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MOSCOW, July 22 (RIA Novosti) - Russian...

MOSCOW, July 22 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law to regulate the production and turnover of ethyl alcohol and alcoholic products, the presidential press service said Friday. The State Duma, parliament"s lower house, adopted the law on July 8 and the Federation Council, parliament"s upper house, adopted it on July 13. The law aims to improve the legal regulation of this area of the economy, strengthen state control and protect consumers from black-market products. The law expands the authorities of the federal bodies of state power. Under the law, they will introduce a unified state automated system to calculate the volumes of produced and sold ethyl alcohol and alcoholic products. If there is no information in the system about certain products, the products will be confiscated. Authorities will also be charged with defining the procedure to license alcohol retail sales and ensuring that organizations observe license rules. The law states that state enterprises and organizations with paid-in equity capital worth no less than 10 million rubles, or $349,650, can produce ethyl alcohol, while state enterprises and organizations with paid-in equity capital worth no less than 50 million rubles, or $1.75 million, can produce vodka. Putin spoke in Kaliningrad on July 2 at a State Council session. He criticized the current alcohol market regulation system and advocated a state monopoly on alcohol.

Russia"s Foreign Ministry welcomed on Saturday...

Russia"s Foreign Ministry welcomed on Saturday the UN nuclear watchdog"s resolution on Moscow"s initiative to establish a reserve of low-enriched uranium.

Investigators launched on Saturday a criminal...

Investigators launched on Saturday a criminal probe into an attack on a police patrol in western Moscow which left one officer dead and another badly injured, a police source said.