Medvedev to hold session of Council of Legislators Mon.

MOSCOW, December 28 (Itar-Tass) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is
to hold a session of the Council of Legislators here on Monday. It is
planned that the Head of State and parliamentarians will discuss how to
implement the proposals made in the November 12 annual Presidential
Address to the Federal Assembly (parliament).

Sergei Mironov, Speaker of the Federation Council (FC) upper house of
parliament and Chairman of the Council of Legislators, pointed out
earlier, "Urgent legislative decisions are necessary to implement the
suggestions made in the Presidential Address".
Matters that legislators prioritize are as follows: to introduce a
common criterion of the number of members in the legislative assemblies of
the regions, to exempt political parties that are represented in regional
parliaments from the need to collect signatures for regional elections,
and to hear reports from governors and non-parliamentary parties.
The Council of Legislators is a deliberative body. It comprises the FC
Speaker, the First Deputy Speaker of the State Duma lower house of
parliament, Executive Secretary-- one of FC Deputy Speakers, and all heads
of regional legislatures.
The main tasks of the Council of Legislators are to promote
interaction among regional legislatures, work out recommendations to
determine basic orientations of legislation, discuss the most important
draft Federal laws and other matters concerning lawmaking activities and
law application practice.
Proceeding from these tasks, the Council determines specific matters
to be examined at the Council's sessions that are held quarterly. The
Council's decisions have exclusively the nature of recommendations.
The Council of Legislators has held 21sessions over the past six years
and a half, including ten ones with the participation of the President of
the RF. Last time Medvedev held such a meeting in March 2009.

.AVTOVAZ to resume operation Jan 11 after holidays.

SAMARA, December 28 (Itar-Tass) - AVTOVAZ car factory goes on New-Year
holidays on Monday and will resume production "on January 11, together
with the entire country", an official at the factory's press service has
told Itar-Tass.
In January AVTOVAZ will work according to a new production time-table,
the introduction of which was prompted by closure, effective from January,
of the first stream of the main assembly line for an in-depth
modernization.
In view of this, the production of Lada Samara cars will be
transferred to the second stream of the assembly line where Lada 2105/2107
cars are currently assembled. Both car models will be assembled for five
days a week in two eight-hour shifts.
Pilot production plant will operate according to the same pattern.
Cars of the Lada Priora family will be assembled four days a week in two
working shifts daily. Lada Kalina and Lada 4x4 will be produced for five
days a week in one standard shift daily.

.FC, regional lawmakers to sign interaction agreements.

MOSCOW, December 28 (Itar-Tass) - On Monday, the Federation Council
(FC) upper house of the Russian parliament and lawmakers from more than 20
regions are to sign agreements on interaction in the legislation-drafting
process.
FC Speaker Sergei Mironov has told Itar-Tass, "By engaging in the work
for cooperation in the preparation and passage of regional legislative
initiatives through the Federal parliament, we are busy accomplishing the
assignment given by the President of the Russian Federation".
Mironov recalled that Dmitry Medvedev had assigned "the House of
Regions, as the FC is referred to, more actively to assist regional
parliaments in the all-Federal lawmaking process. This is prompted by the
fact that regional legislative assemblies table a multitude of legislative
initiatives at the State Duma lower house of parliament, with only few of
them becoming laws. The FC must act as "an active coordinator of the
legislative activities of the representative bodies of territories,"
Mironov remarked.
The FC Speaker said that over 20 consolidated initiatives are in the
process of preparation. These are to be referred to the State Duma on
behalf of the FC and regional legislators.
At this year's last plenary session on Friday, the House approved and
referred to the State Duma as such a consolidated initiative a proposal,
brought forward by the House in conjunction with the Tomsk Region Duma
legislature, about the introduction of amendments to the RF Code of
Administrative Offences, dealing with housing policy.
Monday's signing ceremony will be attended by representatives of the
State and People's Assemblies, State Councils, and Regional Duma
legislatures of republics, such as Adygeya, Ingushetia, North
Ossetia-Alania, Tatarstan, Tuva, the Kamchatka Territory, as well as
regions and territories situated across an area stretching from
Kaliningrad to Magadan and Kamchatka.
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