Russia - WikiLeaks
Russia 091221
Basic Political Developments
• Prime-Tass: Official: Russia supports launch of Turkmenistan–China gas pipe - Russia approves of and supports the launch of the pipeline running from Turkmenistan via Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to China, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said on December 19, ITAR-TASS reported.
• KyivPost: Russian ambassador: Differences with NATO over expansion, Georgia remain - Today Ukraine and Georgia are so far from joining NATO that rather someone from eastern Russia could be more likely to join NATO before Ukraine and Georgia do," Rogozin said on the Vesti V Subbotu (Saturday News) television program.
• Prime-Tass: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to visit Uzbekistan until Dec 22 to prepare for Russian–Uzbek summit in Moscow in early 2010
• Turkish Weekly: Russian Foreign Minister to Visit Uzbekistan - "During the visit, Lavrov will meet with Uzbek President Islam Karimov and Foreign Minister Vladimir Novrov to discuss pressing issues of Russian-Uzbek cooperation and joint efforts on the international arena," Andrei Nesterenko said.
• Kremlin: ANNOUNCEMENT. Dmitry Medvedev will make a working visit to Ashgabat on December 22, 2009.
• Kremlin: ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN. Dmitry Medvedev met with President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov. - The meeting followed the informal summit of the presidents of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
• Itar-Tass: Turkmenistan to suggest Russia more constructive way of cooperation - “A regular Turkmen-Russian summit is called upon to become an important move for deepening the traditional dialogue with Russia, given now a new impetus, and more constructive approach to defining formats of cooperation, taking into account all available opportunities for partnership,” said the Turkmen president on Saturday at the cabinet meeting.
• Kremlin: ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN. Informal meeting of the presidents of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan has taken place.
• The Moscow Times: Single Economic Space - Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan decided Saturday to create a single economic space by 2012 after they set up a customs union next year.
• RIA: Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan to create unified economic space by Jan. 2012
• Itar-Tass: Common economic space to settle problem of “long money” and will result in cutting credit rates – lawmaker
• Armradio.am: Armenia’s Finance Minister attends the sitting of the EurAsEC Anti-crisis Fund - During today’s sitting the participants are expected to discuss and adopt a number of documents related to the Fund’s activity in 2010. In particular, they will approve the charter and staff of the Expert Council of the Fund.
• The Messenger Online: Struggle for Caspian energy resources - The Turkmenistan opposition’s internet publication Gundogar has published an article by Natalia Kozniakova about the struggle in the Caspian region over the transportation of energy resources. She suggests that the only way serious armed confrontation over this issue can be prevented is if a Trans-Caspian gas transportation route is established.
• Prime-Tass: Dec 27: Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow
• AFP: Russian FM meets Mubarak in Cairo - The two discussed "international and regional issues of joint interest, the Middle East developments, efforts to revive the stalled Middle East peace process and bilateral ties," MENA said.
• Itar-Tass: Russia Foreign Minister, Egypt President, LAS head discuss Palestine-Israel situation
• RIA: Russia, Arab League to set up cooperation forum - The document will be signed by Lavrov and the head of the Arab League, Amr Moussa.
• RIA: Russia expects trade with Egypt to reach $4 billion in 2009
• Al Bawaba: At the Outset of the New Year – Russian Activism Being Ignited Towards New Initiatives of Peace Making in the Middle East
• RIA: Russian experts say nuclear-free Middle East unlikely
• Civil.ge: Russian MFA: Blowing Up WWII Memorial ‘Act of State Vandalism’
• Itar-Tass: Nashi to insist on return of Military Glory Monument to its place
• Itar-Tass: Georgia opposition to protest against memorial dismantlement
• News.az: Russia hails S.Ossetia's decision to release Georgian trespassers.
• News.az: Separatist Tskhinvali releases Georgian teens - The authorities in breakaway South Ossetia released on Saturday three Georgian teenagers, two detained on November 4 and one – in early July.
• Russia Today: Russian soldiers head to South Ossetia to protect republic’s border
• The Jerusalem Post: Cabinet approves new Moscow envoy - The cabinet on Sunday approved Russian-language journalist Dorit Golender as the next ambassador to Moscow.
• Itar-Tass: Council of Europe secretary general visits Moscow
• Focus: Russia to provide Bulgaria with nuclear fuel by sea
• Abc.az: Russia submits a draft agreement recognizing Azerbaijan’s ownership right for embassy building in Russia
• RIA: Russia to start construction of 4th Borey-class sub in early 2010
• RFERL: Soyuz Craft Blasts Off For ISS
• Itar-Tass: Soyuz TMA-17 blasts off from Baikonur
• Reuters: Russian rocket blasts off to space outpost
• Satnews Daily: Roscosmos — The Plan Is Cooperation With Japan
• UPI: Russia to have nuclear spacecraft by 2012
• RIA: District police chief killed in south Russia's Dagestan
• Itar-Tass: Chief of Dagestan’s settlement police department killed
• Reuters: INTERVIEW - West using rebels to destroy Russia -Chechen chief
• The Moscow Times: Poles, Kadyrov Trade Barbs Over Refugees
• Itar-Tass: Grenade goes off in elevator in Moscow’s Yuzhnoe Butovo district injuring man
• ISRIA: Russia - MFA - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin held a meeting on providing the Navy with new weapons and military hardware at the Admiralty Shipyards
• Reuters: Black belt Putin offers to join Russian judo team
• The Moscow Times: Prosecutors Caught in ‘Clan War’ - The Prosecutor General’s Office announced Friday that the head of the Moscow branch of the Investigative Committee, Anatoly Bagmet, had been fired for violating his oath of office. But Bagmet refused to step aside in an indication, observers said, that a new battle has erupted between Prosecutor General Yury Chaika and the Investigative Committee, which is a part of the prosecutor’s office and headed by the independent-minded Alexander Bastrykin, a former classmate of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
• The Moscow Times: Robin Hood Fires His Guns and Top Officials - In stark contrast to his predecessor, who preferred quiet reshuffles to public firings, Medvedev is quick to dismiss senior government officials, including members of the top military brass. More extraordinary is Medvedev’s readiness to bypass the regular chain of command and fire officials who do not report directly to him but to him but to federal ministers.
• The Moscow Times: 10,000 Pay Last Respects to Gaidar
• The Washington Post: Are Hot U.S. Startups The New Bling For Rich Russians? - A controversial comment on Hacker News makes us wonder if hot U.S. startups are the new vanity purchase for rich Russians
• : The Danger of Doing Business in Russia
• : RUSNANO transferred 66.4 billion rubles to state budget - In accordance with the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No 1455-r of October 5, 2009 on the Return of Temporarily Free Funds of State Corporations to the Budget of the Russian Federation, RUSNANO transferred 66.4 billion rubles to the bank accounts of the Federal Treasury of the Russian Federation.
• Globe and Mail: Russia and Canada: Partners in the North? – by Michael Byers
National Economic Trends
• Bloomberg: Ruble Gains Versus Dollar as Oil Trades Above $73 a Barrel
• Interfax: The Central Bank of Russia will hold auction for one-year unsecured loans with 5 billion-ruble limit. The minimum rate will be 12.0%.
• : Unemployment goes up in Russia
• The Moscow Times: Jobless Rate Hits 4-Month High
• : Russia's foreign debt shrinks further
• CommodityOnline: Value of Russia gold reserve at $22.979 billion
Business, Energy or Environmental regulations or discussions
• Bloomberg: Lukoil, Norilsk, Uralkali, Razgulay: Russian Stocks Preview
• Bloomberg: Russian Stocks Advance, Led by Rosneft, Lukoil, Gazprom Shares
• Rus Business News: Russia Closed Public Power Supply Market for Foreigners
• RBC: Mosenergo registers net loss for 9M
• Bloomberg: Russia to Reimpose 5% Export Tax on Nickel After One-Year Hiatus
• : Fitch Sees CIS Steel Industry Stabilizing in 2010; Outlook Remains Challenging
• Bloomberg: Rusal IPO Said Approved by Hong Kong Bourse, Watchdog (Update3)
• Reuters: UPDATE 1-Evraz gains $225 mln credit facility
• Interfax: SUEK preparing for IPO in Moscow, London in H1 2010 – newspaper (Part 2)
• RBC: Rambler shareholders to discuss delisting on LSE
• Reuters: EBRD invests 120 mln euros in Lafarge Russian ops
• The Economic Times: Dr Reddy’s eyes brand buys in Russian market
• : Fitch Affirms Russia's Uralsib Leasing at 'B+'; Outlook Negative
• The Moscow Times: GM Studies New Spyker Bid for Saab
• Broadband TV News: All change in Russian ad market
• The Moscow Times: Duma Slaps Cap On Major Ad Seller
• The Moscow Times: Daimler in Talks to Boost KamAZ Stake
Activity in the Oil and Gas sector (including regulatory)
• Bloomberg: Nord Stream Gets Approval to Build Gas Pipeline Through Russia
• Reuters: Timchenko fund seeks larger Novatek stake-paper
• Upstreamonline: Lundin sells Kaspiskoye slice
• Russia Today: Lukoil steps into Caspian field with new rig
• The Moscow Times: LUKoil Interested In Conoco Asset Sales
• Trend.az: Russian Lukoil Oil Company to continue cooperation with SOCAR
• Reuters: Russian court overturns TNK-BP's $144 million fine
• The Moscow Times: Refinery Gets $1Bln VEB Loan - Alliance Oil Company secured support from state development bank Vneshekonombank for the $1.3 billion upgrade of a refinery after a blessing from Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and a visit by President Dmitry Medvedev, both companies said Friday.
• The Moscow Times: Putin Launches Tanker to Boost Arctic Field
• BarentsObserver: Common Petroleum Safety Standards - A joint Russian-Norwegian project to develop common safety standards for the petroleum industry in the Barents Sea presented a series of recommendations in Moscow this week.
• Russia, Norway Zero In on Offshore Activities in Barents Sea
Gazprom
• Energy Intelligence: Gazprom Domestic Tariffs Rise
• OfficialWire: Gazprom Discusses Shtokman Infrastructure - Alexander Anenkov, deputy chairman of the Gazprom management committee, met with corporate executives to discuss developments at the Shtokman gas field.
• The Moscow Times: St. Pete City Hall Quits Gazprom Tower
• BarentsObserver: Gazprom helicopter made emergency landing
• Global Politician: Gazprom – Gas Company or Russia’s Battering Ram? – by Don Wolcott and Michael J. Economides
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Full Text Articles
Basic Political Developments
Prime-Tass: Official: Russia supports launch of Turkmenistan–China gas pipe
MOSCOW, Dec 21 (PRIME-TASS) -- Russia approves of and supports the launch of the pipeline running from Turkmenistan via Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to China, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said on December 19, ITAR-TASS reported.
The U.S. $6.7 billion pipeline linking Central Asia with China was officially launched on December 12.
Under the agreement, Turkmenistan is expected to annually supply 40 billion cubic meters of gas to China over 30 years, while Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are expected to each supply 10 billion cubic meters to China.
Russia supports diversification and improvement of infrastructure for energy supplies from the territory of the Customs Union and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Shuvalov said.
KyivPost: Russian ambassador: Differences with NATO over expansion, Georgia remain
Today at 10:45 | Interfax-Ukraine
Moscow, December 21 (Interfax) - The question of Ukraine and Georgia being close to becoming NATO members has so far been removed from the alliance's agenda, said Russian ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin.
"Today Ukraine and Georgia are so far from joining NATO that rather someone from eastern Russia could be more likely to join NATO before Ukraine and Georgia do," Rogozin said on the Vesti V Subbotu (Saturday News) television program.
"Georgia is one of the topics on which Russia and NATO still differ," NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in an interview with the same program earlier.
Today the NATO-Russia relations could be described as: "We agree with one another that we disagree with one another," Rogozin said.
First of all, Russia is not happy with NATO's open door policy, he said. "Today, thanks to the efforts, including ours, the threat of NATO's eastward expansion has been moved aside, but no one gave us guarantees that it will not happen in the future," he said
Georgia remains another "stumbling block." "As far as we know, today Georgia is not just re-armed, it has fully been re-armed to a level that is higher than before August 2008. It achieved this by receiving direct military and technical aid from many countries, the alliance members," the Russian ambassador to NATO said.
"If they are going to coach and drill the Saakashvili regime to hang on our pants forever, we are never going to like it. But if they are seriously fighting for the principle of territorial integrity, then what have they done to Serbia?" Rogozin recalled, pointing to the use of double standards by NATO
Prime-Tass: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to visit Uzbekistan until Dec 22 to prepare for Russian–Uzbek summit in Moscow in early 2010
Turkish Weekly: Russian Foreign Minister to Visit Uzbekistan
Saturday, 19 December 2009
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will pay a visit to Uzbekistan on December 21-22, a Russian foreign ministry spokesman said on Friday.
"During the visit, Lavrov will meet with Uzbek President Islam Karimov and Foreign Minister Vladimir Novrov to discuss pressing issues of Russian-Uzbek cooperation and joint efforts on the international arena," Andrei Nesterenko said.
December 18, 2009
17:40
Kremlin: ANNOUNCEMENT. Dmitry Medvedev will make a working visit to Ashgabat on December 22, 2009.
The visit is at the invitation of President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.
December 19, 2009 18:30
Saturday
Kremlin: ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN. Dmitry Medvedev met with President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.
In anticipation of the working visit of the Russian President to Ashgabat, the two leaders discussed various aspects of bilateral cooperation.
The meeting followed the informal summit of the presidents of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
Itar-Tass: Turkmenistan to suggest Russia more constructive way of cooperation
20.12.2009, 16.00
ASHGABAT, December 20 (Itar-Tass) - Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov intends to suggest Dmitry Medvedev “a more constructive approach to defining formats of cooperation” between Turkmenistan and Russia.
“A regular Turkmen-Russian summit is called upon to become an important move for deepening the traditional dialogue with Russia, given now a new impetus, and more constructive approach to defining formats of cooperation, taking into account all available opportunities for partnership,” said the Turkmen president on Saturday at the cabinet meeting.
The presidential press service reported on Sunday that the meeting discussed a programme of the coming working visit by the Russian president to Ashgabat on December 22.
“Russia is an important strategic partner of Turkmenistan,” Berdymukhamedov emphasised at the meeting. “The talks will discuss important aspects of strengthening interstate cooperation in some priority areas. Turkmenistan intends, in future too, to develop all-round and traditionally friendly as well as good-neighbourly relations with the Russian Federation,” the Turkmen president noted.
The main topic of the talks is cooperation in gas supplies, interrupted in April. Up to this time, the sides cannot agree a price and volumes of deliveries for 2010. The sides will also examine possibilities of deliveries of oil products and other Turkmen goods to the Russian market as well as prospects for more active participation of Russian industrialists in Turkmen economic reforms.
Medvedev will visit Turkmenistan for the second time this year. In September, the Russian president flew to the Caspian port of Turkmenbashi where the final leg of the motor rally “Silk Road-2009” (Russia-Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan) was flagged off.
Berdymukhamedov visited Moscow twice this year: it was a state visit in March and a working one in late October. The presidents met quite recently at the CIS informal summit in Alma-Ata.
During the visit, the two presidents plan to participate in the unveiling ceremony of the Turkmen-Russian general secondary school named after the famous Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, whose construction was funded by Russian Gazprom.
December 19, 2009 17:00
Saturday
Kremlin: ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN. Informal meeting of the presidents of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan has taken place.
The leaders discussed issues of economic integration and responding to regional challenges, particularly to drug trafficking, terrorism and organised crime.
Dmitry Medvedev shared his impressions on participation in the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.
The presidents of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan agreed to establish since January 1, 2010 the Customs Union of the three states and to create its common economic space by 2012. Dmitry Medvedev, Alexander Lukashenko and Nursultan Nazarbayev issued instructions to have all relevant documents drafted by July 1, 2011 so that they could be enacted since January 1, 2012.
The Moscow Times: Single Economic Space
21 December 2009
Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan decided Saturday to create a single economic space by 2012 after they set up a customs union next year.
The countries have until July 1, 2011, to prepare documentation for the project, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov told Vesti television. The single economic space is expected to come into effect Jan. 1, 2012, he said. He spoke from Almaty, Kazakhstan, where President Dmitry Medvedev, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko held a meeting.
21.12.2009 - RIA Novosti
RIA: Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan to create unified economic space by Jan. 2012
The presidents of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan agreed Saturday to create a single economic space by January 1, 2012.
The leaders of seven post-Soviet states (Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan) met in a place near Almaty to discuss security and economic integration.
"We are committed to the further deepening of the integration process in the EurAsEC area, as we thereby confirm as our subsequent goal the creation, no later than January 1, 2012, of a unified economic space of the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation," they said in a joint statement.
Medvedev, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed a package of deals on November 27 in Minsk to create a customs union with common tariffs, paving the way for a single economic space.
In June 2009, the heads of governments of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus notified the World Trade Organization (WTO) of their intention to join the world trade club as a customs union.
The three ex-Soviet republics suspended their bilateral negotiations on the WTO entry to hold consultations on a common position on the customs union.
In October 2009, Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus announced they would resume talks on WTO accession separately, but on synchronized positions.
Itar-Tass: Common economic space to settle problem of “long money” and will result in cutting credit rates – lawmaker
20.12.2009, 11.50
MOSCOW, December 20 (Itar-Tass) - The establishment of a common economic space (EEP) of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan will settle the problem of the so-called long money and will result in cutting credit rates in Russia.
This opinion was expressed in an interview with Itar-Tass by chairman of the State Duma Committee on economic policy and entrepreneurial activities Yevgeny Fedorov, a member of the United Russia Party. He commented on a report that the leaders of the three countries agreed to set up an EEP by January 1, 2012 at the informal summit in Kazakhstan on December 19.
“A common economic space will strengthen our economy considerably, which will automatically influence the well-being of our citizens,” the lawmaker said confidently. “Its creation will help to accelerate considerably implementation of goals, recorded in the 2020 Strategy.”
“In actual fact, we shall live in a single state which will consist of three political subjects and one economic,” Fedorov continued. “This move will result in “strengthening the system of regional currencies, which will be incorporated in the EEP.”
According to the committee chairman, it’s difficult now to forecast “how this will be in practice: whether a single reserve currency is created or it will be at once a common rouble as a currency unit – this will be a subject for further talks between the leaders in forming a package of EEP documents.”
For instance this will help Russia “to settle the problem of ‘long money’ which is not settled so far”, the legislator claimed. “The common settlement currency now – the dollar – in actual fact, takes away ‘long money’ from all countries,” he stated.
“Following the EEP establishment, Russia can start settling these problems, and this will be a great push forward: our credit rates which we cannot beat down now, will be slashed down considerably,” Fedorov added.
Stepped-up movement of goods will be another positive factor, taking into account the fact that Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan supplement each other in many ways, the deputy went on to say. “For Belarus is, in fact, an assembly line of a regional scale, Kazakhstan is a powerful country producing foodstuffs, while Russia is a powerful fuel and energy complex. Incidentally, innovation components will be also pushed forward,” Fedorov stated.
Thus, “the set of qualitative changes, ensuing from the adopted political decisions, will be a new jab in the arm for the Russian economy and will improve living standards of Russian citizens,” the committee chairman summed up his arguments.
The joint statement, taken by the results of the Saturday informal summit, notes: “We are committed to further deepening of the integration processes over the space of EurAsEC and confirm a desire for forming, as our next goal, a common economic space of the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation no later than January 1, 2012.”
Armradio.am: Armenia’s Finance Minister attends the sitting of the EurAsEC Anti-crisis Fund
21.12.2009 10:35
The Minister of Finance of Armenia will participate in the sitting of the first sitting of the Anti-crisis Fund of the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) today.
The Heads of Government of the EurAsEC member states signed the agreement on establishment of the Anti-crisis Fund of the Eurasian Economic Community in Moscow on June 9.
The charter capital of the anti-crisis fund will be $10 billion. Russia will inject $7.5 billion into the fund. Other countries, including Armenia, will invest $1 million. Armenia transferred 10 of the sum on December 17.
During today’s sitting the participants are expected to discuss and adopt a number of documents related to the Fund’s activity in 2010. In particular, they will approve the charter and staff of the Expert Council of the Fund.
The Messenger Online: Struggle for Caspian energy resources
By Messenger Staff
Monday, December 21
The Turkmenistan opposition’s internet publication Gundogar has published an article by Natalia Kozniakova about the struggle in the Caspian region over the transportation of energy resources. She suggests that the only way serious armed confrontation over this issue can be prevented is if a Trans-Caspian gas transportation route is established.
Kozniakova said that Russia is the most likely country to start such a conflict but confrontation between Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan is less probable. The major confrontation in the Caspian region is between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. According to the UN and the prevailing international regulations a big part of the Caspian Sea belongs to Azerbaijan but there are other ways of looking at the sea border issue which Turkmenistan is trying to promote.
Prime-Tass: Dec 27: Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow
AFP: Russian FM meets Mubarak in Cairo
(AFP) – 28 minutes ago
CAIRO — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held talks on Monday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on the second day of a visit to boost ties with his country's main trade partner in the region, the state-run MENA news agency reported.
The two discussed "international and regional issues of joint interest, the Middle East developments, efforts to revive the stalled Middle East peace process and bilateral ties," MENA said.
On Sunday, Lavrov met Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit for the fifth round of the Egyptian-Russian strategic dialogue, and signed a cooperation plan for 2010, MENA said.
Russia has a total of 230 projects in Egypt with total investments estimated at one billion dollars, foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said after Sunday's talks.
Lavrov said Moscow hoped that the total volume of trade between the two countries would reach four billion dollars. Egypt is Russia's largest commercial partner in Africa.
In June, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev made a trip to Egypt as part of efforts to boost Russia's clout in the region, which was a stronghold of Soviet influence before the end of the Cold War and the subsequent surge of US dominance.
Itar-Tass: Russia Foreign Minister, Egypt President, LAS head discuss Palestine-Israel situation
21.12.2009, 03.44
CAIRO, December 21 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meets on Monday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Secretary General of the League of Arab States (LAS) Amr Moussa to discuss prospects to improve the Palestinian-Israeli situation and unblock the peace process on the whole.
“The talks will focus on Middle East problems, the Arab-Israeli settlement in the first place,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said.
“The dynamics of events and the high activity of Russia and Egypt in this direction make it imperative to constantly coordinate efforts aimed at correcting the Palestinian-Israeli situation and unblocking the entire peace process,” he emphasized.
“Moscow highly appreciates the efforts of the Egyptian leadership to liquidate a split in the Palestinian ranks,” the Russian diplomat went on to say.
RIA: Russia, Arab League to set up cooperation forum
07:0421/12/2009
CAIRO/MOSCOW, December 21 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will visit the headquarters of the Arab League in Cairo on Monday to sign a memorandum on establishing a Russian-Arab cooperation forum.
The document will be signed by Lavrov and the head of the Arab League, Amr Moussa.
"The move is aimed at bringing cooperation between Russia and League members to a new, upgraded level," a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Andrei Nesterenko, has said.
Established by the seven founding states in 1945 in Cairo, Arab League now has 22 members, including 21 states and the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
Later in the day the Russian foreign minister will arrive to the Uzbek capital Tashkent to discuss bilateral cooperation and joint efforts on the international arena.
During the visit, Lavrov will meet with Uzbek President Islam Karimov and Foreign Minister Vladimir Norov.
The agenda of the visit will include "an exchange of opinions on Uzbekistan's presidency in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Russia's 2010 presidency in the Commonwealth of Independent States, situation in Afghanistan," Nesterenko said.
Following the talks, Russia's top diplomat would sign the 2010 cooperation program between the two states.
RIA: Russia expects trade with Egypt to reach $4 billion in 2009
23:2820/12/2009
Russia expects trade with Egypt to total $4 billion this year, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Sunday after talks with his Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Aboul Gheit.
"Egypt is one of the few countries whose trade was not affected by the crisis. We expect trade to reach $4 billion," he said.
The two foreign ministers signed a cooperation plan for 2010 on Sunday.
"The document embraces our bilateral projects as well as international problems, including Middle East issues, the situation in Africa, Central Asia, as well as disarmament and nonproliferation issues and the UN activity," Lavrov said.
Egypt is one of the largest and most economically developed countries in the Middle East and Africa and also Russia's traditional business partner in the region. Bilateral trade grew more than fivefold in the past five years.
In 2008, the total volume of Russian-Egyptian trade and economic cooperation exceeded $4 billion.
The number of Russian tourists who visited Egypt in 2008 was 1.8 million and may reach 2 million by the end of this year.
CAIRO, December 20 (RIA Novosti)
Al Bawaba: At the Outset of the New Year – Russian Activism Being Ignited Towards New Initiatives of Peace Making in the Middle East
Posted: 21-12-2009 , 06:22 GMT
With 2009 coming to a close and no noticeable progress made on advancing peace in the Middle East during the first year of the Obama administration, the Russian Federation as a member of the Quartet is moving forward to assert its role and its interests in the region. Middle East peace is in the direct interest of Russia and the Russians have the ability to bring all of the relevant players around the table.
The Dead Sea conference is a non-official beginning to bring concerned actors from the region together for open and direct dialogue on issues that are of great concern – regional security, preventing nuclear proliferation, and energy needs concerns and markets. The conferences discussions will be organized in sessions focusing on:
• Conflict Settlement: Towards a Regional Balance
• Strengthening the Non-proliferation: The Middle Eastern Aspect
• Global Energy Security: The Role of the Middle East
• Non-regional Players and Their Role in the Middle East
The conference is being attended by leading analysts, scientists, politicians and journalists who are experts on the Middle East settlement and regional and energy security from Palestine, Israel, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Turkey, Iran, Britain, France and the United States.
Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov, Evgeny Primakov, a member of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and former Palestinian Prime Minister Abu Ala will be addressing the conference as guests of honor.
© 2009 Al Bawaba ()
RIA: Russian experts say nuclear-free Middle East unlikely
02:5121/12/2009
JORDAN, December 21 (RIA Novosti) - Russian experts are convinced that the international community would fail in its efforts to keep the Middle East nuclear-free, according to a report prepared for an international conference in Jordan.
A group of Russian experts has prepared its report on the future situation in the Middle East, which was presented during a regional security conference currently underway in Jordan.
According to the report, the idea of nuclear-free Middle East "has no real perspective due to Israel's refusal to join the non-proliferation treaty." It also says the possibility of Iran getting nuclear weapons was "high."
In addition, some countries in the region might purchase nuclear warheads in North Korea, the report says.
"If there is little chance to stop [nuclear] proliferation, we should think of how to make nuclear weapons a stabilizing factor under the new circumstances," Russian experts say in the report.
According to the report, there are several ways of maintaining security in the area, including a joint shield for Middle East states with the participation of Russia and the U.S. or a collective regional missile defense system.
Experts also say that a mutual deterrence system on the India-Pakistan model is also possible, as well as a deal between Iran and Israel to mutually reject nuclear weapons.
The international conference on Middle East regional security opened in Jordan this weekend. It was organized by the Russian News & Information Agency RIA Novosti and the Russian Council for Foreign and Defense Policy within the framework of the Valdai International Discussion Club.
Civil.ge: Russian MFA: Blowing Up WWII Memorial ‘Act of State Vandalism’
Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 21 Dec.'09 / 12:08
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said that “barbaric” demolition of a World War II memorial in Georgia’s second largest city of Kutaisi was “an act of state vandalism, insulting the feelings of any civilized person.”
“This sacrilege, committed in Kutaisi, is yet another disgraceful act by the current leadership in Tbilisi in its maniacal drive to erase historical memories of its own people,” it said.
A mother and her young daughter were killed in an explosion to demolish the 46-meter-high memorial aimed at making the way for a construction of a new building of the Parliament. The victims were killed by lumps of concrete sent hurtling into the courtyard of their home.
A chief technician of a Tbilisi-based private demolition company, SakPetkMretsvi, which was in charge of demolition of the memorial complex, was arrested. The prosecutor’s office said security norms were violated.
Some Georgian media reports suggest that the demolition could have been held hastily. Initially the demolition was reportedly planned for December 21; opposition parties, protesting against the authorities plans to tear down the memorial, were planning to hold a protest rally that day.
Itar-Tass: Nashi to insist on return of Military Glory Monument to its place
20.12.2009, 21.14
MOSCOW, December 20 (Itar-Tass) -- The Nashi youth movement will demand from Georgian authorities compensations to the family of the woman and her daughter who died in the demolition of the Military Glory Monument in Kutaisi, apologies and the return of the monument to its former place, movement leader Nikita Borovikov told Itar-Tass on Sunday.
“The Military Glory Monument dedicated to soldiers who died in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 was blasted in Kutaisi on December 19. The explosion killed a woman and her eight-year-old daughter. We regard the demolition of this monument as an attack on the memory of those who died in the war years and an attempt to forget the feat of thousands of heroes – fellow countrymen,” he said.
This is another attempt to rewrite history in former Soviet republics, Borovikov said. A young citizen of Russia died in Estonia two years ago, as the police were scattering defenders of the Soldier Liberator Monument.
The movement has held a picket near the Georgian embassy in Moscow to present the demands.
The demolition of the Military Glory Monument in Kutaisi is an act of vandalism, President of the Georgian Union in Russia Mikhail Khutubia said.
“The demolition of the WW2 monument in Kutaisi is an act of vandalism. The Georgian Union in Russia has appealed to many public and non-governmental organizations. I think that the Georgian public must react to this step of the authorities. It is a pity that my fellow citizens underestimate possible consequences of the revision of history. My father cried when he learned about that demolition, because his father and brothers died in that holy war,” he said.
“They [Georgian authorities] may go further and destroy Georgian language and culture. They may even translate “The Knight in the Tiger Skin” [a poem by Shota Rustaveli] into English and destroy the Georgian original,” he said.
A mother and her eight-year-old daughter died on December 19. They were walking 300 meters away from the monument at the demolition moment and were killed with pieces of concrete.
A suspect in those deaths was taken into custody, Georgian First Deputy Prosecutor General David Sakvarelidze told the media in Tbilisi on Sunday.
“We have seized the technical director of the Sakpetkmretsvi private company, which demolished the memorial. He was responsible for safety measures,” Sakvarelidze said.
If found guilty, the suspect may spend from two to five years in custody.
A number of renowned Georgian politicians and artists criticized Georgian authorities for dismantling the Military Glory Monument.
“It is impermissible and criminal to dismantle the monument, without due account of the opinion of the public and sculptor Merab Berdzenishvili,” former presidential candidate and leader of the Tetrebi (White) Party Temuri Shashiashvili said.
“This dismantlement is insulting for residents of Kutaisi and the whole country,” Labor Party co-leader and People’s Artist Prof. Georgy Kavtaradze said.
He urged the authorities to bear in mind the opinion of the Georgian public and to show respect for monuments.
“This is not the first time the authorities have been dislocating monuments. A monument to Tsar David IV was moved from the center of Tbilisi to the city outskirts several years ago,” he said.
Former Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze has called ‘inexpedient and wrong’ the dismantlement of the Military Glory Monument in Kutaisi uncoordinated with sculptor Merab Berdzenishvili.
“It was necessary to ask for the opinion of the public, experts and sculptors before dismantling or relocating the monument,” he said. “Hopefully, Georgian authorities would do that in the future.”
The monument was installed over 25 years ago to commemorate Georgians who died fighting the Nazi.
A number of war veterans’ organizations and Berdzenishvili protested against the dismantlement of the monument. “It was unnecessary to dismantle the monument. It should have been repaired instead,” they said.
There are similar memorials in all Georgian cities, including Tbilisi.
Meanwhile, Kutaisi authorities said that bronze elements of the Military Glory monument were looted in the 1990s and restorations were now impossible.
“A new war memorial may soon be installed in another place of Kutaisi,” the officials said.
Itar-Tass: Georgia opposition to protest against memorial dismantlement
21.12.2009, 02.21
TBILISI, December 21 (Itar-Tass) - Leaders and activists of Georgia’s main opposition parties will stage in Kutaisi on Monday peaceful protest against the dismantlement of the memorial Martial Glory in Kutaisi.
Leaders of main opposition parties will arrive from Tbilisi. On Sunday, representatives of Kutaisi offices of opposition parties urged the Georgian president “not to limit himself to dismissing Governor of the Imereti Territory (Kutaisi is the territorial administration centre) Mikhail Chogovadze, but to call to responsibility executives of territorial agencies of law enforcement bodies who were duty-bound to ensure security of people”.
Georgian opposition parties denounced actions by authorities on dismantling the memorial Martial Glory in Kutaisi and blasting its main part, which resulted in the death of two people. Reinforced concrete fragments of the memorial dropped on a woman and her eight-year-old daughter who stood 300 metres away from the memorial.
Leaders of some opposition parties urged the Georgian authorities “to reconsider the earlier decision to erect a parliament building at the place of the memorial, but instead build there an Orthodox church in memory of those killed in Great Patriotic War”.
Russia welcomed S.Ossetia's decision to release two Georgian trespassers
Mon 21 December 2009 | 07:15 GMT
News.az: Russia hails S.Ossetia's decision to release Georgian trespassers.
Russia on Sunday welcomed a decision by the authorities of the former Georgian republic of South Ossetia to pardon and release two Georgian trespassers.
According to South Ossetian authorities, four teenaged Georgians were detained in the republic's capital of Tskhinvali on November 4 and charged with illegally crossing the border and carrying grenades and explosives. The teenagers are between 14 and 17 years old and were sentenced to one year in jail.
Two of the teenagers were pardoned and released already on December 3.
"Tskhinvali has demonstrated its political maturity ... and proved in reality its aspiration for stabilization of the situation in the region and constructive solution of humanitarian issues," Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Russia recognized the independence of the former Georgian republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in August 2008 after a five-day war with Georgia over the latter, which was attacked by Tbilisi in an attempt to bring it back under central control.
Abkhazia and South Ossetia have also been recognized by Nicaragua, Venezuela, and the tiny Pacific island nation of Nauru.
News.az: Separatist Tskhinvali releases Georgian teens
Mon 21 December 2009 | 06:34 GMT
The authorities in breakaway South Ossetia released on Saturday three Georgian teenagers, two detained on November 4 and one – in early July.
Levan Khmiadashvili and Viktor Buchukuri, 17 and 16 years old, respectively, both from the village of Tirdznisi were detained in the vicinity of Tskhinvali on November 4 together with two other Georgian teenagers. Two of them - Giorgi Romelashvili and Aleko Tsabadze, both 14 years old – were released on December 2 as a result of mediation of Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner, Thomas Hammarberg. On the same day Tbilisi released five Ossetian men.
Giorgi Archvadze, who at the time of his detention in July was 15 years old, was also released as a result of “pardoning” issued by breakaway region’s leader Eduard Kokoity.
Commissioner Hammarberg, who again arrived in Georgia this week, was in Tskhinvali on December 19. Russia’s official human rights ombudsman, Vladimir Lukin, was also there.
The news about the release of three Georgian teenagers was first reported in Georgia by a press office of Georgia’s former PM Zurab Nogaideli’s opposition party Movement for Fair Georgia, linking the release with, as it put it, “successful” talks between Nogaideli and the breakaway region’s leader Eduard Kokoity in Tskhinvali earlier on December 19.
Nogaideli accompanied the released teenagers over the administrative border. Commissioner Hammarberg was also there. He told journalists in the village of Ergneti at the administrative border that efforts would continue to release other persons remaining in detention on the both sides. Nogaideli told journalists in Ergneti that the decision of Kokoity to release the three teenagers was “very important and right”.
Russia Today: Russian soldiers head to South Ossetia to protect republic’s border
19 December, 2009, 09:42
Many South Ossetian refugees have returned to their homes since Russia started to protect the republic’s borders. Russian soldiers headed to the frontier under a deal agreed in April. Residents already feel more secure.
40-year-old Nodar Tasoev is a South Ossetian resident. He left his village when it was under Georgian rule.
“They were always mocking me because I'm Ossetian. It became impossible to live here and I left,” Nodar says.
He returned around 7 months ago, when Russian border guards were posted along the frontier and now the village feels secure again.
The guards arrived under a deal agreed between Russia and South Ossetia. It was signed after Georgia’s attempt to seize South Ossetia was repelled by Russian troops. Moscow later recognized the republic’s independence and vowed to protect it.
Signs of Georgia's aggression are literally on every stretch of the South Ossetian border. The first civilian victims in August 2008 were in a village right on the border. Today on the outskirts there is a Russian border post. Twenty more military posts like this one will soon appear along with it.
At the moment, the guards have to live in tents, 500 meters from a construction site. A hundred builders brought in from Chechnya are also there, and this kind of project is not new to them.
”We've built such outposts in Chechnya – we know how to do it. This project is just a little bit different – more complicated. We are planning to finish it by the end of 2010 and it's 100% real,” says builder Ali Ustarkhanov.
The frontline gardens are perfect shelter for smugglers trying to cross from Georgia into South Ossetia. Since April, when they were first deployed, a number have already been detained trying to enter illegally.
“This area is difficult to cross, especially in bad weather, and there is a large network of detour roads which ease illegal actions,” says Lieutenant-Colonel Pavel Bazhok, serving as a border guard.
Bricks and mortar will soon take the place of the tents. Meanwhile yet another group of soldiers is on its way, ready to protect the South Ossetian border.
The Jerusalem Post: Cabinet approves new Moscow envoy
Dec. 20, 2009
Herb Keinon , THE JERUSALEM POST
The cabinet on Sunday approved Russian-language journalist Dorit Golender as the next ambassador to Moscow.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman named Golender some two months ago as a political appointment, one of 11 allowed in the foreign service. Golender's, like all political appointments, has come up against resistance inside the Foreign Ministry, where there is a natural tendency to want to see professional diplomats promoted to the top jobs.
However, the Civil Service Commission approved Lieberman's recommendation, saying that during Golender's 37 years of journalistic experience she developed professional and personal relationships with politicians and journalists inside Russia, and became well acquainted with the situation there. The commission also noted that she has done a great deal over the last 40 years to integrate Russian-speaking immigrants into Israel society, and is very familiar both with the Russian-language community here and the Jewish communities in the former Soviet Union.
At the same time, the commission recommended that the Foreign Ministry provide her with a seminar in diplomacy since she lacks any diplomatic experience.
Golender, 60, was born in Kovno, Lithuania, and immigrated to Israel in 1967. She has worked since 1972 at Israel Radio, and for the past 13 years was the manager of the mostly Russian-language Radio Reka, which she helped establish. If approved, as expected, she will replace Anna Azari, who left her post as ambassador to Moscow in the summer.
The cabinet also approved the appointments of current Foreign Ministry director-general Yossi Gal as the next envoy to France; Aryeh Mekel as ambassador to Greece; and Nimrod Barkan as envoy to multilateral organizations such as UNESCO and the OECD, which Israel is expected to join in 2010.
Two names noticeably missing from the list that was brought to the cabinet was Alon Pinkas, who Lieberman was expected to name as ambassador to the UN earlier this month, and Shai Bazak, who was considered the leading candidate for the consul-general job in New York. The failure to include these names in the batch of Foreign Ministry appointments brought to the cabinet on Sunday indicated that differences of opinion remain between Lieberman and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu regarding the candidates.
Another looming battle over a political appointment has to do with Boston, where Nadav Tamir, who made headlines earlier in the year when he harshly criticized Netanyahu's policy toward the Obama administration, finishes his assignment in the summer. Lieberman has expressed interest in naming a political appointment for that job as well.
Itar-Tass: Council of Europe secretary general visits Moscow
21.12.2009, 01.12
PARIS, December 21 (Itar-Tass) - Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland arrives in Moscow on Monday. During his first official trip as head of the Council of Europe he will meet with the speakers of the lower and upper houses of Russian parliament, Boris Gryzlov and Sergei Mironov, as well as with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Russia is one of the main components of the European political architecture, and it plays a decisive role in maintaining peace and stability on the continent, Jagland said ahead of the visit.
According to him, Russia’s position has a decisive role not only for the future of the Council of Europe as an organization, but also for the development of democracy, human rights and supremacy of law in Europe. He expressed hope that a substantial and constructive dialogue would be held in Moscow.
Focus: Russia to provide Bulgaria with nuclear fuel by sea
[pic][pic]20 December 2009 | 03:01 | FOCUS News Agency [pic][pic][pic]
Sofia. Russia is going to provide Bulgaria with nuclear fuel and in this way is going to skip Ukraine, said spokesperson of ‘Rosatom’ Sergey Novikov. According to him over the past years Ukraine appeared to be an obstacle for the fuel transit determined to the Bulgarian nuclear centrals. Due to this an alternative route has been developed for supplying ‘Caucasus’ and ‘Varna’, The 24 chasa Daily informs.
Abc.az: Russia submits a draft agreement recognizing Azerbaijan’s ownership right for embassy building in Russia
Baku, Fineko/abc.az. The Russian Government has defined itself with solution of the matter of the ownership right for complex of Azerbaijan Embassy’s buildings in Moscow.
Well-informed sources say that through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs line the Russian government submitted its draft of the agreement on this issue settlement.
“According to primary estimates, the Azerbaijani party considers this document “not bad” as the document recognizes its ownership right for all real estate of the Azerbaijani Embassy in Moscow. Simultaneously the Azerbaijani government is ready to hold additional consultations with the Russian side on the occasion,” a source said.
A possibility of such consultations was stressed last week by Russian ambassador Vladimir Dorokhin to Azerbaijan
A base for solution of the matter was Moscow’s decree issued earlier this February on transfer of the complex of Azerbaijani Embassy’s buildings into federal ownership and cancellation of the Moscow government’s decision made in 2003.
It allowed resumption of negotiations between the governments of Azerbaijan and Russia already in March.
Their outcome should be signing of a relevant agreement, draft of which was submitted by the Azerbaijani side in 2000.
At the end of 2007 the sides agreed to fasten process of signing of a relevant intergovernmental agreement.
Azerbaijan has submitted twice (in 2000 and 2006) drafts of such an agreement for consideration of Russia. But its signing was impossible as the Russian government did not tackle itself all ownership issues with the Moscow government, including size and procedure of compensation payment.
Consideration of the matter has hampered since the moment when in 2003 the building of the Permanent Representative Office of Azerbaijan Soviet Republic under the USSR Council of Ministers was transferred under authority of the Moscow government. While the Azerbaijani government implemented for a long time ago all its commitments concerning allotting of land plot for the Baku building of the Russian Embassy to Azerbaijan, the Russian party has failed so far to resolve the same issue in respect to the Azerbaijani Embassy in Moscow.
In this connection Azerbaijan hopes for solution of the question by the Russian government in accordance with international norms for provision of activity of diplomatic representative offices.
“Federal agencies will need time to enter the ownership right. This will happen in the nearest weeks and allow to solve the matter of the ownership right for the complex of buildings,” Istratov said.
As a result, already on 11 March the final protocol of Azerbaijan-Moscow Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Partnership will be included a task order to the Moscow government to ensure transfer of all the three buildings for three-month period into federal ownership. Then the Azerbaijani government will begin negotiations with the Russian government on the issue.
RIA: Russia to start construction of 4th Borey-class sub in early 2010
12:2121/12/2009
A Russian shipyard will start building a fourth Borey class (Project 955) strategic submarine in early 2010, the Navy's chief said on Monday.
Vladimir Vysotsky said the postponement of the submarine construction from late this year to early next year was not linked to the latest unsuccessful launch of Russia's troubled Bulava intercontinental missile.
The latest launch of the missile, which Russia hopes will be a key element of its nuclear forces, from a submarine in the White Sea ended in failure on December 9. Only five of 12 Bulava launches have been officially reported as being successful.
The Bulava (SS-NX-30) SLBM carries up to 10 MIRV warheads and has a range of over 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles). The three-stage solid-propellant ballistic missile is designed for deployment on Borey class nuclear-powered submarines.
The Bulava, along with Topol-M land-based ballistic missiles, is expected to become the core of Russia's nuclear triad.
The future development of the Bulava has been questioned by some lawmakers and defense industry officials, who have suggested that all efforts should be focused on the existing Sineva SLBM.
But the Russian military has insisted that there is no alternative to the Bulava and pledged to continue testing the missile until it is ready to be put in service with the Navy.
MOSCOW, December 21 (RIA Novosti)
RFERL: Soyuz Craft Blasts Off For ISS
December 21, 2009
A Russian Soyuz spacecraft with three astronauts on board has blasted off for the International Space Station.
The spacecraft lifted off from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrone in Kazakhstan as planned and is due to dock with the ISS on December 23.
The three astronauts, a Russian American and Japanese, will join a U.S.-Russian duo who have manned the multi-billion-dollar station since October.
Itar-Tass: Soyuz TMA-17 blasts off from Baikonur
21.12.2009, 01.18
BAIKONUR (Kazakhstan), December 21 (Itar-Tass) - The Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft blasted off from Baikonur at 00:52 a.m. on Monday, Itar-Tass has reported from Baikonur.
It takes to the ISS Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, NASA astronaut Timothy Creamer and astronaut of the Japanese Space Agency JAXA Soichi Noguchi, who will work in orbit for half-a-year.
The docking with the ISS is scheduled for December 23, at 01:54 Moscow time, Roskosmos sources said.
Reuters: Russian rocket blasts off to space outpost
Mon Dec 21, 2009 8:23am IST
By Dmitry Solovyov
KOROLYOV, Russia (Reuters) - A Russian Soyuz spacecraft with three astronauts on board blasted off from Kazakhstan on Monday to join a U.S.-Russian duo manning the International Space Station (ISS).
Russian Oleg Kotov, NASA's Timothy Creamer and Japan's Soichi Noguchi lifted off from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan as planned, at 0052 Moscow time (2152 GMT on Sunday).
"Attention, spaceship Soyuz TMA-17, successfully reached its designated orbit," said an announcer at mission control to the applause of control workers and officials from the Russian, U.S. and Japanese space agencies.
After the first nine, most critical minutes into the flight, the Soyuz reached its targeted orbit at altitudes varying between 200 km and 242 km (125-151 miles) above earth.
TOY MASCOT
The space trio smiled and wove hands during the lift-off. A fluffy toy mascot hanging on a string over their heads started floating around the cabin as they reached weightlessness.
"Now it's all normal, they have started their work in orbit. At 0800 (5 a.m. GMT) we will tell them to go to bed," Vladimir Solovyov, the chief of piloted missions at the Russian segment of the ISS, told reporters after the launch.
"Their programme is quite a tense one," he said. "Space walks will start after the (New Year) holidays."
After docking with the ISS on Dec 23, the three astronauts will join American Jeff Williams and Russian Maxim Suraev who have manned the multi-billion-dollar station since October. The five men will be the station's Expedition 22.
Williams and Suraev are due to return to earth in March. Solovyov said the three astronauts launched on Monday would spend 126 days in space and return in May.
Russia's partners in exploiting the ISS are U.S. space agency NASA, the European Space Agency and the Japanese and Canadian space agencies. Moscow has said it wants to extend the life of the $100-billion ISS beyond 2015.
This year Russia doubled to four the number of manned flights to the ISS aboard its single-use Soyuz spacecraft.
Solovyov said the burden on Russia to support the station was only set to grow after NASA retires its ageing fleet of Space Shuttles sometime in late 2010.
"We will support the life of the station by launching our transport and cargo spacecraft," he said.
This space launch breached one of the traditions of Russia's space industry -- to abstain from launches on Mondays -- established in the time of Sergei Korolyov, the famed designer of the R-7 rocket that is a prototype of the Souyz.
"Well yes, but no worries -- the launch time was only 52 minutes into Monday," Solovyov admitted with a smile.
(Reporting by Dmitry Solovyov)
December 20, 2009
Satnews Daily: Roscosmos — The Plan Is Cooperation With Japan
Russia's Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will draft an agreement on space cooperation, the Roscosmos chief said last Sunday. "Yesterday I met with the Japanese agency's head to draft an inter-agency agreement on a joint space program," Anatoly Perminov stated.
Perminov said, "scientific experiments could be enhanced" with the appearance of Japan's Kibo laboratory module on the International Space Station. "The Japanese are gradually getting used to flying on board Soyuz spaceships. For the first time a Japanese astronaut will spend almost 200 days on the ISS. Japan will increase its presence at the station," he added. Soichi Noguchi is Japan's first astronaut to make his flight to the ISS on board a Russian Soyuz spaceship.
UPI: Russia to have nuclear spacecraft by 2012
v
Published: Dec. 20, 2009 at 11:34 PM
KAZAKHSTAN, Russia, Dec. 20 (UPI) -- The head of Russia's Federal Space Agency said Sunday nuclear engine-powered spacecraft would be finalized by 2012.
Anatoly Perminov said financing for the space program in the next nine years would require at least $580 million, RIA Novosti reported.
Perminov previously had said development of Megawatt-class nuclear space power systems for cosmonaut-manned spacecraft would be crucial if Russia is to maintain its competitive edge in the world's space theater, including exploration of Mars and the moon, the newspaper said.
The president of the Russian Academy of Cosmonautics and head of the Keldysh research center, Anatoly Koroteyev, said the development of new propulsion systems and energy-mass efficient energy supplies is the major scientific and technical problem in sending manned missions to the Moon and Mars.
The current Russian space industry is clearly incapable of setting up a permanent base on the moon or of achieving an independent manned mission to Mars, Koroteyev said.
RIA: District police chief killed in south Russia's Dagestan
08:5421/12/2009
A district police chief in the volatile south Russian republic of Dagestan was shot dead during the night outside his house, the republic's police department said.
"In the village of Gurbuki in the Karabudakhkent district, unknown people killed the head of the local police department, Lt. Abdulvagid Magomedov", a spokesman said.
The gunmen pulled up outside Magomedov's house in a car, and opened fire while he was standing at the gate. He died on the spot.
The search for the killers is ongoing.
Russia's mainly Muslim and ethnically diverse North Caucasus republics have been swept by an upsurge of violence recently, which has also swept neighboring regions, where hundreds of people have been killed in militant attacks and skirmishes between security forces and gunmen.
MAKHACHKALA, December 21 (RIA Novosti)
Itar-Tass: Chief of Dagestan’s settlement police department killed
21.12.2009, 10.54
MAKHACHKALA, December 21 (Itar-Tass) -- Unidentified people shot down chief of the settlement police department of the village of Gurbuki, police lieutenant Abdulvagid Magomedov in Dagestan’s Karabudakhkentsky region.
As ITAR-TASS learnt at the press service of the Interior Ministry for Dagestan, “the incident occurred near the policeman’s house in the village of Gurbuki at 23.50 Moscow time on Sunday".
According to the pres service, “unidentified people, who were staying in a Lada-Priora car, made several bursts of submachine-gun fire at the police officer standing at the gate.” The policeman died on the spot.
The criminals escaped in their car. A search for them is underway.
Criminal proceedings were instituted against the criminals.
Reuters: INTERVIEW - West using rebels to destroy Russia -Chechen chief
Mon Dec 21, 2009 3:31pm IST
By Michael Stott
GUDERMES, Russia (Reuters) - Russia needs a military strategy to resist the United States and other Western powers which are stoking disorder in the North Caucasus to destroy Russia, the president of Chechnya told Reuters in an interview.
Ramzan Kadyrov, a 33-year-old former rebel turned Kremlin loyalist, said last year's attack by U.S. ally Georgia on the pro-Russian rebel region of South Ossetia was part of a Western plot to seize the whole Caucasus region.
"If they get control of the Caucasus, you could say they'll get control of virtually all of Russia, because the Caucasus is our backbone," Kadyrov said.
The conversation was conducted at his exotic private offices near the town of Gudermes outside the Chechen capital, Grozny. The complex features a zoo, a racecourse for his horses, two large golden lions guarding the entrance and an artificial mountain lit up in different colours at night.
"The Russian government needs to work out a strategy, it needs to attack," the Chechen president said.
"...Georgia, South Ossetia, Ukraine, all this will go on and on. It's Russia's private affliction. Why should we always suffer if we can eradicate this for good? We are a great power, we have everything -- an army, technology. We need to attack."
Kadyrov's father Ahmad was a rebel mufti who switched sides in 1999 with his son at the outbreak of Moscow's second war in Chechnya. Ahmad became president in 2003 but was killed in a bomb attack the following year.
Ramzan succeeded him in 2007, crushing a rebel insurgency, rebuilding the shattered republic and imposing Islamic rule.
Kadyrov took pains in the interview to counter accusations by human rights groups that he had been involved in the murders of activists, journalists and opponents in Russia and overseas.
Dressed in a dark blue Ralph Lauren velvet-finish shirt, his hair and beard carefully groomed, Kadyrov smiled frequently but became animated when asked why many of his opponents at home and abroad had met violent deaths.
Human rights groups have linked him to the murders of campaigning journalist Anna Politkovskaya, activist Natalya Estemirova, opposition Chechen exiles in Austria and Turkey and rival Chechen clan chiefs shot dead in Moscow and Dubai.
Kadyrov, who was guarded by armed, black-clad militiamen wearing balaclavas embossed with his initials, said he had personally helped many of the murder victims and their families and was not their enemy.
"I don't want to kill," he said. "Who did I fight? I fought terrorists. Who did I protect? I protected the whole of Russia so that people in Moscow or St Petersburg ... could live in peace. ... They accuse me of killing women and children. It's not true."
Kadyrov dismissed a claim on an Islamist website that fugitive Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov was behind a bomb attack on Nov. 27 which derailed a Moscow-St Petersburg train, killing 26 people. Umarov, he said, lived in a cave in the mountains and had no idea what was going on.
"Today there are very few (rebels) left," he said. "This year we destroyed a great many terrorists in (the neighbouring Russian republics of) Ingushetia, Dagestan and Chechnya."
Asked how many remained, Kadyrov replied: "If I knew how many and where, I would have destroyed them a long time ago."
Kadyrov said the remaining rebels were kept going by Western money and guns.
"The West is financing them," he said. "I officially declare this: those who destroyed the Soviet Union, those who want to destroy the Russian Federation, they stand behind them."
U.S. President Barack Obama has offered to "reset" relations with Russia after a tense period during the presidency of George W. Bush, and Kadyrov said it would be good for Washington if the United States followed more friendly policies towards Russia.
"And if not," he added, "we have a very strong politician of global stature, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. There is no one like him on the world stage."
Kadyrov made several references to Putin, Russia's prime minister and its most powerful politician, during the one-hour interview conducted last week but did not mention Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
At pains to appear modest and show his loyalty to the Kremlin, Kadyrov shrugged off suggestions he might extend his responsibilities to cover the entire North Caucasus, as some Russian media reports have suggested, or run for a second term in Chechnya when his presidency ends in 2011.
Kadyrov said being president was a difficult job and he would prefer to dedicate more time to his seven children and the study of Islam. His official residence features a huge private mosque visible from the marble staircase of the main building.
"To get to heaven, you have to work very hard," he said. "I want to go to heaven so I will try to pray more."
(Additional reporting by Olga Petrova, editing by Andrew Dobbie)
The Moscow Times: Poles, Kadyrov Trade Barbs Over Refugees
21 December 2009
By Nikolaus von Twickel
Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov and Poland’s foreign minister traded barbs after Kadyrov, who has been linked to human rights abuses in Chechnya, accused Poland of violating the rights of Chechen refugees.
Kadyrov said he has “regularly heard that Chechen refugees in Poland are living in miserable conditions” and a group of Chechens must have been desperate for trying to take a protest about Polish conditions to Strasbourg before being stopped at Poland’s border earlier in the week.
“We do not force anybody to return … but if these people come back, their rights will be much better protected,” Kadyrov said in a statement published last week on his government’s web site.
Kadyrov has regularly been accused of grave human rights violations, including kidnapping and murder — charges that he denies.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski reacted Friday by questioning Kadyrov’s logic. “If there was democracy in Chechnya, I suppose that there would not be as many Chechen refugees as there are, including in Poland,” he said in remarks e-mailed by his ministry to The Moscow Times.
The protest began when asylum seekers boarded a train on Tuesday and said they wanted to protest at the Strasbourg, France-based European Court of Human Rights about their treatment in Poland and the slow process of getting political asylum. But the group of about 170 people, comprised of natives of Chechnya, Ingushetia and Georgia, got no further than the German border because they lacked tickets and proper documentation, Polish and German media reported.
The refugees were brought to Debak, a camp near Warsaw, the United Nations refugee agency said Friday.
One of the organizers, 30-year-old Ingush refugee Zhanetta Baisurkayeva, said the protest was motivated by a wave of violence against asylum seekers from the Caucasus since the fall.
“It started with numerous beatings of our people by young people. Then they started to assault refugee stations. … Strasbourg was the last attempt to call for attention and for real help,” she said in an interview published on the web site.
Baisurkayeva added that she feared extradition to Russia as punishment for her involvement.
Polish ombudsman Janusz Kochanowski promised that living conditions at the Radom camp would be checked, the Thenews.pl web site reported Sunday.
The United Nations refugee agency disputed the notion that conditions in Polish camps justified the protest.
Melita Sunjic, a spokeswoman for the agency’s office in Budapest, Hungary, which covers Poland, said that according to her monitoring reports, conditions have greatly improved recently.
“The situation is no worse for Chechens than for anybody else,” Sunjic told The Moscow Times.
She said the real motive behind the protest might be that Polish authorities are now much less likely to grant asylum than earlier. Until last year, she said, Chechens had the best chance to obtain refugee status in the EU by applying in Poland. “Now the chances have fallen to 50 percent,” she said.
Sunjic also said many refugees seemed to be led by the false hope that the visa-free Schengen zone allows them to live wherever they want in Europe. “Schengen is just for travelers. Refugees cannot live outside the country that granted them status,” she said.
Poland has been a prime destination for refugees from Russia since the country was fully integrated into the Schengen zone in 2007. But numbers have fallen recently, and about 5,200 Russian citizens have applied for asylum so far this year, Sunjic said. Polish authorities also reported an unprecedented flood of Georgian asylum seekers this summer, with more than 3,000 Georgians applying from May to August.
Itar-Tass: Grenade goes off in elevator in Moscow’s Yuzhnoe Butovo district injuring man
21.12.2009, 03.55
MOSCOW, December 21 (Itar-Tass) - A man was injured when a grenade went off in the elevator of an apartment house in Moscow’s Yuzhnoe Butovo district, a law enforcement official has told Tass.
The incident happened at about 1 am, Moscow time, on Monday. “According to early reports, a grenade carried by the man went off in the elevator. The man received injuries of different severity and was hospitalised,” the source said.
Bomb specialists and police work at the site.
ISRIA: Russia - MFA - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin held a meeting on providing the Navy with new weapons and military hardware at the Admiralty Shipyards
Vladimir Putin's opening address:
Good afternoon,
We continue a series of meetings on the development of the Russian defence industry. In principle, all of these meetings pursue the same goal - to understand what else has to be done to upgrade plants and adjust the purchase schedule for arms and military hardware in order to create a new image for the Russian Armed Forces.
We often say that the Russian Armed Forces must become more compact, mobile and combat-effective and that the proportion of modern hardware in the equipment mix should be brought to 70% by 2020. This fully applies to the Navy, whose provision with new equipment we will discuss today.
Our civilian ship-building industry faces many problems but it is now producing modern ships and marine technology which conform to world standards. One example is the ice-class twin-control tanker with a deadweight of 70,000 tons, which was launched today. It will move through the ice using an Azipod diesel-electric power plant and can operate in the most adverse conditions of the Arctic.
In other words, we are capable of resolving any complicated task using state of the art technology. Now we must make similar breakthroughs in military shipbuilding. It is absolutely necessary to develop a long-term programme as soon as possible. It should meet the Navy's requirements and include current objectives based on 30-year forecasts. This is our minimum programme.
It goes without saying that we should consider our realistic funding potential. This means that we should set clear priorities. We should not limit ourselves to designing or even launching a ship. We must plan in advance all stages of its life cycle: current uses, maintenance and even eventual reclamation.
The Unified Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), our main producer of marine equipment, must develop a consistent technological chain for the construction and subsequent service of warships.
We must make decisions together with the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Defence Ministry on the most rational distribution of military and civilian projects for USC shipyards and plants and re-equip them on the basis of specific orders. In so doing we must emphasise the commercial manufacture of equipment. Only in this way can we make efficient use of budget funds rather than let them dissipate into numerous and often ineffective projects.
We must also analyze the legal foundation governing the construction of warships and naval hardware and eliminate the existing contradictions and anachronisms.
One more priority is to upgrade domestically sourced production. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with our shipbuilders using foreign technology and components. But we realize full well that in perspective we must develop a modern domestic industry to develop components, which would allow us to fill orders for related industries.
In pursuing strategic goals, we should not forget about current problems. Despite the crisis, the domestic shipbuilding industry is finishing the year with good results. From January through September it grew 74%.
Nonetheless, a number of plants face serious difficulties, and they should be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. In this context I would like to say that literally the other day we fulfilled our promise and transferred 1.9 billion roubles to the Amur Ship-Building Plant allowing them to complete an export contract.
In addition, the Defence Ministry will place contracts totaling up to 3 billion roubles at the same plant.
USC is doing much to enable the Kaliningrad-based Yantar (Amber) Plant to work at a normal capacity. Needless to say, it will be easier to make decisions on new contracts if USC incorporates this plant into its framework.
However, this is only general review of the current problems. Let's get down to the topic of our meeting.
Reuters: Black belt Putin offers to join Russian judo team
Sun Dec 20, 2009 7:37pm IST
By Guy Faulconbridge
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Black belted Russian leader Vladimir Putin has offered to join the national judo team after showing off his martial arts skills to members of the squad.
The 57-year-old prime minister made the proposal at a special coaching session on Saturday aired on state television, adding to his carefully-crafted macho image.
Putin, who many observers believe is still paramount leader despite standing down as president last year, entered the hall of St Petersburg's School of Sport Mastery dressed in a white judogi and black belt, to applause from the assembled squad.
After bowing, the former KGB spy went onto the mats, throwing squad members half his age and even tackling the chief trainer, Olympic Gold medallist Ezio Gamba.
Then, over tea and cakes, Putin made the suggestion. "If you need direct help, you can include me in the team," he told the trainer, an Italian who won gold at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
Putin, who cultivated an action-man image during his eight-year presidency, is still lionised by the state media despite handing over the presidency to ally Dmitry Medvedev.
Since becoming prime minister, Putin has fuelled speculation that he could return to the Kremlin one day with a series of high-profile stunts, baring his chest while riding a horse in Siberia and even tranquilising a Siberian tiger.
Officials praised Putin's technique in the Japanese martial art, and dismissed any hint that he may have been allowed to win. "He has the psychology of a winner, the psychology of the victorious," said Georgy Kukoverov, the school's chief.
Lauded like a superstar inside Russia, pictures of Putin baring his torso have previously provoked excitement in Internet chat rooms from female followers and some gay men.
(Editing by David Stamp)
The Moscow Times: Prosecutors Caught in ‘Clan War’
21 December 2009
By Nabi Abdullaev
The Prosecutor General’s Office announced Friday that the head of the Moscow branch of the Investigative Committee, Anatoly Bagmet, had been fired for violating his oath of office.
But Bagmet refused to step aside in an indication, observers said, that a new battle has erupted between Prosecutor General Yury Chaika and the Investigative Committee, which is a part of the prosecutor’s office and headed by the independent-minded Alexander Bastrykin, a former classmate of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
“Bagmet is dismissed from the prosecutors’ service and from his post for violating the investigator’s oath,” said a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office, Marina Gridneva, Interfax reported.
She said the dismissal order was signed Friday.
A prosecutor’s office spokesman reached by telephone could not explain what part of the oath Bagmet was accused of violating.
Late Friday, RIA-Novosti reported, citing an unidentified source in the prosecutor’s office, that the dismissal order had been signed by Deputy Prosecutor General Alexander Buksman, who is heading the office while Chaika is on a business trip.
Spokespeople for the Investigative Committee and the committee’s Moscow branch declined to comment on the dismissal order Friday.
But Bagmet, who was appointed to the post in May 2007, told Kommersant on Saturday that only his boss, Bastrykin, had the right to dismiss him.
Bastrykin, who was visiting St. Petersburg on Friday, told Bagmet that he would deal with the matter when he returned to Moscow on Monday, Kommersant said, without citing anyone.
Bastrykin promised to fire the heads of 12 regional branches of the Investigative Committee “who work badly” during a meeting with the Federation Council last month. Bastrykin did not say who might be dismissed.
According to the Constitution, the prosecutor’s office is a centralized agency whose employees are subordinate to the prosecutor general. However, a clause in the law on the prosecutor’s office says even though the Investigative Committee is part of prosecutor’s office, its officials are appointed and dismissed under rules set by the Investigative Committee’s head.
The prosecutor’s office earlier tried to fire Bagmet for accepting a law degree from a university in the Chelyabinsk region, where he previously worked as a deputy prosecutor. The prosecutor’s office accused Bagmet of acting illegally in accepting the degree in 2007, and a court case about the issue is ongoing.
The deputy head of the State Duma’s Security Committee, Alexei Volkov, said the latest decision to dismiss Bagmet followed an in-depth investigation into his work by the prosecutor’s office.
“This attempt to remove Bagmet is simply an episode in an internal fight between the prosecutors’ clans. Some group just wants to put its own man into the post,” said another member of the Security Committee. He spoke on condition of anonymity, saying he did not want to jeopardize his relationship with Bagmet.
Volkov said he doubted that Bagmet’s fate is a chip in any power play between Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev, which some political commentators have started tracing recently.
“I don’t think that the leaders of the state are discussing changes within the Investigation Committee with the prosecutor general,” he told The Moscow Times.
Removing Bastrykin, who is one of Putin’s closest allies, would indicate a conflict between Putin and Medvedev, who is seen as close to Chaika and generally unfriendly to the so-called siloviki clan to which Bastrykin belongs, said Vladimir Pribylovsky, who tracks dynamics between the ruling elites at the Panorama think tank.
But Bagmet, 48, is too low-ranking an official for Putin and Medvedev to be involved, he said.
Igor Trunov, a celebrity lawyer who has participated in several high-profile cases investigated by Bagmet’s office, said Bagmet’s work was problematic but this was probably not linked to the dismissal.
“The Moscow branch of the Investigative Committee performs and has performed terribly. Saying that its officials have violated their oath is too mild. They violate the criminal law,” Trunov said, referring to an attempt earlier this year to pursue criminal charges against investigators accused of stealing personal items kept as evidence from victims of the 2002 Nord-Ost hostage taking.
Trunov said even if Bagmet were dismissed, his replacement would not be any more professional.
Staff writer Alexander Bratersky contributed to this report.
The Moscow Times: Robin Hood Fires His Guns and Top Officials
21 December 2009
By Vladimir Frolov
Heads are rolling under President Dmitry Medvedev.
In stark contrast to his predecessor, who preferred quiet reshuffles to public firings, Medvedev is quick to dismiss senior government officials, including members of the top military brass.
More extraordinary is Medvedev’s readiness to bypass the regular chain of command and fire officials who do not report directly to him but to him but to federal ministers.
It was in this manner that Medvedev fired Vladimir Pronin, Moscow’s police chief, after the deadly shooting spree by a police officer in April. Similarly, Medvedev fired a bunch of three-star generals in the Defense Ministry who were responsible for ammunition storage and handling after a series of deadly blasts at a Navy arms depot in Volgograd in November. Finally, a few weeks ago he fired 21 officials from the Interior Ministry amid the public outcry over the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in pretrial detention.
Medvedev has also showed more readiness to part with old-time regional bosses, replacing heavily entrenched governors in Oryol, Voronezh, Sverdlovsk, Pskov, Stavropol and other regions where former President Vladimir Putin never ventured a dismissal.
It may seem like Medvedev is merely trying to assert his authority by personnel reshuffles that bypass a chain of command that he does not fully control. This would seem to be the logic behind his decision to remove Pronin, whom neither Mayor Yury Luzhkov nor the Interior Minister were in a hurry to fire despite the public outrage. In this sense, it was a move to undercut the authority of Luzhkov and Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev, who are still beyond Medvedev’s reach.
My sense, however, is that Medvedev is more interested in acting as an agent of public accountability. He enforces the will of the people over the heads of recalcitrant government officials who are unrestricted by any sense of personal responsibility for the bad things happening on their watch.
This is an innovative way to exercise presidential power in Russia. While people still cannot remove bad officials through elections, they can now rely on a president with an acute sense of public justice to avenge their grievances.
History knows a man who built a great franchise out of this practice. His name was Robin Hood.
Vladimir Frolov is president of LEFF Group, a government-relations and PR company.
The Moscow Times: 10,000 Pay Last Respects to Gaidar
21 December 2009
By Alexandra Odynova
Thousands of people stood in line on a chilly Saturday morning to pay their last respects to former acting Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar at a funeral at the Central Clinical Hospital.
Gaidar, whose “shock therapy” reforms in the early 1990s turned the Soviet economy into a free market, died of a blood clot Wednesday at the age of 53.
“We wouldn’t have managed, we wouldn’t have pulled through without him,” said Rusnano chief Anatoly Chubais, who served with Gaidar in President Boris Yeltsin’s government, Interfax reported.
Chubais was among about 10,000 people who walked by Gaidar’s coffin during the four-hour funeral, braving lingering public anger over his reforms that decimated the savings of ordinary Russians as well as outside temperatures of minus 20 degrees Celsius.
Among the dignitaries were Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov, Kremlin economics aide Arkady Dvorkovich and Yeltsin’s widow, Naina.
President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who largely ignored Gaidar during his lifetime and lavished praise on him when he died, did not attend.
Gaidar, who served as acting prime minister for just six months in 1992 before public anger forced Yeltsin to fire him, had maintained that his bold policies saved Russia from civil war, and many liberal economists and politicians agree with him.
But the State Duma rejected a motion Friday to hold a moment of silence to honor Gaidar. A Just Russia Deputy Vera Lekareva made the motion, noting that Gaidar had served as both acting prime minister and a Duma deputy.
But Duma Deputy Speaker Oleg Morozov of United Russia said Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov had already sent condolences to Gaidar’s family on behalf of the Duma, Interfax reported.
In his blog, Morozov explained that two factions had warned him on Wednesday that any attempt to hold a moment of silence would result in a scandal.
“It seems to me that Yegor Timurovich [Gaidar] would be on my side. He was a modest person and didn’t like public attention,” Morozov wrote.
Gaidar’s body was to be cremated after the funeral ahead of a private burial at Moscow’s Novodevichye Cemetery. The burial, which initially was to be held Saturday and made open to the public, was postponed to an unannounced date and closed to the public at the wishes of his family.
The Washington Post: Are Hot U.S. Startups The New Bling For Rich Russians?
Michael Arrington
Sunday, December 20, 2009; 11:56 AM
A controversial comment on Hacker News makes us wonder if hot U.S. startups are the new vanity purchase for rich Russians.
We weren't the only ones surprised earlier this year when Facebook raised a new round of financing at a $10 billion valuation. Facebook itself apparently held its nose as it closed the round, but Russian investment group Digital Sky Technologies was offering a far richer valuation than anyone else (and, importantly, they didn't require a board of directors seat).
Now the investment group keeps popping back into the news. First as a possible buyer of AOL's ICQ property, and more recently they led Zynga's robust $180 million financing.
DST is a legitimate investment firm, according to the companies and co-investors who've looked into them. They do have a colorful past ¿ one of DST?s major shareholders, Alisher Usmanov, spent six years in an Uzbek jail for fraud and embezzlement in the 1980s, says the NYTimes.
What's interesting about DST isn't their past. It's that they seem quite willing to dump very large amounts of money into hot U.S. startups at sky high valuations. No one else wanted in at Facebook at that $10 billion valuation (at least without a board seat). And while Zynga had quality co-investors, DST led and presumably priced the round.
Why is a Russian investment firm willing to pay these prices when other's won't? Here's the comment from Hacker News, which appeared on this thread about the Zynga investment:
(Bias disclaimer ¿ speaking as a native Russian.) What I think is not so obvious to many commentators is that this sort of juggling of outsized investments is an ego/megalomania play on the part of New Russian oligarch backers & small-time industrialists and financiers. The $180m figure has little to no imaginable correlation to any measurable marketability potential, generalised ROI, or anything else that would be deemed a competent valuation process institutionally in the West on something like Farmville. What matters is that the amount be sensational. I think we can all agree $180m is certainly sensational.This is not news to anyone who remembers the Yeltsin era and understands how wealth was concentrated^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hdistributed in Russia after privatisation and how it is intertwined with state interests. But despite the numerous outlandish personally flavoured investments Russian wealth barons have made in things UK football clubs, lavish yachts, full-service private jets, summer homes on the French Riviera and in southern Spain, etc. this point still eludes most Western observers.Example: numerous others, a key difference between Russia and the US is that in the US, an Anglo-American capitalistic country by heritage, contemporary super-wealth comes from many sources of varying degrees of legitimacy, depending on one's perspective. Certainly among them includes honest entrepreneurial ambition, innovation and professionalism in the transaction of commerce. In Russia there is only one kind of mega-wealth ¿ politically-connected 90s wealth. It is all one big "family," though the term is more meant to emphasise the narrow exclusivity and extreme statistical lopsidedness of the club than to insinuate congenital relation among the actors.This sort of "investment" is not very different from the sort of tribalistic "make it rain" spectacle you saw blowhard masters of local fiefdoms in Dubai pull, or continue to see in other Gulf Arab states, just to point to one widely-recognised example. The constellation of facts inherent in these examples is one of the inescapable cultural idiosyncrasies of the "backward" East from the perspective of free-market development and/or the capitalistically-themed conception of modernity.The all-around point of this seemingly disorganised rant is that all talk of what Zynga did "right" or attempts to "learn" from its "strategy" in relation to the particular size of this investment is pointless sophistry. Yes, FarmVille ¿ what do the kids say these days, "went viral?" ¿ but rational speculation about how this merits a $180m capital infusion will turn you prematurely grey and bald on account of its futility. If you are laying awake wondering how enough value and potential was created to legitimately absorb $180m, you're missing the point entirely ¿ your thinking is too West Coast, and not enough Near and Middle East. Check these projects out and it will help you get the picture, although my picking on Dubai is purely out of desire to make an analogy with something recently in the news and discussed here:
The symbolic significance of investing a headline-worthy sum of sovereign wealth in a "key" American "new economy" property as a geopolitical move for domestic consumption cannot be overstated either. It is likely, in fact, to be the far more substantial theme here, as there are more efficient ways to flagrantly and gratuitously display opulence and excess, usually involving something tangible, like a personal resort flotilla mounted on a military destroyer frame. You know, Deliverables 1.0 ¿ bricks and mortar, not clicks and mortar. Now, I know Digital Sky did not put up the $180m by itself; what does that matter? They "led the round" ¿ you see, they showed "leadership" here, they "took the lead" while Tiger Global, Institutional Venture Partners and Andreessen Horowitz "participated." I acknowledge that the enormous importance of this may be difficult to appreciate if you're not a semi-feudal politician, but work with me.The bottom line here is that Zynga is the unwitting beneficiary of bread and circus games in faraway places that otherwise have no substantive relevance to them intrinsically. There are no valuable business lessons to be learned here and there is no reason for them to be featured in the next Startup School or anything like that, unless the lesson is "get on the radar of Turkmenbashi and see what falls on your lap next time he goes to exercise his golden systems of elimination in his golden commode." [ ]
I interviewed DST founder and CEO Yuri Milner, who graduated from Wharton Business School in 1992, just after the Facebook investment. And to be fair, he doesn't appear to be anything other than a mild mannered and successful business guy. But the man is willing to pour money into companies at valuations that make U.S. investors blanch. Maybe the bling value of Facebook and Zynga help sweeten the deal.
: The Danger of Doing Business in Russia
By Carl Schreck / Moscow Saturday, Dec. 19, 2009
On Oct. 13, Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, imprisoned on tax evasion charges, told Russian Interior Ministry investigators that he was being denied medical care and subjected to "inhumane and humiliating conditions" in Moscow's notorious Butyrka jail. The treatment, he said, resulted from his refusal to give false testimony against himself and others. A month later, Magnitsky, 37, was dead. The Interior Ministry, which had charged the lawyer with conspiring to help William Browder, head of the London-based investment firm Hermitage Capital, allegedly evade more than $3 million in taxes, said it had not been aware that he had been ill. In prison notes released by his attorneys, however, Magnitsky repeatedly complained about being refused treatment for pancreatitis, a condition his friends and colleagues say led to his death.
Magnitsky's death has triggered a wave of public discussion in Russia — reaching as high as the Kremlin — about the squalid conditions in the country's jails and bureaucratic incompetence. But it has also renewed focus on an odious criminal practice that embodies what President Dmitry Medvedev describes as the "legal nihilism" pervading the country. It's known as reiderstvo, or "raiding," a term that describes an array of illegal tactics — including identity theft, forgery, bribery and physical intimidation — used by corrupt policemen, tax officials, lawyers and financiers to seize a person's business or property. (See pictures of Hillary Clinton in Russia.)
Hermitage claims it was targeted in just such an attack two years ago and that Magnitsky was arrested in retaliation for going public with the scam. According to Magnitsky, the raid began in June 2007, when police burst into Hermitage's offices with warrants and seized company records, corporate seals and tax certificates, which were then used by corrupt government officials and other members of their criminal gang to take ownership of three Hermitage subsidiaries. Months later, the company claims that phony lawsuits were filed against the three firms, leading to several judgments against them. With the assistance of tax officials, Hermitage says the raiders then allegedly used the judgments to secure a fraudulent $230 million tax refund from the government.
The Interior Ministry has denied any ulterior motives in Magnitsky's detention, saying he was being held solely because of the tax evasion charges. (Browder says those charges were without merit.) In April, a Moscow court convicted a sawmill foreman, Viktor Markelov, of fraud in connection with the raider scam, sentencing him to five years in prison. The verdict mentions only "unidentified persons" as Markelov's co-conspirators and does not include any reference to the Hermitage subsidiaries being stolen. But the company says Markelov was likely just a bit player and notes the $230 million has yet to be returned to the Russian treasury. To get to the bottom of who was responsible for Magnitsky's death, "one needs to find out who got the stolen $230 million," says Browder, whose fund was once the largest foreign investor in Russia and who has been barred entry to the country since Russia deemed him a threat to national security in 2005. (See pictures of Vladimir Putin.)
Kirill Kabanov, a member of Medvedev's human rights council and head of the National Anticorruption Committee, a nongovernmental organization, said the attack on Hermitage assets was a highly sophisticated example of reiderstvo. "The tactics were different, but the strategy was the same," Kabanov said.
There are no reliable statistics on the number of corporate raider attacks carried out each year, although media reports have put the number as high as 70,000. But the impact of the criminal practice on the economy is quite clear — business lobbyists and corruption experts say it is paralyzing small- and mid-sized businesses, as well as scaring off foreign investment. "If an Italian is doing business here and is targeted in a raider attack, he's going to tell his countrymen," says Alexander Brechalov, vice president of Opora, a Russian lobbying group for small businesses. "Who is going to want to come to Russia after hearing that? It's an epidemic that needs to be contained." (See pictures of Russian police breaking up an anti-Kremlin rally.)
Experts say that businessmen not only risk losing their assets when they're targeted, but they can also end up in jail on trumped-up charges brought by corrupt law enforcement officials and prosecutors. Russian businessman Alexei Kozlov, who claims he was the victim of a raid aimed at seizing his synthetic leather factory in Moscow, was convicted of fraud in May and sentenced to eight years in prison. In a telephone interview from prison, Kozlov said that Butyrka is teeming with entrepreneurs locked up on phony charges brought against them in raider attacks. "Before I landed behind bars, I thought only criminals were in jail," Kozlov said. "Now I know it's not only criminals." (Read: "Putin: Yes, I May Run Again. Thanks for Asking.")
The destructive effects of reiderstvo have not escaped the attention of top officials. Medvedev has called the practice "shameful" and expressed support for measures aimed at easing prosecution of such crimes. "The seizure schemes are conducted very professionally, that is a fact," he told Russian senators on Nov. 5. "Sometimes it's simply impossible to get to the bottom of them. But that doesn't mean that our law enforcement authorities shouldn't be trying." The issue was even raised during a live call-in TV show with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin earlier this month. Responding to a question about how the government planned to tackle reiderstvo, Putin said a proposal to unify various raider tactics under a single criminal statute would help law enforcement officials work "more effectively."
Then, on Dec. 15, came a sign that authorities may be cracking down on individuals suspected to be involved in the raid on Hermitage's assets. The Kremlin said that Medvedev had dismissed Anatoly Mikhalkin, the head of the tax crimes department of the Moscow police. Police spokeswoman Zhanna Ozhimina denied the move was linked to the Magnitsky case, saying that Mikhalkin had stepped down because of his age. But Hermitage says Mikhalkin may have been fired because he had signed off on documents used in the seizure of its subsidiaries. (See pictures of Russia celebrating Victory Day.)
Even if this is the case, Browder stresses that a harsher response from the government is needed to stem the tide of raiding in Russia, namely criminal prosecution. "There is no comparison between the loss of a job and the loss of an innocent man's life," he says.
12/20/2009 9:33:49 AM
: RUSNANO transferred 66.4 billion rubles to state budget
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In accordance with the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No 1455-r of October 5, 2009 on the Return of Temporarily Free Funds of State Corporations to the Budget of the Russian Federation, RUSNANO transferred 66.4 billion rubles to the bank accounts of the Federal Treasury of the Russian Federation.
According to another Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No 1454-r of the same date, the transfer of RUSNANO's free funds to the state budget is carried out on a return basis: it is expected that in 2010-2012 these funds will be transferred back to the Corporation.
The remaining funds available to RUSNANO amount to 41.15 billion rubles, they will be utilized to finance the Corporation's investment projects in 2010. These funds are now temporarily placed in the commercial banks, selected by the closed request for proposals, that ended yesterday, on December 15, 2009. 13 banks, which undergone pre-qualification to meet the requirements established by the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation and the Corporation, participated in the closed request for proposals. As a result of this procedure, the temporarily free funds are now placed in the following credit institutions: Uralsib, Bank Saint Petersburg, VTB, Nomos-Bank, Bank of Moscow.
The Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies (RUSNANO) was established in 2007 by the Federal law ¹ 139-FZ to enable Government policy in the field of Nanotechnology.
To accomplish this task, RUSNANO co-invests in nanotechnology industry projects that have high commercial potential or social benefit. Early-stage investment by RUSNANO lowers the risk of its investment partners from the private sector.
RUSNANO participates in building nanotechnology infrastructure, which includes the nanotechnology centers of excellence, business incubators and early stage investment funds. RUSNANO provides scientific and educational programs that are required for its investment projects to succeed, and also supports the popularization of nanoscience and nanotechnology. RUSNANO selects promising spheres for investment based on longer-term foresight created by the leading Russian and world experts.
To assist the Russian nanotechnology industry advance to the global market and strengthening of its international links RUSNANO develops partnerships with the leading nanotechnology centers in the world and organizes the annual Nanotechnology International Forum in Russia.
Globe and Mail: Russia and Canada: Partners in the North?
Recognizing each other's sovereignty claims brings mutual benefits
Michael Byers
Moscow — From Monday's Globe and Mail Published on Friday, Dec. 18, 2009 7:58PM EST Last updated on Monday, Dec. 21, 2009 2:49AM EST
A map produced by Natural Resources Canada has pride of place in Arctic ambassador Anton Vasiliev's office, in the Stalinist-era skyscraper housing the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Centred on the geographic North Pole, the map shows how Russia and Canada dominate the Arctic region. Between them, the two largest countries on Earth account for three-quarters of the Arctic Ocean's coastline.
Both countries claim the channels between their Arctic islands and northern coasts as “internal waters” where foreign vessels require permission to enter. Their claims are opposed by the United States, which insists the Northern Sea Route and Northwest Passage are “international straits.”
Russia and Canada have never opposed each other's claims, but neither have they explicitly supported each other. Instead, they have always relied on thick, hard sea ice to keep foreign vessels away.
Now, climate change is opening the Northern Sea Route and Northwest Passage to shipping. Two German cargo ships sailed the length of the Russian coast this year, while 17 vessels transited the Northwest Passage. Shipping increases the risk of oil spills, smuggling and an eventual challenge to one or both countries' legal claims.
In the circumstances, Russia and Canada should bolster their positions by recognizing each other's sovereignty claims.
At the same time, Russia is working hard to provide ice-breaking, navigational aids, ports of refuge and search and rescue in the Northern Sea Route. It recognizes both that shipping can bring economic benefits, and that offering services to foreign ships provides an incentive for them to request permission.
Canada, which is decades behind Russia in terms of northern infrastructure, needs to raise its game in the Northwest Passage, too.
Both countries have ratified the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The convention gives coastal states exclusive rights to the resources of the continental shelf up to 200 nautical miles from shore, and, depending on the shape and sediments of the seabed, sometimes farther.
Both have been collecting the scientific evidence necessary for extended claims. Thanks to the convention, and their lengthy coasts, both countries will secure uncontested control over vast expanses of seabed and potentially trillions of dollars worth of oil and gas.
However, it is possible that their claims will overlap along the Lomonosov Ridge, an underwater mountain range that bisects the Arctic Ocean.
Russian and Canadian diplomats have been discussing how to support each other's claims and resolve the potential overlap.
One obvious step is to share scientific data concerning the shape and sediments of the ocean floor. The common data set could be used to negotiate a maritime boundary, which would then constitute an agreed part of both countries' submissions to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, the body that vets extended seabed claims.
Such an approach would increase the chances of the submissions being approved in a timely manner, and avoid the frictions that sometimes result when boundaries are left unresolved.
The benefits of the UN Convention explain why both countries oppose proposals for a new, comprehensive Arctic agreement modelled on the Antarctic Treaty. That said, several new, more tightly focused treaties are needed.
In 1982, Russian and Canadian diplomats teamed up to ensure that the UN Convention provides enhanced pollution prevention rights to coastal states in ice-covered waters within 200 miles of shore. It's time, now, to negotiate a protocol providing enhanced protection in the areas beyond.
It's also time to negotiate a treaty on search and rescue. With hundreds of cruise ships and thousands of commercial airliners traversing the Arctic each year, a major accident is inevitable. When it happens, hundreds of lives will depend on information and assets being deployed without regard for international boundaries or national pride.
For co-operation to work, politicians will have to resist the easy headlines offered by Arctic sovereignty. During the 2007 Russian election campaign, Artur Chilingarov led a mission to plant a Russian flag on the ocean floor at the North Pole. The Russian Foreign Minister later dismissed the exercise as a “publicity stunt” that had not been approved by the Kremlin.
In February, Prime Minister Stephen Harper accused Russia of sending long-range bombers into Canadian airspace. In fact, the planes had remained well out to sea, with NORAD having been notified of the exercise in advance – in accordance with a long-standing agreement between Russia and the United States.
Pursuing co-operation does not entail throwing caution to the wind. In recent years, Russia has violated human rights in Chechnya, invaded Georgia and cut off gas supplies to Belarus and Ukraine in the depths of winter.
But co-operative engagement can bring mutual benefits, while sometimes helping to change the ways in which countries behave. For the same reasons that we trade with China, we should work with Russia – on obvious, pressing matters of common concern.
Michael Byers is the author of Who Owns the Arctic? He is a project leader with ArcticNet, a federally funded consortium of scientists from 27 Canadian universities and five federal departments.
National Economic Trends
Bloomberg: Ruble Gains Versus Dollar as Oil Trades Above $73 a Barrel
By Denis Maternovsky
Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- The ruble strengthened against the dollar for a second day as oil, Russia’s chief export, traded above $73 a barrel.
The Russian currency added 0.2 percent to 30.5750 per dollar by 10:55 a.m. in Moscow after gaining 0.6 percent on Dec. 18. It was little changed at 43.8078 per euro.
Oil prices have doubled since February, boosting the earnings outlook for the world’s biggest energy exporter and supporting the ruble. Crude oil for January delivery was at $73.29 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, little changed after gaining 1 percent to $73.36 on Dec. 18, the highest since Dec. 7.
The movements against the dollar and the euro left the ruble at 36.5293, a three-day high, against the central bank’s target currency basket, which is used to manage swings that hurt Russian exporters.
The basket is calculated by multiplying the dollar’s rate to the ruble by 0.55, the euro to ruble rate by 0.45, then adding them together. The ruble remains within the 26 to 41 band the central bank pledged Jan. 22 to defend.
To contact the reporter on this story: Denis Maternovsky in Moscow at dmaternovsky@
Last Updated: December 21, 2009 03:18 EST
Interfax: The Central Bank of Russia will hold auction for one-year unsecured loans with 5 billion-ruble limit. The minimum rate will be 12.0%.
21.12.2009 - RBC
: Unemployment goes up in Russia
According to preliminary data, the number of unemployed jumped 15.9 percent to 6.1 million people (8.1 percent of economically active population) in November 2009 compared to the same month of 2008, the Russian Federal Statistics Service (Rosstat) reported today. The number of unemployed rose 5 percent compared to October of this year, and the overall figure for the first 11 months surged 34.7 percent compared to January-November 2008. A total of 75.5 million people, or more than 53 percent of the population, were economically active in November.
The number of officially registered unemployed climbed 56.5 percent to 2 million people in November compared to November 2008, and 1.3 percent against October of this year. The figure for this year's rise in the number of officially registered unemployed stood at 49.7 percent.
The Moscow Times: Jobless Rate Hits 4-Month High
21 December 2009
Combined Reports
Unemployment rose to a four-month high in November and retail sales fell on the month after rising slightly in October, indicating that the economic recovery remains uneven and painful, according to data released Friday.
The jobless rate rose for a second month to 8.1 percent, from 7.7 percent the month before, the State Statistics Service said. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 15 economists was for a rate of 7.8 percent.
The rate, however, still remains below the five-year high of 9.5 percent registered in February.
On the positive side, Russians had more cash to spend last month than in October and completions of housing picked up by about one-fourth on the month.
Russia suffered more than most developing countries during the recent recession, which wiped out a tenth of its gross domestic product in the first half of the year. The economy began showing some incipient signs of revival in the summer, aided by rising oil prices and overall improvement in the global outlook.
There has been a slight spark in activity in some industries and the 23.1 percent monthly rise in housing completions suggests that construction may have left the worst of the crisis behind.
At 19,174 rubles ($626.7) per month, Russia’s average wages are significantly higher than they were a year ago, and those who work seem to have more disposable cash to spend.
“It’s not because the government was pushing salaries up or the private sector was increasing salaries; it was the effect of a stronger ruble,” Vladimir Tikhomirov, an economist at UralSib, said before the data were released. A stronger ruble also makes consumers less inclined to save, he said.
But uncertainty about the economy’s future might curb spending desires, economists said.
Retail sales fell 1.3 percent in November from October, the first monthly decline since April, while falling at a slower pace on an annual basis as a stronger ruble made imports cheaper and encouraged household spending. Sales declined 6.4 percent from a year earlier, compared with a revised 8.4 percent drop in October, the statistics service said.
Disposable incomes rose 1.9 percent last month after growing 9.9 percent in October. Real wages fell an annual 0.7 percent after a 3.5 percent decline the previous month.
“Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully, people were just saving in November for holiday shopping,” said Vladimir Osakovsky, head of strategy at UniCredit Bank. “We do have a crisis, and we do have a rising unemployment rate, and we do have some deterioration in retail sales.”
Fear of losing work is the biggest concern for 49 percent of Russians, according to a poll by the Levada Center published Dec. 14. That’s up from 17 percent in 1997, the year before the country’s last economic slump.
The jobless figure contrasts with assurances by Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin last week that the job-cutting “trend has been broken” and indications that the economy may be on the verge of recovery. Output contracted an annual 8.9 percent in the third quarter from a record 10.9 percent in the second as companies restocked inventories and oil prices recovered.
GDP contracted 3.8 percent in November, the economy’s best performance this year, but the government does not expect the economy to reach its precrisis growth rate until the end of 2012.
(Reuters, Bloomberg)
21.12.2009 - RBC
: Russia's foreign debt shrinks further
Russia's external public debt (including that of the former Soviet Union which was undertaken by Russia) amounted to USD 37.942bn or EUR 25.506bn as of December 1, 2009, the Finance Ministry reported today. With this in mind, the country's debt shrank USD 94m, or less than 0.24 percent, compared to USD 38.36bn as of November 1, 2009, and 6.5 percent compared to the figure as of January 1 of this year.
Debt to member states of the Paris Club decreased 24.7 percent to USD 1.54bn or EUR 708.5m from the beginning of the year, while non-Paris Club debt remained unchanged at USD 1.9bn or EUR 1.25bn.
Russia's debt to countries of the former Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON) went down 4.65 percent USD 1.33bn or EUR 897m. Meanwhile, Eurobond debt inched down 5.4 percent to USD 26.24bn or EUR 17.64bn.
CommodityOnline: Value of Russia gold reserve at $22.979 billion
$22.979-billion-13525.html
December 21, 2009 15:20:00 IST
Russia's gold reserve on Dec. 1 totaled 19.7 million Troy ounces (612.74 metric tons), 20.1% more than on Jan. 1 this year, the Central Bank of Russia said Monday.
The value of the gold reserve on the date was $22.979 billion, 58.1% more than on Jan. 1.
The proportion of gold in Russia's total international reserves increased to 5.1% from 3.4% on Jan. 1.
Business, Energy or Environmental regulations or discussions
Bloomberg: Lukoil, Norilsk, Uralkali, Razgulay: Russian Stocks Preview
By Maria Kolesnikova
Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- The following shares may have unusual price changes in Russian trading. Stock symbols are in parentheses and prices are from the previous close unless otherwise noted.
The 30-stock Micex Index rose 0.6 percent to 1,368.43. The dollar-denominated RTS Index rose 0.7 percent to 1,410.22.
OAO Lukoil (LKOH RX): Oil rose, capping its biggest weekly gain in two months, after Iranian forces entered Iraqi territory briefly, heightening geopolitical tensions. Crude oil for January delivery rose to $73.36, the highest settlement since Dec. 7. The country’s largest non-state oil company rose 0.4 percent to 1,662.89 rubles.
OAO GMK Norilsk Nickel (GMKN RX): Copper may drop next week after stockpiles monitored by the London Metal Exchange expanded for 33 days, indicating weaker demand, according to a Bloomberg analyst survey. Copper stockpiles advanced 85 percent to 474,575 metric tons since July. Russia’s largest mining company fell 0.5 percent to 4,182.06 rubles.
OAO Uralkali (URKA RX): The board of directors at Russia’s second-largest potash producer meets today to review its budget for 2010, which may see net profit plunge 46 percent, according to the Kommersant newspaper. The board may also elect former OAO Norilsk Nickel Chief Executive Officer Denis Morozov as president. Uralkali fell 3.6 percent to 129.44 rubles in Moscow.
OAO Razgulay Group (GRAZ RX): Egypt, the world’s biggest wheat importer, said it has enough wheat to last for more than five months. Separately, sugar fell from the highest price in 28 years in New York as the dollar’s rebound eroded demand for some commodities. The Russian grain and sugar producer rose 6 percent to 46.191 rubles.
To contact the reporter on this story: Maria Kolesnikova in Moscow at mkolesnikova@.
Last Updated: December 21, 2009 00:00 EST
Bloomberg: Russian Stocks Advance, Led by Rosneft, Lukoil, Gazprom Shares
By Mark Sweetman
Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Russian stocks advanced, adding to last week’s 5.2 percent gain for the benchmark Micex Index, as crude oil traded above $73 a barrel.
OAO Rosneft and OAO Lukoil led the 30-company Micex up 0.3 percent to 1,371.84 at 11:44 a.m. in Moscow, as 18 stocks rose and 11 fell.
“As international investors now leave Russia for the holidays, the domestic investor pool is much more likely to squeeze prices higher into the Dec. 31 close,” Chris Weafer, chief strategist with UralSib Financial Corp., wrote in an e- mailed note to investors.
Lukoil, Russia’s biggest non-state oil company, added 10.84 rubles, or 0.7 percent to 1,673.73. State-run Rosneft, the country’s largest crude producer, gained 2.5 rubles, or 1 percent, to 259.14.
Oil traded little changed at $73.35 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange after rising to $73.65 earlier. Oil prices may gain this week on expectations that increasing fuel demand in the U.S. will reduce inventories, according to a Bloomberg News survey.
Sub-zero temperatures in Europe and Russia will help gas producers OAO Gazprom and OAO Novatek, while ministers at the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meeting in Angola will probably show determination to achieve an average of $75 a barrel in the coming year, Weafer said.
“That will be positive for the oil majors, the banks and the ruble,” Weafer said.
Novatek Stake
Gazprom, the world’s largest natural gas company, gained 1 percent to 183.80 rubles. Novatek added 1 percent to 166.49 rubles.
Gennady Timchenko, the founder of oil trader Gunvor International Ltd., has asked for permission to buy a stake of more than 20 percent in Novatek, the Vedomosti newspaper reported. Timchenko’s Volga Resources SICAV-SIF SA had an agreement to raise its stake to more than 18 percent in May.
To contact the reporters for this story: Mark Sweetman in Moscow at msweetman@
Last Updated: December 21, 2009 03:51 EST
Rus Business News: Russia Closed Public Power Supply Market for Foreigners
21.12.2009 — Analysis
Power consumption in the industrial Sverdlovsk oblast in 2009 is going to be lower than in tough 1995. The economy is not expected to recover after the crisis any time soon. Meanwhile, energy sector is trying to jump at this opportunity to upgrade the system. However, these attempts are not very successful: investors are unwilling to invest in power generation, and there's no motivation for developing power grids. RusBusinessNews correspondent found out that the power sector is on the verge of yet another nationalization.
According to Yuri Zakharov, director of the Urals branch of CJSC "Energy Forecasting Agency", the maximum power consumption in the Sverdlovsk oblast electric power system in 2009 will equal 6,300 MW, which is 100 MW less than in the unfortunate year of 1995. This reduction occurred due to the industrial sector: "RUSAL-BAZ" JSC reduced power consumption by 30%; Serov Ferroalloy Plant JSC, 50%; Pipe Metallurgical Company JSC, 16%. It will take the economy quite a long time to recover after the crisis: the expert believes that the record-breaking figures of 1990 will be not reached before 2016.
However, this remarkable drop in power consumption hasn't solved the problem of power supply to heavy consumers. According to Artyom Bartenev, director of JSC "Regional dispatch control of Sverdlovsk Oblast electric power system", the Ekaterinburg node has broken the consumption record this December. The grid in this region is operated at the limits of its capacity, therefore it has been planned to build two new substations here. Until they are commissioned in 2011-2012 local power engineers will either have to suspend repairs or introduce consumption limits.
The situation in another problem region - Serovo-Bogoslovski - is slightly better. The crisis helped reconstruct currently operating grids and start building a new 500 kV power line Severnaya-BAZ, which is scheduled for commissioning in a year.
However, power engineers cannot use this drop in consumption in order to upgrade the whole system. Gennady Nikitin, director general of OAO "FGC EES - MES Urals", has acknowledged that as a result of energy reform many national grid units now belong to a large number of legal entities. However, there is no document regulating relations between stakeholders, which hinders development and reconstruction of the Unified National Power Grid.
Crisis doesn't help substantially upgrade generating capacity either. According to Yury Shevelev, the Sverdlovsk oblast minister of energy, many projects have been frozen because of the drop in power consumption. These projects will be finished only when they start to pay back. So far it has been problematic.
Deputy Director of LLC "UGMK Holding" Vladimir Nechitaylov says that today it is completely impossible to find an investor for building a new power plant. Some time ago Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company started building two coal powered generation blocks with a total capacity of 1000 MW; however, the project reached a deadlock. According to the expert, not a single credit institution expressed any wish to participate in the project. Bankers believe that it is the government, not business, that should build infrastructure. However, the Russian government isn't particularly keen even on upgrading the railroad which is crucial for the delivery of fuel to the new plant. In addition to that, the Russian authorities don't allow to certify the purchased equipment as one module, which would considerable reduce customs duties. As a result Korean and French suppliers refused to participate in the project; instead, there appeared American intermediaries who offered to buy second hand Chinese equipment. They have been said to have all the certificates allright.
Vladimir Nechitaylov presumes that in this situation public-private partnership should be used; alternatively, the costs should be covered by raising the power tariff. Georgy Leontyev, a State Duma deputy, believes that raising tariffs will bury the industry and devastate the people.
The expert admits that the Russian power sector reform didn't help introduce market relationships: the expectations of attracting investment in the power generation sector weren't quite met, and it didn't spark any competition that was supposed to drive prices down either. That's why the government now has to reconsider its plans.
For one, Russia suspended its renewable energy programme. There are several reasons to it. First, it is difficult to sell high-priced electric power generated by solar plants or wind farms during the crisis; second, the state doesn't want to import technologies and it doesn't have its own technology either. That's why the government temporarily closed the public power supply market for foreigners and drastically increased the funding for research and development instead.
Experts say that it will be quite difficult to reduce dependence on foreign equipment: Russia lacks, among other things, the transformer steel and test base required for new equipment. However, the die is cast: officials cautiously remark that by 2020 the country will generate 20 GW from renewable sources.
In addition, the industry will be ‘strongly advised' to reduce its power intensity. Municipalities will be ‘voluntarily forced' to use local fuels: peat, chips, etc. Generating companies will have to meet the prime cost of energy generation standards, and if they fail to do so, they will be fined. Industrial enterprises will also be fined if they are found to consume power unsparingly.
According to Mr. Leontyev, the government is trying to find the golden mean between making electric power sector attractive for investors and raising tariffs for end users. It is not improbable that the sector will be regulated ‘manually', that is, will be controlled by the government.
The federal government has already obliged the governors to develop new regional strategies for electric power sector development. There is a snag, however; today experts don't have a faintest idea of what power consumption is going to be like tomorrow. Oleg Gromov, deputy director of JSC "Regional dispatch control of Sverdlovsk oblast electric power system", said that the regional industrial enterprises are not planning to increase power consumption in the short term.
Vladimir Terletski
RBC: Mosenergo registers net loss for 9M
RBC, 21.12.2009, Moscow 12:04:14.The net loss of Mosenergo under IFRS amounted to RUB 163m (approx. USD 5.31m) in the first nine months of 2009 compared to a net profit for the previous year, the Moscow-based power generation company indicated in its financial report. Meanwhile, the company's revenue surged 17.8 percent to RUB 77.851bn (approx. USD 2.53bn).
Bloomberg: Russia to Reimpose 5% Export Tax on Nickel After One-Year Hiatus
By Denis Maternovsky
Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Russia’s government decided to reimpose a 5 percent tax on nickel exports that was suspended in January to support producers including OAO GMK Norilsk Nickel after prices tumbled.
The decree, signed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, was published today in the government’s official newsaper, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, which didn’t say when the change will take affect.
To contact the reporter on this story: Denis Maternovsky in Moscow at dmaternovsky@
Last Updated: December 21, 2009 01:46 EST
21.12.2009 - Fitch Ratings
: Fitch Sees CIS Steel Industry Stabilizing in 2010; Outlook Remains Challenging
Fitch Ratings-London/Moscow-18 December 2009: Fitch Ratings says in a new report that it expects the CIS steel industry to stabilize in 2010 due to a forecasted slow recovery in steel volumes and stabilization of prices.
The Outlook for Russian steel producers remains challenging due to substantial leverage, low profitability of overseas operations and liquidity constraints for some issuers. In Ukraine, the recovery of steel industry players is likely to take longer than in Russia, given significant foreign-currency debt, constrained liquidity at some issuers and the higher risk of default.
"Infrastructure projects, maintenance of existing oil and gas pipelines and construction of new oil and gas pipelines will continue to be the major growth drivers of domestic demand for steel," says Sergei Grishunin, Director in Fitch's Corporates team. "However, domestic demand from general manufacturing and construction may grow only 2%-4%, reflecting the difficult financial position of the respective industries, and within the construction sector, the lack of new projects in particular."
Overall, for 2010 Fitch expects CIS apparent steel demand (i.e. adjusted for traders' stocks) to grow 7%-9% in domestic markets and 10%-12% in key export markets. Steel prices are anticipated to stabilize in 2010 at levels achieved in Q309-Q409 with possible slow growth in the summer months due to seasonal demand. CIS issuers' revenue is expected to grow 3%-15% and producers' EBITDAR margins are forecast to range between 11%-25%. Most of the CIS steel producers rated by Fitch are hedged against input price increases given their self-sufficiency in key raw materials.
For 2010 Fitch highlights five key trends in relation to CIS steel producers to monitor: the speed of recovery in end-user markets, the split of export and domestic sales, the impact of cost inflation and exchange rates on producers' profits, performance of overseas operations, and the speed of de-leveraging.
Within the Fitch-rated universe of CIS steel producers, companies such as OJSC Novolipetsk Steel NLMK ('BB+') and OJSC Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) ('BB') are likely to have their Stable Outlooks maintained. The ratings of Ukrainian producer METINVEST B.V. ('B-'/Negative) are constrained by Ukraine's sovereign rating and Country Ceiling ('B-'/'B-'/Negative). Conversely, the credit profiles of Evraz Group SA ('B+'/RWN), Severstal ('B+'/RWN) and Interpipe ('RD') are likely to remain under pressure in 2010.
The liquidity positions of CIS metals companies rated by Fitch, except Evraz's and Interpipe's, are expected to be satisfactory. Fitch is concerned that with approximately 30% of Evraz's total debt of USD8.5bn falling due during 2010 and expected cash flow of USD0.7bn-0.9bn, liquidity is heavily dependent on the company's ability to roll over maturing debt and attract new financing to meet its debt obligations. Interpipe's liquidity is challenged by negative free cash flow, significant capital commitments under its capex programme and risk of debt repayment acceleration by creditors.
Bloomberg: Rusal IPO Said Approved by Hong Kong Bourse, Watchdog (Update3)
By Bei Hu and Simon Casey
Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- United Co. Rusal’s application for a $2 billion initial public offering on Hong Kong’s stock exchange received approval from the bourse and the securities regulator, allowing the world’s largest aluminum producer to become the first Russian company to list in the territory.
The IPO was approved by Hong Kong’s exchange last week, two people familiar with the matter said. The Securities and Futures Commission said Rusal, controlled by billionaire Oleg Deripaska, will be excluded from offering stock to retail investors, according to two people, who declined to be identified because the approval hasn’t been announced.
Rusal was earlier thwarted in its bid to go public before the end of 2009 as the Hong Kong bourse sought more information on the Moscow-based company’s debt. The aluminum producer plans to start gauging demand for the sale on Jan. 4, the people said.
“It’s a bit of a first, so it’s very much a novelty,” said Julian Mayo, who helps oversee about $3 billion as investment director at Charlemagne Capital in London. “We’re looking at it because it is an important stock in an important industry in the country.”
Still, “we need to wait until the financial numbers are published and then go through them,” Mayo said. “We would need to look at the overall capital structure post-deal.”
No Protection
Under an SFC proposal, wealthy individuals would be allowed to buy Rusal shares in the IPO with a minimum subscription of HK$1 million ($129,000), the people said. The Financial Times reported the figure earlier.
Excluding individual investors from the IPO may end up increasing the risk they face, according to David Webb, a former director of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
“Excluding retail investors from the IPO reduces protection, because under the Companies Ordnance, investors can only rely on a prospectus (in terms of right to sue) if they are subscribers in the initial public offering,” Webb said on his Web site yesterday. “The general public can buy the shares in the secondary market so excluding them from the primary offering does nothing to protect them.”
The listing would come after IPOs in emerging markets outpaced those by companies in developed nations by the most since at least 2000 in the three-month period ended in November, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. No U.S. IPOs are scheduled this week, as the pace of offerings slows before the Christmas holiday, Bloomberg data show.
Approval Withheld
Rusal has said it plans to sell a 10 percent stake to help repay $17 billion of borrowings. The share offering will be led by Zurich-based Credit Suisse Group AG and BNP Paribas SA of Paris, with banks from BOC International Holdings Ltd. to VTB Group also helping to manage the sale.
The exchange’s listing committee withheld approval for Rusal’s IPO application at a meeting on Nov. 26 and asked the company for more information, including details on its debt restructuring. Earlier this month, Rusal signed an accord with creditors in Russia’s largest corporate debt restructuring.
A subsequent review by the exchange, on Dec. 7, again failed to approve Rusal’s bid. The bourse asked the company to explain how it would repay a $4.5 billion loan from Russian state-owned lender Vnesheconombank.
The loan will be refinanced by OAO Sberbank, the Financial Times reported last week, citing unidentified people.
Sberbank, VTB
Rusal was rushing to secure approval in Hong Kong before the end of the year to avoid redrafting its 1,000-page IPO prospectus, which would delay the share sale until April, the FT also said, citing an unidentified Hong Kong exchange official.
The company’s borrowings almost doubled last year after Rusal bought 25 percent of Moscow-based OAO GMK Norilsk Nickel, Russia’s biggest mining company, for $7 billion in cash and a 14 percent Rusal stake. Commodity prices subsequently collapsed, with aluminum tumbling 36 percent in 2008 on the London Metal Exchange.
Rusal had a net loss of $6 billion last year, Vedomosti newspaper reported in October. The company was forced to take the $4.5 billion loan from Vnesheconombank in October 2008, the biggest state-led bailout of any Russian company.
Russia’s two biggest banks, OAO Sberbank and VTB, both state-controlled, will buy shares in the IPO alongside state-run VEB, RIA Novosti reported this month, citing Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s chief economic aide.
CIC, Temasek
The stakes Sberbank and VTB will buy won’t be significant enough to require approval from the lenders’ supervisory boards, Arkady Dvorkovich told reporters in Moscow, according to RIA.
Rusal is also in talks with potential investors including China Investment Corp., the nation’s sovereign wealth fund, and Singapore’s Temasek Holdings Pte, the Hong Kong Economic Journal said in October.
“I assume there’s got to be some enticement to Asian investors to participate,” said Gareth Morgan, an emerging markets money manager in London at F&C Asset Management, which oversees about $162 billion. “The quasi-state companies will get involved to some degree,” he said. “But I would imagine there will be a portion for global institutional investors.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Bei Hu in Hong Kong at bhu5@; Simon Casey in London at scasey4@.
Last Updated: December 21, 2009 02:38 EST
Reuters: UPDATE 1-Evraz gains $225 mln credit facility
3:33am EST
* Evraz closes four-year revolving $225 mln facility
* Facility is for U.S. subsidiary
* Funds will be used to finance working capital requirements
(Adds more detail, background)
MOSCOW, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Evraz ................
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