TV interviews head of Moscow City Duma on budget cuts.

Vladimir Platonov, chairman of the Moscow City Duma, was interviewed on the "25th Hour" programme of Moscow government controlled TV on 29 May about cuts to the Moscow city budget.

Contradictory information emerged, however, about the extent of these cuts. The presenter noted that the budget revenue had fallen by 40 per cent in relation to last year. Platonov said that, in fact, the executive "had come to the conclusion that we needed to reduce the budget revenue by 30 per cent. But despite this, budget expenditure is only being cut by 20 per cent." Whatever the actual state of the city budget, Platonov gave assurances that …