Moskovsky Komsomolets
Youth agency official bends ruth in report to PM
Vasily Yakemenko, the head of Russia’s Federal Agency for Youth Affairs, lied to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in a report on a new project to promote healthy living, Moskovky Komsomolets said.
Yakemenko spoke passionately about the Jog Along healthy lifestyle project and said it was already being trialed at the Sholokhov Moscow State University for Humanities and a number of schools in Moscow and Samara. “We want to replace existing school PE classes with lessons on healthy living,” he told the prime minister. MK reporters interviewed education officials and school administrators to find out what kids do during these new lessons and how successful the project is.
But when a source at the Moscow Department for Education said no schools in Moscow were involved in this experiment, MK contacted Maria Soboleva, the project coordinator and Yakemenko’s wife, who said the project was still “in the pipeline” and would get underway at one of Samara’s schools “around June,” which is when schools close for summer holidays. Olga Kazakova, deputy director of the designated school, said she has never heard of the plan.
Vladilen Madzhuga, who heads the physical education department at Sholokhov University, said Soboleva’s presentation of the project was scheduled for “the near future.” She had suggested giving a demonstration class and the university agreed. However, the faculty is still wary of replacing the old PE program, which they say was “developed by reputable professionals in teaching and sports.”
Madzhuga proposed convening a conference of Russia’s 26 Physical Education colleges and other agencies concerned to decide what the younger generation needs to stay healthy. “This should be discussed with fitness and healthcare professionals. The Jog Along project requires testing and additional work,” he said.
Soboleva explained to MK that the new PE curriculum will include two major components: promoting healthy habits and fitness routines. The plan is to tell the kids how to eat well and cook healthy food. “We will cook together in class, and then do a short work-out routine to music,” she said.
RBC Daily
Kremlin ideology chief: opposition will come to power
A waning United Russia, an opposition that is gaining in strength and credibility and a parliament comprising three to five parties. That is how Vladislav Surkov, First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office sees Russia’s political future. It is a vision shared by Russia’s opposition parties. Although they do not yet see any political force that could replace the party of power.
On Wednesday, Surkov met with students from leading U.S. universities and shared his views on the development of the Russian political system. He sees United Russia as gradually losing ground to the opposition parties over the next few years. But he does not foresee any seismic shifts in the current political set-up.
Surkov envisages a coalition-led parliament, since he deems the ruling party’s current rating of 50-60 percent, “abnormally high.” A “three-, four- or five-party” parliament will, he suggests, emerge. The pendulum will also inevitably swing away from the recent centralization drive, back towards decentralization. Surkov hopes an elastic and diversified political system will take shape in Russia over the next decade.
United Russia has already noted Surkov’s warning and is preparing to face down its rivals. “Our goal is to obtain a majority. We do not rule out that a respectable opposition party may come to power,” said Alexei Chesnakov, head of United Russia’s public council. Currently, United Russia deputies have 315 out of 450 seats in the State Duma (lower house of parliament). This allows them to pass bills without seeking approval from other parties.
Russia’s opposition parties back Surkov’s comments. Recent election returns indicate that United Russia is indeed losing influence, believes Igor Lebedev, head of the LDPR parliamentary party. “The party’s real rating is about 40 percent. In six years’ time United Russia will not be able to win a constitutional majority. Then we will have something akin to regular European-style development with three to four parties represented in parliament, each claiming 25 percent. A coalition will have to be formed if there is to be a majority. United Russia will be forced to seek an ally,” he explained. The leader of the parliamentary party A Just Russia, Nikolai Levichev, agrees that United Russia is already losing ground “no matter how they manipulate the results.”
“For United Russia, Surkov’s words are a wake up call. Similar hints have been voiced both by President Dmitry Medvedev and the party’s leader Vladimir Putin,” Levichev says. Sergei Gavrilov, Communist parliamentary party deputy, believes Surkov has a double agenda: to jerk the party up a gear and to start formulating a political alliance for the future, perhaps with the leftwing-patriotic opposition, such as the Russian Communist Party.
Alexei Makarkin, deputy head of the Center for Political Technologies, does not see the emergence of this “respectable opposition” as even vaguely likely in the near future: “Currently, the majority of the political elite lies within United Russia. No force exists yet or is likely to appear to replace it."
Vedomosti
Moscow mayor tackles urban development
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin is to supervise all new investment projects in Moscow personally. He set up, and headed, the urban development and land commission. Their first move was to terminate the Pushkin Square renovation contract.
Mayor Sobyanin has already set up an urban development and land commission, to assess current investment contracts and developers’ proposals. Until now those were all questions for construction policy head Vladimir Resin.
During the commission’s first meeting, held on Thursday, the Moscow authorities decided to terminate the investment contract for renovation work on Pushkin Square.
Construction work on Pushkin Square was suspended last month following protests from residents.
On December 1, 2004, a City Hall decree listed the Tverskoi Commercial & Leisure Center (62 percent owned by Turkey's MNG Holding, 30 percent by the city property department and 8 percent by Business Professional) as one investor in the project.
The controversial Pushkin Square project was to include a tunnel running under Pushkin Square (part of the Bolshaya Leningradka project), and a commercial-leisure center over 96,500 square meters in size with parking for up to 1,000 cars.
A total of about $150 million was to be invested in the project, which was originally planned for completion in 2007, but work never actually started.
According to Moscow’s Deputy Mayor Yuri Roslyak, City Hall will try to reach a negotiated understanding with the investor. The city will have to buy back project plans from the erstwhile investor so they can be improved under the new project.
However neither MNG Holding nor Tverskoi Commercial and Leisure Center have been in touch with Moscow City Hall.
MNG Holding’s head office yesterday declined to comment on how much they had spent to date on the Pushkin Square project (it was a public holiday in Turkey).
Two transport tunnels, a parking lot and an underground crossing will be built under the square and above ground the Pushkin Square public gardens will be extended, Roslyak confirmed.
There will also be a city-owned food store within reasonable walking distance and the city also plans to fund and build an interchange. The volume of investment required remains unknown, as the technical documentation is being put together, Roslayk said. After constructing a traffic-light free road system the government may open tenders for the underground construction of parking lots and a pedestrian zone.
Parking lots themselves are not income generators, which is why Blackwood Managing Partner Konstantin Kovalev believes attracting investors will remain a challenge, unless something like the European Bank of Reconstruction and Developmen takes a stake in it.
Gulnara Penkova, the Moscow mayor’s spokesperson, said the commission is only planning to examine and discuss top priority issues.
RIA Novosti is not responsible for the content of outside sources.
