RF rolled metal production down 28% in 6 months of 2009.

MAGNITOGORSK, July 25 (Itar-Tass) - Russia's rolled stock production
in the first six months of 2009 decreased by 28 percent, ferrous
metallurgy enterprises have lost about 560 billion roubles, as compared
with the same period of 2008, RF Minister of Industry and Trade Viktor
Khristenko said at a meeting on the development of the ferrous metallurgy
sector on Friday.

According to him, as a result of this decline the national ferrous
metallurgy enterprises have shown rather critical indicators regarding the
balanced financial result, which was negative reaching 70 billion roubles.
The average profitability in the sector reached 9 percent, which,
according to Khristenko, poses a threat to investment projects of
metallurgists and their current activities due to the credit prices.
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.Ukraine Prosecutor Gen Office brings murder charges against Pukach.


KIEV, July 25 (Itar-Tass) - The Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office
has charged former police General Alexei Pukach with complicity in the
murder of journalist Georgy Gongadze, Prosecutor General Alexander
Medvedko said on Friday.
"Pukach has been charged with a number of crimes. They are linked with
the murder of Gongadze in autumn 2000, destruction of documents," said
Medvedko. The suspect has been hiding since 2003 and was detained in the
Molochki village of the Chudnovsky district of the Zhitomir region on July
21 in the evening.
Pukach has confessed to have been involved in the assassination of
journalist Georgy Gongadze nine years ago and named the masterminds.
Pukach confirmed that "high-ranking Ukrainian officials" were involved in
the crime, Security Service deputy chief Vasily Gritsak said on Wednesday
(Jul 22). He declined to give their names, citing the confidentiality of
the investigation, but added, "No investigative activities are underway
yet in respect of the persons named by Pukach."
He confirmed that Pukach was arrested in one of the villages in the
Zhitomir region. He "did not change his appearance, lived by his own
documents and did not leave Ukraine since 2005, only changing the places
of residence." Gritsak said the place where Pukach is being held would not
be disclosed to avoid unnecessary risks to his life.
According to the official investigation, Pukach was the actual killer.
He had ordered the journalist to be followed and controlled a group of
police officers who abducted Gongadze on September 16, 2000 and took him
to a field near the village of Sukholisy, Kiev region, where Pukach
strangled the journalist and made the accomplices to keep their mouths
shut. Gongadze's body was then buried in the woods.
The general was detained in October 2003 but then released a month
later against a written pledge not leave the city. He disappeared shortly
after that.
Last year, three accomplices to the crime - police Colonels Valery
Kostenko and Nikolai Protasov and Major Alexander Popovich - were
sentenced to long terms. Pukach was on the international wanted list. The
masterminds of the crime have not been determined yet. Pukach's testimony
may cause a new scandal in Ukraine because the crime led to the top
corridors of power with some of those involved still holding high offices.
At the beginning of this year, the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe passed a resolution demanding that the crimes committed
by high-ranking officials during the Leonid Kuchma presidency be
investigated. It urged the Ukrainian leadership to investigate how and why
General Pukach, who is suspected of involvement in the killing of
Gongadze, was freed in 2003 to allow him to escape justice.
In May 2009, the Interior Ministry's criminal police asked the
population for assistance in establishing Pukach's whereabouts. Earlier
Prosecutor General Alexander Medvedko said Pukach had stayed some time in
the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. In 2005, he was seen in Israel, but
attempts to detain him proved futile.
Medvedko stressed that the disappearance of Pukach and the death of
former Interior Minister Yuri Kravchenko complicate the investigation into
the murder of Gongadze who was known as a strong critic of the Ukrainian
authorities.
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.Putin urges metallurgists to modernise sector.

MAGNITOGORSK, July 25 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir
Putin has urged Russian metallurgists to carry out the needed work in the
near future to modernise production and ensure the necessary quality of
their products. He made this statement summarising the results of a
meeting on the development of the national ferrous metallurgy on Friday.
According to the prime minister, consumers of metallurgy products
stated that the demand for it will be growing insider the country. "This
fact is quite obvious," Putin noted.
"Today in the crisis conditions we do not force, I would say, but
encourage producers to be oriented towards the internal consumer, but this
state of affairs will not last for ever. So today we should take advantage
of the situation in order to ensure modernisation of production, which
means the necessary quality for the coming years, to create new jobs, in
order to ensure the necessary production volume and to timely pay taxes,"
Putin told representatives of the metallurgical sector.
He said that the results of the meeting would become a basis for the
government's activities aimed at support and development of the country's
ferrous metallurgy and consumers of the products of the sector.