Putin to prepare Customs Union start-up.

MOSCOW, December 11 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir
Putin will leave for St. Petersburg on Friday to meet his counterparts
from Belarus and Kazakhstan and finalize preparations for the start-up of
the Customs Union between the three countries from January 1, 2010.
Putin will also participate in the meeting of prime ministers of
EurAsEC countries.
As for the Customs Union, the prime ministers will discuss agreements
on indirect duties on exports and imports crossing the common customs
border of the three neighboring states. They will consider technical
regulation, sanitary, veterinary and phytosanitary norms, as well as trade
statistics outside and inside the Customs Union. The action plan for the
formation of a common economic space between Russia, Belarus and
Kazakhstan is also on the agenda.
The EurAsEC meeting will discuss joint measures to overcome the
consequences of the global economic crisis and approve the interstate
Innovation Biotechnologies program, which will be instrumental for the
implementation of the strategy and guidelines of scientific and
technological development in member-states.
The prime ministers have to agree the basic principles of the currency
policy to regulate and control the flow of capital. Food security is also
on the agenda, as well as the creation of a database on labor migrants in
EurAsEC states.

.Gazprom, ENI to mark 40 years of gas deal.

ROME, December 11 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia's Gazprom and Italy's ENI will
celebrate in Venice on Friday the 40th anniversary of their first deal on
Russian gas deliveries to Italy.
The gala ceremony will be held in Doges Palace in St. Mark Square and
will be attended by Russian and Italian Economic Development Ministers
Elvira Nabiullina and Claudio Scaiola.
ENI CEO Paolo Scaroni and Gazprom export CEO Alexander Medvedev will
address the event.
ENI is a major European partner of Gazprom, which participates in the
implementation of ambitious South Stream gas pipeline project that is to
link Russia and Italy. Both companies are unanimous their cooperation
ensures European energy security.

.Russia to clarify WTO stance by yearend.

WASHINGTON, December 11 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia will clarify its stance
regarding WTO accession by the end of the year, according to Alexei
Shishayev, the head of the bilateral economic cooperation group at the
Russian embassy to the United States.
"As far as I understand, that will happen by the end of the year," he
told reporters on the sidelines of the WTO accession conference. Shishayev
said Russia wants to join the organization and hopes the talks will be
successful.
He was responding to the statement by WTO's director for accession
Chiedu Osakwe who urged Russia to officially explain its stance after it
created a customs union with Belarus and Kazakhstan.
WTO wants Russia to be "stable and predictable" Osakwe said and
described the current situation as "temporary suspension" of negotiations.
He said WTO is waiting for an official notification from Russia,
Belarus and Kazakhstan regarding the Customs Union they created. "After
our member-states receive such a document they will hold consultations and
decide on the resumption of talks," Osakwe said.

.Defense ministry undecided on Bulava missile fate.

MOSCOW, December 11 (Itar-Tass) -- The Russian defense ministry has
not yet decided what to do with the ballistic Bulava missile that failed a
new test this week.
"We shall think what to do. So far we have not decided," Defense
Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said on Thursday.
Only five out of eleven previous tests were successful. The latest
test of the sea-based missile on Wednesday failed because of a malfunction
of the third stage.
Bulava is the latest Russian three-stage hard-fuel intercontinental
ballistic missile for Borei nuclear submarines. It can fire up to 10
hyper-sound individually targeted nuclear warheads for a distance of up to
eight thousand kilometers. Bulava is to become the main weapon of
strategic nuclear forces up to 2040-2045. The missile is test fired from
Dmitry Donskoi nuclear submarine.

.Stalin's grandson loses lawsuit against newspaper.

MOSCOW, December 11 (Itar-Tass) -- The grandson of Soviet dictator
Joseph Stalin lost a lawsuit against Novaya Gazeta newspaper, defendant's
lawyer Genry Reznik told Tass on Thursday.
Yevgeny Dzhugashvili filed a lawsuit to defend honor and dignity and
to claim 10 million rubles of compensation after Pravda GULAGa, a
supplement to Novaya Gazeta, said Stalin had personally signed orders to
execute Soviet political prisoners, as well as Polish army officers in
Katyn. The author of the article, Anatoly Yablokov, called Stalin
"sanguinary cannibal".
Dzhugashvili said newspaper claims did not correspond to reality and
demanded to publish a refutation.
The lawsuit was initially rejected by Basmanny court of Moscow,
however Dzhugashvili appealed to the Moscow city court, which upheld the
Basmanny court ruling.
"The court judgment said the position of the author is his personal
opinion to which he has the lawful right," Reznik said.
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