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Russia 110705
Basic Political Developments Itar-Tass news outlook for Tuesday, July 5.
o BEIRUT – Units of the Interim National Council gets ready to seize within the next two days the oil loading ports of Marsa El Brega and Ras Lanuf.
o WASHINGTON – French Christine Lagarde assumes the office of IMF’s new managing director.
o MOSCOW – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev meets with members of the council for the development of civil society and human rights. Participation of the civil society in fight against terrorism and extremism is in the focus of attention.
o DUBNA - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin chairs a conference of the governmental commission for high technologies and innovations. The conference takes place at the Unified Institute of Nuclear Research in Dubna.
o MOSCOW - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Nabil Saath, a representative of the Central Committee of the FATH party overseeing political issues, meet in Moscow to discuss prospects of overcoming the Palestinian-Israeli crisis.
o PRETORIA – Russian president’s special envoy Mikhail Margelov begins an African tour, during which he will visit Zimbabwe, Angola, Sudan and Ethiopia.
o The Russian Interior Ministry opens a hotline aimed to help people understand norms of the Law on Police.
o MOSCOW – The State Duma lower house of parliament discusses under the second (main) reading the bill tightening responsibility for organizing illegal gambling, including via the Internet. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has submitted amendments for Duma consideration.
o TOKYO - Russia and Japan have set up a joint commission of historians to look into problems of a peace treaty and the territorial dispute. The first meeting of the commission may be held already in December, the head of the Russian president’s administration, Sergei Naryshkin, said in Tokyo.
o WARSAW – Within the framework of the second day of the session of EU parliamentary defence committees the Polish parliament discusses relations between the European Union and Russia. Chairman of the Russian State Duma defence committee Viktor Zavarzin and chairman of the defence and security committee of the Russian Federation Council Viktor Ozerov are to make reports.
o CARACAS – Venezuela marks the 200th anniversary of independence. On Monday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrived in Caracas from Havana, where he underwent cancer surgery.
o BEIRUT- The Lebanese parliament meets for a session to pass a confidence vote for the government of Najib Mikati.
o BISHKEK – An operative assembly of the command of the staff of the CSTO Collective Rapid Deployment Force of the Central Asian region begins here. A command and staff training will be held within its framework under the command of first deputy chairman of the CSTO Combined Staff Anatoly Nogovitsin.
o BAKU – The World’s Azerbaijanis Congress, bringing together almost 1,300 Azerbaijanis from 42 countries opens here. Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev is expected to address the congress.
o MOSCOW – The Puppet Space exhibition opens here. It is timed to mark the 110th birthday of Russian puppeteer Sergei Obraztsov.
o ST. PETERSBURG – The international festival of young European cinema, VOICES, opens in the Vologda region. It is organized within the framework of the Italian Season in Russia and is held with support of the Russian Culture Ministry.
o MOSCOW – A monument to renowned Russian choreographer Igor Moiseyev (1906-2007) is unveiled at Novodevichy Cemetery.
Margelov leaves on African country-hopping visit - The Russian presidential envoy to Africa, Mikhail Margelov, is leaving on a week-long working visit to four African countries, namely Zimbabwe, Angola, Sudan and Ethiopia, to consult their leaders on bilateral relations and Libya.
Zimbabwe: Russia Determined to Invest - A SPECIAL envoy from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev Mr Mikhail Margelov yesterday met President Mugabe at State House and declared that his country was back in Africa to cultivate ties with its traditional friends.
Russia to continue military cooperation with Syria - Russia sees no reason to stop military cooperation with crisis-stricken Syria, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said in his first interview since taking office.
Iran, Russia: Foreigners should stay out of Syria crisis - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov and Iranian Ambassador to Moscow Reza Sajjadi, during a meeting in Moscow on Monday, called for the settlement of the political crisis in Syria without the intervention of foreign countries.
Iran - Russia to sign $1.5 billion oil contract - Iran and Russia recently signed a $1.5 billion agreement to construct a petrochemical complex in Assalouyeh, the Mehr News Agency reported.
Meeting of Russia, NKorea leaders not on agenda now - Naryshkin. Gazprom delegation visits North Korea –KCNA: "A delegation of Gazprom of
Russia led by Deputy Managing Chairman Alexandr Ananenkov arrived here Monday," KCNA said, without elaborating.
Gaddafi would go in exchange for security: reporto Gaddafi “ready to resign” – sourceo Gaddafi ready to step down if guaranteed security
o Gaddafi ready to go: report - Russian newspaper Kommersant writes that France is ready to propose a peaceful exit for Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi.
NATO's ground operation in Libya to lead to unpredictable consequences in region - Russian deputy FM (Part 2)
Russia hopes Quartet meeting to help resume Israeli-Palestinian talks - Russia hopes that the meeting of the Quartet of international mediators of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict due on July 11 in Washington will create opportunities for the resumptions of direct talks between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday.
o Middle East Quartet ministers to meet in Washington on July 11. o Lavrov, Palestinian rep to discuss Palestinian-Israeli conflict. o Fatah envoys arrive in Moscow for talks ahead of Quartet meeting
Russia, NATO to test system to avert suicide bomb attacks in 2012. - A Russian-NATO jointly developed security system of transport facilities from suicide bomb attacks will be tested in Paris and St. Petersburg in 2012, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said here on Tuesday.
Russia and NATO agree to wait until Chicago - RIA Novosti political commentator Andrei Fedyashin
Atmosphere favorable for Russia-Japan dialog on peace treaty – Naryshkino Russia, Japan set up commission of historians on peace treaty. o Russia ready to increase supplies of energy resources to Japan. o Russia to render assistance to quake-hit Japan - Naryshkin. o Atmosphere in Russia-Japan peace treaty dialog gets better. o Russia, Japan have similar stances on Libyan settlement- Naryshkin.
Hong Kong forum discusses Asian foreign investments in Russia. - Participants in the Russia – Capital Raising and Investment Summit business forum on possibilities for attracting Asian capitals in Russia, which opened on Tuesday, mark big potentials of cooperation between Hong Kong and Russia in the investment sphere.
China Signs $500 Million Russian Jet Engine Deal, Vedomosti Says Russian frigate project for Navy likely to be delayed - A top Russian official has
said that the first of the new Talwar class frigates, ordered under a $1.1 billion contract in 2006 and set to be delivered by the end of this year, has been delayed.
New Russian warship unveiled - The corvette Soobrazitelny was shown to the public for the first time at the Fifth International Maritime Defence Show (IMDS-2011) in St. Petersburg. More than 70 industrial and research companies contributed to the development and construction of the vessel ordered by the Russian Navy.
Senior Russian army officers resign over military reforms - paper : Several influential members of the top brass have resigned due to differences with the
head of Russia's General Staff over his implementation of military reforms, Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported on Tuesday.
Estonian, Russian experts meet over planned Kaliningrad nuclear plant - Experts from Estonia and Russia met in Tallinn on Monday to discuss financial-economic, environmental and nuclear safety matters related to the potential building of a nuclear power station in the Russian Kaliningrad region, with Estonian experts saying that for Estonia the first choice as regards regional projects for the establishment of new generating capacities without doubt is participating in a project for a new N-plant in Lithuania, BNS reported.
Russia to help Bulgaria find shareholders for Belene nuclear plant - Russia has pledged to help Bulgaria find potential shareholders for the project company that will build and operate the Belene nuclear power station, Atomstroyexport, the Russian contractor for the plant, said on July 4 2011.
Armenia to hold CSTO coordination council meeting - The chiefs of drug control services of the Coordination council of Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) will hold a meeting in Armenia’s capital on July 6, Armenian police PR department informed Armenian News-NEWS.am
Kyrgyzstan to host CSTO staff training - Kyrgyzstan will host a staff training exercise July 5-8 for Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) member state militaries as part of the CSTO’s plan for preparing a collective security rapid reaction force.
o Kyrgyzstan to host Collective Rapid Deployment Force drilling Georgian products could return to Russia this year - Kukava made the optimistic
forecast after returning from a trip to Russia where he met the head of Russia's agency for consumer goods, Rospotrebnadzor, Gennadiy Onishchenko.The Kyrgyz people working in different federal districts in Russia unite
Russia to orbit new satellite - The MiR probe was developed by the Information Satellite systems R&D bureau in Krasnoyarsk, which has designed more than 1,000 multiple-orbit satellites.
Dutch minister ignores MPs on Russia sanctions - The Dutch foreign minister is to ignore his own parliament over a call to impose sanctions on Russian officials deemed guilty of murdering lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
Medvedev to meet members of Council for civil society & human rights. Dispute emerges over Russian lawyer's jail death - Activists plan to present
evidence Tuesday that a Russian lawyer who accused officials of corruption died after a brutal beating by prison guards, saying investigators' findings that a lack of medical treatment killed the man fell short of the full truth. Putin to chair meeting on high technologies in Dubna.
Russian State Duma to hold extra session on July 7. Policeman killed in clash with gunmen in Russia’s Ingushetia. Emergency counter-terrorism measures in force in North Caucasus
o Anti-terrorist operation launched in Grozny district of Chechnya. Teenage ‘Laser hooligan’ detained in Grozny.
o Lasers banned in Chechnya
Russia sends 2nd expedition to support its Arctic claims - Nuclear-powered icebreaker Rossiya will leave the port of Murmansk on Tuesday to accompany research vessel Academician Fyodorov on a second mission to determine the boundaries of Russia's continental shelf in the Arctic.
Son of VTB Head Kostin Dies in a Traffic Accident, RIA Novosti Rescuers find miner dead at Kuzbass coalmine. People injured in helicopter crash in Irkutsk region being taken to hospitals. Islam has leading number of moral believers – poll: 13% of Russians are church-
goers or visit other religious assemblies 23 Million Live Below Poverty Line - The number of officially recognized
impoverished Russians increased by 2.3 million to 22.9 million, or 16 percent of the population, in the first quarter of 2011, compared with the same period last year, according to the State Statistics Service.
o Poverty in Russia grows faster than expectedo Inflation severs Russia’s material comforts - By Charles Clover
RIA Russian Press at a Glance, Tuesday, July 5, 2011 Itar-Tass news digest for Tuesday, July 5. Pravda: WikiLeaks picks Russian president - While many people in Russia and in
the rest of the world are trying to guess whether Dimity Medvedev and Vladimir Putin are going to run for presidency in 2012, WikiLeaks knows everything beforehand.
The billion-dollar question - The US is putting pressure on Pakistan, while increasing the supply of goods to Afghanistan through Russia and Central Asia Andrey Terekhov
Karabakh’s military secret is revealed - Shots are being fired on the border with Azerbaijan, but even under gunfire Armenians are growing wheat Yury Snegirev
Russia Profile Weekly Experts Panel: Moscow Fails to Make Progress on Transdnestr and Nagorno-Karabakh
National Economic Trends Russian Grain Prices Fall for Second Week as Demand Stays Slack Russian Service Sector Growth Slows In June Russian Consumer Prices Probably Advanced Least in 14 Months on Food Costs Russia may raise nearly $1 bln from sale of quarter of Sovcomflot - source Russian transport minister proposes privatization of Anapa airport and
Novorossiysk port
Business, Energy or Environmental regulations or discussions Russia’s RTS Stock-Index Futures Gain as Oil at Two-Week High Russia May Slow Electricity Price Rises Through 2014-Report Russian econ ministry readies alternative tariff-hike plan pegged to inflation
o Russia EconMin to offer 12.5 pct rise in gas tariffo Ministry proposes 2 gas tariff hikes in 2012
Uralkali Shares Rise Most in Week on Higher MSCI Index Weighting
Russia's Utinet seeks $14 million via Moscow IPO Sberbank may be close to buying Volksbank International NLMK seals deal to increase rolling capacity by 20% Evraz to buy back unconverted Eurobonds Alrosa to Invest Over $250M in Underground Diamond Mine Construction NordGold obtains mining licence for African gold project: Another value-
accretive addition Yandex to enter Polish market and list on WSE
Activity in the Oil and Gas sector (including regulatory) Russia Considers an Export Duty on Gas Volumnes Sold to Turkey TNK-BP Holding: CEO-to-be may quit TNK-BP’s Incoming Chief Urges Independent Management, FT Reports Russia's Integra inches up buy back programme TABLE-Russian Jun gas production down 9 pct m/m TABLE-Russian oil output, exports fall in June m/m EU internal market - a stake or a tool in European-Russian gas relations
Gazprom Russia to Soon Determine Fate of Subsoil Tax of Gas for Gazprom RBC Daily: Greece offers for sale assets Gazprom considers interesting Gazprom, Eni finalizing agreement to buy SeverEnergia gas Gazprom mulls broader energy cooperation with German companies All terms of Beltransgas purchase agreed – Gazprom CEO Gazprom regrets attempts by Belarus to tie sale of Beltransgaz with treaty on
supplies Gazprom Delegation Visits North Korea Prirazlomnoye drilling in September
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Full Text Articles
Basic Political Developments
10:19 05/07/2011ALL NEWS
Itar-Tass news outlook for Tuesday, July 5.
http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/179304.html
5/7 Tass 71
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SITUATION IN LIBYA
BEIRUT – Units of the Interim National Council gets ready to seize within the next two days the oil loading ports of Marsa El Brega and Ras Lanuf.
IMF-DIRECTOR
WASHINGTON – French Christine Lagarde assumes the office of IMF’s new managing director.
SESSION OF HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
MOSCOW – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev meets with members of the council for the development of civil society and human rights. Participation of the civil society in fight against terrorism and extremism is in the focus of attention.
RUSSAIN GOVERNMENT
DUBNA - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin chairs a conference of the governmental commission for high technologies and innovations. The conference takes place at the Unified Institute of Nuclear Research in Dubna.
VISIT OF PALESTINIAN DELEGATION TO RUSSIA
MOSCOW - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Nabil Saath, a representative of the Central Committee of the FATH party overseeing political issues, meet in Moscow to discuss prospects of overcoming the Palestinian-Israeli crisis.
RUSSIA-AFRICA
PRETORIA – Russian president’s special envoy Mikhail Margelov begins an African tour, during which he will visit Zimbabwe, Angola, Sudan and Ethiopia.
INTERIOR MINISTRY REFORM
The Russian Interior Ministry opens a hotline aimed to help people understand norms of the Law on Police.
AT STATE DUMA
MOSCOW – The State Duma lower house of parliament discusses under the second (main) reading the bill tightening responsibility for organizing illegal gambling, including via the Internet. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has submitted amendments for Duma consideration.
RUSSIA-JAPAN
TOKYO - Russia and Japan have set up a joint commission of historians to look into problems of a peace treaty and the territorial dispute. The first meeting of the commission may be held already in December, the head of the Russian president’s administration, Sergei Naryshkin, said in Tokyo.
POLAND-RUSSIA
WARSAW – Within the framework of the second day of the session of EU parliamentary defence committees the Polish parliament discusses relations between the European Union and Russia. Chairman of the Russian State Duma defence committee Viktor Zavarzin and chairman of the defence and security committee of the Russian Federation Council Viktor Ozerov are to make reports.
VENEZUELA-INDEPENDENCE
CARACAS – Venezuela marks the 200th anniversary of independence. On Monday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrived in Caracas from Havana, where he underwent cancer surgery.
SITUATION IN LEBANON
BEIRUT- The Lebanese parliament meets for a session to pass a confidence vote for the government of Najib Mikati.
CIS AND BALTIC STATES
BISHKEK – An operative assembly of the command of the staff of the CSTO Collective Rapid Deployment Force of the Central Asian region begins here. A command and staff training will be held within its framework under the command of first deputy chairman of the CSTO Combined Staff Anatoly Nogovitsin.
BAKU – The World’s Azerbaijanis Congress, bringing together almost 1,300 Azerbaijanis from 42 countries opens here. Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev is expected to address the congress.
NEWS OF CULTURE
MOSCOW – The Puppet Space exhibition opens here. It is timed to mark the 110th birthday of Russian puppeteer Sergei Obraztsov.
ST. PETERSBURG – The international festival of young European cinema, VOICES, opens in the Vologda region. It is organized within the framework of the Italian Season in Russia and is held with support of the Russian Culture Ministry.
MOSCOW – A monument to renowned Russian choreographer Igor Moiseyev (1906-2007) is unveiled at Novodevichy Cemetery.
Margelov leaves on African country-hopping visit http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/07/04/52748215.html
Jul 4, 2011 13:29 Moscow Time
The Russian presidential envoy to Africa, Mikhail Margelov, is leaving on a week-long working visit to four African countries, namely Zimbabwe, Angola, Sudan and Ethiopia, to consult their leaders on bilateral relations and Libya.
He said as much in an interview with the Interfax news agency. Margelov added that he would also attend a ceremony to proclaim southern Sudan an independent country.
Zimbabwe: Russia Determined to Invest http://allafrica.com/stories/201107050248.html
5 July 2011
A SPECIAL envoy from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev Mr Mikhail Margelov yesterday met President Mugabe at State House and declared that his country was back in Africa to cultivate ties with its traditional friends.
This is the first visit to Zimbabwe by a top Russian government official after almost a decade. Mr Margelov is the current chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Federation Council of Russia.
He has also been a member of the European Democrat Group in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Emerging from a closed door meeting with President Mugabe, Mr Margelov announced Russia's return to Africa.
"Russia is back to Africa. We were out for a decade. We want to develop co-operation with our traditional friends."
In Zimbabwe, Mr Margelov said Russia was ready to expand economic co-operation in such sectors as mining, agriculture and infrastructure development.
He singled out uranium and coal in mining though he said Russia could also be interested in other minerals. Mr Margelov said Russia also wanted to invest in the agriculture sector.
Last week, the Russian ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Andrey Kushakov said there was great interest from Russian state companies to increase their presence in Zimbabwe citing the energy sector and infrastructure development.
On politics, Mr Margelov said Africa should be left to solve its problems without outside interference.
"Only Africans have the right to solve their problems," he said.
Zimbabwe and Russia enjoy good relations dating back to the days of Zimbabwe's liberation struggle.
Moscow provided moral and material support that helped liberation war fighters topple the colonial Ian Smith regime.
Russia has also blocked attempts by the US, Britain and their allies to use the United Nations system to legitimise the sanctions they imposed on Zimbabwe and take even more drastic action against Harare.
Moscow has continued to condemn the illegal sanctions imposed on Harare by the West calling for their unconditional removal.
RT News line, July 5
Russia to continue military cooperation with Syriahttp://rt.com/politics/news-line/2011-07-05/#id13677
11:12
Russia sees no reason to stop military cooperation with crisis-stricken Syria, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said in his first interview since taking office. “The political situation in Syria is difficult, but we see no signs of the authorities losing control over the general development of the situation. In light of this, Russia will continue to cooperate with Syria, including in the military sphere, and keep its previous obligations,” Bogdanov said.
05 Jul 2011
Iran, Russia: Foreigners should stay out of Syria crisishttp://www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20110705042018/Iran_Russia_Foreigners_should_stay_out_of_Syria_crisis
TEHRAN - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov and Iranian Ambassador to Moscow Reza Sajjadi, during a meeting in Moscow on Monday, called for the settlement of the political crisis in Syria without the intervention of foreign countries.
They highlighted the need for the restoration of stability in the crisis-hit country and said that Syria's internal issues should be resolved promptly through cooperation between Syrian political groups and government.
The two sides also expressed readiness to continue talks on developments in the Middle East to help the establishment of lasting peace and security in the region.
© Tehran Times 2011
Iran - Russia to sign $1.5 billion oil contract http://news.google.com/news/search?pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=iran+russia&cf=all&scoring=n
Trend News Agency (subscription) - 7 minutes agoIran and Russia recently signed a $1.5 billion agreement to construct a petrochemical complex in Assalouyeh, the Mehr News Agency reported. After three years of negotiations between National Iranian Petrochemical Company and a Russian oil company, ...
08:24 05/07/2011ALL NEWS
Meeting of Russia, NKorea leaders not on agenda now - Naryshkin.
http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/179251.html
5/7 Tass 36
TOKYO, July 5 (Itar-Tass) — A meeting of the Russian and North Korean leaders is not on agenda at the present moment, the head of the Russian president’s administration, Sergei Naryshkin, said in Tokyo on Tuesday. Naryshkin ends on Tuesday a brief two-day visit to Tokyo.
Such a meeting “is not planned so far,” he said. Earlier, Japanese and South Korean media outlets widely reported that the Russian and North Korean leaders were due to meet in Vladivostok during President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit there, but the meeting was postponed at the last moment at the request of the North Korean side.
Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang officially confirmed that they were preparing for such a meeting.
Gazprom delegation visits North Korea –KCNAhttp://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFL3E7I505Y20110705
Tue Jul 5, 2011 2:24am GMT
SEOUL, July 5 (Reuters) - A delegation from Russia's Gazprom has visited North Korea, North Korea's central news agency reported late on Monday.
The trip follows a reported recent visit by Russia's spy chief to the North Korean capital to discuss economic projects involving North and South Korea, the world's second-largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) buyer after Japan.
"A delegation of Gazprom of Russia led by Deputy Managing Chairman Alexandr Ananenkov arrived here Monday," KCNA said, without elaborating.
According to a report by the Interfax news agency in May Foreign Intelligence Service director Mikhail Fradkov and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il discussed projects including a railway junction, a gas pipeline and a power line from Russia to South Korea via North Korea.
Russia and North Korea share a short border, but ties worsened and trade fell steeply after the collapse of the Communist Soviet Union in 1991.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il cancelled a visit to Russia last week because of worries about security following media reports about the trip, Russia's Kommersant newspaper reported last Thursday. (Reporting by Cho Mee-young; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)
Gaddafi would go in exchange for security: reporthttp://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/05/us-libya-russia-idUSTRE7640WA20110705
3:24am EDT
MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian newspaper said Tuesday that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was willing to give up power in exchange for security guarantees, citing a high-level Russian official.
The report in the respected daily Kommersant, which did not identify its source, came a day after the search for ways to end the war in Libya dominated Russia's talks with NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen and South African President Jacob Zuma.
"The colonel (Gaddafi) is sending signals that he is prepared to relinquish power in exchange for security guarantees," Kommersant quoted what it called a high-level source in the Russian leadership as saying.
The source said in the report that other nations, potentially including France, were willing to provide those guarantees.
The Kommersant report also said Gaddafi wanted his son Saif al-Islam to be permitted to run in elections if he steps down, a condition the rebels might not accept.
The Libyan government said Monday that it was in talks with opposition figures, but the other side stuck to entrenched positions on Gaddafi's fate.
Saif al-Islam told a French newspaper there was no question of negotiating an end to his father's 42-year rule, and the rebel National Transitional Council backtracked on its statement that Gaddafi could stay in Libya if he gave up all power.
(Reporting by Steve Gutterman; editing by Ralph Boulton)
Gaddafi “ready to resign” – sourcehttp://rt.com/news/line/2011-07-05/#id13673
10:13
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is sending signals that he is ready to resign if his personal inviolability is guaranteed, the Kommersant newspaper quotes a source high up in the Russian government as saying on July 5. The revelation came during a session of the Russia-NATO Council in Sochi on July 4. The source believes Gaddafi will receive the required guarantees, and cited the example of France, which is prepared to unfreeze
some of the Libyan leader’s bank accounts and help him evade the Hague Tribunal. The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Gaddafi, who is suspected of crimes against humanity during the first days of the Libyan uprising.
Gaddafi ready to step down if guaranteed security http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/07/05/52789219.html
Jul 5, 2011 10:35 Moscow Time
The Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is ready to step down in exchange for security guarantees, the Russian daily Kommersant writes in an article.
France is specifically prepared to provide this kind of guarantee, says a high-ranking source in the Russian leadership.
But Gaddafi makes his resignation conditional on holding elections with his son Saif al-Islam running for President.
The Libyan leader’s supporters claim that if rebels are indeed pressing for democracy, they should allow all political forces in the country to run in elections.
Gaddafi ready to go: reporthttp://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/bric-yard/gaddafi-ready-go-report
Russian newspaper Kommersant that France is ready to propose a peaceful exit for Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi.
Miriam ElderJuly 5, 2011 01:07
Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi is ready to step down in exchange for a security guarantee, Kommersant, Russia’s leading daily, reports today.
“The colonel is sending signals that he’s ready to leave power in exchange for a security guarantee,” a high-placed source in the Russian government told Kommersant. “And such guarantees are ready to be offered to him.”
“In order to put an end to the drawn out conflict, the French are ready to not only unfreeze the colonel’s family’s accounts but also save him from the Hague tribunal,” Kommersant writes from Sochi, where President Dmitry Medvedev this weekend held talks with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and also with South African President Jacob Zuma, who is leading the African Union's efforts to negotiate a peaceful settlement in Libya.
“[France] is not only ready to unfreeze part of Gaddafi’s accounts and those of his family, but also to promise to act so that the colonel, in the event of his peaceful exit, avoids the Hague tribunal,” the paper writes. “Furthermore, the question of allowing the Libyan leader to remain in his homeland is being discussed.”
The rebels’ National Transitional Council Monday stepped back from statements that it could allow Gaddafi to remain in Libya. “There is absolutely no current or future possibility for Qaddafi to remain in Libya,” council head Mustafa Abdul Jalil said in an e-mailed statement, Bloomberg reported. “There is no escape clause for Qaddafi - he must be removed from power and face justice.”
Another hiccup: Kommersant reports that Gaddafi insists his son Saif be allowed to stand in any elections that would follow his departure. Unlikely, to say the least.
July 05, 2011 10:03
NATO's ground operation in Libya to lead to unpredictable consequences in region - Russian deputy FM (Part 2)http://www.interfax.com/newsinf.asp?id=256794
MOSCOW. July 5 (Interfax) - NATO's ground operation in Libya will threaten the country's territorial integrity and may lead to unpredictable consequences for the whole region, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said.
"Such interference [a ground operation] would be a serious blow to Libya's sovereignty and territorial integrity and would lead to unpredictable consequences on the regional scale," Bogdanov said in an interview with Interfax.
UN Security Council Resolution 1973 does not provide for a possibility of a ground operation in Libya, he pointed out.
"We have proceeded and continue proceeding from the fact that it is impossible to resolve the crisis by force and that it is absolutely impossible to engage external forces into the conflict on the ground. UN Security Council Resolution 1973 does not authorize such actions," Bogdanov said.
Speaking about Russia's position at votings on UN Security Council resolutions on Libya, he said: "we were absolutely aware of the fact that such steps may lead to considerable material losses to Russia."
"However, we consciously went for it in order to prevent further bloodshed," Bogdanov said.
The full text of the interview will appear at www.interfax.ru.
ar jv
(Our editorial staff can be reached at [email protected])
Russia hopes Quartet meeting to help resume Israeli-Palestinian talkshttp://en.rian.ru/world/20110705/165029481.html
12:29 05/07/2011
MOSCOW, July 5 (RIA Novosti)
Russia hopes that the meeting of the Quartet of international mediators of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict due on July 11 in Washington will create opportunities for the resumptions of direct talks between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday.
"We have strong hope that decisions made during the Washington meeting of the Quartet (Russia, the United Nations, the European Union and the United States) will help create circumstances for the resumption of the talks aimed at creating an independent, integral, sovereign and democratic Palestinian state to live in peace and security alongside Israel," Lavrov said during talks in Moscow with a visiting delegation from the Palestinian movement Fatah.
Peace between the Israelis and Palestinians can be reached based on internationally recognized and well-known legal principles, Lavrov stressed.
"We will take part in the ministerial meeting of the Quartet... proceeding from these positions," he said.
The Fatah representatives' visit to Moscow is "quite timely," Lavrov said.
"As a country with many friends in the Middle East, as a UN member, and as a participant in the Middle East Quartet, we are interested in helping drive the issue from the dead-lock," the minister said.
Israel maintains the occupation of Palestinian territories, including the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, since the 1967 Six-Day War. Peace negotiations between the sides have come to a standstill, and the Palestinians have threatened to turn to the UN for the recognition of an independent state in September if no progress in talks with the Israelis has been reached by that time.
Israel has rejected a proposal by U.S. President Barack Obama to accept the pre-1967 borders as a basis for talks with the Palestinians, saying that such borders would be "indefensible."
The resumption of stalled talks has also been hampered by a row over East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians have claimed as the capital of their future state. Israel calls all of Jerusalem its "eternal and indivisible" capital.
11:54 05/07/2011ALL NEWS
Middle East Quartet ministers to meet in Washington on July 11.
http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/179372.html
5/7 Tass 108
MOSCOW, July 5 (Itar-Tass) —— A ministerial meeting of the Middle East Quartet will be held on July 11 in Washington, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday.
“Russia is vitally interested to get things [the negotiating process between Israel and Palestine] moving,” he said. “We shall keep to this stance at a ministerial meeting of the Middle East Quartet that will take place on July 11 in Washington.”
06:53 05/07/2011ALL NEWS
Lavrov, Palestinian rep to discuss Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/179217.html
5/7 Tass 6
MOSCOW, July 5 (Itar-Tass) — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Nabil Saath, a representative of the Central Committee of the FATH party overseeing political issues, will meet in Moscow on Tuesday to discuss prospects of overcoming the Palestinian-Israeli crisis.
Earlier, Palestinian Ambasador to Russia Fayed Mustafa told Itar-Tass that the Palestinian side intended to discuss the situation in the Middle East at the talks in Moscow ahead of the 'quartet' meeting.
“In order to overcome stagnation in the Palestinian-Israeli direction Russia is having active contacts with all the sides concerned,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Alexander Lukashevich said.
He added that inter-Palestinian reconciliation would also be a topic for discussion.
“For our part, we are using all the possibilities we have to support the Cairo agreements, and will be ready to render assistance in their earliest realization,” Lukashevich went on to say.
Observers believe that the forthcoming diplomatic fight between Palestine and Israel for the recognition by the United Nations General Assembly of a call for an independent state.
In this context, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas made it clear that he could give up the idea of including a call for independence of Palestine in the agenda of the United Nations General Assembly if Israel agrees to resume direct talks on the principles of returning to the 1967 borders with mutually coordinated swap of territories.
For its part, Israel hopes that the forthcoming ‘quartet’ meeting of the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations will persuade the Palestinians to put off their appeal to the U.N. General Assembly.
Fatah envoys arrive in Moscow for talks ahead of Quartet meetinghttp://en.rian.ru/world/20110705/165020992.html
00:46 05/07/2011
MOSCOW, July 5 (RIA Novosti)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will hold talks in Moscow on Tuesday with a group of Palestinian officials prior to an upcoming meeting of international mediators of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Palestinian delegation is headed by former foreign minister of the Palestinian Authority Nabil Shaath, who is a senior PNA negotiator on Israeli-Palestinian issues.
According to the Russian sources, the agenda of the talks will include a dispute between Fatah and Hamas over the formation of the unity government for the Palestinians.
Fatah and Hamas formally ended their long-running feud in April and agreed to form new cabinet of political independents. However, further negotiations came to a deadlock over President Mahmoud Abbas's insistence that his current prime minister, Salam Fayyad remain at his post in the new government.
Another important issue on the agenda of the talks in Moscow will be the resumption of direct peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians and the prospects of the future Palestinian state.
The Palestinians want to form an independent state within the 1967 borders before Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.
Israel wants Jerusalem to be its "eternal and undivided" capital.
U.S. President Barak Obama proposed in May that Israel and the Palestinians proceed from the 1967 borders in their negotiations. The idea was supported unanimously by the Mideast Quartet of negotiators - Russia, the UN, EU, and the U.S. However, Israel turned down the proposal, saying it would make it vulnerable to potential external threats.
The Mideast Quartet is scheduled to meet in Washington on July 11.
12:24 05/07/2011ALL NEWS
Russia, NATO to test system to avert suicide bomb attacks in 2012.
http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/179390.html
5/7 Tass 105
ST. PETERSBURG, July 5 (Itar-Tass) —— A Russian-NATO jointly developed security system of transport facilities from suicide bomb attacks will be tested in Paris and St. Petersburg in 2012, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said here on Tuesday.
The cooperation in the struggle against a terrorist threat is on the list of priorities in the relations between Russia and NATO, Rasmussen said in a lecture to the students of the Admiral Makarov State Maritime Academy.
Russia and NATO agree to wait until Chicagohttp://en.rian.ru/analysis/20110705/165028339.html
11:29 05/07/2011RIA Novosti political commentator Andrei Fedyashin
The visiting NATO-Russia Council in Sochi on July 4 (the third in the entire history of our postwar relations with the bloc) decided once again to postpone the discussion of American missile defense in Europe. This time the pause will last until the next NATO summit and G-8 meeting in Chicago in May 2012. This is inspiring because Chicago is essentially the home city of President Barack Obama - he was a senator from Illinois and Chicago is the state's biggest city. Obama has already established his headquarters there for the 2012 elections.
Matters have not yet come to radicalism
After the council meeting, President Dmitry Medvedev told NATO ambassadors that he was pleased with its results. "I think, in general, we are all inspired by the results that were achieved. I was told that the session of the NATO-Russia Council that just concluded was quite productive on the whole."
This is good news. Recently, these sessions have been looking more and more like meetings between people wearing different hearing aids. Everyone hears only what they want to hear and offers different, sometimes contradictory, interpretations of what was said.
But this time NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen announced that concerning the missile defense project, "we are starting to see things in the same way," and that it is better to come to a good agreement on the issue, rather than a quick one. The second part of the statement is clear, nobody would argue with that, but the first part is vague, and it is not clear what Rasmussen meant. It's also intriguing that he suggested waiting until Chicago where, as he hopes, "we will reach an agreement on European missile defense."
The council took place at the ambassador level, at which people generally don't expect any breakthroughs. But after the talks, Medvedev hosted NATO ambassadors.
There were persistent rumors to the effect that Medvedev will present NATO with an ultimatum: either we resolve the issue within a year (either they fully integrate Russia into a new missile defense system, or we arrange it on a sectoral basis, whereby Russia and NATO would have their own defense sectors) or Moscow will take appropriate steps. Moscow may develop its missile defense forces, deploy new missiles on its borders or even withdraw from the New START Treaty that Medvedev and Obama signed in April 2010. These were the options presented by Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's envoy to NATO.
It's good that matters have not yet come to these radical solutions, even with a pause that will last till next May when Chicago will host the NATO and G-8 summits.
Rogozin is a pugnacious and emotional man, but he would hardly have made such stern warnings without knowing Medvedev's position.
In principle, Russia is capable of taking these steps, but it must consider the economic and political price of doing so.
This would mean huge spending on a new arms race. In the case of the hypotonic Russian economy, this is akin to a person with acute anemia donating blood. It is unlikely that we could cope with this in the long run. The economies and finances of the NATO countries are far from brilliant either, but it is still easier to find the funds through a collective effort, although the United States would pay for most of it anyway.
A pause until U.S. elections
This is a special demand of the United States, because this is "their" system. It is hard to imagine that Obama would fully renounce his plans of modernizing missile defense in Europe a little more than a year before the presidential elections. He has already changed George W. Bush's plans, and a second concession to Russia would be a too luxurious gift to the Republicans. The U.S. economy is not doing very well, and if it gets worse and Obama yields again to Moscow's pressure on missile defense, he can hardly expect to stay in the White House for another term. And reaching an agreement with the Republicans will be next to impossible.
Probably we'll have to take an actual pause on this issue, and it will last longer than the May meetings in Chicago. Most likely, it will last till the end of the U.S. elections.
It is clear to everyone that an agreement on missile defense must be reached not with NATO, but with the United States, individually.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov continuously repeats that the council operates on a special basis. He spoke to this again in Sochi, remarking that the council "works on an equitable national basis: one country, one vote, not NATO plus Russia." In other words, we must agree not with NATO, but with each member of the council separately. It's unclear, then, why we need a council if we have to reach individual agreements with its members. Does NATO know that each of its members can make individual decisions in the council? But if this is the scheme, there is nothing to be done about it.
The council was set up at the Russia-NATO summit in Rome on May 28, 2002. NATO's official site designates its main purpose as follows: "The (NRC) is a mechanism for consultation, consensus-building, cooperation, joint decision and joint action. Within the NRC, the individual NATO member states and Russia work as equal partners on a wide spectrum of security issues of common interest." But for the time being it seems more like a mechanism for the permanent search of something that can never be found.
There is no guarantee that it will be found in Chicago. Perhaps we really should join NATO, and check the bloc for sincerity. In that case all problems will disappear at once, and we'll celebrate the grand Day of Russia's accession to NATO.
The views expressed in this article are the author's and may not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
July 05, 2011 09:07
Atmosphere favorable for Russia-Japan dialog on peace treaty – Naryshkinhttp://www.interfax.com/newsinf.asp?id=256772
TOKYO. July 5 (Interfax) - A more favorable atmosphere has formed between Russia and Japan for discussing the problem of peace treaty, said presidential chief of staff Sergei Naryshkin, who is wrapping up his brief visit to Tokyo.
While in Tokyo he met with Prime Minister Naoto Kan , other government officials, lawmakers, public figures and businessmen.
"The problem of peace treaty was discussed, of course. A new atmosphere has formed in the dialogue between Russia and Japan - a more favorable atmosphere for discussing the current issues. The Japanese side agrees that the dialogue must proceed only in a quiet atmosphere and without preconditions," he said.
"Our relations have been on the upsurge in all areas. Following a sag due to a global crisis, trade is expected to reach the pre-crisis level. Political contacts are becoming more trustful, which is typical of the current stage in our relations," Naryshkin said.
09:03 05/07/2011ALL NEWS
Russia, Japan set up commission of historians on peace treaty.
http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/179266.html
5/7 Tass 37
TOKYO, July 5 (Itar-Tass) — Russia and Japan have set up a joint commission of historians to look into problems of a peace treaty and the territorial dispute. The first meeting of the commission may be held already in December, the head of the Russian president’s administration, Sergei Naryshkin, said in Tokyo on Tuesday.
“At the present moment a commission has been set up to study thorny issues in the history of relations between Russia and Japan. Earlier, we repeatedly offered to set up such an organisation,” Naryshkin said.
“We believe that different approaches to peace treaty issues are determined a lot by differences in points of view on causes and results of WWII. I expect that the first meeting of historians will be held already next December,” Naryshkin stressed.
He also said that the Russian side of the group would be led by rector of Moscow State Institute of International Relations (University) Anatoly Torkunov. The Japanese side of the commission will include specialists from the National Defence Academy of Japan, Naryshkin said.
A more favourable atmosphere exists at the present moment for discussing a peace treaty between Russia and Japan, he stressed. During his visit, Naryshkin met in Tokyo with Prime minister Naoto Kan, other top officials from the Japanese government, parliamentarians, public representatives and business people.
“The problem of a peace treaty was of course discussed at these meetings. A more favourable atmosphere in a dialogue between Russia and Japan has developed of late, it has become more favourable for discussions on existing problems,” he said.
“The Japanese side agrees that the dialogue must be maintained only in a calm atmosphere, without setting forth preliminary conditions,” Naryshkin stressed.
09:00 05/07/2011ALL NEWS
Russia ready to increase supplies of energy resources to Japan.
http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/179264.html
5/7 Tass 53
TOKYO, July 5 (Itar-Tass) — Russia is ready to further increase supplies of energy resources to Japan hit by a major earthquake and tsunami last March, the head of the Kremlin administration, Sergei Naryshkin, told reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday.
During his brief visit to Tokyo, which ends on Tuesday, Naryshkin met with Prime minister Naoto Kan, other top officials from the Japanese government, parliamentarians, public representatives and business people.
“Cooperation in the economic sphere, first of all in the energy sector, was also in the focus of attention,” Naryshkin said. “The energy sector of Japan was most hard hit as a result of the disaster,” he added.
Russia has already met Japan halfway. “We have not only expressed readiness to increase supplies, but have also rendered such assistance,” Naryshkin stressed. “Russia is ready to further increase supplies of energy resources to Tokyo,” he added.
Naryshkin also noted the importance of cooperation between the two countries in increasing the safety of nuclear power plants. “After the Chernobyl disaster, we have a rich experience and we are ready to share it with the Japanese colleagues,” the head of the Kremlin administration stressed.
09:28 05/07/2011ALL NEWS
Russia to render assistance to quake-hit Japan - Naryshkin.
http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/179276.html
5/7 Tass 30
TOKYO, July 5 (Itar-Tass) — The head of the Kremlin administration, Sergei Naryshkin, expressed confidence on Tuesday that Japan would manage to quickly restore the regions hit by a massive quake and tsunami last March, and pledged that Russia would render all necessary assistance in that.
Naryshkin said it at a meeting at Japan’s Friendship Exchange Council. The chairman of the Council, Ken Matsuzawa, expressed gratitude to Russia for support. “We will never forget this help,” he stressed. “For three decades our organization has been making efforts to improve Japan’s ties with other countries,” he said.
Ken Matsuzawa also expressed hope that “our present meeting will become a new start for mutual understanding as well as for creating a climate for the settlement of problems”.
“I am glad to welcome everybody at this meeting which is being held already for the seventh time and has become traditional. I highly value the atmosphere of openness and trust at these meetings,” Naryshkin said, for his part.
“These meetings are very important for shaping our policy in relations with Japan,” he added. Naryshkin expressed deep condolences in connection with the March disaster and pledged Russia’s support. “I have no doubts that Japan will shortly restore the damaged regions, and Russia will offer necessary assistance,” he said.
The Friendship Exchange Council was set up in 1983 as an independent public organization with an aim to contribute to the development of mutual understanding and friendly relations with foreign countries.
The committee for the development of cultural and economic exchanges between Russia and Japan was set up within the framework of the Council. It brings together representatives of Japanese political, business, public and scientific circles.
08:11 05/07/2011ALL NEWS
Atmosphere in Russia-Japan peace treaty dialog gets better.
http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/179241.html
5/7 Tass 39
TOKYO, July 5 (Itar-Tass) — A more favourable atmosphere exists at the present moment for discussing a peace treaty between Russia and Japan, the head of the Kremlin administration, Sergei Naryshkin, told reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday. Naryshkin ends on Tuesday a brief visit to Tokyo.
During his visit, Naryshkin met in Tokyo with Prime minister Naoto Kan, other top officials from the Japanese government, parliamentarians, public representatives and business people.
“The problem of a peace treaty was of course discussed at these meetings. A more favourable atmosphere in a dialogue between Russia and Japan has developed of late, it has become more favourable for discussions on existing problems,” he said.
“The Japanese side agrees that the dialogue must be maintained only in a calm atmosphere, without setting forth preliminary conditions,” Naryshkin stressed.
“Our relations develop at the present moment on the line of ascent on all directions,” he noted. “After recession as a result of the global crisis we expect that trade will reach the pre-crisis level in 2011,” he said.
“Political contacts get increasingly trust-based. This is also a characteristic feature of the present stage of our relations,” Naryshkin stressed.
08:09 05/07/2011ALL NEWS
Russia, Japan have similar stances on Libyan settlement- Naryshkin.
http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/179240.html
5/7 Tass 38
TOKYO, July 5 (Itar-Tass) — Russia and Japan have similar stances on the settlement of the Libyan conflict, believing that a full ceasefire is needed, the head of the Kremlin administration, Sergei Naryshkin, told reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday.
“At talks with the Japanese leadership we discussed vital international problems, the most acute of which is a military conflict in Libya,” Naryshkin said. He said “several days ago Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sent a message on that issue to leaders of world powers, including to Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan”.
“At talks in Tokyo we confirmed that Russia and Japan have similar stances on the settlement of the Libyan conflict,” he stressed. “A full ceasefire and the use of all instruments of diplomatic settlement are needed,” Naryshkin said.
11:31 05/07/2011ALL NEWS
Hong Kong forum discusses Asian foreign investments in Russia.
http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/179350.html
5/7 Tass 85
HONG KONG (XIANGANG), July 5 (Itar-Tass) — Participants in the Russia – Capital Raising and Investment Summit business forum on possibilities for attracting Asian capitals in Russia, which opened on Tuesday, mark big potentials of cooperation between Hong Kong and Russia in the investment sphere.
According to Russian Consul General Sergei Gritsai, more and more Russian companies open their missions in Hong Kong, including Renaissance Capital and Kaspersky Lab.
The diplomat noted that along with New York and London, Hong Kong is on the list of three leading global financial centres. “The experience of Hong Kong is useful in connection with plans to set up an international financial centre in Moscow,” he added.
The Hong Kong stock exchange can become “a financial bridge” for Russian companies interested in getting access to markets of mainland China and Asia, President of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd. Ronald Arculli said.
The Russia – Capital Raising and Investment Summit is held in Hong Kong already for the second time. Representatives of financial and investment companies, 250 people all in all, take part in it.
One of the organizers of the forum, the publisher of the Asianinvestor magazine, Jonathan Hirst, told Tass that plans are to make this forum annual.
China Signs $500 Million Russian Jet Engine Deal, Vedomosti Sayshttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-04/china-signs-500-million-russian-jet-engine-deal-vedomosti-says.html
By Jack Jordan - Jul 4, 2011 7:07 AM GMT+0200
China’s Ministry of Defense signed a contract to buy Russian aircraft engines worth $500 million in early June, Vedomosti reported, citing an unidentified personsource close to Russia’s state arms-selling agency and an unidentified manager of an aviation company.
The contract is for 123 AL-31FN engines by 2013, the first 13 of which will be delivered later this year, the newspaper said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jack Jordan in Moscow at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Torrey Clark at [email protected]
Russian frigate project for Navy likely to be delayedhttp://www.indianexpress.com/news/Russian-frigate-project-for-Navy-likely-to-be-delayed/812681/
Posted: Tue Jul 05 2011, 00:36 hrs
New Delhi: Already hit by the massive delay in the Gorshkov aircraft carrier delivery, the Indian Navy may be in for another blow.
A top Russian official has said that the first of the new Talwar class frigates, ordered under a $1.1 billion contract in 2006 and set to be delivered by the end of this year, has been delayed.
While Russia has not formally conveyed any delay in the project for construction of three Talwar class frigates to India, concerns have risen after a senior official from the state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport publicly stated that a new deadline will have to be drawn. India ordered three of the frigates in 2006, with the first ship to be delivered in 2011.
“We have not yet been informed of any delay. We have a team in Russia that is overseeing the project and they will discuss the matter,” a defence ministry official said.
New Russian warship unveiled
http://www.defpro.com/news/details/25971/?SID=00f402d15f56775da1b0456b94b39c31
06:19 GMT, July 5, 2011
The corvette Soobrazitelny was shown to the public for the first time at the Fifth International Maritime Defence Show (IMDS-2011) in St. Petersburg. More than 70 industrial and research companies contributed to the development and construction of the vessel ordered by the Russian Navy.
The corvette carries an impressive array of armaments: an Uran anti-ship missile system, an AK-630M surface-to-air artillery unit, an A-190 automatic artillery system plus multiple torpedo tubes.
To jam and protect itself against homing missiles the Soobrazitelny features a radioelectronic suppression system. The system actively jams incoming missiles and can guide an enemy warhead to a decoy target.
A KA-27PL anti-submarine helicopter is based on the corvette to seek and attack submarines. (RIA Novosti)
(A related video can be viewed at http://goo.gl/fiowI)
Senior Russian army officers resign over military reforms - paperhttp://en.rian.ru/mlitary_news/20110705/165026894.html
09:48 05/07/2011
MOSCOW, July 5 (RIA Novosti)
Several influential members of the top brass have resigned due to differences with the head of Russia's General Staff over his implementation of military reforms, Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported on Tuesday.
The newspaper said that although the generals themselves have not made public the reasons for their departures, a senior officer said the opinion within the army is that they are leaving because they do not agree with Chief of Staff Army Gen. Nikolai Makarov's steps to reform the military.
The source denied that Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov was a reason for the officers' discontent.
"Some media write that Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov is to blame for all the troubles of the army. But it is not like that," Nezavisimaya Gazeta quoted the source as saying.
"As defense minister, Serdyukov has proven to be an effective manager," the source said, praising the minister for giving the troops new weapons and equipment. "But you can't say this about Makarov."
The officer accused Makarov of creating a situation under which the military is run in a perpetual state of temporary experimentation.
Russia's armed forces have been undergoing reform for years with mixed results and frequent reports of dissatisfaction in the officer corps.
As part of efforts to transform the military into a modern fighting force, the government has vowed to rearm troops with up-to-date weaponry and cut the number of service personnel to 1 million, increasing the number of professional soldiers.
There are currently 180,000 contract soldiers in uniform, with the bulk of the force consisting of enlisted personnel, but Serdyukov said on july 1 that by the end of 2017, the number of professional troops will increase to 425,000.
Estonian, Russian experts meet over planned Kaliningrad nuclear plant
http://www.bne.eu/dispatch_text16081
bneJuly 5, 2011
Experts from Estonia and Russia met in Tallinn on Monday to discuss financial-economic, environmental and nuclear safety matters related to the potential building of a nuclear power station in the Russian Kaliningrad region, with Estonian experts saying that for Estonia the first choice as regards regional projects for the establishment of new generating capacities without doubt is participating in a project for a new N-plant in
Lithuania, BNS reported.
From the Estonian side representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Economy and Communications and the state owned energy company Eesti Energia took part in the meeting that was attended from the Russian side by executives from the company Rosatom and related companies, as well as by representatives from the Russian embassy, spokespeople for the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
Estonian experts said at the meeting that a number of decisions have been made in both the European Union and Estonia by which it is important to avoid an increase in dependence on imported energy and which emphasize the need to engage actively in diversification of sources of energy supply.
On the more technical level, it continues to be unclear for Estonia who would be the consumers of the energy to be generated by the new Kaliningrad plant or where they would be located. The planned capacity of the station clearly surpasses the region's own needs. For the export of electricity from Kaliningrad both the necessary infrastructure as well as agreements with potential consumers are known to be lacking.
Russia to help Bulgaria find shareholders for Belene nuclear planthttp://www.sofiaecho.com/2011/07/04/1117803_russia-to-help-bulgaria-find-shareholders-for-belene-nuclear-plant
Mon, Jul 04 2011 22:16 CET
Russia has pledged to help Bulgaria find potential shareholders for the project company that will build and operate the Belene nuclear power station, Atomstroyexport, the Russian contractor for the plant, said on July 4 2011.
The announcement came three days after Atomstroyexport and Bulgaria's state-owned power utility NEK agreed to delay until September 30 the negotiations on the plant's construction and its price.
Despite the three-month delay, Russia will continue discussions on the project, although Bulgaria's Economy Minister Traicho Traikov had said that Sofia would seek to freeze talks on Belene during the period, Atomstroyexport said.
The Russian company also said it was committed to assisting NEK in the creation of a working group that would seek to solve the problems with the project's financing.
In late 2010, Atomstroyexport's parent company, state nuclear corporation Rosatom, helped Bulgaria secure the two current foreign investors in the Belene project. Finland's
major utility Fortum Corp and French technology consultancy Altran Technologies then agreed to get stakes of one per cent each in the project, with Fortum securing an option to increase its holding to 25 per cent.
A stake of 51 per cent in the plant will be controlled by NEK, while the remainder will be owned by Rosatom unless other shareholders can be found.
Armenia to hold CSTO coordination council meeting
http://news.am/eng/news/65580.html
July 04, 2011 | 21:46
YEREVAN. – The chiefs of drug control services of the Coordination council of Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) will hold a meeting in Armenia’s capital on July 6, Armenian police PR department informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.
Note that on June 9 the head of Russian Federal Drug Control Service Viktor Ivanov reported that the States Members of CSTO offered to introduce the "anti-drug security" concept similar to the concepts of "military security "," national security "," humanitarian security ", etc.
“There is a widespread opinion that terrorism nurtures drug production. In my opinion the reality is opposite, that is, the drugs nurture terrorism,” said Ivanov.
Kyrgyzstan to host CSTO staff training http://centralasiaonline.com/cocoon/caii/xhtml/en_GB/features/caii/newsbriefs/2011/07/04/newsbrief-08
By Bakyt IbraimovFor CentralAsiaOnline.com2011-07-04
BISHKEK – Kyrgyzstan will host a staff training exercise July 5-8 for Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) member state militaries as part of the CSTO’s plan for preparing a collective security rapid reaction force.
About 60 troops from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Tajikistan will participate, Kyrgyz Defence Ministry spokeswoman Ayzada Igibayeva told Central Asia Online.
Training will include study of the basics and methodology of organising joint military actions. The workshop will end with a command-staff exercise in planning a joint counter-terrorist operation.
Kyrgyzstan to host Collective Rapid Deployment Force drilling http://eng.24.kg/community/2011/07/04/19036.html
04/07-2011 08:53, Bishkek – 24.kg news agency
Kyrgyzstan will host operative training of command and staff of CSTO Collective Rapid Deployment Force, reported Ministry of Defence.
According to authorities, “the plan of joint operational and combat drillings of agencies for formation and management of forces and means of the collective security system of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) provides for the training of command designated personnel and staff of Collective Rapid Deployment Forces of Central Asian region of Collective security on the territory of Kyrgyzstan from July 5 to July 8, 2011.”
The designated personnel of Armed Forces of the KR, Kazakhstan, Russian Federation and Tajikistan will participate in it. About 60 soldiers will improve their professional knowledge and skills, learn the basics of organization and methodology of joint military operations planning, improve communication and teamwork during the training. Command and Staff training on planning joint counter-terrorism operations in the region will complete theoretical studies. Colonel Zhanybek Kaparov - Head of the Main Operations Directorate, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Kyrgyz Republic - was appointed as head of the rapid collection.
The head of command and staff training will be Colonel-General Anatoly Nogovitsyn - Deputy Chief of Joint Staff.
URL: http://eng.24.kg/community/2011/07/04/19036.html
Georgian products could return to Russia this yearhttp://news.az/articles/georgia/39801
Tue 05 July 2011 07:40 GMT | 9:40 Local Time
Georgian products could return to Russian markets by the end of the year, according to opposition Free Georgia party leader Kakha Kukava.
Kukava made the optimistic forecast after returning from a trip to Russia where he met the head of Russia's agency for consumer goods, Rospotrebnadzor, Gennadiy Onishchenko.
"At the meeting it was decided that in the coming period the legal and technical procedures for the return of Georgian products to the Russian market should begin. In this regard, a special meeting with Georgian entrepreneurs and experts will take place soon," Kukava told Georgian journalists.
"In the near future practical steps will be taken to return Georgian products to the Russian market by the end of 2011, which is so important for the economy of Georgia," Kukava said.
In spring of 2006, Rospotrebnadzor banned the import of Georgian wine and Borjomi mineral water, citing the products alleged poor quality as the reason.
Georgia Times
The Kyrgyz people working in different federal districts in Russia unitehttp://eng.24.kg/cis/2011/07/05/19060.html
05/07-2011 08:10, Bishkek – 24.kg news agency
The Kyrgyz people working in different federal districts in Russia have united. There was a conference of NGO united the citizens of Kyrgyzstan working in the Russian Federation in All-Russia Exhibition Center in Moscow. The forum is devoted to 20th Anniversary of CIS formation.
As the initiators note, the Kyrgyz Union in Moscow and Moscow region suggested nationals to gather in the simgle organization. “Zamandash” association suggested it.
”Our main goal is to unite the Kyrgyz people on the basis of common interests to solve the problems of integration and national originality keeping, language development, education and culture of the Kyrgyz and Kyrgyz people living in the Russian Federation,” the initiators explain.
The delegates from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Chita, Ufa, Orenburg, Rostov, Irkutsk, Kursk, Omsk, Ekaterinburg, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk arrived at the first meeting of countrymen.
New NGO got the name of the Kyrgyz people union in Russia.
URL: http://eng.24.kg/cis/2011/07/05/19060.html
Russia to orbit new satellitehttp://english.ruvr.ru/2011/07/05/52789791.html
Jul 5, 2011 10:45 Moscow Time
Russia will soon orbit a satellite to test a new generation of onboard instruments.
The MiR probe was developed by the Information Satellite systems R&D bureau in Krasnoyarsk, which has designed more than 1,000 multiple-orbit satellites.
Dutch minister ignores MPs on Russia sanctionshttp://euobserver.com/?aid=32589
ANDREW RETTMANToday @ 09:29 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The Dutch foreign minister is to ignore his own parliament over a call to impose sanctions on Russian officials deemed guilty of murdering lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
Ward Bezemer, a spokesman for minister Uri Rosenthal, told EUobserver on Monday (4 July) that "in this case, he has discouraged the motion, he doesn't like it and he most likely won't act on the request." Bezemer added: "The minister shares the concerns and will continue to raise this issue internally. The Netherlands and the EU will continue to encourage the Russian federation to trace the perpetrators responsible."
All 150 MPs in the Dutch assembly, the Tweede Kamer, last week backed a non-binding resolution calling on the Hague to impose a travel ban and asset freeze on 60 Russian officials named by Magnitsky's former employer, US-born venture capitalist Bill Browder, in the case.
The situation in The Hague mirrors the one in Brussels, where the European Parliament last year also called on EU member states to consider sanctions and is being roundly ignored.
Browder's tactics - to lobby parliaments to put pressure on Russia-wary diplomats - are getting the best results in Washington, where a cross-party group of 18 senators introduced a bill that could force the state department to act.
US diplomats are equally reluctant to let open parliament democracy into its behind-closed-doors world. "The new law is seen by the State department as excessive, because it would mean any congressman could put forward a name for the no-fly list and then the department would have to prove they are OK. This would be a huge burden," a State department source said.
Browder noted that the Twede Kamer is "one of many European parliaments that is planning resolutions this summer and fall on the same subject." He noted that the British, Czech, German and Polish assemblies are the most sympathetic so far.
Under the rules of the EU's passport-free Schengen zone, if one country puts somebody on a persona non grata list, all Schengen members are obliged to decline them a visa.
The UK is not a Schengen member. But Sir Tony Brenton, a former British ambassador to Moscow, said in a letter to The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday: "Isn't it time that the British authorities made publicly clear their abhorrence at what has happened, demanded a full investigation, and made it clear too that those concerned will never receive a visa to enter the UK?"
Russian investigators on Monday acknowledged that Magnitsky, who suffered from pancreatitis, died because of "deficiencies in medical care." But the Browder camp sees the move as an attempt to shove blame onto prison doctors while letting senior officials off the hook.
Meanwhile, the Russian Duma last week began work on its own bill to blacklist foreigners who abuse the rights of Russian citizens.
The bill mentions the case of Alexander Kashin - a 35-year-old Russian man who was hit by the SUV of a US consul general, Douglas Kent, in Vladivostock in 1998, and left paraplegic. Kent avoided prosecution due to diplomatic immunity and left Russia.
Magnitsky died in his jail cell in 2009 after uncovering a multi-million-euro tax fraud by senior officials in the interior ministry and the secret police, the FSB. He was killed by a rupture of his abdominal membrane due to lack of medication. His body also had broken fingers.
02:46 05/07/2011ALL NEWS
Medvedev to meet members of Council for civil society & human rights.
http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/179178.html
5/7 Tass 3
MOSCOW, July 5 (Itar-Tass) — Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will on Tuesday meet members of the presidential Council for the development of civil society and human rights.
The Council’s official website reports that civilian participation in counteraction to terrorism and extremism and the creation of an inter-ethnic and inter-confessional accord will be among the key topics of today’s dialogue.
According to the Council’s head, Mikhail Fedotov, Russian human rights activists are preparing materials on the cases of Khodorkovsky and Magnitsky. They are carrying out a public analysis of these cases and will submit their conclusions to the Russian president.
Fedotov says that the Council’s idea to draft and adopt a bill on public control may be another subject for discussion.
At the moment, the Council’s members are studying another bill proposed by lawmaker Alexander Torshin in which he suggests establishing the precedence of the Russian Constitutional Court’s decisions over the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights, which receives a lot of complaints from Russia.
The meeting of the Council’s members with the president is timed to coincide with the beginning of a trial over defendants accused of killing the Spartak football fan Yegor Sviridov in December 2010. This case provoked mass riots and disturbances on Moscow’s Manezhnaya Square that were classified as actions inciting inter-ethnic strife. The Council’s members are unlikely to ignore this fact.
The presidential Council for the development of civil society and human rights is an advisory body. It was set up to help the president to exercise his constitutional powers in the provision of human rights and civil liberties, to inform the head of state about the situation in this field and prepare proposals of the head of state on issues that are in the Council’s competence.
The Council’s history dates back to 1993 when a Commission for human rights was set up under the Russian president. In 2004, the Commission was transformed into a Council. Ella Pamfilova headed that body from 2002 to 2010. She resigned from her post on her own accord.
Mikhail Fedotov who was also appointed presidential adviser filled that position last year.
Dispute emerges over Russian lawyer's jail deathhttp://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/108017/
Today at 08:58 | Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — Activists plan to present evidence Tuesday that a Russian lawyer who accused officials of corruption died after a brutal beating by prison guards, saying investigators' findings that a lack of medical treatment killed the man fell short of the full
truth.
Sergi Magnitsky, a 37-year-old lawyer who worked for a large U.S. investment fund, died in prison in November 2009 after the pancreatitis he developed there went untreated.
He had been arrested by Interior Ministry officials after he had accused them of using false tax papers to steal $230 million from the state.
Magnitsky's case is being scrutinized by human rights activists and potential Western investors as a gauge of the Kremlin's commitment to addressing corruption and allowing an independent legal system.
Several prison officials were fired but no one has been charged either for his death or in the alleged tax fraud.
On Monday, the federal Investigative Committee acknowledged for the first time that the lack of medical help was the "direct cause" of Magnitsky's death.
A panel of Russian rights activists that investigated Magnitsky's death, meanwhile, is presenting their report to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday.
Valery Borshchev, a prominent activist who took part in the independent probe, said the Investigative Committee's acknowledgment that Magnitsky was denied medical help was a positive sign, but added that the committee kept silent about prison guards beating the lawyer.
He said the panel had found evidence that Magnitsky had died shortly after eight prison guards handcuffed him, took him to a cell and beat him with truncheons.
"We have concluded that he died of beating," Borshchev told The Associated Press. "It was a real torture to beat an ailing man with truncheons."
Borshchev said a prison doctor had claimed that Magnitsky had a nervous breakdown and that she called prison guards to calm him down until an ambulance arrived.
The ambulance came quickly but prison officials kept the crew waiting at the prison gates for more than one hour while the guards were beating Magnitsky.
"Magnitsky was in a cell with eight guards who were beating him for more than one hour, and there were no doctors around," Borshchev told the AP. "Bruises were found on his body and there are pictures of his broken knuckles, testifying that he was beaten."
The ambulance crew said Magnitsky had died 15-30 minutes before their arrival, while the official reports claimed he died an hour later and lied that he died at a prison hospital, Borshchev said.
"He already was in grave condition," Borshchev said. "I don't think that they wanted to kill him, but they beat him with truncheons and that played a fatal role."
Officials at the Investigative Committee couldn't be reached for comment on Borshchev's claim late Monday.
The Investigative Committee said in a statement that Magnitsky also had cardiomyopathy, a form of heart disease, and it was the combination of this and his other illness in the absence of medical aid that caused his death.
"The nonperformance of stipulated actions during Magnitsky's incarceration, and the absence of adequate therapy on Nov. 16, 2009, deprived Magnitsky of the chance of a positive outcome," the Investigative Committee said.
The agency said it has identified those responsible for Magnitsky's death but will name them later.
Magnitsky had been charged with tax evasion linked to his defense of Hermitage Capital Management, a multibillion-dollar fund headed by U.S. businessman William Browder, who has since been deported from Russia as a national security threat.
Hermitage accused Interior Ministry officers of seizing ownership documents of three of its subsidiaries in 2007, then using those documents to register their own people as owners and directors.
The Interior Ministry officials then filed a tax claim, saying they made a much smaller profit than originally described and asked for a tax return, according to Hermitage.
The total return for the three subsidiaries was 5.4 billion rubles ($230 million at the time).
Browder says a Moscow tax official who approved the fraudulent tax return bought luxury real estate in Moscow, Dubai and Montenegro and wired $39 million through her husband's bank accounts.
All that was done on an average annual Russian household income of about $38,000, according to documents released by Browder.
Lawmakers in the Netherlands on Monday voted in favor of a resolution demanding the government slap a travel ban on dozens of Russian officials who Browder and his supporters consider complicit in Magnitsky's death.
The U.S. Senate is working on similar legislation.
Browder is lobbying all European governments to follow suit.
Russian lawmakers have threatened to retaliate in kind.
Read more: http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/108017/#ixzz1RD26KEwA
04:22 05/07/2011ALL NEWS
Putin to chair meeting on high technologies in Dubna.
http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/179186.html
5/7 Tass 4
MOSCOW, July 5 (Itar-Tass) — Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will chair a conference of the governmental commission for high technologies and innovations on Tuesday. It will take place at the Unified Institute of Nuclear Research in Dubna, the Russian government’s press service reports.
“The conference on development of scientific research infrastructure is planning to work out the basic approaches to the creation in this country of unique world-class research centres, the so-called Mega-Science class installations which will make it possible to reach new horizons in fundamental science,” the press release goes on to say.
The creation of this kind of infrastructure is the backlog of competitiveness of the Russian scientific complex and an opportunity to establish fruitful international cooperation in breakthrough areas of research.
At present, Russian scientists are taking part in implementing four such mega-projects: the Large Hadron Collider within the framework of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the creation of an ITER reactor in France as well as the development of a European free electron lasers and heavy ion accelerators in Germany. Besides, the Russian Academy of Science has received a number of proposals to join other international mega-projects, the press service goes on to say.
Over the past six years state budget allocations for Research and Development for civil purposes have gone up three times: about 230 billion roubles were appropriated for these purposes in 2011. About 40 billion roubles had been committed to support science in higher educational establishments and strengthen scientific schools in leading universities in a period until 2012. In 2010, a package of measures aimed at enhancing innovative activities in institutions of high learning was adopted in 2010.
A pilot project to create a national research centre was launched in 2010. The centre will unite the Moscow-based Kurchatov Institute, the St. Petersburg Institute of Nuclear
Physics named after P. Konstantinov (Gatchina), the Institute of High Energy (the town of Protvino) and the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics (Moscow).
The creation of the national research centre the Kurchatov Institute was the subject of a conference held by Putin on January 12, 2010, the press service reports.
11:39 05/07/2011ALL NEWS
Russian State Duma to hold extra session on July 7.
http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/179355.html
5/7 Tass 97
MOSCOW, July 5 (Itar-Tass) —— Russia’s State Duma, or lower parliament house, decided on Tuesday to hold an extra plenary session on Thursday, July 7, to consider outstanding issues.
Initially, it was planned to prolong today’s and tomorrow’s sessions and shorten lunch breaks to have time to consider what is on the agenda, but chairman of the Duma regulations committee Otari Arshba proposed to hold an additional session on Thursday instead. Duma speaker Boris Gryzlov promised to put the proposal for vote on Wednesday.
The spring session of the lower house of Russian parliament is to be over on July 17, with the last plenary session scheduled for July 8. Members of the lower parliament house will spend the next week in their constituencies. If the lawmakers hold an extra session, they will not have to prolong the spring session, as they did before.
08:32 05/07/2011ALL NEWS
Policeman killed in clash with gunmen in Russia’s Ingushetia.
http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/179252.html
5/7 Tass 61
NAZRAN, July 5 (Itar-Tass) — One policeman was killed and another was wounded in a clash with gunmen in Russia’s southern republic of Ingushetia, sources from the republican interior ministry reported on Tuesday.
They said information was received on Monday that a group of gunmen was moving in the forest on the outskirts of the settlement of Sagopshi, Malgobek district.
A decision was made to block the group. Policemen sent to the site run against a group of up to eight gunmen, and an exchange of fire followed. One policeman was killed and one more was wounded in the clash.
Measures are taken at the present moment to neutralize the gunmen. All possible ways of retreat are blocked.
RT News line, July 5
Emergency counter-terrorism measures in force in North Caucasushttp://rt.com/news/line/2011-07-05/#id13679
11:19
An emergency “counter-terrorist operation” is underway in the North Caucasus close to the Chechen capital, Grozny, on Tuesday, RIA Novosti news agency reports. Security officers are searching for a militant group, according to the administration of the Federal Security Service for the republic. Members of the group are suspected of terrorist activity.
12:10 05/07/2011ALL NEWS
Anti-terrorist operation launched in Grozny district of Chechnya.
http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/179380.html
5/7 Tass 101
GROZNY, July 5 (Itar-Tass) —— An anti-terrorist operation regime was declared in the Grozny district of Chechnya, a source in the republican branch of the Federal Security Service told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
“According to available operational reports, the gunmen, who are involved in the terrorist acts and are masterminding terrorist acts, which can be resounding, are hiding in the southern part of the Grozny district,” the source said.
“To combat the criminal activities of the gangs the Chechen emergency headquarters decided to launch an anti-terrorist operation at midnight on July 5,” the source said.
The anti-terrorist operation is being carried out on the area from the north-eastern outskirt of Lakha-Varanda, down the Argun River southward to the administrative border between the Grozny and Shatoi districts, along the administrative border between the
foresaid districts and along the administrative border between the Grozny and Urus-Martan districts to the north-eastern outskirt of Lakha-Varanda.
01:46 05/07/2011ALL NEWS
Teenage ‘Laser hooligan’ detained in Grozny.
http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/179169.html
5/7 Tass 292 A
GROZNY, July 5 (Itar-Tass) — A ‘laser hooligan’ was detained in the Chechen capital of Grozny on Monday, the press service of Chechnya’s Interior Ministry reports.
“Employees of the interior department of the Grozny located a ‘laser hooligan’ who almost blinded a plane pilot who was returning to Grozny airport on Monday evening,» the Interior Ministry’s press service went on to say.
The plane was preparing to land at Grozny airport when the pilot informed the air traffic controllers at the airport that a laser ray had been directed at the plane from the ground. The interior department’s staff was put on alert. The hooligan was identified and detained within an hour. He turned out to be a teenager (b. 1994) from Petropavlovskaya settlement of the Grozny district, the Chechen Interior Ministry said.
Lasers banned in Chechnyahttp://english.ruvr.ru/2011/07/05/52782056.html
Jul 5, 2011 03:11 Moscow Time
The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov has ordered a ban on the sale of laser pointers in the Republic.
The measure is expected to eliminate possible cases of pilots being blinded from the ground.
Kadyrov stressed that he would personally monitor the implementation of his order. Since the beginning of the year there have been several dozen attempts at blinding pilots by “laser hooligans”.
The greatest number of incidents has happened in Rostov-on-the Don, as well as in the Moscow airports "Vnukovo" and "Sheremetyevo".
So far in all cases, the crew has managed to land without incident.
Russia sends 2nd expedition to support its Arctic claimshttp://en.rian.ru/russia/20110705/165021584.html
01:36 05/07/2011
MOSCOW, July 5 (RIA Novosti)
Nuclear-powered icebreaker Rossiya will leave the port of Murmansk on Tuesday to accompany research vessel Academician Fyodorov on a second mission to determine the boundaries of Russia's continental shelf in the Arctic.
Russia is still in a dispute with Canada over the Lomonosov Ridge, with both countries trying to persuade a UN commission that it is an extension of its own continental shelf. The sides have agreed that scientific evidence should resolve the dispute.
"The Rossiya icebreaker will accompany the research ship during the entire length of the expedition to ensure the consistency of the vessel's speed, which is crucial for precise measurements," said Yekaterina Ananyeva, spokesperson for Rosatomflot.
The main goal of the two-month-long expedition is to measure the thickness of the bottom silt along the Lomonosov Ridge as part of the evidence that supports Russia's territorial claim.
The settlement of the dispute in Russia's favor will give the country the right to develop vast energy resources on the Arctic shelf.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin reiterated last week that Russia will not backtrack on its territorial claims on the underwater Lomonosov and Mendeleev ridges in the Arctic region and will protect its geopolitical interests "firmly and consistently."
Russia sent the first expedition on a similar mission last year, when Academician Fyodorov was accompanied by the Yamal nuclear icebreaker.
Son of VTB Head Kostin Dies in a Traffic Accident, RIA Novostihttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-04/son-of-vtb-head-kostin-dies-in-a-traffic-accident-ria-novosti.html
By Jason Corcoran - Jul 4, 2011 10:03 AM GMT+0200
Andrey Kostin, a banker at Deutsche Bank AG and the son Andrey Leonidovich Kostin, chairman and president of VTB Group, died in a traffic accident over the weekend, RIA Novosti reported.
Kostin, 32, died in a traffic accident in Russia’s Yaroslav region, RIA said. Deutsche Bank confirmed his death, the news service said.
Kostin, who joined Deutsche Bank in London in 2000, had been a managing director in Deutsche Bank’s corporate and investment banking division and deputy chairman of the management board in Moscow, according to the company’s website.
His father, also called Andrey, headed VTB Group, Russia’s second-biggest lender, since 2002.
“We have lost not only one of the bank’s employees,” Deutsche Bank’s Russian Chief Country Officer IgorLojevsky said in a statement printed in Vedomosti. “We have lost one of our closest friends.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Jason Corcoran at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gavin Serkin at [email protected]
09:36 05/07/2011ALL NEWS
Rescuers find miner dead at Kuzbass coalmine.
http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/179279.html
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KEMEROVO, July 5 (Itar-Tass) —— The rescuers have found another miner dead at the emergency coalmine Kiselevskaya in the Kemerovo Region. He was reported missing as a result of the clay mixture fall in the coalmine on June 16. The death toll of the coalmine accident reached two miners. The search for another two miners continues.
The dead miner is Pavel Mikhailovich Yerokhin, who was born in 1981, a source in the regional authorities told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
The headquarters to clean up the accident told Itar-Tass that the rescuers broke through 80 meters of clay mixture debris and have about 40 meters to pass. The search operation is on in heavy conditions, because the clay mixture can be removed only manually.
On June 16, the clay mixture collapsed at the Kiselevskaya coalmine (Kiselevsk, the Kemerovo Region). Four miners happened to be blocked in the coalmine. The fate of two miners is unclear yet. The coalmining was halted in the coalmine.
12:28 05/07/2011ALL NEWS
People injured in helicopter crash in Irkutsk region being taken to hospitals.
http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/179391.html
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MOSCOW, July 5 (Itar-Tass) — Persons injured in a Mi-8 helicopter crash in Russian’s Siberian Irkutsk region are being taken to hospitals, a spokesman for the regional emergencies administration told Itar-Tass over the phone.
“Reports about a crash landing of a Mi-8 helicopter of the UTair air carrier in the Katanga district came at 09:31 a.m. Moscow time on Tuesday. The helicopter crashed some 720 kilometers off the town of Ust-Kut. It carried workers from Ust-Kut to a drilling platform in the Katanga district,” the spokesman said. There were 16 people onboard the helicopter, including three crew members. As a result, two persons died, one man is in critical condition.
“As of now, a UTair helicopter has taken three persons who were injured in the crash. They will be hospitalized at the central clinic of the Kirensky district,” the spokesman added. Another Mi-8 helicopter with rescuers has taken off from the settlement of Vanavary in the Krasnoyarsk territory. Apart from it, one more helicopter may be engaged to take rescuers and medics to the scene of the accident.
04 July 2011, 10:51
Islam has leading number of moral believers – pollhttp://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=8563
*** 13% of Russians are church-goers or visit other religious assemblies
Moscow, July 4, Interfax - Muslims demonstrate the highest rating of commitment to moral norms if compared to followers of other religions.
Thus, the number of Islam believers with low, middle and high moral status is 17%, 41%, 42% correspondingly. In Orthodoxy - 30%, 39%, 31%, among believers of other religions 46%, 23%, 31%, among atheists - 32%, 43%, 25%.
Such a conclusion was made by authors of the Russian Sociological Research Twenty years of reforms through Russians' eyes held by the Sociological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in all country's territorial and economical districts, in Moscow and St.Petersburg among 1750 respondents aged 18 and older.
Researchers say that 13% of Russians visit churches and religious assemblies. Religious assemblies are much more popular than any coteries, affinity groups, political organizations and youth associations (1-2% each).
Sociologists also found out what idea is able to unite Russian society. The most popular idea is uniting Russian peoples in order to revive the country as a superpower (42% of respondents) while the idea of "purifying the society through Orthodox faith" is shared only by 9% (compared to 6% in 1995).
Share of respondents who stand for consolidation of society on the grounds of social values grows. Thus, if compared to 2001 their number has grown by half and if compared to 1995 - it increased twofold (from 10% and 15% to 21%).
Besides, each fifth Russian today share socialistic views.
23 Million Live Below Poverty Line http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/23-million-live-below-poverty-line/440015.html
05 July 2011The Moscow Times
The number of officially recognized impoverished Russians increased by 2.3 million to 22.9 million, or 16 percent of the population, in the first quarter of 2011, compared with the same period last year, according to the State Statistics Service.
The number of impoverished had decreased in the first two years after the 2008 recession, but the trend was reversed this year, Kommersant reported.
The minimum monthly wage currently stands at 6,437 rubles ($231), up 17 percent in the first quarter of last year. The increase, which was mostly due to rising food and services prices, is coupled with weak salary growth nationwide and has resulted in more people finding themselves below the poverty line, the report said.
Analysts told Kommersant that the new figures are more accurate than previous reports by the statistics service but still downplay the actual number of impoverished people in the country. No alternative estimates were provided.
Poverty in Russia grows faster than expectedhttp://english.pravda.ru/business/finance/04-07-2011/118392-poverty_russia-0/
04.07.2011
The number of impoverished people in Russia has increased by 2.3 million and made up 22.9 million in one year, the Russian Federal Statistics Agency said. Many experts believe that official statistics does not reflect the real state of affairs and is very often undervalued. Therefore, it means that the number of the poor in the country grows much faster.
According to official statistics, an impoverished individual is a person, whose income is lower than the living wage. The level of the living wage is calculated by the state. This term virtually designates the limit enough for real physical survival; it is not the actual poverty line.
The number of people living close to this point has increased in Russia from 20.6 million in the first quarter of 2010 to 22.9 million in 2011. This is 16.1% of the entire population of the country. It is worthy of note that a year ago, the Russian Federal Statistics Agency was saying that the number of the poor in the country was decreasing.
The cost of living in Russia raised by 17%, which automatically increased the number of poor people. In the first quarter of the current year, the cost of living made up 6,437 rubles ($230). The inflation rate was quite high, whereas salaries in many regions of the country did not return to the pre-crisis level.
"The growing number of those living below the poverty line is connected with high inflation in the beginning of the year. The level of people's salaries and incomes was not growing much. The number of poor people in the country increased, but the level of people's income went down," Anton Safonov, an analyst with Investcafe said.
In May 2011, the real money income of many Russians decreased by seven percent. We didn't have such a serious reduction even during the peak of the crisis. The reduction during the first five months made up 3.7%.
The World Bank published a regular report on the economy of the Russian Federation. The report also pointed out the negative situation with poverty.
Vladimir Shabanov
Bigness
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July 4, 2011 7:12 pm
Inflation severs Russia’s material comforts
By Charles Clover
During the years of the Soviet Union, most Russians got used to the trappings of a basic middle-class lifestyle. Everyone had the same flat, the same Lada car, the same Gorizont television set, the same crystal dessert set and worked in identical ministry offices.
While the collapse of communism in the 1990s destroyed most Russians’ standard of living, something resembling a middle class began to appear again between 2000 and 2008, as real incomes doubled and oil revenues kept wages and pensions well ahead of inflation.
However, since the onset of the economic crisis in 2008, real incomes have been stagnating as wages have been frozen – while inflation gallops on.
For a middle class that has cautiously got used to a steadily rising standard of living, the new reality is hard to swallow. “It is impossible to see this situation getting better,” says Alexander Golushkin, a specialist at the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Literature. “Everyone thinks we are going downhill.”
Opinion polls show a new pessimism reflected in flagging support for the ruling “tandem” of Dmitry Medvedev, president, and Vladimir Putin, prime minister. Though both are still rated highly, they have each seen their approval ratings drop by about 10 percentage points since the start of the year.
Mr Golushkin says the Rb25,000 ($900) he earns from his teaching job every month has gradually been whittled away by inflation, to the point where he has to think twice before shopping at his local super market, Perekryostok, a ubiquitous and affordable chain that has become one of the marks of middle-class membership.
Those on lower incomes tend to shop in the open air markets on the outskirts of Russian cities, where prices are cheaper.
Most of Russia is feeling the same pinch. “Wages are the same, but prices are increasing all the time,” says Ekaterina Barova, who works as an editor in Moscow. She says that five years ago, shopping for two people for two weeks cost Rb3,000; now it is at least Rb5,000.
Since the onset of the economic crisis in 2008, which saw gross domestic product fall 8 per cent in 2009, wages in most sectors have been frozen, while inflation, temporarily damped by the crisis, has now picked up. In the first quarter of 2011, real wages fell 2.9 per cent, driven by higher inflation than expected.
While official inflation for the year sits at just over 9 per cent, many think this statistic is fudged. “I think the real inflation rate is being understated by official statistics,” says Sam Greene, a professor of political science at the Moscow-based New Economic School. Prices for many products have jumped sharply – petrol, for example, rose
6 per cent in the month from April to May.
Over the past five years, official statistics show prices rising 62 per cent, but most Russians feel much greater increases. Oksana Vozhdaeva, a journalist from Tomsk in Siberia, says her utility payments have gone up from Rb1,000 to Rb2,500-Rb3,000 a month in five years, and the cost of groceries has doubled.
The pressure on Russia’s middle class is a common feature of many large emerging market countries, which have seen inflation gallop ahead since the end of the global economic crisis. Since the relative prosperity of the Putin era, people hesitantly started to be optimistic once again, after the economic chaos of the 1990s, when most lived on the verge of bankruptcy and even starvation. Now, those hopes are being dashed, and many are losing their foothold on middle-class respectability.
A lucky few are being swept into the ranks of the elite, with million-dollar flats in gleaming new blocks on the outskirts of Moscow and foreign cars. But the majority are losing ground.
“The middle class is splitting in two,” says Mikhail Chernysh, head of the social mobility section of the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Sociology. “One part is in danger of falling out of the middle class, while the other part is gaining.
“Getting into the middle class is very difficult in Russia, and once you are there, it is hard to stay.”
Russian Press at a Glance, Tuesday, July 5, 2011http://en.rian.ru/papers/20110705/165025921.html
08:34 05/07/2011
POLITICS
Russia and NATO again failed to agree on missile defense cooperation during a Monday meeting of the Russia-NATO Council in Black Sea resort of Sochi. (Kommersant, Moskovskiye Novosti, Vedomosti, Izvestia)
Only doctors who were directly responsible for the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in prison will be punished, the Russian Investigative Committee said after the details of an independent probe into the case have been made public. (Kommersant, Moskovskiye Novosti, Vedomosti)
Russian tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov, who recently became the leader of the Right Cause party, explained in an interview why he joined the politics and what goals his party is going to pursue. (Kommersant)
U.S. Ambassador John Beyrle said that the New START treaty was important but the real highlight of a "reset" in U.S.-Russian ties would come next week with the signing of agreements on liberalized visa rules and child adoptions. (Moscow Times)
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
South Korea’s Incheon International Airport Corporation has bought 10 percent of Khabarovsk airport and announced plans to cut into a stake in Vladivostok airport. (Kommersant)
Only half of the announced IPOs by the Russian companies were concluded in the first six months of 2011. Investors continue to be cautious about the business climate in Russia. (Vedomosti)
Russian Railways company is planning to build express transit systems in eight Russian cities prior to World Soccer Cup in 2018. The project requires an investment of at least 250 billion rubles ($9 billion), but the company hopes to get most of the funding from the state budget. (Vedomosti)
Russia’s Finance Ministry has estimated the budget deficit for next year at not more than 3 percent of the GDP. (Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
According to Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov, Russia is on the verge of a “tourist fever.” A federal program on the development of tourism that starts in 2012 is expected to increase the number of foreign tourists in Russia sevenfold and increase tourism revenues to 200 million euros annually. (Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
DEFENSE
The Russian Defense Ministry has concluded the bulk of arms procurement contracts for 2011. Only the suppliers who asked exorbitant prices for their products were left behind for further negotiations. (Vedomosti)
A number of senior military commanders are planning to quit the ranks in disagreement with Chief of Staff Gen. Nikolai Makarov over the nature and pace of military reforms in the country. (Izvestia)
SOCIETY
Moscow authorities continue to introduce traffic cameras and public transport lanes in an attempt to improve an appalling traffic situation in the capital. (Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
The Moscow government is considering construction of an entertainment park comparable to Disneyland. (Izvestia)
The number of officially recognized impoverished Russians increased by 2.3 million to 22.9 million, or 16 percent of the population, in the first quarter of 2011, compared with the same period last year, according to the State Statistics Service. (Moscow Times)
WORLD
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi may agree to cede power in exchange for guarantees of personal freedom and security. France and some other NATO members are apparently ready to give him such guarantees to conclude the prolonged military campaign in Libya as soon as possible. (Kommersant)
Former Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic was removed on Monday from a hearing in a UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague after several attempts to interrupt court procedures. (Kommersant)
NATURAL DISASTERS
A new streak of hot weather brought forest fires and peat fires to the Moscow Region, threatening to repeat the emergency scenario from last year, when the smog and heat from fires made life in the Russian capital almost unbearable. (Kommersant)
11:43 05/07/2011ALL NEWS
Itar-Tass news digest for Tuesday, July 5.
http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/179361.html
5/7 Tass
MOSCOW — Two persons died and one badly injured as a Mi-8 helicopter crashed in Russia’s Siberian Irkutsk region, a spokesman for the regional emergencies administration told Itar-Tass over the phone on Tuesday. “Today, at 09:31 a.m. Moscow time, a Mi-8 helicopter carrying workers from the town of Ust-Kut to a drilling platform in the Katanga district made a forced landing some 720 kilometers off Ust-Kut,” the spokesman said. There were 16 people onboard the helicopter, including three crew members.
TOKYO — Russia and Japan have similar stances on the settlement of the Libyan conflict, believing that a full ceasefire is needed, the head of the Kremlin administration, Sergei Naryshkin, told reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday. “At talks with the Japanese leadership we discussed vital international problems, the most acute of which is a military conflict in Libya,” Naryshkin said.
TOKYO — A more favourable atmosphere exists at the present moment for discussing a peace treaty between Russia and Japan, the head of the Kremlin administration, Sergei Naryshkin, told reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday. Naryshkin ends on Tuesday a brief visit to Tokyo. During his visit, Naryshkin met in Tokyo with Prime minister Naoto Kan, other top officials from the Japanese government, parliamentarians, public representatives and business people.
TOKYO — Hosting the APEC summit in Vladivostok in 2012 is “a major project for Russia,” which is actively preparing for that, the head of the Russian president’s administration, Sergei Naryshkin, told reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday. “Russia actively prepares for that event,” Naryshkin said. “The very fact that Russia hosts an APEC summit testifies to its strong integration in the activity and life of that vast Asia-Pacific region, which also has its problems,” he added.
TOKYO — A meeting of the Russian and North Korean leaders is not on agenda at the present moment, the head of the Russian president’s administration, Sergei Naryshkin, said in Tokyo on Tuesday. Naryshkin ends on Tuesday a brief two-day visit to Tokyo.
TOKYO — Russia is ready to further increase supplies of energy resources to Japan hit by a major earthquake and tsunami last March, the head of the Kremlin administration, Sergei Naryshkin, told reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday.
TOKYO — Russia and Japan have set up a joint commission of historians to look into problems of a peace treaty and the territorial dispute. The first meeting of the commission may be held already in December, the head of the Russian president’s administration, Sergei Naryshkin, said in Tokyo on Tuesday.
MOSCOW — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Nabil Saath, a representative of the Central Committee of the FATH party overseeing political issues, will meet in Moscow on Tuesday to discuss prospects of overcoming the Palestinian-Israeli crisis. Earlier, Palestinian Ambasador to Russia Fayed Mustafa told Itar-Tass that the Palestinian side intended to discuss the situation in the Middle East at the talks in Moscow ahead of the 'quartet' meeting.
VLADIVOSTOK — The legislature of Russia’s Far Eastern Sakhalin region, will vote to prolong the term of office of incumbent governor Alexander Khoroshavin on July 7, the Sakhalin Regional Duma press service said on Tuesday. On June 29, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev nominated Alexander Khoroshavin for a second term in the office of governor of the Sakhalin region. On July 6, the Sakhalin Duma’s regulations committee will consider Khoroshavin’s candidature.
SEOUL — South Korea has been actively developing of late medical tourism with Russia’s Far East, within the framework of which patients from Russia arrive in Seoul for free surgeries, president of the Korea Tourism Organisation Charm Lee told Tass on Tuesday. For example, a girl from a family with decent incomes was operated in Seoul for harelip within the framework of that program. Free of charge medical treatment was organized by the Korea Tourism Organisation in cooperation with one of the local hospitals.
MOSCOW — Firefighters evacuated the tenants of a 16-storied hotel building in the southwest of Moscow because of a short circuit failure at around midnight on Monday. The hotel located at 33, Ostrovityanova Street belongs to the Russian Academy of Sciences. “A short circuit failure of electric wiring in one of the rooms led to a fire,” law enforcers said. According to preliminary reports, there are no casualties. The fire has been suppressed. The firemen are examining the premises.
MOSCOW — A Russian Paralympic gold medallist, Mikhail Narozhny, died as he hit the ground having fallen from a balcony of his apartment in central Russian Voronezh region a spokesman for the Russian Investigations Committee told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.
KAZAN, Tatarstan— Russia’s leading jewellery firms will display their new collections at an exhibition that will open on Tuesday in Kazan. The participants include more than 270 jewellery firms from 30 Russian cities: the Russian Almaz Holdings, the Almaz jewellery plant (Kazan), the TM Brillilain (the Krasnoye-on-the Volga settlement), the Yenisei jewellery plant (Krasnoyarsk), the Kulon jewellery plant from Kazan, the EPL Diamond group of companies (Yakutsk), etc, a press service source at the Kazan Fair exhibition centre told Itar-Tass.
PRAGUE – A new air flight will connect the Russian city of Perm with the Czech capital of Prague in September under an agreement reached with the Czech side Dmitry Izosimov, the deputy transport minister of the Perm region, told Itar-Tass that the Tatarstan Air Company would be the carrier. "The first plane will fly early this autumn, the best time for visiting this part of Eastern Europe.
NAZRAN — One policeman was killed and another was wounded in a clash with gunmen in Russia’s southern republic of Ingushetia, sources from the republican interior ministry reported on Tuesday. They said information was received on Monday that a group of gunmen was moving in the forest on the outskirts of the settlement of Sagopshi, Malgobek district.
KEMEROVO — The rescuers have found another miner dead at the emergency coalmine Kiselevskaya in the Kemerovo Region. He was reported missing as a result of the clay mixture fall in the coalmine on June 16. The death toll of the coalmine accident reached two miners. The search for another two miners continues.
WikiLeaks picks Russian presidenthttp://english.pravda.ru/russia/kremlin/04-07-2011/118391-russian_president-0/
04.07.2011
While many people in Russia and in the rest of the world are trying to guess whether Dimity Medvedev and Vladimir Putin are going to run for presidency in 2012, WikiLeaks knows everything beforehand.
The return of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin as Russia's President is inevitable. This is what Russian scientists of politics where sharing with American diplomats. It is already obvious that Russian voters will have to choose between one of the two main presidential candidates in 2012. The parliamentary opposition in the face of Gennady Zyuganov, Vladimir Zhirinovsky and others will fly by and win their usual tiny percentage of votes.
Putin made a subtle decision. He gave Russia a liberal president, who was concerned with the program of modernization and technological innovations. Russia has not had big success in foreign policy during the recent eight years. Medvedev advocates friendly relations with the West, but Russia has not achieved anything during the meetings within the framework of the G8 and the European Union.
Medvedev shares a different point of view, though. He is certain that during his presidency Russia managed to overcome the financial crisis and lash Georgia, which attacked South Ossetia in August 2008. One should bear in mind the fact that it was Putin and the Finance Minister (who is a member of Putin's team), who put forward the idea to spend gold and currency reserves to avoid the collapse of the Russian ruble as it happened in 1998.
Medvedev said during his recent interview with The Financial Times that he had an intention to run, although he added that he was not going to compete with Putin. Medvedev is aware of the fact that he is No. 2 after Putin in all ratings.
As for Putin, he started working on his campaign soon after Medvedev took office as president in 2008. He has a strong team with himself, including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Duma speaker Boris Gryzlov, and many others. If Medvedev wants to keep his office in 2012, he will have to make serious changes in the Cabinet of Ministers.
Vladimir Putin as President in 2012 is an axiom.
Darya Deryabina
Newsinfo
The billion-dollar questionhttp://rt.com/politics/press/nezavisimaya/cargo-us-transit-route/en/
Published: 5 July, 2011, 07:37Edited: 5 July, 2011, 07:43
The US is putting pressure on Pakistan, while increasing the supply of goods to Afghanistan through Russia and Central Asia Andrey Terekhov
The Pentagon plans to significantly increase the load on the NATO and US northern supply route to Afghanistan. Nezavisimaya Gazeta’s (NG) interlocutors in the diplomatic and expert circles are confident that if this scenario is implemented, the amount of US transit dollars in the Russian treasury will rise.
According to The Washington Post, the Pentagon plans to decrease its dependence on Pakistan, through which 90% of military cargo was just recently supplied to Afghanistan. The only alternative to the inexpensive and fast route through Pakistan is the delivery of food supplies, fuel, and other cargo to the Baltic ports, and then through Russia and Central Asia to Afghanistan.
Amid the deteriorating US-Pakistan relations, partly as a result of the high-profile May raid to liquidate Osama bin Laden, the US Department of Defense is working to create a plan of action in an emergency situation, namely if the route from the Pakistani port of Karachi to Afghanistan is completely shut off. At stake are hundreds of containers and tanks of fuel, which are transported each day. Already today, according to the assessments of the director of Pakistan’s Center for Research and Security Studies, Imtiaz Gul, the US and NATO’s annual spending on logistics in Afghanistan amounts to $4 billion. A single gallon of gasoline costs the US troops in Afghanistan an average of $400.
Russia, according to NG’s source, has received about a billion dollars for the transit of cargo. Today, the US argues that about 40% of cargo is supplied to Afghanistan from the north. US military strategists are insisting on increasing this number to 75% by the end of this year by reducing the shipment of cargo through Pakistan.
NG’s Russian diplomatic source has expressed confidence that in the event this adjustment takes place, Russia’s budget revenues (as well as those of the Central Asian states) will increase from the transit – especially considering that Russia is meeting the wishes of NATO and the US. For example, now the alliance is able to not only transport food and fuel to Afghanistan, but also Ambush Protected-All Terrain Vehicles, which should protect the soldiers from roadside bombs. Carrying such large vehicles by air is costly. Besides, by September of 2012, the United States plans to reduce its troop
presence in Afghanistan by a third. According to our interlocutor, they will be able to export illegal cargo in the opposite direction. Meanwhile, ammunition will need to be transported by air.
NG asked the deputy director of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Professor Vyacheslav Belokrenitsky, to comment on Washington’s signal about the change in the supply chain to Afghanistan. In his opinion, the US is possibly trying to put pressure on Pakistan, which collects substantial revenues from US cargo transits to the military zone. Among other things, this money goes toward the defense budget. The prospect of a reduction in the US military presence in Afghanistan and a reduction in the supply volumes are, in this regard, also not suitable for Pakistan. The expert recalled that militants, possibly acting on orders from Islamabad, have already once tried making the northern route unsafe by carrying out attacks in the Afghan Kunduz Province. It is possible that this practice may be resumed today. According to Belokrenitsky, the deterioration of US-Pakistan relations could put a question mark over further co-operation between Islamabad and Washington.
Karabakh’s military secret is revealedhttp://rt.com/politics/press/izvestiya/military-karabakh-nagorno-karabakh-army/en/
Published: 5 July, 2011, 07:13Edited: 5 July, 2011, 07:28
Shots are being fired on the border with Azerbaijan, but even under gunfire Armenians are growing wheat Yury Snegirev
There is no peace between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan – for which mutual distrust and fear of another war are to blame. In military textbooks it is written: “Grad strikes at a distance of 21 km, Smerch – more than 60 km. Armenians say that precisely in order to protect Stepanakert, the capital of the independent and unrecognized Karabakh, from gunfire, the Defense Army of Nagorno-Karabakh occupied seven adjacent Azeri districts so as to ensure that the rival’s artillery does not strike against the ‘holy land of Artsakh’.”
Speaking with us on this subject is Defense Army Deputy Commander Maj.-Gen. Andranik Makaryan: except that he calls the occupied territories a buffer zone.
The Karabakh generals don’t drive Mercedes. Andranik Makaryan uses the UAZ army jeep. Every spare penny is spent on weapons and the support of combat-readiness.
“Here, take a look,” sighs the general while flipping through a summary report. “In one week alone, our positions were fired at 600 times. In the last 24 hours there were 36 shootings! Grenade launchers, DShK, Dragunov sniper rifles, PK machine guns, AKMs, and other small arms are used.”
“And what do you do?”
“We respond! What else?”
“How much larger is the Azerbaijani army than your contingent?”
The general understands that I am trying to uncover a military secret, and answers floridly: “We do not, and will not, have the need to shoot at an empty space. Of course, some are talking about the superiority of the other side’s troops or military equipment. But we excel in something else. The most important thing is moral courage. One can defeat an army. But you cannot defeat a nation. We don’t have another choice – to live or to die.”
I look at the map of Nagorno-Karabakh. The frontline, or as it is diplomatically referred to “the line of contact of the armed forces” is drawn with a thick marker and instead of following the administrative borders it is drawn along the natural barriers: dams, rivers, and slopes. I travel to the site to see what is going on, how the small army of Karabakh has been able to stand against the Azerbaijani divisions, which are armed to NATO standards.
As soon as we find ourselves outside Karabakh, our UAZ begins jolting over the bumps on the road. The buffer zone is a no man’s land. There isn’t anyone to fix the roads. Here and there, there are palisades around Muslim headstones. Here, they are disdainfully called “skis” due to the resemblance to the sporting gear. But no one will destroy the graves. Over the decades they have become covered with shrubs, and it is practically impossible to get access to them.
Next to a dried-up dam there are two rusty Niva combine harvesters gathering wheat. Beyond the dam starts the frontline. It is about 200 meters away from the Azerbaijani trenches.
“Are you not afraid to work?” I ask Vazgen.
“No, we have the dam here, it covers us from bullets,” says the grime-covered combine operator. “Last year, we were shot at in that field, where the dam ends. Now we do not plant wheat where there is no cover.”
I, of course, understand that I was brought to the most peaceful section of the frontline. But even here, under the dam, no one can feel completely safe. In addition to snipers, there are also grenade launchers that will strike through any dam. Therefore, as a first order of business, the soldiers put me into an armor vest and a helmet.
The detachment takes a break from service under an awning. Some play chess in deep thought. Others feed doves. Yes, in addition to the dog named Rizhyk, two white doves live on the frontline. This immediately calls to mind Picasso’s “Dove of Peace”. Lieutenant Edmon Saribekyan takes care of the birds. Especially for the journalist, he
sends the two beautiful birds into the sky. But they immediately land on a billboard that reads: “Strong-spirited peoples shall not be conquered! Garegin Njdeh, royal general.”
“Are they afraid of snipers?” I point to the dam.
“The red-footed falcon! It’s a raptor of the falcon family. You can’t hunt here, as you could accidentally raise the alarm. So now the red-footed falcon has grown in number. We did have three doves at first…” the lieutenant explains.
Although standard trenches have been dug out and lined with concrete columns, I do not sense a state of full combat-readiness, as it is portrayed in the movies, from the ruined vineyard (nearby is the exhausted Agdam district, home of the famous port wine). I share my concerns with the lieutenant.
“Is that so?” he says and issues a sharp command in Armenian.
Suddenly, the sleepy trenches turn into a bustling bazaar. Soldiers in armor vests and helmets start moving quickly and in just seconds take their places at the gun-slots. Reports follow. Satisfied, the lieutenant clicks the timer: “In three seconds we exceeded the standard. That’s how we do things!”
I approach the gun-slots. Behind rows of barbed wire with attached tin cans (frontline alarm system) stand permanent firing positions. Trenches are laid toward them. Between the Armenian and Azerbaijani fortifications is barren land. Neither there, nor here does anyone want to die.
Nearby, machine gunner Ashot Abramov stands in thought. His mother is from these territories. Ashot was born here. His father is from the Dinskoy District in the Krasnodar region. Then, the Abramovs moved to Russia. But Ashot came back to serve here, on the frontline, leaving his girlfriend, Natasha, school, and friends behind, and coming to bullets and shrapnel.
“You see, I could not have done otherwise,” explains Ashot. “It would be embarrassing for me to stay home while the motherland is in danger.”
I think I have figured out the main military secret of the Karabakh people. Their strength lies in the fact that they harvest wheat under gunfire.
Russia Profile Weekly Experts Panel: Moscow Fails to Make Progress on Transdnestr and Nagorno-Karabakhhttp://russiaprofile.org/experts_panel/40057.html
Introduced by Vladimir Frolov Russia Profile 07/01/2011
Contributors: Patrick Armstrong, Vladimir Belaeff, Alexander Rahr, Anthony T. Salvia, Srdja Trifkovic
Last week Moscow made a significant effort to help advance the peaceful resolution of the two most intractable post-Soviet regional conflicts, centered around Transdnestr and Nagorno-Karabakh. On June 21, Russia hosted the first official meeting in five years on the Transdnestr region settlement in the "5 + 2" format. But it proved to be disappointing, as negotiators were unable to agree on the resumption of the negotiating process. What did Moscow hope to achieve in taking on the two intractable conflicts? Why is there a sudden rush to finally resolve them?
In the “5 + 2” format negotiations, Moscow and Kiev act as guarantors of a peaceful solution to the conflict between Moldova and Transdnestr, the OSCE acts as a mediator, and the EU and the United States have observer status. But talks have not been held since 2006. During this time, the conflicting sides have gathered from time to time, thrown accusations at each other, and parted without making any decisions. Both sides see a different resolution – the Moldovans’ believe that the two banks of the Dnestr should be united, while the Transdnestr leadership is convinced that some kind of agreement on a civilized break-up needs to be reached.
Russia thinks that the solution of the problem should include preservation of neutral Moldova's territorial integrity within the borders of the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic as of January 1, 1990. This is a position that President Dmitry Medvedev reportedly agreed to promote in order to expedite the settlement of the conflict in Transdnestr during his meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel about a year ago, in exchange for more robust German support for Russia’s concerns on European security.
However, the Moscow round of the “5 + 2” talks failed to make any progress, despite Russia applying heavy pressure on the leader of Transdnestr, President Igor Smirnov. Moscow wants to retire Smirnov by the end of the year and help elect a pro-Moscow speaker to Transdnestr’s Parliament – Anatoly Kaminsky.
Moscow upped the ante on Nagorno-Karabakh when President Dmitry Medvedev invited the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia to a trilateral summit in Kazan on June 24. Furthermore, in accordance with decisions taken at the G8 summit at Deauville, France, U.S. President Barack Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan to agree on some basic principles as a way to start resolving their dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh.
The summit in Kazan was the latest and most advanced attempt to help Armenia and Azerbaijan to begin to end the intermittent violence that has lasted for 23 years and has recently flared up again. The two countries fought an armed conflict from 1988 to 1994, which Azerbaijan lost badly. Armenia captured about a fifth of its territory, including the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia continues to hold this land, from which all Azeris have long since fled or been expelled.
Yet, for at least the last couple of years, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev and some of his ministers have engaged in a loud-mouthed, trash-talking contest with Armenia. Azerbaijan has spent the last several years rearming, spending more than the entire national budget of Armenia on its military. The resumption of hostilities is looking increasingly likely, perhaps, due to some miscalculation by one side or the other.
However, the talks in Kazan failed to produce the desired outcome – agreement on a framework to reach a final settlement, to be discussed in formal negotiations that would have been launched immediately following the trilateral meeting. The final communiqué was more than inconclusive and vague, which signals little progress on the framework for the final settlement, despite close cooperation and joint pressure by Russia, the United States and the EU. Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev in particular staked a lot on this meeting, having personally worked on the draft framework agreement and having personally cajoled the two recalcitrant leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to come to Kazan.
What did Moscow hope to achieve in taking on the two intractable conflicts? Why is there a sudden rush to finally resolve them? Where is Moscow heading in Transdnestr, with its awkward position of undermining the people of Transdnestr’s aspiration to have their own state, and not join Moldova, which may finally seek reunion with Romania? Why is Russia selling out Tiraspol to please the EU? Is there some substance behind the rumor that Medvedev promised Merkel to help resolve the conflict in Transdnestr during his tenure in the Kremlin? But what does he stand to gain in return? What is propelling Medvedev to take such a pro-active position on Nagorno-Karabakh?
It is true that Medvedev has an excellent relationship with both presidents, and that Russia’s relationship with the two countries is important. But is that enough to profit from the settlement? Why is Medvedev staking so much of his personal reputation and political capital on these two obscure regional conflicts with less probability of success than Obama in his Israel-Palestine policy? Why is he rushing to deal with Transdnestr and Nagorno-Karabakh? Is it a question of a Nobel Peace Prize, were Medvedev to really make progress on both fronts?
Alexander Rahr, Director, Berthold-Beitz Center For Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Central Asia Studies, German Council on Foreign Relations, Berlin
Dmitry Medvedev wants to continue as president, therefore he needs to demonstrate that he has a cohesive foreign policy and has overseen diplomacy, which has strengthened, not weakened Russia. So what will people remember of his foreign policy so far? A proposal for a new Euro-Atlantic architecture that received no direct response from the West? The war in Georgia and the recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states (a step, which still has not been supported by any other CIS state)? The “reset” and START III negotiated with the United States? This is too little, as no real progress has been achieved on joint missile defense, so Medvedev needs more substance.
Libya is obviously too hot a potato and his envoy Mikhail Margelov has not been
accepted as a genuine intermediary in the Libyan civil war. Now, with a few months to go before the presidential election, Medvedev has decided to tackle conflicts in the post-Soviet space. In Transdnestr, it seems, he is willing to move forward in a direction favored by the West, namely the elimination of Transdnestrian separatism and the full reunification of Moldova.
What is Russia getting in return for that? A visa-free regime, new talks on Medvedev's proposal on a joint Euro-Atlantic architecture, Western support for Medvedev's modernization drive, possible further international recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and WTO membership.
Medvedev has obviously lost interest in artificially supporting the Smirnov regime and he no longer sees any potential political gains there. Russia’s departure from Transdnestr, on the other hand, could lead to the collapse of the self-proclaimed republic, the reunification of Moldova, EU accession for Moldova, and the formation of a free-trade zone between Russia and the EU. It is far more difficult to understand Medvedev's rationale behind taking on Nagorno-Karabakh. There is no solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict today, because both sides are uncompromising in their position. Medvedev can't take the side of his military ally, Armenia, because he would then lose Russia's strategic energy policy ties with Azerbaijan. Nabucco, a pipeline which weakens Russia's energy power status in the south of Europe, would immediately become a reality. Another routine failure of talks over Nagorno-Karabakh will raise the question of why they were initiated without any fresh ideas in the first place.
Srdja Trifkovic, Foreign Affairs Editor, Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture, Washington, DC
The problems of Transdnestr and Nagorno-Karabakh are due to the arbitrary border-drawing mania during the communist era. For reasons never fully explained, those borders are still regarded as inviolable and effectively sacrosanct, even though the manner of their creation lacked both legality and legitimacy. Geographic, economic, historical, ethnic and cultural criteria would indicate that the natural border between Ukraine and Moldova is the Dnestr. As far as the West Europeans and Americans are concerned, however, the communist-era internal boundaries – which were turned into international frontiers 20 years ago – appear to be the only legacy of the Soviet Union worth preserving and upholding.
Russia is aware that the EU and the United States will not condone Moldova’s partition and that a solution has to be based on the recognition of Moldova’s 1991 borders. In return for such acceptance, Moscow can and should demand a solution based on a mix of federal and confederal elements. That solution should be based on the Åland Islands’ successful and time-tested model of extensive self-rule. These Baltic islands, inhabited by Swedes, are under Finland’s nominal sovereignty but they enjoy firm international guarantees of their special status. Those guarantees originated with the League of Nations 90 years ago and were reiterated by the United Nations after World War II.
Accordingly, Russia – jointly with Ukraine, because their interests in Transdnestr largely overlap – should propose that Transdnestr’s self-rule be anchored in a UN Security Council resolution and additionally guaranteed by the powers currently facilitating the negotiating process, and that it will be enshrined in a new Moldovan Constitution. Moldova’s sovereignty will be affirmed, but legislative powers will be divided between Chisinau and Tiraspol, and not delegated by Moldova to Transdnestr.
An important element of the Russian proposal should be that all Moldovan international treaties will be separately ratified by the Transdnestr Assembly. If they are not so ratified – e.g. if Moldova applies and is approved for NATO membership – such treaties will not be applicable to Transdnestr. It should be accepted by the parties that Transdnestr will have the right to declare independence if Moldova at some future date chooses to unite with Romania.
Carefully developed and effectively presented, such proposals could lead to a compromise which would protect the rights of Transdnestr’s citizens while maintaining the principle of inviolable borders. It is in Russia’s interest to have this long drawn out dispute settled, and a proposal broadly similar to the one suggested here has the potential to turn into a plus-sum game.
In a somewhat modified form the model above could also be applied to Nagorno-Karabakh, although it is to be feared that the threat of a violent escalation there is much more serious than on the Dnestr.
Patrick Armstrong, Patrick Armstrong Analysis, Ottawa, Canada
When the Soviet Union fell apart, five of Stalin’s cartographical time-bombs exploded. After the fighting, each of the five had secured its liberty: North Ossetia, Abkhazia, Karabakh, Transdnestr and Chechnya. Of these, only Chechnya has been resolved (for the time being anyway) but only after immense bloodshed and destruction. The other four maintain their independence.International attempts to negotiate an end to these standoffs have failed, over and over again, due to five obstacles.
The first is a contradiction between the two fundamental principles of international relations: territorial integrity and the right to self-determination. There is, however, no means of resolution when the two principles collide as they do in these four cases. As to a third principle, uti possidetis (“as you possess”), the “international community” seems to be too squeamish to accept that the four won their independence in war and are therefore entitled to keep it.
A second difficulty is the question of who sits at the negotiating table. This issue has particularly bedeviled attempts to resolve Karabakh. Karabakh is a player, so it cannot be left out of the talks. But Baku is adamant that it will negotiate only with Yerevan. That is understandable: for Baku to admit Stepanakert as a negotiator would be to concede much
of what Stepanakert demands. Hence discussions fail because one of the principals – the most important, because it won its war – is not party to them.
A third difficulty is the status quo. The four, whatever their long-term hopes may be, prefer the status quo of self-government to the visible alternatives. Stepanakert’s incentive to make Baku happy or Tiraspol’s to make Chisinau happy is low.
Fourthly, whatever the casus belli may have been – unwillingness to join Romania in the case of Transdnestr and fear of massacres in the case of Karabakh – the four gained their independence in war and much blood was shed on both sides. They feel that they earned their independence. A possible solution to the Karabakh problem has been blocked by enraged war veterans on both sides several times.
Finally, there is no outside power that can “deliver” any of them. While much commentary in the West seems to assume that all of these problems were fomented or caused by Moscow, this is not true; they were sui generis. Neither Moscow nor any other outside power can force a solution on any one of the four parties.
Perhaps there were possibilities in the 1990s to peacefully resolve these problems. For example, Kiev wisely conceded autonomy to Crimea and Chisinau to the Gagauz and these potential problems were resolved in a civilized way. But, in the cases of South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Transdnestr and Karabakh these possibilities were not available. (Moscow did negotiate an autonomy agreement with the Chechen Parliament, but Dzhokhar Dudayev would have none of it). And so it was left to war to resolve the problems.
I do not hold out much hope for any future negotiating session to overcome these obstacles. The irony is that the end-state – something resembling the arrangement of the Åland Islands for example – is visible. But it is hard to imagine, given the five obstacles, how to get there from here.
Anthony T. Salvia, Director, American Institute in Ukraine, Kiev
It is in the interest of Russia and Ukraine that the dispute over Transdnestr's status comes to an end, and in a manner that guarantees the rights of the Russian and Ukrainian majority.
Srdja Trifkovic has put forward a possible diplomatic solution entailing the extension of Moldovan sovereignty over Transdnestr, while the legislative powers of Chisinau and Tiraspol remain separate and distinct. The arrangement would be anchored in a UN resolution. Trifkovic's model is the Åland Islands in the Baltic Sea. Finland has nominal sovereignty over the islands while international agreements guarantee self-rule for the Swedish majority.
It's a creative approach to the problem, but no diplomatic solution along these or any other acceptable lines is possible in the absence of a willingness on both sides to alter
rigid, long-held positions.
For Transdnestr’s part, this will require sweeping reforms to enhance its viability as a state. But this will not happen as long as President Igor Smirnov remains at the helm. He has led the country into a dead end. The economy is in shambles, industrial infrastructure is in ruins, social services have collapsed, political competition is stifled and people are leaving the country for lack of any prospect of a decent life.
The economy is subsidized by Russian gas, for which Smirnov charges citizens and businesses, but does not bother to reimburse Gazprom. In addition, there is much corruption in the customs service, which is headed by Smirnov’s son. Smirnov has outlived his political effectiveness. His corrupt rule is a major barrier to international recognition of Transdnestr and the country's further development. Transdnestr needs new political leadership and sound economic management. It needs to modernize. It cannot do so with Igor Smirnov at the helm. A possible alternative is Anatoly Kaminsky, the leader of the country's largest political party, Renewal.
The presidential election in December will be a turning point: either the country will elect a pragmatic new leader, or it will be saddled with another five years of Smirnov. He would have the option of two more five-year terms once Transdnestr enacts a new Constitution in September. Transdnestr needs a free and fair presidential election in which Smirnov is not a candidate. The international community, particularly Ukraine and Russia, need to pressure Smirnov to step aside. If necessary, they should apply financial and economic pressure, including freezing the bank accounts and other financial assets of Smirnov and his key associates. This policy should be closely coordinated between Kiev and Moscow.
In any case, Russia and Ukraine would be well advised to play an active part in the defense of their interests in Transdnestr, and to closely coordinate policy with one another. Their ability to do so effectively has implications that transcend the resolution of this long-simmering dispute. The Western powers remain poised, through NATO and the EU, to ram a wedge between Moscow and Kiev, and impede their ongoing, though far from trouble-free rapprochement. Re-set or no reset, they can be expected just as much to exploit opportunities to undermine Moscow as to present their own interests.
As Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov has pointed out, Russia's overriding interest is in peace on its borders so as to develop internally and put aside the consequences of 70 years of Marxist-Leninist misrule. The same is true of Ukraine. These common interests constitute a firm basis for long-term strategic partnership between both countries, which is key to Europe's strategic stability and energy security. To this end, Moscow and Kiev must deepen their policy coordination not only on Transdnestr, but also on a host of other vital political, security and economic issues of mutual interest.
Vladimir Belaeff, Global Society Institute, San Francisco, CA
Considering that Moscow acts as a facilitator, but is not really one of the deciding parties in the discussions, one would argue that Moscow did not “fail to make progress.” The failure to advance is the responsibility of the parties that must reach agreement: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova and the Transdnestr. No matter how hard Moscow and the other facilitators may lobby and cajole, they cannot force an agreement on the parties – just as they would not be able to prevent an agreement should the abovementioned parties choose to resolve their respective disputes.
The two disputes have different characteristics, although they are both rooted in profound ethnic differences. It is a very serious mistake to consider the Armenian-Azerbaijani dispute as just a few decades old. This conflict has a centuries-old history and was exacerbated by the Soviet government, which included (perhaps perversely) regions with majority non-Azerbaijani populations in the Soviet Socialist Republic of Azerbaijan. In Azerbaijan’s “dynastic democracy” the late father of the current President Ilham Aliyev, also President and “father of modern Azerbaijan” Heydar Aliyev joined the Azerbaijan NKGB as far back as 1944. So the Stalin-era composition of Azerbaijan has strong personal significance in 21st century Baku.
The Armenian experience of ethnic persecution and genocide in the 20th century is a sorrowful backdrop to any discussion of territorial matters. The Armenian nation and international diaspora enjoys the friendship and respect of many countries in the world, including the G8. In these circumstances, just getting the leaders of the two countries to meet again in Kazan is already a major achievement. To expect closure to the Nagorno-Karabakh issue after a few meetings is unrealistic.
It may take decades and the evolution of new paradigms to develop a solution to the problem – provided no new clashes interrupt the process. The key mediation strategy for this issue is to maintain peace and to build mutual confidence and realism through repetitive interactions of the leadership. It took France and Germany 100 years and two horrible world wars to overcome the hostility rooted in Sedan in 1870. In this light, the recent meeting was not a failure for Moscow – yet another step in the dialogue was completed. No more, but also no less.
The Moldova-Transdnestr dispute is different. Here we face active Romania irredentism which views Moldova as “Eastern Romania” and refuses to recognize Transdnestr as a subject of national self-determination. A substantial (though not overwhelming) segment of Moldovan residents are also in favor of uniting with Romania, in particularly as the latter hopes to integrate with the EU (how likely is that integration in light of the crises of weak economies within the EU is a separate topic.)
The situation in the region reminds one of the enclave problems pre-World War II (the Sudeten, Silesia, Danzig and others). Romania is involved sotto voce and its issues with Hungarian minorities and the Transylvania question is also an eerie flashback to 1940. Given the declarations of some Bucharest residents, one should be wary of supporting
Romanian international behavior, lest one be pulled into a vortex resembling 1938 to 1939.
Nevertheless, the Moldova-Transdnestr dispute has a chance of quicker resolution because its historical roots are less deep, and there are stronger economic incentives for both sides to find a modus vivendi. This cautious optimism is predicated on the containment of those hotheads who want to use force as a solution. Again, in the latest round of interactions Moscow has kept the process alive – which is the most important goal at this stage.
It is unlikely that a realist like Medvedev imagines a quick solution to these issues.
National Economic Trends
Russian Grain Prices Fall for Second Week as Demand Stays Slackhttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-04/russian-grain-prices-fall-for-second-week-as-demand-stays-slack.html
By Marina Sysoyeva - Jul 4, 2011 6:00 PM GMT+0200
Russian grain prices fell for a second week as demand failed to improve before a ban on cereal exports expired, according to prices tracked by Russia’s Grain Producers’ Union.
Fourth-grade milling wheat, usually shipped abroad, dropped as much as 14 percent to 5,000 rubles ($180) a metric ton in the Southern and North Caucasus federal districts as of July 1, the union said today. Both regions are traditional Russian grain producers.
No ships were able to leave ports when the ban ended July 1 because cargo registration had to be completed before grain loading could start, Arkady Zlochevsky, president of Russia’s Grain Union, said last week. Traders registered 1.1 million tons of grain with customs in the ports of Novorossiysk and Tuapse on the new crop year’s first day, Interfax cited First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov as saying last week.
Exporters may ship between 1.5 million and 1.6 million tons of grain out of Russia under commercial contracts this month, according to estimates by the Grain Union and Moscow-based researchers OOO ProZerno and SovEcon. That would be a drop of as much as 21 percent from the year-earlier 1.9 million tons, SovEcon Managing Director Andrei Sizov Jr. told Bloomberg on July 1.
Weak demand from Egypt and other traditional customers for Russian grain was the main reason for the year-on-year drop in exports, Zlochevsky said June 30. The start of local harvesting also put more pressure on domestic grain prices, he said. Egypt, the world’s
biggest wheat importer, dropped Russia from its list of approved sources after the export ban was imposed.
Prospective buyers are in no hurry to order Russian grain, awaiting discounts of as much as $30 a ton, Zlochevsky said. They may ask for prices to fall as much as $50 a ton when harvesting has progressed further, he said. That compares with current prices of $250 to $260 a ton ($6.80 to $7.07 a bushel), according to Zlochevsky.
To contact the reporter on this story: Marina Sysoyeva in Moscow at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at [email protected]
Russian Service Sector Growth Slows In June http://www.rttnews.com/Content/AllEconomicNews.aspx?Node=B2&Id=1658983
7/5/2011 1:41 AM ET
(RTTNews) - Activity in Russia's service sector increased at a slower pace in June, data from a survey conducted by HSBC and Markit Economics showed Tuesday.
The HSBC/Markit purchasing managers' index (PMI) for the service sector dropped to 55.1 in June from 57.6 in May, which was the highest reading in 13 months. A PMI reading above 50 indicates expansion in the sector, while one below suggests decline.
New orders grew at the slowest pace since November 2010 in June, but was the second-strongest this year. Meanwhile, employment continued to grow in the Russian service sector during the month, though at a slower rate than May's 42-month high.
Input price inflation eased sharply to a six-month low in June, reflecting higher fuel costs. At the same time, prices charged also rose, though at a moderate pace.
At the same time, the composite output index, covering manufacturing and services, dropped to a seven-month low of 53.8 during the month.
by RTT Staff Writer
Russian Consumer Prices Probably Advanced Least in 14 Months on Food Costshttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-04/russian-consumer-prices-probably-advanced-least-in-14-months-on-food-costs.html
By Agnes Lovasz - Jul 4, 2011 10:00 PM GMT+0200
Russia’s consumer prices probably rose in June at the slowest monthly pace since April 2010 as fresh produce eased food costs.
Prices advanced 0.3 percent from a month earlier after increasing 0.5 percent in May, according to the median estimate of 15 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The annual rate remained at 9.6 percent for a third month, the survey showed. The Federal Statistics Service plans to report the data today or tomorrow.
Seasonal produce from the new harvest is easing price pressure and helping subdue the fastest price growth among the so-called BRIC countries. The inflation rate fell to 9.4 percent on June 27 from a year earlier, the lowest in 2011, the central bank said last week as it refrained from monetary tightening for the first time since November.
“Seasonal factors are helping food prices and that’s the reason why inflation is easing,” said Sanna Kurronen, a Helsinki-based economist at Danske Bank A/S. “Inflation should slow in the summer if the harvest is at least tolerable.”
Cumulative consumer-price growth will probably reach no more than 5.2 percent in the first half and 0.3 percent to 0.4 percent in the third quarter, Alexei Ulyukayev, a Bank Rossii first deputy chairman, said June 17. Year-to-date inflation was 5 percent through June 27.
Central bank Chairman Sergey Ignatiev is targeting inflation of 6 percent to 7 percent this year, the lowest level since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
Above Average Harvest
“Our expectation is that inflation will go down,” Sergey Shvetsov, a deputy chairman of the central bank, said July 1 in an interview in Moscow. “We believe that if the harvest will be at the average level, inflation will be at about 7 percent by the end of the year.”
This year’s grain harvest may reach as much as 90 million tons if favorable weather continues into July, Grain Union President Arkady Zlochevsky said June 30. The harvest was 60.9 million tons last year after the country’s worst drought in 50 years triggered crop losses, sending grain prices soaring.
“Inflation should remain on a downward trend throughout the second half, supported primarily by an easing in food-price inflation,” Gillian Edgeworth, chief emerging Europe economist at UniCredit SpA in London, wrote in an e-mail.
Gasoline prices probably dropped last month as the government increased export taxes on the fuel to drive down domestic prices amid shortages at the pump.
Inflation Concerns
Even so, slowing growth of retail bank deposits signals a drop in the saving rate, which may stoke inflation risks as domestic demand grows, Bank Rossii said last week.
Consumer lending expanded 3.1 percent in May, while bank deposits grew 0.5 percent, the slowest in four months, Bank Rossii said June 27.
The unemployment rate plunged in May to the lowest level since September 2008 and retail sales grew 5.5 percent from a year earlier. Real wages gained 2.6 percent from a year earlier even as real disposable incomes shrank 7 percent.
The central bank may still raise interest rates to limit risks stemming from a decline in savings and accelerating credit growth as consumer demand recovers, said Barbara Nestor, a London-based economist at Commerzbank AG.
“If this scenario materialized, the current level of real interest rates would still be little or no incentive for domestic savings,” Nestor said by e-mail. “Some of the underlying trends suggest that monetary tightening is likely to continue.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Agnes Lovasz in London at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at [email protected]
Russia may raise nearly $1 bln from sale of quarter of Sovcomflot - source http://www.bne.eu/dispatch_text16081
RIA NovostiJuly 4, 2011
The Russian government may raise some $1 billion from the sale of 25 percent minus one share of the country's largest shipping company Sovcomflot, a source familiar with privatization preparations told RIA Novosti late on Sunday.
"(The stake) is valued at nearly $1 billion," the source said.
Last week the government appointed Morgan Stanley as a lead manager of the deal.
The government has approved a $33-billion privatization plan for 2011-2013, which includes the sale of shares in the country's top 10 companies, although there are no firm dates for sales and sizes of stakes are often unclear.
The government has said it wanted to privatize another 25 percent of Sovcomflot in 2012-2013 and decrease its stake below control in 2014-2015.
Although the government has planned to sell the first 25 percent of the company this year, privatization of the stake is likely to occur in 2012. Deputy Transport Minister Viktor Olersky said that the government has practically approved the postponement until next year.
The government has launched privatization earlier this year with the sale of a 10 percent stake in the country's second largest bank VTB, for about 96 billion rubles ($3.3 billion).
Russian transport minister proposes privatization of Anapa airport and Novorossiysk porthttp://vestnikkavkaza.net/news/economy/15502.html
The Russian Transport Minister, Igor Levitin, has proposed an extendedprivatization plan for all transport companies with state sharesinvolved, RBC reports.
The plan includes privatization of 20% of Novorossiysk Port and 25.5%of the shares of Anapa Airport. Levitin believes that each case shouldhave independent terms and shares privatized. The process is expectedto take 2 years.
Levitin added that Novorossiysk Port is a strategic facility.
Business, Energy or Environmental regulations or discussions
Russia’s RTS Stock-Index Futures Gain as Oil at Two-Week Highhttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-04/russia-s-rts-stock-index-futures-gain-as-oil-at-two-week-high.html
By Halia Pavliva - Jul 4, 2011 11:15 PM GMT+0200
Russia’s RTS stock-index futures gained, suggesting shares may rise further, as oil in New York traded near a two-week high after the European Union authorized a loan payout for Greece, helping investors’ optimism on a global economic recovery.
Futures on the dollar-denominated index expiring in September gained 0.2 percent on July 4. Contracts on OAO Rosneft, the country’s biggest oil producer, rose 0.1 percent, while agreements on OAO Lukoil, the second largest, and OAO Gazprom, the world’s largest gas producer, were little changed. U.S. markets were closed for the Independence Day holiday yesterday.
“Risk aversion has fallen sharply with the Greek vote and the better-than-expected U.S. manufacturing number,” Chris Weafer, chief strategist at ING Groep NV in Moscow, said in an e-mailed report. “Events later in the week will serve to determine whether the current mood of optimism is justified or misplaced.”
Russia is the world’s largest energy exporter. Oil and natural gas make up a quarter of its economic output.
Oil climbed as much as 0.6 percent after European finance ministers approved an 8.7 billion-euro ($12.6 billion) aid payment to Greece on July 2. U.S. manufacturing accelerated in June, supporting the Federal Reserve’s forecast that the economy will strengthen in the second half of 2011, a report showed last week.
Emerging-market stocks rose on July 4, driving the benchmark index to a two-month high, on speculation China will refrain from boosting interest rates.
‘Big Danger’
“The two big elephants in the room that affected investor sentiment through most of the second quarter” have been dealt with, Weafer said in the report. “The big danger for emerging market equities is that the U.S. economy starts to strengthen while China, and the other major developing economies that have been raising interest rates, weaken. In that case we could easily again see more investor money shifting from the emerging market asset class and back into U.S. equity funds.”
The MSCI Emerging Markets Index climbed 1.1 percent to 1,169.49 as of 4:45 p.m. New York time, the highest close since May 4.
Crude for August delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose as much as 53 cents to $95.47 a barrel and was at $95 at the 1:15 p.m. New York time close of electronic trading on Globex. On June 30, the contract settled at $95.42, the highest level in more than two weeks. Nymex floor trading was closed yesterday.
Russia’s 30-stock, ruble-denominated Micex index (INDEXCF) rose 0.5 percent to 1,706.12 in Moscow on July 4, extending its advances for the longest winning streak since January. The dollar- denominated RTS Index added 0.6 percent to 1,948.48.
To contact the reporter on this story: Halia Pavliva in New York at [email protected]
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Gavin Serkin at [email protected]; David Papadopoulos at [email protected]
Russia May Slow Electricity Price Rises Through 2014-Reporthttp://english.capital.gr/News.asp?id=1232338
MOSCOW -(Dow Jones)- Russia's Ministry of Economy may slow down rises in electricity prices for industrial consumers between 2012 and 2014, Deputy Economy Minister Andrei Klepach said Tuesday, according to the Interfax news agency.
In 2012, price rises may be kept between 10% and 11%, down from a previously approved 13% cap, Klepach said. In 2013, price rises may be capped to between 7% and 10%, against the earlier 12% ceiling, the official added, while in 2014, prices may be kept between 9% and 11% instead of the earlier 9.5% growth ceiling.
The suggestions are aimed at curbing inflation and require further government approval.
News Agency Web site: www.interfax.ru
July 05, 2011 12:11
Russian econ ministry readies alternative tariff-hike plan pegged to inflationhttp://www.interfax.com/newsinf.asp?id=256852
MOSCOW. July 5 (Interfax) - Russia's Economic Development Ministry has drawn up an alternative plan for hiking tariffs that ties them to the inflation level, but is saying this should not be considered a basis for working up a budget for the country, Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Klepach told the press on Tuesday.
This alternative tariff scenario aims at appreciably lowering the rate of gas-price growth for industry, Klepach said. In 2012, the gas-price growth rate could be 6% (instead of the planned 15%), in 2013 - 5.5% (15%), in 2014 - 5% (15%).
The pace of the tariff increase for railway freightage next year could be 6% under the alternative plan (7.4% proposed), in 2013 - 5.5% (6.4%), in 2014 - 5% (5.5%).
The rate of growth among tariffs and market prices for electricity for industry next year could be 4%-6% (14%-15% planned earlier), in 2013 - 4%-6.5% (17%-18%), in 2014 - 4%-6.5% as well (16%-17%).
In the event that this alternative scenario is adopted, Klepach said, the level of inflation could be lower than previously targeted by three percentage points annually.
Cf
(Our editorial staff can be reached at [email protected])
Russia EconMin to offer 12.5 pct rise in gas tariffhttp://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFLDE76408Z20110705
Tue Jul 5, 2011 7:28am GMT
MOSCOW, July 5 (Reuters) - Russia's Economy Ministry is set to offer to cap domestic gas price rises at 12.5 percent in 2012 compared to a previously expected 15 percent, Deputy Minister Andrei Klepach told reporters on Tuesday.
Earlier, the ministry offered to cap the increase by either 15 percent or by the level of projected yearly inflation of around 6 percent.
(Reporting by Maya Dyakina; writing by Vladimir Soldatkin, Editing by John Bowker)
Ministry proposes 2 gas tariff hikes in 2012
http://www.rbcnews.com/free/20110705120625.shtml
RBC, 05.07.2011, Moscow 12:06:25.The Economic Development Ministry has proposed hiking natural gas tariff in two stages during 2012, Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrey Klepach told reporters today.
The tariff could be raised by 5% in January and 9.5% in April for both industrial consumers and households.
The ministry also proposes lowering the growth rate of electric power tariff in 2012-2014, Klepach said. Under the first option, electric power tariffs are expected to grow 4%-6% in 2012 instead of the 15%-16% earlier approved by the government, 4%-6.5% in 2013 instead of the currently planned 17%-18% and 4%-6.5% in 2014
instead of 16%-17%. Under the second option, electric power tariffs could go up 10%-11% in 2012, 7%-10% in 2013, and 9%-11% in 2014.
Uralkali Shares Rise Most in Week on Higher MSCI Index Weightinghttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-05/uralkali-shares-rise-most-in-week-on-higher-msci-index-weighting.html
By Jason Corcoran and Ilya Khrennikov - Jul 5, 2011 9:16 AM GMT+0200
OAO Uralkali (URKA), the world’s largest potash producer by output, jumped the most in a week after MSCI Inc. said it will increase the company’s weighting in its Russia Index as of the close of trading on July 6.
Uralkali’s shares jumped as much as 3.2 percent and traded 2.4 percent higher at 248.47 rubles by 10:49 a.m. in Moscow, its biggest intraday gain since June 28.
The company’s weighting will rise to 4.3 percent from 2.7 percent, Andrey Amelin, an analyst at VTB Capital in Moscow, said today in a note, based on the information in the MSCI report. Inflows into the stock from funds tracking the MSCI Russia Index may amount to $190 million, he said.
The decision to increase Uralkali’s weighting comes after the company acquired its competitor OAO Silvinit, MSCI Inc. (MSCI) said in a statement e-mailed yesterday after the end of trading.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jason Corcoran at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gavin Serkin at [email protected]
Russia's Utinet seeks $14 million via Moscow IPOhttp://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/05/utinet-ipo-idUSLDE66I07120110705
4:30am EDT
* Online retailer begins roadshow ahead of float
* Sets price range of 145-195 roubles per share
* Says IPO will offer discount to company's fair value
MOSCOW, July 5 (Reuters) - Russian online retailer Utinet.ru will start a roadshow on Tuesday for a planned initial public offering in Moscow, seeking to tap into recent demand for Russian internet stocks.
The company said it would sell 2 million shares or 10 percent of its equity at between 145 and 195 roubles each, generating proceeds of up to 390 million roubles ($14 million) to be invested in the business.
It added that although the IPO would put a value on Utinet.ru of nearly 4 billion roubles, float organisers Finam had valued the company at up to 13.8 billion.
"Starting from the proposed price range for the offering, the issuer's shares have a high potential for value growth," the company said in a statement.
Utinet.ru is hoping to replicate the IPO success of fellow Russian internet companies Mail.ru (MAILRq.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Yandex , albeit on a far smaller scale.
Uralsib analyst Konstantin Chernyshev said in a note Utinet had significantly scaled back its valuation hopes since its IPO plans were first mooted, but added that its position as the sixth largest player in the market could send warning signs.
"Participation in Utinet.ru's IPO may offer investors exposure to the rapid growth of the Russian online retail market, but we consider it risky ... given the strong competition and low barriers to entry to the online retail market," he said.
Russian companies have raised nearly $4 billion via IPOs in the year to date, compared with $5.5 billion in 2010 as a whole. (Reporting by John Bowker; Editing by David Holmes) ($1=27.86 Rouble)
Sberbank may be close to buying Volksbank International
http://www.bne.eu/dispatch_text16081
Troika DialogJuly 5, 2011
Kommersant today suggested that Sberbank could sign a term-sheet agreement with Austria's Volksbank over the purchase of a 51% stake in its subsidiary, Volksbank International. The paper cites sources close to the deal that stated, after final due diligence, that it may be signed by July 15. The price could be EUR700 mln, excluding the Romanian business (as was previously suggested), which would imply a price of
approximately book value.
Troika's view: While a small deal in absolute terms (ex-Romania, about 3-4% of Sberbank's assets), we remain unconvinced about Sberbank moving into Eastern Europe at this time, and would rather see management focusing on the Russian and CIS business.
Andrew Keeley
NLMK seals deal to increase rolling capacity by 20%
http://www.bne.eu/dispatch_text16081
AtonJuly 5, 2011
NLMK announced yesterday (4 July) that it has concluded its acquisition of the remaining 50% in its Duferco JV. This, we argued previously, was one of the key value triggers for the stock, which would effectively increase their steel rolling capacity by around 20% (roughly 2.5 mntpa), cutting the company's exposure to the volatile slab market and allowing it to re-roll its growing steel output into higher margin products. The assets will be consolidated within NLMK group financially from 1 July 2011.
Evraz to buy back unconverted Eurobonds
http://www.rbcnews.com/free/20110705110750.shtml
RBC, 05.07.2011, London 11:07:50.Evraz Group intends to repurchase all Eurobonds from its $650m issue, which are not swapped for Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs) before July 26, the mining and metals company said in a statement today.
Evraz is swapping 99.7% of the issue for GDRs. It will pay investors a premium of $158.3m. The company will issue 30.67m GDRs, which correspond to 10.22m new shares, for the swap deal. In addition to the premium, Evraz will make a coupon payment of $9.26m. The 5-year Eurobond was placed in 2009 with a coupon rate of 7.25%
Alrosa to Invest Over $250M in Underground Diamond Mine Construction http://www.israelidiamond.co.il/english/News.aspx?boneID=918&objID=9460
03.07.11, 12:00 / Mining Russia's state-owned diamond producer, Alrosa, plans to increase its budget for mine construction and will spend over $250 million on underground diamond mines in 2011, the company has announced following a meeting of its Executive Committee. In addition to investing in diamond mine infrastructure, Alrosa also plans to put more money into prospecting for diamonds and expects to spend over $128 million on diamond exploration this year. Alrosa expects its 2011 sales of rough and polished diamonds to hit $4.7 billion, and the company is seeking to reduce its consolidated debt to $2.73 billion, compared to its 2010 debt of $3.13 billion. The Executive Committee also examined Alrosa's iron ore project in South Yakutia and looked into ways of optimizing the management structure of its projects in Africa.
NordGold obtains mining licence for African gold project: Another value-accretive addition
http://www.bne.eu/dispatch_text16081
Renaissance CapitalJuly 5, 2011
Event: Severstal's NordGold subsidiary announced yesterday (4 July) that it had received a mining licence for the Bissa Gold Project in Burkina Faso. Bissa's JORC resources amounted to c. 2.9mn oz of gold as of 1 November 2010. Obtaining the new licence should not have significant implications for Severstal's financials in the short and medium term. NordGold aims to start mine construction at Bissa this year, with first production in 2013. Production guidance is 93k oz and 161k oz for 2013 and 2014, respectively. Thus, we think, vs previous NordGold production guidance of 1mn oz for FY13, the figure could now be closer to 1.1mn oz following the Bissa Project production plan. Severstal continues to implement an aggressive development strategy in the mining segment across the globe.
Action: This is positive for Severstal and NordGold, in our view.
Rationale: We view the Bissa acquisition as another step in the development of NordGold
before a potential IPO. A decision on the NordGold division may be expected in September 2011, although this does not necessarily spell an IPO. Severstal may consider other strategies to separate NordGold. In 2010, NordGold delivered about 12% of Severstal's consolidated EBITDA line and we expect it to bring another 15% of EBITDA in FY11 ($600-630mn). The production target for FY11 is 800-840k oz.
Boris Krasnojenov
Yandex to enter Polish market and list on WSE
http://www.bne.eu/dispatch_text16081
bneJuly 5, 2011
Yandex plans to enter the Polish market and also list on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, Polish News Bulletin reports. The Russian search engine has been attracted to the Polish market by Google's rising revenue in the country, which hit PLN700m last year with growth of 25% y-o-y, the daily Puls Biznesu comments.
Bogdan Wisniewski, Yandex's director business development in Poland, admitted that the company has been working on a concept for a Polish search engine for several weeks, and is preparing a business plan for its market entry. The float on the WSE might even take place this year, the newspaper adds.
Yandex is one of four search engines worldwide that was able to beat Google in its domestic market, handling 65% of all searches in Russia. Wisniewski told Puls Biznesu he was confident the attempt to enter Poland's market would not end like eBay's failure.
Activity in the Oil and Gas sector (including regulatory)
Russia Considers an Export Duty on Gas Volumnes Sold to Turkeyhttp://www.bne.eu/dispatch_text16081
AtonJuly 5, 2011
Russia is considering introducing an export duty for volumes sold to Turkey and
delivered via Blue Stream (Vedomosti, 5 July). To date these volumes have been exempt from export duty according to an intergovernmental agreement between Russia and Turkey. Gazprom delivered about 13bcm to Turkey last year, so based on this volume, the government would earn about $1.3bn if a duty was imposed.
The implications are that higher export duty collections could lower the government's appetite to increase MET. We estimate that in order to collect RUB150bn in additional taxes (necessary to plug the budget gap in 2012, according to MinFin estimates) it would be sufficient to increase MET to about RUB400/mcm, but not to RUB480/mcm as most recently discussed.
Bottom lineIt is not yet clear whether the export duty would result in a Turkish price increase or would be paid by Gazprom. In the first case, which we believe is more likely, the news is positive for Gazprom as it would facilitate lower MET rate growth. If however lower MET rate growth is compensated with a higher export duty, this will make little difference to Gazprom.
TNK-BP Holding: CEO-to-be may quit http://www.bne.eu/dispatch_text16081
UralSibJuly 5, 2011
Maxim Barsky still not appointed. Maxim Barsky, who was approved as CEO by TNK-BP's (TNBP RU - Buy) Board of Directors and who was to have taken up his duties in January, has still not been appointed, and may resign from the company.
Still no consensus between BP and AAR. Barsky was nominated CEO of TNK-BP in November 2009 and given a year to gain experience at BP's production departments and at its London office. In an interview to the press, he stated that the reason for the delay is that shareholders from BP and AAR still cannot agree about his contract and are unhappy with his proposals for a new management structure.
New tensions between BP and AAR may arise. This development may pressure TNK-BP's Holding's shares, as Barsky's appointment was long-awaited by investors and there were many expectations regarding the company's future. We believe that Barsky may decide to pursue other opportunities if shareholders continue to postpone his appointment, and that the company may face another escalation of conflict between the British and Russian parties. We have a Buy recommendation on TNK-BP Holding and a target price of $3.8/share.
Alexei Kokin
TNK-BP’s Incoming Chief Urges Independent Management, FT Reportshttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-03/tnk-bp-s-incoming-chief-urges-independent-management-ft-reports.html
By Blanche Gatt - Jul 3, 2011 10:35 PM GMT+0200
TNK-BP Deputy Chief Executive Officer Maxim Barsky, who was scheduled to take over as chief executive officer in January, has called on the oil venture between BP Plc (BP/) and a group of Russian billionaires to introduce independent management or risk damaging the company’s international growth plans, the Financial Times reported, citing an interview with Barsky in London.
To contact the reporter on this story: Blanche Gatt in London at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Colin Keatinge at [email protected].
Russia's Integra inches up buy back programmehttp://in.reuters.com/article/2011/07/04/russia-integra-idINLDE7630EC20110704
Mon, Jul 4 2011
Jul 4 (Reuters) - MOSCOW, July 4 (Reuters) - Russian oil services company Integra (INTEq.L: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Monday that it recently completed a programme to buy back 4.4 percent of its ordinary shares in issue, slightly more than the previously announced plan to buy back 3.9 percent.
The company said in a statement that it bought back 363,002 class A ordinary shares, or 7,260,040 in Global Depository Receipts equivalent, between Oct. 28 and May 11.
In addition, the company cancelled 42,500 class A ordinary shares or 850,000 in GDR equivalent, that were received as part of the sale of its cement and road-building equipment company Stromneftemash.
In May Integra said its GDR buyback programme for 3.9 percent of its shares totalled $25 million . (Writing by Lidia Kelly; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
TABLE-Russian Jun gas production down 9 pct m/mhttp://in.reuters.com/article/2011/07/04/russia-energy-gas-idINLDE76319H20110704
Mon Jul 4, 2011 9:45pm IST
MOSCOW, July 4 (Reuters) - Russian natural gas production fell in June to 1.689 billion cubic metres (bcm) per day from 1.86 bcm per day in May, Energy Ministry data showed. Gas production by Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom fell to 1.29bcm per day in June from 1.43 bcm per day in the previous month. The following are production details by company for the month and the year to date in billions of cubic metres. Percentage changes from previous months are based on daily production. Pct Change vs Jun 2011 May 2011 Jun 2010 YTD Gazprom 38.680 -9.8 15.6 269.250 Novatek 3.956 0.0 52.8 25.491 Other gas firms 1.342 -9.9 -20.8 9.550 PSA operators 1.615 -23.5 -8.8 12.583 Oil firms, 5.080 -2.6 -2.1 31.590 of which: LUKOIL 1.284 -2.7 5.9 7.952 TNK-BP 0.897 -12.2 -8.1 6.057 Slavneft 0.072 4.8 -8.2 0.422 Rosneft 0.908 -3.7 -35.1 5.819 Surgutneftegas 1.059 3.4 -4.3 6.357 Gazprom Neft 0.579 0.3 217.2 3.523 Tatneft 0.067 2.1 2.1 0.394 Bashneft 0.031 -4.6 15.9 0.229 Russneft 0.185 10.6 26.5 0.836 Total Russian output 50.674 -9.0 13.3 348.463 (Reporting by Gleb Gorodyankin)
TABLE-Russian oil output, exports fall in June m/mhttp://in.reuters.com/article/2011/07/04/hold-russia-energy-exports-idINLDE76315O20110704
Mon Jul 4, 2011 9:52pm IST
MOSCOW, July 4 (Reuters) - Russian oil production stood at 10.195 million barrels per day in June, down from 10.26 million barrels per day in May, Energy Ministry data showed. Exports via pipeline monopoly Transneft (TRNF_p.MM) fell by
5.9 percent to 3.97 million bpd from 4.22 million bpd in May. The following oil production and export data were supplied by Russia's Energy Ministry. Volumes are in millions of tonnes and show the monthly and year-to-date totals. Percentage change figures are based on daily volumes. OIL AND CONDENSATE PRODUCTION TRANSNEFT EXPORTS Pct change vs Pct change vs Jun 11 May 11 Jun 10 YTD Jun 11 May 11 Jun 10 YTD Rosneft 9.397 0.0 1.8 56.384 4.741 -6.6 19.3 29.179 LUKOIL 7.006 -0.4 -6.2 42.736 1.636 -16.6 -37.7 11.409 TNK-BP 5.920 -0.3 -0.1 35.632 1.953 -6.4 -1.8 13.358 Surgutneftegas 5.007 0.1 2.1 30.056 2.350 17.8 -5.0 13.403 Gazprom Neft 2.463 -0.5 -0.7 14.826 0.973 1.9-20.4 6.554 Slavneft* 1.487 0.4 -1.4 8.950 0.0 n/a n/a 0.0 Tatneft 2.152 0.0 0.4 12.981 1.302 -13.2 18.6 8.491 Gazprom 1.124 -11.2 3.2 7.128 0.038 12.8 8.5 0.212 Bashneft 1.239 1.1 6.6 7.418 0.300 3.3 50.0 1.799 Russneft 1.129 2.4 5.5 6.552 0.484 -0.2 12.5 2.784 Novatek 0.334 -3.8 15.2 2.063 0.0 n/a n/a 0.0 Small producers 3.289 0.2 7.1 19.820 0.550 -21.3-48.6 3.666 PSA operators 1.181 -8.2 7.8 7.891 0.100 3.4 0.1 0.700 TOTAL OUTPUT 41.727 -0.6 0.7 252.437 0.0 n/a n/a 0.0 Total Russian exports through Transneft 14.438 -5.5 -6.6 92.791 including Caspian pipeline 0.010 -89.1-95.9 1.235 Transit through Russia: from Azerbaijan 0.164 -19.2 -2.5 1.084 from Kazakhstan 1.510 -9.1 -6.8 10.014
Belarus production 0.139 0.4 n/a 0.792 TOTAL TRANSNEFT THROUGHPUT 16.251 -5.9 -5.8 104.681 Routes other than Transneft** 1.765 -16.7 -7.5 12.636 NOTES: * Slavneft is half owned by TNK-BP Holding and Gazprom Neft ** Some companies export crude by sea tankers, filling them at ports close to offshore oilfields, or by rail, therefore bypassing Transneft, the Russian crude oil pipeline monopoly. Russia used to export up to 1 million bpd of crude oil by alternative means such as rail and river, but volumes dropped significantly in 2005 due to very high crude oil export duties. (Reporting by Gleb Gorodyankin)
EU internal market - a stake or a tool in European-Russian gas relationshttp://www.bne.eu/dispatch_text16081
OSWJuly 5, 2011
Since 2010 we have observed a new quality in EU energy policy. It is related to the European Commission's more or less direct engagement in the bilateral gas relations of a part of the new member states - Poland, Bulgaria and Lithuania - with Russia. Although the long term outcome of this activity of the EC is as yet unclear it seems to be important for several reasons. Firstly it might increase the possibilities of the enforcement of the EU's directives liberalising the internal gas market and specifically their implementation in individual gas agreements with suppliers from third countries (Gazprom). The consistency and determination of the EC in this field may be decisive for the future direction and depth of the liberalisation of the EU gas market. Furthermore, present developments may lead to an increase in EU and specifically EC competence in the field of energy policy, especially its external dimension.
So what lessons can we draw from recent Commission activities on the following issues:- Implementing EU gas market 2nd and 3rd liberalisation packages and their main provisions- EU energy policy and its external dimension - recent developments and the EU's role- EU-Russia gas relations - where Russian and EU interests diverge
A look at Polish-Russian negotiations
In autumn 2010, after the European Commission had repeatedly expressed its concerns over whether the conditions of the agreement negotiated between Poland and Russia on the supply and transit of Russian gas were compatible with EU law, the Commissioner
for Energy Gunther Oettinger and Director General for Energy Philip Lowe became involved in the ongoing intergovernmental negotiations. This event was unprecedented. Although the European Commission had previously on occasion applied pressure on EU companies to make their gas supply contracts more adherent to EU competition norms[2] before now it had not directly participated in bilateral relations or ongoing negotiations between a member state and an external fuel supplier. This type of involvement for the European Commission in the case of Poland was possible due to the existence alongside the corporate contracts of an intergovernmental agreement for the supply and transit of gas and also due to formal consent, if not invitation, from the Polish government to participate in talks.
The European Commission's involvement was above all focused on the specification of individual principles for the transit of gas through the Polish section of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline and issues connected to the functioning of this pipeline. The European Commission joining the bilateral talks led to the attainment of the formal conformity of the Polish-Russian gas contract with the norms of the EU gas market (the Second Package) i.e. the securing of provisions guaranteeing third party access (TPA) to the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline and the appointment of an independent operator administering the Polish section of the pipeline. It is nevertheless unclear how the implementation of the negotiated provisions will be accomplished. Little is known about the actual abilities of the new operator of the Polish segment of the pipeline, Gaz System, and whether it will be capable of implementing the principle of TPA in the next few years. This is particularly important if the pipeline will be used to its full capacity for the delivery of gas from Russia's Gazprom. In part due to the date the contract was signed (end of October 2010), it was not possible to align the Polish-Russian agreement to the Third Package (launched 3 March 2011) and it is unclear as to whether and how the contract will be adapted to the provisions of this package.
If Poland proceeds with its plans to put in LNG regasification capacity and if in the next years shale gas proves to be economically and environmentally viable, there may well be occasion to test the quality of the third party access provisions that have been negotiated.
The Bulgarian-Russian gas agreement
Towards the end of 2010 the European Commission was also invited by the Bulgarian government to consult on the contract then being negotiated concerning the establishment of a Bulgarian-Russian joint venture which would be responsible for the construction of the Bulgarian section of the planned South Stream gas pipeline. The Bulgarian motivation beside this request to the EC was most probably related primarily to increasing its bargaining power in negotiations with the Russian side. Here once again the European Commission pointed out the incompatibility with EU law of the previous intergovernmental agreement signed in 2008, which covered the supply and transit through Bulgaria of Russian gas. The European Commission called on Bulgaria to adjust its conditions to conform with EU liberalisation rules, including in particular the guarantee of third party access to the Bulgarian transit infrastructure. According to media reports, the agreement in its present shape guarantees Gazprom full and unrestricted
transit of Russian gas[3]. Bulgaria was most likely only able to partially adapt the agreement on South Stream to the suggestions of the European Commission. However, although it also promised to make retrospective changes to the provisions of the 2008 agreement, to date are no reports that any actual modifications have been made. Additionally both the Bulgarian and Russian sides declared they would be attempting to release the Bulgarian section of South Stream from its obligation to ensure TPA (at least towards 50-70% of the pipeline's capacity) and the head of the South Stream AG consortium, Marcel Kramer, appealed for non-discriminatory treatment for the project to ensure a level playing field with the Nabucco project promoted by the EU (which has already received exemptions from the TPA rule).
A full unbundling of the Lithuanian gas sector and Russian gas prices
Finally, in January 2011, the Lithuanian government turned to the European Commission with a complaint and an appeal to look into whether Russia's Gazprom could be abusing its dominant position on the market[4]. Lithuania, which purchases its gas exclusively from Gazprom and which has no infrastructural possibility to import gas from anywhere else besides Russia, pays according to media reports among the highest prices in Europe. The EU has already been indirectly involved in bilateral Lithuanian-Russian relations in connection with the implementation of the Third Liberalisation Package. The Lithuanian case currently represents a crucial example - often mentioned by the Russian side - of Gazprom's problems with responding to the ongoing liberalisation of the EU gas market. Gazprom, besides having the monopoly on fuel supplies to Lithuania, is also joint shareholder of the most important company in the Lithuanian gas market, Lietuvos Dujos (ownership structure: 38.9% - E.ON, 37.1% - Gazprom, with the rest owned by the state treasury). This company is responsible for the import and distribution of fuel and is the operator of the entire Lithuanian transportation infrastructure. Lithuania is presently trying inter alia to increase its influence on the development of the domestic gas sector and to defend its own interests (in part connected with the cost of imported fuel but also with the possibility of a development of its infrastructure to enable the diversification of supplies). In seeking these goals Lithuania has become one of very few Central European countries[5] who wish to launch a complete ownership unbundling. This has brought them into a clear conflict of interests with Gazprom (and also with Germany's E.ON), which would in that situation be obliged to dispose of part of its assets. Negotiations on the conditions of the implementation of the Third Liberalisation Package in Lithuania are ongoing, as are negotiations on the method of settling bilateral disputed issues (besides unbundling and the issue of the ownership of assets, also the cost of Russian gas in Lithuania). Should more specific solutions be worked out, a more direct involvement for the European Commission in the process may not be ruled out.
The goals of the European Commission's involvement in bilateral gas relations
In the above examples, everything points to the fact that it is the new member states (the governments of Poland, Bulgaria and Lithuania) who are engaging the European Commission in bilateral gas relations with Russia. Although the cohesion of agreements drawn up in line with EU law is crucial for each of those countries, it appears that in
engaging the European Commission, the new EU member states wished above all to increase their negotiating potential and to improve the conditions of gas cooperation with Gazprom.
It is also clear that the European Commission, for several reasons, is eager to take part in these negotiations. Firstly, it is the European Commission itself which safeguards the conformity of new gas contracts - and also those currently in force - with the principles of a liberalising EU gas market. To date these have been mainly the provisions of the Second Liberalisation Package (including the guarantee of TPA). Entering bilateral relations gives the EC additional instruments in its efforts to ensure this conformity. Actions of this type by the European Commission are aimed at ensuring respect for the provisions of EU law and are observed also in other cases, e.g. in Germany in connection with the construction of onshore branches of the Nord Stream gas pipeline (NEL and OPAL). The European Commission is at the same time attempting to work out principles for implementation of the Third Liberalisation Package[6], including the particularly controversial (both within the EU and in the opinion of a section of external suppliers) provision concerning unbundling of the ownership of the production and sale of gas from its transmission. The process of working out of these principles seems to be particularly essential in countries strongly dependent on supplies of Russian fuel where Gazprom is also the co-owner of part of the transportation/transmission infrastructure (inter alia in Poland and Lithuania). Thus the way the Russian side will gradually adapt to the changing regulations on a liberalising gas market and what the cost of this adaptation will be for member states and the EU side, may be a crucial element in defining the new modus vivendi in EU-Russia gas relations. Finally, in becoming involved in issues which until recently had been the exclusive competence of member states, the European Commission sees the possibility of not merely a temporary but also a longer-lasting extension of its role and competence in energy relations with third countries.
Effects to date and the possible further consequences
The involvement of the EU (the European Commission) in the gas relations of new member states with Russia has led to some measure of convergence with EU principles but has in no case ended in a complete success. The most effective involvement for the European Commission to date would appear to have been in negotiations of the Polish-Russian gas agreement, whose provisions were brought into line with EU law. With Lithuania, merely the concept of launching full ownership unbundling as envisaged in EU directives represented one of the key arguments and instruments allowing Vilnius to apply pressure in its gas talks with Moscow.
All of the above examples lead to the increasing visibility in public debate of the importance and utility of the conformity of bilateral contracts with EU regulations. As a consequence, one of the resolutions of the February energy council of the EU is that member states should as of 2012 inform the European Commission about new contracts or contracts currently in force for fuel supplies with third countries[7]. They have also indirectly made from the issue of unbundling and of how Gazprom operates inside a liberalising EU gas market becoming one of the key subjects of EU-Russia energy talks.
The case of Lithuania is particularly crucial in this context; for example Prime Minister Putin referred to it during his visit to Brussels in February 2011[8].
Nevertheless, the long-term effects of this type of EU activity depend on a host of factors. One of them is the consistency of the European Commission in launching the Third Package. The Lithuanian example may turn out to be particularly crucial in this, showing if, how and with what consequences it is possible to force Gazprom to divest part of its assets in order to secure the full implementation of EU liberalisation rules or whether the EC and Member States are doomed to accepting sub-optimal compromises forcing them in most cases to abandon the dream of full ownership unbundling. One must recognise that there are a number of European companies who would not be unhappy with this result.
The other factors influencing the final outcome of present developments are the actual possibilities of institutionalising this type of European Commission activity, and the participation of the EU representatives in ensuring conformity with Community law of commercial gas relations with third countries / suppliers from third countries. It is clear that few EU member states would be willing to grant the European Community such a role Nearly all companies and many member states would view the involvement of the European Commission in their bilateral negotiations with third countries on the conditions of an agreement or contract (as with Poland) as an infringement on their exclusive/autonomous rights. It is difficult to assess the willingness of even the 'new' member states to formally sanction the validity of not merely one-off but the regular and also extensive admittance of the EU side into their gas relations with Russia.
Recently observed openness to cooperation with the EU side was in large measure caused above all by the asymmetry of negotiations between them and Gazprom. Involvement of the European Commission was above all simply exploited as an element of the game in play (which could be, for example, suggested by the Bulgarian case, where the European Commission postulates concerning changes of the provisions in the main gas contract between Russia and Bulgaria have not thus far been met with understanding). Larger EU members have greater bargaining power in relations with Russia and larger gas companies better able to go nose to nose with Gazprom.
Finally, it is not clear how great a determination the EU itself has for launching the principles of a liberalising gas market if it might jeopardise its own strategic relations with Russia. The unambiguous opposition of the Russian side towards certain provisions of EU directives along with Russia's significance as a supplier (growing in recent months in part due to the context of conflicts in North Africa and the Middle East) may make the European Commission inclined to seek compromise.
Conclusion
The business of liberalising the EU gas market is fraught with challenges - internal and external. These first efforts by the Commission to help Member States stand firm on Community principles with external suppliers are a welcome sign that the external
dimension of the third package doesn't need to await resolution of internal challenges. Perhaps the biggest challenges confronting the Commission are in nurturing the convergence of the internal market practices of Member States, e.g. regulatory policies, pricing, integration of infrastructure decisions, governance and more generally a recognition that all 27 Member States are equal partners in the same internal market. Here traditional market players who are comfortable with the status quo ante will take measures with an optic of compliance with the Third Package, but with a lack of enthusiasm for the reality. The positive role of the Commission in the above examples will strengthen its hand on more difficult tasks to come.
Gazprom
05.07.2011
Russia to Soon Determine Fate of Subsoil Tax of Gas for Gazpromhttp://www.oilandgaseurasia.com/news/p/0/news/11919
The Russian government will soon determine the size of the subsoil tax rate on gas for Gazprom, Deputy Finance Minister Aleksey Kudrin told journalists in Ulan-Ude.
He said that the "situation has been worked out" and that the issue is entering its final stages.
Kudrin noted that in calculating the rate, the lifting of tax breaks on Blue Stream was taken into consideration. "Consequently, that income will be counted and the subsoil tax will be raised according to the remaining sum", he explained.
Copyright 2011, Oil and Gas Information Agency. All rights reserved.
RBC Daily: Greece offers for sale assets Gazprom considers interesting http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n253784
05 July 2011 | 08:07 | FOCUS News AgencyHome / Southeast Europe and BalkansAthens. Greece’s privatization program envisages sale of assets from the national gas company DEPA and national pipeline operator DESFA, RBC Daily reports.The offer might attract Gazprom’s attention. However, the European Commission is not likely to allow Gazprom to purchase stocks. As an EU member, Greece has laws banning gas production companies from controlling the entire chain from a field to consumers, it comments.
July 05, 201110:20Gazprom, Eni finalizing agreement to buy SeverEnergia gashttp://www.interfax.com/news.asp
Gazprom mulls broader energy cooperation with German companies
http://www.rbcnews.com/free/20110705105213.shtml
RBC, 05.07.2011, Moscow 10:52:13.Russian natural gas giant Gazprom intends to expand energy cooperation with German companies BASF and Wintershall, Gazprom said in a statement late Monday.
The statement came following a meeting of Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller with Chairman of BASF Board of Executive Directors Kurt Bock and Chairman of Wintershall Board of Directors Rainer Seele, during which they discussed ways and means to expand their companies' partnership in a number of promising areas of the energy business.
BASF and Wintershall are Gazprom's partners in developing the Yuzhno-Russkoye and Urengoyskoye oil and gas fields, and also in building the Nord Stream Gas Pipeline (NSGP).
22:30 04/07/2011Top News
All terms of Beltransgas purchase agreed – Gazprom CEO
http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c32/179131.html
MOSCOW, July 4 (Itar-Tass) —— All terms of the deal to purchase 50 percent of Beltransgaz were approved during a telephone conversation between Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko on Monday, July 4.
“Unfortunately, the Belarusian side continue to link the signing of documents on Beltrangaz to the terms of a new contract for gas supplies to Belarus. In our opinion, this can only delay the negotiations but make no essential changes,” Miler said, adding that the effective contracts could not be changed until the end of 2011.
In late 2006, Gazprom and Beltrangaz signed a contract for the supply and transit of natural gas in 2007-2011. The document determine the pricing formula from January 1, 2008 – identical to the pricing formula used for gas supplies to Europe – and price reducing coefficients for 2008-2010 (0.67, 0.8 and 0.9 respectively), Gazprom said.
Gazprom acquired 50 percent of Beltransgaz shares into ownership on March 3, 2010.
Gazprom regrets attempts by Belarus to tie sale of Beltransgaz with treaty on suppliesYesterday at 20:02 | Interfax-Ukraine Gazprom head Alexei Miller has had a telephone conversation with Belarusian First Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko.
The talk focused on gas cooperation, including the purchase of a 50% stake in Beltransgaz, Gazprom said in a statement.
Nearly all clauses of a future deal have been coordinated, it says.
At the same time, Gazprom regrets attempts by the Belarusian side to tie up the Beltransgaz deal with negotiations over a new contract on gas supply to Belarus, the statement says.
"We believe that this will only drag out the negotiating process and will not change its essence," the statement quotes Miller as saying after the talks.
Gazprom made clear that the terms of the gas contract for 2011 cannot be changed.
Read more: http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/107995/#ixzz1RCvYYeZA
Gazprom Delegation Visits North Korea http://www.rferl.org/content/gazprom_delegation_visits_north_korea/24255688.html
July 05, 2011 A delegation from Russian gas giant Gazprom has visited North Korea.
North Korea's Central News Agency said the delegation was led by Deputy Managing Chairman Alexandr Ananenkov, but offered few other details.
The news follows a report in May that a top Russian intelligence official had traveled to Pyongyang to discuss economic projects involving North and South Korea, the world's number two consumer of liquefied natural gas.
According to an Interfax report in May, Foreign Intelligence Service director Mikhail Fradkov and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il discussed projects including a railway junction, a gas pipeline and a power line from Russia to South Korea via North Korea.
Russia's "Kommersant" newspaper reported June 30 that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had decided to cancel a trip to Russia due to worries about security sparked by media reports about the trip.
compiled from agency reports
Prirazlomnoye drilling in Septemberhttp://www.barentsobserver.com/prirazlomnoye-drilling-in-september.4940008-116320.html
2011-07-04 Gazprom is ready to start tugging its “Prirazlomnaya” platform from Murmansk to the Pechora Sea. Drilling at Russia’s first Arctic offshore oil field might start already in September.
Deputy leader of Gazprom Dobycha Shelf, a subsidiary of Gazprom, confirms that the platform in the course of this month will be ready for transportation to the Pechora Sea. The company plans to start the transport operation on 20 July, Oleg Sokolov told RIA Novosti.
Drilling at the first well is due to start in September, while the first oil can be produced before the end of 2011, Oilru.com reports.
The Prirazlomnoye field, which has about 72 million ton of oil resources, is located at 20 m depths about 60 km north of Varandey, the port terminal in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The project will be the first ever offshore field in the Russian Arctic put in production.
The platform, which has been built by Sevmash in Severodvinsk, has since November 2010 been docked at Shipyard No 35 in Murmansk. About 4000 people has since worked round the clock to complete the installation.
According to the Murmansk State Television Channel, all works with concreting, as well as with the helipad, are now completed.
As recently reported by BarentsObserver, the Gazprom Dobycha Shelf now invites people in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug to apply for jobs at the Prirazlomnaya platform.
Text: Atle Staalesen