Russian Pres to hold conf on cooperation in Caspian littoral area

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MOSCOW, August 17 (Itar-Tass) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is
expected to hold a process conference devoted to cooperation in the
Caspian littoral area Monday.
The conference will be held in the southern city of Astrakhan and will
highlight the pressing issues of economic cooperation and development in
the Caspian region, a source at Russia's State Council said.
Russia's trade and economic relations with other Caspian littoral
countries - Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Iran - have been
developing at a fair enough pace over the past few years
Aggregate trade turnover with these countries stood at 26.7 billion
U.S. dollars in 2008, marking a 21% increase versus the previous year.
The largest sphere of cooperation between the littoral states is the
production of the Caspian Sea basin's abundant mineral resources, of which
oil and gas come first.
The proven reserves of crude oil in the area stand at around 10
billion tons, while the combined resources of oil and gas condensate are
estimated at 18 billion tons to 20 billion tons.
Other resources produced on the Caspian coast and the shelf are salt,
limestone, stone blocks, sand, and clay.
Sphere number two is shipping, as the shipping lines of the littoral
states run ferry services between the Azerbaijani capital Baku and the
Turkmenistani port of Turkmenbasi, Baku and the Kazakhstani port of Aktau,
the Russian North Caucasus city of Makhachkala and Aktau.
The cargo haulers also link the Caspian Sea and the Sea of Azov via
the Volga River, the Volga-Don Canal and the Don River.
The Caspian Sea basin is an important fishery area, where fishing
companies produce more than 90% of the global output of sturgeon fishes
and caviar. Other freshwater species produced there on an industrial scale
are the bream, the European wild carp, the pike perch, and the Caspian
kilka -- a small fish species of the Clupeids family.
An industry that the Caspian littoral countries hope to develop in the
future is tourism, as the Caspian Sea coast has all the prerequisites for
good beach holiday centers, as well as balneary and climatic resorts.

.Rssn Baltic exclave inviting fellow-Russians in Lithuania to resettle.

KALININGRAD, August 17 (Itar-Tass) - Presentation of opportunities
existing in Russia's Baltic exclave region of Kaliningradin connection
with the State Program for Assistance to Fellow-Countrymen's Resettlement
to Russia begins in Lithuania as of Monday.
The presentation is organized by the Kaliningrad region government and
it will be held in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, as well as in Kaunas
and Klaipeda and in the town of Visaginas, where a major nuclear power
plant is located and where ethnic Russians make up more than a half of the
population.
In the course of the next five days, officials of the Kaliningrad
administration will have meetings with fellow-Russians and, more broadly,
with members of Russian-speaking communities. They will be joined by
Russian diplomats and officials from the Federal Service for Migration.
The government of the exclave region says that fellow-countrymen in
neighboring former Soviet republics of the Baltic region - Estonia, Latvia
and Lithuania - still have insufficient information on Russia's voluntary
resettlement program, even through it was launched two years ago and the
three Baltic countries are located close enough to the exclave.
The Russians who have already moved to the region from the Baltic
states confirm that the information on the program is rather scanty there.
They complained that even the information provided by Russian
diplomatic missions to those who sign up for the program is incomplete in
many cases.
"The current presentation is called upon to remove these and other
problems that practical steps under the State Program for Voluntary
Resettlement may bring up," a source at the regional government said.
Official data suggests that 5,885 fellow-countrymen resettled to the
Kaliningrad region before mid-August.
Of that number, immediate participants in the program totaled 2,589
persons and another 3,296 were members of their families.
On the face of it, only 45 people resettled from Lithuania and the
arrival of another 76 people is still expected.
In the meantime, the regional government has taken positive decisions
on applications from 5,111 aspirants to resettlement, who are expected to
take along with them 7,283 family members.
The major criterion for passing endorsements on the applications is
the availability of confirmations from future employers.
A center for provisional accommodation of resettling fellow-countrymen
has been set up in the Kaliningrad region and another one is being built
now.

.Venezuelan Pres thanks Russian leaders for support.

CARACAS, August 17 (Itar-Tass) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on
Sunday praised the results of a session that the Russian-Venezuelan
inter-governmental commission held in St Petersburg, in which
Vice-President Ramon Carrizales took part.
As Chavez spoke live on the 'Hello President' question time show
broadcast by the national radio and television, he thanked Russia's
President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for what he
called permanent readiness to support Venezuela in all spheres.
He said Venezuela is compelled to build up its defense capability due
to the threat posed to it by the deployment of U.S. troops on military
bases in neighboring Colombia.
These American actions unfortunately force Venezuelan government to
increase spending for defense and purchases of weaponry, Chavez said
adding that a consignment of Russian tanks will arrive in this country
soon.
He indicated that the Venezuelan Armed Forces have long developed a
need for a buildup of armored troops and for a modernization of all the
branches and services.
Chavez said he plans making visits to Russia, Belarus and Libya within
the next thirty days.
He pointed out the significance of these trips but did not specify
their dates.
-0-kle