PRESS DIGEST - RUSSIA - March 31
MOSCOW, March 31 (Reuters) - The following are some stories in Russia's newspapers on Friday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
VEDOMOSTI
www.vedomosti.ru
- More than 70 engines manufactured for the Proton-M rocket launch vehicle have been returned to the producer, an engine maker in Voronezh, and will be assembled anew, the daily says. The next launch of a Proton-M, scheduled for May, may be postponed.
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin blamed low workers' salaries at the Voronezh plant of about 10,000 roubles ($178.76) a month, saying they discouraged workers from fulfilling their duties properly. Managers for Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, managers in charge of the Voronezh plant were paid from 500,000 roubles ($8,938.15) to one million roubles($17,876.30)a month in 2015, the daily says.
KOMMERSANT
www.kommersant.ru
- Prosecutors are looking into why the transport ministry has failed to certify certain aircraft, the daily says. The problem could delay the delivery of Russia's Sukhoi SuperJet aircraft to Ireland's CityJet, the daily says.
- Samara Region Governor Nikolai Merkushkin has accused opposition leader Alexei Navalny of trying to overthrow the government, the daily says. Merkushkin was speaking on Thursday at a forum called "No to extremism," a response to protests organised by Navalny across the country.
IZVESTIA
www.izvestia.ru
- The economy ministry and state-run companies have agreed criteria according to which top managers will get bonuses. The government is set to approve them on April 5, the daily says.
- Twenty five percent of Russians believe the sun circles the Earth, the head of VTsIOM pollster, Valery Fyodorov, says.
ROSSIISKAYA GAZETA
www.rg.ru
- Russia's Defence Ministry will cut its draft by 13,000 conscripts this spring because it has increased the number of professional soldiers, the daily says.
- The Federal Security Service raided St Petersburg's State Hermitage Museum on Thursday in connection with an investigation into whether Deputy Director Mikhail Novikov stole budget money during the construction of museum facilities.
NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA
www.ng.ru
- Open Russia Foundation, sponsored by former YUKOS owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky, plans to hold an anti-Putin rally at the end of April. If supported by other opposition forces, the protest is expected to gather as many people as the one held by Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on March 26, the daily says. ($1 = 55.9400 roubles) (Reporting By Tatiana Ustinova; Editing by Kevin O'Flynn/Andrew Osborn)
