RF initiative makes idea to place Patriot in Poland useless-Slutsky.

MOSCOW, December 12 (Itar-Tass) -- US plans for deploying air defense
complexes Patriot in Poland will go senseless in case of the adoption of
Russia's initiative for creating a new architecture of European security,
the first deputy chairman of the State Duma's international affairs
committee, Leonid Slutsky, said on Friday.

The implementation of this project will make no sense, if a new
comprehensive European security treaty is concluded. The idea was
pioneered by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev," Slutsky said.
Earlier in the day Poland and the United States signed a bilateral
agreement in Warsaw on the status of US troops in Polish territory. US
military are to arrive in Poland to service a battery of Patriot air
defense launchers that may be deployed in Poland at the end of the first
quarter of next year.
Slutsky said the US-Polish agreement acquires a very special dimension
precisely by virtue of the forthcoming deployment of US missiles near
Warsaw.
"US complexes will eventually enter combat duty, and not just be used
for training purposes," Slutsky said.
He recalled the Polish foreign minister's call addressed to the United
States for placing its troops in Europe for protecting his country from a
likely Russian aggression.
"Apparently, the Polish leaders regard this agreement as a shield from
Russia, in defiance of the absurdity and far-fetchedness of formulating
the question this way," Slutsky said. "President Medvedev's initiative is
lifting all such groundless fears.

.Terms of EDF's membership of South Stream to be set in months.

VENICE, December 12 (Itar-Tass) -- The terms on which France's EDF
company may join the South Stream gas pipeline project will be set within
months. The EDF's share may range 10 percent to 20 percent, but only in
the under-sea part of the project, the chief executive officer of Italy's
ENI concern, Paolo Scaroni, said at a gala ceremony timed for the 40th
anniversary of the first Soviet-Italian contract on gas supplies to Italy
on Friday.
"Europe will be importing ever more gas, as its own, internal sources,
will run dry. Inevitably, Russia will be the main exporter. Europe is to
offer ever new opportunities for cooperation with Russia, and not just
call it the most powerful energy country," Scaroni said.
He described as "a result of friendship and many years of friendship
and trust" the memorandum of understanding on the South Stream project,
envisaging the EDF's admission to the project at some future date. The
memorandum was signed by between ENI and Gazprom in Rome just recently.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Italian Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi were present at the ceremony.
Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said in his message that South Stream,
however important, was not the sole project Europe would need for ensuring
its energy security in the context of soaring demand for fuels, including
gas.
"In the Old World there will be a place for many projects, and none of
them will be a competitor to another," Miller said in a written message.
He was absent from the Venice event for health reasons, said Gazprom's
deputy president, president of the company's export division Gazprom
Export, Alexander Medvedev.

.Russia's Constitution is 16.

MOSCOW, December 12 (Itar-Tass) -- December 12 in Russia is
Constitution Day. Sixteen years ago today the fundamental law was approved
in a national referendum by a 60-percent majority vote. Although the date
is not a public day off, it has retained its importance.
It has been established that the day the Constitution was adopted -
December 12, 1993 - heralded the beginning of a new stage of Russian
statehood. In contrast to the previous, Soviet style documents, the
current constitution declares human rights and freedoms the priority. In
fairness, one must admit that according to the sociologists, Russians
still believe that social guarantees are more important. According to the
latest poll by public opinion studies center VCIOM, nearly one in three
appreciate the Constitution as a pillar of law and order.
As he addressed the Federal Assembly with his latest
state-of-the-nation address earlier this year, Russian President Dmitry
Medvedev said that as a safeguard of the Constitution he would keep doing
everything in his powers to strengthen the institutions of democracy in
this country.
"Any attempts to use democratic slogans to shake the situation loose,
to destabilize the state, to split society, will be quashed," he said.
On the eve of Constitution Day, at a meeting with Constitutional Court
judges, President Medvedev said that the state will keep enhancing the
authority of the judicial branch of power and the Constitutional Court as
its integral part.
"This is very important not only for the current situation, but also
for the future," he said.
A little more than a year ago the Russian Constitution underwent
amendments for the first time in recent history.
The presidential term of office was increased to six years, and that
of the State Duma, to five years respectively. President Dmitry Medvedev
initiated the changes.

-0-str