MOSCOW, 4 Sept - RIA Novosti. Alexander Zharov, press secretary to Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, told journalists on Saturday that the Russian government was not ruling out the possibility of privatising Svyazinvest, Aeroflot and other strategic companies in 2005. This is despite the fact that they are not in a preliminary plan for privatising state property in 2005 that has been signed by the premier.
He said that, as these companies were on a list of strategic firms, they could only be included in the privatisation plan and then privatised after the corresponding decisions had been taken in line with a regulation that stipulates a number of conciliatory procedures.
Mr Zharov pointed out that the preliminary privatisation plan for 2005 contained a point instructing the Ministry of Trade and Economic Development and other concerned bodies of executive power to draft additional proposals on the privatisation of federal property next year. These documents should be submitted to the government by October 1.
