Former US secretaries of state voice support for START
Five former US state secretaries who worked for Republican presidents — Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell, George Schultz, James Baker, and Lawrence Eagleburger — asked the Senate Republicans to support the new Russian-American Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). “The Republican presidents waged a long struggle to protect the United States from nuclear threats, and the world is now safer precisely because Strategic Arms Limitation and Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties were signed, while ratification of the new agreement will make the world even safer,” they stress in an article published in The Washington Post. Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty at the Prague summit this April. Former potential adversaries have agreed to reduce the number of deployed strategic warheads to 1,550, thus reducing their previously agreed maximum quantity by 30 percent. The number of strategic carriers should not exceed 800, while the number of deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) and heavy bombers should not exceed 700. To become effective, the agreement should be ratified by the parliaments of Russia and the US.
Spirit monopolist to remain state property
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved a bill offering to ban the privatization of Ukrspyrt. As the Minister of Agriculture Mykola Prysiazhniuk informed, the government is proposing to make changes in the Law of Ukraine “On List of the State Property Objects which are not Subject to Privatization.” Let’s recall that at the end of July this year the government had approved the decision to liquidate the Ukrspyrt State Concern and create a state enterprise with the same name on its base. The created state enterprise would be subordinated to the Ministry of Agriculture. Apart from the former Ukrspyrt enterprises, the new structure will include the controlled alcohol and liquor industry enterprises and associations of the Ministry. The government also authorized Ukrspyrt to realize export and wholesale trade of alcohol.
Russia bans guest workers from working in retail trade
The Russian government prohibited the hiring of foreign workers for the retail sale of alcohol and medicines, as well as at markets and stalls, in 2011. According to the government decree “On assessment of an admissible share of foreign workers employed by managers active in the sphere of retail trade and in the field of sports on the territory of the Russian Federation in 2011,” the gastarbeiter will not even be allowed to work outside those stores. “The government of the Russian Federation decrees to determine an admissible share of foreign workers at the rate of 0 percent of the total number of the workers employed by the managing subjects,” reports the government’s web site. All the managing subjects, who operate in the abovementioned spheres, are ordered to adjust the number of the foreign workers in accordance with the decree by January 1, 2011.
