GAZETA
On June 28, Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded that law-enforcement and security structures submit specific proposals on counteracting terrorism within a week. After the deadline, Justice Minister Yuri Chaika reported on how the task had been fulfilled. According to him, the counter-terrorist bill that is currently being prepared will take into account all the initiatives of law-enforcement bodies, Gazeta writes. An important achievement, the minister believes, is that the document for the first time identifies the services directly responsible for counteracting terrorism. He also pointed out that the bill's terminology had been brought into line with international practice.
However, the bill is still being worked on and neither its authors nor deputies can say when it will be submitted to the State Duma, Gazeta writes.
It seems that the tough tone adopted by President Putin when he talked to law-enforcement representatives after Chechen militants had attacked Nazran, Ingushetia's largest city, on June 22 made them hurry with their counter-terrorism proposals. Chaika reported on the work of his ministry and the law-enforcement agencies. They have prepared a fundamentally new bill on counteracting terrorism. "The document gives our law-enforcement bodies a perfect weapon - the legislative base," he pointed out. Also, "it expands the conceptual content in compliance with our international commitments in the fight against terrorism," the minister emphasised.
Moreover, the bill will specify the notion "terrorism" (which is now defined by the Russian Criminal Code) and introduce new terms, "an act of terrorism" and "a counter-terrorist operation". Moreover, it will for the first time specify the bodies responsible for counteracting terrorism, the newspaper reports.
VREMYA NOVOSTEI
Speaker of the Russian State Duma Boris Gryzlov has reason to celebrate, the newspaper points out. Heading the Russian delegation at a session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly that opened in Edinburgh on Monday for the first time, he was quite successful in putting a resolution to vote. It is the first such case in the ten years that Russian deputies have participated in the Assembly's work.
Mr Gryzlov's resolution, under the modest title "On the Situation of National Minorities in Latvia and Estonia", points out that "mass statelessness of Latvian and Estonian residents complicates the ongoing democratisation process in the countries." "Refusal to grant citizenship because of one's nationality, race or religion is one of the most serious forms of discrimination," it reads. The document urges Latvia to create conditions for non-citizens to take part in the country's political life by giving them voting rights at local elections and recommends Latvia and Estonia "to accelerate the naturalisation process for non-citizens."
Even if a number of amendments proposed by Latvian parliamentarians in an attempt to dilute the essence of the document are adopted, the fact that the Russian delegation to the OSCE went on the offensive for the first time is difficult to overestimate. At any rate, the resolution on the Baltic states will be adopted. Convinced that this would happen, Mr Gryzlov left Edinburgh, Vremya Novostei reports.
NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA
On Tuesday, Dmitry Rogozin became the sole leader of the Homeland political party. This decision was taken by an extraordinary party congress that was convened to amend the party charter. The delegates resolved to give up the "unclear co-presidency arrangements" (Homeland was run by seven co-leaders) and elected Mr Rogozin as Homeland's only leader, writes NG. The party leader is accountable to congresses alone. Mr Rogozin will therefore enjoy complete authority in the party. He said they had to consolidate Homeland's "power vertical" as the party had large-scale objectives. Unlike the Communists, who "have hidden in their dug-out" and are unable to fight for power, Homeland is resolved to win the majority of seats in parliament and form a government in 2007.
The mention of the Communist Party, which has become considerably weaker, is a clear signal that Homeland intends to occupy the Communists' political niche, use their slogans and take their votes. Rogozin proposed that social justice and patriotism be the key concepts of the party doctrine, writes the paper.
IZVESTIA
Tuesday saw an unexpected turn in the Yukos saga, writes the Izvestia daily. Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Shatalov said the company might be granted a delay in tax arrears payment if it filed the relevant application with the Finance Ministry. Yukos shares grew a dramatic 23% within minutes on the Moscow Inter-bank Currency Exchange (MICEX) and by 16% on the Russian Trading System (RTS) in response.
Dealers calmed down somewhat soon and the quotations fell, although they remained higher than yesterday's closing indexes. Tuesday was the deadline for the company to pay off its tax arrears for 2000 in line with a court ruling. Naturally, as the oil company's bank accounts have been frozen, it could not pay back the debt.
From today bailiffs can begin selecting Yukos assets for the sale in the state's favour.
"There are no major reasons for a stock market collapse at the moment," said Alexander Baranov, portfolio manager at Prospect Investment. "But, the Yukos situation did create new risks." In his opinion, the situation is not disastrous and will not evolve into such any time soon.
KOMMERSANT
The crisis on the inter-bank crediting market escalated further on Tuesday, although the Central Bank has denied its existence for more than a month, writes the newspaper. Alfa Bank and Guta Bank, two major system-forming banks, encountered major problems simultaneously on Tuesday. Guta Bank stopped servicing clients in the morning, while hundreds of depositors besieged Alfa Bank branches in the evening.
Both banks have hundreds of thousands of depositors, writes Kommersant. An Alfa Bank analyst said in mid June that the situation surrounding Guta Bank would be the litmus test for the entire Russian banking sector.
However, the Central Bank insists that only individual banks are facing difficulties and this is not the crisis of the banking sector as a whole.
