Russia's dependence on poultry imports may drop by 2012: Zubkov

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MOSCOW, July 28 (Itar-Tass) - Dependence of the Russian market on
poultry and pork imports may decline by 2012, Russia's First Deputy Prime
Minister Viktor Zubkov said in a newspaper interview on Tuesday.
"I believe it is realistic to sizably decrease dependence of our
poultry and pork markets on imports from abroad to a safe level," Zubkov
said in an interview published in the Regiony. Natsionalnye Proekty
(Regions. National Projects) supplement to the Rossiiskaya Gazeta
newspaper.
He said last year 29 percent of pork and 36 percent of poultry were
imported from abroad to saturate the Russian market. "This is too much.
Now we have managed to change the situation in favour of domestic products
- imports are declining," the first deputy prime minister stressed.
According to him, all possible indexes of beef stock farming have
dropped over the past decade. The amount of meat cattle has dropped
threefold, while the production of beef has dropped 2.5 times. Consumption
per capita has decreased from 31 kilograms in 1999 to 16.6 kilograms.
"This is, of course, an absolutely inadmissible situation," he regretted.
"There is not enough beef on the world market. And if we don't develop
its production within the next ten years, we risk to face a real deficit
one day," Zubkov warned.
"Small farmers, rural entrepreneurs, personal subsidiary plots could
ranch pedigree cattle in our country," he believes. "This means thousands
of jobs for rural areas," Zubkov stressed.
He said the state has already allocated over 300 billion roubles of
investment credits for the development of beef stock farming. Subsidies on
livestock breeding have grown 1.4 times this year, and the state pays 100
percent of refinance rate on preferential credits to rural producers.
A decision was made to set up a breeding centre of livestock breeding,
and three billion roubles have been reserved to support regional programs
on the development of beef farming.
Zubkov also noted that the development of the Russian agro-industrial
complex in conditions of the crisis depends a lot on position of the
regional authorities. "I made sure during my trips that positive results
can be seen there where a rational and conscious policy is pursued in the
development of this or that agricultural production and direction. It was
the same before the crisis. Now this dependence is only growing," he added.

.International contest for new stars opens in Latvian Jurmala.

RIGA, July 28 (Itar-Tass) - The eighths international contest for new
stars New Wave begins on Tuesday in the Latvian resort city of Jurmala.
This year 16 performers of popular music from 12 countries will
participate.
New Wave has replaced the famous Jurmala festival. It was founded by
Russian composer Igor Krutoi and Latvian pianist and composer Raimonds
Pauls in 2002. Famous Russian singer Alla Pugacheva is also patron of the
contest.
The festival is held yearly in the concert hall Dzintari. It will run
till August 2. Its participants will contest in three categories - a
national hit, a world hit and the own song. Besides, dozens of Russian and
foreign stars will perform. Swedish pop group Roxette, British singer Lisa
Stansfield and famous Russian opera singer Dmitry Khvorostovsky will be
special guests.
Latvian President Valdis Zatlers with his wife Lilita are expected to
attend the concert unveiling the contest.

.Moldova opposition hopeful of success in parliamentary election.

CHISINAU, July 28 (Itar-Tass) - The Moldovan opposition is hopeful of
success in the Wednesday early parliamentary election, the leaders of the
Liberal and Liberal Democratic Parties and the Our Moldova Alliance said
at a joint news conference on Monday.
These political forces refused to vote in June for the ruling party's
candidate Zinaida Greceanii and thus forced the president to dissolve the
parliament.
"We gave up our deputy's mandates for the sake of a democratic
European future of the country," the leader of the Liberal Party, Mihai
Ghimpu, said. "The opposition will keep demonstrating solidarity to settle
all problems facing our country," the leader of Our Moldova, Serafim
Urechean, said.
Meanwhile, according to opinion polls, the upcoming voting will hardly
introduce visible changes in the political landscape.
Although the parliament has decreased the election threshold from 6 to
5 percent, only four political parties are able to gain seats in the
parliament.
The Communists remain clear favorites, and are expected to net 30 to
40 percent of votes, followed by Liberal, Democratic and Liberal
Democratic Parties. The last three parties may gather 13.2, 9.6 and 7.2
percent of the votes, respectively.
Our Moldova is not expected to qualify. It is forecasted to get 2.5
percent of the votes against nine percent during the April election. It is
not yet clear whether the Communists will get the parliamentary majority
to elect the president, or they once again will have to seek to agree with
the opposition.

.Over 6 kg of heroin seized in Novosibirsk.

NOVOSIBIRSK, July 28 (Itar-Tass) - Customs officers of the Russian
city of Novosibirsk have seized over 6.5 kilograms of heroin, a
spokeswoman for the Siberian customs department told Tass on Tuesday.
According to Yekaterina Bondarenko, the drugs were found in a cache in
a minibus arriving from Kazakhstan. "The driver of the minibus, a citizen
of Kyrgyzstan, tried to escape, but was hit by a large goods vehicle and
died at the site," she said.
Criminal proceedings have been instituted. Customs officers of the
West Siberian region seized in the first half of this year over 180
kilograms of drugs, including 16.4 kilograms of heroin.
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