In Brief
Political Weatherman MOSCOW (SPT) — President Dmitry Medvedev has named Alexander Bedritsky his adviser in charge of climate issues, presidential press service said Friday. Bedritsky, 62, retired as head of the Federal Meteorological Service, which he led for 16 years, earlier this month. He will act as the presidential sherpa at international negotiations on the climate issues, said Sergei Naryshkin, head of the presidential administration. Since 2003, he has been chairman of the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization. Power Firms MOSCOW (SPT) — The Energy Ministry is preparing legal changes that would introduce punishments — including criminal responsibility — for energy companies that endanger people’s lives by not doing required maintenance, Minister Sergei Shmatko said Friday. The comments follow a shakeup at state hydropower giant RusHydro earlier this month. In August, 75 people were killed in an accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya dam, and the government has said it believes poor management was to blame. Navy Downsizing MOSCOW (AP) — The Navy faces further decline after 2015, when most Soviet-built ships will have to be mothballed, a retired admiral was quoted as saying Friday. The warning follows comments by Russian officials that they were planning to buy a French Mistral-class warship able to carry at least a dozen helicopters or to land forces. Russia currently has no big ship with the power to anchor off coast and deploy troops onto land. With the likely decommissioning of other aging warships, distant deployments would be impossible, Retired Adm. Vyacheslav Popov said in remarks carried by RIA-Novosti. “If things remain as they are, we will have to mothball most ocean warships by 2015,” Popov said, RIA-Novosti reported. “That will sharply reduce the Navy’s capability,” which he said was now five to six times less than Britain’s or France’s, and 20 to 30 times smaller than the U.S. Navy’s. H1N1 Spread MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Health officials said Friday that the spread of the H1N1 virus — better known as swine flu — has reached “epidemic” proportions in 22 cities and 54 regions of the country. More than 11,600 cases of swine flu have been confirmed since the start of the outbreak and more than 70,000 have been vaccinated, according to data posted on Health and Social Development Ministry web site. Holocaust Day MOSCOW (SPT) — European Jews have asked President Dmitry Medvedev whether his country would observe International Holocaust Day starting from next year, Reuters reported. The day marking the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp in Poland on Jan. 27, 1945, is widely honored. “We’ve submitted our proposal to Dmitry Anatolyevich [Medvedev] and await his decision,” the president of the influential European Jewish Congress, Moshe Kantor, told reporters Thursday after he met Medvedev. Kantor said in Russia the day would be renamed “Day of the Soviet Army and Liberation of Auschwitz” to honor the role of the Soviets in freeing the camp. Symbols Banned WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish President Lech Kaczynski has approved legislation that allows for people to be fined or even imprisoned for possessing or buying communist symbols, two decades after communist rule ended. The new law says people who possess, purchase or distribute items or recordings containing communist symbols could be fined or be imprisoned for up two years. The new law has drawn criticism from left-wing lawmakers and other observers, who say it is ill-defined and will be hard to implement. For the Record The United States and Russia are unlikely to finish a pact to cut Cold War arsenals of nuclear weapons by a Dec. 5 deadline, but they still aim to close the deal by year-end, Russian and U.S. sources said Friday, Reuters reported. (SPT) *?Ingush officials said Friday that Abdul-Kerim Tsechoyev, police chief of Karabulak, was killed and his driver injured by a car bomb. (SPT)
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