VREMYA NOVOSTEI
The Russian economy is living up to the President's and the Government's expectations, reports VN. According to the majority of analysts, Russia's GDP will increase by over 7% in 2004, and some experts even insist on the figure of 8%. Apparently, the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade will have to revise its modest forecast of 6.4% again.
Acting Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov briefed the President on the country's economic performance in the first four months of this year. In his words, industrial output grew by 7.4% year-on-year. "The economic growth rate is slightly higher than in 2003," Mr Zhukov pointed out. The negative trend seen in March when industrial output went down by 6.6% after the productive January and February (with growth rate hitting 7.5% and 8.7% respectively) was reversed in April. Last month, industrialists increased production by 6.7% as compared with April 2003. "The growth is sustainable, with no clouds to be seen on the economic horizon," Anton Struchenevsky, analyst of the Troika Dialog investment company, told VN. "The second half of 2003 saw a slight slowdown, but in December the situation changed, and the present dynamics are positive," he noted.
IZVESTIA
On Monday, 60 US generals and officers together with their Russian colleagues took part in joint exercises for the first time, drilling "a peace-keeping operation to defend a third country," Izvestia reports.
Top officers of the landing group in Southern Europe and the US 7th Army's commanders arrived in Moscow to participate in the Russia-US command-and-staff exercises Torgau-2004, which began in the Troop Academy of the Russian Armed Forces.
According to Izvestia, such exercises have little obvious effect: the military fight on maps, prepare and draft guidelines. But the main thing for those taking part is the opportunity to establish direct contacts between staff officers of the two countries, develop a common approach to a given situation and implement specific tasks, and finally to understand how decisions are taken in different armies, Izvestia reports.
KOMMERSANT
Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi has visited Moscow. According to Kommersant, Iran fears a US attack and is therefore seeking to move relations with Russia up a gear in the hope of protection and aid. The newspaper reports that Moscow receives some political and even fewer economic benefits from co-operation with Tehran and is consequently trying to avoid excessive rapprochement with it to avoid upsetting America.
The agenda of the Iranian minister's one-day visit included talks with Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov, acting Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and finally an audience with Vladimir Putin.
According to the newspaper, Moscow assured Mr Kharrazi that Russia was doing its best to close Iran's nuclear dossier, but asked Iran to co-operate openly and honestly with the IAEA. Indeed, Moscow reminded Mr Kharrazi that the question of returning spent nuclear fuel from the constructed nuclear power plant in Bushehr to Russia had not been resolved yet. Meanwhile, the Americans suspect Tehran of harbouring ambitions to deal with the spent fuel on its own and use it for military purposes, Kommersant reports.
GAZETA
Ukraine's Constitutional Court has ruled that it will not consider a draft law introducing amendments to the Constitution that propose making Russian the country's second official language. The bill was put forward by the Verhovna Rada (Parliament). The court said amendments to the Constitution had to be supported by at least two thirds of MPs, i.e. 300 deputies, while the draft law only had the backing of 165 MPs.
On April 14, Ukraine's National Council on Television Broadcasting obliged all state television and radio channels to broadcast in Ukrainian. The move caused a wave of protests in Ukraine and Russia. Even Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma qualified the move as illegal, the newspaper writes. On April 29, the Council had to veto the decision, thereby suspending the final switch to the Ukrainian language on the television and radio.
Leonid Grach, the author of the bill, believes the Constitutional Court's decision was undoubtedly politically motivated. "The bill on Russian becoming an official state language has been thwarted by anti-Russian political forces," Mr Grach told Gazeta. "It's a shame that the Constitutional Court acted as a political, rather than a judicial, body in this case."
NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA
High world oil prices mean that producers are exporting all their extra oil output and even part of the oil and oil products intended for the domestic market, writes the newspaper. The Yukos oil major has circulated the preliminary results of its activity in the first quarter of 2004. The company boosted production to 21.1 million tonnes, or by 9.3% compared with the same period last year. It exported 13.5 million tonnes of oil and oil products, an increase of 20.3% and 25.7%, respectively. The company's oil supplies to the domestic market shrank by 10.4% to four million tonnes, according to Nezavisimaya Gazeta.
