Russia's regions technically ready for Internet voting - expert.

MOSCOW, July 21 (Itar-Tass) - Russian regions are technically prepared
for the Internet voting, a member of the central election commission, Igor
Borisov, said.
"Those experiments on the Internet voting that have already been
conducted in Russia proved that we have no technical problems," he said.
At present, it is necessary to resolve the problem of voters' low
trust in this new voting system.
"We have concerns that if a voter has an opportunity to check through
the Internet whether his/her vote was sent correctly, computer hackers
would be able to use this function and violate the secrecy of the ballot,"
he said adding that "this problem would be resolved shortly."
The head of the Russian Election Technologies Training Center,
Alexander Ivanchenko, proposed "to allow regions to introduce their own
rules to regulate such a voting." He cited as an example the United
States, where the remote Internet voting gained popularity and was widely
used in several remote states.
Ivanchenko highlighted that it is necessary "to fix this voting
mechanism in the legislation."
Russia's Internet voting experiment was held in Novomoskovsk, the Tula
region, last October. Then all those who whished could get a CD with a
special program at polling stations and to cast their ballots after the
classical voting. At the election on March 1, 2009, already five regions
participated in the voting experiment.


.Over 10 kg of Afghan heroin seized in Primorsky territory.

VLADIVOSTOK, July 21 (Itar-Tass) - Over 10 kilograms of heroin were
seized in the Primorsky territory on Tuesday, a spokesman for the
Primorsky drug control department, Yuri Govorushko, told Itar-Tass.
This is the biggest batch of heroin seized in the territory over the
past ten years.
Two citizens of Tajikistan carried 10.6 kilograms of drugs hidden in
juice packages and a washing machine centrifuge in two cars, he said.
The batch was designed to be sent to other regions of the Far East and
to sell 100,000 single doses. It is estimated at about 1 million U.S.
dollars.
According to the drug control police, supplies of Afghan heroin to
Russia's Far East increased recently. In January-June law enforcers of the
Primorsky territory seized heroin 615 times, i.e. three times per day on
the average.
In 2005 there were only 228 cases of heroin seizure.



.Families of Urumqi riot victims to get compensations.

BEIJING, July 21 (Itar-Tass) - Families of those killed in riots in
Urumqi, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, on July 5 will
get 420,000 yuan (around 62,000 U.S. dollars) in compensations, the Xinhua
news agency quoted Nur Bekri, the chairman of the region's government, as
saying.
This sum will be paid for each fatality.
According to the local authorities and charity organizations,
donations for victims exceed 270 million yuan (39.5 million U.S. dollars).
The riots in Urumqi left 197 dead and over 1,700 injured.



.Withdrawal of capital from Russia to offshore cos growing.

MOSCOW, July 21 (Itar-Tass) - Russia's federal financial monitoring
agency registers a growing withdrawal of capital from the country to
offshore companies' accounts, a Rosfinmonitoring official told Itar-Tass.
"Today the increase in the withdrawal of capital from Russia with the
use of offshore transit is evident. This means that financial funds are
taken from Russia to accounts of offshore companies opened in third
countries' credit institutions," the official said.
The main channels of offshore transit run though banks of the Baltic
states. Since the beginning of 2009 over 295 billion roubles have already
been 'pumped" from Russia to offshore companies.
"The world community, including the Financial Action Task Force on
Money Laundering (FATF) and the Egmont Group - Money Laundering Prevention
Unit, register onward trends in money laundering schemes in the
non-financial sector that includes the gambling business, real estate,
market of precious metals and stones, lawyers, notaries, accounting
officers, trade organizations, including those engaged in foreign trade
operations," the official said.
Rosfinmonitoring chief Yuri Chikhanchin stressed that first of all
these trends are explained by the fact that non-financial organizations
have weaker internal control as that compared with the financial sector.


.Russia's drug control service worried about drug labs growth.

YEKATERINBURG, July 21 (Itar-Tass) - Russia's drug control service
expressed deep concern over the increase in clandestine synthetic drug
laboratories, the deputy head of the service, Nikolai Aulov, said.
The chief of the drugs control department in the Sverdlovsk region,
Sergei Gaponov, underlined that laboratories on amphetamine (a
psychostimulant drug) production emerged against the backdrop of its low
cost and strong effect as well as higher prices for heroin.
Over the first six months of this year four such laboratories were
destroyed in Yekaterinburg, while in 2008 alone there were only two such
laboratories, he said.
In Moscow drug control police liquidated four clandestine laboratories
that supplied drugs to nightclubs of the capital.
The biggest one operated in the Solnechnogorsk district, near Moscow,
while three others were found in the capital's Yuzhny and Zapadny
administrative districts.

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