Lavrov to meet Westerwelle, attend security conference.

MOSCOW, February 5 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov is leaving for Germany on Friday to meet his German counterpart
Guido Westerwelle and attend the security conference in Munich.
Foreign ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said Lavrov "will put the
main emphasis on strengthening and renewing security architecture on the
Euro-Atlantic space in order to promote Russia-proposed draft of the
European security treaty."
Russia-EU and Russia-NATO dialogue is also on the agenda.
Nesterenko said the two ministers will analyze the situation in
disarmament and arms control spheres, the reduction of offensive nuclear
arms and restoration of the CFE regime, as well as trust and transparency
in the military sphere.
"It is also planned to discuss non-proliferation issues, including the
settlement by political and diplomatic means of the Iranian nuclear
problem, promotion of the peace process in the Middle East, stabilization
and restoration in Afghanistan, and improvement of the situation in other
'hot spots", the spokesman said.
Russia-EU cooperation has to follow Russian-German successful example
and focus on 'partnership for modernization' principle. "The strategy aims
at launching ambitious trade and economic, scientific and technological,
and cultural and humanitarian projects, including civil society dialogue
and the implementation of the tasks stipulated in the four Russia-EU
cooperation 'road maps", Nesterenko said.
Lavrov and Westerwelle will also agree the events to mark the 65th
VE-Day, the 20th anniversary of German unification and other jubilees in
common history to be celebrated in 2010.
Lavrov will meet German anti-Nazi veterans in the Russian embassy to
award jubilee VE-Day medals to them.
He will then travel to Munich to attend security conference and visit
Russian bobsledder Irina Skvortsova, who is treated in a local hospital
following a heavy injury during a training session.
The Russian delegation at the security conference also includes Deputy
Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, Chairman of the Russian Gas Society Valery
Yazev, Chairman of the State Duma committee for international affairs
Konstantin Kosachev, and Russian Ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin.

.Russia fully pays contribution to UN budget.

UNITED NATIONS, February 5 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia has paid its annual
2010 contribution to the United Nations budget in full and will shortly
contribute in full volume to the budgets of international tribunals.
The Russian embassy to the United Nations told Tass on Thursday Russia
had remitted to UN accounts a total of 38,598,983 dollars.
Funds to finance peacekeeping operations can be remitted during the
whole fiscal year, the embassy said.
Earlier the UN press service said most member-countries failed to
stand up to their financial commitments and pay contributions to the
regular budget by the end of January. Only 26 out of 192 member-countries
complied.


.Russia, Serbia to finalize gas storage deal.

BELGRADE, February 5 (Itar-Tass) -- Gazprom's export arm and Serbiagaz
state company will finalize on Friday the agreement on the reconstruction
of Banatski Dvor underground gas storage facility by signing a deal to set
up a joint venture that will implement the project.
Gazprom export Company will hold 51 percent in the JV, while Serbiagaz
- 49%. Serbiagaz CEO Dusan Bajatovic said Gazprom representative Vladimir
Kuznetsov will head the joint venture.
Banatski Dvor project calls for the expansion of the capacity of the
underground gas storage facility created at an exhausted gas field 60
kilometers northeast of Novi Sad to 450 million cubic meters. The project
is estimated at 50.5 million euro.
Banatski Dvor is part of an intergovernmental deal signed in Moscow in
early 2008 that also gave control to Gazprom neft over Naftna Industrija
Srbije Oil Company and provided for the construction of the South Stream
gas pipeline across Serbia.

.Prosecutor blames warden for three custody deaths.

VLADIVOSTOK, February 5 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian prosecutors in the Far
East instituted a criminal case against a deputy warden who they accused
of office abuse that resulted in poisoning of ten men in an investigation
jail in Ussuriisk and the death of three of them.
"In violation of all instructions the deputy warden in charge of
personnel handed over to one of the arrested a bottle with unidentified
liquid from relatives without inspecting it. The liquid became the reason
for poisoning nine men on January 17, three of who died," spokeswoman for
the regional Primorye prosecutor Irina Nomokonova told Tass on Friday,
adding pre-investigation check revealed other breaches in the jail.
A criminal case was instituted against the deputy warden for office
abuse that triggered grave consequences, she said.
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