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Russia 110201Basic Political DevelopmentsLaw ratifying new Russia-U.S. arms pact comes into force in RussiaLaw on START ratification comes into force Russia's Ryabkov on U.S.-Russia relations: 'We can offer tangible results, and we will do more in the future' - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, who daily oversees relations between Moscow and the United States, last week provided interesting insight on Iran, Afghanistan and arms control, among other topics, in an appearance at the Nixon Center in Washington. SCO summit to be held in Astana on June 15 - KazakhstanSCO jubilee summit to be held in AstanaAzerbaijan and Iran to establish joint venture related to construction of Gazvin-Rasht-Astara railway - On January 31, next trilateral meeting (Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran) on the realization of North-South international transport corridor was started in Tehran.Sukhumi regime acquired two planes - The puppet regime of Abkhazia has acquired two planes for development of civil aviation. Planes were delivered by Russian special design office Interavia. As it was stated by representative of the company Vladimir Maryan it is planned to establish production of these palnes directly on the territory of Abkhazia.Occupants conduct military exercises in the Tskhinvali region - According to the defence ministry of the puppet regime in Tskhinvali, five-day exercises aim at combat coordination of military units and law enforcement agencies. In addition to army units, soldiers of the border service of the Russian FSB and KGB of Tskhinvali are involved in exercises.Abkhazians will not be able to cross the Russian border using Soviet passports - From February 1st it will not be possible to cross the Abkhazian part of the Georgian-Russian border using passports with Soviet symbols. The decision was taken following negotiations between Sukhumi and the Russian Federation.Workers Trickle Out of Restive Egypt - Some other Russian companies that have offices in Egypt, such as software company Softline and satellite tracking firm Russian Navigation Technologies, rely on local staff and won't need to arrange evacuations, their spokespeople said.Egyptian Unrest Likely to Affect Moscow’s Position in North Caucasus, Markedonov Says - But on the other hand – and Markedonov’s language suggests that he views this as the more important factor at least relative to the Egyptian events – the attack on Domodedovo is intended to show to the world that “the Caucasus jihad” has gone over to a general attack and that it has “the forces and resources needed to do every more.”Russia mulls direct flights to Kenya - Visiting Parliamentarians from Russia on Monday pledged to push for the introduction of direct flights between Nairobi and Moscow in a bid to boost bilateral trade.Medvedev unveils statue of ‘decisive’ YeltsinDmitry Medvedev unveils monument to Yeltsin 80th Anniversary Of Boris Yeltsin's Birth Medvedev, Naina Yeltsin attending monument unveiling ceremonyYeltsin: epitome of 1990s Russia rememberedMedvedev urges to develop non-profit organizations helping kidsBritish embassy says 'no comments' on Luzhkov residence permit - A number of media sources earlier reported that Luzhkov had filed a request for a British visa and residence permit. In late October, Luzhkov was allegedly spotted lining up for a visa at the British Embassy in Moscow.Nezavisimaya: Moscow and Delhi are interested in a high-tech partnershipRussia's first Graney-class nuke attack sub to begin sea trials in MayAmbitious programmes underline future of HAL - In what is likely to result in HAL's most ambitious programme to date, India and Russia in December signed a preliminary design contract for India's fifth-generation fighter aircraft, a variant of the Sukhoi PAK FA demonstrator, which first flew in January 2010. Nayak values this initial contract at $295 million. During its 18-month term, Indian designers will work with Sukhoi designers in Russia, building in Indian requirements for the variant. Russian crime gangs discussed during Asia-Pacific summit - A delegation from the Russian government?took part in a?conference of the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum, which opened?last week?in Ulan Bator, Mongolia. It brought?together parliamentarians from 27 countries of that region. The sessions?highlighted issues of politics and security in the region, as well as economic cooperation and integration.Russia's Black Sea Fleet, South Stream and Somali Pirates - Based on its shipbuilding plans, Russia no longer considers the US an opponent. Instead of ships aimed at destroying US attack submarines and aircraft carriers, Russia plans to build smaller multipurpose ships such as frigates and corvettes.Bombs planted six months ago found at hydro dam - Engineers repairing the Irganayskaya hydropower plant in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan have discovered two improvised explosive devices. They may have been planted last September and failed to detonate.Attack on Irganayskaya HPP prevented in Dagestan – two bombs defused in one of the turbines 2 fighters wiped out in special operation in DagestanAnonymous bomb scare false - Moscow law enforcement - "Several calls were received about bombs allegedly planted in the Botkinskaya Hospital, State Duma and the Aktyor Gallery on Pushkinskaya Square,"Washington 'troubled' by arrests of protesters in Russia - Vietor said the latest events run counter to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's recent comments on widening the political spectrum and urged Russia to "act to safeguard the fundamental freedoms of expression and assembly for all citizens."US raises concern over arrest of protesters in Russia Police releases detained in Moscow opposition leader LimonovIn Moscow, a victory for protesters' rights - "Revolutions are not for Russia," said Nemtsov, who spent 15 days in jail after being arrested at a similar demonstration on New Year's Eve. "Our main aim is free elections. We want Putin to go away - peacefully." Hundreds of Russians protest against PutinPatriarch anniversary marked - Celebrations are underway in Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral marking two years since Metropolitan Kirill became Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. Naomi Campbell interviews Vladimir PutinWomen tells of her ordeal at hands of terrorists behind the Moscow Airport bomb attack Russian Press at a Glance, Tuesday, February 1, 2011Gagarin's daughter wants to register his trademarkWIKILEAKSBP Russia arm eyed deals in sanctioned states: cables WikiLeaks: BP's new Russian partner sees Godfather films as 'manual for life'WikiLeaks: BP boss Bob Dudley blamed new Rosneft partner Igor Sechin for 'black' plot against himNational Economic TrendsRussia to Start Selling Stockpiled Grain on Feb. 4 (Update1) Gov't to start grain sales on February 4 Banks have 543.0 bln rbs on CBR correspondent accounts on February 1.Russian Manufacturing Growth Unchanged in January from December Manufacturing PMI stays at a healthy 53.5 in January Business, Energy or Environmental regulations or discussionsNorilsk, Rosneft, Lukoil, VimpelCom: Russia Equity Preview Shareholders buy 55.8% of Russia's RusHydro extra share offeringNorilsk Nickel plans to increase output in 2011 Ukraine concentration plant sees jump in output - The plant, majority-owned by Russia's Evraz Group and Ukrainian Smart Holding, said it would invest $104 million in 2011, compared with $47 million in 2010.Acron files claim to block merger between Uralkali and Silvinit Sberbank's Acquisition of Troika Dialog Could be Announced This Week Sberbank May Hire UniCredit’s Alessandro Profumo, Vedomosti Says Rostelecom May Buy Media Assets for $1.3 Billion, Vedomosti Says VimpelCom's Purchase of Telekom Srbija Depends on Weather Deal Ranbaxy inks cooperation MoU with Russia's Yaroslavl regionSaturn JSC Expands Solar Cell Production in Russia with Further AIXTRON MOCVD System UPDATE 1-Cherkizovo sees higher poultry price from Q2Mobile TeleSystems is in merger talks with a major cellular operator, the company’s chairman, Vladimir Yevtushenkov, told reporters Monday, without being more specific. (Bloomberg)Norilsk Nickel’s nickel production in the fourth quarter totaled 77,000 tons, a 2.7 percent increase from the prior quarter, and full-year output climbed 5.1 percent to 297,000 tons, the company said Monday in a statement on its web site. (Bloomberg)Development of the Trebs and Titov oil fields in northern Russia won’t affect Bashneft’s dividends, Vladimir Yevtushenkov, chairman of AFK Sistema, which controls Bashneft, said Monday. (Bloomberg)Activity in the Oil and Gas sector (including regulatory)Hungary seeks to renegotiate Russian gas contract from 2012 - Russia wants to negotiate an extension of its long-term contract to deliver gas to Hungary only in 2014, the year the contract expires, while the Hungarian government would like to start negotiations on the extension already in 2012, half-way through the current government's term, National Development Minister Tamas Fellegi said in a written response to a question by an MP. Russia's Jan ESPO exports via Kozmino up 33% on year to 1.2 mil mt Surgutneftegaz Sells East Siberian Crude Oil for March, April UPDATE 1-Russia's LUKOIL to increase stake in Italy refinerFinland looks to Yamal - Representatives of Finnish oil and gas companies in a meeting with the Russian Ministry of Energy last week confirmed their interest in the planned LNG project in Russia’s far northern Yamal Peninsula.BP dividend joy to be marred by TNK-BP spatVedomosti: Editorial: Seizing an opportunity - Yesterday, Russian shareholders of TNK-BP – the Alfa Group Consortium, Access, and Renova (AAR) – had, without much ado, left their British partner without any dividends for the IV quarter of 2010. BP, which is in need of funds, will not be getting $1.8 billion. ?GazpromRUSSIA LINK - Bahrain could soon become the regional hub for Russian energy giant Gazprom, it was revealed yesterday.Gazprom Neft publishes offer for purchase of NIS shares Serbia: Gazprom delivering? - An offer by its oil division, Gazprom Neft, to buy up 19 per cent more of Petroleum Industry of Serbia (NIS) for EUR 153.6m (US$ 209.2m) will hardly persuade Russo-phobes that it is a purely commercial enterprise. But, at least, NIS’s new majority owner appears serious about following through on investment pledges.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Full Text ArticlesBasic Political Developments02/01 09:12 ? Law ratifying new Russia-U.S. arms pact comes into force in Russia on START ratification comes into force 1, 2011 09:36 Moscow TimeThe text of the law on the ratification of the Russian-US Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START-3, is carried by today’s issue of the Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily and has thus come into force. Last week the document was ratified by both houses of the Russian Parliament, and then signed into law by President Dmitry Medvedev. The treaty was concluded in Prague on April 8th 2010. It reflects the intention of Russia and the United States to reduce the number of their strategic nuclear warheads by a third over the next seven years.??Russia's Ryabkov on U.S.-Russia relations: 'We can offer tangible results, and we will do more in the future' Post Staff Writer Tuesday, February 1, 2011 Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, who daily oversees relations between Moscow and the United States, last week provided interesting insight on Iran, Afghanistan and arms control, among other topics, in an appearance at the Nixon Center in Washington. He set the stage by saying that President Obama's plan to "reset" relations between Moscow and Washington "has already happened." "We can offer tangible results, and we will do more in the future," he said. On Iran, Ryabkov pointed to "unprecedented" coordination, citing Moscow's vote for U.N. resolutions on the issue, including the acceptance of sanctions on the Tehran regime. He did make the point more than once that his country disagrees with the United States on sanctions: "One [the U.S.] believes in the result of sanctions, the other [Russia] doesn't." Sanctioning "only brings suffering to each and every nation that is being sanctioned." And unilateral U.S. sanctions do not bring the hoped-for results, he said, and the move "only adds to strain of the international community." Russia is not conducting separate negotiations with Tehran on the nuclear issue, he said, though Moscow has had bilateral discussions with the Iranians. "We speak to them frankly, as they do with us, and it is not always an easy discussion, but we see no alternative to dialogue," he said. He called the present proposals to Iran by the P5+1 group (Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - plus Germany) fine, but added, "We may in the end have some discussion of this sort [about their enrichment program], but it is premature." It would have to be preceded by a step-by-step road map, he said. Afghanistan is another area where he said the United States and Russia are working together. Calling the cooperation "a success story," he noted that Washington and Moscow are cooperating on supply routes, transportation, training and even economic support to the Afghan government. Russia fully shares in the new strategy, he said, including support for Afghan national conciliation, though, he added, "We would definitely not accept what is being called re-Talibanization." Moscow does not want to give support to any radical Islamic movements, having enough trouble at home from such groups. Another special interest for Russia is the threat posed by Afghan drug cultivation. NATO forces, he argued, should be doing more to eradicate production, interdict on roads from producing areas and eliminate precursors, which are chemicals used for processing opium poppies into heroin and morphine. "What we are doing jointly and collectively is definitely not enough," he said. Asked about the future of the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan and the countries on its border, such as Kyrgyzstan, Ryabkov said once the threat situation changed, the U.S. presence would not be required. But he said it is different inside Afghanistan, where a foreign presence, such as the U.S. base at Bagram, might be needed until Afghanistan can sustain itself. One of Ryabkov's areas of responsibility is security, and in that role he had just attended a meeting on arms control and international security with a working group of the U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission, set up in 2009 by Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. With both nations' legislatures having approved the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, talks already have begun on the "complicated agenda" for what comes next, he said. While U.S. officials have focused publicly on a nuclear treaty that would cover reducing the numbers of not just strategic arms but also shorter-range tactical nuclear weapons, Ryabkov talked first about turning to the control of conventional arms in Europe and reaching some predictability of forces on the continent. He said shaping the military relationships on the ground, where Russia has vastly fewer troops and less equipment, would relate to the future of nuclear disarmament. He talked about the difficulty of finding the correct "platform" for any future agreements, saying that weapons in outer space, non-nuclear strategic weapons, other nuclear nations and missile defenses also have to be considered. He explained Moscow's concerns about missile defenses, which drew much attention during the U.S. Senate debate on the START agreement. For years, Ryabkov said, the U.S. and Russia discussed putting together a joint-threat assessment of missiles and nuclear arms. He concluded that it cannot be done. A stumbling block has been whether the U.S. development of missile-defense capabilities "would eventually be used in a way to affect the nuclear posture of the Russian Federation," he said. The U.S. always said no, but the Russian answer was "probably yes," in a way that "may endanger our nuclear forces," he added. The situation is different when it comes to cooperation on theater missile defense, and the presidential commission working group discussed this in its recent meeting, he said. Discussing the "reset" with the Obama administration, Ryabkov said, "We think that this administration . . . has been very frank with us about its own views," even when talking about Russian domestic activities. "We are not avoiding any hard talk on these matters and . . . despite these and other differences, we are well-placed to manage it [so] that these differences do not constitute an obstacle in our relationship." 09:58SCO summit to be held in Astana on June 15 - Kazakhstan jubilee summit to be held in Astana will host the jubilee summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization on June 15, 2011, RIA Novosti reports citing Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry.The 10th anniversary of SCO is marked this year. SCO gathers together China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.TODAY, 11:08Aysor.amAzerbaijan and Iran to establish joint venture related to construction of Gazvin-Rasht-Astara railway. Ali Ahmedov – APA-ECONOMICS. On January 31, next trilateral meeting (Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran) on the realization of North-South international transport corridor was started in Tehran.According to Azerbaijan Railways, establishment of joint venture on construction of Gazvin-Rasht-Astara railway and projection construction will be discussed at the meeting, which will last two days.Azerbaijan is represented by the delegation led by Deputy Chairman of the Azerbaijan Railways Igbal Huseynov. Final document is expected to be signed at the end of the event.Sukhumi regime acquired two planes 14:42 The puppet regime of Abkhazia has acquired two planes for development of civil aviation. Planes were delivered by Russian special design office Interavia. As it was stated by representative of the company Vladimir Maryan it is planned to establish production of these palnes directly on the territory of Abkhazia.Additionally, federation of aviation enthusiasts were established that will organize private flights in small single-seater and two-seater planes. Vladimir Maryan was chosen as president of the federation. Chief manager of the airport "Sukhumi" Vyacheslav Eshba became a deputy.According to the legislation of Georgia, Abkhazia is closed to international flights. According to the decision of the International Civil Aviation Organization, Sukhumi airport was stripped of international status. The Organization confirmed that it recognizes the territorial integrity of Georgia and single air space.Occupants conduct military exercises in the Tskhinvali region 11:50 The occupying troops of Russia are holding exercises in the Tskhinvali region together with local militants. According to the defence ministry of the puppet regime in Tskhinvali, five-day exercises aim at combat coordination of military units and law enforcement agencies. In addition to army units, soldiers of the border service of the Russian FSB and KGB of Tskhinvali are involved in exercises.Abkhazians will not be able to cross the Russian border using Soviet passports 13:26 From February 1st it will not be possible to cross the Abkhazian part of the Georgian-Russian border using passports with Soviet symbols. The decision was taken following negotiations between Sukhumi and the Russian Federation.According to the press centre of border agencies of the coast guard of the FSB of the Russian Federation, this change will affect a very small part of the population, as daily only two percent of the population cross the border using passports with Soviet symbols.As it was suggested in the department, this innovation will not change the situation on the border.Workers Trickle Out of Restive Egypt February 2011By Anatoly MedetskyEnergy companies LUKoil and Novatek are flying their employees out of strife-torn Egypt but say the evacuations won't affect operations in the country.Novatek planned to arrange a flight to take six employees out of Cairo on Monday, company spokesman Mikhail Lozovoi said. Russia's second largest gas producer maintains an office there for coordinating exploration of oil and gas reserves off Egypt's Mediterranean coast.“All work will continue” uninterrupted at the El-Arish area that Novatek is exploring in a 50-50 venture with Egypt's Tharwa Petroleum, Lozovoi said.LUKoil flew 15 people from Cairo to Dubai on Sunday, a company spokesman said, Interfax reported. That group, and one more employee who is working on an Egyptian production site, are scheduled to return to Moscow on Tuesday.LUKoil and its international partners, which include the Egyptian government and a unit of Italy's Eni, will do business as usual, producing oil from two fields that each hold a little more than 30 million barrels of oil. The West Esch El Mallaha field is on the Red Sea shore, near Hurghada, while the Meleiha field is in the middle of the Egyptian part of the Libyan Desert.Some other Russian companies that have offices in Egypt, such as software company Softline and satellite tracking firm Russian Navigation Technologies, rely on local staff and won't need to arrange evacuations, their spokespeople said.Russian students in Cairo appealed for evacuation Monday, saying they had to barricade themselves on the fourth floor of a dormitory to keep away marauders. The 120 students, including 50 people from the Bashkortostan republic, said they were running out of food, according to Bashkortostan presidential spokesman Artyom Valiyev, RIA-Novosti reported.Bashkortostan authorities have forwarded the plea to the Cabinet, the Foreign Ministry and the Emergency Situations Ministry, Valiyev said.Russian tourists in Egypt are safe and don't require any rescue measures, deputy Sports and Tourism Minister Nadezhda Nazina said Monday.“Judging from the information that comes from various sources, including special representatives of the Federal Tourism Agency … everything is quiet at the places where Russians are vacationing,” she said, Interfax reported.Russian officials nevertheless issued a sterner warning to travel agencies Sunday to stop sending tourists to the country, where more than 100 Egyptians have died in anti-government riots, she said. Agencies that don’t heed the instruction are in violation of the law, given the security threats there, she said.Egyptian Unrest Likely to Affect Moscow’s Position in North Caucasus, Markedonov Says 01, 2011Paul GobleVienna, January 31 – Many analysts have speculated that the events in Egypt, especially in the wake of the revolutionary events in Tunisia, will have affect other authoritarian regimes in the Arab world, but few have considered the ways in which these events may have an impact further afield, including on the Russian Federation.But in an essay posted on the portal today, Sergey Markedonov, one of Russia’s leading specialists on the North Caucasus, argues that “the Egyptian factor” is likely to have a significant impact on the evolution of events in that region, albeit in ways that many do not know suspect (article.asp?id=20744).That factor, the Russian analyst suggests, is likely to prove “particularly important” as far as the North Caucasus is concerned, as, Markedonov continues, “the terrorist attack on Domodedovo [Airport] demonstrates.” That is because an attack on that facility is an attack not only on Russian officialdom but on citizens of other countries.If terrorist actions in the North Caucasus have become so common as to be part of the background noise, the attack on Domodedovo is something that could not be ignored, Markedonov says. “The goal of such an action is obvious.” On the one hand, it is intended to show Russia’s inability to hold the 2014 Olympics and the 2018 Football Championship.But on the other hand – and Markedonov’s language suggests that he views this as the more important factor at least relative to the Egyptian events – the attack on Domodedovo is intended to show to the world that “the Caucasus jihad” has gone over to a general attack and that it has “the forces and resources needed to do every more.”Like his predecessors Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar Sadat, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has pursued a policy of modernization that has required him to take from Western sources many ideas an approaches, a borrowing that has made Egypt a more important power but only at the cost of exacerbating problems in Egyptian society.“The social-economic transformations [his policies have entailed ] have violated the traditional foundations of Eastern society,” a transgression that has led to “a fundamentalist reaction to innovations and to withdraw into its difference and ‘uniqueness’” and thus reject everything Western.From that, Markedonov continues, “Islamism is growing.” And despite Mubarak’s repressive regime, Egypt remains “one of the most serious centers of the jihadist movement,” something that means that those who are part of that movement elsewhere will attend to with utmost seriousness.That is all the more so because, the Russian analyst continues, “Egyptian Islamists support without reservation the supporters of analogous transformations in other Muslim countries and hope for the construction or more precisely the revival of a unified Islamic state, the khalifate.”And, Markedonov continues, “although for them the chief enemies are the United States, Israel and the secular Egyptian government, they also have negative feelings about Russia.” It is worth remembering that “about 40 percent of the Arab volunteers in the Afghan war agains thte Soviet Union were from Egypt.”Now, he continues, “the Egyptian Islamists accuse Russia not of communist atheism but of suppressing ‘brothers in the faith’ in Chechnya, Daghestan, and the North Caucasus in general.” And to that end, the Egyptian supporters of “’pure Islam’” provide “serious” support to their fellows in the North Caucasus.Many of the ideologues of the North Caucasus Islamists trace their ideas back to the Egyptian ideologist Said Kutb (1906-1966) who elaborated the doctrine of “jahilia,” according to which “true Muslims must struggle not only with ‘godless communism’ or ‘mercantile capitalism’ but also inside Muslim countries where the principles of the faith are distorted.”In fact, to this day, Islamists in the North Caucasus consider Kutb, who was executed by the Egyptian secular powers to be “one of the martyrs.”What is happening in Egypt now, Markedonov notes, is not the world of the Islamist element alone. It is a far broader phenomenon. But that very fact may have negative consequences for Russian power in the North Caucasus because as he points out “mass uprisings not infrequently throw overboard moderates” as events develop.Since it intervened in Chechnya in 1994, Moscow has sought to limit the adverse reaction in the Arab world. It has succeeded in part, but if things change in a major way in Egypt, Russian calculations in this regard may have to be changed, especially if events in Egypt lead to changes elsewhere.At the very least, “the fall of such a secular fortress as Egypt,” Markedonov concludes, “would create not a few new problems for Moscow” especially because Islamists in the North Caucasus will be watching what is taking place and drawing their own conclusions about what they can and should do next.Russia mulls direct flights to Kenya LABAN WANAMBISIUpdated 20 minutes ago NAIROBI, Kenya Feb 1 - Visiting Parliamentarians from Russia on Monday pledged to push for the introduction of direct flights between Nairobi and Moscow in a bid to boost bilateral trade.Speaking during a business forum with the National Assembly Speaker Kenneth Marende, the Deputy Chairman of the Russian Federation Council Svetlana Orlova said the lack of direct flights was the biggest hindrance to many Russian tourists who would like to visit Kenya.“The tourism sector is very important and when I get back to Russia, we will talk about it with the our Minister for Tourism, and what is also important is to also have flight from Moscow-Nairobi, Vladivostok-Nairobi, Khabarovsk- Nairobi and other Russian cities to bring tourists to Nairobi,” said the Deputy Chairman who is the equivalent of the Deputy Speaker in Kenya. She said that they also mulling to start the importation of Kenyan coffee and flowers.“We would have liked to see an aero float flying into Nairobi and Kenya Airways fly to Moscow but the necessary agreements have not been signed” Ms Orlova said. Speaker Marende said the move will greatly help bridge the balance of trade which currently stands at Sh7.5 billion in favour of Russia. “From the statistics that I have from my research, I have found that Russia has the highest number of billionaires in the world, so encourage them to visit Kenya. I also have information that they are among the world’s biggest spenders, Russians largely like to live well,” said Mr Marende.He urged the Russian MPs to consider direct sales of agricultural fertilizer to Kenyan farmers saying the middlemen had for long made the input expensive for the farmers.“Russia is supplying fertilizer to Kenya but is going through third parties we would like to see it coming to Kenya directly, it will help to improve our agricultural production,” he said.The Deputy Chairman said they are also planning to set up a fertilizer factory in Kenya. Ms Orlova said that Russian companies had expressed interest in undertaking several infrastructural projects such as the construction of the modern railway line, the Lamu Port and thermal and atomic energy projects.? The Russians also plan to establish a Cultural Institute in Kenya as part of boosting its 48 year relationship with the Kenya.Follow the author at unveils statue of ‘decisive’ Yeltsin President Dmitry Medvedev praised the country’s first post-Soviet leader, the late Boris Yeltsin, for his decisiveness and unveiled a statue to him in his Urals hometown of Yekaterinburg on Tuesday.“Present-day Russia should be grateful to President Yeltsin for the fact that, in our most difficult period, we did not sway from the path of change,” said Medvedev, speaking on what would have been Yeltsin’s 80th birthday.“He was a genuine leader,” he added. “He was very brave and never compromised on even insignificant, let alone significant, issues.”Medvedev also said today’s Russia was “down to Boris Yeltsin and all those who helped him form the basis for a new state.”Yeltsin, who has been both praised as a champion of democratic reforms and criticized for impoverishing millions of Russians, died of heart failure at the age of 76 on April 23, 2007. He was Russia's president from 1991-1999 and was succeeded by Vladimir Putin.YEKATERINBURG, February 1 (RIA Novosti)Dmitry Medvedev unveils monument to Yeltsin 1, 2011 06:17 Moscow TimeRussian President Dmitry Medvedev arrived in Yekaterinburg. There he will attend the opening ceremony of a monument to his predecessor Boris Yeltsin, who today would have turned 80 years old. The monument was erected on the street named in honor of Boris Yeltsin, the presidential center which is under construction near the center, also bears his name. According to the author of the work, the sculptor Georgy Frangulyan, the monument is composed of several pieces of marble weighing 15 tons each. The monuments height is about 10 meters. "This monument is not an obelisk, but a boulder in motion, which was Boris Nikolaevich, explained Frangulyan. During his visit to the Sverdlovsk region, President Medvedev will hold a meeting of the Presidential Council for the Promotion of Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights. On the same day the president will return to Moscow, ITAR-TASS.80th Anniversary Of Boris Yeltsin's Birth 01, 2011 February 1 is the 80th anniversary of the birth of Boris Yeltsin, the first president of the Russian Federation.The anniversary is being marked this week in Russia with a series of programs, exhibits and tributes, and current President Dmitry Medvedev is expected to visit Yekaterinburg, Yeltsin's home city in the Urals region, to take part in the unveiling of a monument to the former leader.Yeltsin served as president from 1991 until New Year's Eve in 1999, when he dramatically resigned, leaving the presidency to his chosen successor, then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.Yeltsin died of heart failure in April, 2007, at the age of 76.Yeltsin left behind a mixed legacy.?During his years?as leader, he?oversaw the dissolution of the Soviet Union, steered Russia toward democratic freedoms, and unleashed economic reforms aimed at transforming Russia into a free-market economy.? But his era as president was also marked by widespread corruption, economic collapse, the war in Chechnya, and a variety of other?political and social problems. He departed office with a public approval rating of below 10 percent.?RFE/RL’s Central NewsroomMedvedev, Naina Yeltsin attending monument unveiling ceremony, February 1 (Itar-Tass) -- President Dmitry Medvedev, who came to Yekaterinburg on Monday night, and Naina Yeltsin, widow of Boris Yeltsin, attended the ceremony of unveiling a monument to Boris Yeltsin, the first president of Russia. He would turn 80 on February 1. The monument was unveiled in the street, named after Yeltsin, near a presidential centre, which is under construction and which will also bear his name. According to Georgy Frangulyan, a sculptor, who is the author of the monument, it is made up of several marble blocks, each weighing 15 tons. The monument is 10 metres high. Speaking at the ceremony, Medvedev said that Russia should be grateful to Boris Yeltsin for the transformations he had put into effect, despite all difficulties. “Russia should be grateful to Yeltsin, because in the most difficult period the country did not deviate from the path of changes, implemented radical transformations and is now moving forward,” he said. “We have a modern country today, which is developing, although not without problems, and which is moving forward, and the credit for that should be given to Yeltsin and to all those who helped him build a new state,” Medvedev stressed. “The foundation, on which our country is being built, was laid at that time.” Medvedev pointed to the fact that the first president of any country was sure to meet major difficulties. “The first president should resolve most complicated problems, including the changing of the state system. This is what Boris Yeltsin had to do,” he said. “We all were looking forward to great changes – the changing of the economic system and of the political set-up, but no one expected the process to be so dramatic. This is what Boris Nikolayevich had to face,” Medvedev continued. The process was dramatic, but the reforms were implemented anyway, he added. Medvedev described the unveiling of the monument to Yeltsin as “a memorable event in the life of our country.” “Boris Nikolayevich loved this country and was part of it. He was a strong man, a man of decision, who never accepted compromises and always tried to secure the support for his stand. This is not easy, but in certain situations this is absolutely necessary,” the President said. “Yeltsin’s strength helped us live through a difficult period, when the foundation of Russia’s statehood was being created. The monument expresses determination and will – the traits, which were most characteristic of Boris Yeltsin, a citizen of the Russian Federation,” Medvedev said, pointing to the monument. After ending his speech, the President laid a bunch of dark red roses at the foot of the monument. Yeltsin: epitome of 1990s Russia remembered: 1 February, 2011, 09:58Edited: 1 February, 2011, 11:10 Russia is marking the 80th birthday of the man who took Perestroika to another level when the Soviet Union dissolved - Boris Yeltsin.Four years after his death, the first President of Russia is remembered for his reforms, free market aspirations and privatization policies.Yeltsin’s 80th birthday is being celebrated with much greater pomp than his 70th – a whole series of events are planned throughout the country: rock concerts, a tennis [Yeltsin’s favorite game] tournament for children to name just a few. Certainly the main event is Tuesday’s unveiling of a white marble obelisk dedicate to him in Ekaterinburg where he lived for most of his life. It was in Ekaterinburg that he gained a university degree and got married. He advanced through the Communist Party ranks up to the very top. The only other Yeltsin monument is on his grave at Novodevichy cemetery.A Boris Yeltsin memorial center has also been opened – a tradition borrowed from the US, where there is a wide net of presidential libraries dedicated to the legacies of former presidents. The Yeltsin center will be dedicated to the promotion of civil society and human rights.Boris Yeltsin will always remain a very polarizing figure for Russian society. He is generally credited for bringing democracy to Russia. Both of his successors, Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev commended him for making Russian democracy irreversible. He was also known for overseeing a major transition of the world’s largest command economy into a free market but all of his reforms came at a very high price for Russia.During his rule, Russia’s external debt increased by 60 per cent and the suicide rate increased by 70 per cent. For most Russia’s citizens the transition period turned into a nightmare. Yeltsin is blamed for not preventing the collapse of the Soviet Union, something that the overwhelming majority of citizens were against and voted against during a specially organized referendum. For most people the blow of the reforms was too hard and Yeltsin was blamed for not softening it.The latest polls suggest that as time goes by Russians tend to forget the bad and are growing a little bit more sympathetic for the first Russian president.According to the Levada-center, an independent polling organization, the number of those who viewed Yeltsin’s legacy in a negative light has decreased from some 60 per cent in 2000 to 35 per cent in 2011, while the percentage of positive opinions about his reforms has correspondingly grown.The current President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, attended the monument’s unveiling ceremony and will be presiding during a meeting of a council dedicated to civil society and human rights.Boris Yeltsin himself never doubted he would live to celebrate his 100th birthday but instead his widow has to fight back tears while opening an exhibition timed to what would have been his 80th birthday.In nearly four years since Boris Yeltsin's death, the agony of loss has given way to quiet remembrance.“He really liked family gatherings, birthdays. We usually celebrated with our daughters,” remembers the first president’s widow Naina Yeltsina.Most of the photos exhibited at a photographic exhibition coinciding with the anniversary show Yeltsin in his early years in power when he had the backing of almost the entire country. When voicing your political position was still an act of novelty and courage and when hopes of a different life in a better country were still untainted by the harsh reality.The war in Chechnya, which Yeltsin himself admitted was a mistake, the banking crisis that would cripple the already impoverished population?– all that would come later. And as some argue, would unfairly obscure all the good that Yeltsin had done.Yeltsin's press secretary Sergey Yastrzhembsky believes that “Anything large is better perceived from a distance, especially in history. I think we still need more time for the emotions and trifles to give way to serious analysis of what a titanic figure Yeltsin really was.”Vladimir Shevchenko served as his head of protocol for more than eight years.And while Yeltsin's explosive character and unpredictable temperament often contravened the dry rules of diplomatic engagement, Vladimir says he had never had a better boss.“He never thwarted a single event and he was never late. But emotionally he could be absolutely unpredictable and do what no one expected him to do like his famous conducting of an orchestra, for example,” Vladimir Shevchenko, head of Yeltsin's protocol, remembers. “And again, he was overwhelmed by emotions. He turned his head and saw that Shevchenko was the only one who was objecting and dragging him away. All the other people around him were applauding.”He was ushered into power by the great hopes of his people and left office full of regret for not fulfilling all of them. And it was only after Yeltsin passed away that his country could start to examine his legacy in all its complexity.Boris Yeltsin's 70th birthday was celebrated with far fewer accolades. But one decade later even those who used to criticize him very harshly are growing a bit more gracious in their assessment of his character and his policies because even they have also come to realize that, with all his ups and downs, Yeltsin was the very epitome of Russia in the 1990s.Medvedev urges to develop non-profit organizations helping kids, February 1 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev considers it right to develop non-profit organizations, which help children in Russia. “The principles of these activities are not generally recognized in our country, but it is a very good work,” the president said during a visit to the Pelican educational non-profit organization on Tuesday. At this former kindergarten the kids from one to seven years old study several times a week. These children got in trouble or have some disabilities. Social adaptation classes and gym trainings are held for elder children at the Pelican educational center. The parents and guardians of children do not pay for their studies and the educational center is funded from donations of other organizations and people. The president also gave the assistance to the Pelican center. Medvedev presented to Pelican Director Zoya Glukhikh a certificate for the equipment in the so-called sensor psychological aid room. “I hope that this room will help someone,” the president noted. Medvedev thanked educators and assistants of the educational center that “are doing a very important business.” “This is what we call the civil society,” the president said with confidence. Zoya Glukhikh said that the Pelican center had been working already for 14 years and helps various children with heavy diseases and those who were exposed to violence from their agemates and from socially unfavorable and incomplete families. “All children are different, but our task is to prepare them for the adult life so that their disabilities would not be exposed,” she pointed out. The director also emphasized that the Pelican center is planning to launch a new project based on the experience of the French city of Marseille in order to arrange late evening studies so that “teenagers were not going idle in the street.” “To attract them here you should offer something very interesting,” Medvedev recommended. Glukhikh pledged that children will be interested in judo and tennis training and “in just interesting talking.” The president attended the studies of several groups of children. Primary school pupils were listening to a story about three Russian fairytale knights, three-year-old kids “were building” the toy railway, while their agemates were assembling airplanes from geometric pieces. The children were so engaged in their studies so that they did not distract from their studies for a visit of the high-ranking guest. “People are sitting, working and are not giving attention to me. Good fellows, it should be this way!” the president praised the children. British embassy says 'no comments' on Luzhkov residence permit 01/02/2011MOSCOW, February 1 (RIA Novosti) - The British Embassy in Moscow has refused to comment on media reports that former Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov has been granted a residence permit in Britain."As a rule, we give no information on private cases for granted visas or residence permits in the United Kingdom," a spokesperson for the embassy said.A number of media sources earlier reported that Luzhkov had filed a request for a British visa and residence permit. In late October, Luzhkov was allegedly spotted lining up for a visa at the British Embassy in Moscow.Speculation mounted that Luzhkov could soon join a group of Russia's super-rich currently living in London, including Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky and Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich.Media reports said Luzhkov's wife, Yelena Baturina, dubbed Russia's richest woman by Forbes magazine, purchased the biggest house in London after Buckingham Palace for an estimated $100 million.Luzhkov earlier requested a Latvian residence permit, but was denied by Latvian authorities. Latvia's interior minister placed the embattled former Moscow mayor on a blacklist of people whose presence in the country is "undesirable."Russian President Dmitry Medvedev fired Luzhkov, who had been in office since 1992, last fall over "loss of confidence," later citing exuberant corruption in Moscow and negligence of direct duties the main reasons for the dismissal.Nezavisimaya: Moscow and Delhi are interested in a high-tech partnership: 1 February, 2011, 06:22Edited: 1 February, 2011, 06:25 Nikolay SurkovRussia and India will expand partnership in the sphere of high technologies, Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Ivanov said during yesterday’s bilateral business forum in Moscow. This idea was supported by the Chief Advisor to the PM of India, T.K.A. Nair, who was present at the meeting. Aside from the defense and nuclear power industries, the main focus areas of such cooperation are expected to be pharmaceuticals and IT-technologies. ?According to Ivanov, India is one of the few countries with which Russia continues to work together in the sphere of high technologies, aircraft engineering, space navigation, nuclear power, and other sectors. And despite the fact that the total volume of trade turnover is smaller than with such countries as Germany, it’s important that more than half of Russia’s exports to India continue to be high-tech production with high added value. Meanwhile, the share of exported energy products is fairly small. The development of trade and economic relations is promoted by the similarity of objectives facing Russia and India – to accelerate post-crisis production and become leaders in the global economy.? ?The deputy prime minister added that the strategic goal in the relations of the two states is to increase the annual trade turnover from $9 to $20 billion by 2020. In order to do that, it is necessary to diversify bilateral economic ties mainly through high-tech industries. Currently, the most promising fields are information technologies and the pharmaceutical industry. ?While speaking about partnership in the pharmaceutical industry, Ivanov recalled that he is not only talking about India’s drug supplies to Russia, but also about establishment of a joint enterprise, cooperation in research and personnel training. He underlined that the Russian government is interested in creating new enterprises with a deep level of processing of raw materials on Russian territory.? ?While talking about other areas of bilateral cooperation, the deputy head of government cited the plans for the joint civilian use of the GLONASS system and production of equipment for the system, as an example. Partnership in the production of microchips and telecommunications equipment is also developing.? ?NG asked one of the key participants in yesterday’s forum, NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Services Companies) Chairman Harsh Manglik to present India’s approach to development of cooperation in the field of information technologies. In his opinion, there are a number of promising areas for such cooperation: “One very important area is engineering services. Russia has the technological base and great potential in this field. I was also very impressed with the development level of mathematics education in your country. This is very important for a number of new information technologies. Now, the analytical area of focus in IT is being actively developed. Mathematical capabilities will be needed here in order to understand the implications of the existing array of information”.??? ?NG’s interlocutor indicated another promising area – interactive medicine, the development of which will allow people to receive expedited medical care over the Internet, without ever leaving home. “It is also necessary to mention such area as e-government, taxation, and organization of the state apparatus. This is something that currently interests the Russian authorities,” added Mr. Manglik. The question of why India is interested in working specifically with Russia, the NASSCOM chairman answered as follows: “Specifically in our sphere, some of the key demands are talent, people’s abilities and their intellectual potential. In addition to talent, there needs to be qualification. Russia has all this. We, in turn, are offering the experience in developing the IT-industry, ready-made business models, and client interaction schemes. Thus each partner has their own strengths that complete each-other. Moreover, one cannot disregard the long history of partnership between the two countries – thanks to which we better understand one another and are able to more easily find a common ground”.Russia's first Graney-class nuke attack sub to begin sea trials in May (BNS): Russia's first Graney class nuclear attack submarine, Severodvinsk, is set to begin sea trials in May following which it will be inducted in the Russian Navy by 2011-end.The submarine, which was floated out in June 2010 after over a decade-long delay in its construction, is presently undergoing harbour trials at the Sevmash Shipyard, an official said."The submarine is undergoing harbour trials at the Sevmash Shipyard and is getting ready for sea trials in May," a spokesman for the Malakhit design bureau said."It should enter service with the Russian Navy by the end of this year," the official was quoted as saying by Ria Novosti.Russia began the construction of Severodvinsk in 1993 which was scheduled to be completed by 1998. However, financial and technical snags delayed the project. The new-generation submarine has a water displacement of 9,700 tons when surfaced and 13,500 tons when submerged.The large vessel is capable of carrying 24 cruise missiles that include the 3M51 Alfa SLCM, the SS-NX-26 Oniks SLCM or SS-N-21 Granat/Sampson SLCM, and also anti-ship missiles such as the SS-N-16 Stallion. It is also equipped with eight torpedo launchers. Severodvinsk is the first Graney class (Project 885 Yasen) nuclear attack submarine. Another vessel of this class, Kazan, is presently under construction.The Graney-class nuclear attack submarines are based on Russia's Akula-class and Alfa-class submarines. They are slated to replace the Soviet-era Akula class and Oscar class subs of the navy.DATE:01/02/11SOURCE:Flight InternationalAmbitious programmes underline future of HAL Greg WaldronHindustan?Aeronautics' sprawling Bangalore production facility must be among the world's most exotic aircraft factories. Palm trees shroud colonial-style buildings dating from before the Second World War, when the company that ultimately became HAL was born, in 1940, to produce military aircraft for the former Royal Indian Air Force. The place has an old-world, relaxed feel that, to a casual observer, would seem at variance with the company's ambitious aircraft and helicopter programmes.Although private-sector firms are making inroads into India's aviation sector, government-owned HAL is still by far the dominant player, particularly in military aviation. Across seven locations in India, the company has 19 production units and nine research and design centres. It produces 14 aircraft under licence and 12 types that are developed indigenously. HAL also plays a key role in India's space programme."We have plans and strategies to put ourselves in the big league of global companies in the aerospace vertical," says chairman Ashok Nayak. "Initiatives like research and development, export promotion, technology upgrading, lean manufacturing, and a focus on the customer have been identified as thrust areas."HAL introduced various new types of aircraft in 2010, most notably its light combat helicopter technology demonstrator.In what is likely to result in HAL's most ambitious programme to date, India and Russia in December signed a preliminary design contract for India's fifth-generation fighter aircraft, a variant of the Sukhoi PAK FA demonstrator, which first flew in January 2010. Nayak values this initial contract at $295 million. During its 18-month term, Indian designers will work with Sukhoi designers in Russia, building in Indian requirements for the variant. MAJOR DESIGN ROLEHAL will play a major part in the evolution of the PAK FA into the fifth-generation fighter and will eventually manufacture the aircraft in India. The project is a new step for HAL because although it has built types such as the Sukhoi Su-30MKI, Sepecat Jaguar, BAE Systems Hawk and Mikoyan MiG-21 under licence, this is its first opportunity to play a major design role at such an early stage of a high-profile international fighter programme.Sukhoi says design elements of the aircraft include the use of composite materials, advanced aerodynamic techniques and measures to reduce the engine signature, which it claims results in an "unprecedented small radar cross-section in radar, optical and infrared range". The PAK FA also has an advanced phased-array antenna radar, says Sukhoi. Russia's Tikhomirov NIIP displayed an active electronically scanned array design for the fighter at the 2009 Moscow MAKS air show.Asked whether India is coming to the project relatively late - the PAK FA prototype has so far logged about 40 test missions - Nayak says the fifth-generation fighter could be "far different from what is flying today". The next PAK FA will also have a more advanced engine, he points out. The current PAK FA is powered by two NPO Saturn "item 117" engines.The PAK FA agreement came just months after another major deal with Russia's United Aircraft (UAC) and Rosoboronexport to co-develop and co-produce a new multi-role transport aircraft (MTA). At the time of the launch, HAL said the MTA would have a payload capacity of 15-20t, which meets the requirements of both the Indian and Russian air forces.About $600 million will be spent on developing the aircraft, with India and Russia investing equally and HAL and UAC splitting workshare 50:50. The firms plan to make 205 of the aircraft, which will have a cruise speed of 430kt (800km/h), a range of up to 1,460nm (2,700km) and a service ceiling of 39,400ft (12,000m). The twin-engine MTA will have "state-of-the-art features such as fly-by-wire, full-authority digital engine control, modern avionics and glass cockpit", says HAL.HAL is also producing 180 Su-30MKIs. About 100 have been built, and HAL expects an order for 42 more, taking the total production run to more than 220 aircraft. Under an arrangement with BAE, HAL is producing 42 Hawk 132 advanced jet trainers. These are part of a 66-aircraft order placed by the Indian government in 2004 after a two-decade procurement process. The first 24 aircraft were bought as flyaways. Of the HAL-produced Hawks, "a good number" are in Indian air force service, says Nayak.More Hawks are in the pipeline. Last July, India signed a deal worth more than ?700 million ($1 billion) to acquire a further batch of 57 Hawk 132s, to be produced under licence at HAL's Bangalore factory. BAE said that under the deal, it would provide "specialist engineering services, the raw materials and equipment for airframe production and the support package for the air force and Indian navy end-users", and its involvement will be worth over ?500 million. The air force will receive 40 of the Rolls-Royce Turbomeca Adour 871-powered aircraft, and the navy will get 17.HAL is also gearing up to produce India's Tejas light combat aircraft. After a year of milestones in 2010, by when the fighter had completed 1,450 test flights, the Tejas Mk I received initial operational clearance in January. "Any export opportunity will be looked at after induction by the Indian defence forces," says Nayak. "Tejas has the potential for exports."Apart from the company's various fixed-wing projects, Nayak also sees growth in helicopters. Rotorcraft comprise just 5-6% of HAL's total business, but Nayak expects this to grow to 20-25% over the next decade. HAL's Helicopter Complex division brings together its rotorcraft design, development and manufacturing activities. Its offerings include a light observation helicopter that the company is developing, the Dhruv advanced light helicopter, and the ambitious new Light Combat Helicopter (LCH). An LCH prototype first flew in March last year after years of delays. A mock-up first appeared at the 2007 Aero India show, and HAL says the prototype will fly at this year's event.The 5.5t LCH is a derivative of the Dhruv, with France's Turbomeca involved in developing its Shakti engines. HAL foresees a number of missions for the two-seater helicopter, including air defence against slow-moving aerial targets, suppression of enemy air defences, scouting, and anti-tank missions. The LCH has stealth features, a glass cockpit and armour protection. Its 20mm cannon and sensors are slaved to the gunner's helmet.FLIGHT EVALUATIONNayak says development testing of the LCH is proceeding well, and two more prototypes are being built to speed up the flight evaluation process. He expects certification of the LCH in 2012, with production to start in 2013.Helicopters also seem particularly important as HAL looks beyond India for sales. Its export efforts are focused mainly on the Dhruv, Cheetah (HAL's version of the Lama SA315), and Chetak seven-seat multirole helicopter. Despite HAL's long history as India's premier aviation company, it faces many challenges. Developing countries such as China, Turkey and South Korea are eager to advance their own aviation sectors, and are determined to build their export orderbooks. HAL will also face greater competition from Indian private-sector firms such as Tata Aerospace, Mahindra Aerospace and Taneja Aerospace. But Nayak says: "The history of HAL is synonymous with the growth of India's aeronautical industry. Our mission is to become a global player and to achieve self-reliance in aerospace design and manufacturing." Russian crime gangs discussed during Asia-Pacific summit 31st, 2011 1:41 pm ETA delegation from the Russian government?took part in a?conference of the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum, which opened?last week?in Ulan Bator, Mongolia. It brought?together parliamentarians from 27 countries of that region. The sessions?highlighted issues of politics and security in the region, as well as economic cooperation and integration.The Russian delegation intends to prepare and propose a resolution relating to combating terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime.In the two decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the world has become the target of a growing global crime threat from criminal organizations and criminal activities that have poured over the borders of Russia and other former Soviet republics such as Ukraine. The nature and variety of the crimes being committed seem unlimited — trafficking in women and children, drugs, arms trafficking, stolen automobiles, and money laundering are among the most prevalent.?The spillover is particularly troubling to Europe because of its geographical proximity to Russia, and to Israel, because of its large number of Russian immigrants. But no area of the world seems immune to this menace, especially not the United States. America is the land of opportunity for unloading criminal goods and laundering dirty money. For that reason — and because, unfortunately, much of the examination of Russian organized crime (the so-called "Russian Mafia") to date has been rather hyperbolic and sketchy — many in law enforcement believe it is important to step back and take an objective look at this growing phenomenon.?As in the United States, there is no universally accepted definition of organized crime in Russia, in major part because Russian law provides no legal definition of organized crime. Analysis of criminological sources, however, enables one to identify some of its basic characteristics. These include organizational features that make Russian organized crime unique in the degree to which it is embedded in the post-Soviet political system.?At the same time, however, it has certain features in common with such other well-known varieties of organized crime as the Italian Mafia. The latter has a complicated history that includes both cooperation and conflict with the Italian state. Much more than was ever the case with the Italian Mafia, however, Russian organized crime is uniquely a descendant of the Soviet state.?Russian organized crime has come to plague many areas of the globe since the demise of the Soviet Union just more than a decade ago. The transnational character of Russian organized crime, when coupled with its high degree of sophistication and ruthlessness, has attracted the world's attention and concern to what has become known as a global Russian Mafia. Along with this concern, however, has come a fair amount of misunderstanding and stereotyping with respect to Russian organized crime.?Trafficking is almost always a form of organized crime and should be dealt with using criminal powers to investigate and prosecute offenders for trafficking and any other criminal activities in which they engage. Trafficked persons should also be seen as victims of crime. Support and protection of victims is a humanitarian objective and an important means of ensuring that victims are willing and able to assist in criminal cases. As with other forms of organized crime, trafficking has globalized.?Groups formerly active in specific routes or regions have expanded the geographical scope of their activities to explore new markets. Some have merged or formed cooperative relationships, expanding their geographical reach and range of criminal activities. Illegal migrants and trafficking victims have become another commodity in a larger realm of criminal commerce involving other commodities, such as narcotic drugs and firearms or weapons and money laundering, that generate illicit revenues or seek to reduce risks for traffickers.?With respect to organized crime, certain geographical or infrastructure characteristics, such as the presence of seaports, international airports, strategic border locations, rich natural resources, and so on, provide special criminal opportunities that can best be exploited by criminals who are organized. More so than common crime, organized crime is fed by the presence of ethnic minorities who furnish a ready supply of both victims and the offenders to victimize them. Organized crime also thrives in environments characterized by a relatively high tolerance of deviance and a romanticization of crime figures, especially where government and law enforcement are weak or corrupt (the history of the Sicilian Mafia illustrates this).?THE RUSSIAN MOB?Russia is one of those unfortunate countries that has the receptive environment in which organized crime thrives. Organized crime is deeply rooted in the 400-year history of Russia's peculiar administrative bureaucracy, but it was especially shaped into its current form during the seven decades of Soviet hegemony that ended in 1991. This ancestry helps to explain the pervasiveness of organized crime in today's Russia and its close merger with the political system. Organized crime in Russia is an institutionalized part of the political and economic environment. It cannot, therefore, be fully understood without first understanding its place in the context of the Russian political and economic system.?Unlike Colombian, Italian, Mexican, or other well-known forms of organized crime, Soviet organized crime was not primarily based on ethnic or family structures. To help understand the difference, we can look to the history of organized crime in the United States for a contrasting portrait. As a number of scholars have pointed out, organized crime provided a "crooked ladder of upward mobility" for some immigrants to the United States. Certain immigrants — sharing a common ethnicity, culture, and language, and, being on the bottom rung of the socioeconomic ladder, either having legitimate opportunities for advancement closed to them or rejecting the opportunities that were available — have turned to crime, and specifically organized crime, to get ahead.?Because organized crime is made up of criminals who conspire to carry out illegal acts, a degree of trust is necessary among those criminals. Co-conspirators must be able to trust that their collaborators will not talk to the police or to anyone who might talk to the police, and that they will not cheat them out of their money. A shared ethnicity, with its common language, background, and culture, has historically been a foundation for trust among organized crime figures.?Yet ethnicity did not play the significant role in Soviet organized crime that it played in the United States. Instead, the Soviet prison system, in many ways, fulfilled functions that were satisfied by shared ethnicity in the United States. In the Soviet Union, a professional criminal class developed in Soviet prisons during the Stalinist period that began in 1924 — the era of the gulag. These criminals adopted behaviors, rules, values, and sanctions that bound them together in what was called the thieves' world, led by the elite criminals who lived according to the "thieves' law." This thieves' world created and maintained the bonds and climate of trust necessary for carrying out organized crime.?Organized crime in the Soviet era consists of illegal enterprises with both legal and black-market connections that were based on the misuse of state property and funds. It is most important to recognize that the blurring of the distinction between the licit and the illicit is also a trademark of post-Soviet organized crime that shows its ancestry with the old Soviet state and its command-economy system. This, in turn, has direct political implications. The historical symbiosis with the state makes Russian organized crime virtually an inalienable part of the state. As this has continued into the present, some would say it has become an engine of the state that works at all levels of the Russian government.?Contemporary Russian organized crime grew out of the Soviet "nomenklatura" system (the government's organizational structure and high-level officials) in which some individual "apparatchiks" (government bureaucrats) developed mutually beneficial personal relationships with the thieves' world. The top of the pyramid of organized crime during the Soviet period was made up of the Communist Party and state officials who abused their positions of power and authority. Economic activities ranged across a spectrum of markets — white, gray, black, and criminal. These markets were roughly defined by whether the goods and services being provided were legal, legal but regulated, or illegal, and by whether the system for providing them was likewise legal, legal but regulated, or illegal. The criminals operated on the illegal end of this spectrum. Tribute gained from black markets and criminal activities was passed up a three-tiered pyramid to the nomenklatura, and the nomenklatura itself (some 1.5 million people) had a vast internal system of rewards and punishments. The giant state apparatus thus not only allowed criminal activity, but encouraged, facilitated, and protected it, because the apparatus itself benefited from crime.?These sorts of relationships provided the original nexus between organized crime and the government. From these beginnings, organized crime in Russia evolved to its present ambiguous position of being both in direct collaboration with the state and, at the same time, in conflict with it.?Sources:US Department of JusticeUnited Nations ProtocolsNational Criminal Justice Reference ServiceNational Association of Chiefs of PoliceDepartment of Homeland Security ?Jim Kouri, CPP, formerly Fifth Vice-President, is currently a Board Member of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and he's a columnist for and New Media Alliance ().? In addition, he's a blogger for the Cheyenne, Wyoming Fox News Radio affiliate KGAB (). Kouri also serves as political advisor for Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor Michael Moriarty.? He's former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed "Crack City" by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university and director of security for several major organizations.? He's also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country. ? Kouri writes for many police and security magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer and others. He's a news writer and columnist for , , , and he's syndicated by . ? Kouri appears regularly as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Fox News Channel, Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, etc.?To subscribe to Kouri's newsletter write to COPmagazine@ and write "Subscription" on the subject line.Russia's Black Sea Fleet, South Stream and Somali Pirates 31, 2011 - 6:12pm, by Joshua Kucera Over the past couple of years Russia has announced a major overhaul of the vessels in its Black Sea Fleet, and secured long-term basing rights to keep the fleet in Sevastopol, on Ukraine's Crimean coast. But one question has remained throughout this process: what's the point? The Black Sea is no longer a front line between the Soviets and NATO, and the security issues in the sea are very modest. The fleet was used, of course, in the Russia-Georgia war in 2008, but its role was hardly decisive. Dmitry Gorenburg -- whose writings on Russian naval affairs are a must-read -- flags an analysis piece (in Russian) by a Russian writer, Mikhail Lukanin, who interprets all the recent Russian naval modernization plans to divine a Russian grand strategy. Globally, the moves indicate a shift away from considering the U.S. as the enemy, and a greater orientation towards Russia. Gorenburg writes:Based on its shipbuilding plans, Russia no longer considers the US an opponent. Instead of ships aimed at destroying US attack submarines and aircraft carriers, Russia plans to build smaller multipurpose ships such as frigates and corvettes.Furthermore, ship building plans indicate that in the coming years, the Pacific Fleet will become the most important Russian fleet, taking over from the Northern Fleet. Its main mission will be to deter potential Chinese aggression against Russia. It could also be used in the event of a conflict with Japan over the Kuril Islands, though I can’t imagine that how that dispute could lead to an armed conflict. Because of the priority given to this fleet, the first of the newly purchased Mistral ships will go to the Pacific Fleet.And for the Black Sea Fleet? The missions will be protecting pipelines and combating piracy. Lukanin:Nevertheless, the Black Sea Fleet today performs two important functions of control and protection of the South Stream pipeline. In addition, one of the "Mistrals" will be assigned to the Black Sea Fleet, which will be tasked with the fight against Somali pirates.Georgia isn't included, and the other Black Sea littoral states aren't even mentioned. That doesn't mean Russia's giving up the fight in the sea -- but that it just doesn't need much of a naval force to defend it. Pointing out that in the 2008 war, seven NATO ships entered the Black Sea, Lukanin notes: "According to experts, they could easily be destroyed by our ground-attack aircraft, as the ships were desperately close to our military bases."Anyway, 18 ships seems a bit excessive to defend the South Stream pipeline and to hunt Somali pirates. My guess: it's just bureaucratic inertia from the days of the Cold War, the same reason the U.S. still has bases in Germany and Japan.Bombs planted six months ago found at hydro dam: 1 February, 2011, 11:40Edited: 1 February, 2011, 11:55 Engineers repairing the Irganayskaya hydropower plant in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan have discovered two improvised explosive devices. They may have been planted last September and failed to detonate.The two bombs made of TNT empowered with aluminum powder were hidden in a turbine, which had been out of order for six months. Explosives engineers have disarmed the devices.Dagestani police told Interfax news agency that the alarming find may be linked to a failed bombing attempt on September 8. Back then, a fire started in the turbine. Firefighters traced it to a planted bomb, which did not detonate on triggering. The turbine was damaged and had been in the process of repair ever since.GOOGLE TRANSLATIONAttack on Irganayskaya HPP prevented in Dagestan – two bombs defused in one of the turbines 01.02.2011, 08.57 ?? MAKHACHKALA, February 1. Itar-Tass. In Dagestan, on Irganayskaya HPP on Monday prevented the attack, Itar-Tass in law enforcement structures of the republic. In the turbine shaft number 1 in the planned renovations were discovered two explosive devices. "Yesterday about 10 am it was discovered polymer package with wires sticking out of it, in which there were two 400-gram TNT block, reinforced with a mixture of aluminum powder weighing 1.5 kg, with electric detonators, - said the source. - Around 16:15 MSK in same turbine was found a cardboard box in which there were four 200-gram TNT charge, 200 g of plastic, aluminum powder and an electric wrapped in duct tape. " Both dangerous findings were neutralized by sappers.2 fighters wiped out in special operation in Dagestan 1, 2011 10:31 Moscow TimeTwo rebel fighters have been wiped out in a special operation in Dagestan. The ITAR-TASS news agency quotes the National Antiterrorist Committee as saying that the extremists were blocked in a private house on the outskirts of Makhachkala. The antiterrorist operation was launched there at 7 a.m. today. The commandoes tried to persuade the militants to surrender but the latter chose to escape. According to the law enforcement agencies, the killed fighters were involved in murders of policemen and civilians. ??February 01, 2011 10:44Anonymous bomb scare false - Moscow law enforcement. Feb 1 (Interfax) - The anonymous calls to Moscow police on Tuesday about bombs, allegedly planted at vital facilities throughout the city, were false, a law enforcement source told Interfax."Several calls were received about bombs allegedly planted in the Botkinskaya Hospital, State Duma and the Aktyor Gallery on Pushkinskaya Square," he said.Emergency services checked the places, he said, adding that, "the calls were not confirmed."sd mjWashington 'troubled' by arrests of protesters in Russia 01/02/2011The United States has voiced concerns over detentions of opposition protestors in Moscow, saying the move amounts to the "intimidation" of peaceful protesters."The United States is troubled by reports that dozens of people were detained in Moscow and other cities around Russia in connection with "Strategy 31" demonstrations," National Security Council Spokesman Tommy Vietor said.Russian opposition and human rights activists rally on the last day of every month with 31 days in honor of Article 31 of the Russian Constitution, which guarantees freedom of assembly.Opposition leader Eduard Limonov and his supporters held protests around an officially sanctioned rally at Moscow's downtown Triumfalnaya Square on Monday after their application to hold a separate rally was rejected. Limonov and twenty of his backers were subsequently detained.Limonov and his supporters were later released."These steps amount to intimidation of those who choose to exercise their fundamental rights as citizens, enshrined in the Russian constitution and in its international commitments," Vietor said.Vietor said the latest events run counter to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's recent comments on widening the political spectrum and urged Russia to "act to safeguard the fundamental freedoms of expression and assembly for all citizens."Washington also expressed concern over reports that the detainees were "mistreated" and "beaten" by police. Moscow police denied the accusations and said the activists were detained as they attempted to block entry to the sanctioned protest.WASHINGTON, February 1 (RIA Novosti)US raises concern over arrest of protesters in Russia February 2011 Last updated at 07:32 GMTThe United States is expressing concern about the way Russia is treating opposition protesters following the arrest of dozens of demonstrators who had been demanding the ousting of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Boris Nemtsov, the former Deputy Prime Minister, compared him to Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak and accused Mr Putin of allowing corruption to pervade the corridors of power in Moscow, as Jack Izzard reports.Police releases detained in Moscow opposition leader Limonov released Russian opposition leader Eduard Limonov, who was detained during an unsanctioned rally at Moscow's downtown Triumfalnaya Square on Monday, a spokesman for the Moscow police said on Tuesday.Opposition and human rights activists rally on the last day of every month with 31 days in honor of Article 31 of the Russian Constitution, which guarantees freedom of assembly."Limonov, detained during the unsanctioned rally at Triumfalnaya Square, was taken to a police department, where an administrative protocol was filled out on him. After that he and other detainees were allowed to go home," the spokesman said.He added that the administrative protocol would be later forwarded to a Moscow court.Rights activists led by Moscow Helsinki Group head Lyudmila Alexeyeva applied for a 1,500-strong rally, but the authorities allowed only 1,000 to participate.All in all, the sanctioned rally on Triumfalnaya Square gathered 500 people, as well as another 150 journalists. Some 2,000 police and security force personnel were deployed near Triumfalnaya Square.The protest passed calmly, but upon its completion, several dozen backers of Limonov's Other Russia party tried to hold their own unsanctioned protest near the square.Twenty of them, including Limonov, were detained, Moscow police spokesman Viktor Biryukov said.MOSCOW, February 1 (RIA Novosti)In Moscow, a victory for protesters' rights Kathy LallyWashington Post Foreign ServiceTuesday, February 1, 2011; A06 MOSCOW - Protesters gathered here at Triumphant Square on Monday night and quickly declared themselves victorious, despite their small numbers: They had won permission to demonstrate for the third time, hardly anyone was arrested and they were not as desperate as Egyptians. Opposition leader Boris Nemtsov told about 500 demonstrators rallying in support of freedom of assembly on the square outside the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall that it took 30 years for Egyptians to lose patience with President Hosni Mubarak. Russians, he said, have had only 12 years of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. "Revolutions are not for Russia," said Nemtsov, who spent 15 days in jail after being arrested at a similar demonstration on New Year's Eve. "Our main aim is free elections. We want Putin to go away - peacefully." The protest was led by 83-year-old Ludmilla Alexeyeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, and attended by a smattering of young people along with numerous middle-aged and elderly people, some making their way painfully by cane. Police officers surrounded them - 2,000 had been deployed - and looked intimidating, many in bulletproof vests and helmets, standing shoulder to shoulder and two deep around much of the square. They had brought a fleet of buses, ready to fill with law-breakers. "This is our only way to tell the authorities what we think," Alexeyeva said in a raspy voice, standing on the back of an open-sided-truck-cum-platform. Victory, she said, lay in being able to demonstrate legally. This was the third time the protesters had received a city permit to rally, with other demonstrations held Oct. 31 and Dec. 31 in honor of Article 31 of the constitution, which guarantees freedom of assembly. A year ago, police arrested Alexeyeva and carted her off to jail when she dared to demonstrate without a permit. Although the city had granted permission for 1,000 demonstrators Monday, only about 500 made it to the square. One organizer said police had stopped allowing people through the metal detectors at the only two entranceways into the square before it was filled. After the police arrested Nemtsov and others as they were leaving the Dec. 31 rally, opposition leaders said they feared authorities were trying to intimidate people into staying away from protests. About 20 members of the extreme leftist Other Russia Party, who had earlier said its members would gather outside the permitted area, were arrested Monday, including leader Eduard Limonov, 67. He said he objected to being given permission to assemble in an assigned spot when it should be a right to gather. Limonov, who had made a similar declaration on New Year's Eve, was arrested as he left his house and spent 15 days in jail. Hundreds of Russians protest against PutinToday at 04:46 | Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — About 500 people demonstrated in a central Moscow square Monday to demand the ouster of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his "rule of thieves." The rally took place peacefully, but police detained a separate group of 20 opposition activists nearby. About 60 protesters also were detained in St. Petersburg, one of a number of other cities where demonstrations were held.Prominent opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was arrested and jailed for 15 days following a similar demonstration a month ago, kept up his assault on Russia's longtime leader as he addressed the protesters on Moscow's Triumph Square.He compared Putin to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarek, who is facing mass unrest after 30 years in power."Please, someone tell me how our leadership differs from his," Nemtsov shouted to the crowd from the back of a truck. "Russia has to get rid of Putin."Nemtsov has accused Putin of allowing corruption to pervade the corridors of power and of building up considerable personal wealth during his 11 years in power at the expense of ordinary Russians. He also has denounced Putin's reversal of the democratic achievements of the 1990s.Russia's beleaguered opposition holds demonstrations on the last day of every month with 31 days to call attention to the 31st Article of Russia's Constitution, which guarantees freedom of assembly.The city authorized Monday's rally, but it also authorized the rally Dec. 31, during which 68 people were arrested, including Nemtsov. He was arrested after the rally while walking across the square to his car.Nemtsov's arrest drew Western condemnation and mobilized his supporters, who held daily pickets outside the jail where he was being held.Hundreds of police surrounded the square Monday, but they allowed the demonstrators to disperse after the hourlong rally ended with cries of "Down with the rule of thieves."Police did, however, detain another opposition leader, Eduard Limonov, and his supporters as they walked away from the square. City police spokesman Gennady Bogachev said they were attempting to organize their own rally.In the U.S., the White House said it was troubled by the detentions and reports that demonstrators were being mistreated, including accusations that some were beaten by police.Limonov, who was arrested ahead of last month's rally shortly after leaving his home and sentenced to 15 days in jail, has refused to join other opposition leaders at the sanctioned demonstrations.In St. Petersburg, the opposition did not have permission to protest. Police spokesman Vyacheslav Stepchenko said officers detained 60 people when they broke up the rally.___Associated Press writer Irina Titova in St. Petersburg contributed to this report. Read more: anniversary marked 1, 2011 10:18 Moscow TimeCelebrations are underway in Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral marking two years since Metropolitan Kirill became Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. Addressing more than 1,000 people gathered inside, Metropolitan Hilarion said that the Patriarch “is more than a church leader. He is a charismatic person, who is able to communicate with believers and non-believers alike”. The Metropolitan also mentioned the broad outlook and enormous religious experience of the Patriarch. Naomi Campbell interviews Vladimir Putin 1, 2011 01:08 Moscow TimeRussian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin gave an interview to Naomi Campbell for the English version of the magazine GQ. In particular the top model asked the Prime Minister how he manages to keep in shape. Putin replied that he frequents a gym and goes swimming every day. He recalled that his favorite sport is judo, which he has been practicing with for 14 yearsWomen tells of her ordeal at hands of terrorists behind the Moscow Airport bomb attack Greig Box-Turnbull, Daily Mirror 1/02/2011A MUM claims terrorists threatened to kill her baby girl if she refused to blow up an airport.Zeinat Suyunova has told Russian investigators that she was being groomed by the infamous “Black Widows” Islamic extremist terror group in Moscow.She claimed that she only discovered her husband was a terrorist after he was captured by the security service.Suyunova, 24, was then kidnapped by the terror group and her daughter taken from her. She said: “They threatened to kill her if I did not agree to go to Moscow and help with explosions. In the end I agreed. I did not have a choice.”In Moscow, she was trained for explosions to be detonated at Domodedovo airport, as well as a mall near Red Square, with a woman named Aminat.Suyunova claims she then fled and later gave herself up after Aminat was killed accidentally detonating a belt packed with explosives.The terror group last week carried out the airport plan, killing 35. It is not known if Suyonova is back with her daughter.Russian Press at a Glance, Tuesday, February 1, 2011 01/02/2011POLITICSRussian President Dmitry Medvedev told the modernization commission that state corporations must substantially increase investment in scientific research and development projects(Kommersant, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Rossiiskaya Gazeta)Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has appointed General Director of the Sukhoi and MiG aircraft companies Mikhail Pogosyan as head of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC)(Kommersant)The country's top traffic police officer was promoted to oversee transportation security nationwide after last week's Domodedovo bombing. He will be in charge of transportation security and must draft a detailed plan of reforms within the next few weeks(The Moscow Times, Nezavisimaya Gazeta)Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov urged Western countries to detain terrorist ringleaders hiding out in Europe instead of their little known relatives. His call came in the wake of Monday's dramatic announcement that Ruslan Umarov, a brother of Chechen militant leader Doku Umarov, is in an Italian detention center for illegal immigrants in the city of Gradisca(Kommersant, The Moscow Times)ECONOMY & BUSINESSBuying steel is like shopping for food, said Igor Chepenko, chief executive of rolled steel trader Brok-Invest-Service. You make your selection, take it home and hopefully make something nice out of it. It's just that your shopping bag is an eight-ton truck(The Moscow Times)Energy companies LUKoil and Novatek are flying their employees out of strife-torn Egypt, but say the evacuations won't affect operations in the country and that "all work will continue."(The Moscow Times)According to preliminary estimates from the Russian State Statistics Committee, the economy in Russia grew by four percent in 2010, year-on-year(Vedomosti)WORLDKazakhstan will hold presidential elections earlier than scheduled, the country's long-serving president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, said(Kommersant, the Moscow Times, Nezavisimaya Gazeta)Yevgeny Primakov, head of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI), speaks in an interview with the Rossiiskaya Gazeta about the current situation in Egypt(Rossiiskaya Gazeta)SOCIETYGalvanized by popular uprisings against authoritarian leaders in Tunisia and Egypt, hundreds of liberal opposition activists chanted for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's ouster at a sanctioned rally that ended peacefully Monday(The Moscow Times, Nezavisimaya Gazeta)MOSCOWJudging by his words, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has not failed to impress during his first 100 days in office, promising to solve the city's traffic problems and transform the chaotic megalopolis into a modern financial center(The Moscow Times)SPORTSSergei Gaplikov has been appointed the head of the state corporation Olympstroy replacing Teimuraz Bolloyev(Kommersant)Gagarin's daughter wants to register his trademark 10:40:00 Moscow, Feb 1 (IANS/RIA Novosti) The daughter of the world's first cosmonaut, Yury Gagarin, has filed an application to register in the name of her father a trademark titled 'Yury Alexeyevich Gagarin'. 'I do not consider it shameful given that everyone is making money on Gagarin's name. Why can't his family do it?' head of Russia's space agency Roscosmos, Anatoly Perminov said. Gagarin's youngest daughter, Yulia, filed the application in the Russian Federal Service for Intellectual Property, Patents and Trademarks Jan 26 ahead of the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the first manned spaceflight by Gagarin. Yulia was born one month before the historical flight, April 12, 1961, which made Gagarin famous. According to expert estimates, the Gagarin trademark is worth one billion rubles ($33.5 million). WIKILEAKS01 February 2011 - 06H38?? BP Russia arm eyed deals in sanctioned states: cables - BP's Russian arm sought new operations in states subject to western sanctions in an ongoing power struggle that clouds the subsidiary's future, memos seen by Tuesday's Telegraph newspaper showed.US diplomatic cables leaked by the WikiLeaks website revealed that BP Chief Executive Bob Dudley was the subject of raids and forced out of Russia after the board of TNK-BP vetoed the exceptional proposals.In 2008, then TNK-BP CEO Dudley told US officials that one of the company's Russian directors pushed for exploration in states including Myanmar, Cuba, and Sudan.TNK-BP accounts for around 25 percent of BP's global production and was formed in 2003 when a group of Russian oligarchs, the Alfa-Access-Renova (AAR) consortium, entered a deal with the British company.The memo, sent from the US embassy in Moscow on June 20 2008, revealed Dudley's beliefs."Dudley said AAR and, in particular, German Khan, had been systematically using TNK-BP resources to vet these projects," it said.A separate memo dated June 16 2008, which detailed a meeting between TNK-BP's vice president for international relations, Shawn McCormick, and US officials went even further."The Alfa partners and in particular German Khan had been using the company's resources to vest projects in places BP couldn't invest, such as Kurdistan, Cuba, Burma and the like," the cable claimed."When the TNK-BP board rejected these proposals, Khan would then slide them to a separate company that Alfa controlled, an arrangement that suited Khan and his Alfa partners fine."Dudley claimed that oligarch Khan, described as "mentally unstable" in another memo, "led the charge against TNK-BP's foreign executives."Dudley also said that Kremlin agents had subjected him to "sustained harassment" before he was forced out of the country on a labour-law ruling.The leaked cables said that Dudley "expected the attacks on him to continue in the form of law suits and the like but... believed his profile was too great for there to be any physical threat against him."The memos also revealed that Dudley believed the Kremlin wanted the company's two factions to "fight each other to exhaustion, like 'Siberian tigers,' and then capture the survivor to create a third Russian major oil company."In another leaked memo, former Russian deputy energy minister Vladimir Milov said that there was also a power battle going on between Dudley and then global CEO Tony Hayward, who stepped down after the Deepwater Horizon oil leak.Hayward is now CEO of TNK-BP in Russia.BP recently entered an alliance with state-run energy company Rosneft for Arctic oil exploration.In the memos, Dudley accused Rosneft chairman Igor Sechin of backing the oligarchs' "war" against him.A BP spokesman Monday played down the comment, saying the pair had "a strong relationship and mutual respect."The leak comes as BP prepared Tuesday to announce its end of year results, with the company's first loss for two decades expected.WikiLeaks: BP's new Russian partner sees Godfather films as 'manual for life' colourful Russian oligarch who told BP executives that The Godfather films were his “manual for life” has emerged as one of the central figures in the oil company’s operations in Russia. By Holly Watt and Tim Ross 6:30AM GMT 01 Feb 2011 The reports on German Khan, the billionaire founder of the Alfa Group consortium and one of BP’s partners in Russia, will raise questions about the British company’s Russian associates. The relationship between BP and its Russian partners is analysed at length by US diplomats in documents obtained by The Daily Telegraph from the WikiLeaks website, with colourful descriptions of the main characters’ personalities and rivalries. Mr Khan is currently an executive director of BP’s Russian joint venture, TNK-BP. The US government memos describe Mr Khan’s extraordinary way of life, with a description of a hunting trip at his lodge, “like a Four Seasons hotel in the middle of nowhere”. According to the TNK-BP chief operating officer, Tim Summers, Mr Khan told him during the trip “that The Godfather was his favourite movie, that he watched it every few months, and that he considered it a 'manual for life’.” Mr Khan is married with three children, but he travelled to the hunting lodge with seven glamorous women. Mr Summers added that Mr Khan came “to dinner armed with a chrome-plated pistol”. After the hunting trip, Mr Summers bought “a copy of The Godfather and said he watched it on a regular basis himself so as to better understand Khan and anticipate his [Mr Khan’s] tactics”. One BP executive contended that Mr Khan might be “certifiably deranged”. BP’s complex business dealings in Russia attract close attention from US diplomats. TNK-BP was set up in 2003, with BP owning 50 per cent of the company. The other half is owned by AAR — the Alfa-Access-Renova group — which is controlled by several Russian oligarchs, including Mr Khan, his university friend Mikhail Fridman and Leonard Blavatnik, who recently donated ?75? million to Oxford University to set up the Blavatnik School of Government. According to the US papers, Mr Khan became angry with Bob Dudley, a former chief executive of TNK-BP who is now the chief executive of BP, after Mr Dudley blocked Mr Khan from investing in rogue states such as Burma and Cuba. It was alleged that Mr Khan instead used the company’s resources to analyse projects in the rogue states and, when the schemes were rejected by the BP board, “farmed out” the projects to his own separate company. According to the papers, the 49-year-old Russian businessman systematically undermined attempts by BP to improve corporate governance. Mr Khan, who is estimated to be worth ?5.2?billion, would reportedly attempt and have BP’s western employees thrown out of Russia by having their work visas withdrawn. Earlier this month, BP announced that it had struck a ?6.3?billion share-swap deal with another Russian oil company – the state-controlled Rosneft – which infuriated its AAR partners. A High Court battle between AAR and BP over the Rosneft deal begins today. Yesterday, the oligarchs indicated that they would seek to withhold money from BP shareholders. The memos detail the long-running aggression between AAR and BP. In 2008, Mr Summers said that the then BP chief executive, Tony Hayward, negotiated a “ceasefire” with the oligarchs, but compared it to “an Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire in which Khan would play the role of [the militant Islamic group] Hamas, ready with some provocation or incident that would restart hostilities.” Mr Hayward was replaced as chief executive of BP by Mr Dudley after the Deepwater Horizon oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico last year. The contrast between the managerial approach of BP officials and the practices of the Russian oligarchs is marked. Mr Khan is described as having an “aggressive but relatively simple business style” that was “typically Russian, where multi-million-dollar deals are made in smoke-filled rooms in a matter of a few hours”. The memo concludes that “only later are [the deals] turned over to the accountants to see if they make sense”. In August 2008, Mr Dudley was suspended from his post at BP’s Russian arm after a court in the country found that he had broken labour codes. A BP lawyer told US officials that the court case was a “sham” and that the “entire proceeding has been a farce”. He said that “even his Russian legal team is surprised and ashamed by the lack of any semblance of due process”. However, the deal with TNK has proved to be one of BP’s most lucrative ventures and is now responsible for almost a quarter of the company’s entire oil output. WikiLeaks: BP boss Bob Dudley blamed new Rosneft partner Igor Sechin for 'black' plot against him chief executive of BP blamed his new business partner, the Russian deputy prime minister, for backing a “black” campaign that forced him to go on the run for his own protection, according to secret US government files. By Tim Ross and Steven Swinford 7:00AM GMT 01 Feb 2011 Bob Dudley was ousted from his previous job as head of the oil company’s Russian subsidiary, TNK-BP, after a boardroom coup in 2008, and decided to “move around” from country to country “as a precaution”, The Daily Telegraph has learnt. Leaked US papers show that Mr Dudley believed the man behind the “war” against him was Igor Sechin, Russia’s deputy prime minister and chairman of the state-owned energy company, Rosneft. BP recently agreed a deal with Rosneft and the two men will now have to work closely together. Mr Sechin is regarded as the third man in the triumvirate at the heart of Russian power with the prime minister, Vladimir Putin, the president, Dmitry Medvedev. Mr Sechin has been likened to Darth Vader and described as “the scariest person on earth”. On Jan 14, Mr Dudley and Mr Sechin jointly hailed the ?6.3 billion deal between BP and Rosneft to explore an area of Russia’s Arctic about the size of the North Sea. Oil experts believe that BP has been effectively forced to return to Russia to look for new business ventures in light of American anger over the firm’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year. American diplomatic cables, obtained by The Daily Telegraph from WikiLeaks, uncover the history of deep mistrust between the key architects of BP’s latest Russian venture. The disclosures come at a critical time for the company, which announces its end-of-year results today amid growing controversy over the Rosneft deal. During a meeting with the American ambassador in Moscow in July 2008, Mr Dudley claimed that the Kremlin was directly behind an oligarchs’ plot to remove him from BP’s operations in Russia. The embassy’s record of the meeting states: “Dudley said he believes (although he admitted 'some people disagree’) that AAR [the group of oligarchs] is acting with direct cooperation from the GOR [Government of Russia], including from Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin. “He said he expected the situation to continue to worsen with more attacks directed at him personally and shared with us an outline (emailed to desk) of information he has received regarding a 'black PR’ campaign by AAR designed to put further pressure on him and on BP.” The US embassy shared Mr Dudley’s belief that the Kremlin was backing the oligarchs’ attacks on BP. At the height of the crisis, Mr Dudley, who is now global chief executive of BP, went into hiding. An email he sent to a colleague said he was “not in the UK (as reported by the press) and not in the US,” according to the files. “Dudley is going to continue to move around 'as a precaution’.” Dispatches from the US embassy showed that Rosneft and BP’s Russian subsidiary did not have a favourable view of each other’s businesses when rumours circulated that the Kremlin wanted to buy out the Russian half of TNK-BP. In December 2007, Rosneft’s chief executive told the US ambassador in Moscow that the Russian state-owned company had “no interest” in such a deal, claiming that TNK-BP’s “production efficiencies and assets” were “substantially inferior” to its own. In turn, BP executives told the US embassy that Gazprom, the Russian gas company, would make a “more reliable and predictable partner” than Rosneft. Mr Dudley also blamed officials connected with Rosneft for hampering negotiations for a global collaboration between BP and Gazprom. Last month, BP announced that its “historic” agreement with Rosneft would see the Russian firm take 5 per cent of BP’s shares in exchange for 9.5 per cent of Rosneft’s. When the announcement was made, Mr Dudley said the deal underlined BP’s “long-term, strategic and deepening links with the world’s largest hydrocarbon-producing nation”. He added: “We are very pleased to be joining Russia’s leading oil company to jointly explore some of the most promising parts of the Russian Arctic.” Mr Sechin, who participated in the deal-signing ceremony, said the plan was a “world class” project putting Russia at the forefront of the global energy industry. He is thought to share Mr Putin’s background working for Soviet special services although no official record confirms this. The Russian press have characterised him as Darth Vader and the “scariest person on earth”. A spokesman for Rosneft said the company would like to stress that “as recently signed agreements demonstrate, the relations between Igor Sechin and Bob Dudley are highly constructive and friendly”. National Economic TrendsRussia to Start Selling Stockpiled Grain on Feb. 4 (Update1) Marina Sysoyeva and Ilya KhrennikovFeb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Russia will start selling grain from government inventories on Feb. 4 to meet demand and curb domestic prices, Deputy Agriculture Minister Sergei Korolev said. The state has 9.5 million metric tons of stockpiled grain and plans to sell as much as 2.5 million tons within five months before the next harvest, Korolev told reporters in Moscow today. This will consist mostly of grain purchased from farmers during 2008. Russia’s grain harvest fell 37 percent last year to 60.9 million tons because of the country’s worst drought in at least half a century. The government banned cereal exports in August and announced plans to sell grain from state reserves to support the domestic market. This year’s grain harvest may reach 85 million tons, exceeding domestic consumption projected at as much as 74 million tons, according to the Agriculture Ministry. The grain- export ban may be lifted from July 1, the government has said. To contact the reporters on this story: Marina Sysoyeva in Moscow at msysoyeva@; Ilya Khrennikov in Moscow at ikhrennikov@. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@ Last Updated: February 1, 2011 03:59 ESTGov't to start grain sales on February 4 , 01.02.2011, Moscow 11:17:23.The Russian government plans to start interventions on the grain market by selling grain on February 4, Deputy Agriculture Minister Sergey Korolyov announced today. "The main goal of interventions is to reduce the shortage of grain in the drought-hit regions that develop cattle farms," the official explained. ??????According to him, the current market situation is favorable for agricultural producers. "The price of grain is high; the regions that were not affected by the drought are even getting excess profit," he said. At the same time, he noted that 9.5m tonnes of grain held in the government's Intervention Fund was sufficient to influence market prices. February 01, 2011 09:20Banks have 543.0 bln rbs on CBR correspondent accounts on February 1.. February 1 (Interfax) - Russian banks have 543.0 billion rubles on correspondent accounts in the Central Bank as of February 1 including 351.9 billion rubles for Moscow banksThe balance on January 31 was 529.6 billion rubles and 324.2 billion rubles, respectively.Banks had 761.4 billion rubles on deposit accounts in the Central Bank on February 1 against 734.6 billion rubles on previous day.Russian Manufacturing Growth Unchanged in January from December Ilya KhrennikovFeb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Russia’s manufacturing growth was unchanged in January from December’s 33-month high, reflecting faster growth of both output and new orders offset by a weaker contribution from employment. The Purchasing Managers’ Index stood at 53.5, which was above the long-run average for the series of 52.1, HSBC Holdings Plc said in a report today, citing data compiled by Markit Economics. The survey-based index indicates a contraction when it is below 50 and growth with a figure above 50. To contact the reporters on this story: Ilya Khrennikov in Moscow at ikhrennikov@. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Amanda Jordan at ajordan11@. Last Updated: February 1, 2011 00:14 ESTManufacturing PMI stays at a healthy 53.5 in January CapitalFebruary 1, 2011News: January Manufacturing PMI stayed at a robust 53.5 in January for the second month in a row. The output index increased to 55.4 (from 54.8) and new orders climbed to 55.9 (from 54.3). The employment index softened slightly from 52.7 in December, but remained above the 50 mark at 52.2. The output prices index jumped to 61.6 (from 60.3) and the input price index rose to 78.0 (from 77.4). Our View: The January Manufacturing PMI data suggest that activity continued to expand at a healthy pace during the month. The higher output and new orders are encouraging and might provide the impetus for a further improvement in the manufacturing sector's performance in February. Inflationary pressures continue to mount, with the output and input price indices climbing closer to pre-crisis highs, which is yet another reason for the CBR to continue tightening its monetary policy.Business, Energy or Environmental regulations or discussionsNorilsk, Rosneft, Lukoil, VimpelCom: Russia Equity Preview Scott RoseFeb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- The following companies may be active in Russian trading. Stock symbols are in parentheses and share prices are from the previous close. The 30-stock Micex Index fell 0.7 percent to 1723.42. The dollar-denominated RTS Index declined 0.8 percent to 1870.31. OAO Norilsk Nickel (GMKN RX): Norilsk Nickel said yesterday that nickel output may rise as much as 5.9 percent this year after it resumes production at a mine in Australia. Russia’s largest miner declined 2.6 percent to 7,484.03 rubles. OAO Rosneft (ROSN RX): Rosneft is scheduled to release financial results for 2010. HYPERLINK "" Arkady Dvorkovich, President Dmitry Medvedev’s top economic adviser, said yesterday that Russia’s largest oil company has been “among the leaders” for state companies in spending on research and development since management changed last year, Interfax reported. The company’s shares advanced 0.7 percent to 254.61 rubles. OAO Lukoil (LKOH RX): Lukoil said yesterday that it planned to buy from ERG SpA an 11 percent stake in a joint venture to operate the ISAB refining complex in Italy. The Russian company may raise its stake to 60 percent from 49 percent in a transaction that will amount to 205 million euros ($281 million). Russia’s second-largest oil producer fell 1.1 percent to 1,829.93 rubles. VimpelCom Ltd. (VIP US): VimpelCom may change the date of its March 17 shareholder meeting, Chairman Jo Lunder said yesterday in an interview. Shareholder Telenor yesterday asked that a dispute over VimpelCom’s purchase of Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris’s phone assets be referred to a court of arbitration. VimpelCom Ltd. VimpelCom fell 0.9 percent to $13.84 in New York. To contact the reporter on this story: Scott Rose in London at rrose10@. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Willy Morris at wmorris@. Last Updated: January 31, 2011 22:01 ESTShareholders buy 55.8% of Russia's RusHydro extra share offering English-language Business NewswireJanuary 31, 2011The shareholders of Russian hydropower monopoly RusHydro have purchased 1,037,303,801 additional shares, or 55.77% of the company's total additional share offering, having exercised their preemptive rights, RusHydro said in a statement Monday.RusHydro said earlier it planned to publicly offer 1.86 billion additional shares with a face value of 1 ruble each. Shareholders were able to exercise their preemptive rights to buy the company's additional shares in proportion to their stakes in the company from December 10, 2010 through January 24.The Russian government, which held 58% in RusHydro before the share offering, bought the company's additional shares worth 1.5 billion rubles, the power company said without providing the number of shares the government bought.RusHydro said earlier it planned to use the funds raised in the share offering to finance its investment program and the restoration of the Baksanskaya hydropower plant, which is located in the constituent republic of Kabardino-Balkaria and was damaged in a terrorist attack in July 2010.The charter capital of RusHydro amounted to 288,695,430,802 shares with a face value of 1 ruble each on September 30, 2010.(29.6684 rubles - U.S. $1)Copyright 2011 Prime-Tass Business News AgencyAll Rights ReservedPrime-Tass English-language Business NewswireNorilsk Nickel plans to increase output in 2011 , Russia --- --- 01 February 2011 - Norilsk Nickel ? the world's biggest nickel and palladium producer ? has announced that it plans to raise its nickel output by up to 6% this year to a level of between 300 000 and 315 000t from 297 329t in 2010.Revealing this is a statement issued here, the company said it expected to produce 240 000 to 245 000t of the metal at its Russian operations in 2011, and 60 000-70 000t at operations abroad.It also planned to produce 380 000 to 390 000t of copper ? slightly down from the 388 872t it produced in 2010.It expected its palladium output to be 2.850 to 2.870Moz, compared with 2.861Moz in 2010, with sister metal platinum output at 705 000 to720 000oz, up from 693 000oz last year.Ukraine concentration plant sees jump in output Feb 1, 2011 9:07am GMTKIEV Feb 1 (Reuters) - Ukrainian large iron ore concentration plant Yuzhny GOK plans to boost output by 12.5 percent in 2011 after a sharp increase in investment, the company said on Tuesday. Yuzhny GOK, located in Kryvy Rih in central Ukraine, plans to produce 10.1 million tonnes of concentrate, the raw material for steel production, this year against 8.98 million in 2010.The plant, majority-owned by Russia's Evraz Group (HK1q.L) and Ukrainian Smart Holding, said it would invest $104 million in 2011, compared with $47 million in 2010. (Writing by Pavel Polityuk; editing by Jane Baird) Acron files claim to block merger between Uralkali and Silvinit BankFebruary 1, 2011Acron has filed a claim with the Perm Arbitration Court opposing Silvinit's board decision to merge with Uralkali, which was approved on December 20, 2010. Acron is not happy with the terms of the merger and believes Silvinit's valuation is too low. Therefore the company is trying to block the deal to secure better buy-out conditions or a better swap ratio. It is hard to estimate whether Acron will succeed in court; however, the risk that the deal will be blocked by Silvinit minorities exists. For the merger to be approved, at least 75% of all shareholders of both companies participating in the EGM scheduled for February 4 are required to vote for the deal. Acron's stake of 8.1% Silvinit Ords and all Silvinit prefs amount to 33.1%, which could be enough to block the merger. We think this risk is low, as the historical quorum of general meetings is far below 100%. However, in this situation we view Silvinit prefs as good low-risk investment tactics, as they have limited downside risk. If the deal is approved, Silvinit prefs will still provide a cheaper entry to the combined Uralkali, as Uralkali's share price based on the swap ratio is 5% below URKA's current price. If the deal is blocked, it will be a strong driver for these stocks, but negative for Uralkali and Silvinit Ords. Georgy IvaninSberbank's Acquisition of Troika Dialog Could be Announced This Week 1, 2011According to Kommersant today (1 Feb), which cited Interfax, Sberbank's supervisory board plans to approve the deal to acquire Troika Dialog on 25 Feb. According to the article, the deal may be officially announced during the Russia_2011 Forum, which will be held on 2_4 Feb. Members of the supervisory board have refused to comment on the matter. Previously, it was announced that the deal had been agreed in principal between German Gref and Ruben Vardanian in Dec 2010 and that the supervisory board would approve the details and conditions. According to Kommersant, a price of about $1.2bn was discussed, which corresponds to 1.5x BV at YE09, the article says. The deal is reportedly planned to be implemented in two phases. The first phase would involve the purchase of a blocking stake, with the option that managers would stay in their roles for two years so that clients would not suffer from a shareholder change in the company. Also according to Kommersant, during the first phase, the shares would be bought from Standard Bank Group Limited (which owns 36.427% of the stock). During the second phase, the remainder of the shares (a partnership of 130 Troika Dialog managers, headed by Ruben Vardanian, own 63.573% of the shares) would be purchased. Bottom line On the one hand, an IB business could prove profitable and value_accretive for Sberbank in the long run. The process could be difficult, though, as Sberbank will need to adopt a new business model which is totally different from its traditional commercial banking business. If the deal takes place at 1.5x BV, we consider it acceptable, as two years ago (during the crisis), the deal between Troika and Standard Bank was conducted at 1.3x BV. In any case, we expect the process will take considerable time and effort.Sberbank May Hire UniCredit’s Alessandro Profumo, Vedomosti Says Ilya KhrennikovFeb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- OAO Sberbank, Russia’s largest lender, may hire Alessandro Profumo, a former chief executive officer at UniCredit SpA, Vedomosti reported, citing unidentified people close to Sberbank directors board. Profumo, who helped to transform UniCredit from a regional to global bank by way of numerous acquisitions, may become an adviser to Sberbank Chief Executive Officer German Gref, who is considering international expansion, the Moscow-based newspaper said. To contact the reporters on this story: Ilya Khrennikov in Moscow at ikhrennikov@. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Amanda Jordan at ajordan11@. Last Updated: January 31, 2011 23:57 ESTRostelecom May Buy Media Assets for $1.3 Billion, Vedomosti Says Ilya KhrennikovFeb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- OAO Rostelecom, Russia’s dominant long-distance phone company, and its regional affiliates may buy media holding OAO National Telecommunications from an ally of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Vedomosti reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter. Rostelecom may pay $951 million for 72 percent of NTK, as the media company is also known, the Moscow-based newspaper said. State-run Rosetelecom and partners may then offer $374 million for the rest of NTK, Vedomosti said. NTK is part of National Media Group, which is controlled by Yury Kovalchuk, a former neighbor of Putin’s in St. Petersburg, according to Vedomosti. To contact the reporter on this story: Ilya Khrennikov at ikhrennikov@ To contact the editor responsible for this story: Brad Cook at bcook7@ Last Updated: February 1, 2011 00:53 ESTVimpelCom's Purchase of Telekom Srbija Depends on Weather Deal 1, 2011Interfax reported yesterday (31 Jan), citing VimpelCom's CEO Alexander Izosimov, that VimpelCom's decision on the Telekom Srbija acquisition depends on the Weather Investments transaction. If VimpelCom goes through with the latter deal, it would not opt for another large M&A deal in the mid term, he said. Earlier, the Serbian government prolonged the deadline for binding bids for Telekom Srbija to 21 Mar, as reported in Reuters (13 Jan). The 51% stake in Telekom Srbija is expected to be privatised at a minimum price of $1.4bn. According to Interfax, Weather Investments (which is a potential shareholder of VimpelCom Ltd) could also bid for Telekom Srbija. Bottom line VimpelCom Ltd's debt will rise if VimpelCom's potential merger with operators Orascom and Wind goes through. Thus, its reluctance to bid for another telecom asset seems logical, in our view. That said, the company still has a chance to obtain Telecom Srbija, given that a potential shareholder in VimpelCom, Weather Investments, is on the list of candidates for the asset. We think the news overall is neutral for VimpelCom's stock.Ranbaxy inks cooperation MoU with Russia's Yaroslavl region on: Tue, 01 Feb 2011 01:14:10 ESTNew Delhi, Jan 31, 2011 (Asia Pulse Data Source via COMTEX) -- Drug firm Ranbaxy Laboratories today said it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government of Yaroslavl region in Russia for cooperation in the field of healthcare and medical science. "We are delighted to explore potential opportunities in Yaroslavl to build and strengthen the local pharmaceutical industry," Ranbaxy MD Arun Sawhney said in a statement. As per the MoU, both the parties will cooperate in development of healthcare system and new medical technologies in the Yaroslavl region. This will include expansion of educational programmes for medical and pharmaceutical community, collaboration in the field of clinical trials as well as improvement of drug safety monitoring in medical practice, it added. As a first step, Ranbaxy will evaluate collaborations with local academic and research centers in Yaroslavl region to broaden the scope of medical educational programmes for professional medical and pharmaceutical community. It will also look at cooperation in the area of clinical trials, the company said The Yaroslavl Region in Russia is establishing a pharmaceutical zone and encouraging pharmaceutical companies to set up manufacturing facilities and conduct clinical research. Ranbaxy has been present in the Russian pharmaceutical market for around 20 years. PTI MSS RKL RAH Posted: Feb 1st, 2011Saturn JSC Expands Solar Cell Production in Russia with Further AIXTRON MOCVD System (Nanowerk News) AIXTRON SE today announced a new order for a MOCVD reactor from Russian company Saturn Joint Stock Company (Saturn JSC). The order comprises one AIX 2800 G4-R 15x4-inch configuration deposition system including an automated wafer transfer system. The Krasnodar based company placed the order during the fourth quarter of 2010 and following delivery in the second quarter of 2011, the system will be used to produce Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) solar cell epitaxial materials for the Russian space market. The new reactor will be commissioned by the AIXTRON Europe support team in a dedicated facility alongside the existing AIXTRON reactor at the Saturn JSC production plant in Krasnodar. Mr. Anatoly Skursky, Director General of Saturn JSC, comments, "Our company has been very satisfied with the excellent performance and ease of use we have enjoyed with our existing AIXTRON system. The service support we have received from the AIXTRON Europe Process Team was of a very high standard, too. As promised, they enabled us to reach full production status in a very short time. Moving up to the 15x4-inch configuration system will give us even better productivity as well as the uniformity, performance and reliability we have come to expect from AIXTRON equipment. We estimate the G4 to be the most suitable state-of-the-art system for the production of solar cells." Saturn JSC ordered its first AIXTRON MOCVD GaAs system, an AIX 2600G3, 8x4-inch, for the production of solar cells in April 2006. This was the first solar cell production MOCVD system in Russia. Saturn JSC has been developing and producing solar cells and solar arrays for space applications since 1971. In this period, more than 1,200 spacecrafts were provided with solar arrays. Not only most Russian spacecrafts but also many foreign ones are equipped with solar arrays and storage batteries produced by Saturn JSC. Source: AIXTRON (press release)UPDATE 1-Cherkizovo sees higher poultry price from Q2 Feb 1, 2011 2:58am EST * Import quota cuts, grain costs to boost poultry prices* Prices fell 3 percent in rouble terms in 2010* Poultry output up 5 percent in 2010 to 194,100 tonnes (Writes through, adds detail) MOSCOW, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Cherkizovo (CHEq.L) (GCHE.MM), Russia's biggest meat producer, is counting on higher poultry prices from the second quarter, thanks to cuts in import quotas, a knock-on effect from surging grain costs and falling stocks.Cherkizovo, which on Tuesday reported a 5 percent rise in poultry sales to 194,100 tonnes, also forecast solid volume growth this year.?Russia -- seeking to develop the economy's non-energy sectors, including agriculture -- has cut poultry import quotas for this year to 350,000 tonnes from an initial 600,000 tonnes. [ID:nLDE6AM0UG]The cut is a boon for local producers like Cherkizovo, who have seen costs surge after the summer 2010 drought -- the worst in over a century -- wiped out a third of Russia's grain crop."The group expects the pricing environment for our products to recover towards the second half of the year, supported by reduced imports and rising costs resulting from grain price increases, as well as by a shortage of supply driven by the reduction of stock," Cherkizovo said.It added that it expected upward trends in poultry prices to begin from the second quarter after a weak start to the year.There have been some reports of smaller poultry farms slaughtering their stock as higher feed costs push them into bankruptcy. [ID:nLDE6BI07Q]Cherkizovo said prices for its poultry inched up by 1 percent in dollar terms to $2.37 per kilogram, but fell 3 percent in rouble terms to 71.89 roubles -- reflecting a stronger Russian currency. (Writing by Toni Vorobyova; Editing by David Holmes) For the Record February 2011Mobile TeleSystems is in merger talks with a major cellular operator, the company’s chairman, Vladimir Yevtushenkov, told reporters Monday, without being more specific. (Bloomberg)Norilsk Nickel’s nickel production in the fourth quarter totaled 77,000 tons, a 2.7 percent increase from the prior quarter, and full-year output climbed 5.1 percent to 297,000 tons, the company said Monday in a statement on its web site. (Bloomberg)Development of the Trebs and Titov oil fields in northern Russia won’t affect Bashneft’s dividends, Vladimir Yevtushenkov, chairman of AFK Sistema, which controls Bashneft, said Monday. (Bloomberg)Activity in the Oil and Gas sector (including regulatory)Hungary seeks to renegotiate Russian gas contract from 2012 9:49, February 1st, 2011 Russia wants to negotiate an extension of its long-term contract to deliver gas to Hungary only in 2014, the year the contract expires, while the Hungarian government would like to start negotiations on the extension already in 2012, half-way through the current government's term, National Development Minister Tamas Fellegi said in a written response to a question by an MP. Russia wants to negotiate an extension of its long-term contract to deliver gas to Hungary only in 2014, the year the contract expires, while the Hungarian government would like to start negotiations on the extension already in 2012, half-way through the current government's term, National Development Minister Tamas Fellegi said in a written response to a question by an MP.In the question, Lajos Olah, a member of the Opposition, asked the minister if he had negotiated the contract with his Russian counterparts.In his answer, posted on the website of Parliament, Fellegi said he had negotiated with the Russians several times since being named government commissioner in charge of Hungarian-Russian economic relations. "The Russian side's categorical stand is that they do not want to negotiate on questions of price, and they are only prepared to put on the agenda talks on the extension of the contract which runs out at the end of 2014 in the year it expires," he said.The Hungarian stand on the matter is to start negotiations in the middle of the current government's term, Fellegi said. The contract is not with the state of Hungary, but with German-owned E.ON, thus the utilities company's interests must also be taken into consideration, he added. The government believes the conditions of the supply agreement should be established in a bilateral agreement between the states of Hungary and Russia, in addition to the inter-company contract, Fellegi said. (Econews)Russia's Jan ESPO exports via Kozmino up 33% on year to 1.2 mil mt (Platts)--1Feb2011/330 am EST/830 GMTExports of Russian ESPO crude via the Far Eastern port of Kozmino amounted to 1.2 million mt of crude or 290,000 b/d in January, up 33% from the same period a year ago, and in line with previously announced plans, the port authorities said in a statement Tuesday.Of the total, 42% of the cargoes, of 100,000 mt each, was sent to Japan. Thailand was the second biggest buyer, accounting for 25%, followed by Singapore (10%), South Korea (8%), China (8%) and Indonesia (7%). Kozmino port plans to load 11 tankers or 1.1 million mt of crude in February and 13 tankers or 1.3 million mt in March, the statement said, confirming what Platts reported earlier.--Nadia Rodova, nadia_rodova@Surgutneftegaz Sells East Siberian Crude Oil for March, April Christian SchmollingerFeb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- OAO Surgutneftegaz, a Russian oil producer, sold 400,000 metric tons of East Siberian Pacific Ocean pipeline crude for loading from March to early April, according to five traders who participate in the market. Chevron Corp., Statoil ASA, Glencore International AG and Itochu Corp. purchased cargoes, the traders said. Details of the sale are as follows: -----------------------------------------------------------Crude: East Siberian Pacific Ocean pipeline crudeQuantity: 100,000 metric tons (730,000 barrels) x 4 cargoesBuyers: Chevron, Itochu, Statoil, GlencoreLoading: March 7-11, 14-18, 21-25, March 29 to April 1Port: Kozmino Bay Terminal, Russia’s Far EastPrice: Premiums from $2.90 to $3.30 a barrel to the price of Dubai published by Platts.-------------------------------------------------------------To contact the reporter on this story: Christian Schmollinger in Singapore at christian.s@ To contact the editor responsible for this story: Clyde Russell in Singapore at crussell7@ Last Updated: January 31, 2011 22:25 ESTUPDATE 1-Russia's LUKOIL to increase stake in Italy refiner Jan 31, 2011 6:55pm GMT* Says to increase stake to 60 pct in Sicily based ISAB* Will pay Italian JV partner ERG 205 mln euros(Adds detail) MOSCOW, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Russian oil company LUKOIL (LKOH.MM) will increase its stake in Italian oil refinery ISAB in a move that will boost its overall refining capacity by more than 11 percent to 79.5 million tonnes a year.The company, Russia's second biggest oil producer, said in a statement it would pay Italian joint venture partner ERG (ERG.MI) 205 million euros ($281.2 million) for the 11 percent stake -- increasing its share in ISAB to 60 percent.It said in a statement the sale by ERG was an option included in the original joint venture agreement, signed in 2008.(Reporting by John Bowker; Editing by Alissa de Carbonnel) Finland looks to Yamal Finnish oil and gas companies intend to get a stake in the Yamal LNG project.Representatives of Finnish oil and gas companies in a meeting with the Russian Ministry of Energy last week confirmed their interest in the planned LNG project in Russia’s far northern Yamal Peninsula.According to the Russian ministry, the Finnish business representatives handed over a proposal on Finnish engagement in the project.The companies were represented at the seventh session of the Russian-Finnish Inter-Governmental Commission on Economic Cooperation taking place in Moscow last week, a press release from the ministry informs. The session was attended by both ministry representatives and the oil industry.The Yamal LNG project is to be based on the resources of the South Tambey field, a project owned by Russia’s biggest privately owned gas company NOVATEK. Also Gazprom has a stake in the LNG project.As reported by BarentsObserver, Finnish industry with increasing interest looks towards Arctic oil and gas projects, among them the Shtokman project in the Barents Sea. Finland has a number of technologically advanced engineering companies and a world-leading shipbuilding industry.Text: Atle StaalesenBP dividend joy to be marred by TNK-BP spat IST* High court in London to rule on halting Rosneft deal talks* BP seen announcing 7 cents/share Q4 dividend* Underlying Q4 profits seen up 16 percent * Q4 oil and gas production seen down 9.4 pct YoYBy Tom BerginLONDON, Feb. 1 (Reuters) - BP's (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research) expected return to paying dividends on Tuesday could be overshadowed by a court case taken by its partners in Russian joint venture TNK-BP seeking to halt BP's planned tie-up with Rosneft (ROSN.MM: Quote, Profile, Research).BP is due to unveil fourth-quarter and full-year earnings on Tuesday, and announce a fourth-quarter dividend of 7 cents/share, after cutting the payout at the height of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill last summer.However, hours after BP unveils its results, a High Court judge in London will rule on an application by AAR, the holding vehicle of the Russian billionaires who own half of TNK-BP [TNKBP.UL], to halt a planned Arctic exploration partnership between BP and Rosneft.BP and state-controlled Rosneft, Russia's largest oil producer, announced their deal, which involves each taking a shareholding in the other, earlier this month.However, BP's TNK-BP partners say the Rosneft venture breaches an agreement BP gave to use TNK-BP as its primary vehicle for Russian investment.BP agrees it needs AAR's approval to enter the deal with Rosneft but said this was not needed yet as the Arctic joint venture had not yet been formed.It was unclear whether the judge could block even discussions about the venture.AAR also plans to try and force BP's hand on the issue, by trying to block a planned $1.8 dividend payout by TNK-BP. [ID:nLDE70U19J]TNK-BP pays BP around $1.5-2 billion per year in dividends and a long-term suspension of the payout could limit BP's ability to grow its own dividend, which at 7 cents per share would be only half the pre-oil spill level.EARNINGS RECOVERBP's fourth-quarter earnings are expected to show a return to growth after two quarters when oil spill costs weighed.A Reuters poll of nine analysts gave an average forecast of $5.09 billion for BP's clean Replacement Cost (RC) net income, up 16 percent on the final quarter of 2009, stripping out one-off or non-cash items. A 9.4 percent drop in production, due to the sale of fields to pay for the spill and disruptions to BP's remaining producing assets, is expected to be more than made up for by a $12/barrel rise in crude prices, compared with the last quarter of 2009.Texas-based Exxon Mobil (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research), the world's largest publicly traded oil company by market value, reported a 53 percent rise in fourth-quarter profit to $9.25 billionThe U.S.'s second-largest oil company, Chevron (CVX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) reported a 71 percent rise in fourth-quarter profit to $5.3 billion.RC net income strips out gains or losses related to changes in the value of oil inventories and as such is comparable with U.S. net income. (Editing by David Cowell) Vedomosti: Editorial: Seizing an opportunity: 1 February, 2011, 04:44Edited: 1 February, 2011, 04:48 Yesterday, Russian shareholders of TNK-BP – the Alfa Group Consortium, Access, and Renova (AAR) – had, without much ado, left their British partner without any dividends for the IV quarter of 2010. BP, which is in need of funds, will not be getting $1.8 billion. ?Several days earlier, the AAR had filed a lawsuit at the arbitrary court in London, while trying to block a deal between BP and Rosneft in the amount of nearly $8 billion (the companies agreed to swap shares and create a joint venture to work in the Russian Arctic). AAR believes that BP has violated the terms of the shareholders’ agreement by entering into an alliance with another Russian company without getting the consent of its own joint venture – TNK-BP. Russian shareholders of the joint venture were given the nickname “tank officers” not only due to the abbreviation TNK, but also because of their aggressive temper: for example, in 2008, they had matter-of-factly ousted former BP CEO, Robert Dudley, from Russia. He was forced to leave with other British coworkers due to “a violation of the visa regulations and labor laws”.? ?But despite having a reputation of being tough, it’s hard to say that the AAR owners – Mikhail Friedman, Viktor Vekselberg, and Leonard Blavatnik – are short-sighted. It’s highly unlikely that they are seriously considering blocking the deal, which has been prepared and approved by Vladimir Putin and Igor Sechin. This is evidenced by the phlegmatic reaction of Rosneft, which was clearly not frightened by the demarche of “the tank officers”, as well as Sechin’s sincere bewilderment: “I heard there might be some misunderstanding, but it cannot be concerning Rosneft”.So, it turns out that the goal of the scandal is not to undermine Rosneft’s plans, but rather to frighten BP, while getting certain concessions from the British partners. What could the Russian TNK-BP shareholders want in exchange for loyalty? First, TNK-BP could ask BP to sell a few more assets abroad. Last summer, TNK-BP, which has long craved to enter foreign markets, had already bought BP’s assets in Venezuela and Vietnam, worth $1.8 billion. Now, say analysts, TNK-BP may be interested in buying an oil refinery in Europe, a chain of fuel stations in Poland, and perhaps even oil fields in the North Sea. While using the fact that BP is so interested in entering into an alliance with Rosneft to their advantage, “the tank officers” could negotiate a substantial discount.??? ?Secondly, TNK-BP’s approval could be exchanged for a favorable, for Russia, settlement of the question regarding the future of the Kovykta field (reserves total 2 trillion cubic meters of gas). Since the late 1990s, TNK-BP has had the controlling stake in Rusia Petroleum, the Kovykta operator. It was expected that a pipeline would be laid from the field to China or Korea, but Gazprom decide not to build a pipeline for someone else’s field. Kovykta’s annual production did not exceed 40 million cubic meters, while under Russia’s licensing conditions, already by 2006 it was supposed to produce 9 billion cubic meters. TNK-BP and its “subsidiary” asked to revise the agreement, but officials refused. In June 2010, the company was forced to file for bankruptcy. In February-March it will become clear as to who will assume ownership of the field. Kovykta is claimed by Gazprom and Rosneft. Perhaps, for now, the Russian and British shareholders have a different idea about the future buyers.??????? ?Thirdly, while seizing the opportunity, Russian shareholders could try to intensify operational control over TNK-BP, enter into joint venture with Rosneft or, conversely, convince BP to buy out their share in TNK-BP. Two weeks ago, WikiLeaks reports appeared in which a US diplomat is citing David Peattie, who represents BP’s interests in TNK-BP. According to Peattie, by the end of 2011 the Russian government will seize ownership of TNK-BP and divide it: oil assets will go to Rosneft, and gas – to Gazprom. This could not have but angered the AAR consortium – and perhaps forced it to consider selling its shares.GazpromRUSSIA LINK ? MANDEEP SINGH ,??Posted on ? Tuesday, February 01, 2011MANAMA: Bahrain could soon become the regional hub for Russian energy giant Gazprom, it was revealed yesterday.Talks with the company are at an advanced stage and a deal could be finalised in the next few months, said Oil and Gas Affairs Minister and National Oil and Gas Authority (Noga) chairman Dr Abdulhussain Mirza."The deal also covers supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Bahrain," Dr Mirza said."The hub could be used to supply gas to neighbouring GCC countries or even as far away as India and Pakistan," he said.He said Gazprom could be looking to tap South Asian markets by sending supplies through Bahrain. A tender to build a $800 million (BD302m) LNG terminal near the Khalifa bin Salman Port is expected to be awarded in the near future.Gazprom Neft publishes offer for purchase of NIS shares . February 2011. | 08:27Source: TanjugThe Russian company Gazprom Neft published in the press on Monday its offer for the purchase of 19.08 percent of shares of the Petroleum Industry of Serbia (NIS) from small shareholders, at the price of EUR 4.8 per share.The Russian company Gazprom Neft published in the press on Monday its offer for the purchase of 19.08 percent of shares of the Petroleum Industry of Serbia (NIS) from small shareholders, at the price of EUR 4.8 per share. The citizens will be able to sell NIS shares for EUR 4.8 per share, that is at least RSD 506.48, and the offer will stand for the next 45 days. The citizens are not obliged to sell the shares if they do not want to, and they are able to trade in them at the Belgrade Stock Exchange. Based on the sale contract, the Russian company Gazpromneft, which owns 51 percent of NIS shares, was obliged to submit by February 2011 the offer for the purchase of shares from small shareholders, at a price lower than the one paid to the state for the purchase of the majority share. By the Serbia-Russia international agreement in the area of oil and gas economy and the contract concluded on December 24, 2008, Gazprom Neft bought 51 percent of NIS shares for EUR 400 million, with the obligation to invest about EUR 550 million in the modernization of refineries by 2012. In accordance with the Law on the Right of Citizens to Gratis Shares, the Serbian citizens obtained 19.08 percent of shares, 4.34 percent of which were given to NIS's current and former employees, whereas about 29.9 percent remained in possession of the Republic of Serbia.Serbia: Gazprom delivering? 31, 2011 5:13 pm by Neil MacDonald Gazprom, the Russian state-controlled energy combine, has always denied political motives behind its fast-growing Balkan business expansion.An offer by its oil division, Gazprom Neft, to buy up 19 per cent more of Petroleum Industry of Serbia (NIS) for EUR 153.6m (US$ 209.2m) will hardly persuade Russo-phobes that it is a purely commercial enterprise. But, at least, NIS’s new majority owner appears serious about following through on investment pledges.The stake in question consists of 32 million shares, divided among ex-employees and roughly 4.8 million eligible citizens.Gazprom Neft promised to bid for those shares two years ago, when it bought 51 per cent of the Serbian oil monopoly for the bargain price of EUR 400m. The Serbian state still holds nearly 30 per cent.NIS’s initial privatisation took place under a sweeping Russian-Serbian energy pact, which made the largest ex-Yugoslav republic an important link in Gazprom’s planned South Stream pipeline for natural gas to the European UnionThe energy partnership coincided with political overtures, as Moscow backed Belgrade in the dispute over Kosovo.Within Serbia, the NIS deal was one of the last points of consensus between nationalist-leaning parties and the growing pro-EU faction led by Serbia’s president, Boris Tadic. Still, Mladjan Dinkic, a key pro-EU ally and economic overseer in successive ruling coalitions, refused to endorse the deal, citing far higher valuations for NIS by western consultants.Austria’s OMV and other EU-based oil companies had expressed interest in buying NIS’s two aged yet strategically-located refineries. But, the government ducked out of a long-promised competitive tender and sold NIS at the price the Russians demanded.For the buyer, the business logic was clear, even if the Kosovo dispute played a role on the Serbian side, an advisor to Gazprom said.A former economic official in Belgrade, Milan Parivodic, said the price tag would matter less than the quality of Russian-led management.“NIS could become either the largest company in this part of the world, or the skeleton of a former giant,” he told the FT at the time (in unpublished comments). “I hope we get really competitive leadership capable of turning NIS from a monopoly type company to a market leader… with investment to make the refineries competitive, environmentally acceptable, and able to produce the best derivatives in the EU market; [and] investment to make the retail network as good as or even better than OMV and Hellenic.”In other words, if Gazprom Neft met its obligations, the NIS sale would be “a good deal”, Parivodic said.Similar arguments could be made about a Russian-owned refinery in neighbouring Bosnia, sold by ethnic Serb authorities just before the global downturn. Rising fuel production has helped the separatist-minded Republika Srpska (Serb Republic) avoid the degree of financial troubles seen in the rest of the country.NIS says it will invest US$ 740m in upgrading Serbia’s refineries this year.Naturally, the company has tried to make the best of its temporary monopoly. Pro-western reformers introduced protective barriers in order to help NIS recover after bombing by Nato in 1999.Restrictions on gasoline, diesel and heating oil expired a month ago, but the government has kept duties lower for domestic fuel products. In practice, NIS will continue to dominate the market easily until nearby rivals can raise their refining capacity.NIS also has a smattering of investments abroad, including oil field operations in Angola. This month, the firm won a USD 33m contract to develop five wells in Turkmenistan. NIS also hopes for concessions in Romania, Iraq and several ex-Soviet republics, said Petar Skundric, Serbia’s energy minister. ................
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