Yanukovich assigns govt to decide on border demarcation

KIEV, December 15 (Itar-Tass) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich
has assigned the country's government to take decisions that are necessary
for arrangements for and conduct of work to demarcate the State border
between Ukraine and Russia. The Head of State signed a relevant decree on
Tuesday night. The government is to make the said decisions within one
month.
Yanukovich also instructed the Cabinet of Ministers to ensure the
financing of activities connected with the demarcation of the border with
the Russian Federation within the scope of expenditure earmarked in the
State Budget for these purposes for a respective year.
The President also directed the government to form a Ukrainian
delegation in the joint Ukrainian-Russian demarcation commission. Leonid
Osavolyuk, Ambassador-at-Large at the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, has been appointed to head the delegation.
An agreement on the demarcation of the Ukrainian-Russian border was
signed on May 17. The parliaments of the two countries ratified the
document in July.
The overall length of the land border between Ukraine and Russia is
about 2,000 kilometres. The delimitation of the overland border had been
completed in 2003.

.Mongolia PM to visit St Petersburg to discuss coop'n.

ST PETERSBURG, December 15 (Itar-Tass) - Prime Minister Sukhbaataryn
Batbold of Mongolia, who is currently in Russia on an official visit, is
planning to travel to St Petersburg on Wednesday. He is to arrive here
from Moscow aboard a Sapsan (merlin) express train. Within the framework
of the business program of the visit he will discuss prospects for
cooperation between St Petersburg and Mongolia during a meeting with
Governor Valentina Matviyenko.
In the past two years trade turnover between St Petersburg and
Mongolia decreased after several years of stable growth. In 2009 trade
turnover diminished by 32 percent to run at $24.7 million. Over the first
nine months of 2010, foreign trade declined by another three percent, as
compared with the corresponding period of 2009, to run at $21 million. For
St Petersburg, trade turnover with Mongolia is made up of exports in the
main.
The city's enterprises supply Mongolian partners with mineral fuel,
engineering products, foodstuffs, and electrical equipment. The city gets
predominantly clothes from Mongolia. This year has seen a decline in
export and a rise in the import of Mongolian goods to the city.
While visiting the city, Sukhbaataryn Batbold will tour the city's
landmarks, the State Hermitage Museum of Fine Arts, and Catherine Palace,
and attend the Swan Lake ballet performance at the Maryinsky Theatre. He
will also lay flowers at the Motherland monument at the Piskaryovskoye
memorial cemetery.

.CIS infocouncil meets in Yerevan Wed to discuss coop'n.

YEREVAN, December 15 (Itar-Tass) - A regular, the 12th, session of the
Council of the Directors of State News Agencies of the Commonwealth of
Independent States (CIS) CIS infocouncil) opens here on Wednesday to
discuss CIS countries' cooperation in the information sphere. The Council,
formed in 1996, is headed by Itar-Tass Director-General Vitaly Ignatenko.
Itar-Tass First Deputy Director-General Mikhail Kalmykov will inform
those present of the forthcoming 20th jubilee of the CIS and of
participation of CIS countries' state news agencies in the coverage of
jubilee events.
Igor Lutsky, First Deputy General Director of BelTA, state news agency
of Belarus, will speak of prospects for the joint work of the press
centers of the state news agencies of CIS countries.
A speech to be made by Vladimir Darie, Director of the Moldpress state
news agency of Moldova, will deal with new possibilities for interaction
and cooperation in the information sphere in the post-Soviet space.
Grair Zoryan, Executive Director of the Armenpress news agency of
Armenia, will present a project for the CIS infocountcil's action on the
occasion of a Cultural Heritage Year, which will be observed in the CIS in
the incoming year.
Zhirgalbek Turdukozhiyev, Director of the Kabar, Kazakhstan's national
news agency, will set out his vision of the development of relationships
among the news agencies of CIS countries.
The establishment of a CIS Internet portal will be the subject of a
report to be delivered by Igor Grigoryev, head of the department of
information and informatization of the CIS Executive.
Participants in the Council session will be received by Armenian Prime
Minister Tigran Sarkisyan and Foreign Minister Edvard Nalbandyan. The news
agency directors will visit Yerevan State University, and meet with
students and faculty members of the department of journalism.
Directors of the news agencies of CIS countries will also visit the
See of the Armenian Apostolic Church at St Echmiadzin.
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