Vremya Novostei
VN writes that South Ossetia is building up its military capabilities. It has purchased three Mi-8 helicopters with money from what is known as the "presidential fund," according to Ibragim Gassiyev, deputy defence minister of the self-proclaimed republic. He did not elaborate where the republic had bought the helicopters and how much it had paid for them. "The crews will take part in joint military exercises on a regular basis," the deputy minister added. "However, the exercises will be conducted outside the conflict zone and the peacekeepers' mandate area". Mr Gassiyev said South Ossetia's army numbered close to 12,000 men, including reservists, but excluding volunteers from Abkhazia, the North Caucasus, "who will not take long to come to rescue."
South Ossetian Interior Minister Robert Guliyev told VN that close to 1,000 Georgian troops were being deployed in the conflict zone and another 500 soldiers were there under the relevant agreements on peacekeeping forces.
Izvestia
Stock market players are somewhat afraid of dealing with fluctuating Yukos shares. Thanks to "leaks" from government bodies, some of the traders learn about rises and falls in the oil company's shares in advance. Nevertheless, they cannot profit handsomely from dealings with Yukos shares.
In the last two days, the state's game with Yukos shares has resembled the theatre of the absurd. "The re-arrest of Yuganskneftegaz shares (Yukos's major oil producing company) by the bailiffs, after a court found the arrest illegal, resembles a farce, while the Russian authorities' steps in the Yukos case would be worthy material for the great Russian satirist Nikolai Gogol," Sergei Suverov, an analyst at Zenit bank said in comments on a recent drop in the value of Yukos shares.
Rossiiskaya Gazeta
In 2005, Russia is expected to spend 56 billion roubles, or 1.92% of the budget's expenditures, on fundamental and branch science, and university research. Vladimir Fridlyanov, Russia's deputy education and science minister, cited the figures in an interview with Rossiiskaya Gazeta. This year, the figure is 1.7% of the budget. The increase in spending was stipulated in the president-approved Basic Guidelines for Science and Technology Development until 2010.
Mr Fridlyanov pointed to a gap between Russian science and education, which needed to be integrated. Research institutes are increasingly short of academics, while universities' training and research standards are declining. There are also problems with training innovative technology managers.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
Oil prices have reached another record high level, to nobody's surprise though, NG reports. Experts have calmly stated that the current $45 per barrel is the highest price in the past 21 years. Some experts believe that the price could hit the astronomical mark of $100 per barrel.
Nonetheless, the Russian cabinet is not ruling out a fall in oil prices. The government proceeded from the forecast of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, which says that the average oil price in 2004 will stand at $30.4 per barrel, and the figure may decrease to $29 in the second half of the year.
Yevgeny Gavrilenkov, chief economist with Troika Dialog, told NG that nobody could forecast oil prices and that it was quite risky to base the budget on more real forecasts, e.g. $35 per barrel, as the budget may fail to be executed if oil prices drop.
According to Lev Snykov, an expert with Uralsib, in 2004, the average Urals oil price will be between $32 and $34 per barrel.
Kommersant
Mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov has signed a decree to pull down Europe's largest hotel, the Rossiya (built in 1967, covering an area of 225,000 sq.m., with 3,070 rooms). It will be replaced with a complex of smaller buildings, Kommersant reports.
According to Sergei Ambartsumyan, deputy chief of Moscow's construction sector, the architectural style of the new buildings should "blend into the ensemble of the Kremlin and Kitai-Gorod, and the strange Rossiya building should be pulled down as soon as possible."
However, heated debates are raging over the fate of not the hotel, but the State Central Concert Hall situated on its premises. Representatives of Moscow's artistic elite actively opposed the move to tear it down yesterday.
