The Russian Information Agency Novosti begins Hotline coverage for Wednesday, June 23, 2004.
MOSCOW
* The Column Hall of the House of Unions will host the 2nd all-Russia congress "State and socially responsible business".
* Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi will arrive in Moscow.
* Argentina's Minister of Foreign Relations, International Trade and Worship Rafael Antonio Bielsa will arrive in Moscow on an official visit. He will meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and participate in the 2nd Russian-Argentine business forum.
* The Russian Industry and Energy Ministry will hold talks with the European investment Fund. At issue will be the formation of a guarantee mechanism of non-commercial risks.
* Russian Information Technologies and Communications Leonid Reiman will preside at an extended session of the trustee council of the Information Society Development Center. The session will focus on Russia's place in information society and the results of the first stage of the administrative reform.
* The Russian State Duma will host:
- a roundtable and a press conference on the State Duma deputies' initiatives to hold international and all-Russia meetings "We defended the great power!" dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War;
- a meeting on the prospects for Russia's participation in the development of hydrogen energy technologies.
* The Russian Information Agency Novosti will host the following press conferences:
- with department head of the Political and Military Analysis, candidate of history Sergei Markedonov entitled "The Russian civil nation: problems and prospects";
- on the 100th birth anniversary of Nobel Prize laureate, Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. Chilean ambassador to Russia Mario Silberman, Russian First Deputy Foreign Minister Eleonora Mitrofanova, chairman of the Russian committee for cooperation with Latin America Karen Khachaturov, diplomats, literature and art figures, and researches of Neruda's poetry are expected to participate in the press conference.
* The Meshchansky Court will start consideration of the unified case of former YUKOS head Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev.
* The Domodedovo airport will host a press conference following the vacations of Serbian children in Russia.
* The Kuskovo estate museum will host the awarding ceremony of the Crystal Turandot Moscow Supreme Theatre Prize.
VLADIVOSTOK
* Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, currently on a routine trip to the Far East to supervise the active phase of Mobility-2004 theatre and strategic exercises, will observe battalion and company tactic exercises at the Sergeyevsky training ground.
ST. PETERSBURG
* The Antinarko-2004 3rd international specialized anti-drug forum will open in St. Petersburg. It will be running into June 24.
* The 12th international Festival of Festivals-2004 will open in Russia's northern capital. Over 100 films made in Russia, the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Finland, Greece, and other countries will be presented at the festival.
BELGOROD
* The 3rd Russian-Belarussian-Ukrainian economic forum (June 23-25) will open in Belgorod.
KERCH, CRIMEA, UKRAINE
* The 20th round of the Ukrainian-Russian talks on the delimitation of the Azov-Kerch water area will open in Kerch.
BAKU
* Head of the Russian federal service for the control of trafficking of drugs and psychotropic substances Viktor Cherkesov, currently on a visit to Azerbaijan, is expected to meet with Azeri President Ilkham Aliyev.
CHISINAU
* The next round of five-sided talks on Transdniestrian settlement with Russian, OSCE, Ukrainian, Moldovan and Tiraspol's representative will start in Chisinau.
VIENNA
* The 2nd annual conference of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on security problems will open in Vienna. The Russian delegation includes experts of the Foreign and Defense Ministry and the FSB border service. A delegation of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan) will participate in the conference.
BEIJING
* The third round of the six-sided talks on the North Korean nuclear problem will start in Beijing. It involves Russian, North Korean, Japanese, Chinese, US and South Korean delegates.
* China Police-2004 2nd international exposition of police equipment and weapons will open in the Chinese capital. Russia will present weapons, which task force units use to release hostages and combat terrorists.
LONDON
* A major exposition of Russian landscapes of the times of Leo Tolstoi will open in the National Gallery. The exposition features about 70 paintings by Ivan Shishkin, Arkhip Kuindzhi, Isaak Levitan, and other Russian artists.
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