Russia to strive toward free-floating rouble - premier.

MOSCOW, December 30 (Itar-Tass) - Russia will be making efforts to
make its currency free-floating, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told
reporters on Wednesday.
"The transfer to a free-floating rouble is a welcome future prospect,
toward which we should be slowly moving. We've discussed it with the
Central Bank," Putin said.
In his opinion, "the economy should be ready for rouble free-float. If
we had had it during the crisis, citizens would have woken up with their
bank accounts reduced to nought. Indeed, we've suffered losses, but it's
the price we've paid for social stability," the premier underlined.


.Ukraine's ex premier undaunted by questionings.

KIEV, December 30 (Itar-Tass) - Leader of Ukraine's Opposition party
"Batkivshchina" (Fatherland), former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko said
she would be answering investigators' questions again on Thursday.
"I'm due at the Prosecutor General's Office again at noon (13:00,
Moscow time), on December 30, Timoshenko said after the six-hour
questioning at the Prosecutor General's Office on Wednesday, "they're
practically inviting me there on the New Year, to have another talk about
how illegally I paid pensions."
Earlier on Wednesday, she said he was undaunted by possible arrest.
"I'm not scared, and I advise not to be scared to others," she told
reporters in comments on the questionings at the Prosecutor General's
Office.
Timoshenko was questioned as a defendant over misuse of the funds
allocated within the framework of the Kyoto Protocol.
She firmly stated that she would not stand back and that she would
continue to fight.
The former prime minister was charged with making a "deliberate
decision, in her personal interests, while occupying the post of prime
minister, to use part of the money received from the sale of quotas for
the emission of greenhouse gases to cover Ukraine's budget spending, in
the first place the obligations to pay pensions."


.Tver region authorities to help families of plane crash victims.

TVER, December 30 (Itar-Tass) - The administration of Russia's Tver
region said it would provide comprehensive support to the families of the
Tver pilots killed in the An-22 plane crash in the Tula region on Teusday
evening.
"Each family is entitled to financial assistance. The regional welfare
department is working on a range of measures to support the fatalities'
families, at the instruction of regional governor Dmitry Zelenin. They
might be offered "professional certificates" for possible retraining, as
well as monthly payments," an official at the Tver region administration
told Itar-Tass.
The An-22 carrying the main and reserve crews of 12 people flew from
Voronezh to Tver at 20:50, Moscow time, on Tuesday. It disappeared from
radar screens at 21:23, Moscow time. The crash site was found near the
village of Krasny Oktyabr.
One of the flight data recorders has already been found, the
Investigation Committee (SK) told Tass. It was handed over to members of
the state commission.
Military investigators are continuing the probe into the criminal case
over the An-22 crash. "The investigators are continuing the inspection of
the crash scene of the An-22 belonging to military transport aviation. The
fragments of bodies found at the scene were prepared for transportation
for a forensic examination.
"All the flight and technical documents are being retrieved," the SK
said.
The investigators are questioning senior military officers and
technical personnel over flight organization issues. The eyewitnesses of
the crash have been identified and questioned.
The list of fatalities was used to ascertain the relatives for
subsequent work with them as representatives of the injured parties.
A large group of investigators was set up to probe the criminal case.
It includes experts of four military investigation departments from
the Tula, Tver, Ivanovo and Voronezh garrisons, aside from representatives
of criminal investigation offices within the SK's central department of
military investigation bodies for the Moscow Military District.
According to the SK, the size of the crater at the crash scene
measured 20 meters in diameter and was 5 meters deep. Plane fragments are
scattered within 700 meters from the crash site. Heavy equipment is on the
way to scene of the accident in order to help extract from earth larger
fragments.
On Wednesday, First Deputy Defense Minister Vladimir Popovkin said all
the pilots aboard the crashed Antei had died. "The plane entered the earth
almost vertically. Nobody had any chances to survive," Popovkin told Tass
by telephone.
The Tver region officials and legislators have conveyed their
condolences to the victims' families. The victims are Major Andrei Belov,
Major Sergei Soldatov, Captain Sergei Smorchkov, Captain Roman Silenok,
Captain Igor Slinkov, Captain Dmitry Kharitonov, Captain Sergei Nevidimov,
Captain Dmitry Domashin, Captain Yuri Karpukhin, Captain Marat Baitulov,
Captain Yevgney Ivanov and Captain Boris Kondratyuk.
The fatalities were aged 26 to 44. Ten of them are survived by their
children aged 1 to 15.
-0-myz