Moscow city court to consider resignation of Svyazinvest director

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MOSCOW, February 22 (Itar-Tass) -- The Moscow city court on Tuesday
will consider an appeal of Yevgeny Yurchik, the former director general of
Russia's biggest telecom holding Svyazinvest challenging the Moscow's
Khamovniki court ruling of November 23, 2010 to uphold his resignation
from the post.
Ahead of the court session, a Svyazinvest spokesman, Igor
Pshenichnikov, said he hoped the Moscow city court will rule the company's
actions in respect of its former director general as legitimate. "We have
no grounds to doubt that Svyazinvest is acting in line with law," he told
Itar-Tass.
Yurchik's dismissal case was considered by the Moscow Court of
Arbitration on February 18. The court then defeated Yurchik's claim
challenging Svyazinvest's shareholder resolution of October 1, 2010 on his
early dismissal.
"The court's ruling did not come unexpected because the termination of
powers of Yevgeny Yurchenko as Svyazinvest director general was effected
in accordance with all the norms of the law," Pshenichnikov noted.
In September, Yurchenko, 42, tended his resignation due to his
"principled disagreement with the Rostelecom leadership's position
regarding the strategy of development of the unified company," but later
revoked it.
However, the board of directors accepted his resignation and Vadim
Semyonov took this post.
On October 5, Svyazinvest announced that Semyonov had been elected
director of the holding, in accordance with the government's directive,
one month before the scheduled shareholders' meeting.
Svyazinvest is Russia's biggest telecom company. Its basic assets
include seven interregional companies, an operator of long-distance and
international communication, Rostelecom, and Russia's leader in the
communications design, the Giprosvyaz institute.
At the end of 2009, the Russian government approved the reorganisation
of Svyazinvest, with a view to consolidating its assets under the
Rostelecom umbrella in order to create an integrated telecom group,
capable of delivering a comprehensive range of services throughout Russia.
This restructuring is due to be completed in May 2011.

.Supplies of living polio vaccines to Russian regions to start in late
March.

MOSCOW, February 22 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia's Ministry of Health and
Social Development will begin supplies of living polio vaccines to Russian
regions in late March, a ministry official said on Monday.
"Now we are collecting demands from the regions," Galina Chistyakova,
a deputy director of the ministry's department, told a news conference.
"Supplies will start in late March." She cited a ministry order of January
31, 2011 changing the scheme of vaccination against poliomyelitis of
children under one year old. Under the new scheme, children under one will
be twice inoculated with dead vaccines and the third vaccine will be
living. Since 2008, babies in Russia have been inoculated only with dead
vaccines. The change in the vaccination scheme was made following last
summer's polio outbreak in Tajikistan. The infection has been brought to
Russia and specialists say a living vaccine is needed to develop life-long
immunity.
According to Mikhail Mikhailov, the director of Chumakov Polio
Institute, the living vaccine is not harmful to babies' health, since it
comes third, and after two killed vaccines a baby's organism must be
prepared for a living one. "We do not think there will be another polio
outbreak in Tajikistan this year, but we must be ready," he said.
Meanwhile, the ministry official reassured there will be no problems
with vaccines supplies.

.Booster unit control system failure behind Geo-IK-2 abortive launch.

MOSCOW, February 22 (Itar-Tass) -- The Geo-IK-2 defence satellite
launched in early February has failed to reach its intended orbit "due to
a single failure of the Breeze-M booster unit control system," a spokesman
for the Russian Space Agency said on Monday, citing preliminary results of
the investigation staged by a state commission.
The orbiting satellite is now under control, its onboard systems are
operating faultlessly, but it is yet to be decided whether the Geo-IK02
satellite could be used as it was intended. "According to the commission,
the satellite can fulfil its proper functions but its tasks are to be
specified after tests," the spokesman said.
The GEO-IK-2 satellite, designed to create a detailed
three-dimensional map of the Earth and help the Russian military to locate
the precise positions of various targets, was launched On February 1 on
board a Rockot carrier rocket from the Plesetsk space centre in northern
Russia. Since then, Rockot launches have been suspended. Military
prosecutor's office is probing into the case.
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