubles for the construction of the
new institution of high learning while 125 million roubles came from the
government of the Krasnoyarsk territory.
A visit to Krasnoyarsk is the last leg of Putin's ten-day tour of
Siberia and the Far East. The prime minister started his working trip in
the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) on August 23. There, he visited a
meteorological observatory and the Russian-German expedition Lena-2010.
In Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Putin analyzed the state of local
fisheries, saw the construction of quake-resistant housing and studied the
population of gray whales.
In Khabarovsk, Putin sat behind the wheel of a new sports car 'Lada
Kalina' and headed for Chita on the Amur highway. On his way, he stopped
over at the Vostochny space launch site in the Amur region, opened a
section of an oil pipeline that runs from Russia to the border with China,
talked to haulers on the highway and village folks in the
Aksyonovo-Zilovksoye settlement in the Trans-Baikal territory.

. Sakhalin to mark the end of WWII for the first time.

YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, September 1 (Itar-Tass) - The Sakhalin Island is
marking the end of Second World War for the first time. Although the main
festivities are scheduled for September 2, the celebrations have already
started on Wednesday.
A large delegation of journalists from Moscow, Khabarovsk and
Vladivostok has arrived in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk to cover the festivities.
The Second World War officially ended on September 2 after Japan
signed the Japanese Instrument of Capitulation on board the USS Missuri in
1945. Many countries have been marking September 2 as the end of WWII.
However, Russia will do it for the first time only this year. Back in
July, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a law that added September
2 to the calendar of Russian red-letter dates as a day when WWII
officially ended.
Sakhalin together with the Kuril Islands was the last final
battlefield of WWII. The local population has supported the idea and is
going to celebrate the red-letter date enthusiastically for several days.
The Sakhalin Museum of regional history is going to display a new
exhibit on Wednesday. It's the wartime Japanese tank "Ha-Go".
The tank arrived in Sakhalin from the Kuril Island of Shumshu.
Sixty- five years ago, the island was a scene of fierce fighting during
the Sakhalin and Kuril airborne operations in which thousands of Soviet
and Japanese soldiers died. Writer Igor Samarin will present his book
titled "Monuments of Military Glory of the Sakhalin Region> at the
regional library of scientific literature.
The main festivities will kick off on September 2. An international
scientific conference "Modernity and WWII Lessons" will open early on
Thursday. It will draw together more than 300 historians, politicians and
top military from Russia and its wartime allies. The Sakhalin residents
will be able to watch the conference live on local television.
But the highlight event will take place on Thursday evening. World
opera star and People's Artist of Russia Dmitry Khvorostovsky will sing on
the central square in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.
A parade of military orchestras will end the festivities on Thursday.

.Siberian military delegation visits Mongolia.

ULAN UDE, September 1 (Itar-Tass) - A delegation of the Siberian
military district started its visit to Mongolia on Wednesday at the
invitation of the Mongolian side.
"The Mongolian defence minister will receive the Russian delegation.
Its members will participate in festivities devoted to the 65th
anniversary of victory over militarist Japan," Valery Shcheblanin, the
press secretary of the commander of the Siberian Military District, told
Itar-Tass.
Major General Sergei Istrakov, the acting commander of the troops of
the Siberian military district, is heading the Russian delegation. The
visit's program includes working meetings at the General Staff of the
Mongolian Armed Forces and other military structures.
The Russian delegation is visiting Mongolia under the Russian Defence
Ministry's international cooperation plan.

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