Putin to attend Murom bridge opening, to visit Vladimir.

MOSCOW, October 1 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
on Thursday will make a working trip to Murom and Vladimir. The RF
government's press service reported that in Murom the prime minister will
attend the opening ceremony of a new bridge across the Oka River. Being
part of the projected bypass of the city, this bridge will considerably
cut short the travel time of motor transport on the M-7 Volga highway top
southern regions of Russia. The bridge in Murom is one of the specially
complex individual design structures commissioned this year.
In the city of Vladimir, Putin will hold a meeting on issues of the
implementation of the programme for the construction of sports facilities
and will meet visitors of the community liaison office of the chairman of
the all-Russian political party "United Russia." At the meeting with the
participation of members of the government, deputies of the State Duma
lower house of parliament, heads of relevant ministries and departments,
as well as heads of RF subjects and municipalities it is planned to
discuss issues related to the development of the network of physical
culture-health complexes within the federal targeted programme envisaging
the "development of physical culture and sports in the Russian Federation
for 2006-2015." In particular, the meeting participants will consider
issues of ensuing equal access of the population to sports facilities,
spreading the practice of free physical culture and sports classes for
children, pensioners and the disabled, as well as construction of new
sports facilities.
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.Gref to discuss measures for stimulating demand for GAZ vehicles.

NIZHNY NOVGOROD, October 1 (Itar-Tass) - Head of Russia's Sberbank
(Savings Bank) German Gref will discuss with the leadership of the GAZ
Group in Nizhny Novgorod on Thursday measures aimed at stimulating demand
for GAZ automobiles, Itar-Tass was told at the press services of the
automobile holding and Sberbank.
In the conditions of remaining high demand for commercial GAZ
automobiles and the decrease of the population's spending capacity,
programmes promptly worked out by the GAZ Group have become a considerable
support for both consumers and company.
The administration of the Nizhny Novgorod region where two programmes
for the support of enterprises producing motor vehicles in the region were
launched this year, also provided support to the national auto giant. One
of the programmes with the financing volume of 200 million roubles offers
subsidies on credit interest rates for buyers of automobiles with the
price under 800 thousand roubles. The second programme the implementation
of which was started in August and that evoked a lively interest of the
population, offers buyers compensation of 50 thousand roubles if they
exchange their old automobile of any make produced in any country before
January 1, 2003 for a new GAZ vehicle. The regional government allocated
for this programme 150 million roubles. According to Industry and
Innovation Minister of the region Nikolai Satayev, 50 million roubles of
this sum will be used before the end of 2009.
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.Russia-Palestine Business Council to coordinate bilateral coop.

RAMALLAH, October 1 (Itar-Tass) - Russian First Deputy Prime Minister
Viktor Zubkov has announced the establishment of Russia-Palestine Business
Council that will assume the function of coordination of cooperation
between the entrepreneurial communities of Russia and Palestine.
The related agreement was reached at a meeting of Zubkov with Head of
the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah (West
Bank of the River Jordan) on Wednesday.
"Today we established the Russian-Palestinian Business Council that
will hold a meeting in Moscow in the near future and the businessmen will
discuss their plans and actions on order to implement them here, in
Palestine," said the RF first deputy prime minister.
Among other issues that the sides discussed at the talks were
interaction in the spheres of energy, agriculture, personnel training and
contacts of the PNA with Russian regions, Zubkov said.
The parties also discussed the political problems - the current state
of affairs in the Palestinian-Israeli and internal Palestine settlement.
Making a statement for the press on the results of the talks Abbas
expressed gratitude to Russia "for the assistance is provides to
Palestinians in various spheres, in particular, in the economic and
security spheres."
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