BRIEF NEWS BULLETIN IN ENGLISH NO. 3727 HINA ZAGREB, 21 AUGUST 2000

HR-POLITICS-Politika BRIEF NEWS BULLETIN IN ENGLISH NO. 3727 HINA ZAGREB, 21 AUGUST 2000 CROATIAN PRESIDENT TALKS WITH HEAD OF RUSSIAN REPUBLIC OF KOMIDUBROVNIK, Aug 21 (Hina) - Croatia's President Stjepan Mesic on Monday received Yury Spiridonov, the President of the Republic of Komi situated in the north-east of Russia. Their talks were held in the Villa Lapad in the Croatian southern resort of Dubrovnik. The area of Komi, which is a part of the Russian Federation, is 416.6 thousand square kilometres (2.4 percent of Russia total land area). The population of Komi Republic is estimated at 1.2 million and consists of 100 nationalities including 23 percent of Komi. After the meeting President Mesic said their talks had revolved around the economic co-operation. "This is a big area which has huge natural resources, first of all oil and timber," Mesic said. Yury Spiridonov said the Republic of Komi was interested in the tourist offer of Croatia as well as in working together with Croatia