Sevmash shipyard plans to build a new nuclear submarine.

SEVERODVINSK, the Arkhangelsk region, August 23 (Itar-Tass) - The
construction of a new nuclear submarine cruiser will be launched in
Severodvinsk late in December. It will be named after St. Nicholas the
Wonder-Worker, one of the most revered Orthodox saints. The St. Nicholas
submarine will be an example of Russia's new strategic weapons, Nikolai
Kalistratov, the director-general of the Sevmash plant, told Patriarch of
Moscow and All Russia Kirill, who is visiting the Russian north, on
Saturday.
Sevmash is the main town-forming enterprise in Severodvinsk and Russia'
s biggest shipyard that builds nuclear submarines for the Navy. It employs
26,000 people.
" On December 22 Sevmash will mark its 70th anniversary. The
construction of a new strategic submarine will be started. We are planning
to call it St. Nicholas," Kalistratov told reporters.
He said that Sevmash had already produced a series of submarines named
after Russian princes such as 'The Dmitry Donskoi', 'The Yuri Dolgorukiy',
'The Alexander Nevsky' and 'The Vladimir Monomakh'.
Nikolai Kalistratov and Patriarch Kirill met after the head of the
Russian Orthodox Church led an evening religious service in a half-ruined
church on the Sevmash grounds.
Thousands of people, mostly Sevmash workers, attended the service at
the St. Nicholas Church of the former Karelian Monastery of St. Nicholas.
The patriarch said it was an act of fate that the shipyard had been
founded on the grounds of St. Nicholas Monastery to become "a shield for
our country, which is vital for the free existence of our homeland".
Kirill urged Severodvinsk residents to refresh their faith and make it
the foundation of their lives.
"Our intellectuals at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the
20th centuries did so much for tearing people away from Christ" and now
intellectuals have to do everything they can to reinforce people's faith,"
the patriarch said.
He believes that without that Russia will be unable to become a
spiritually and financially strong state.
The monastery is believed to have been founded by St. Euphemius, an
Orthodox missionary in the Karelian lands. In 1419 the Swedes burnt down
the monastery and it stood in ruins until 1471, when it was rebuilt.
The monastery flourished after the establishment of the Muscovy
Company, as the bulk of their trade passed through the local harbour.
The monastery buildings were constructed at the close of the Muscovite
period. The five-domed cathedral of St. Nicholas was built in 1670-1674.
After the 1917 Revolution the monastery was closed. Its 17th-century
buildings were adapted for shipbuilding purposes.
Only the walls and the roof are left of the church. Sevmash
Director-General Nikolai Kalistratov said the shipyard was doing its best
to preserve the church, but "the enterprise is in dire straits and there
is no reconstruction project for the church for the time being."
"We are negotiating with the institute that is carrying out
renovation work at Solovki. With God's help we may install the domes next
year," Kalistratov said.

.Investigation of Grozny suicide bombings makes progress.

MOSCOW, August 23 (Itar-Tass) - Investigators from the Russian
Prosecutor's Office have established the identity of one of the two
suicide bombers who blew themselves up in the centre of the Chechen
capital of Grozny on August 21. "His name is Ilyas Batalov. He was born
in the Vedeno village in 1991 and had lived in Grozny. Batalov left home
on June 7 this year but his relatives didn't report his disappearance to
law enforcers," Markin said.
Two suicide bombers on bicycles blew themselves up almost one after
another on Pervomayskaya and Mayakovskya streets in Grozny between 13:10
and 13:40 on August 21. As a result, four policemen were killed and one
was wounded. A woman was also hurt, Vladimir Markin, a spokesperson for
the Investigation Committee of the Russian Prosecutor's Office told
Itar-Tass.
"At present, the investigators are examining the body fragments of the
second suicide bomber. According to preliminary findings, he was a young
man aged 20-22," Markin went on to say.
He added that the two suicide bombers left from the same point. This
gives ground to believe that the two terror strikes had been organized
and planned in advance. The two incidents are likely to be combined into
one criminal case.
"Investigators are considering all possible crime versions, the most
probable of which is that the bombings were targeted at law enforcers with
an aim to destabilize the situation in the Chechen Republic," Markin said.

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