President Medvedev arrives in Buryatia.

ULAN-UDE, the Republic of Buryatia, August 24 (Itar-Tass) - Russian
President Dmitry Medvedev has arrived for a working visit in Buryatia to
discuss social and economic development of the Siberian Federal District.

He will also visit an aviation plant and the spiritual centre of Russian
Buddhists - the Ivolginsky datsan (Buddhist monastery).
The preservation of the energy balance in Siberia in connection with
recent accident at the Sayano-Sushenskaya hydropower station will dominate
a conference, which Medvedev is planning to hold in Ulan-Ude.
Prior to the meeting with local officials President Medvedev plans to
visit an Ulan-Ude aviation plant, which produces Mi-171 helicopters and
Su-25 planes. The enterprise is one of the leading aviation and defense
enterprises in Russia. It has a powerful production potential and can
launch the production of new types of aircraft in a short period of time.
During his trip to Buryatia President Medvedev will visit the
Ivolginsky datsan (Buddhist monastery). It is located at the foot of the
Khambar-Daban mountain range 30 kilometers away from Ulan-Ude.
The Ivolginsky datsan opened in 1945. It's the residence of Pandito
Hambo Lama, the head of the Buddhists of Russia. The monastery's main
relic is the body of Pandito Hambo Lama the 12th, which is considered to
be incorruptible and lies in a glass sarcophagus. The Buddhist monastery
has a Buddhist University for the novices.
On Monday evening President Medvedev will visit the State Russian
Drama Theatre named after N. Bestuzhev. The theatre moved to a new
building last month and is now preparing for its 81st season. Experts say
the theatre in Ulan-Ude is the best equipped in Siberia.

.Siberian emergency & rescue workers leave Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP.

SAYANO-SHUSHENSKAYA HPP, Khakasiya, August 24 (Itar-Tass) - More than
500 emergency and rescue workers of the Siberian branch of the Russian
Ministry of Emergency Situations are leaving the Sayano-Shushenskaya
hydropower plant on Monday. They've completed their mission and are now
returning to places of permanent dislocation in the Irkutsk and
Novosibirsk regions and the Republic of Buryatia.
Almost all water was pumped off from the turbine room on Sunday where
restoration works will start soon.
In the meantime, more and more power engineers are arriving at the
station.
"The operation is entering a stage of restoration," Sergei
Shaposhnikov, the head of the civil defense department of the Russian
Ministry of Emergency Situations, told journalists on Monday.
He said that new machines and transformers are being brought to the
station and works to glass in the turbine room have already started. "The
station's body is operating normally, it's only the machines that have to
be restored," Shaposhnikov said.
The RusHydro Company that owns the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower
station is planning to rebuild it in three years.
Sergei Shaposhnikov thanked the Siberian emergency and rescuer workers
for their job. Siberian rescue teams included divers who had to inspect
the premises of the flooded turbine room under water. They also shut down
the station's gates so that a pump-off operation could start.
According to Sergei Gulevich, the head of the Baikal search and rescue
team, the divers had to go down deep in sections filled with oily liquid.
"They found a lot of dead bodies and suffered a moral shock," he said.

.1 meter of water has to be pumped off at Sayano-Shushenskaya plant.

SAYANO-SHUSHENSKAYA HPP, KHAKASIYA, August 24 (Itar-Tass) - Emergency
workers at the badly damaged Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower station are
pumping off the last water - less than a meter is left - from the turbine
room.
Sergei Shaposhnikov, the civil defense department chief, said experts
had descended to mark 305.
"Mark 305 varies in height. The level of water here is from 70 to 98
centimeters. There can be no people below this mark. It's problematic
because it's hard to install the pumps in this place," Shaposhnikov
explained.
In the meantime, the death toll from the August 17 disastrous
explosion reached 69 on Sunday. Six people are still missing, and there's
no guarantee that their bodies will ever be found. Sergei Shaposhnikov
said that the identification of body fragments would start soon.
More victims were buried in the nearby village of Cheryomushki in
which the station's staff lives. The government of Khakasiya has covered
all funeral expenses from its budget.
The RusHydro Company will pay one million rubles to each family who
lost someone in the tragedy or whose relatives went missing. The same sum
will be allocated from the federal budget in accordance with an executive
order, which Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed on Saturday.
The hydropower plant's employees who were injured in the accident will
receive a lump sum payment worth 100,000 rubles.

.Dementieva wins WTA Rogers Cup final.

OTTAWA, August 24 (Itar-Tass) -- Elena Dementieva of Russia won the
WTA Rogers Cup tennis tournament in Toronto on Sunday. She beat her
compatriot Maria Sharapova in the all-Russian final in straigt sets 6-4,
6-3.
It's Dementieva's third victory over Sharapova. The two have met each
other eleven times.