ITAR-TASS overnight news cycle for December 19 - 3.

.Farewell ceremony for late Yegor Gaidar due Saturday noon.

MOSCOW, December 19 (Itar-Tass) -- The farewell ceremony for late
Yegor Gaidar - the architect of Russia's liberal free market reforms of
the early 1990s - will be held at the mourning hall of the Central
Clinical Hospital.

Gaidar died last Wednesday, December 16, at the age of
53.
The policies launched by Gaidar and his team of "young reformers"
changed economic relations in the country beyond recognition. The reforms
coincided with the collapse of the Soviet system. Gaidar assumed the
responsibility for proclaiming the "shock therapy" policy, perfectly aware
that it would bring tremendous suffering for the population and, probably,
spell the end of his political career. He was certain there was no other
way out.
Whether Gaidar anticipated his premature death will remain anyone's
guess, but there are enough reasons to believe that he knew the real worth
of what he had accomplished and he looked back on the results over and
over again. It is not accidental that in a televised interview last March,
asked what he would say when he left this world and faced the Lord, Gaidar
replied almost instantly, "I did what thought was my duty."
It looks like Gaidar's personality and activity will be judged
adequately only after he has passed away.
His name is associated with "resolute steps to reform the fundamentals
of the free market and shift our country to a fundamentally new way of
development," President Dmitry Medvedev said in a message of condolences
to his relatives and friends.
"At a time of cardinal change he assumed the responsibility for
unpopular, albeit crucial measures. He was firmly committed to his
convictions, for which he enjoyed the respect of his supporters and
opponents," Medvedev said.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said, "Few statesmen are fortunate
enough to have had a chance to offer one's services to the nation at
turning points in history, and to take key decisions that determine the
country's future. Gaidar coped with this most complex task with decency to
have displayed his best professional and personal qualities. He did not
shirk responsibility and in the uneasiest situations he managed to stand
firm, with honor and dignity."
Gaidar was a member of the Cabinet in 1991 through 1994. For six
months (from June to December 1992) he was acting prime minister.
Formally, the then President Boris Yeltsin was in charge of the
government. Gaidar was acting head of the Cabinet, but it was he who found
the determination to be the main architect of unpopular reforms.
The head of the Rosnano corporation, Anatoly Chubais, who at a certain
point had to share the burden of popular anger over privatization (some
referred to in no way other than PREYvatization), remains certain that in
the early 1990s it was Gaidar who saved the country from famine, civil war
and decay.
After the end of his civil service career Gaidar co-founded the party
Democratic Choice of Russia, and then its successor, the Right Forces
Party (SPS). Over the past few years Gaidar stayed out of politics. In
2008 he left the SPS, which joined the Right Cause party. In one of his
last interviews, asked about his favorite pastime, Gaidar said it was
"reading and writing books." According to his family, Gaidar died in the
middle of the night, while working on a book.
One of his associates, Pyotr Aven, who was foreign economic ties
minister in the Gaidar Cabinet, believes that Gaidar's life was fortunate
and tragic at the same time.
"He managed to do everything that he had wished. But over the past 20
years he was in no demand as an economist and politician. Probably, this
is one of the reasons why he is no more," Aven said, adding that he was
certain monuments to Gaidar "are still to be erected on this soil."
It is beyond doubt that the name of Yegor Gaidar, grandson of a hero
of the Civil War and legendary Soviet author Arkady Gaidar, will certainly
go down in the country's history. Gaidar's father was Rear Admiral Timur
Gaidar, who before his death wished his ashes be scattered over Moscow.
The family accomplished his will.
The farewell ceremony for Yegor Gaidar will begin at noon. Gaidar will
be cremated by the decision of his family.
"That was my father's wish," said his daughter Maria.
"The ashes will be buried some other day, the way it is usually done.
Only the family will be present," she said.
Presumably, Gaidar's ashes will be taken to the Novodevichye Cemetery.
There will be no public ceremony.

.Medvedev, Nazarbayev, Lukashenko to 'synchronize watches'.

ALMATY, December 19 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
has arrived in Almaty from Copenhagen. Togther with his Kazakh and
Belarussian counterparts, Nursultan Nazarbayev and Alexander Lukashenko,
he will "synchronize watches" before launching the three-nation customs
union, which is to go operational as of January 1, 2010.
The national leaders agreed to hold this meeting at the EurAsEC summit
in the Belarussian capital Minsk three weeks ago. Also, Medvedev,
Lukashenko and Nazarbayev are to consider a draft plan for forming a
common economic space - the highest stage of integration.
Saturday's informal meeting will be held at the Ak-Bulak hotel at a
mountain sports resort, 40 kilometers east of Almaty in the foothills of
the Zailiysky Alatau, at an altitude of 1,600 meters above the sea level.
The resort boasts Alpine skiing and snowboarding tracks and an ice-skating
complex.

-0-str