List of Moscow Mayor candidates shows city power may be divided.

MOSCOW, October 10 (Itar-Tass) -- Speaker of Russia's Federation
Council Andrei Mironov does not rule out that the names of Sergei Sobyanin
and Valery Shantsev on the list of candidates for the position of Moscow's
mayor may mean the power in Moscow may be divided.
The authorities of the mayor may be divided between a mayor and head
of the municipal government, he said.
"The mayor should represent the power, while everyday problems should
become a responsibility of the government's leader," Mironov said.
Moscow may be a territory of the federal status and the mayor should
be a federal level official, he added.
He also commented on the candidature of Ludmila Shvetsova saying that
"it would be more difficult for her to fight with the corruption in
Moscow."


.United day of elections to feature record number of participants.

MOSCOW, October 10 (Itar-Tass) -- The united day of elections will
cover Russia's 77 regions and will become a record.
There will be about 7,800 elections and local referendums on Sunday.
The number of candidates is over 100,000.
About 109,000 candidates will compete for 52,259 seats in local
authorities.
Regional parliamentary elections will take place in Russia's six
regions: Tyva, the Belgorod, Kostroma, Magadan, Novosibirsk and
Chelyabinsk regions, where between four and ten candidates will compete
per one seat.
The Chelyabinsk Region has become a testing platform for the new
equipment to calculate votes. All of the seven political parties
registered in the region have been included in the ballot. If the test of
the new equipment is successful there, about ten percent of election
stations will use it during the State Duma elections due in December of
the coming year.
The parties in the election campaigns have demonstrated high activity,
which is often being referred to as a general rehearsal for the
parliamentary elections. The four leading parties represented in the State
Duma take part in all the six elections. They are the United Russia,
Communist, Liberal-Democratic and Just Russia parties.
Chairman of Russia's Central Election Commission Vladimir Churov
highlighted the fact that non-parliamentary parties have increased the
number of their candidates by several times against the previous year's
elections.
Besides the regional elections, on October 10, Makhachkala and Samara
will elect their mayors. Each of the cities will have to choose from four
candidates. In Russia's 14 regions there will be local legislators'
elections.
Russia's Central Election Commission pays special attention to
Dagestan, where there will be 1,090 elections, including election of mayor
of Derbent. A year earlier the mayor election there was a scandal and
later on the court declined the results of it. A special delegation of the
commission may visit the elections there.
The scale of the elections becomes clear as the number of voters is
about 30 million, which is about 30 percent of Russia's all registered
voters.
About 300 reporters will follow the elections from the special
information centre at the Central Election Commission. First preliminary
results may be published after 22:00 Moscow time, when all election
stations are closed. Most protocols will be processed by morning of
October 11, and most full preliminary results will be available then.
This year, the united day of elections coincides with the so-called
three tens day - the tenth day of the tenth month of the tenth year.
Churov said several times that he would not believe or pay attention to
numerology. However, dates of the kind have become very popular for
appointing marriage ceremonies.
The united day of elections was introduced in 2006, so that voters are
not tired of taking part in many elections. Besides, March and October,
when these days are appointed usually, have proved to be most suitable
periods, as they are distanced enough from typical holiday seasons. It is
also very important that the united day of elections saves much money.
The next united day of elections is due on March 13, 2011. There is a
very popular view that the day should be united with the upcoming State
Duma elections. This change would require certain addendums to the present
legislation.
In late March, Russia's Central Election Commission will have to elect
its new members. The newly elected commission will work for five years
instead of four under the previous regulations.


.Vnesheconombank signs docs with Latin America financial structures.

WASHINGTON, October 10 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia's Vnesheconombank will
cooperate with leading financial institutions of Latin America - the
Corporation Andina de Fomento (CAF) and The Latin American Association of
Development Financing Institutions (ALIDE).
"The purpose of the agreements signed is to improve and expand the
long-term cooperation between Russia and members of CAF and ALIDE in
spheres of mutual interest," the bank's press service said. "The sides
will discuss joint financing of projects in infrastructures and energy."
With CAF, the bank will also work on "projects in social sphere, like
education, environment protection, small and medium businesses."
The agreement with ALIDE is supposed "to favour the expanding of
Russia's export of machinery."
CAF unites 16 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean as well as
Spain and Portugal. Other members of the corporation are leading private
banks from those countries. ALIDE unites over 80 financial institutions
from 23 Latin American countries.
Vnesheconombank is the Russian state-run development bank known as VEB.

-0-kar


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