Nezavisimaya Gazeta
www.ng.ru
- Russian legislation limits the access of foreigners to oil and natural gas. The Cabinet will consider a bill regulating foreign participation in strategic facilities on October 13. Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko will read a report, as will Natural Resources Minister Yury Trutnev. The discussion might become heated, as ministries and departments could not agree on a series of points.
- Russian political scientists are alarmed by recent trends in domestic policy. "Our 'legal' tradition (i.e. the arbitrary rule of those in power, which made the foundation of the social order in this country) has not been reversed," said Lev Gudkov, head of sociopolitical research at the Levada Center think tank.
"A new traditionalism is shaping up, although without Communist rubbish," Lilia Shevtsova of the Carnegie Moscow Center said. "By 'traditionalism' I mean the personification and unlimited power of one leader..."
Rossiiskaya Gazeta
www.rg.ru
- Paul Wolfowitz is coming to Russia. The World Bank president gives an interview to the paper in which he talks about his first visit to the country as the head of the organization. He will arrive on October 19.
- How much is opium for the masses? Viktor Cherkesov, Russia's "drug tsar", sees the flourishing drugs trade as a threat to national security.
- Vladimir Putin identified the priorities of health care in the country on Tuesday. But will the projects be implemented at the start of next year?
- A bill on a financial amnesty may be submitted to parliament in two weeks' time. However, experts doubt that if it becomes law, the act will force people to reveal what they have accrued.
