PRESS DIGEST - RUSSIA - AUG 18
MOSCOW, Aug 18 (Reuters) - The following are some of the leading stories in Russia's newspapers on Thursday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
VEDOMOSTI
www.vedomosti.ru
- Russia's government will have to tap state-controlled companies for money after it delayed the privatisation of the Bashneft oil company, the daily says. It writes that the company's share price dropped by 7.5 percent as a result of the decision to delay the sell-off.
- Russia's state space agency Roscosmos has started preparations for a manned flight to the Moon which aims to land on its surface by 2030. Russia is already testing a device to explore the surface of the planet, the daily says.
KOMMERSANT
www.kommersant.ru
- Four militants were killed and three arrested in St Petersburg on Wednesday after the National Guard and FSB security service forces stormed an apartment where a group of extremists from the North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria had holed up. Police said one of the men killed was a leader of the outlawed Caucasus Emirate, the daily says.
- A Moscow district military court has began hearing a case involving a 20-year-old student, Patimat Gadzhiyeva, who is accused of "supporting extremism" after she posted remarks supporting Islamic State on the VKontakte social network. The girl could face a 7 year jail sentence, the daily says.
IZVESTIA
www.izvestia.ru
- Energia, Russia's rocket and space corporation, has reached agreement with Boeing on settling a dispute over the so-called Sea Launch project and will conduct joint space research from the sea platform, the daily says.
- Ukrainian parliamentarian and former soldier Nadezhda Savchenko may meet the leaders of the Ukrainian breakaway regions of Donetsk and Lugansk in the next two months, the daily says.
NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA
www.ng.ru
- Senator Anton Belyakov suggested on Wednesday that parliament should ban the destruction of illegally imported food and distribute it among people with low incomes instead.
Russia has banned various European foodstuffs in retaliation for Western sanctions on Moscow over the Ukraine crisis. Russians' revenues fell by 7 percent in July year-on-year, according to official statistics.
- A senior Muslim cleric, Mufti Ismail Berdiev, spoke out in favour of introducing Russia-wide female circumcision when asked to comment on what is a common practice in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Dagestan. Later, when his words caused a wave of public criticism, Berdiev said he had been joking. (Reporting By Tatiana Ustinova; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
