The Russian Information Agency Novosti begins Hotline coverage for Tuesday, April 6, 2004.
MOSCOW
* Today is the last day of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's official visit to Russia. He will leave Moscow for Geneva.
* Ali Abdallah Salih, the President of the Republic of Yemen, will arrive in Moscow on a routine visit. He will meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov later in the day.
* A meeting of the Caspian Five's foreign ministers will take place. The Caspian Five includes Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan.
* The Federation Council (upper house of parliament) will host a session of the house's Council. Reports on the course of implementation of the Federal Target Program "Elimination of Chemical Weapons Stock in the Russian Federation," and on the problems related to the realization of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which prohibits development, production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons, and on these weapons' elimination will be heard.
* The State Duma (lower house of parliament) will host meetings of the Syrian People's Council's (parliament) group of friendship with Russia's Federal Assembly (parliament).
A two-day seminar-conference of the heads of analytical and information services of CIS member states' parliaments' apparatuses called "Information and analytical support of state power legislative bodies" will start in the State Duma.
* The fifth International scientific conference "Competitiveness and Modernization of Economy" will begin in the International Trade Center. The Higher School of Economics, under the aegis of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, organizes the event, to last until April 8.
* The Russian information agency Novosti will host a press conference with the Russian Minister of Culture and Mass Communications, Alexander Sokolov, called "Prospects of interaction of the culture ministry with mass media on the modern cultural-communications space."
* A two-day international conference "Prospects of Road Building in Russia" will begin.
* The Komsomolskaya Pravda publishing house will host a press conference "The Holy Fire will be delivered to Russia by the time of Easter. 'Ask peace for Jerusalem' project."
* A press conference of the Maris Liepa Charity Fund dedicated to the Rome Ballet's Kremlin tour will take place.
* The Polytechnic Museum will host a press conference devoted to the project "Russo-Balt-Reid" - the first international race of retro-cars held in Russia and timed to the jubilee of the first Russian serial automobile "Russo-Balt."
ST PETERSBURG
* The fourth international forum "Russia's fuel and energy sector: regional aspects" will open, to last until April 9.
CHELYABINSK
* The South Urals Industrial-Economic Week will open, to last until April 9. The fifth South Urals economic forum "Strategy of the region's development in conditions of modernization of Russia's economy and the task of doubling the GDP," the seventh international specialized exposition of technologies, equipment and other products "Metallurgy," the eighth international specialized exhibition "Mechanical Engineering," the fifth specialized exposition "Industrial Ecology," and the second specialized exhibition "Financial Urals" will be held within its framework.
BAKU
* The first joint Azeri-Russian economic forum will start its work. It will last until April 7.
TBILISI
* A two-day conference of the navy commanders of Bulgaria, Georgia, Russia, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine will start. The commanders will discuss the program of exercises of the international naval group Blackseafor and preparation for them.
WASHINGTON
* Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov will hold in Washington a number of talks and meetings with US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, US State Secretary Colin Powell and Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld.
TEHRAN
* The president of the Russian Railways joint stock company, Gennady Fadeyev will arrive in Iran on a two-day routine visit to hold talks on expansion of Iranian-Russian ties in the sphere of transportation.
ISTANBUL
* A conference of the PACE subcommission on the Middle East dedicated to the Middle East and Iraq situations will take place. Mikhail Margelov, deputy PACE Chairman and the Russian Federation Council International Affairs Committee chairman, will be the main rapporteur.
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