The Russian Information Agency Novosti begins Hotline coverage for Monday, March 15, 2004.
MOSCOW
* The Election 2004 information centre is announcing preliminary returns of the Russian presidential election, 5 a.m. A related news conference opens, 10 a.m.
* Gleb Pavlovsky, Effective Policies Foundation president, addresses a Novosti news conference to sum up the federal presidential poll.
* PACE and OSCE international mission observers address a news conference on the presidential election.
* The Central House of Journalists hosts a news conference, "The Media and Elections: To Sum Up Monitoring of Russian Presidential Poll Media Coverage". Richard Wright, head of the European Commission Moscow representation, will take part.
* The State Duma, parliament's lower house, holds a roundtable on, "Russian Film Industry: Developmental Problems and How to Settle Them".
ST. PETERSBURG
* Paula Lehtomaki, Finland's Minister of Foreign Trade and Development, is starting a two-day visit to St. Petersburg and Svetogorsk. Miss Lehtomaki will take part in the opening gala of an international conference on energy partnership progress, as envisaged by Nordic Dimension projects.
BRUSSELS
* Chris Patten, EU Commissioner for External Contacts, is starting a Central Asian tour, March 15 into 19. He has four post-Soviet countries-Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan-on his itinerary.
ROME
* Italian secondary schools open a Russian Language Week, March 15-21, as part of a programme to enhance Russian language tuition in Italy, and Italian in Russia. A related bilateral initiative was made at a summit in Rome, November 2003.
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