8 November 1999
DAILY REVIEW FROM TATARSTAN
Tatneft To Develop Network Of Gas Stations
As part of a development plan adopted by Tatarstan's Tatneft oil company, some 500 filling stations are to be opened by 2005, Tatar-inform reported on 5 November. Tatneft plans to construct, purchase or lease the stations in Moscow and St. Petersburg; several Russian oblasts--Moscow, Leningrad, Vladimir, Nizhnii Novgorod, and Chelyabinsk; and in Tatarstan's neighboring Volga and Ural republics of Bashkortostan, Chuvashia, Marii-El, and Udmurtia. Tatneft's general director, Shafagat Takhautdinov, has negotiated the purchase of gas stations in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Simferopol. Tatneft currently owns 14 filling stations in Tatarstan and three in the Moscow oblast. The retail sale of oil products grew more than sixfold over the first ten months of 1999 compared to the same period last year.
Draft Budget To Be Discussed
Tatarstan's 2000 draft budget will pass through parliament hearings on 10 November and is due to be discussed in the first reading on 17 November, Tatar-inform reported. The chairman of the State Council's Budget and Finance Committee, Gelii Kobelev, told Tatar media on 5 November that the budget deficit was about 5 to 6 percent in the draft law. Kobelev made critical comments on the draft saying that it doesn't explain where we the money will come from in order to raise wages in 2000 in order to stop the fall in living standards. Kobelev said that among the amendments to the draft budget that deputies are going to introduce is a suggestion to increase expenditures for education, health care, cultural issues, and sports proportional to the growth of budget incomes, while currently they are funded below budget increases.
Canadian Diplomats In Kazan
The deputy chairman of Tatarstan's State Council, Renat Kharisov, discussed on 4 November the pre-election situation in the republic with the secretary of the Canadian Embassy in Russia, Karen Mattias, and Canadian Foreign Ministry official Sean Kaz, Tatar-inform reported. The Canadian diplomats said during the meeting that maintaining the level of sovereignty in Tatarstan after the extension of agreements with Moscow is a possible model that will be used to develop federative relations in Russia.
Branch Of Tatarstan's Academy Of Sciences To Open In Ulyanovsk
The Presidium of Tatarstan's Academy of Sciences adopted a plan to develop science in the republic through 2005 and approved regulations on the creation of the Ulyanovsk regional branch of the Academy of Sciences at a meeting on 4 November. The election of two academics and five corresponding members of the Ulyanovsk branch is scheduled for February. The conception for developing science includes support for the famous Kazan scientific schools in physics, chemistry, mathematics, and mechanics.
Compiled by Gulnara Khasanova