The Russian Information Agency Novosti begins Hotline coverage for Tuesday, February 3rd, 2004.
MOSCOW
* The Russian foreign ministry will host a meeting between Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov and acting UNMOVIC Chairman Dimitris Perrikos. The sides will discuss the return of international weapons inspectors to Iraq.
* A press conference, On Russia's Participation in the International Exposition EXPO-2005 (due in Japan, Nagoya), will be held in the closed joint stock company Ekspotsentr.
* RIA Novosti will host the following press conferences:
- Russian Reforms in 2003 and Its Economic Prospects;
- with Alexei Arbatov, head of the International Security Centre of the Institute of Global Economy and International Relations, on WMD Proliferation. Russia's Participation in the Hans Blix Commission;
* the Open Forum club will hold a session on Russia's Modernisation: Conflicts and Dangers on the Way to Post-Industrial Society.
* The 8th World Russian National Council will open in Moscow's Theological Academy in St. Sergius Trinity Monastery (Sergiyev Posad, the Moscow region).
VLADIVOSTOK
* A flotilla of Russian Pacific Fleet battle-ships and a delegation of Russia's Armed Forces veterans will leave for South Korea for an official friendly visit. The visit under the flag of the Pacific Fleet Commander, Viktor Fedorov, is timed for the 100th anniversary of the heroic wreck of the Russian Varyag and Koreyets ships in the Russian-Japanese War of 1904-1905. The flotilla will go to the South Korean Port of Inchon to be followed by Russian-South Korean military exercises in communications, maneuvering and providing aid to ships in distress.
CARACAS
* Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Yakovlev will continue his working visit to Venezuela into February 4th.
LONDON
* The second conference of the United Financial Group, Face to Face, will begin its work to establish a direct contact between investors and leaders of the largest Russian companies (February 3-5)
NYON, SWITZERLAND
* The UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) control and disciplinary body will consider the claim of the Welsh Football Association placing in doubt the results of the first play-off in the EURO-2004 between Wales and Russia, after Yegor Titov failed a drugs test.
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