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What the Papers Say, June 19, 2013

Kommersant


1. Vladislav Novy et al. report headlined "Re-addressing switched on for Rostelekom" says Rostelekom privatization, which is to fetch $5 billion to the Russian budget, may be held in accordance with a new scenario. The authorities plan to offer over 50 percent of the company to its rivals: MTS, Megafon, and Vimpelkom. Foreign investors are not to be allowed to take part in the privatization as the Defense Ministry does not want foreigners to own strategic assets; pp 1, 12 (812 words).


2. Viktor Khamrayev article headlined "NGOs without list and reproach" says Justice Minister Alexander Konovalov thinks that the list of foreign agents will remain blank in Russia as NGOs are unwilling to get registered in this way. The minister spoke on NGOs checks at the meeting of the presidential human rights council; pp 1-2 (726 words).


3. Dmitry Butrin article headlined "Competitive denomination" outlines measures discussed by the government to stimulate the economy. The Finance Ministry opposes the plans to invest all of the National Welfare Fund into infrastructure projects, as the Economic Development Ministry previously suggested; pp 1, 6 (783 words).


4. Alexandra Bayazitova and Svetlana Dementyeva article headlined "Mortgage Housing Credit Agency to create 'presidential' interest rate" says the Mortgage Housing Credit Agency is to set up or buy a bank to offer mortgages at record low interest rate as the president demanded; pp 1, 9 (748 words).


5. Maria-Luiza Tirmaste et al. report headlined "Doctors and Nikolay Travkin to help Sergei Sobyanin" says 33 people, including former ally of Mikhail Kasyanov Nikolay Travkin, have joined Sergei Sobyanin's election headquarters; p 2 (544 words).


6. Sofia Samokhina and Maxim Ivanov article headlined "Deputies to put foreign assets on record" says that the State Duma deputies are to file documents with the income monitoring commission by the end of the month, as on 7 August the ban on having foreign assets will come into force; p 2 (400 words).


7. Anna Pushkarskaya article headlined "Venice Commission defends non-traditional values" says experts from the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe have criticizes anti-gay legislation in Russia, Moldova and Ukraine and advised the countries to amend the laws; p 3 (601 words).


8. Oleg Rubnikovich et al. article headlined "Aeroflot bumps into searches" reports on accusations presented against deputy head of Aeroflot Andrei Kalmykov over abuse of office; p 4 (700 words).


9. Tatyana Yedovina article headlined "G8 passes tax declaration" says G8 summit has passed a resolution on the global financial transparency. Regions with beneficial taxation are to be eliminated completely; p 6 (606 words).


10. Galina Dudina article headlined "Barack Obama opens Brandenburg Gates" says U.S. President Barack Obama is to visit Berlin today. It is his first visit of the city as the U.S. president; p 7 (490 words).


11. Kirill Belyaninov article headlined "If I had been a Chinese spy, I would have already lived in a palace" says programmer who used to work for the CIA Edward Snowden has denied the accusations that he worked for the Chinese intelligence. He attributed his decision to make the information on the U.S. secret services internet surveillance public to an attempt to help President Barack Obama; p 8 (544 words).


12. Andrei Kolesnikov article headlined "Caste of unshakable ones" says G8 leaders have managed to find the most delicate wording for the final resolution on the situation in Syria; p 8 (550 words).


13. Sergei Strokan article in opinion column headlined "Price of issue" says the current G8 summit has shown that the Group of Eight has again transformed into G7 plus one due to political disagreements with Moscow; p 8 (404 words).


14. Yelena Chernenko article headlined "Hot lines brought to internet" says Russia and the U.S. have reached unprecedented agreements on the cooperation in internet security. The agreements were reached at the meeting of the two presidents on the sidelines of the G8 summit; p 8 (759 words).


Nezavisimaya Gazeta


1. Mikhail Snegirev article headlined "People's Front starts dealing with abolition of taxes" says the All-Russia People's Front has come up with a proposal not to charge taxes for two years from entrepreneurs who set up new businesses; pp 1, 4 (800 words).


2. Alexandra Samarina article headlined "Fuss of law-enforcement agencies around roulette" says the Prosecutor General's Office has returned the case of prosecutors involved in illegal gambling business in the Moscow region to the Investigations Committee. The prosecutors are displeased with new charges brought against former deputy prosecutor of Moscow Region Alexander Ignatenko; pp 1, 3 (1,000 words).


3. Ivan Rodin and Alexandra Samarina article headlined "State Duma hears president" says the "foreign agent" notion may be removed from the law regulation the work of NGOs in Russia. The idea has been discussed at the presidential human rights council meeting; pp 1, 3 (900 words).


4. Darya Tsilyurik article headlined "Free trade between USA and EU — one-sided relationship" says it would be problematic for the U.S. and the EU to reach an agreement on free trade as it would ruin the European industry; pp 1, 8 (500 words).


5. Viktor Litovkin article headlined "We can only dream of Golan Heights" says the U.N. Security Council will not consider Moscow 's proposal to send Russian peacekeepers to Golan Heights due to the opposition of Israel; pp 1-2 (600 words).


6. Tatyana Ivzhenko article headlined "Minsk drags Kiev to Customs Union" gives details of Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko's visit to Kiev; pp 1, 7 (1,100 words).


7. Editorial headlined "Ban just in case" says that laws in Russia are passed in order to be implemented selectively rather than on equal bases; p 2 (500 words).


8. Mikhail Vinogradov article headlined "ONF as technology" looks into the prospects of the All-Russia People's Front; p 3 (700 words).


9. Georgy Mirsky article headlined "Summer of Islamic East" analyses the latest developments around the situation in Turkey and Syria; p 5 (2,100 words).


10. Yury Paniyev article headlined "Syria splits club of great powers" says that Russia and the rest of the G8 countries have failed to find a consensus as regards the stance on the Syrian issue; p 8 (900 words).


Vedomosti


1. Timofey Dzyadko and Yekaterina Derbilova article headlined "Rosneft to save money on vice-presidents" says Rosneft oil giant is to save money on paying compensations to top-managers of TNK-BP, the company it is taking over. Ten vice-presidents of TNK-BP claim that Rosneft has to pay them $9 million, but the oil giant does not hurry to pay the compensations; pp 1, 12 (478 words).


2. Editorial headlined "To meet more often" says that instead of easing regulations for NGOs, the Russian authorities are looking for pretexts to make the work of NGOs even more problematic; pp 1, 6 (359 words).


3. Polina Khimshiashvili and Lilia Biryukova article headlined "Ice truce" says despite the fact that participants in G8 summit have managed to sign a joint resolution on Syria, the stances of Moscow and the Western countries on the conflict remain different; p 2 (645 words).


4. Bela Lyauv interview with Ildar Gabdrakhmanov, first deputy prime minister of the Moscow Region government, speaking on investments policy of the regional authorities and fiscal problems of some towns; pp 8-9 (2,038 words).


Rossiiskaya Gazeta


1. Kira Latukhina article headlined "Only sky is higher" reviews the results of G8 summit that has finished in the UK; pp 1 — 2 (1,000 words).


2. Vladimir Kuzmin article headlined "Combine on Baikal to be closed" says the Russian government is ready to close the Baikal paper and pulp factory on the Lake Baikal. It will have to allocate 40 billion rubles ($1.2 billion) for the development of the town where the combine was the main employer; pp 1, 3 (700 words).


3. Article by Fedor Lukyanov, chairman of the presidium of Foreign and Defense Policy Council, headlined "Disappearing 'Helsinki spirit'" looks into the history of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and prospects for its development; p 5 (900 words).


4. Sergei Ptichkin and Igor Chernyak article headlined "Le Bourget-2013: contracts and intrigues" reports on the outcome of the international air show held in France; p 6 (700 words).


Izvestia


1. Anastasia Kashevarova and Alena Sivkova article headlined "Golikova or Kudrin may replace Stepashin" says the State Duma has reportedly nominated Audit Chamber head Sergei Stepashin, former Healthcare Minister Tatyana Golikova and former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin for the post of the new Audit Chamber head; pp 1, 4 (522 words).


2. Yulia Tsoy article headlined "A Just Russia to nominate Levichev for Moscow mayoral election" says A Just Russia plans to nominate its chairman Nikolai Levichev for Moscow mayor. The candidate is to add intrigue to the mayoral election; pp 1, 3 (692 words).


3. Article by Valentina Matviyenko, the head of the Federation Council, headlined "Russian history should become obligatory Single State Exam" says school leavers should be obliged to pass a history exam like they pass the state exams in the Russian language and mathematics; pp 1, 4 (622 words).


4. Alexander Yunashev article headlined "G8 summit: one against seven others" says Russian President Vladimir Putin has managed to defend his stance on the Syrian conflict at the G8 summit; p 2 (835 words).


5. Yulia Tsoy and Anton Mardasov article headlined "Gudkov passes foreign business to younger son" says that opposition activist and former State Duma member Gennady Gudkov has decided to get rid of his share in a Bulgarian company so that he can take part in the Moscow Region gubernatorial election; p 2 (500 words).


Moskovsky Komsomolets


1. Ignat Kalinin article headlined "Army of swindlers and Serdyukov" gives new details of the Defense Ministry's corruption scandal; pp 1, 4 (613 words).


2. Mikhail Rostovsky article headlined "Putin lonely again" says the Syrian conflict has shown that no Western powers support the Russian foreign policy; pp 1-2 (1,133 words).


3. Marina Ozerova article headlined "State Duma worried with gays, not children" comments on the bill approved by the State Duma which bans the adoption of orphans by same-sex couples; pp 1, 3 (725 words).



Novaya Gazeta


1. Nina Petlyanova article headlined "As old as KGB" slams a St. Petersburg newspaper's ranking of Russian "corrupt papers" which defines the Novaya Gazeta as the most bribable paper and presents the results of its own investigation into the reasons behind the ranking's compiling; (2,300 words).


2. Yevgeny Feldman article headlined "Is presidential administration your chief?" reports on opposition activist Alexei Navalny trial in Kirov; p 8 (877 words).


3. Yulia Latynina article headlined "Vladimir Vladimirovich Orwell" mocks at President Putin's statement in his recent interview with Russia Today, in which he said that Russia defeated an attack of Georgian terrorists on Sochi several years ago; p 5 (849 words).


4. Yelena Racheva article headlined "They tried to protest under veil of medical aid" looks at the latest developments with Turkish protests; pp 16-17 (1,700 words).


Komsomolskaya Pravda


1. Dmitry Smirnov article headlined "Obama wants to relax me by saying he becoming weaker" looks at President Putin's meeting with his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama during the G8 summit in Northern Ireland; p 2 (700 words).


2. Yevgeny Arsyukhin interview with billionaire and Civil Platform party leader Mikhail Prokhorov speaking on his political ambitions and Russia's economic problems; pp 6-7 (2,203 words).


Noviye Izvestia


1. Yulia Savina headlined "Oh, front road..." outlines development plans of the All-Russia People's Front movement and notes that any organizations in Russia will remain outsiders in the political life until they are allowed to take part in elections; pp 1-2 (1,561 words).


2. Konstantin Nikolayev and Sergei Manukov article headlined "Eight minus one" says G8 leaders have managed to agree on economic issues, however, their stances on Syria remain different from the Russian approach; p 3 (473 words).


Krasnaya Zvezda


1. Viktor Ruchkin article headlined "Syria splits summit" looks into the results of the G8 summit in Northern Ireland and says that the participants have still failed to reach an agreement over the Syrian crisis; pp 1, 3 (1,300 words).


2. Andrei Garavsky article headlined "Le Bourget: First contracts" details some major contracts Russia is going to sign at the Paris air show; pp 1, 3 (1,000 words).


RBC Daily


1. Andrei Reut interview with Cypriot President Nikolaos Anastasiadhis speaking on the current financial crisis in the country and explaining its possible causes; pp 1, 5 (1,400 words).


2. Ivan Petrov article headlined "Arms. Made in Russia" looks at Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu's visit to the Le Bourget air show; pp 1, 4 (900 words).


3. Inga Vorobyeva article headlined "Assad splits G8" says the participants of the G8 summit in Northern Ireland have failed to reach an agreement on a possible settlement of the Syrian conflict; p 4 (750 words).


Tvoy Den


1. Alexandr Yunashev article headlined "Informal communication" comments on a meeting between Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G8 summit; p 2 (450 words).

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