RF defence min to hold meeting on formation of state defence order

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NIZHNY NOVGOROV, December 24 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Defence Minister
Anatoly Serdyukov will hold a meeting in Nizhny Novgorod on Thursday with
the leadership of defence complex enterprises of the region. The press
service of the regional government told Itar-Tass that the meeting will
discuss issues of the formation and fulfilment of the state defence order.
A total of 55 enterprises in the Nizhny Novgorod region work under the
state defence order and 40 percent of them have direct contracts with the
Defence Ministry. Within the framework of the one-day visit the minister
will visit one of such enterprises - the Federal Research and Production
Centre "Nizhny Novgorod Research Institute of Radio Engineering" (NNIIRT).
This institute is the head contractor of practically all works under the
state defence order.
NNIIRT for 60 years has been engaged in the designing and production
of radiolocation stations and complexes that today make the basis of the
country's air defence. The main consumers of the products are the Defence
Ministry and Rosoboronexpotr arms exporting company. More than 25 types of
radiolocation systems designed by the institute are adopted for service in
the anti-ballistic missile defence and are also used in 52 countries.
Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region Valery Shantsev will accompany
the defence minister on his trip.
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.Alexander Zhilkin to take office of Astrakhan region governor.

VOLGOGRAD, December 24 (Itar-Tass) - Alexander Zhilkin is taking
office of the Astrakhan region's governor. The press service of the
administration of the Astrakhan region told Itar-Tass that his
inauguration ceremony will be held in Astrakhan on Thursday.
Zhilkin, 50, born in the Astrakhan region, will become the second
Russian governor who took this post in accordance with the new order of
vesting powers in heads of RF subjects offered by the Russian president in
2008. Head of the Sverdlovsk region administration Alexander Misharin
became the first such governor on November 23.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev proposed the candidature of Zhilkin
for the post of governor. On December 9, deputies of the Astrakhan
regional Duma (legislature) unanimously voted for his candidacy.
Alexander Zhilkin has a degree of Ph.D. in Economics he has for a long
time worked in the education sphere. In 1991 - 2004 he was first deputy
head of the Astrakhan region administration and since 2004 - regional
governor.
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.Azeri FM to discuss bilateral relations, region security in Ankara.

BAKU, December 24 (Itar-Tass) - Issues of bilateral relations and
regional security will be in the focus of discussion in Ankara on
Thursday, as Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov is embarking on
a visit to Turkey.
According to diplomatic sources in Baku, Mamedyarov plans talks with
his Turkish colleague Ahmet Davutoglu, meetings with President Abdullah
Gul, Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan and parliament head Mehmet Ali
Shahin. Among the main issues for discussion are expected to be the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement and normalisation of Turkish-Armenian
relations. Official Baku prefers to consider these to processes in
conjunction. It is certain that the opening of borders between Turkey and
Armenia before the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict may prolong
its solution.
Azerbaijan has rather negatively taken the rapprochement process
between Turkey and Armenia indicating that in this case it may correct its
regional policy. It became calm only after the Turkish top leadership
assured Azerbaijan that it would not open borders with Armenia before the
settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and will still take problems
of Azerbaijan as its own. On the whole Baku would want Ankara's more
active participation in the peacekeeping process regarding Turkey as a
guarantor of its interests.
It is also not ruled out that during the talks of the Azerbaijani
foreign minister the sides will also touch upon issues of economic
cooperation between the two countries and their participation in regional
projects.
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.Sergei Ivanov to sum up migration experiment results.

MOSCOW, December 24 (Itar-Tass) - The meeting to summarise the results
of an experiment of registration and issuing of migration cards right in
the passport control booth will be held at the international airport
Vnukovo on Thursday. Russian Vice Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov and Moscow
mayor Yuri Luzhkov will assess the efficiency of the new system.
The experiment is aimed at the simplification of the transfer of data
on entry and exit of foreigners through the Russian border. If earlier the
arriving foreigners had to fill in on their own a migration card and then
these data were put in the system, then now the migration card is filled
in by the operator and the information automatically gets into the
migration registration system.
At the moment the news system is working only at Moscow's Vnukovo
airport. There are 43 passport control booths installed there for the
purpose with server equipment and the needed software and contracted
communications channels. With the use of such equipment the information
retrieval takes 3 minutes for a file on the average that contains data on
300-700 foreigners.
In the future the RF migration authorities plan to introduce such
system at all border checkpoints.
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