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Mobile reception points were organized at a local airfield and railway station to practice first-aid treatment and the evacuation of the sick and wounded, he said.
MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian Black Sea Fleet conducted an anti-terrorist exercise at one of its naval sites on Thursday, the Black Sea Fleet's press service reported.
The exercise involved coastal troops, radiation, chemical and biological protection units, firefighting and medical services, in all more than 100 servicemen and 17 pieces of hardware and was commanded by the fleet's acting Commander-in Chief Vice Admiral Alexander Troyan.
MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - Several thousand reservists of the Siberian Military District have been recalled to take part in a command and post mobilization exercise in eastern Siberia.
"This command and post exercise, in which over 100 headquarters, military units, conscription offices and civil executive agencies take part, has entered the active and practical stage," head of the information and public affairs service of the Siberian Military District Col. Valery Shchebalin told Interfax-AVN.
A number of conscription offices in Russia's internal republic of Buryatia and the Irkutsk region have been drilling practical actions for a special period, the colonel said.
This is a planned exercise, which will end on March 29, Shchebalin said.
ROSTOV-ON-DON. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - A special operation to eliminate militants who fortified themselves in an apartment in a five- storey residential building in the town of Dagestanskiye Ogni, Dagestan, is now over.
"There is no shooting from the apartment now. The fire has been suppressed by special task servicemen. The third militant has been killed. The apartment and the floor on which it is located will be searched," a source in the operation's headquarters told Interfax.
The militants blockaded themselves in an apartment on the second floor. Two of them are supposedly the Kurbanov brothers, suspected of murdering two policemen in Dagestanskiye Ogni last November.
As reported earlier, one of the special task servicemen sustained minor injuries during the operation.
MAKHACHKALA. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - A tank at an oil tank facility in Makhachkala, capital of the Russian region of Dagestan, exploded on Thursday, the blast being so powerful that it shook the walls of buildings several kilometers away, witnesses told Interfax.
The explosion started a fire.
There have been no casualty reports so far.
ROSTOV-ON-DON/MAKHACHKALA. March 28 (Interfax) - Firefighters have managed to stop a fire, which started at a large crude oil tank at an oil facility in Makhachkala, from spreading to other oil tanks, a spokesman for the firefighting department told Interfax-South.
"Currently, the remainder of oil in the tank still burning. Specialists said there are about 400 tons still to burn out. Firefighters continue to tackle the fire. They worked through the night. Presumably, the remainder of the oil will burnout completely by 10 or 11 a.m. Moscow time," he said.
One of the firefighting officials ruled out a deliberate explosion of the oil tank. "This could be a technological error during operation. But the final assessment will be made by prosecutors after the fire is extinguished and the team of investigators will be able to start working in the tank area," he said.
The fire erupted at the oil tank facility as a result of an explosion on Thursday evening. One employee suffered burns to almost 100% of her body.
MAKHACHKALA. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - The measures put in place in the town of Dagestanskiye Ogni since 11.30 p.m. Moscow time on Wednesday, following the announcement of an anti-terror operation, have been lifted, a spokesperson for the Russian Federal Security Service Department for Dagestan told Interfax on Thursday.
"By order of Dagestan department's acting chief Sergei Shirokikh the measures related to the anti-terror operation were lifted at 6.20 p.m.," the spokesperson said.
During the special operation conducted by federal security and police officers three militants who showed armed resistance were killed, the official said.
Two militants have been identified: they are brothers Chingiz and Jamamed Kurbanov. They were wanted for killing two police officers in the town on October 2 last year. The third militant is being identified.
MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian law enforcement agencies provided data on some foreign attempts to recruit employees of the Investigation Committee in the Prosecutor's Office of Russia; the Investigation Committee leaders have not provided this information, it said.
"This information was published at the session by representatives of the law enforcement agencies. Investigation Committee leaders have not provided this information," Investigation Committee official Vladimir Markin said.
According to earlier reports, the committee employees "became a priority target for western special services and terrorist organizations," said one of the participants of the session chaired by Investigation Committee head Alexander Bastrykhin.
MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - The overall crime rate in Russia's armed forces is declining but the amount of embezzlement by officers is rising, a source in the upper house of parliament said, citing a report that Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika is due to present to a house session on Friday.
In 2007, 545 members of the armed forces were killed as a result of crimes or accidents, but the general crime rate in the military was 20% lower than in 2006, the source said, citing the report.
Serious crimes such as murder, attempted murder and suicide- provoking treatment showed a trend to decrease in number, the source said.
At the same time, crime among officers remains a problem.
Embezzlement made up the bulk of last year's 3,700 recorded crimes by officers. "As a result, damages in that year alone more than doubled in amount and reached more than 1 billion rubles," the source quoted the report as saying.
Offenses relating to social security remain widespread in the armed forces, the source said.
MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia's Prosecutor General's Office is alarmed with violations of law in prisons.
The prosecutor's checking has detected numerous offenses of the law on procedure of examination of applications from Russian prisoners. "The prisoners complaints concern illegal use of force, special means, insufficient supply of basic necessities and medicines, abuse of office, as well as illegal incarceration in punitive cells," Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika will say in his address to the Federation Council on Friday.
A source in the Federation Council familiar with the contents of the report told Interfax that last year the Prosecutor General's Office asked the prime minister "to instruct the Justice Ministry to take additional measures to eliminate the offenses and to ensure that the rights of prisoners be observed unconditionally."
MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - The percentage of unsolved crimes has decreased slightly, but they still account for over half of all crimes in Russia, Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika said.
"Over 1.8 million of 3.58 million crimes were not solved last year. Almost half of them are serious crimes, every seventh is a murder," Chaika said in the Federation Council on Friday.
MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - Crime rate in Russia has decreased, Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika said.
"It is for the first time over the past five years that the growth in the number of registered crimes has not only slowed, but gone down 7%," Chaika said at the Federation Council on Friday.
The number of murders in the country has gone down almost 20%, Chaika added.
MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - The work of Russian law enforcement agencies in the fight against corruption is unsatisfactory, Prosecutor General Yury Chaika said.
"The organization of the activity of all law enforcement agencies in the area of fighting corruption related crimes needs serious attention. The number of crimes exposed decreased almost 3% last year. This situation does not correspond to the reality at all," Chaika said delivering an annual report at the Federation Council on Friday.
"The need to reassess the criteria of the efficiency of fight against corruption has matured. It should be directed at exposing systemic corruption patterns and mechanisms," Chaika said.
MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - The number of arrests imposed on suspects and defendants is unreasonably high, Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika said.
"The number of complaints from individuals concerning investigation has doubled and is growing, which is one of the main signs of ill-being. The wide use of custody as a pre-trial restriction measure is inconsistent with the crime situation," Chaika said at the Federation Council on Friday.
More than 90% petitions for remanding in custody lodged by investigators are being accepted, he said. "Currently, over 30% of defendants charged with misdemeanors are remanded in custody, and more than 70% of them subsequently get a punishment other than imprisonment," the prosecutor general said.
At the same time, "based on complaints from Russian citizens, the European Court made a number of conclusions that clearly suggest that the severity of a committed offense per se is not an absolute ground for arresting an individual, and we are being charged considerable sums of money for that," Chaika said.
MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - The illegal use of Russian forests is turning into a "threatening" situation, Prosecutor General Yury Chaika said.
"Last year the Prosecutor General's Office unearthed a whole stratum of environmental problems related with irrational use of our rich natural resources, and illegal use of forests, wooded areas and the sale of lumber and other forest resources," Chaika said at the Federation Council on Friday.
"The increasing scale of illegal harvesting and export of timber today poses a threat not only to Russia's economic interests, but also to its environmental safety," the prosecutor general said.
MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax) - The direct murderer of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya has been identified.
"The direct murderer of Politkovskaya has been identified. Every measure to search for and apprehend this person is being taken," representative of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office Vyacheslav Smirnov said in a military court.
MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax) - The investigation of the Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya murder case has been extended until September 7, 2008, representative of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office Vyacheslav Smirnov said in a military court on Friday.
Thus, the investigation was extended up to 23 months, the prosecutor said.
"Nine people, including [former FSB officer Pavel] Ryaguzov, are being brought to criminal account within the framework of this case," Smirnov said.
MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax) - The Moscow Garrison Military Court has met the prosecutor's motion and prolonged the term in custody for former FSB officer Pavel Ryaguzov, who is involved in the Novaya Gazeta journalist Ann Politkovskaya murder case, until August 21.
The court ruled "to prolong the term in custody for Pavel Ryaguzov for four months and 14 days - 12 months in total - until August 21, 2008," the judge said at the hearing.
Ryaguzov is accused of "establishing the abiding dwelling of Politkovskaya and giving this information to Burayev [a suspect in the Politkovskaya murder case]," the judge said.
Ryaguzov was charged with abduction, extortion and breach of the inviolability of dwelling on August 24, 2007, prosecutor Vyacheslav Smirnov said at the hearing. Charges of abuse of office were brought against the former FSB officer on September 17, 2007, the prosecutor added.
The period of investigating the Politkovskaya murder case was extended up to September 7, 2008 at the hearing as well, Smirnov said.
MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Rosnanotekh Corporation signed a cooperation agreement on Friday.
"We will be making nanomaterials and nanosystems with unparalleled operating qualities," Roscosmos head Anatoly Perminov said after the ceremony.
Rosnanotekh General Director Leonid Melamed signed the agreement on behalf of his corporation.
The sides will form a system of technological forecasting and choose the most topical directions of developing nanomaterials for the aerospace industry.
MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian Space Forces launched the carrier rocket Cosmos-3M with a German surveillance spacecraft SAR-Lupe, Space Forces spokesman Lieut. Col. Alexei Zolotukhin told Interfax.
"The launch from Plesetsk space center was normal. It will take some thirty minutes to put the spacecraft into orbit," he said.
This is the fourth satellite of the SAR-Lupe series that the Space Forces have launched for the Bundeswehr. Currently three spacecrafts of the SAR-Lupe satellite group are successfully orbiting. They were taken to orbit by the Cosmos-3M rockets in 2006-2007. The total orbiting group will eventually consist of five satellites.
MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia has launched and put in orbit the fourth satellite of Germany's SAR-Lupe reconnaissance series, a Russian Space Forces spokesman said.
The satellite was launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia's Arkhangelsk region on Thursday.
"Currently the satellite is outside the [radar] visibility zone. Around 22:00 Moscow Time [1700 GMT] we should be able to see it, after which control of the satellite will be handed over to the customer," the spokesman told Interfax-AVN.
The previous SAR-Lupe was launched on November 1, 2007. The first satellite of the series was sent into space on December 19, 2006.
All four SAR-Lupe satellites were launched by Russia from Plesetsk.
MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - Polet, a leading Russian cargo airline, said on Thursday that one of its aircraft had taken the upper stage for one of the rockets that the Sea Launch service uses for launching commercial payloads from a mobile sea platform to the United States.
The Antonov An-124-100 aircraft brought the DM-SL upper stage, to be fitted on a Zenit 3SL rocket, to Long Beach, California, Polet said in a statement.
The manufacturer of DM-SL's is Russian corporation Energia.
Sea Launch has already carried out two successful launches since the start of 2008.
Polet specializes in carrying large-sized Russian and foreign-made space equipment and has been the Russian space agency's general carrier since 1999.
For some years, it has been one of Russia's top five airlines for cargo transportation volumes.
MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian defense company Rosoboronexport attaches great importance to developing and strengthening cooperation with foreign partners in the field of outer space research, the company said in a statement, released on the occasion of a successful launch to the orbit of another German satellite.
The company has launched 25 satellites into earth orbit by Cosmos-3M and Zenit-SSL launch vehicles in recent years, the statement said. "Contracts for the launch of military, civil and dual-purpose spacecraft for Algeria, the United Kingdom, Germany, the European Space Agency, Italy, China, Nigeria, South Korea, Turkey, Sweden and other countries have been successful," the statement said.
Rosoboronexport "offers to foreign customers the design and manufacture of spacecraft and their systems, as well as research and development of space technologies."
Rosoboronexport cooperates with more than 60 foreign countries.
MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - Rosoboronexport will offer Latin American countries an integrated coastal zone control system at the 15th International Air and Space Fair FIDAE-2008, which will take place from March 31 throughout April 6 in Chili.
"According to Russian expert assessments, one of these complex's is equivalent to two or three reconnaissance aircraft, up to 80 unmanned aircraft and up to 20 patrol boats as to its mission," Rosoboronexport said in a statement on Friday.
It is proposed to create a coastal zone monitoring and control system through the integration of widely used general purpose means, for example ship-traffic control systems deployed in the interests of the navy, coastal guards, customs and rescue, as well as other agencies concerned.
BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - Preparations continue at Baikonur space center for the takeoff of a Zenit-3SLB launch vehicle with a DM-SLB upper stage and Israel's AMOS3 satellite, a source at the space center told Interfax on Friday.
Israeli specialists are conducting independent tests of the satellite and preparing its engine for fueling planned for next week in the clean chamber of the assembly tower of pad No. 31, the source said.
The takeoff is expected at the end of April.
KYIV. March 28 (Interfax) - Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is hoping that U.S. President George W. Bush's upcoming visit to Ukraine will give bilateral relations a serious boost.
"Ukraine is preparing for U.S. President Bush's visit. We expect his arrival to give a serious impetus to our economic relations," Tymoshenko said, meeting with foreign diplomats accredited in Ukraine on Thursday.
"I think the visit will produce very serious agreements and we are looking forward to and preparing for it," the prime minister said.
Bush is due to visit Ukraine on April 1 ahead of NATO's April 2-4 summit in Bucharest with Ukraine's bid to join the alliance's Membership Action Plan included into the Bucharest summit's agenda.
MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - A large amount of obsolete and excessive weapons will be destroyed in Ukraine with NATO's assistance in the coming 12 years, NATO's Information Office in Moscow has reported.
"A project intended for the coming 12 years, with an estimated cost of 25 million euro - the largest separate initiative of its kind - will help Ukraine to safely destroy 133,000 tonnes of obsolete and excessive weapons, 1.5 million firearms and 1,000 shoulder-held missile launchers," the NATO Information Office said in a press release ahead of the Alliance's Bucharest summit.
Four hundred thousand landmines were eliminated in Ukraine under a previous project, the Information Office said.
NATO and Ukraine have formed a pattern of dialogue and cooperation that embraces a wide range of areas, the statement says. The parties signed a charter of special partnership in 1997 and adopted a NATO- Ukraine action plan in 2002. In 2005 they launched an in-depth dialogue on Ukraine's accession and on related reforms.
The dialogue, started in April 2005, is a structured path for Ukraine, NATO and NATO members to exchange views on all membership- related issues, the statement says. The dialogue, however, does not guarantee an invitation to join NATO. Nor does it predetermine NATO's decision, it says.
An invitation will depend on Ukraine's accomplishments in attaining the targets of key reforms. But, ultimately, the Ukrainian people and their elected leaders will decide the country's future path with NATO, it says.
NATO's cooperation with Ukraine in reorganizing the defense and security sectors is broader than cooperation with all other NATO partner-states, the Information Office said.
KYIV. March 28 (Interfax) - Volodymyr Shulga, one of the star witnesses in President Yushchenko's poisoning case, died Wednesday evening, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry told Interfax.
Shulga arrived in the Shevchenkovo District Department of the Interior Ministry accompanied by his lawyer at the invitation of the investigator at 4:45 p.m. He testified as a witness in a case of forged documents, it said.
Following interrogation, police suggested that he provide clarification concerning a writ from a certain citizen whom Shulga allegedly threatened to kill. Allegedly, Shulga repeatedly made threatening phone calls and sent threatening SMS messages to this individual.
Shulga wrote a clarification on this point and pledged "not to implement any illegal action in relation to this citizen." After this, Shulga and his defense lawyer left, the department said. Some ten minutes later, department officials called him on the phone and asked him to come back to provide some further details.
On coming back, Shulga said he would speak to police officers only in the presence of his defense lawyer who had left by that time. Shulga called his defense lawyer asking him to return and waited for him in the department corridor.
Suddenly Shulga said he felt ill and police called an ambulance. Doctors later registered Shulga's death, which they said was due to coronary deficiency.
According to earlier reports, Shulga organized a supper with participation of the candidate for president Viktor Yushchenko in September 2004. After this, Viktor Yushchenko developed serious health problems. Later it became known that he had been poisoned with dioxin. The criminal case has not been concluded.
Shulga was an owner of 25% property of the Foxtrot Group of Companies.
ASHGABAT. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow has confirmed his country's readiness to cooperate in peacekeeping activities.
"Faithful to its neutral status delegated to it by the international community, Turkmenistan will reassert its readiness to contribute its peacekeeping potential to the cause of peace, stability and global security," Berdimuhammedow said during a cabinet meeting on Thursday, ahead of NATO's April 2-4 summit in Bucharest in which the Turkmen leader will also take part.
KYIV. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - The Ukrainian State Border Service helicopter that crashed in the Black Sea had 14 people on board. Rescuers have now discovered the 13th body belonging to a professional serviceman.
"Earlier this serviceman was not included in the lists of helicopter passengers. All victims of the crash have now been found," Ukrainian Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman Ihor Krol told Interfax.
The Ukrainian Mill Mi-8 helicopter crashed into the Black Sea on Thursday. It had 14 people on board, one of whom was found alive.
MINSK. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - The Belarusian Foreign Ministry has refuted allegations of involvement with Viktor But, an informed source told Interfax.
Commenting on material in local media on the alleged involvement of Belarus in the business of Bout, the source in the Foreign Ministry said that "it is very difficult comment such articles, since they are based in fantasies of Hollywood movies. It is obvious that the authors of these articles do not understand very well the issues of deliveries of conventional weapons and current restrictions in this area."
"In Belarus, a multi-stage system of export control strictly regulating all stages of work with weapons, starting from pre-contract development and concluding with possible inspection of the use of delivered materiel on the territory of the buyer has been created," the source said.
"Belarus also strictly observes all international obligations in international security including UN Security Council resolutions on these problems," the source said.
"The republic regularly sends information on armaments and materiel deliveries to the UN register on conventional weapons. This information is accessible on the UN website," he said.
The Belarusian Foreign Ministry has developed yearly reports from 2003 from 2003, has prepared national reports on the export control policy in this country, the source said. "These reports are accessible on the official Foreign Ministry website," he said.
TASHKENT. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - The upper house in Uzbekistan's parliament approved at a plenary session on Friday the law on Uzbekistan's accession to the Collective Security Treaty and a set of legal documents restoring the country's CSTO membership.
"By signing these documents the country is based on its commitment to strengthening peace and stability, international and regional security, no threat or use of force in inter-governmental relations, joint protection of independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty of the members states - the principles that arise from Uzbekistan's sovereign right," senators said.
The approved documents are consistent with the Constitution and the laws concerning the country's foreign policy principles, defense, international treaties and other regulations and statutory provisions, parliamentarians said.
These documents passed by the Legislative Chamber and approved by the Senate are considered to be passed by the parliament and are being sent to the president for signing.
It was reported earlier that in December 2006 Uzbek President Islam Karimov signed the law ratifying the Protocol restoring Uzbekistan's membership in the Collective Security Treaty Organization. The Protocol was signed in Sochi on August 16, 2006. The bill ratifying this document was passed by the parliament's lower house on November 21 and approved by the Senate on December 1, 2006.
Uzbekistan joined CSTO in 1992 and suspended its membership in 1998.
TBILISI. March 28 (Interfax) - Georgia hopes to accede the NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP) at the alliance's summit in Bucharest.
"Our goal is to secure the MAP, rather than an artificial mechanism, which would be invented specially for Georgia and Ukraine, and which would be an additional stage between an Intensified Dialogue and the MAP, in Bucharest," Georgian Foreign Minister David Bakradze, who returned from Brussels on Friday, said.
"Georgia deserves a MAP and the final decision should be very simple: either there is a MAP, or there is not," the minister said.
Bakradze spent the last two days in Brussels, where he held talks at the NATO headquarters regarding the support of Georgia's MAP bid at the Bucharest summit from the alliance's members.
MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax-AVN) - Kazakh president's former son-in-law Rakhat Aliyev sentenced to 20 years in prison for a plotting a coup d'etat, treason and espionage, has dismissed his charges and hopes to reunite with his family.
"These are absurd, Soviet-style accusations of the 1930s-1940s. I read them on the internet. I do not acknowledge this court because it is a closed, military court. In our country the whole legislative, executive and judicial power is held by one person. The authoritative leader is giving orders and judges simply stamps these decisions. In effect, it's a revenge against me," Aliyev said in an interview with the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper published on Friday.
Commenting on the accusations that he plotted a coup d'etat with the help of people who were trained in Egypt and Israel, Aliyev said: "As for Israel, I sent there my personal security guard for special training, which was official, under a contract. They were trained by the Israeli security services. To Egypt they also went legally. The level of deviation depends on the angle from which you look at the things."
"Of the 16 people who ended up on the dock only one is Kazakh and all others are Russians," he said. "They are former and current officers from the National Security Committee, I think they are completely innocent. This is all going on according to a certain scenario," he said.
None of my attorneys was present at the courtroom, Aliyev said. "I live in Austria. Nobody has notified me. In principle, I do not want and am not going to allow the president to get involved in the process. This is a breach of the European Charter on Human Rights," he said.
The court's ruling was not handed over to me, Aliyev said. "No. As my former father-in-law, the Kazakh president said, Aliyev is out of law in Kazakhstan," he said.
Now Aliyev is going to "defend people who became victims of the arbitrariness of the authorities." "I will go to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva. It was with my direct participation that Kazakhstan signed the UN Convention on human rights 1957. And the president and the parliament ratified it only last year. This gives a chance to influence Astana," he said.
Aliyev said that he was not going to abandon his political ambitions. "To say that there are no political ambitions would be untrue. We will see. I will not be surprised if before 2013 the president will think up and make some more changes to the Constitution because the Constitution in Kazakhstan is a prostitute. It can be changed every year," he said.
Aliyev said it has been almost a year since he last talked to his family. "I have not had a chance to talk neither to her, nor to the kids since June, when the Kazakh court ruled on my divorce in my absence. I am not allowed event to talk to them by