Russia ready to make all effort to promote Middle East settlement.

BEIRUT, October 19 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia "is ready to make all effort
to promote the peace process between the Arabs and Israel, Russian special
presidential envoy in the Middle East and Deputy Foreign Minister
Alexander Saltanov said after the consultations in Damascus. Saltanov
noted that he discussed "in detail and confidentially" with Syrian Foreign
Minister Walid Mualem the situation in the region and prospects for
resuming the peace talks.

"Russia and Syria share the position that mediating efforts should be
intensified in order to give a fresh impetus to the Middle East
settlement," the high-ranking Russian diplomat said. According to
Saltanov, his consultations in Damascus were also devoted "to further
development and broadening of cooperation between two friendly countries
in various spheres."
On Monday, the Russian special presidential envoy will round off his
visit, during which he visited Lebanon and Syria. In Beirut he will meet
with speaker of the Lebanese parliament Nabih Berri and acting Prime
Minister Fouad Siniora.

.Medvedev to hold meeting on state-of-the-nation address preps.

MOSCOW, October 19 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
will hold a meeting with the government and the presidential
administration devoted to the preparations to an annual
state-of-the-nation address to the Federal Assembly on Monday, the Kremlin
press service told Itar-Tass.
Medvedev reported about this meeting under preparation last week. "As
for the key ideas (of the national address), I intend to meet with the
administration and officials of other agencies, as well as the government,
and we will just discuss those proposals that we have, what may be
included and what have already been achieved by the administration
together with the government," the president said. "This work is going on,
and on the whole I am satisfied with its progress; I believe that the idea
to hold this discussion prior to the Address turned out to be
constructive," he added.
Speaking on the discussion, the president meant that the Kremlin is
studying actively proposals made by political parties, business community
and civil society. "The opposition always offers interesting ideas, that
is the way the opposition is, and the ruling party passed to me a flash
card with its proposals (during a meeting in the previous week)," he said.
"Many proposals are coming from parties and other public organisations,
business and common people; all of them are coming in the administration.
I am just looking personally through many proposals, when examining
proposals coming to my site or during the information exchange in the live
journal," the president noted.
"The most important thing now is certainly to select those ideas that
can be included in a National Address, as the National Address is not a
document without size, even those proposals that can be realized will not
certainly be included in the National Address, but we will obligatorily
take them into account in the future," Medvedev said.
Meanwhile, the date of a presidential state-of-the-nation address is
not announced yet. "The work is in full swing, but it is premature to
speak about the date of a national address," spokeswoman for the Russian
president Natalia Timakova said on Thursday.
The annual presidential state-of-the-nation address to the Federal
Assembly is not only the right, but also the duty of the president, under
the Russian Constitution. The national address spells out president's
position on the major trends of home and foreign policy in the current
year and in the near future, as well as informs about the important
decisions taken by the president under his constitutional powers. The
national address is the major program document of the Russian authorities
and gives to the society proper guidelines regarding the problems being
prioritised, according to the president, and their solution. The document
is usually devoted to the domestic situation in the country by two-thirds
and to international problems - by one-third.
Dmitry Medvedev has made his first presidential state-of-the-nation
address to the Federal Assembly on November 5, 2008. The 2009 national
address will be the second for Medvedev and the 16th one in the modern
Russian history.
The presidential state-of-the-nation address to the Federal Assembly
is pronounced at a joint meeting of both houses of Russian parliament and
is not discussed. The address lasts for about an hour. Members of the
government, the chairmen of the Constitutional, Supreme and High
Arbitration Courts, the Prosecutor General, the chairman of the Central
Elections Commission, chairman of the Audit Chamber, members of the State
Council, the Public Chamber and the heads of the major confessions are
also invited in the Kremlin.

.US global missile defence to be assessed in view of RF security.

MOSCOW, October 19 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
did not give assessments to a new U.S. plan of building a U.S. global
missile defence system, noting the plan should be evaluated in view of
Russia's national security. Medvedev has made a statement in an interview
with the Serbian newspaper Vecernje Novosti on Sunday.
"As for a new U.S. project of building a global missile defence
system, including its European segment, we will have to discuss it in
detail at the expert level and evaluate it in view of Russia's national
security interests," Medvedev said in comments on the U.S. decision to
refuse from the deployment of some elements of the U.S. missile defence
system in Poland and the Czech Republic.
The president also corrected a journalist, who asked him about the
prospects of concluding a missile defence treaty between Russia and the
United States. "To begin with, no treaty on missile defence with the
Americans is unfortunately on the agenda," he said. "However, I estimated
positively President Barack Obama's decision to abandon the plans to
deploy elements of the U.S. strategic missile defence system in Poland and
the Czech Republic," the Russian president recalled.
-0-baz