Author: Mamian George

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
March 10, 2004 Wednesday

OSCE chairman-in-office to arrive in Yerevan for talks on Karabakh

By Tigran Liloyan
YEREVAN

OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passy
will arrive in Yerevan on a two-day official visit for talks on the
settlement of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh and OSCE-Armenia
relations, sources in the Armenian Foreign Ministry press and
information department told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.

The OSCE chairman-in-office will meet Armenian President Robert
Kocharyan and Nagorno-Karabakh leader Arkady Gukasyan, the sources
said.

In 1992 it was decided to convene a session of the Minsk Conference
for Nagorno-Karabakh under the OSCE aegis, but its resolutions were
not implemented. In June 1992 the participants in the Minsk
Conference set up the OSCE Minsk Group for Nagorno-Karabakh that
became a consultative body. The Minsk Group co-chaired by Russia,
France and the U.S. is working on a draft peace agreement that will
determine Nagorno-Karabakh’s juridical status. Over the last years
the Minsk Group failed to yield certain results and bring the warring
sides’ positions closer.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
March 10, 2004 Wednesday

Work of intergvt committees on CIS integration not to be disrupted

By Lyudmila Yermakova, Dmitry Zlodorev

MOSCOW

The meetings of five intergovernmental committees on economic
integration of the CIS states will be held not in March as planned,
but a little bit later, Russian Deputy Minister for Economic
Development and Trade Dmitry Sukhoparov said at the governmental
question-and-answer session during the Federation Council session on
Wednesday. “There will be no disruptions in this process due to the
formation of a new Russian government,” he emphasised.

Sukhoparov also noted that Viktor Khristenko who was appointed
Industry and Energy Minister on Tuesday is still in charge of the
Russian policy on integration with Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.

The governmental question-and-answer session was devoted to the
development of CIS interstate cooperation. The ambassadors of
Ukraine, Belarus, Tajikistan and Armenia to Russia and staffers of
the embassies of Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan,
Moldova, Georgia and Turkmenistan participated in the session. “We
want to provide Federation Council members with the materials on the
real situation in the CIS states,” chairman of the Federation Council
Committee on CIS Affairs Vadim Gustov told Itar-Tass.

“The position of the leadership of new ministries on the creation of
a single economic space is very important for us,” he remarked.
Gustov noted that several CIS parliamentary delegations headed by
their speakers would meet in St. Petersburg on April 15 in order to
discuss how “to ratify simultaneously the documents on the single
economic space that the presidents will sign.”

Prime-Tass English-language Business Newswire
March 11, 2004

OSS-Zvezda wants to attract 1.2 mln Armenian mobile users

YEREVAN, Mar 11 (Prime-Tass) — Russian-Armenian telecommunications
joint venture OSS-Zvezda is expected to attract up to 1.2 million
subscribers if allowed to launch its mobile service network, the
company’s General Director Eduard Akopyan told a news conference
Thursday.

OSS-Zvezda has submitted a bid to Armenia’s Transport and
Communications Ministry for a license to provide GSM 1800 mobile
services, he said adding that after the national telecommunications
monopoly ArmenTel is stripped of its monopoly rights, the bid could
be considered by the ministry.

Currently, OSS-Zvezda is completing the construction of its mobile
network and is awaiting the license, he said.

The total investments into the project are estimated at 60 million
euros, he noted. No other details were available. End

RosBusinessConsulting Database
March 11, 2004 Thursday 1:34 am, EST

New gov’t to meet today

Today the Russian government will discuss measures aimed at
implementing the Russian President’s decree on the system and
structure of federal government agencies signed on March 9. Deputy
Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov will deliver a corresponding report,
the Government Information Department reported.

The Cabinet will also consider issues concerning some international
agreements and protocols with Armenia and Ukraine. Deputy Interior
Minister Alexander Chekalin and Deputy Foreign Minister Valery
Loshchinin will make corresponding reports.

This meeting will be presided by Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
March 11, 2004

Ingosstrakh intends to develop Armenia’s insurance market

By Tigran Liloyan

Russia’s Ingosstrakh Insurance Company has acquired 75 percent of the
shares of the Armenian insurance firm Efes, which accounts for about
20 percent of the country’s insurance market.

Ingosstrakh General Director Vyacheslav Shcherbakov stated here on
Thursday, “We expect to promote the development of the insurance
market of Armenia.” He said the decision to appear on the Armenian
market is prompted, to a larger extent, by an active development of
Russo-Armenian economic cooperation. Russian capital investments in
Armenia have amounted to 200 million US dollars, with a number of big
Russian companies operating in this country, Shcherbakov pointed out.

“This is why a further economic development is impossible without a
sizeable insurance component,” Shcherbakov maintains. He is convinced
that the insurance market here, despite its not large volume, has a
considerable potential. The Ingosstrakh intends to take up the
insurance of the property of Armenia’s enterprises that have been
turned over to Russia in repayment of the interstate debt, he said.

The Russian company will also offer an extensive package of services
in Armenia. These are regular products of Ingosstrakh, primarily the
insurance of the property of natural persons and legal entities, air
transportation, and liability car insurance. The latter is not
compulsory in Armenia so far but the Ingosstrakh hopes that a
respective law will also be adopted in Armenia soon.

RIA Novosti, Russia
March 12 2004

RUSSIAN NATIONALS IN ARMENIA TO VOTE AT PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

YEREVAN, March 12, 2004. (RIA Novosti) – Ten polling stations will be
open in Armenia for Russians wishing to vote at the Russian
President’s elections on March 14, the Russian Embassy to Armenia
said on Friday.

Two polling stations will be open in Yerevan (one in the embassy and
the other in the Kanaker military camp where a Russian military unit
is deployed).

There will be five polling stations in Gyumri (three at the 102nd
Russian military base, one in the Consulate General and one at the
headquarters of the Russian Federal Security Service border guard
detachment). Three polling stations will be open in Armavir, Artashat
and Megri where Russian border guards are deployed.

According to the Russian Embassy, about 8,000 Russian nationals
living or staying in Armenia will be able to vote at the elections.

The voting will take place from 8.00 a.m. until 8.00 p.m. local time.

RIA Novosti, Russia
March 12 2004

THE CIS “DEFENCE SIX” SUPPORTS JOINT EFFORTS BY THE INTERNATIONAL
COMMUNITY AGAINST TERRORISM

MOSCOW, March 12 (RIA Novosti) – Nikolai Bordiuzha, Secretary General
of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO: Russia,
Byelorussia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kirgizia, Tadzhikistan) supports
joint efforts by the international community against all
manifestations of terrorism.

“International terrorism has committed another crime – this time
against the inhabitants of Madrid. The tragedy of March 11, like the
events of September 11, 2001 in New York, like terrorist attacks in
Asia, confirms that every terrorist action is a link of a single
chain” – Bordiuzha pointed out in his statement concerning the bloody
attack in Madrid.

According to him, international terrorism can re-form swiftly and it
is ready to deal one blow after another in any region of the globe.

“To oppose this evil the international community must unite its
efforts, create the atmosphere of aversion and intolerance to
terrorism in any of its forms and manifestations” – the CSTO General
Secretary emphasized.

Bordiuzha reminded that the Collective Security Treaty Organization
had “made repeated statements in support of a concerted effort by
states and international organizations in order to give an adequate
repulse to terrorism and extremism”.

“We confirm the CSTO’s unchanged readiness to make a constructive
contribution to the struggle against terrorism” – Bordiuzha said.