Russian minister says electronic public services will be available

MOSCOW, July 11 (Itar-Tass) -- Electronic document processing within
the government and the provision of electronic public services to citizens
will become available in 2010, Minister of Mass Communications Igor
Shchegolev said.
"Starting next year we should move on to electronic document
management within the government in order to speed up various bureaucratic
procedures and remove bureaucratic barriers. We plan to start providing
public services in the electronic form at about the same time. This will
be very comfortable for people when they can obtain information about
various services, work schedules, which documents have to be filled out
and how to avoid standing in lines, doing all this from home through the
Internet or even telephone," the minister said.
"As for priority services, some of them are already available at the
municipal level," he said, adding, "Some services are provided by federal
bodies, and those of them that have been included in the list of priority
ones can be received from the end of this year or the beginning of next
year."

.Nikolayev City Council wins right to use Russian in official
documents.

LVOV, July 11 (Itar-Tass) --The City Council of Nikolayev has won the
litigation for the fight to use the Russian language in official documents.
The Odessa court of appeals has upheld the decision of the Nikolayev
City Council to "give the status of regional language to Russian to the
extent to which it is used by the city council and executive agencies in
their work and in official documents together with the official Ukrainian
language".
The Nikolayev City Council on May 26 adopted a resolution granting
Russian the status of a regional language and has been engaged in court
litigations since then.
Similar litigations are underway in Odessa, Donbass and the Crimea.
The councils of different levels in the south and east of Ukraine have
been providing funding in order to protect and support the Russian
language spoken by a large portion of the population.
As a presidential election slated for January 17, 2010 nears, the
preservation of the Russian language and its status as a second official
language become increasingly relevant for leading centrist and left-wing
parties and organisations in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the editor-in-chief of the Krymskaya Pravda (Crimean Truth)
newspaper, Konstantin Bakharev, said the Russian language is being more
and more forced out of the information environment in Ukraine.
Electronic mass media - television and the radio -- are hit hardest.
Pursuant to a new version of the Ukrainian Law "On Television and Radio
Broadcasting", broadcasts in Ukrainian should be at least 75 percent,
compared to 50 percent before. "Violators" will not be granted licenses,
and regional peculiarities are not taken into account.
The National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting has
obligated the Sevastopol television and radio company to increase its
broadcasts in Ukraine to at least 75 percent of airtime form January 1,
2009, even though 93 percent of people living in the city speak Russian.
Newspapers and magazines can be published in Russian only if they
"service the needs of ethnic minorities". And if their circulation exceeds
50,000 copies, half of that amount will have to be printed in Ukrainian.

.Conference of Russian compatriots' organisations to be held in Riga.

RIGA, July 11 (Itar-Tass) -- A conference of organisations of Russian
compatriots will be held at the Moscow Cultural and Business Centre in
Riga on Saturday.
The conference, entitled "The Russian World in Latvia in the First
Decade of the 21st Century: State and Development Trends", will focus on
the problems of and prospects for the development of the Russian community
in Latvia, the preservation and development of education and culture, and
the development of the Latvian youth organisations.
Conference organisers told Itar-Tass that about 250 people are
expected to attend. Russian Ambassador to Latvia Alexander Veshnyakov,
Metropolitan Alexander of Riga and All Latvia, and Chairman of the Central
Council of the Old Believers' Church of Pomorye Father Alexei Zhilko will
address the conference.
Riga Mayor Nil Ushakov, Russian Public Chamber member Alexander Brod,
Deputy Director of the Moscow House of Compatriots Alexander Yesipenko
will attend the forum as well.

.Patriarch Kirill to end visit to Valaam, to take trip to Konevets
Island.

ST. PETERSBURG, July 11 (Itar-Tass) -- Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and
All Russia will end his visit to Valaam on Saturday.
During the visit, the patriarch led celebrations in honour of Saviour
Transfiguration Monastery, St. Sergius and German. Kirill will hold a
liturgy in the main cathedral of the monastery.
In the afternoon, he will visit the Konevets Island on Lake Ladoga
where the Monastery of Nativity of the Mother of God is located.
St. Sergius and German spread Christianity in the north of Russia and
continued the cause of St. Apostle Andrew the First Called who had reached
Valaam.
The "Northern Athos" founded in the early 14th century.
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