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Main news of March 12

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RUSSIA * The Russian government's spending on anti-crisis measures will reach 12% of GDP in 2009, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said * President Dmitry... 12.03.2009, Sputnik International

2009-03-12T19:00+0000

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Main news of March 12

19:00 GMT 12.03.2009

RUSSIA

* The Russian government's spending on anti-crisis measures will reach 12% of GDP in 2009, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said

* President Dmitry Medvedev appointed Yelena Skrynnik, who previously led a nationwide agricultural development program, as agriculture minister

* Russia will not seek reparations from Ukraine for importing less natural gas than the volume stipulated in the contract with Russia's Gazprom, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said

* Russia's foreign minister told his Azerbaijani counterpart that Russia wants to continue using the Gabala early-warning radar after the current lease expires in 2012

* Russia's newest frigate, the Yaroslav Mudry, will begin service before the end of this year, the Baltic Fleet commander said

* The Russian opposition Solidarity movement nominated former deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov to become mayor of the Black Sea resort of Sochi

* Veronika Marchenko, head of a Russian NGO protecting the rights of servicemen and their families, has received the U.S. Secretary of State's annual Award for International Women of Courage

* Russia and the West would be making a big mistake if they ignored or underestimated the potential missile and nuclear threat coming from Iran, a Russian military expert said

WORLD

* North Korea has informed Russia that it has signed up to an international treaty and convention on space, a Russian Foreign Ministry source said

* German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed France's decision to rejoin NATO's military command after 43 years out of the alliance's key decision-making processes

* The Paris Court of Appeals has upheld a 2008 court ruling ordering Swiss company Noga to unfreeze Russian accounts in France, including those of RIA Novosti, the news agency's lawyer said

* An ethnic-Russian businessman in Lithuania has submitted documents to the country's chief election commission to run for president, the parliamentary press service said

* The European Court of Human Rights announced on Thursday it had ordered Russia to pay 550,000 euros ($704,500) in compensation to the relatives of 13 people who went missing in Chechnya between 2001-2003

* The office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Tbilisi will terminate its work by June 2009, the director of the OSCE Conflict Prevention Center said

* Lawyers for the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at then-U.S. President George Bush in December said on Thursday they intend to appeal the three-year prison sentence of their client

* Interpol has officially put Yevgeny Chichvarkin, the former owner of Russian cell phone retailer Euroset, on a wanted list, Russia's Interpol Bureau said

* Norwegian maritime authorities have released Russian trawler that was detained on suspicion of violating fishing rules, Russia's Vesti TV channel said

BUSINESS

* Russian bailiffs have seized the 29.9% stake in Russian mobile phone operator VimpelCom held by Telenor following a long-running shareholder dispute, the Norwegian telecommunications firm said

* Russia's leading carmaker AvtoVAZ will give up its current payment scheme and pay suppliers in cash in 2009 to prevent production disruptions, the plant said, citing its president