* The Russian News and Information Agency Novosti will host a press conference of the organizing committee of the international conference "UNESCO between two stages of the World Summit on the Information Society" which will take place in St. Petersburg on May 17-19 (11.00).
* A two-day scientific-practical conference on the key issues of the strategy of Russia's development organized on the initiative of the Rodina (Homeland) party and its State Duma (parliament's lower house) faction (11.00).
* The Russian Transport Union and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry will organize a meeting of heads of associations and unions of the transport and road complex, the academic and branch science, transport higher educational establishments, business and financial circles with director of the department of trade negotiations of the Russian Economic Development and Trade Ministry Maxim Medvedkov on the problems of the economic transport sector in connection with Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization (10.00).
* The organizing committee of the 6th specialized exhibition "Dual purpose products and technologies. The conversion of defense industry" will hold a press conference on the topic "From innovation projects to commercialization of technologies" (11.00).
* The exhibition Our Metro dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Moscow metro will open at the Polytechnic Museum (16.00).
ASTANA
* An extraordinary session of the top level group on the formation of the Common Economic Space of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine will take place in Astana. Russian Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko will represent Russia. The session will focus on draft documents which are to be signed at the forthcoming summit of the Common Economic Space scheduled for July 2005.
DUSHANBE
* Russian border guards will launch the second stage of handover of the plain section of the Tajik-Afghan border to their Tajik counterparts. The Russian committee for the state border protection will hand over the 96-kilometer section, the Pakhar commandant's office and 16 border checkpoints with all infrastructure.
BEIJING
* A delegation from St. Petersburg led by governor Valentina Matviyenko will arrive in China on a two-day visit. In Beijing Matviyenko will meet with the Chinese leadership. After that, the delegation will attend the St. Petersburg-Shanghai economic forum on the development of cooperation in the sphere of trade and investments in Shanghai.
HELSINKI
* The two-day international scientific-practical conference entitled "The Russian language as foreign: problems of learning, teaching and assessment in the light of pan-European competence of a foreign language command" will open at the Russian science and culture in Helsinki. Authors of Russian language textbooks from leading Russian universities, as well as experts from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Germany, Italy, Finland, Denmark and Malta will attend the conference.
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