India sees no BRIC future without Russia - FM.

NEW DELHI, April 10 (Itar-Tass) - India sees no future of the BRIC
union without Russia and considers it to be the main members, Indian
Foreign Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash told journalists on Friday.
"We hold to a clear-cut position that Russia is a key state of the
BRIC with the participation of which the union was created and will be
working further," he stressed in the run-up to the BRIC summit to be held
in Brazil on April 15-16.
Prakash noted that BRIC "stands on the four pillars - Brazil, Russia,
India and China." He said in this connection that "there has been no
decision on the possible BRIC expansion, but this issue may be raised in
the future." "It is early to speak about this at the moment," he added.
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.Russia gas price lowering to allow Ukraine save $4 bln annually-PM.

KIEV, April 10 (Itar-Tass) - The lowering of prices on imported
natural gas for Ukraine will allow the country to save about 4 billion US
dollar annually, Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov said on Friday in
a television show of the Inter channel.
"The issue of the gas price is vitally important for us. If we fail to
agree with Russia we will face very serious difficulties," the government
head noted. In his view, with the preservation of the current gas prices
the country in 2010 will not be able to reach the targeted GDP growth
volume of 3.7 percent, and the economy will again be in recess.
According to Azarov, the gas price is growing quarterly and has
already increased from 330 US dollars per 1,000 cubic metres to 348-350 US
dollars. With taking into account the VAT and transportation to
enterprises the gas costs 450 US dollars. "Our chemical industry will stop
and metallurgists will also most likely stop working," said the prime
minister.
Azarov noted that Russia raises the issue of compensations on the
profits that it will not receive due to the lowering of gas prices for
Ukraine. He said that Russia's participation in the construction of
nuclear power units in Ukraine is one of cooperation spheres for getting
additional profits.
"We need, starting from 2014, to put into operation new units, two -
in 2014," Azarov said. According to him, it is planned to build about 10
reactors in the coming years.
The prime minister explained why, in his view, Russia should agree to
compromises with Ukraine. "The reasons are that we are linked with each
other and it meets Russia's interests to have a stable neighbour whose
economy is developing and presents a reliable market for the sale of
products," the Ukrainian government head said.
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.Polish president to visit Katyn memorial outside Smolensk.


SMOLENSK, April 10 (Itar-Tass) - Polish President Lech Kaczynski on
Saturday will pay a private visit to the Katyn cemetery outside Smolensk
where the first in Russian international memorial complex to the victims
of totalitarian repressions is located, the regional administration told
Itar-Tass on Friday.
About 1,000 representatives of the Polish non-governmental
organisation "Katyn Families" are expected to take part in the events
devoted to the 70th anniversary of the tragic events in Katyn. They will
arrive by a special train. The events will also be attended by Russian
president's plenipotentiary envoy to the Central Federal District Georgy
Poltavchenko, Smolensk region governor Sergei Antufyev and members of the
Polish diaspora of Smolensk.
On April 7 Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin with his Polish
colleague Donald Tusk in Katyn attended events devoted to the memory of
the victims of totalitarian repressions.
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.RF education min to present in Kazan Volga Fed University rector.

KAZAN, April 10 (Itar-Tass) - Russia's Education and Science Minister
Andrei Fursenko on Saturday will hold an organisational academic board
meeting of the Kazan (Volga) Federal University and will present its new
rector, spokeswoman for the educational establishment Anna Khaliulova told
Itar-Tass.
Taking part in the work of the academic board meeting will be
President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov and the university's leading
scientists.
"By a resolution of RF Prime Minister Vladimir Putin Ilshat Gafurov
has been appointed rector of Kazan/Volga University," the spokeswoman
said. He was born in 1961 in the workers' settlement of Bavly of
Tatarstan, he has the degree of candidate in physics and mathematics
science, merited economist of Tatarstan.
The meeting participants will also consider the university's first
priority tasks in its new - federal status. The resolution says that first
of all it is necessary to draft and submit within a month to the RF
government a proposal on the plans of the development of the university
that has received a new organisational-legal form of an autonomous
institution.
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