Mediamax news agency, Yerevan, in English
10 Mar 04
Armenian leader calls for repair of roads with Georgia

YEREVAN
Today Armenian President Robert Kocharyan received in Yerevan Georgian
ambassador Nikoloz Nikolozishvili, who is finishing his diplomatic
mission in Yerevan and has already been appointed as the Georgian
president’s representative in the region of Samtskhe-Javakheti
inhabited mostly by ethnic Armenians.
At the meeting, Robert Kocharyan and the ambassador stated the
importance of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s official visit
to Armenia to start on 12 March, the presidential press service told
Mediamax today.
The sides also discussed the situation in the region of
Samtskhe-Javakheti. Nikolozishvili told the Armenian president that
he had already been to the region and considered his priority task to
pay more attention to socio-economic problems of its population.
In this respect, Robert Kocharyan stated the importance of repairing
the highway connecting Samtskhe-Javakheti with Armenia.

Trend news agency, Baku, in Russian
10 Mar 04
Azeri, Armenian ministers to meet OSCE mediators in late March –
Russian envoy
BAKU
Trend correspondent E. Huseynov: The Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign
ministers will meet the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group on the
Nagornyy Karabakh settlement in late March, the Russian ambassador to
Azerbaijan, Nikolay Ryabov, has told Trend news agency. He did not
name the venue for the meeting, but said that the discussions would be
held in a European country.
Ryabov also commented on a recent statement by the [Russian]
president’s special representative for the Nagornyy Karabakh
settlement [and first deputy foreign minister], Vyacheslav Trubnikov,
that the conflict had reached deadlock. “This was said somewhat
emotionally and hastily. The search for a mutually acceptable agenda
is under way,” Ryabov said. The forthcoming meeting of the foreign
ministers and the co-chairmen is to elaborate the agenda of a
peaceful settlement to the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, he added.

Space TV, Baku, in Azeri
10 Mar 04
Azeri officer suspected of killing Armenian to serve time at home –
lawyer

[Presenter] Ramil Safarov’s interpreter has finally spoken out and
informed the Azerbaijani public about the latest news. We present you
with a telephone conversation with the interpreter as follows:
[A female voice on the phone] He is in a normal state and is being
held in normal conditions. He is treated well by everyone.
[Passage omitted: Personal belongings can be sent to Safarov in
prison]
[Presenter] Lawyer Adil Ismayilov, who has returned after visiting
Safarov [who is suspected of killing an Armenian officer], says that
to all appearances, Safarov will serve a prison term in Baku.
[Correspondent over video of news conference] To recap, the incident
occurred at about 0500 [0100 gmt] on 19 February.
[Passage omitted: Reported details of incident]
Ismayilov did not answer a number of questions to preserve the
secrecy of an investigation. He only said that the incident had
occurred because of the Armenian officer’s unethical behaviour. As
for the future stages of the process, Ismayilov said that the trial
could have been held in Azerbaijan in accordance with a European
convention. But it is impossible to hold the trial in Azerbaijan as
most of the witnesses are in Budapest. The investigation is expected
to finish by the end of this month. As for the lawyer appointed by
the Azerbaijani side, Ismayilov said that the lawyer has already been
named. His name is Elcin Usubov, a member of the Board of Lawyers.
[Ismayilov] The Azerbaijani lawyer can meet Safarov and take part in
the investigation only with the prosecutor’s preliminary consent.
[Correspondent] Ismayilov believes that the key issue now is to prove
the reason for the incident. That’s why, it is necessary to furnish
the trial and Budapest television with facts about the Xocali tragedy
[1992 massacre of Azeris in Karabakh] and other Azerbaijani lands
under occupation because the Armenians have already started an active
propaganda campaign in this sphere. The Armenians have managed to
broadcast two programmes of this kind on Hungarian TV in the last 15
days. Ismayilov is confident that although Safarov will be sentenced
in Hungary, he will serve his prison term in Azerbaijan. This is not
our demand, but a requirement of international law.
Mircavad Rahimov and Rasad Bagirov, Space.

Mediamax news agency, Yerevan, in Russian
10 Mar 04
Armenian leader urges nationwide fight against corruption

YEREVAN
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan expressed his regret today that
“the fight against corruption in our country is not nationwide”, the
Armenian president said at a meeting with Yerevan State University
students today, according to a Mediamax correspondent.
Kocharyan said that for an efficient fight against corruption, it is
necessary to regulate all the functions of the state. “For example,
in Armenia, four years ago, it was impossible to have a commercial
company registered without a bribe. Moreover, it took about a month.
Now it takes only two days to have a company registered and nobody
can dare to demand a bribe,” the Armenian president said.
Robert Kocharyan cited the energy system as another example, he said
that “it used to be one of the most corrupt spheres in Armenia”. “The
privatization of the Armenian grids has led to a considerable drop in
the level of corruption in this sector,” the president said.
“We have the necessary political will that enables us to reduce the
volume of corruption every year. The elimination of corruption
demands daily laborious efforts, and this is not a problem that can
be resolved very quickly by chanting big slogans,” Kocharyan said.

Associated Press
March 10 2004
One person killed, hundreds flooded as snow melts in Armenia

Melting snows and strong winds in Armenia flooded hundreds of homes
and caused one death, officials said Wednesday.
One man was killed in the city of Idzhevan because of a tree felled
by the strong winds that buffeted the Caucasus nation, the Emergency
Situations Ministry said. Hundreds of homes were flooded across the
country, and the harsh weather also affected the capital Yerevan.
Winds blew roofs off houses, downing power lines and starting forest
fires. Exact damage figures weren’t known.
The weather calmed by later Wednesday.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
March 10, 2004 Wednesday
Air bridge links Kaliningrad to Yerevan
By Vladimir Nuyakshev
KALININGRAD, March 10
Air flights have been resumed between Russia’s westernmost province
of Kaliningrad and the Armenian capital of Yerevan after they were
interrupted more than a year ago.
A Tu-134 aircraft will fly from Yerevan to Kaliningrad and back once
a week, the air traffic service of Kaliningrad’s Khrabrovo airport
reported on Wednesday.
Kaliningrad and Yerevan have restored the air connection in response
to requests by more than 7,000 Armenians residing in the Kaliningrad
region.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
March 10, 2004 Wednesday
Armenia’s economic growth makes 139% in 2003
By Tigran Liloyan
YEREVAN
The Armenian economic growth made 13.9 percent in 2003, Armenian
President Robert Kocharyan said at a meeting with students of
universities at Yerevan State University on Wednesday. The industrial
production growth reached 18 percent, capital development — 40
percent and export — 34 percent, the president emphasised.
According to him foreign debts mostly for credits on easy terms
amounted to 40-44 percent of Armenia’s GDP that testifies to the
solvency of the country.
“The economic policy of the government should be aimed at the
improvement of the life quality in the republic,” Kocharyan remarked.
Educational reforms, particularly the transition to the two-stage
educational system are carried out so that the Armenian education
would be recognised in Europe, he pointed out.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
March 10, 2004 Wednesday
Zhukov to report on government structural reform
By Oksana Polishchuk, Natalya Slavina
MOSCOW
Russian Vice-Premier Alexander Zhukov will report on structural
changes in the federal bodies of executive power at the first cabinet
meeting on Thursday, March 11, the government information department
reports.
Russian Deputy Interior Minister Alexander Chekalin will report on
the possibility of extending the Russian-Armenian inter-governmental
agreement on regulation of voluntary resettlement.
Russian First Deputy Foreign Minister Valery Loshchinin will submit
his proposals on ratification by the State Duma of an agreement
signed by the Russian and Ukrainian governments that provides for
settling all claims concerning an air crash that occurred over the
Black Sea on October 4, 2001.
The cabinet will also discuss the presentation of state housing
certificates to the Ingush government. Ruslan Tsalikov, the deputy
head of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry, will report on
this subject.
However, Russia’s new Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov said that the
cabinet would focus on implementation of the presidential decree on
forming a new government line-up at its meeting on Thursday.
“This will actually be the sole issue that we intend to discuss with
the new government at tomorrow’s cabinet meeting,” Russian Prime
Minister Mikhail Fradkov told a news conference on Wednesday.
The Prime-Tass economic and financial news agency cited the prime
minister as saying that he was continuously studying the issue and
discussed the matter with Russian President Vladimir Putin every day.
Fradkov emphasized that the process of forming a new government
marked the beginning of an administrative reform. He called for the
earliest solution of all organizational issues in order to preserve a
workable government and not to disrupt the budget process.
Fradkov reiterated once again that the idea of an administrative
reform should be regarded as part of efforts to make Russia more
competitive and ensure that prompt and needed decisions are passed.
Bureaucrats should model their actions according to a single concept
so as to avoid the duplication of functions and to single out
responsible bosses.
At the same time, Fradkov warned about the possibility of
inaccuracies in carrying out the government reform. “We are going to
remove these inaccuracies. The logic of this reform allows for
clarification as we proceed with the process,” Fradkov stressed.
The prime minister also promised to be open with the press.
Fradkov admitted at a news conference held at the Russian government
building on Wednesday that he never did that because he hadn’t faced
such a task before.
At the same time, Fradkov emphasized that the process of creating a
new government structure was, among many other things, aimed at
making it more open and transparent.
“It will make it possible to define the responsibilities of each
leader and to enable them to develop creative approach to their work.
We favour an open approach,” the Russian prime minister stressed.
Fradkov believes that society needed such actions for tracking down
the efficiency of government bureaucrats.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
March 10, 2004 Wednesday
Russia cutting supplies of natural gas to Tbilisi by half
By Dmitry Zlodorev
MOSCOW
Russian foreign trade company Gazexport, a subsidiary of the natural
gas producer Gazprom, is expected to cut by a half the supplies of
natural gas to the Georgian capital city of Tbilisi as of March 15,
Gazexport sources said Wednesday.
The upcoming slash results from non-payments for gas over the past
few months, with the total debt reaching 7.4 million U.S. dollars.
Itar-Tass Tbilisi-based correspondent Ia Barateli said earlier
Gazexport supplies 1.7 million cubic meters of gas to the city a day,
and if the local operator of gas distribution lines, Tbilgazi Co.,
manages to pay 2.5 million U.S. dollars in the next few days, there
will be no slash.
In the meantime, Georgian experts say the problem of back payments
comes partly from irregular financing of Tbilgazi by the local
authorities. This finance should cover the cost of gas consumed by
low-income people, public health institutions and social facilities.
Alexander Ryazanov, a deputy CEO at Gazprom, gave assurances earlier
this month the company would continue deliveries of gas to Georgia.
He said at the same time Gazprom was concerned by the technical
condition of the trunk pipelines by which Russia was pumping gas to
Armenia.
“We’re worried by the lack of repair works at the gas pipelines in
Georgia,” he said.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
March 10, 2004 Wednesday
Work of intergvt committees on CIS integration not to be disrupted
By Lyudmila Yermakova, Dmitry Zlodorev
MOSCOW
The meetings of five intergovernmental committees on economic
integration of the CIS states will be held not in March as planned,
but a little bit later, Russian Deputy Minister for Economic
Development and Trade Dmitry Sukhoparov said at the governmental
question-and-answer session during the Federation Council session on
Wednesday. “There will be no disruptions in this process due to the
formation of a new Russian government,” he emphasised.
Sukhoparov also noted that Viktor Khristenko who was appointed
Industry and Energy Minister on Tuesday is still in charge of the
Russian policy on integration with Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.
The governmental question-and-answer session was devoted to the
development of CIS interstate cooperation. The ambassadors of
Ukraine, Belarus, Tajikistan and Armenia to Russia and staffers of
the embassies of Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan,
Moldova, Georgia and Turkmenistan participated in the session. “We
want to provide Federation Council members with the materials on the
real situation in the CIS states,” chairman of the Federation Council
Committee on CIS Affairs Vadim Gustov told Itar-Tass.
“The position of the leadership of new ministries on the creation of
a single economic space is very important for us,” he remarked.
Gustov noted that several CIS parliamentary delegations headed by
their speakers would meet in St. Petersburg on April 15 in order to
discuss how “to ratify simultaneously the documents on the single
economic space that the presidents will sign.”