Prosecutor General of Russia Yury Chaika is in charge of investigation finding out reasons of GLONASS-M satellites failure. Moscow budget for 2011 is adopted in the third reading. Common budget of Russia-Belarus Union is also approved. Khimki Forest continues to remain in the center of public and political events. Learn more in the weekly review of events by FederalPress.
Prosecutor General of Russia Yury Chaika is in charge of investigation finding out reasons of GLONASS-M satellites failure. Moscow budget for 2011 is adopted in the third reading. Common budget of Russia-Belarus Union is also approved. Khimki Forest continues to remain in the center of public and political events. Learn more in the weekly review of events by FederalPress.Checking up GLONASS
Three Russian satellites to complete GLONASS navigation system failed to reach their orbits and fell into the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii Islands. President Dmitry Medvedev assigned Prosecutor General of Russia Yury Chaika to check up legitimacy of spending money allotted for this program. Each satellite cost over 25 million dollars.
As of now the checkup has identified people possibly responsible for the accident. Errors in math calculations are regarded as the main reason of failure.
Further checking was held in Roscosmos by an interdepartmental commission. The commission was comprised of the representatives from the Defense Ministry, Federal Cosmos Agency and from a number of the rocket and space industry enterprises.
Our experts are expecting loud resignations in the ministries and departments responsible for the GLONASS-M satellites program.
Moscow budget for 2011
Moscow City Duma deputies adopted the city budget for 2011 in the final third reading.
Earnings will make 1.243 trillion rubles. 25 billion rubles will be acquired by improving tax management, 15 billion rubles will be derived from the improved city property management. Authorities expect an increase of trading stock by 15 times, from 900 million to 13.9 billion rubles.
Expenses of Moscow budget will make 1.390 trillion rubles in 2011. All social spending items will be preserved and some will be increased. Obviously, there is deficit in the budget.
“For such a large metropolis as Moscow, this deficit is not considerable, especially taken that Sergey Sobyanin is going to conduct privatization of industrial enterprises”, FederalPress expert, the first vice-chairman of the Council of the Federation Committee on Industrial Policy, Vladimir Gusev says.
Fraud case
Golovinsky District Court of Moscow recognized ex-deputy prosecutor of Moscow Vyacheslav Trofimov guilty of fraud. Investigation accused the former official of extorting 3 million rubles from a person in exchange of releasing him from criminal responsibility.
Vyacheslav Trofimov was caught in the act when receiving 100 thousand dollars in a restaurant. The court’s ruling sentenced him to 13.5 years of imprisonment.
Retired secret service general Alexander Sterligov comments,
“I am sure that clearing of law enforcement agencies will be continued in the most rigorous manner. There is no other way. In these organs there are few professionals left, but those who left due to corruption and cronyism are ready to come back. And if this happened on the wave of clearing, society would feel it right away that life has become more comfortable and safe. We could have brought things to order in weeks, if there were political will for that.”
Russia-Belarus Union
December 9, 2010 a session of Parliamentary assembly of the Union of Russia and Belarus was held. The assembly discussed draft budget for 2011.
Next year’s budget relates to the same parameters as this year. Spending will make 4.872 billion rubles. This money will be distributed among 42 programs in industry, social protection, culture, education and healthcare. 40 percent of the budget will spent on industry, fundamental research, construction, farming, transport and communications. One quarter of the expenses will be allocated for cooperation in the military technology and law enforcement. Social issues, ecology, education and culture will get 17 percent of the common budget.
Among innovative project financed by the common budget are thermal vision equipment, integrated systems of standardization of space equipment, ecology friendly and energy saving technologies, cancer curing equipment, navigation systems and improvement of common data protection.
Viktor Stepanov, former President of Karelia and currently a Consultant of the State Duma speaker, provided a comment to FederalPress,
“From the start of the so-called conflict between power structures of Moscow and Minsk I had no doubt it was nothing more than a grandstand play, if I am allowed to say so. Some needed to identify opposition, some wanted to see reaction of the West and notice foes. When time came to make a decision, it was made in the best interests of one people of Russia and Belarus, then everyone set together and got it all right.”
Khimki Forest
Final decision regarding construction of a highway Moscow - St. Petersburg through Khimki Forest was not made last week. This issue was supposed to be discussed by Vladimir Putin and his colleague from France Francois Fillon on December 9th, but as Russian Prime Minister acknowledged, they had not touched upon this topic.
“Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia will have to arrive to a common conclusion, after that the decision will be drawn”, Vladimir Putin highlighted at a press conference with Francois Fillon.
Ecology organizations stand against construction of the highway offering to look for alternative routes. Cutting trees in the Khimki Forest will inflict irreparable harm to the nature of Moscow Region, they claim. President Medvedev suspended construction in August this year making time for the final decision.
Oksana Goncharenko, leading expert of the Center of Political Environment, provided comments to FederalPress in relation to Khimki Forest situation.
Public discussion of the construction project became a political campaign involving confrontation between governor of Moscow Region Boris Gromov and ex-mayor Yury Luzhkov, Oksana Goncharenko says.
Information was actively spread in the Internet covering negative effects to ecology and accusing administration of Moscow of the desire to capitalize on the money allocated to route construction. To minimize social tension federal authorities decided to suspend construction and conduct further research.
“Evaluating perspectives of the project, one has to consider that reliability of data regarding possible ecological damage are doubtful. Nature protectors evoke compassion, but do not say that cutting wood had been made prior to the public conflict”, the expert testimonies.
From the economic point of view, construction of the highway through Khimki Forest has been recognized by experts as the most advantageous one.
“The necessity to develop transport infrastructure of Moscow and Moscow Region objectively exists. This is indicated by public opinion. As it seems, the choice of optimal route is reasonable to delegate to professionals, not allowing to use this acute topic in someone’s political interests”, Oksana Goncharenko concludes.