Medvedev orders 3 ministers to fly to Perm to investigate nightclub

MOSCOW, December 5 (Itar-Tass) -- President Dmitry Medvedev has
ordered Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu, Minister of Health and Social
Development Tatyana Golikova and Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev to
fly to Perm to coordinate rescue work and help after an explosion at a
nightclub in that city.

Medvedev instructed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to create a
government commission to investigate the causes of the accident and help
those injured and the families of those killed, presidential spokeswoman
Natalia Timakova said.
The president also telephoned Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika to
"investigate the accident most thoroughly".
Chaika will personally oversee the investigation.
"The Prosecutor General has ordered his deputy for the Volga Federal
District Ernest Valeyev and an investigation group from Moscow to go to
the scene of the accident. Officers from the Perm regional prosecutor's
office are also working at the scene," a spokeswoman for the Prosecutor
General's Office, Marina Gridneva, said.
Medvedev also asked Perm Territory Governor Oleg Chirkunov to monitor
the situation personally.

.Russia, US continue consultations on new START as old one expires.

MOSCOW, December 5 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia and the United States
continue consultations on a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-1)
as the old one expired on the night from December 4 to December 5.
The current, eighth, round of consultations may continue next week,
the Foreign Ministry said.
START-1 was signed by the Soviet Union and the United States on July
31, 1991. Russia assumed rights and obligations under the treaty as a
legal successor to the Soviet Union.
"The treaty played an exceptionally important role in ensuring
international peace, security and strategic stability," the ministry said.
"It considerably strengthened nuclear non-proliferation and gave a
powerful boost to the disarmament process, having become a weighty and
consistent step towards a world free of nuclear weapons."
"Russia and the U.S. have performed their obligations under the treaty
in full," it said.
Russia has more than halved strategic warheads covered by the treaty,
scrapping over 3,000 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and
submarine-based ballistic missiles, about 1,500 ICBM and submarine-based
ICBM launch systems, as well as more than 45 nuclear submarines and over
65 heavy bombers.
"Pursuant to the instructions of the presidents of Russia and the
United States, intensive work is nearing completion to prepare for signing
a full-formal bilateral legally binding treaty on further reduction and
limitation of strategic offensive weapons. The future treaty should become
a new era in the history of disarmament and non-proliferation, mark a
transition to a higher level of interaction between Russia and the U.S.,
and confirm the commonness of the two countries' goals towards enhanced
mutual and global security," the ministry said.
Russian and American experts believe that a new treaty may be signed
by the middle of December. Analysts have also noted the seriousness with
which the parties are drafting the document. Neither delegation has made
any comments for the press so far.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has expressed hope that a new
START would be signed "in the not so distant future".
"The delegations are working on this issue now. They are working on
instructions from the two presidents in order to make the treaty as soon
as possible," he said.
"When and where the document will be signed has to be decided by the
presidents, when the delegations report the end of the talks," the
minister said.
He expressed confidence that "even if a new treaty is not ratified by
the time the old one expires, there will be no pause in the reduction of
strategic offensive weapons."

.Timoshenko calls "orange" revolution "revolution of missed
opportunities".

KIEV, December 5 (Itar-Tass) -- Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia
Timoshenko said the "orange" revolution was a "revolution of missed
opportunities".
Speaking on Ukrainian television on Saturday, she said the situation
in the country had not changed over the past five years as "10-15
oligarchic clans and the Mafia remain in power".
Timoshenko said her priority task after victory in the upcoming
presidential election in January 2010 would be a judicial reform in order
to "protect people and build a democratic and rule-of-law state".
The prime minister accused President Viktor Yushchenko of causing
"financial famine" in Ukraine, referring to an unlawful transfer of 17.5
billion U.S. dollars our of the country and the devaluation of the
national currency, the hryvna, by 67 percent.
After a victory in the election, she promised to "destroy the beehive
of the Ukrainian financial system". However when asked if she would
prosecute Yushchenko, Timoshenko said this was something to be decided by
a new prosecutor general she would appoint.
Timoshenko said neither she nor her family owned any real estate, and
her election campaign was financed out of the party's budget and by loyal
businesses.
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