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What the Papers Say, May 8, 2013

Editor's note: The next edition of "What the Papers Say" will be published on Monday, May 13.

Kommersant

1. Maria Yakovleva article headlined "Pension arithmetic average" says the revenues of private pension funds and VEB investing the savings of people who entrusted the state with the management of their pension savings are almost the same and amount to 7 percent a year; pp 1, 8 (508 words).

2. Yelizaveta Kuznetsova and Irina Pelyavina article headlined "Renova not allowed to land in Perm" says Base Element holding of Oleg Deripaska is continuing fighting for Perm airport. The local authorities chose the company, but the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service opposes the deal, the article notes; pp 1, 7 (787 words).

3. Andei Kolesnikov article headlined "Managing orders" says President Putin chairing the Cabinet meeting has reminded the government of their duties and his powers; pp 1-2 (2,054 words).

4. Alexei Sokovnin and Nikolai Sergeiev article headlined "Yury Budanov's murderer given in by automobile and mobile phone" says the Moscow City Court has sentenced Chechen national Yusup Temerkhanov to 15 years in prison for killing former Colonel Budanov in June 2011; pp 1, 4 (836 words).

5. Pyotr Netreba and Dmitry Butrin article headlined "Self-criticism session with following exposure" says President Putin's criticism of the government work did not result in the sacking of any ministers and regional heads are expected to be punished for their failure to implement the country leadership instructions; p 2 (656 words).

6. Viktor Khamrayev article headlined "Boris Titov reaches State Duma with amnesty" says business ombudsman Boris Titov has come up with an initiative to free a thousand of entrepreneurs serving prison sentences for various economic crimes. He will submit the relevant bill to the State Duma next week, the article notes; p 3 (733 words).

7. Maxim Ivanov article headlined "Vladimir Churov ready to report on civil society" says the Central Elections Commission has finished work on forming regional electoral commissions; p 3 (538 words).

8. Yulia Rybina and Nikolai Sergeyev article headlined "Insurgents' houses exploded together with bombs" says three houses were exploded in Buynaksk by the law enforcement agencies claiming that they had to explode bombs found there during searches; meanwhile, the locals allege that the police brought the bombs themselves; p 4 (543 words).

9. Vladislav Trifonov article headlined "Ilya Ponomaryov proves value of his lectures" says opposition lawmaker Ilya Ponomaryov is satisfied with the results of the questioning held at the Investigative Committee; p 5 (596 words).

10. Taisya Bekbulatova article headlined "Human rights council to wait for verdict in Bolotnaya case" says the results of a public investigation of the last year's unrest on Bolotnaya Ploshchad in Moscow will be handed over to the presidential human rights council to help the ones tried for the disorder; p 5 (569 words).

11. Article attributed to the paper's political section headlined "Beyond congratulation sense" reports on a scandal with informing World War II veterans about the cost of funerals which erupted in Murmansk; p 5 (689 words).

12. Alexander Reutov article headlined "Iran chooses presidential candidates" comments on the presidential election campaign in Iran and notes that the fight for the presidential post may cause a rift among the ruling elite; p 6 (462 words).

13. Yelena Chernenko and Ivan Safronov article headlined "John Kerry reaches agreement on agreements" says five agreements on cooperation in cyber security, in nonproliferation, in fighting with terrorism, on strengthening economic ties and contacts between the two countries officials are to be drafted by the meeting of the Russian and the U.S. presidents in June. The documents were discussed during the visit of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to Moscow; p 6 (852 words).

14. Sergei Strokan article headlined "China and India take themselves under control" says India and China have managed to avoid an armed conflict as they are withdrawing troops from a disputable region in the Himalayas; p 6 (454 words).


Rossiiskaya Gazeta

1. Alyona Uzbekova article headlined "they blow foam off" says prices on poultry and milk have started growing down in Russia. Experts attribute the trend to Russia's accession to the WTO, the article notes; pp 1-2 (431 words).

2. Kira Latukhina article headlined "By deeds" reports on the Cabinet meeting chaired by President Putin who spoke on the need to fulfill his orders despite challenging circumstances; pp 1-2 (850 words).

3. Yadviga Yuferova article headlined "Shadow of victory" laments that increasing number of the paper's readers are interested in the dirty linen of celebrities rather than in musicians, researchers and patriots; pp 1, 3 (949 words).

4. Vitaly Petrov article headlined "Obama to get answer" looks into the visit of new U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to Moscow; p 2 (600 words).

5. Vladimir Kuzmin article headlined "Second one starts" reviews the results of Medvedev's Cabinet work as he has been heading the Russian government for a year; p 2 (426 words).

6. Fyodor Lukyanov article headlined "Chemistry and life" says the issue of chemical weapons becomes a key one in the Syrian conflict, as the West cannot decide which side in the conflict used it; p 7 (709 words).


Rossiiskaya Gazeta (weekly)

1. Larisa Viktorova article headlined "One should work thoroughly" looks into what has happened in Russian politics and economy since Putin's inauguration in 2012; p 2 (600 words).


Vedomosti

1. Editorial headlined "To help winners" says pensions of World War II veterans in Russia are much smaller than the payments received by the veterans in the EU and the U.S.; pp 1, 6 (455 words).

2. Maxim Tovkaylo et al. article headlined "Central Bank to place stakes on" says that the Central Bank may be made responsible for economic growth; pp 1, 4 (900 words).

3. Another editorial headlined "President beyond brackets" says the criticism of the Cabinet work by President Putin shows that he is ready to make any minister a scapegoat in case they fail to implement his instructions; p 6 (250 words).

3. Anastasia Kornya and Svetlana Bocharova article headlined "Agents minimum" reports on the Golos NGO case and says the court ruled that the only fact of receiving financing from abroad is enough to label an NGO as a foreign agent; p 2 (481 words).

4. Polina Khimshiashvili article headlined "Post-war relations" says the Russian and U.S. authorities have decided not to discuss sensitive issues in the two countries' relations during the first visit of new Secretary of State John Kerry to Moscow; p 3 (410 words).

5. Andrei Ryabov article headlined "Russia in world: life in instability period" analyses the Russian ties with the West and China and rules out the possibility of Russia's isolation in the North Korean way; p 7 (722 words).

6. Olga Proskurnina interview with Nils Muiznieks, European Council Commissioner for Human Rights, speaking on the persecution of NGOs in Russia, the Russian legal system and cooperation with the U.S.; pp 8-9 (2,248 words).


Izvestia

1. Nikita Mogutin article headlined "Rescuers did not look for An-2 at its crash site" says the Sverdlovsk region prosecutor's office is now trying to find out how the 10 million rubles ($317,500) allocated from the budget to find the debris of An-2 were spent, as the plane crashed just in 8 kilometers from the airport; pp 1, 3 (608 words).

2. Vladmir Zyrov article headlined "Banned extremist symbols to be gathered in register" says the official list of extremist symbols banned in Russia will be drafted soon; pp 1, 3 (425 words).

3. Yulia Tsoi article headlined "Prosecutor General's Office finds three more 'foreign agents'" says prosecutors have accused three more NGOs of receiving monei from abroad without registering their activity as foreign agents; pp 1, 3 (709 words).

4. Alyona Sivkova article headlined "Ponomaryov asks ethics commission to check Zhirinovsky's revenues" says opposition lawmaker Ilya Ponomaryov has drafted a new inquiry asking the State Duma's ethics commission to check the income declaration of LDPR head Vladimir Zhirinovsky; p 2 (448 words).

5. Svetlana Subbotiva article headlined "Levada Center does not want to be foreign agent" says Levada Center NGO head Lev Gudkov denies information on receiving a letter from the law enforcement agencies where it was labelled as a foreign agent; p 2 (393 words).

6. Alexei Mikhaylov article headlined "Defense Ministry to get mobile broadband communication" says the Russian Defense Ministry will get a mobile communication system with the capacity of 300 Mbits per second; p 5 (495 words).

7. Alexei Mikhaylov article headlined "'Iskander' becomes invulnerable for American ABM" looks into a new Iskander-M operational-tactical systems which are due to be delivered to the army in summer 2013; p 5 (700 words).

8. Timur Khursandov and Konstantin Volkov article headlined "Syria to fight Israel with Palestinian hands" says that the world community is in no haste to recognize the alleged Israeli air attack in Syria an act of aggression; p 6 (400 words)


Komsomolskaya Pravda

1. Viktor Baranets article headlined "They called Vassilyeva Mistress at Oboronservis" reveals new details in the high-profile fraud case at the Russian Defense Ministry-controlled Oboronservis company; p 6 (500 words).

2. Alexander Grishin article headlined "Skolkovo lost in squabbles" comments on the latest situation around the Skolkovo innovation foundation, saying that the Audit Chamber has revealed large-scale financial violations; p 6 (400 words).

3. Boris Nadezhdin article headlined "If you look at homeland not from Moscow apartment" reports on the May 6 rally in Moscow, outlining the number of participants and marking the major problems within the Russian opposition; p 9 (900 words).


Krasnaya Zvezda

1. Alexander Gavarsky article headlined "March under victory sign" gives details of the upcoming Victory Parade, which is to be held in Moscow on May 9; p 3 (500 words).

2. Alexander Tikhonov article headlined "Akhtubinsk changes face" features a report on a new air strip at the Russian Defense Ministry's test airbase at Akhtubinsk in the Astrakhan region; p 4 (800 words).

3. Sergei Medvedev article headlined "Russia-U.S.: in search of rapprochement" reports on the talks between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov; p 5 (700 words).

May 8, 2013/BBC Monitoring/©BBC

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