To: Snowshoe who wrote (67480 ) 10/27/2010 10:22:46 AM From: TobagoJack Read Replies (3) | Respond to of 218916 just in in-tray, per Russia Reform Monitor No. 1697, October 26, 2010 American Foreign Policy Council, Washington, DC September 24: Russia's state railway company has reinstated a regular transit route to France abandoned since Tsarist times. The route, the St. Petersburg Times reports, will run from Belorussky Station in Moscow to Nice, France, and total roughly 50 hours. Fares for the voyage will range from $400 to $1,600 on the 12-carriage train, which will travel through Smolensk, Minsk, Warsaw, Vienna, Milan and Genoa on its trek. The rate of homicides among young people in Russia has become the highest in Europe and Central Asia, while its youth suicide rate is now the worst in the world. The St. Petersburg Times reports that among people aged 10 to 29, there are now 15.85 violence-related deaths for every 100,000 people, compared to the .5 deaths per 100,000 reported in Germany (which holds the lowest homicide rate in Europe). The youth suicide rate, in turn, is three times the world average for the same age group. Roughly 45 percent of young Russian women and 27 percent of young Russian men consider suicide at some point in their lives, according to a UNICEF report. “The main reason for such figures is that no one cares about children in Russia,” explains one Russian children's rights activist. September 27: Is Russia positioning itself as the major energy supplier for neighboring China? According to the Associated Press, Russia and China have signed a raft of new agreements expanding bilateral energy cooperation during President Medvedev's visit to Beijing. The move comes as part of growing Russian efforts to become an indispensable source of fuel for the PRC. Officials in Moscow have declared that "Russia is ready to meet China's full demand in gas," and state natural gas concern Gazprom estimates that it will begin supplying China with as much as 30 million cubic meters of natural gas annually by mid-decade. For their part, Chinese officials have welcomed the growing ties, with Chinese premier Hu Jintao calling it the dawn of a "new era" in relations between Moscow and Beijing.