Putin offers to Chavez medical aid from Russian doctors

CARACAS, August 6 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir
Putin offered aid from Russian doctors to Venezuela's President Hugo
Chavez for his further recovery.
He voiced the offer during a telephone conversation on Thursday.
"The conversation between the leaders of Venezuela and Russia, which
continued about 20 minutes, was in a friendly atmosphere, and during it
the head of Russia's government forwarded to President Chavez wishes for
soonest recovery and expressed confidence that soon he will restore the
health," Venezuela's Foreign Ministry said. Vladimir Putin expressed
readiness "of Russian authorities to provide for the recovery of President
Chavez Russia's scientific potential and medical infrastructures."
President Chavez commented on the recently expressed views of Prime
Minister Putin about the world economy and agreed that "the world is
facing the threat of a structure crisis, which continues in the economy of
the USA. Facing the crisis, Chavez and Putin made a decision to undertake
additional efforts for strengthening the bilateral economic ties."
Russia's prime minister welcomed the decision of the Organization of
the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to acknowledge that Venezuela's
deposits of oil are the biggest in the world.
President Chavez used the opportunity to "forward fraternal greetings
to his friend, Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev, and via him to Russia's
people, which firm ties of fraternity and solidarity with people of
Venezuela are as never before," the foreign ministry said.

.Russia gets right to explore polysulfide deposits in Atlantic.

UN, August 6 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia has won the right for exploration
and prospecting of polysulfide deposits in the Atlantic Ocean. The
International Seabed Authority /ISA/ approved Russia's bid of December
2010 for the operations.
This decision was made in Kingston /Jamaica/ at the 17th annual
session of the ISA, which was attended by 90 member-countries of the UN
International Convention on Sea Law. Apart from Russia's bid, the session
approved applications for exploration of mineral resources on the seabed
filed by China, Tonga and Nauru.
Russian companies hope to explore the south-western part of the
Atlantic Ocean to see if there are polymetal sulphides there. Ores
/sulphides/ lie deep in volcanic regions on the ocean floor. Scientists
believe these massive deposits may contain significant concentrations of
non-ferrous metals, particularly zinc, copper, gold, silver and lead. The
plan is to develop one of the world's largest untapped fields, where the
shares of copper and gold are by five to ten times more than in onshore
fields.
The site, which Russia will explore, is located in the northern zone
of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Sulphide ores there at the depth of 2-4
kilometres.
According to the Ministry of Natural Resources, Saint-Petersburg-
based state-run VNIIOkeangeologia and Polar Marine Geological Expedition
will execute the contract. The contract's term is 15 years, renewable for
five years.
A company under the contract will receive a preferential right to
develop the deposits. In this case, they will be liable for resource rents
payable to ISA.
ISA was established in 1994 under the UN Convention on the sea law of
the Sea in 1982 as an independent agency of the mentioned Convention. It
was signed by 119 states at a conference in Montego Bay /Jamaica/ and came
into force 12 years after signing.