The following issues are scheduled for discussion at the Presidium of the Government meeting on August 18, 2008:
1. Relief measures following the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict
2. Allocation of funds to the Government of North Ossetia-Alaniya from the Russian Government Reserve Fund for preventing natural and man-made emergencies and for emergency relief
As a result of the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict, 30,532 people, including 6,022 children, have been evacuated from the conflict zone as of August 11, 2008.
In order to provide social assistance to Russian citizens affected by the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict, it has been decided that 539,382,000 roubles should be allocated to the Government of North Ossetia-Alaniya from the Russian Government Reserve Fund for preventing natural and man-made emergencies and for emergency relief.
3. Allocation of budget funds to the Ministry of Civil Defence, Emergencies, and Disaster Relief, the Ministry of Healthcare and Social Development, and the Federal Agency for State Reserves from the Russian Government Reserve Fund for preventing natural and man-made emergencies and for emergency relief
Following the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict in South Ossetia, it has been decided to allocate budget funds from the Russian Government Fund for preventing natural and man-made emergencies and for emergency relief in 2008 as follows:
• 170 million roubles to the Ministry of Civil Defence, Emergencies, and Disaster Relief for priority measures to deliver humanitarian aid, the personnel and equipment of the Ministry and other federal bodies of executive authority, mobile hospitals, tent camps and mobile kitchens, and to evacuate the wounded and injured, with subsequent submission of documents regarding actual expenses;
• 120 million roubles to the Federal Agency for State Reserves for the restoration of material values in the state reserve (and transportation expenses) released from the state material reserve in excess of the volumes stipulated by the 2008 state defence order and turned over to the Ministry of Civil Defence, Emergencies, and Disaster Relief and/or authorised representatives of legal entities-recipients of material values from the state material reserve.
4. Establishment of the South Ossetia assistance fund
The South Ossetia assistance fund will be established to restore housing, social facilities, and utilities, including energy supply, communications, education, and healthcare, agricultural and transport facilities damaged during the hostilities in South Ossetia.
The Ministry of Regional Development will be the founder of the fund.
This draft executive offer stipulates the procedure for forming the fund's bodies as well as the guidelines for the fund's charter.
The draft also contains directives to the Russian federal bodies of executive authority on ensuring the fund's operation, including financially.
Approval of the draft executive offer does not entail amendments to Russian legislation.
5. Measures to help restore facilities damaged during the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict and to facilitate socioeconomic development of South Ossetia
An Interdepartmental Commission on the Restoration and Socio-Economic Development of South Ossetia will be set up to coordinate the operation of all parties involved in dealing with the consequences of the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict. Its format will be approved by the Ministry of Regional Development.
Allocations for priority measures, repairs, and reconstruction work will be made from the federal budget. The Ministry of Finance will determine, together with the Ministry of Regional Development, the sources and mechanisms of financing said work.
The size of allocations will be determined following the completion of work on the basis of acceptance acts approved by the Government of South Ossetia together with representatives from Russian federal bodies of executive authority. All accepted projects and related allocations are to be coordinated with the Interdepartmental Commission.
6. Medical rehabilitation of children evacuated from the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict zone
The Government stipulates social assistance to the Russian citizens who have left the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict zone.
In connection with this, the Social Insurance Fund of Russia will allocate up to 16.8 million roubles from the mandatory social insurance funds to finance spending on healthcare for the children of uninsured people who have left the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict zone at sanatoriums and health resorts in 2008. It will pay for 1,500 vouchers at year-round sanatoriums and health resorts as well as other camps in Russia.
In addition, up to 7 million roubles will be allocated to pay for 320 vouchers at sanatoriums and health resorts in Russia for those in the above group of citizens who need medical rehabilitation after treatment at hospitals in accordance with the list of diseases approved by the Russian Government.
Allocations will be made within the limits stipulated in the budget of Russia's Social Insurance Fund for 2008 for the healthcare of children and sanatorium and health resort rehabilitation of working citizens.
7. The forecast plan (programme) of federal property privatisation for 2009 and the guidelines for federal property privatisation in 2010 and 2011
The forecast plan (programme) of federal property privatisation for 2009 and the guidelines for federal property privatisation in 2010 and 2011 were drafted in accordance with the Federal Law On the Privatisation of State and Municipal Property, the guidelines for Russia's domestic policy as approved by the President, and the tasks approved by the Government following the analysis of the results of federal property privatisation in 2007.
The draft stipulates the privatisation of federal property on the basis of the following provisions:
• compliance of said property with state functions and structural changes in the corresponding economic sectors;
• need to reduce the surplus part of the public sector that does not ensure the fulfilment of state functions and powers;
• need to ensure collection of funds to the federal budget with due regard of the figures stipulated in the federal budget for the given fiscal year and the planning period.
The draft Privatisation Programme must achieve the following goals:
• form integrated structures in strategic economic sectors on the basis of joint stock companies whose shares are federally owned;
• reincorporate federal state unitary enterprises as fully state owned joint-stock companies;
• auction off the shares of non-strategic joint-stock companies, including minority stakes, and transfer the revenues to the federal budget.
As of January 1, 2008, there were 5,709 federal state unitary enterprises in Russia, and the Government held stakes in 3,674 joint-stock companies.
The draft Privatisation Programme includes federal state unitary enterprises that do not ensure the fulfilment of state powers and functions, stakes in joint-stock companies set up through the reincorporation of federal state unitary enterprises, as well as stakes in joint-stock companies where the state is a minority shareholder, with the exception of joint-stock companies included in the list of strategic joint-stock companies approved by Presidential Decree No. 1009, dated August 4, 2004.
In 2009, stakes in joint-stock companies in the fuel and energy, power, and construction sectors, agriculture, chemical, petrochemical, and printing industries, geology, water transport, and mechanical engineering will be proposed for privatisation.
8. Distribution of inter-budgetary transfers among the budgets of constituent entities of the Russia Federation for the provision of subsidies to the budgets of closed administrative territorial entities to support measures to balance the budgets of closed administrative territorial entities
In accordance with the Federal Law On the Federal Budget for 2008 and the Planning Period of 2009 and 2010, the distribution of inter-budgetary transfers, worth 1.1342 billion roubles, among the budgets of constituent entities of the Russian Federation for the provision of subsidies to the budgets of closed administrative territorial entities to support measures to balance the budgets of closed administrative territorial entities shall be approved by the Russian Government.
Following the analysis of the 2008 budgets of closed administrative territorial entities and monitoring of their implementation in the first half of the year, the forecast revenues of these budgets amount to 23.4 billion roubles, and the expected expenditures for the fulfilment of powers to tackle issues in the competence of the municipal entities, to 24.3 billion roubles. In other words, financing is sufficient for an average of 96.1% of the expenditures.
The proposed distribution of inter-budgetary transfers among the budgets of the constituent entities of Russia for the provision of subsidies to the budgets of closed administrative territorial entities to support measures to balance their budgets will suffice to maintain the 2008 level and quality of budgetary services provided to the population by local governments in the closed administrative territorial entities.
9. The draft subprogramme on the Development of Football from 2008 to 2015 of the Federal Targeted Programme On the Development of Physical Training and Sports in Russia from 2006 to 2015
The subprogramme is aimed at ensuring conditions for improving people's health through the popularisation of football among young people, and for raising the international competitiveness of Russian football.
The following main tasks must be fulfilled to achieve this goal:
• encourage the people's interest in football by involving a maximally large number of children, teenagers, and young people in playing the sport;
• expand football training facilities for children and teenagers;
• improve the training of sports reserves for the national teams by:
- selecting the most talented players from sports schools;
- creating a comprehensive system of advanced training for football specialists based on related requirements and modern science;
- creating and introducing effective methods of physical training for children, teenagers, and young people, and of creating sports reserves and Russian national football teams based on progressive research technologies.
The subprogramme is designed for eight years and is to be implemented in two stages, 2008-2012 and 2013-2015.
The subprogramme stipulates a package of measures, interrelated in terms of resources and timetables, aimed at developing the infrastructure of football for children and teenagers and improving the personnel and methods of training at the football schools.
The measures stipulated in the subprogramme will involve several economic sectors and all members of the football industry, including establishments and organisations of the federal bodies of executive authority, regional governments and municipal organisations responsible for physical training and sports, educational establishments, and sports organisations. This will ensure the implementation of a common state policy in the development of football, and help to liquidate imbalances in the development of football for children and teenagers in the regions, and to form a common information space.
The subprogramme entails the use of new mechanisms to ensure effective cooperation between the state and civil society.
The measures proposed for implementation under the subprogramme are interlinked and comprehensive, and embrace the whole of Russia.
However, the priority measures include:
• involving a maximally large number of children, teenagers, and young people in playing football and encouraging a healthy lifestyle;
• improving the system of training sports reserves for the national teams by choosing children attending sports schools;
• expanding and modernising the football infrastructure for children and teenagers;
• popularising football as an element of a healthy lifestyle.
The development of football infrastructure for children and teenagers includes measures to improve and expand the system of football facilities, such as:
• building and providing equipment for 520 artificial turf football fields for football sports schools;
• building and providing equipment for seven roofed football fields for specialised children's and teenagers' football schools;
• building and providing equipment for a football training centre in Bronnitsy, Moscow Region. The total space of the project will be 8,200 square metres, including a sports hall (42 x 24 metres), four locker rooms, a swimming pool, a medical rehabilitation centre, a residential block with kitchens, 90-100 beds, and a cafeteria, and a press centre. The project, which is estimated to cost over 800 million roubles, is to be completed within two years. It will be large enough for simultaneous training of four national teams.
The subprogramme is to be implemented with the funds of the federal budget, the budgets of the constituent entities of Russia, and off-budget funds.
Allocations between 2008 and 2015 from all sources will total 19.1268 billion roubles in then-year prices, including 14.1975 billion roubles of allocations on capital expenditures and 4.9293 billion roubles of spending on other expenditures.
As much as 10.5753 billion roubles will be allocated from the federal budget (beginning in 2009).
Allocations from the budgets of constituent entities will total 17.0219 billion roubles, and 1.2381 billion roubles are to be attracted from off-budget sources.
10. The Draft Federal Law On Accession to the International Convention on Civil Liability for Bunker Oil Pollution Damage of 2001
The International Convention on Civil Liability for Bunker Oil Pollution Damage of 2001 (Convention) was adopted at the Diplomatic Conference of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in London on March 23, 2001.
Bunker oil contains the risk of pollution resulting from the escape or discharge of bunker oil from ships, including large dry-cargo ships carrying oil as bunker fuel in the amounts that frequently exceed the amount of oil carried by oil tankers. In addition, ships often use different types of extremely viscous and resistant fuel oil as bunker fuel.
The Convention stipulates an international regime of liability for the purposes of compensating pollution damage resulting from the escape or discharge of bunker oil from ships. The adoption of the Convention filled a major gap in the international system of liability for such damages.
The current international rules regulate liability for damage done by bunker oil pollution only regarding the escape or discharge of bunker oil from oil tankers carrying oil (stable mineral oil) or having residue oil from bulk carriage.
Such escape or discharge of oil is covered by the definition of oil pollution damage according to which the ship owner is liable under the International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage, 1992, to which the Russia Federation is a party. Therefore, the 2001 Convention is not applied to such damage irrespective of whether or not compensation is paid on the basis of the 1992 Convention.
The Convention provides the basis for adequate and commensurate compensation of Russia's damage from bunker fuel pollution as a result of accidents involving ships in the Russian territory, including in the territorial sea and exclusive economic zone.
Since the enforcement of the Convention, all ships having a gross tonnage greater than 1,000, whether or not they are registered in a State Party, shall be required to maintain insurance or other financial security to cover the liability for pollution damage in accordance with Article 7 of the Convention. The existence of such insurance on-board vessels with a gross tonnage greater than 1,000 registered in the Russian Federation will enable them to enter and leave the ports of State Party to the Convention without being fined or detained, as well as to dock at and undock from coastal structures in their territorial seas.
The Convention will take effect 12 months after the date on which 18 countries, including five states with fleets with a gross tonnage of at least 1 million, ratify or join the Convention. As of December 31, 2007, 18 states, including Great Britain, Germany, Greece, Spain, Cyprus, and Singapore, ratified or joined the Convention, which will take effect on November 21, 2008.
Russia joining the Convention does not entail the establishment of new federal bodies of executive authority or changes in the current procedure for their financing, and does not entail additional spending for the federal budget.
11. The Draft Federal Law On the Ratification of the Agreement Between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of Uzbekistan on the Employment and Protection of the Rights of Russian Labour Migrants in Uzbekistan and Uzbek Labour Migrants in Russia
Information on this issue will be published additionally on the site.
12. The Draft Government Resolution On the Operation of the Federal Electricity Safety Headquarters
The resolution was drafted in accordance with Clause 2, Article 21 of the Federal Law On Power Generation, which stipulates that the procedure for setting up and operating electricity safety headquarters is to be approved by the federal Government.
Therefore, the Federal Electricity Safety Headquarters should be set up and given requisite powers in accordance with Government decisions to coordinate the operation of the bodies of executive authority, organisations, and regional electricity safety headquarters during measures taken to prevent electrical emergencies and deal with their consequences.
The draft regulations on the Federal Headquarters, to be approved by the Government resolution, include a list of the Headquarters' functions and goals, and the procedure for forming and convening the Headquarters and adopting and registering their decisions.
13. Establishment of a Government Commission on Housing Construction
In accordance with the Federal Law On Promoting Housing Construction, the decision to set up an interdepartmental agency on housing construction development, as well the procedure of its operation and its format, is to be made by the Government.
The Government of the Russian Federation is to approve a corresponding decision before October 1, 2008.
In keeping with said norms of the federal law, a Government resolution has been drafted to set up a government commission on housing construction development, which also stipulates its status, main goals and functions, and the procedure for its operation.
Moscow
August 18, 2008
* Press releases by the Department of Press Service and Information contain the materials submitted by the federal executive bodies for discussion by the Presidium of the Government of the Russian Federation.
