Itar-Tass overnight news cycle for November 18 - 4.

.Communists call for banning relatives from working in govt.

MOSCOW, November 18 (Itar-Tass) - The Communists at the State Duma
lower house of the Russian parliament have brought forward a bill banning
relatives from working in the government.
"The Russian government is in the forefront of combating corruption.
It should not be formed upon the principle of kinship, nepotism, personal
loyalty or belonging to same home area," the author of the initiative,
deputy chairman of the committee on constitutional legislation Viktor
Ilyukhin told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.
In his opinion, professionalism, honesty and impartiality must be the
main criteria for Cabinet ministers.
Ilyukhin called the proposed measure "pre-emptive." The bill is
foremost aimed at ensuring unbiased decisions on the issues of the state,"
he said.


.Medvedev to attend Caspian states summit in Baku.


MOSCOW, November 18 (Itar-Tass) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
leaves for Baku, Azerbaijan, on Thursday, to attend the 3rd summit of
Caspian Sea states: Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.
Medvedev will hold a number of bilateral meetings with his colleagues,
presidential aide Sergei Prikhodko said.
"He is beginning his stay in Baku with a meeting with Azerbaijan's
President Aliyev. He also plans to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
"The summit tentatively begins at 16:00 (15:00, Moscow time). It will
last about three hours, to be followed by the signing of final documents
and a joint statement by the leaders for the press. The heads of state
will meet at working dinner," Prikhodko said
Medvedev will be accompanied by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov,
presidential aide Sergei Prikhodko, Minister of Natural Resources Yuri
Trutnev, Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko, head of the Fisheries Agency
Andrei Krainy and head of the FSB's Border Service Vladimir Pronichev.
"The upcoming meeting of the leaders of the "Caspian Five" is expected
to give a significant impulse to the talks over the key issues of regional
cooperation, in the first place the new legal status of the Caspian Sea,
and closer cooperation in such fields as development of oil and gas
deposits and transportation of hydrocarbons, finance and investments,
trade, transport, use of bioresources, and environmental protection," the
presidential aide said.
The first Caspian states summit took place in Ashgabad in April 2002,
and the second in Tehran, in October 2007.


.Baku to host 3rd summit of Caspian Sea states.

BAKU, November 18 (Itar-Tass) - Azerbaijan's capital Baku will host
the 3rd summit of the Caspian Sea states on Thursday. The presidents of
all the five littoral states are expected to attend.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Turkmenistan President Gubanguly
Berdymukhamedov, and Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev are due to
arrive in Baku in the morning. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has
been in Baku since Wednesday.
The summit will be opened at a residence of Azerbaijan's President
Ilkham Aliyev on Thursday afternoon. Two documents are expected to be
signed after three-hour discussion: an agreement on security on the
Caspian Sea and the presidents' statement on security issues on the sea.
The task to draw the first document was delegated to Azerbaijan at the 2nd
summit of littoral states in the autumn of 2007.
Baku presented the draft of this document a year later, and experts of
the five countries have been working on the text since October 2009.
Over this period, experts at the level of deputy foreign ministers
have met five times, and succeeded in coordinating the draft agreement on
security three days before the summit. Simultaneously, the text of the
presidents' statements was coordinated.
The agreement on security on the Caspian Sea is aimed against new
challenges and threats in the region and envisions interaction between the
littoral states in fighting trans-national crime, terrorism, proliferation
of weapons of mass destruction, illegal turnover of drugs, and poaching.
It is a framework document. After its signing the parties will have to
work out additional documents on specific cooperation guidelines.
A Council of littoral states may be set up within the scope of the
agreement, to coordinate their activity in the field of security.
Experts think that the signing of this agreement will become another
move toward reaching comprehensive accords on the legal status of the
Caspian Sea.
So far, three states -- Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan -- have
coordinated their positions on the status of the Caspian Sea and its
division in national sectors. They have signed the relevant bilateral and
tripartite agreements.
Iran insists on equitable - 20 percent for each state - division of
the Sea, to which the other partners have objected.
Disagreements persist over the division of the Caspian Sea between
Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, because of the parties' different approaches
to the methodology to determine the median line on the Caspian Sea, which
is the base line for division into national sectors.
-0-myz


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