Moscow region expects full restoration of power supply Fri.

.

MOSCOW, December 31 (Itar-Tass) - Power engineers on Friday plan to
fully restore electricity supply to the Moscow region. They promise to
connect to electricity supply houses with nearly 18 thousand people, who
have been staying without power supply for five days, and often - without
heat and water.
"The task is to connect all customers by 18:00 MSK," representative of
the MOESK Moscow unified power grid Vitaly Strugovets told Itar-Tass.
According to him, more than 230 brigades - about 900 people will be
engaged in the restoration efforts during the night.
On Thursday, the repair brigades managed to restore the work of all
(more than 140) high-voltage substations that had been disconnected due to
freezing rain on Sunday night. Another 1,400 transformer substations that
are located directly in the townships, villages, residential
neighbourhoods, are yet to be connected to the power supply system. As
many as 10,300 substations were cut off from power supply during the peak
period.
The Moscow regional emergencies department said on Thursday evening
that there were nine municipalities in the blackout zone - the Leninsky,
Domodedovo, Ruza, Podolsky, Ramensky, Shakhovskoi, Shatursky,
Orekhovo-Zuevsky, Pavlovo-Posad. A total of 1,590 houses with 17,823
dwellers were cut off from electric power supply.
At a meeting of the RF government presidium on Wednesday, Prime
Minister Vladimir Putin prohibited ministers, responsible for
normalisation of power supply to areas devoid of electric power as a
result of bad weather, to go on vacation. The same instructions were given
to regional governors. "No vacation until special permission," Putin
warned at a meeting of the government presidium. Putin specified that the
prohibition applies to heads of regions, which suffered from power cut
offs and department chiefs responsible for the settlement of the problem.
Putin demanded that all services involved in the elimination of the
blackout should daily report the situation to corresponding ministers, and
department heads supervising the situation should submit their accounts to
the prime minister personally. Putin urged to continue the restoration of
the destroyed economic network, giving priority to settlements and housing.
The prime minister instructed to put all medical services on alert
and ensure normal water and food supply. The population of the affected
territories should be given full information about the situation so as to
prevent panic and be informed, when power supply would be resumed, Putin
said. The prime minister described the situation, which developed as a
result of abnormal weather as "not easy, but not catastrophic." "Our task
is to prevent the situation from turning into a catastrophe," Putin
stressed.
-0-


.Six Russia sentenced pilots released by court of Somaliland.

PRETORIA, December 31 (Itar-Tass) - The court of the self-proclaimed
state of Somaliland has released six Russian pilots. The SAPA agency
reported on Friday that on Thursday they were found guilty of supplying
"military equipment" to the neighbouring self-proclaimed country Puntland
with which Somaliland is at war, as well as of violation of the airspace
of Somaliland. At first they were sentenced to one year in prison, but
later the sentence was changed for suspended.
The Sarazin International firm that chartered the Antonov An-26 plane
with a Russian crew, has denied that it violated the law. According to it
there were military uniforms and mines on board. The An-26 was arrested on
December 10 at Hargeisa airport (Somaliland). After the detention,
Interior Minister of Somaliland Mohamed Abdi Gabose said that the delivery
of such goods violates the UN embargo on arms supplies to Somalia.
Sarazin International is a private British security firm operating in
several African states. According to the company, the cargo was carried to
Puntland, where it trains the Coast Guard.
Somalia several years ago actually broke up into several autonomous
regions. Somaliland broke away in the early 1990s.
-0-


.Khodorkovsky sentencing may complicate RF admission to WTO-US.

WASHINGTON, December 31 (Itar-Tass) - The US administration does not
exclude that the Russian court's decision on the case of former head of
Yukos oil company Mikhail Khodorkovsky could hinder Russia's accession to
the WTO, a high-ranking US administration official told reporters on
Thursday.
He said that the verdict will only complicate the settlement of the
WTO issue. The official stressed that the WTO is an organisation whose
members observe the law norms. Meanwhile, he said, most countries in the
world think this verdict demonstrates that there is no justice reform and
legal regulation in Russia.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported that the United States suggested on
Thursday that an extended prison term for Russian former tycoon Mikhail
Khodorkovsky was an abuse of justice, and a senior US official said it
might impede Russia's entry to the World Trade Organisation. Despite the
harsh US words, analysts said the treatment of Khodorkovsky and his
co-defendant, Platon Lebedev, was unlikely to undercut a White House
effort to work with the Kremlin where it can on strategic and security
issues. A Russian judge ordered Khodorkovsky jailed until 2017 after being
convicted of theft and money laundering. The case was seen in the West as
a test of the rule of law in Russia and by many analysts as a political
vendetta against an adversary of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
"It is not going to help their cause, it is only going to complicate
their cause," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told
Reuters. "The WTO is a rules-based, rule of law organisation. Most
countries around the world do not look at this verdict as a demonstration
of the deepening of the rule of law in Russia. It will definitely have an
effect on Russia's reputation." However, US officials say helping Russia
join the WTO will remain a priority for the Obama administration next year.
-0-ezh


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