The administration in Arkhangelsk Oblast is forming a working group to speed up the project on connecting the Northern Sea Route with the Russian national railway transport system.

Greenland is celebrating what it has declared Self Government Day. The country has officially brought in self-rule, which many see as its latest step towards independence from Denmark. People voted for greater autonomy in a referendum in November. Greenland authorities will now have control over many areas of government, but Copenhagen will retain control over defence and foreign policy.

President Dmitri Medvedev finally introduced the re-written law on Russian non-governmental organizations. The legislation has more relaxed restrictions on the civic groups than the legislations introduced by former president Vladimir Putin in 2006 aimed to restrict their activities.

By the end of the year, the Russian Northern Fleet will be receiving two state-of-the-art nuclear powered strategic submarines. “Yury Dolgoruky” is brand new, while “Karelia” has been modernized to improve its tactical and technical performance. Russia also plans to resume testing of the new “Bulava” ballistic missile this summer.

I would like to warn all regions that 2010 will be a very hard year in financial terms and that they must cut budget spending maximum, a federal Finance Ministry representative said this week.

A new system for monitoring the storage for the highly problematic liquid metal cooled reactors is taken into use.