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Russia 111117Basic Political DevelopmentsU.S. ready to pay $5 million reward for information about Doku Umarov (Part 2) Russian Air Force to be armed with new non-strategic missile defense radar in 2012 Russian General Staff: Nuclear war could break out due to conflict on Russia’s borders Moscow: Growing risk of Russia being pushed into conflict with nuclear arms use - “There are attempts to include Ukraine and Georgia into the North-Atlantic Treaty Organization. Given the situation on our borders, it is clear there is a growing risk of Russia being pushed into various local conflicts,” said the general.MOSCOW CONTENTED WITH RUSSIAN-U.S. NEW START TREATY, AND THE DOCUMENT ENABLES RUSSIA TO WITHDRAW FROM IT IF NEED BE - CHIEF OF STAFF MAKAROVRussian Army has no one left to draft - General Staff - The current conscript service crisis in the Russian Army is mainly due to demographic decline, bullying and brutal treatment of conscripts.India to become member of Shanghai Cooperation Organization soon – LavrovKrishna arrives in Moscow to co-chair IRIGC meeting - External Affairs Minister S M Krishna has arrived in Moscow for his three-day visit from November 17-19 to co-chair the 17th session of the Indo-Russian Inter-Governmental ?Commission (IRIGC) on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, to ?be held here tomorrow.Russia understands motives behind Kosovo Serbs' request – Lavrov: "They have found themselves in a desperate situation and they have the feeling of hopelessness in conditions when they are being forced to obey the Pristina dictate in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and when they can even lose the right to local self-government. Too bad that all this is happening with connivance and direct support from the Kosovo Force, led by NATO, and the European Union's so-called Rule of Law Mission," Lavrov said.RUSSIA WORRIED BY U.S. PLANS TO SET UP LARGE BASES IN AFGHANISTAN, EXPAND MILITARY PRESENCE IN CENTRAL ASIA - LAVROV?Russia likens Syria attack to 'real civil war' - - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that an attack by Syrian army defectors on an intelligence complex resembled civil war and reiterated Moscow's call for talks between Syria's government and its opponents.Russia supports the idea that working in Syria from the Arab League observers and foreign media‘Russia maintains dialogue both with Assad and Syrian opposition’ - Russian lawmaker and foreign policy architect Konstantin Kosachev thinks that Russia is “probably one of the very few, or maybe the only country, which maintains dialogue both with Assad and with the opposition.”EU not ready for lifting visa regimens even if Moscow fulfils its all requirements - Kommersant’s source in a European country close to the negotiations, says that the document is agreed “not fully, but by 95 percent.” The source says that the remaining five percent will be agreed at the meeting in Moscow.CIS to strengthen its collective air defense - Summing up the results of a meeting of CIS defense chiefs in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov announced that the combat structure of the combined air defense had been adjusted and would now comprise 100 air defense units.CIS defence ministers to discuss how to improve joint air defence systemCustoms Union not on track for single currency - The introduction of a single currency for Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus, which form the Customs Union, will not be on its agenda for the next several years, Sergey Shvetsov, deputy chairman at the Central Bank of Russia, said.Half of Russians support integration on post-Soviet space – pollRussia needs defense research body - NATO envoy - In an article in the Izvestia newspaper, Rogozin said Russia’s defense industry had “serious problems” even though the government has earmarked 3 trillion rubles ($97 billion) for its modernization over the next 10 years.French PM goes to Russia to co-chair intergovernmental commission meeting - French Prime Minister Francois Fillon will travel to Russia on Thursday, November 17, to co-chair a meeting of the bilateral inter-governmental commission on trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation.Russian, German FMs discuss situation in Syria, Iran’s nuclear programmeRussian FM voices concern over Israel’s settlement plansNorth Korea to get $100 million annually for Russian gas transit - "It [$100 million] would be a huge sum for a country with annual gross product of $10 billion. Moreover, the country would have to make no big effort to get it," Presidential plenipotentiary envoy to the Russian Far East Victor Ishayev said.Azarov expects Ukraine will pay for Russian gas at new price for Nov - "Let's say for November, I think, we will pay at a new price and under new terms," he said after a meeting of the economic press club on November 14, according to a video posted on Azarov's Facebook page.Russian bank to finance the Ukrainian-Brazilian rocket construction project - Sberbank of Russia will issue a $260 million loan to Pivdenne design bureau, the bank has reported. The bureau plans to use the funds to finance the Ukrainian-Brazilian project to create the Cyclone-4 space and rocket complex.Azerbaijan, Russia hold consultations on Caspian Sea - The meeting was attended by Azerbaijan's Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov and the Special Representative of Russian President on delimitation and demarcation of state border between Russia and neighboring CIS countries, Alexander Golovin with their delegations, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry's press-service told Trend Wednesday.Poland grants parole to Russian jailed for espionagePoland paroles convicted Russian spyPutin election bid makes mockery of democracy: Rice - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is making a mockery of democracy by running for a third term as president, former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday.South Korean ship ablaze off Russia's Chukotka, one missing1 dead in S.Korean ship fire off Russian coast: ReportsAttorney General of Tajikistan hopes that the revision "of the case of pilots," the court may determine the minimum sentenceDuma to pass statement against conviction of pilots in Tajikistan - In the statement the MPs are going to recognise the verdict to pilots, who were sentenced to 8.5 years in prison, “unduly harsh and politicized.” “This decision was contrary to the spirit of strategic partnership between Russia and Tajikistan, which suffered damage for the sake of not well thought-out opportunistic reasons,” the document says.Russian party suggests suspending visa-free regime with Tajikistan - The center-left A Just Russia party has proposed to freeze visa-free regime with Tajikistan a week after a court in the Central Asian state sentenced a Russian pilot to a lengthy prison term.Russian Prosecutor General's Office declares growth of terror, extremist crime rate - "The number of terror crimes grew by over 14% in Russia this year. Despite the solutions to such crimes and the preventive measures, terrorists manage to succeed; there were explosions in the Moscow metro in 2010 and in the Domodedovo Airport in 2011," he said.Three Hizb ut-Tahrir extremists detained in BashkortostanRussia`s Fed Council to become Senate - The Federation Council of Russia, the upper chamber of the Russian parliament, is going to change its name and become the Senate.Decision in principle on parliamnt centre in RF made-MatviyenkoOSCE interim report on Russian election campaign expected Friday -mediaYouth loyal to power and opposition to meet in face-off in Moscow on elections dayMedvedev tweets about web site on presidential initiativesMedvedev calls for further social support to disabled people FC speaker says regions need powers, resources for effective managementSt. Pete legislature almost unanimously votes on fines for homosexuality propagandaSuspect in murder of Russia's top female entrepreneur held - The 36-year-old man, whose name was not given, confessed to the murder, which he said was ordered by the association’s then vice-president, Lyudmila Kachalova.PRESS DIGEST - Russia - Nov 17vedomosti.ru Russia's Tula region is advertising a new discount programme for pensioners that uses images similar to those in ruling United Russia party's campaign, the paper says. Russian energy giant Gazprom and its subsidiaries had a record investment programme of 1.6 trillion roubles ($52,1 billion) this year, the paper says. kommersant.ru Russia's Central Election Commission has urged ultra-nationalist LDPR party to refrain from nationalist and xenophobic campaigning, the paper writes. Russian users of Facebook will be able to legally listen to music using Yandex music application, the paper writes. Mobile phone sales in Russia doubled to reach 10.5 million roubles ($340,000) from January to September this year compared to the same period of last year, the daily reports. ($1 = 30.691 Russian Roubles) Russian Press at a Glance, Thursday, November 17, 2011A killer does not change his style - “The killer shot the victim in the leg and the head. This method of murder, when, after wounding the victim, the killer fires another ‘confirmation shot’ into the head, is typical of a contract killing. A criminal case has been filed under two articles of the Criminal Code – murder and illegal arms trafficking,” said Markin.The North Caucasus - by Cem Oguz, head of the Turkish Center for Strategic and International Studies.Hopes a Russian passport will protect them from Kosovan Muslims and EU - Having lost trust in international missions and the KFOR, Kosovan Serbs have turned to Russia. Twenty-one thousand Serbs, whose homeland was basically stolen by the European Union, turned to the State Duma with a request to be granted Russian citizenship. By Sergey SemushkinRussia: Student's Hidden Camera Reveals Illegal Electioneering in SchoolRussia’s environmental safeguards for the Arctic. Part IIRussia’s environmental safeguards for the Arctic. Part IIINational Economic TrendsBudget Committee advises Duma to adopt 2012-2014 budget in 2nd readingRTS Futures Rise as Crude’s Gain Buoys Outlook: Russia OvernightRussian Central Banker Doesn't See Strong External Shocks To EconomyLoan rates unlikely to go up in 2012 CBR: capital outflow to slow down in November Russian Central Bank Reserves Fall $1.8 Billion In Week To Nov 11Russia’s Krasnodar Region Has Record Rice Crop of 940,000 TonsBusiness, Energy or Environmental regulations or discussionsSeverstal CEO Mordashov Says Company Deserved U.S. Vehicle LoanRussian company increases price of diamonds supplied to Armenia - Although international market price of diamonds has fallen by about 20%, the Russian ALROSA company has raised the price of diamonds supplied to Armenia, director of Arevkan diamond company Vardan Andreasyan said at a Wednesday press conference.High River reduces Q3 gold output 5%EBRD to provide RUB 1 billion loan to Rosvodokanal GroupEuroset withdraws from Ukrainian marketCar industry investors to be compensated for possible WTO-related lossesActivity in the Oil and Gas sector (including regulatory)Competition between gas producers should be minimised – GECF SGNord Stream Below Capacity - Nord Stream is supplying at?a rate of?1 million cubic meters an?hour, finance director Paul Corcoran said Wednesday at?the European Autumn Gas Conference in?Paris.Itera confirms TNK-BP has ended negotiations on 50% stakeGazpromGazprom offers $1.6bn Eurobond VEB could gain stake in Gazprombank in debt-equity swap Gazprom Supplied 7% of Europe’s Gas at Spot Rates in Last YearGazprom mulls boosting gas exports to India Gazprom discloses its subsidiaries’ investment programmesGazprom to spend $4 bln on Sochi Olympic projectsGazprom Export chief shrugs off cartel claimsGazprom’s share in Europe may be halved - Russia’s gas industry will face some stiff competition Sergey Kulikov 17 US energy firms, Russia's Gazprom mull investing in TurkeyGazprom subsidiary interested in takeover / Production cuts continue in November------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Full Text ArticlesBasic Political DevelopmentsU.S. ready to pay $5 million reward for information about Doku Umarov (Part 2) 17/11/11 8:00AM GMTMOSCOW. Nov 17 (Russia News) – The U.S. will pay a reward of $5 million for information about the whereabouts of Chechen terrorist… TRANSLATIONU.S. willing to pay $ 5 million for information that will help catch a terrorist UmarovNovember 17, 2011 12:02Moscow. On November 17. INTERFAX.RU - U.S. authorities at the request of Russia, and a court decision declared a bonus of $ 5 million for information about the location of the well-known Chechen terrorist Doku Umarov."In connection with the decision of the Supreme Court of Russia, at the request of the Prosecutor General of Russia recognizing the so-called" Caucasus Emirate "led by D. Umarov terrorist organization by U.S. Secretary of State has included in its list of the most dangerous terrorists and announced a reward for information about his whereabouts at the rate of $ 5 million, "- said Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Grin Russia on Thursday for the scientific and practical conference in Moscow on combating extremism and terrorism.Deputy Prosecutor General said that the leader of Chechen separatists and the North thugs claimed responsibility for several high-profile attacks, including the disruption of train "Nevsky Express", the explosions at the airport "Domodedovo" and in the Moscow metro.He said that in just the last period at the request of the Prosecutor General by the Russian courts considered extremist and terrorist organizations, 27 - 19.Russian Air Force to be armed with new non-strategic missile defense radar in 2012 17/11/11 7:50AM GMTMOSCOW. Nov 17 (Interfax-AVN) – The Russian Air Force will be supplied with the unique non-strategic missile defense system Nebo-M starting next year… Russian General Staff: Nuclear war could break out due to conflict on Russia’s borders November 2011, 12:52 (GMT+04:00)General Staff Chief, Army General Nikolay Makarov said that local armed conflicts along the perimeter of Russia's borders may occur more often after the collapse of the USSR. They could even grow into large-scale war using nuclear weapons under certain circumstances, Interfax said."The local armed conflicts may occur on the border," he said addressing the Russian Public Chamber on Thursday."I do not rule out that local and regional armed conflicts may escalate into large-scale war, including the use of nuclear weapons under certain circumstances," he said.Moscow: Growing risk of Russia being pushed into conflict with nuclear arms use November 2011 | 11:31 | FOCUS News AgencyHome / WorldMoscow. In given conditions Russia might be pushed into a conflict with the use of nuclear arms, said Chief of General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces general Nikolay Makarov, cited by RIA Novosti.“There are attempts to include Ukraine and Georgia into the North-Atlantic Treaty Organization. Given the situation on our borders, it is clear there is a growing risk of Russia being pushed into various local conflicts,” said the general.He warned that in some circumstances local and regional conflicts might grow into mass use of nuclear arms. 11/17 12:32 ? MOSCOW CONTENTED WITH RUSSIAN-U.S. NEW START TREATY, AND THE DOCUMENT ENABLES RUSSIA TO WITHDRAW FROM IT IF NEED BE - CHIEF OF STAFF MAKAROV Army has no one left to draft - General Staff 17/11/2011MOSCOW, November 17 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has no conscripts left to recruit, Russia's chief of the General Staff complained on Thursday.The current conscript service crisis in the Russian Army is mainly due to demographic decline, bullying and brutal treatment of conscripts.General Nikolai Makarov said only 11.7% of young men aged 18-27 were eligible to the army service but 60% of them had health problems and could not be drafted under law. "We now have a situation when there is virtually nobody left to draft," Makarov said. "It is a serious problem and I make no bones about it."Many young people have been known to fake medical documents or even start a family in order to avoid the 12-month compulsory service in the army.The crisis in the consript service has led the Defense Ministry to halve the number of conscripts in the autumn 2011 draft period. It will now recruit 135,850 young men instead of 250-300,000, as was planned in spring.The effect of the 1990s demographic crisis is expected to reach its peak in 2014, experts said.13:12?17/11/2011ALL NEWSIndia to become member of Shanghai Cooperation Organization soon – Lavrov, November 17 (Itar-Tass) —— India is to become a full-fledged member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the immediate future, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday after talks with Indian Minister of External Affairs Somanahalli Mallaiah Krishna.“India will become a full-fledged member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the immediate future,” he said. “It has long been talked about. The only thing to do is to commit to paper the change of its status from an observer to a full-fledged member. It will be done very soon.”Home: Krishna arrives in Moscow to co-chair IRIGC meeting Affairs Minister S M Krishna has arrived in Moscow for his three-day visit from November 17-19 to co-chair the 17th session of the Indo-Russian Inter-Governmental ?Commission (IRIGC) on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, to ?be held here tomorrow.?Mr Krishna is scheduled to hold today bilateral talks at the Foreign Affairs Ministry with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with the purpose of finalising the international agenda for the India-Russia annual summit at the highest level in mid-December, during which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will hold talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.November 17, 2011 13:29Russia understands motives behind Kosovo Serbs' request - Lavrov (Part 2). Nov 17 (Interfax) - The Russian Foreign Ministry has familiarized itself with the request of several thousand Kosovo Serbs for Russian citizenship and it understands the reasons behind it, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov."We have read this request attentively, of course, and we will have to act guided by a number of factors," Lavrov said at a joint news conference with his Indian counterpart Somanahalli Krishna on Thursday.Concerning the legal aspect of this problem, we have a law in Russia which regulates instances when Russian citizenship is granted to foreign nationals, he said."From the political point of view, we very well understand the motives behind the Kosovo Serbs' request of this kind," Lavrov said.It was reported earlier that more than 20,000 Kosovo Serbs had applied for Russian citizenship."They have found themselves in a desperate situation and they have the feeling of hopelessness in conditions when they are being forced to obey the Pristina dictate in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and when they can even lose the right to local self-government. Too bad that all this is happening with connivance and direct support from the Kosovo Force, led by NATO, and the European Union's so-called Rule of Law Mission," Lavrov said.These "international presences" are operating in violation of the "neutral-status mandate they have," he said."We will be firmly opposing this in the future and we think that no one should usurp the role of ruler of the destinies of nations, especially Kosovo Serbs, wherever they live, using opportunities provided by international or Russian law," he said.Russia has been actively assisting the Kosovo Serbs for the past few years in humanitarian programs and in saving their culture, ethnic identity and traditions. This work will be continued," the Russian foreign minister said.sd jv(Our editorial staff can be reached at eng.editors@interfax.ru)11/17 12:36 ? RUSSIA WORRIED BY U.S. PLANS TO SET UP LARGE BASES IN AFGHANISTAN, EXPAND MILITARY PRESENCE IN CENTRAL ASIA - LAVROV? TRANSLATION: in Russia questions remain about the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan17/11/2011 12:50MOSCOW, November 17 - RIA Novosti. Questions yet remain in Russia about plans for U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, said on Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during a press conference in Moscow.According to the plans of Kabul and Washington, finally the process of transferring security responsibility to the Afghan side to end in late 2014."It is important that there was transparency, because it's unclear how the planned interfaces in the 2014 withdrawal of troops in connection with the completion of the antiterrorist operation on the one hand, and plans for Afghanistan rather large U.S. military bases, on the other hand," - said he said.According to Lavrov, the Russian party raises these issues with our American partners, as well as discussing them with the leadership of Afghanistan."Until we have more questions than answers. Moreover, periodically receives information about what our American colleagues want to expand its military presence in Central Asia", - said Lavrov.As the minister, the Russian side is always since the beginning of NATO's operations against "al Qaeda" and "Taliban" say that the foreign presence in Afghanistan and the use of transit facilities in Central Asia is only required to address a specific terrorist threat, which emerged September 11, 2001 year."It was said that this will not be any long-term geopolitical calculation. We firmly believe that these principles must be respected fully, the principles mentioned, when the operation began," - he concluded.Russia likens Syria attack to 'real civil war' Nov 17, 2011 9:13am GMTMOSCOW Nov 17 (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that an attack by Syrian army defectors on an intelligence complex resembled civil war and reiterated Moscow's call for talks between Syria's government and its opponents.He said such talks should take place at the Arab League headquarters."We see television reports that say some new force, the so-called Free Syrian Army I believe, organised an attack on a government building... belonging to the Syrian armed forces. This is already completely similar to real civil war," Lavrov told reporters after a meeting with Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna in Moscow.Russia has called on Assad to implement promised reforms faster but says his opponents share blame for the violence that the United Nations says has killed more than 3,500 people since a government crackdown on protesters began eight months ago.Russia joined China last month in vetoing a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have condemned Assad's government. (Reporting by Thomas Grove; Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Alissa de Carbonnel) TRANSLATION12:58 17/11/2011RossiyaRussia supports the idea that working in Syria from the Arab League observers and foreign mediaMOSCOW, November 17. / ITAR-TASS /. Russia supports the idea that working in Syria and Arab League observers from foreign media. This was stated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov."The question of the direction of Syria, observers from the Arab League is not new - the minister said. - In this form it was officially stated in the initiative of the Arab League on November 2. We strongly support the idea that observers of Arab States, as well as outdoor media got free access to Syria "."Too much has been controversial in the information area about what is happening in the country, and the presence of observers, as well as journalists, would help to clarify the information now", - stated Lavrov.He also drew attention to the fact that "a few days ago, the Syrian government announced the agreement to accept observers from the Arab League and to ensure their presence anywhere in the country."At the meeting Wednesday in Rabat by Foreign Ministers of the Arab League decided to invite Syria to sign a protocol for sending to the country of the Arab Observer. It is expected that they will be able to ascertain on the spot in the performance of Damascus commitments in accordance with the Arab settlement plan, the crisis in Syria. LAS gave Damascus three days of signing the protocol, while pointing to "the need for immediate suspension of all acts of violence and murder." In addition, it was decided that the Syrian government should announce their agreement to perform all items of Arab "road map" adopted by the Arab League in early November.‘Russia maintains dialogue both with Assad and Syrian opposition’: 17 November, 2011, 07:09Edited: 17 November, 2011, 07:21 Russian lawmaker and foreign policy architect Konstantin Kosachev thinks that Russia is “probably one of the very few, or maybe the only country, which maintains dialogue both with Assad and with the opposition.”Kosachev told RT that the opposition has visited Russia recently.“We had rather a good discussion in Moscow – nobody else does the same thing. People either support this or that part. We are impartial, we have dialogue with each side, and hopefully we will succeed in promoting further political process there.”The head of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the State Duma believes that targeting Damascus is counterproductive to solving the crisis in Syria, while, he notes, the situation is getting more and more alarming.“For me the fact that the violence is escalating is a reflection of the wrong approach taken by certain states, a unilateral approach, when they keep saying to the people of Syria that ‘You, people, are right, and the authorities are wrong’. This is a wrong approach, because that type of messages introduces an illusion that, the people of Syria can get freedom and democracy by using violence against the ruling authorities and not by negotiations.”According to Kosachev, the message being sent to the Syrian authorities and the Syrian people by Russia is “much more appropriate.”The sanctions by the Arab League and the West are based on the argument that Damascus is cracking down on peaceful demonstrators. But Damascus says it is fighting the Free Syrian Army, which is apparently well-armed and coordinated, and is staging a full-on assault on the regime. As for Russia’s view on the way the Free Syrian Army are conducting themselves, there are certain “questions” to them concerning this, as the Russian lawmaker points out.“We do have questions because we can see they use heavy weapons, they are well equipped, so it is not just about throwing stones at policemen or bodyguards – this is about using heavy weapons and this is a real war. And for Russia the most important thing is to prevent further casualties and victims, and the only way to do that is to maintain the political process once again. I believe that Russia, the US and the EU, the Arab League and anybody else is to send the only message to all conflicting sides in the country – that is to try and speak to each other.”13:04?17/11/2011RUSSIAN PRESS REVIEWEU not ready for lifting visa regimens even if Moscow fulfils its all requirements, November 17 (Itar-Tass) -- On Wednesday, the Permanent Council of the Russia-EU partnership will have a meeting in Moscow. The meeting will feature Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his EU counterpart Catherine Ashton, the Kommersant reports. The meeting will make it clear if the sides will be able to agree finally the List of mutual efforts and subsidiary measures for transfer to a visa-free regimen for short-term visits of citizens of Russia and the EU, so that to have it adopted at the December Russia-EU summit in Brussels.Russia has been seeking visa abolition since 2002, the newspaper says. This meeting will be critical as far as whether President Dmitry Medvedev and his European counterparts will approve in December the List of mutual efforts and subsidiary measures for transfer to a visa-free regimen for short-term visits of citizens of Russia and the EU.The will discuss a list of requirements, which, if fulfilled, may bring Russia closer to the aspired visa-free regimen with Europe. They are protection of identification documents, fighting illegal migration and management of migration flows, settlement of readmission issues (readiness to accept back own citizens in case of deportation), joint control at borders, as well as fighting organised crime, terrorism and corruption. A week earlier, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the sides had finalised agreement on the list of mutual steps. The minister expressed hope that the document would be approved finally by the summit in December.Meanwhile, the Kommersant’s source in a European country close to the negotiations, says that the document is agreed “not fully, but by 95 percent.” The source says that the remaining five percent will be agreed at the meeting in Moscow. “It will not be easy to do,” the source said adding that Moscow insists that the document reads that as Moscow fulfils all technical requirements under the List.., the process of abolishing visas starts immediately. But Europeans suggest using another variant: Russia fulfils all requirement – from improvement of biometric passports to easier domestic registration procedures for foreigners – and then the EU representatives get together once again to discuss whether to abolish visas with Russia or not.The issue of automatic abolishment of visas following fulfilment of the List is a key aspect for the future liberalisation of the visa regimen, the newspaper reports the EC’s expert in international affairs Ben Judah as saying. He says that many people in the EC are concerned that providing for Russia a guaranteed abolishment of visas would make it have more privileged position than Ukraine, Moldova or Georgia and may be taken as a sort of Brussels’ legitimisation of Vladimir Putin’s return to the Kremlin.By turning down the item on automatism, Europeans want to retain a possibility to present to Moscow additional requirements, if necessary, including political ones, for example regarding human rights, Judah said.At the same time, Russia’s diplomatic source says that Moscow does not see sense in fulfilling the requirements on the List without the provision for the automatic abolishment of visas. “We should see clearly the final objective,” the source said.CIS to strengthen its collective air defense 17, 2011 12:34 Moscow TimeThe combat strength of the CIS collective air defense system will be increased. Summing up the results of a meeting of CIS defense chiefs in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov announced that the combat structure of the combined air defense had been adjusted and would now comprise 100 air defense units.The ministers approved an action plan for 2012.TASS04:02?17/11/2011ALL NEWSCIS defence ministers to discuss how to improve joint air defence system, November 17 (Itar-Tass) —— The CIS defence ministers will gather for their 61st meeting in Kazakhstan on Thursday, November 17, to discuss more than 20 issues.Russian Defence Ministry spokesperson Irina Kovalchuk told Itar-Tass, “The meeting will be chaired by Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov”.The defence ministers will adopt a joint statement in connection with the upcoming 20th anniversary of their Council to be marked in February 2012, and will review the performance of the Council’s working bodies in 2011 and their plans for 2012.“Judging from long-term approaches to the development of military cooperation, the Council of the CIS Defence Ministers will pay special attention to the creation and improvement of [joint] military systems, specifically the development and composition of the joint radiation, chemical and biological monitoring and assessment system and the joint air defence system in the CIS,” Kovalchuk said.The previous 60th meeting of the Council took place in Sochi, Russia, on July 6, 2011. Serdyukov said at the meeting that “the defence ministries of the CIS countries solve similar tasks, the main of which is modernisation of the national armed forces.”“Our states bear responsibility for peace and stability in the CIS. The level of mutually advantageous strategic partnership among its member states is critical to the security and economic development of the CIS as a whole,” the minister said.In September, the Coordination Committee on CIS Air Defence met to discuss ways to improve the join air defence system in the Commonwealth of Independent States.The 35th meeting of the Coordination Committee on CIS Air Defence under the Council of CIS Defence Ministers took place in Astrakhan ahead of the active phase of tactical air defence exercises code-named “Combat Commonwealth-2011”.The agenda included eight issues concerning the improvement and development of the united air defence system as well as the strengthening of multilateral military cooperation among the CIS member states in the field of air defence.The participants in the meeting discussed amendments to the committee's line-up, joint events of the CIS united air defence system in 2012, and optimisation of the structure and combat line-up of the united air defence system units.The meeting was chaired by the Head of the Coordination Committee on CIS Air Defence under the Council of CIS Defence Ministers, Russian Air Force Commander, Colonel-General Alexander Zelin.Delegations from the defence ministries of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Moldova, Azerbaijan, and Ukraine, as well as officials from the governing bodies of the CIS, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) and the defence industry attended the meeting.Experts expect military-technical cooperation between Russia and its CSTO allies to increase considerably in the years to come.The CSTO is a military-political alliance of seven countries: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.On October 7, 2002, the Presidents of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan, signed a charter in Tashkent, founding the Collective Security Treaty Organisation. Nikolai Bordyuzha was appointed secretary general of the new organisation. On June 23, 2006, Uzbekistan became a full participant in the CSTO and its membership was formally ratified by its parliament on March 28, 2008. The CSTO is an observer organisation at the United Nations General Assembly.The charter reaffirmed the desire of all participating states to abstain from the use or threat of force. Signatories would not be able to join other military alliances or other groups of states, while aggression against one signatory would be perceived as an aggression against all. To this end, the CSTO holds yearly military command exercises for the CSTO nations to have an opportunity to improve inter-organisation cooperation.The CSTO employs a rotating presidency system in which the country leading the CSTO alternates every year.The CSTO grew out of the framework of the Commonwealth of Independent States, and first began as the CIS Collective Security Treaty (CST), which was signed on May 15, 1992, by Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russian Federation, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, in the city of Tashkent. Azerbaijan signed the treaty on September 24, 1993, Georgia on December 9, 1993 and Belarus on December 31, 1993. The treaty came into effect on April 20, 1994.The purpose of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation is to guarantee the national security of each of its members and to ensure their territorial integrity. In case of a menace, looming over any member-country, all the other CSTO participants will be duty-bound to give it all the necessary aid, including military assistance. The military-political relations among the CSTO nations hold supremacy over their military relations and contacts with third countries, which are not CSTO members.The Treaty's overall system of collective security includes some regional subsystems, acting in three directions: in the European direction (the Russian-Belarusian military group) and in the Caucasian direction (the Russian-Armenian group).Customs Union not on track for single currency , 17.11.2011, Moscow 13:09:17.The introduction of a single currency for Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus, which form the Customs Union, will not be on its agenda for the next several years, Sergey Shvetsov, deputy chairman at the Central Bank of Russia, said.??????The single currency should be introduced when the integration processes have reached fruition, and not when they are in the formative phase, he noted, adding that the difficulties the Eurozone is currently experiencing prove that the EU failed to achieve the necessary level of political and economic integration and lacks a common fiscal policy.??????The Eurozone's mistakes are to be taken into account by the Customs Union, Shvetsov went on to say. November 17, 2011 13:03Half of Russians support integration on post-Soviet space – poll. Nov 17 (Interfax) - The majority of Russians support an integration union on the post-Soviet space, the Russian Public Opinion Study Center (VTsIOM) told Interfax on Tuesday. It conducted the research in Russia and four former ex-Soviet republics: Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan and Lithuania.It could be either a new Soviet Union reconstructed on voluntary and equal terms (23%), or the Customs Union (15%) or the Eurasian Economic Union (10%).The integration idea enjoys the largest support in Kyrgyzstan (67%) and Belarus (62%) and the least support in Azerbaijan (24%) and Lithuania (26%).Partnership between former Soviet republics without reunification is supported by 34% of people in Russia, 26% in Belarus, 26% in Azerbaijan and 23% in Kyrgyzstan. Fifty-two percent of Lithuanians welcome this idea.Eight percent of Russians bluntly opposed reunification. The indicators stood at 6% in Belarus and Kyrgyzstan, 13% in Lithuania and 39% in Azerbaijan.In the opinion of Russians, Kazakhstan is the most stable and successful CIS country (42% said that in 2011 and 34% in 2010). Belarus is the first runner up with 35% in 2011 and 31% in 2010. Ukraine ranks third with 17% in 2011 and 19% in 2010. Armenia and Azerbaijan have 9% each, Moldova has 5%, Turkmenistan has 4%, Uzbekistan has 4%, Georgia has 3% and Kyrgyzstan has 3%. The least stable state in the CIS in the opinion of Russians is Tajikistan (1%).Russians named the same best CIS partners this year.Kazakhstan topped the list with 37% in 2010 and 42% in 2011. The rating of Belarus grew from 23% in 2010 to 36% in 2011. The rating of Ukraine dropped from 21% in 2010 to 15% in 2011. The indicators were 7% for Armenia, 5% for Azerbaijan, 3% for Moldova, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, 2% for Turkmenistan, and 1% for Georgia and Tajikistan.Of all the CIS leaders, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has the highest confidence rating in Russia (37% in 2011 and 32% in 2010). Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko ranks second with 28% (he ranked third with 16% last year). Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych ranks third with 12% in 2011 and 17% in 2010.The trio is followed by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (7%), Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan (6%), Uzbek President Islam Karimov (3%), Kyrgyz President Rosa Otunbayeva, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, Acting Moldovan President Mihai Ghimpu and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili (2%) and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon (1%).te jv(Our editorial staff can be reached at eng.editors@interfax.ru)Russia needs defense research body - NATO envoy 17/11/2011MOSCOW, November 17 (RIA Novosti)?Russia’s envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, has called for the creation of a defense research agency similar to Darpa, the Pentagon agency that funds military research in the U.S.In an article in the Izvestia newspaper, Rogozin said Russia’s defense industry had “serious problems” even though the government has earmarked 3 trillion rubles ($97 billion) for its modernization over the next 10 years.“Liberal economists” of the 1990s and “irresponsible reforms” were partly to blame for this, he said.“Russia needs a qualitative breakthrough but this calls for the creation of a modern technological basis,” Rogozin said.“It is necessary to create the Russian version of the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency,” he went on. “It would be a government body with its own budget.”02:00?17/11/2011ALL NEWSFrench PM goes to Russia to co-chair intergovernmental commission meeting, November 17 (Itar-Tass) —— French Prime Minister Francois Fillon will travel to Russia on Thursday, November 17, to co-chair a meeting of the bilateral inter-governmental commission on trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation.This will be Fillon’s fourth trip to Russia since he took the office of French prime minister.Fillion and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin “have exerted great effort over the past three years to invigorate economic cooperation between the two countries at all levels”, the French prime minister’s office said.“To this end, the prime ministers of the two countries have already held a number of meetings,” it added.The inter-governmental commission is expected to coordinate new steps to develop economic cooperation between Russia and France, which has already kicked off several major projects, such as Nord Stream, which involves Gaz de France. Its CEO Gerard Mestrallet believes that this project will facilitate energy security in Northeast Europe.The first gas came by Nord Stream into the European gas transportation system on Tuesday, November 8. The second stretch is scheduled for October 2012.Russia will supply one million cubic metres of gas an hour by this pipeline, or about 8.5 billion cubic meters a year.German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and French Prime Minister Francois Fillon attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony in Lubmin, a coastal resort in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, on November 8.Nord Stream is an international project and its construction is regulated by the international conventions and national legislation of each state, which territorial waters and/or exclusive economic zone the pipeline will cross.Construction work was preceded by a detailed environmental impact assessment. Nord Stream will be built in compliance with the most rigid environmental standards and without the Baltic Sea ecosystem disruption.The construction of the North Stream gas pipeline on the Baltic seabed between Russia and Germany has had no serious impact on the environment, according to a study released by the Nord Stream consortium (Nord Stream AG), which is building the pipelines for transportation of Russian natural gas from Vyborg to Lubmin, Germany, near Greifswald.The study involved some 20 independent enterprises and institutes, including Free University of Berlin, which had made measurements at more than a thousand places along the pipeline route.Nord Stream will transport 27.5 billion cubic metres of natural gas from late 2011, and up to 55 billion cubic metres from 2012. This amount of gas corresponds to the energy produced by 55 coal power plants pr 20 new nuclear reactors.The Shtokman gas and condensate field will be a resource base for gas deliveries via Nord Stream.In October, a Russian Soyuz carrier rocket blasted off from the Kourou Space Centre in French Guiana to orbit two European satellites for the Galilee navigation system.Jorg Khan, a Galileo programme spokesman in Russia, told Itar-Tass that 18 satellites would be put into orbit by 2015 as part of French-Russian aerospace cooperation.The use of Kourou will allow Soyuz rockets to carry 50 percent more payload compared to those launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.The commissioning of the new launch paid at Kourou will increase the number of launches from 10 now to 12 a year.On November 7, 2003, Russian and French governments formally agreed to bring Soyuz to Kourou.With the signing of a formal agreement between Arianespace and Russian Space Agency on April 11, 2005, the countdown for the construction of the launch pad officially started on April 26, 2005. According to the contract, the Moscow-based KBOM design bureau had to be ready for the "all out" tests of the launch pad with the Soyuz-2 (Soyuz-ST) rocket within 35 months from the beginning of the construction. The tests were expected to last for two months, culminating with the actual launch of the first mission sometime in 2008, or 37 months after the beginning of the construction. At the time, the excavation for the pad was expected to start at the end of the monsoon season of 2005. As many as 50 Soyuz launches were expected from Kourou over a 15-year period.Another example of successful cooperation between Russia and France is the agreement to buy two Mistral helicopter-carriers to Russia under the contract signed in June.On June 17, Russia's Rosorobonexport arms exporter and the French state shipbuilding company DCNS signed a contract for the purchased by Russia of two Mistral helicopter carriers.The contract is estimated at 1.2 billion euros.France will transfer a number of sensitive technologies to Russia along with Mistral ships to be purchased by Russia, including the SENIT-9 tactical combat information system installed on the helicopter carriers.In the future, these technologies will be used in the construction of two other Mistral ships in Russia, Rosoboronexport CEO Anatoly Isaikin said.“The French side will transfer to us all technologies that have been included in the inter-governmental agreement signed several months ago in Saint-Nasaire. These technologies will then be used for building two similar ships in Russia,” Isaikin said, referring to the SENIT-9 system and “two other systems”.The first Mistral ship will be delivered to Russia in 2014. Isakin confirmed information announced earlier by the French shipbuilding company DCNS.“The first and second ships of this type will be delivered in 36 and 48 months respectively after the entry of the contract into force,” Isaikin said.Russia and France have devised a joint mechanism for interaction at the level of the governments of the two countries for the implementation of the helicopter carrier project.The United Shipbuilding Company (USC) will represent Russia in the international consortium.Russian and French shipbuilding corporations have agreed to create a consortium for building military and civilian vessels.Russia is buying the French helicopter carrier Mistral with French equipment, including combat navigation devices, but will arm it with its own weaponry.The keel of the first Mistral-type ship will be laid down in December 2011, with localisation of two first such ships in Russia to be 40 percent, USC President Roman Trotsenko said.Russia will make a half of the Mistral ship, that is, “all of its after body”, he said.The after bodies to be built Russia will be supplied to the Korean shipyard STX at Saint Nazaire, France.The third and fourth Mistral-type ships will be built fully in Russia, Trotsenko said.The universal amphibious assault ship of the Mistral class has a displacement of 20,000 tonnes, hull length of 200 meters, full speed of 19 knots, fuel endurance of up to 11,000 miles at a speed of 15 knots, a crew of 160 and air wing personnel of 220. The ship is capable of carrying a force of up to 450 Marines. The air force component consists of 20 HN-90 helicopters. The ship carries four light amphibious boats or two hovercraft. The freight deck accommodates 60 armoured vehicles.The inter-governmental commission will also discuss the programme of linguistic seasons that will take over the Russia-France cross-years in order to promote the Russian language in France and the French language in Russia.The participants in the meeting will also discuss international and global issues of interest to France and Russia, such as Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organisation.02:31?17/11/2011ALL NEWSRussian, German FMs discuss situation in Syria, Iran’s nuclear programme, November 17 (Itar-Tass) —— Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle discussed the situation in Syria and the Iranian nuclear programme by telephone on Wednesday, November 16.During the conversation, initiated by the German minister, Lavrov and Westerwelle “exchanged views on the situation in the Middle East and North Africa, particularly Syria, and touched upon Middle East settlement and the Iranian nuclear programme,” the Foreign Ministry said.Lavrov earlier urged his foreign colleagues and heads of international organisation to support the League of Arab States’ plan for Syria in order to put the efforts in the country on a peaceful political footing.“Moscow has actively supported the crisis settlement plan for Syria proposed by the League of Arab States (LAS) and welcomed the Syrian authorities’ readiness to start implementing it without delay,” the Foreign Ministry said.“These measures and other parts of the LAS initiative create an opportunity for starting a constructive and substantive political dialogue between the Syrian government and the opposition in order to lead the situation to the road of reconciliation and reforms without outside interference,” the ministry said.“Considering these circumstances, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov sent oral messages to the foreign ministers of some countries and the leaders of international organisations, urging them to support the LAS plan and use their possibilities for ensuring coordinated influence on all parties to the conflict in Syria in order to implement the LAS initiative within the shortest time possible and put the settlement process in Syria on a peaceful political footing,” the ministry said.In a telephone conversation with LAS Secretary-General Nabil El-Araby, Lavrov noted “the great importance of the efforts and role of the League of Arab States in fostering the dialogue and stressed Russia’s commitment to the need for the Syrians to find solutions to their internal problems on the basis of consensus and a programme of political and socio-economic reforms in the interests of all people”, the ministry said.Russia continues to object to possible U.N. sanctions against Syria.The Foreign Ministry urged all sides in Syria to refrain from violence and continue to look for fair and lawful solutions to burning problems.Russia also opposes stronger sanction against Iran and will try to convince its partners to give up such plans.The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the sanctions would “raise serious questions” and that “such actions, based on exterritorial application of U.S. legislation, potentially create a situation where Russian businesses cooperating with the abovementioned companies may be affected in a negative way”.As a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran has an inalienable right to develop a peaceful nuclear programme under the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Lavrov said earlier.“No resolution has so far been proposed in the U.N. Security Council. We will not discuss hypothetical situations, but is common knowledge that Russia objects to stronger sanctions against Iran,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said earlier this month.“We maintain constant contact with our partners who are members of the Sextet [five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany] and with those supporters of sanctions who are not members of the Sextet. We are showing [to them] the vicious and pernicious nature of this policy that is driving the problem deeper,” the diplomat said.“If there is a disease, its causes must be dealt with, not symptoms,” he added.“Unfortunately, sanctions are like ‘bandages’ or ‘applications’ that do not touch the root of the problem and give no treatment. We hope that our understanding and our vision of the situation will be taken as objective and will prompt corrections in the sanctions policy that has absolutely no prospects and that has been advocated by some influential states,” Ryabkov said.In June the United States imposed sanctions on several Iranian companies, including Iran Air and on the Iranian port, suspected by the U.S. of spreading nuclear weapons and materials.The Sextet - Russia, Britain, Germany, China, the United States, and France - which is involved in the negotiations with Iran still disagrees on the need for additional sanctions against Iran. In particular, China has announced that it is not the right time to take any new measures against Tehran, as members of the U.N. Security Council have already adopted five resolutions against that country. Iran is under three sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions for refusing to stop its nuclear programme.Western countries insist that Iran develops its nuclear programme for military purposes, while Tehran claims it pursues purely civilian purposes.?05:35?17/11/2011ALL NEWSRussian FM voices concern over Israel’s settlement plans, November 17 (Itar-Tass) —— According to media reports, Israel’s government intends to announce within a month or two tenders for the construction of new housing units in settlement neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem – 749 homes in Har Homa and 65 in Pisgat Zeev. The move is said to come as part of the decision of the Israeli leadership to “punish” the Palestinians for their U.N. and UNESCO membership bids, the Foreign Ministry said.The announcement of the concrete plans of the Israeli authorities in the field of settlement activity is a cause for deep concern. “Russia’s stand on this issue has been repeatedly expressed: any construction in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, is contrary to the well-known norms of international law and must be stopped,” the ministry said.“Nor can we accept the logic of ‘punishing’ the Palestinians, including by increasing settlement activity, for their attempts to join the UN and its specialized agencies in accordance with existing relevant procedures. Such an approach, such statements and especially concrete actions are not helpful in restoring trust between the parties and undermine efforts of the Middle East Quartet of international mediators to restart Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on the well-known internationally accepted legal basis,” the ministry said.The ministry earlier disapproved of Israel’s unilateral actions with regard to Palestine.Earlier this month Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the housing construction be accelerated in Jerusalem, Etzion and Ma'ale Adumim. The prime minister’s office said it would be carried out in the areas that will go to Israel under any future peace agreement.“The Israeli leadership’s decision has been taken in Moscow with deep concern. The Russian position on this matter is well known and has been repeatedly reiterated: any construction on the occupied territories is unlawful in accordance with generally recognised norms of international law and must be stopped,” it said.“Also disturbing are mass media reports saying that the government of Israel has decided to temporarily suspend the transfer of funds from customs and tax payments due to the Palestinian National Administration. This measure runs counter to Israel’s obligations under earlier agreements, can lead to degradation of the Palestinian economy and therefore adversely affect the life of the Palestinian population,” the ministry warned.“The decisions approved by the Israeli leadership further exacerbate the atmosphere for resuming the peace process and efforts undertaken by the international community, primarily by the Middle East Quartet, to reset the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations on the existing basis of international law,” the ministry said.“Nor can we agree with collective punishment of Palestinians for their intention to join the U.N. and its specialised institutions. We believe that Palestinians’ legitimate applications for membership in international organisations are not and cannot be an alternative to their talks with Israel, the ultimate goal of which should be the creation of an independent, sovereign and viable Palestinian state living in peace and security with Israel,” it said.“We strongly urge the Israeli government once again to refrain from any unilateral actions that can predetermine the outcome of the talks on the final status of Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem,” the ministry said.Moscow is worried by the Israeli government’s new settlement plans in the southern part of East Jerusalem, the Foreign Ministry said earlier.According to media reports, Israel plans to commence a new settlement project (2,610 houses in the first stage with a subsequent increase to 4,200) in the southern part of East Jerusalem in the area of the existing Jewish village of Givat HaMatos.“The implementation by the Israeli authorities of such plans just like the intention to legalise numerous settlement outposts built on the occupied Palestinian territories is completely at variance with the obligations of the Israeli side assumed under the ‘road map’,” the ministry said.“We are particularly worried by the fact that such steps can have an extremely negative impact on the international efforts, including those taken by the Middle East Quartet, to re-launch Palestinian-Israeli talks on the well-known international legal basis in accordance with the statement made after the Quartet’s meeting in New York on September 23, 2011,” the ministry said.“We urge the Israeli government to give up its settlement activities on the occupied territories and refrain from any steps that can predetermine the status of Jerusalem and the borders of the future Palestinian state that should be determined in the course of negotiations between the partiers,” the ministry said.According to Russian permanent representative to the U.N. Vitaly Churkin, “The two sides should refrain from unilateral steps anticipating the results of settlement, comply with international obligations, show political will and readiness for confidence-building measures and sustainable dialogue that would facilitate effective resolution of all issues related to the final status.”North Korea to get $100 million annually for Russian gas transit 17/11/2011KHABAROVSK, November 17 (RIA Novosti)North Korea will get $100 million annually if it becomes a transit country for Russian gas supplies to South Korea, the Russian president's envoy to the Far East said on Thursday.In August, President Dmitry Medvedev said after talks with his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong-il that the parties had reached an agreement to draw up a project to build a gas pipeline to South Korea. The pipeline will cost an estimated $6 billion."It [$100 million] would be a huge sum for a country with annual gross product of $10 billion. Moreover, the country would have to make no big effort to get it," Presidential plenipotentiary envoy to the Russian Far East Victor Ishayev said.Alexander Medvedev, Gazprom deputy board chairman, said the expected volume of Russian gas exports to South Korea was raised to 12 billion cubic meters from 10 bcm.Supplies of Russian gas to South Korea are expected to be started in 2017. Gazprom currently supplies up to 1.5 million tons of liquefied natural gas to South Korea annually.November 17, 2011 10:02Azarov expects Ukraine will pay for Russian gas at new price for Nov. Nov 17 (Interfax) - Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said he expected Ukraine would pay for Russian gas delivered in November at a new price."Let's say for November, I think, we will pay at a new price and under new terms," he said after a meeting of the economic press club on November 14, according to a video posted on Azarov's Facebook page.The premier forecast that the gas negotiations between Russia and Ukraine would finish this month."I think that in November we will finish the negotiations, which we have been holding for a long time. To all appearances, I can see the finish, because issues not connected with the price and terms are being discussed. We've already gone through that," Azarov said.ZA pr(Our editorial staff can be reached at eng.editors@interfax.ru)Russian bank to finance the Ukrainian-Brazilian rocket construction projectToday at 11:01 | Interfax-Ukraine Sberbank of Russia will issue a $260 million loan to Pivdenne design bureau, the bank has reported. The bureau plans to use the funds to finance the Ukrainian-Brazilian project to create the Cyclone-4 space and rocket complex.According to the company, loan funds were raised at a tender for 7 years at 6% per annum and are secured by the government of Ukraine.The government of Ukraine in June provided state guarantees for the credit funds of $260 million attracted by Pivdenne design bureau to implement the project on the creation of the Cyclone-4 space and rocket complex at the Alcantara spaceport (Brazil).Some $83 million of the sum will be used to create the Cyclone-4 carrier rocket and $177 million to ensure Ukraine’s participation in the creation of the complex ground infrastructure.Alcantara Cyclone Space, a Ukrainian-Brazilian joint venture established in 2006, implements the project. Read more: , Russia hold consultations on Caspian Sea November 2011, 02:36 (GMT+04:00)Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov. 17 / Trend /Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has hosted bilateral Azerbaijani-Russian consultations on the Caspian Sea-related issues.The meeting was attended by Azerbaijan's Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov and the Special Representative of Russian President on delimitation and demarcation of state border between Russia and neighboring CIS countries, Alexander Golovin with their delegations, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry's press-service told Trend Wednesday.The meeting discussed issues relating to implementation of the decisions of the Baku summit of Caspian littoral states, held on November 18, 2010. The sides also exchanged views on a number of provisions in the draft convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea.At the end of the meeting the parties stressed the significance and importance of conducting further bilateral consultations on the Caspian Sea.Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at agency@trend.azRT News line, November 17Poland grants parole to Russian jailed for espionage Russian citizen convicted of espionage in Poland and jailed for three years has been granted parole, Polish media say, citing sources in the court. In 2009, Polish intelligence services arrested Tadeush Yuhnevich on accusations of spying for Russia. The court hearings were held behind the closed doors and the press began to cover the case only in 2010. Yuhnevich was found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison. In May 2011 the lawyers filed an appeal, but it did not succeed. According to the verdict Yuhnevich was to be released in the beginning of 2012.Poland paroles convicted Russian spy 17/11/2011MOSCOW, November 17 (RIA Novosti)The Polish authorities on Thursday released on parole Russian national Tadeusz Juchniewicz, who was sentenced to three years for espionage in 2010, the Polish Press Agency said, quoting court officials.Russian businessman Juchniewicz was arrested in February 2009 after he had lived in Poland for ten years. He pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. He was tried behind closed doors and was convicted as a Russian military sleeper agent.Investigators said he had maintained regular contact with the Russian “center” with the help of spying gadgets camouflaged as house utensils since 2003.The decision to grant him parole was made in a penitentiary court in the town of Wloclawek after he had already served more than two thirds of his prison term.Putin election bid makes mockery of democracy: Rice, Nov 16 2011By Arshad MohammedWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is making a mockery of democracy by running for a third term as president, former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday.Having already been president from 2000 to 2008 before becoming prime minister, Putin on September 24 unveiled plans to swap jobs with President Dmitry Medvedev, allowing the duo to continue their joint rule."First of all, the way that the whole thing was done makes a bit of a mockery of the electoral process," Rice said in an interview to promote "No Higher Honor," her memoir of serving as Republican former President George W. Bush's national security adviser and secretary of state.Asked if it was a good idea for Putin to run again, Rice said "no" and sighed. "It's unfortunate."If Putin is elected in March as universally expected, Rice said, there is a chance, and perhaps a probability, that he may try to limit dissent and centralize power more than he had during his earlier incarnation as president.However, Rice, a Stanford University Soviet specialist before entering government, said Russia's integration into the world economy may over time limit his ability to curb civil and political liberties."There will be certain constraints and realities even for Vladimir Putin," she added, saying Russians have a greater sense of the wider world through travel and the Internet and may not tolerate political repression.Putin's presidency is widely seen abroad as a period in which civil liberties and the rule of law eroded, notably in the case oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was jailed for fraud and tax evasion in 2005 and lost his $40 billion business empire after mounting a political challenge to Putin.Khodorkovsky remains in jail.RISK OF 'SIGNIFICANT TURMOIL'Asked if Putin might seek to further limit dissent if he becomes president again, Rice said: "There is certainly that risk and, you know, if you were to give odds, you would probably say that that's the case.""If he goes that route, I think he risks significant turmoil inside Russia," she said, noting the domestic criticism of the September decision for Putin and Medvedev to swap jobs."I am not suggesting that he can't crack down, but I am just saying that it comes at a greater cost than one might think," she added.If he wins the maximum two consecutive six-year terms, Putin, 59, could be president until 2024.Putin, who has remained Russia's paramount leader as prime minister, has likened himself to former U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, elected to the White House four times.During the interview, Rice also touched on the climate for foreign investment in Russia, argued it was time to sanction Iran's central bank and said U.S. President Barack Obama erred in demanding Israel halt all Jewish settlement construction.- Asked whether Exxon Mobil Corp's was right to strike an agreement to extract oil and gas from the Russian Arctic with Russia's Rosneft, Rice, a former Chevron Corp director, replied:"I don't know enough about the deal. I don't know what assurances they did or did not get. Obviously, there are risks, right? ... because contractual relations in Russia are subject to change with political winds and that, really, is the story of several of these cases."- Rice said there was still time for diplomacy to try to persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear program but called for much tougher measures such as sanctioning its central bank.The United States suspects that Iran may be using its civil nuclear program as a cover to develop nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is for solely peaceful purposes."There is time for diplomacy but it better be pretty coercive diplomacy at this point," she said, adding there were steps that could be taken without the approval of the U.N. Security Council, where Russia or China could veto more sanctions."It's time to back them into a corner," she added. "I know that sanctioning the central bank ... will put them in very dire circumstances but maybe that's what it takes at this point."- Rice said Obama, who has little to show for nearly three years of trying to make peace between Israel and the Palestinians, had erred in seeking an absolute freeze on Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank."I think it was a mistake," she said. "By calling for the settlement freeze instead of starting where we left off, you, I think, pretty much assured that you were going to back the Palestinians into a corner because they couldn't be less Palestinian than the Americans."She added: "(At) no place on the political spectrum can an Israeli prime minster agree to a total settlement freeze. So you had the worst of both worlds, I think."(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)South Korean ship ablaze off Russia's Chukotka, one missing 17/11/2011PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, November 17 (RIA Novosti)A South Korean bulk carrier, the Oriental Angel, caught fire off Russia's Far Eastern coast early on Thursday, a regional rescue official said.The vessel reported fire while off the Russian Far Eastern Chukotka Autonomous District at 4:40 local time [16:40 GMT Wednesday]. Its crew did not issue the distress signal."Flour caught fire in the ship's holds while the vessel was in the Bering Sea, near the Beringovsky urban-type settlement," the source said.A total of 89 crew members left the vessel on rafts and were rescued by other ships in the area. The chief mate remains unaccounted for.The Oriental Angel is currently anchored near the Cape Navarin. The ship is still on fire and stormy weather seriously hampers firefighting efforts.In a separate incident, two vessels have responded to a signal from a Hong Kong-registered ship's distress radiobeacon off Russia's largest island of Sakhalin. The ships have so far been unable to establish contact with the Hong Kong vessel.1 dead in S.Korean ship fire off Russian coast: Reports 17, 2011MOSCOW: A sailor died when a fire broke out on a South Korean fish carrier near Russia's Far Eastern coast, prompting evacuation of 89 people, reports said on Thursday.The ship Oriental Angel was off the coast of Chukotka in the Bering Sea when the fire broke out overnight in a compartment holding flour, RIA Novosti quoted a local water rescue official as saying.The ship's chief mate died as he tried to battle the flames, while 89 members of its crew, including Chinese, South Korean, and Indonesian nationals, were rescued by passing boats from their rafts, he said. The vessel is still burning about 14 miles from the shore in the bay of Anadyr, he said.Agence France-Presse TRANSLATION11:24 17/11/2011Glavnye newsAttorney General of Tajikistan hopes that the revision "of the case of pilots," the court may determine the minimum sentenceDushanbe, November 17. / Correspondent. Itar-Tass Galina Gridneva /. Prosecutor General of Tajikistan Sherkhon Salimzoda believes that the verdict airline pilots' Rolkan "" unduly harsh "and hopes that in view of the prosecutor of Khatlon region of the country, the superior court verdict" below the lower limit ", below the minimum period stipulated by articles of the Criminal Code of the Republic.This opinion was expressed today Salimzoda in an exclusive interview with a correspondent. ITAR-TASS, however, stressed that "the court in Tajikistan independent and make decisions independently."Russian Vladimir Sadovnichy and an Estonian citizen Alexei Rudenko was sentenced November 8 court of Kurgan-Tube to 8.5 years imprisonment, but pleaded not guilty on any of the articles of accusation.Sherkhon Salimzoda explained that the prosecutor requested "commute the sentence below the lower limit, taking into account the exceptional case in exceptional circumstances."The Attorney General did not mention the date of the appeal committee meeting, noting that "the ten-day period for consideration from the date of sentencing - November 8."Referring to the situation directly with the company "Rolkan," then, according to Salimzoda, the criminal case against the leader Sergei Poluyanova was instituted in May under the "business drivers". "At the moment it stopped, as all investigations have been completed, and the defendant fails to appear for interrogation," - said Salimzoda. Thus, he denied reports by some media about the declaration of Sergei Poluyanova an international arrest warrant.09:49?17/11/2011ALL NEWSDuma to pass statement against conviction of pilots in Tajikistan, November 17 (Itar-Tass) — The State Duma lower house of Russia’s parliament on Thursday intends to consider a draft statement “in connection with the conviction in Tajikistan of Russian citizen Vladimir Sadovnichy and our compatriot citizen of the Estonia Republic Alexei Rudenko.” The final decision on putting this issue on the agenda will be made by the lower house Council at 10:00 MSK, but the relevant committee for the CIS affairs has already recommended to adopt the draft statement at Thursday’s plenary meeting.In the statement the MPs are going to recognise the verdict to pilots, who were sentenced to 8.5 years in prison, “unduly harsh and politicized.” “This decision was contrary to the spirit of strategic partnership between Russia and Tajikistan, which suffered damage for the sake of not well thought-out opportunistic reasons,” the document says.The house intends to express the hope “that Tajikistan will heed the voice of reason and react quickly to the negative attitude of the Russian society to the harsh sentence handed down to pilots Vladimir Sadovnichy and Alexei Rudenko.” In Russia this verdict was met with surprise and disappointment, it has caused many questions and a very negative reaction, the lawmakers recall.The pilots of the Rolkan airline Vladimir Sadovnichy and Alexei Rudenko were sentenced by the court of Kurgan-Tube to 8.5 years in a tight regime penal colony on charges of illegal border crossing and smuggling. The pilots of two aircraft had been arrested in Tajikistan in March. They have pleaded not guilty.Earlier, Chairman of the State Duma’s foreign policy committee Konstantin Kosachev asked his counterparts in the parliament of Tajikistan to take under parliamentary supervision the case of the two pilots working for a Russian airline.Kosachev said he had sent a letter to Olim Salimzoda, the chairman of international affairs committee at Tajikistan’s Majlis, in which he had voiced concern over the sentence to the pilots -- the Russian citizen Vladimir Sadovnichy and the Estonian citizen Alexei Rudenko.He asked Salimzoda to take the pilots’ case under parliamentary control and expressed the hope that “an allied relationship, partnership and mutual respect will help our two countries eliminate the aftermath of this incident and attain an early return home of Vladimir Sadovnichy and his colleague.”The pilots working for the airline Rolkan were arrested March 12, 2011, after a forced landing in the airport of the city of Kurgan Tube.A Tajikistani court sentenced them to 10.5 years in a high security prison but after an amnesty signed by President Emomali Rakhmon the term was slashed by two years.Sadovnichy and Rudenko were found guilty of all the three offenses the Tajikistani law enforcement agencies had charged them with initially – an encroachment on the regulations for international flights, an unauthorized border crossing, and contraband.The Tajikistani government has also confiscated the two Antonov-72 (NATO reporting name Coaler) transport aircraft Sadovnichy and Rudenko had been flying.On Monday, vice chancellor of the Estonian Foreign Ministry Lauri Bambus told Itar-Tass that Estonia closely follows the situation regarding the pilots of a Russian air company – Estonian citizen Alexei Rudenko and Russian citizen Vladimir Sadovnichy - convicted in Tajikistan.“The Estonian side closely follows the situation regarding the convicted pilots and hopes that the court will promptly discuss the petition over that case,” he said. In Tallinn’s opinion, the reasons for convicting Rudenko and Sadovnichy “are not quite clear, so their remaining in detention looks unjustified,” the vice chancellor said. Bambus said the Estonian Foreign Ministry had taken a number of steps in a quest for acceptable solution of “the pilots’ case” and planned further steps that, if needed, be taken after the petition was discussed by the court. He confirmed that, whatever turn the event can take, Estonia would do its utmost to bring its citizen home. For this purpose Tallinn and Dushanbe will have to sign an appropriate arrangement on the possibility of Estonian and Tajikistani citizens convicted by the court of one of the sides to serve the punishment in the home country. A meeting of the Estonian and Tajikistani Foreign ministers is also scheduled for early December.Meanwhile, the Tajik Court of Appeals has allowed the convicted pilots’ appeal against their sentence. The two pilots’ lawyer, Gulam Boboyev, told reporters that the defendants had appealed against the unjust and unlawful guilty verdict. The Prosecutors’ Office has also appealed against the sentence which it deems to be biased.Russian party suggests suspending visa-free regime with Tajikistan 17/11/2011MOSCOW, November 17 (RIA Novosti)The center-left A Just Russia party has proposed to freeze visa-free regime with Tajikistan a week after a court in the Central Asian state sentenced a Russian pilot to a lengthy prison term.The party said visa-free regime should be frozen until Tajik authorities take effective measures to curb drug trafficking from Afghanistan and movement of suspected terrorists to Russia via the country's territory.According to A Just Russia statement, current anti-drug and anti-terrorism efforts by Tajik authorities have failed to produce tangible results so far."This situation has been made worse by free entry and exit of Tajik nationals to the Russian territory, envisaged by an agreement of bilateral visa-free regime for residents of the two states," the party statement reads.The draft document has been submitted to the international affairs and CIS affairs committees of the Russian parliament's lower chamber, the State Duma.The announcement came shortly before the planned adoption of a statement by the State Duma condemning a sentence to Russian pilot Vladimir Sadovnichy, who was sent to prison last week for eight and a half years by Tajik court last week for smuggling and border violations.The Russian Foreign Ministry has already called the sentence "extremely severe and politically motivated." Tajik officials denied the case was politically motivated.A relevant State Duma committee has recommended for approval on Thursday a statement in which the lower chamber of the Russian parliament "expresses full solidarity with Russian authorities, political forces and the society in connection with the Tajik court verdict.""The verdict was met with perplexity and disappointment in Russia, it causes numerous questions and an extremely negative reaction," the draft statement reads.Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of the Russian parliament's upper house, the Federation Council, did not rule out sanctions against Tajikistan.She said she handed an official letter by the Federation Council to her Tajik counterpart Makhmadsaid Ubaidulloyev, calling on him to study the case.Shortly after the verdict was handed down, Russia's chief sanitary official, Gennady Onishchenko, called for labor migrants from Tajikistan to be temporarily barred from Russia for public health reasons.The Russian migration service said last week that 134 Tajiks had been detained and another 100 would be sent home for violating Russian immigration laws. A migrant movement leader said, however, at least 300 migrant workers from the Central Asian state had been deported.President Dmitry Medvedev said the expulsion of the Tajik migrant workers had nothing to do with the pilot case. He also said that illegal migrants would be deported regularly from now on.November 17, 2011 12:18Russian Prosecutor General's Office declares growth of terror, extremist crime rate. Nov 17 (Interfax) - The terror crime rate grew by over 14% in Russia in 2011, Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Grin said at a Moscow conference on the suppression of extremism and terrorism on Thursday."The number of terror crimes grew by over 14% in Russia this year. Despite the solutions to such crimes and the preventive measures, terrorists manage to succeed; there were explosions in the Moscow metro in 2010 and in the Domodedovo Airport in 2011," he said.Grin expressed concern about the situation in some North Caucasian republics. "The terror threat in this country is taking shape under the influence of external and domestic factors. The biggest threat comes from North Caucasian militants, who are particularly active in Dagestan, Ingushetia and Kabardino-Balkaria," he said.The extremist crime rate doubled within the past five years, the deputy prosecutor general said. "There are two main types of extremist crimes in Russia. First, religious separatist organizations up to illegal armed units are formed under the influence of foreign preachers of pseudo-Islamic ideas. They mostly have military-political goals rather than ideological. Second, there is a growth of Russian nationalist activity as a response to the first trend. Such activity frequently turns from aggressive up to terror acts against foreign and Russian citizens," Grin said.te jv(Our editorial staff can be reached at eng.editors@interfax.ru)November 17, 2011 10:49Three Hizb ut-Tahrir extremists detained in Bashkortostan. Nov 17 (Interfax) - A unit of the Hizb ut-Tahrir extremist organization, which has been outlawed in Russia, was shut down in a police operation carried out in the city of Davlekanovo in the Republic of Bashkortostan, a local Interior Ministry spokesman told Interfax on Thursday.Three local residents, ages 24 to 31, were detained on suspicion of setting up this Hizb-ut-Tahrir unit and actively participating in it.Some of them were previously tried on charges of establishing an extremist organization, the spokesman said.Investigators have established that the unit operated in Davlekanovo from 2010 to November 2011. Its members were involved in distributing extremist literature and materials promoting Hizb ut-Tahrir ideas."A large number of pamphlets, as well as audio and video materials promoting Hizb-ut-Tahrir ideas were confiscated from the apartments of the detained persons during authorized searches," he said.A criminal case has been opened based on charges of maintaining an extremist organization's operations.A local court is currently considering pre-trial restrictions for the suspects.tm jv(Our editorial staff can be reached at eng.editors@interfax.ru)Russia`s Fed Council to become Senate 17, 2011 10:26 Moscow TimeThe Federation Council of Russia, the upper chamber of the Russian parliament, is going to change its name and become the Senate.A draft project was submitted to the lower chamber of the parliament, the Duma, the Federation Council`s chairwoman Valentina Matviyenko said.She explained that "a member of the Federation Council" sounds rather clumsy, and added that the Senate had existed in Russia before the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.(Mayak)??10:21?17/11/2011ALL NEWSDecision in principle on parliamnt centre in RF made-Matviyenko, November 17 (Itar-Tass) — The decision in principle on the construction of a parliamentary centre in Russia has been made. “And that’s absolutely right,” head of the Federation Council upper house of Russia’s parliament Valentina Matviyenko believes.In an interview published by the Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily on Thursday she announced that an agreement has been made with the chairman of the State Duma lower house, Boris Gryzlov, and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that “within the work to change the boundaries of Moscow a separate meeting will be held on the transfer of all bodies of authority to new territories and their development.”“This is so far preliminary information,” Matviyenko made a reservation, “but if this decision is made, then the construction of a new parliamentary centre will begin there,” and “we will be the anchor project for the construction and development of these new territories.”According to her, “the final decision will be made by the president and prime minister somewhat later, after elections in a separate meeting.”Matviyenko is confident that the centre “will only raise the efficiency of our work, and we will transfer for other purposes a large number of buildings which are now used inefficiently.”When the Duma has several buildings and the Federation Council has several buildings, it is very inconvenient, especially considering the traffic jams in Moscow. And we only intensify congestion by our movements. “So, the first idea of ··the parliamentary centre is to house both the State Duma and the Federation Council. In addition, it will remove many administrative structures that duplicate each other in the two houses. This means saving personnel and saving money,” Matviyenko explained. In her view, the project implementation “will bring only pluses and no minuses.” She said, “Several buildings in the city centre that are still not functionally adapted for the activity of the parliament, will be put to auction. Their sale will give much more funds than required for the construction of a new parliamentary centre, pre-adapted to the conditions of the lawmakers’ work.”Matviyenko said that “today the FC members literally confined into tiny office, where it is difficult to receive even a man from the region. And they, by virtue of their responsibilities, also receive foreign delegations. All who come to us for the parliamentary hearings leave their cars somewhere in the alleys and walk to the building, because the Federation Council has no parking lot or drop-off.”The FC head suggested in this connection to look at other countries around the world – “as a rule, there have the Presidential Palace, government buildings and the parliament building. It is a way to express respect to the elected by the population deputies, to the Parliament.” “It is an important government institution in the country, and it should have its own house, its parliamentary centre,” Matviyenko stressed.President Medvedev this summer suggested to enlarge the area of the City of Moscow and to move some offices of bodies of power out of Moscow, which will help to relieve the problems of Russia’s largest megalopolis.Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that the transfer of government offices meant that Moscow would soon have a satellite city that will unite such offices and all supporting infrastructure. The mayor opposed the idea of spreading the government bodies over the territory of the Moscow Region and stressed that concentrating them in a single place could give a better boost to the development of the region. “In essence, this means the creation of a modern satellite city within Moscow boundaries,” Sobyanin said.The mayor also stressed that so far the merger of the City of Moscow and the Moscow Region was not on the agenda. He said that the question was only in moving government offices beyond the Moscow Ring Road and, for this purpose, enlarging the city limits. Sobyanin said that no referendum was planned on the subject – only an analysis of opinions both of ordinary residents and civil servants.The Moscow City Legislature has also supported the creation of the new, larger capital district.Deputy Head of Staff of the State Duma Yuri Shuvalov said that a special complex that would house the upper and lower houses of the Russian parliament will be built beyond the Moscow Ring Road within the next five years. He added that the construction would need additional investment, but the result would justify the costs.Medvedev’s idea drew positive comments even from members of parliamentary opposition. The chairman of the Fair Russia political party said that moving the government offices would allow civil servants to better understand the needs of the common people and common people would feel more sympathy for those who voluntary go to a remote region to work. The head of the Liberal Democratic Party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, also supported the move and urged that a special law be adopted as soon as possible, with a federal minister put in charge of the new federal district instead of the regional governor or the city’s mayor.OSCE interim report on Russian election campaign expected Friday -media 17/11/2011MOSCOW, November 17 (RIA Novosti)The main election monitoring arm of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) may publish its interim report on the election campaign in Russia on Friday, the Kommersant daily said on Thursday.Russia's election authority, the Central Election Commission, has accused the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of applying double standards and politicizing the election process.The newspaper quoted an unnamed ODIHR source as saying that the report, to be delivered on November 18, would focus on legislation and contain only facts without making any conclusions.ODIHR spokesperson Jens Eschenbacher confirmed that the report would be published in the coming days, saying it was "a standard practice" and there was nothing uncommon about it.ODIHR boycotted previous Russian presidential and parliamentary elections in 2007-2008.The election body was officially invited to send its observers to Russia's December 4 parliamentary elections, but their number was limited to 200. ODIHR planned to send 260 monitors to Russia.The mission's chief, Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini, said the organization would make a preliminary report on whether elections in Russia comply with international standards the day after the polls, on December 5.13:05?17/11/2011RUSSIAN PRESS REVIEWYouth loyal to power and opposition to meet in face-off in Moscow on elections day, November 17 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia’s Central Elections Commission /CEC/ has not seen any violations in the plans of the pro-Kremlin youth movement Nashi /Ours/ to organise in Moscow a national convention on the day of elections to the State Duma on December 4. The opposition is sure that the basic purpose of Nashi is to suppress possible meetings of those who would not agree with calculation of votes.First information about the large-scale event appeared several days earlier in social networks, the RBC daily reports. “We expect about 30,000 participants,” an activist from St.Petersburg Anastasiya Shipilina wrote in her blog. The forum will be supported by Rosmolodezh /youth policy authority/ and now organisers put together lists of participants. She suggests filing a motivated application for participation in the event, and to those above 18 she suggests bringing with them to Moscow their absentee voter certificates to vote here. Most active participants will be chosen by the presidential administration over the forum, and they will become responsible for a new youth project, she promises. Nashi’s federal commissar, Maria Kislitsyna, says that during the forum of civil activists the youth will patrol streets to prevent possible provocations and to support the United Russia party.Russia’s CEC did not see any violations in the plans of Nashi to organise a national convention on the elections day, the Novye Izvestia writes. Neither did it see any violations in the fact that activists are invited to come to Moscow having their absentee voter certificates. “A youth organisation may have its congress any day,” CEC’s Secretary Nikolai Konkin said on Wednesday. “Use of an absentee voter certificate is a right of any citizen.” Formally, there is nothing to argue about. But the non-system opposition prepares its own events on that day, where participants will prove that the elections were not legitimate. The Strategy 31 supporters plan to come to Moscow’s Triumfalnaya Square. Besides, the organisation committee of the Russian March address Muscovites to come to Revolutsii Square.The opposition take the plans of Nashi as clear agitations for the ruling party, with which the movement is associated clearly, the newspaper writes. Political scientists fear massive falsifying with absentee voter certificates, which Nashi members will bring to Moscow from other cities. And the patrol of streets they declare may cause major clashes.Medvedev tweets about web site on presidential initiatives 17, 2011 09:08 Moscow TimeRussia`s President Dmitry Medvedev has announced on his Twitter blog the launch of a web site called Da! (Yes!) to attract active internet users to support presidential initiative and even join some projects.?4,000 web users have already voiced their support to Mr. Medvedev. ?(TASS)01:31?17/11/2011Top NewsMedvedev calls for further social support to disabled people , November 17 (Itar-Tass) —— President Dmitry Medvedev said it would be necessary to continue the policy of social support to disabled people that has been carried out over the last several years largely by United Russia.“We have started changing our attitude towards disabled people, their social status and, I hope, everyday life lately, but this does not mean that we have succeeded everywhere,” Medvedev said at a meeting with people with disabilities on Wednesday, November 16.He stressed that the federal government has been allocating more funding for support to disabled people lately. “United Russia votes for the budget, while other parties often do not vote. So, no matter how good these parties may be, they do not support these expenditures,” the president said.According to the president, many projects for people with disabilities “are working in Moscow and other places”.“We cannot lose the tempo and the achievements we have made over the last several years. We must continue this policy. But keeping the policy running depends on the individual decision of each person, including people with disabilities,” Medvedev said.06:24?17/11/2011ALL NEWSFC speaker says regions need powers, resources for effective management, November 17 (Itar-Tass) —— Regions need powers and resources for effective management, Federation Council Chairperson Valentina Matviyenko said.“If we want to raise the responsibility of the regional authorities, let’s give them resources, possibilities and resources for effective management of their regions, and then we can call them to account, whereas now we hold governors responsible for everything but we have not given them enough powers,” Matviyenko said in an interview with Rossiiskaya Gazeta to be published on Thursday, November 17.The Federation Council’s proposals concerning decentralisation of power were handed over on November 2 to the governmental commission headed by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak.“I think we joined in this work quite timely, seizing the initiative,” Matviyenko said. “We collected suggestions from all regions and studied them very carefully. There was a great many of them and they were different, sometimes controversial. Our task was to sort all this out and draw up the final conclusions.”Only the first stage has been finished. The Federation Council will continue working with the Kozak commission. After conceptual approaches have been approved and adopted, “we will raise the question of abolishing a large number of federal bodies’ representative offices in regions,” the speaker said.In some regions, there are as many of them as 70, plus over 160 territorial ones. “I was a governor for eight years and I want to say that sometimes you can’t understand what all these structures do. Some 400,000 civil servants and representatives of federal ministries and agencies are working in regions. What for?” Matviyenko said.“If the proposed ideology is adopted,... inter-budgetary relations will have to be changed. This is our firm condition that all powders to be delegated to certain levels of government should have permanent sources of funding,” she said.The final document drafted by the Federation Council consists of three sections. The first contains a list of 35 powers that regions think should be handed over to the federal government. Twenty of them were delegated to regions over the last several years.The second section contains powers that should be transferred from the federal government to regions. There are 44 of them.The third section deals with delimitation of powers and responsibilities between regions and municipalities.The final report on the transfer of executive powers from the federal government to regions will be submitted to the president by December 1, 2011.Vice Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak said that the report would be coordinated with the working group on financial and tax issues and inter-budgetary relations.An interim report has so far been submitted to the president. In it, the working group supported the transfer of supervisory functions in the fields sanitary-epidemiological and veterinary control, cadastral registration and valuation of real estate, as well as state registration of rights to real estate to regions and local administrations.In addition, supervisory functions in the field of civil defence and protection of the population in emergency situations have also been transferred to regions.Kozak stressed that the transfer of powers “should be finished as quickly as possible” in order to determine the structure and composition of the government by next May, depending on which functions will be retained by the federal authorities and which will be delegated to regions.Proposals concerning redistribution of powers between the federal and regional authorities will necessitate changes in inter-budgetary relations, Federation Council Chairman Valentina Matviyenko said earlier.President Dmitry Medvedev instructed the Federation Council to study the question of distributing power between the federal, regional and municipal authorities.“We will not be guided by the ‘take as much power as you want’ principle. What is important is to redistribute powers to those levels of government where they will be exercised mote effectively. And this means a transfer of some powers to the federal level and vice versa from the federal to the regional and municipal levels,” Matviyenko said.“A hasty transfer of powers to the municipal level, including those in the field of healthcare, resulted in a situation where these powers were not exercised for lack of funding,” she recalled.“All powers must be backed up by permanent sources of funding, and the proposals to be worked out will necessitate changes in inter-budgetary relations,” the speaker said.“Unfortunately, inter-budgetary relations today to not motivate regions to expand their tax bases and increase budget revenues, as they often depend on the ability of a certain leader to push its course through. It must not be like this. There must be a single method that takes into account specific features of regions,” Matviyenko said.The transfer of some of the budget powers to regions and municipalities will reduce the share of the federal budget by 0.5-1 trillion roubles, Russian presidential aide Arkady Dvorkovich said earlier.“The idea is to make the decision, based on the experience of the last three years, to transfer a part of powers to lower levels of the budget system and transfer tax revenues to the same levels as well,” the aide said.“In this case the share of the federal budget will decrease, I think, by about 5 percentage points, which means about half a trillion roubles. These are large amounts, not just some token changes,” Dvorkovich said.In the his message on the budget policy in 2012-2014, Medvedev said redistribution of budget powers between federal, regional and local authorities would be an important stimulus for economic growth in Russia.“The questions of achieving sustainable rates of economic growth, economic modernisation and targeted aid to the population cannot be solved without the participation of Russian regions and municipalities,” the president said.“Regional and local authorities should have more possibilities to influence the investment climate and solve social questions. But they need a strong financial basis for that. Proposals should be drafted by December 1, 2011 on how decentralise the powers, including in the tax and inter-budgetary ones, between the federal, regional and local levels of government,” Medvedev said.17 November 2011, 11:19St. Pete legislature almost unanimously votes on fines for homosexuality propaganda. Petesrburg, November 17, Interfax - The legislative assembly of St. Petersburg passed in the first reading a bill introducing civil liability for the propaganda of homosexuality and pedophilia among minors, an Interfax correspondent reports.Presenting the bill its author Vitaly Milonov attributed the need for it to the fact that "children should be protected from destructive information."He said that "the wave of popularity of sexual perversions" is sweeping over St. Petersburg.The bill provoked a stormy debate. Yelena Babich, Liberal Democrat, was shocked that the bill provides for moderate punishment for such actions. In her opinion, "covert propaganda [of homosexuality and pedophilia] is conducted throughout the city," she said.To prove her point she said that during the celebration of City Day, the streets of St. Petersburg are decorated with pictures of Peter the Great and the rainbow which is a symbol of the world gay community."What does a penalty of 1,000 or 3,000 rubles ($33-100 - IF) mean for a pedophile, if they are supported by international circles?" she lamented. In her opinion, the fines for such offenses should be quite tangible and personal punishment in some cases can imply severe prison terms.Deputies adopted the bill almost unanimously - 37 voted for it, one against and one abstained.The bill introduces a penalty for the propaganda of homosexuality for private individuals at 1,000 to 3,000 rubles, for officials at 3,000 to 5,000 rubles, for legal entities at 10,000 to 50,000 rubles. The bill will supplement the city code of civil offenses.Suspect in murder of Russia's top female entrepreneur held 17/11/2011MOSCOW, November 17 (RIA Novosti) - The suspected killer of Russia’s chief female entrepreneur has been detained, police said on Thursday. Tatyana Milyutina, president of the Russian Association of Women Entrepreneurs, was found dead at her home in Moscow in July. Police believe she was killed with a blunt instrument.The 36-year-old man, whose name was not given, confessed to the murder, which he said was ordered by the association’s then vice-president, Lyudmila Kachalova.Kachalova is now the body’s president.?PRESS DIGEST - Russia - Nov 17 GMTMOSCOW, Nov 17 (Reuters) - The following are some of the leading stories in Russia's newspapers on Thursday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. VEDOMOSTI vedomosti.ru - Russia's Tula region is advertising a new discount programme for pensioners that uses images similar to those in ruling United Russia party's campaign, the paper says. - Russian energy giant Gazprom and its subsidiaries had a record investment programme of 1.6 trillion roubles ($52,1 billion) this year, the paper says. KOMMERSANT kommersant.ru - Russia's Central Election Commission has urged ultra-nationalist LDPR party to refrain from nationalist and xenophobic campaigning, the paper writes. - Russian users of Facebook will be able to legally listen to music using Yandex music application, the paper writes. - Mobile phone sales in Russia doubled to reach 10.5 million roubles ($340,000) from January to September this year compared to the same period of last year, the daily reports. ($1 = 30.691 Russian Roubles) (Writing by Ludmila Danilova) Russian Press at a Glance, Thursday, November 17, 2011 17/11/2011POLITICSLeaders of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party discussed the idea to create the Eurasian Union. The Union would have a single language, currency, Central Bank and justice system(Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Kommersant, Izvestia, Vedomosti)The standing Russia-EU partnership council will convene in Moscow on Thursday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton attending. The participants will discuss a list of measures needed to introduce visa-free regime between Russia and the European Union(Kommersant)The Senate’s consideration of the White House’s nominee for ambassador to Moscow Michael McFaul was delayed(The Moscow Times, Rossiiskaya Gazeta)At a meeting in Morocco the Arab League confirmed its decision to suspend Syria’s membership. It also called on its members to impose economic sanctions against Bashar al-Assad’s regime and recall ambassadors from Damascus(Nezavisimaya Gazeta)The Central Election Commission advised Russia’s nationalist Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) to “abstain” from “xenophobic and nationalist” statements during the election campaign. The party said it had no plans to remove nationalist rhetoric from its campaign agenda(Kommersant)?ECONOMYGerman business executives sought to improve their chances at Russian tenders and welcomed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's intention to run for president again as they met with him on Wednesday. This was the first of the annual meetings to take place since Germany ceded the rank of Russia's biggest trade partner to China last year.(The Moscow Times, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Moskovskie Novosti)?METALS & MININGOne of Russia’s largest coal producers, the Kemerovo-based Raspadskaya, announced a buyback of 78.1 million shares, or 10 percent of its stock, at 150 rubles ($4.86) apiece, or about $380 million total(The Moscow Times, Kommersant, Izvestia, Vedomosti)?OIL & GASRussia and Ukraine have yet to finalize a new agreement on the price Ukraine pays for gas, spokesmen for the Russian government and export monopoly Gazprom said after a report from Kiev that a deal had been reached.(The Moscow Times, Nezavisimaya Gazeta)Russia, on the brink of joining the World Trade Organization, is considering challenging EU energy rules that would limit gas export monopoly Gazprom's control over its European pipeline assets, a government source said(The Moscow Times, Rossiiskaya Gazeta)?VEHICLES & ENGINEERINGSberbank, the largest lender of Russian carmaker GAZ Group, opposed the company’s request to receive a 38-billion-ruble loan from another major Russian bank, VTB(Kommersant)TELECOMS & ITRussian Yandex and Zvooq portals have launched applications for Russian Facebook users, allowing them to legally listen to music online(Kommersant, Vedomosti)Russia has become Europe's biggest market by number of Internet users, overtaking the region's leading economies Germany and France - an encouraging milestone for the biggest market players, but largely seen as natural due to the size of the country's population.(The Moscow Times, Vedomosti)?SOCIETYA pro-Russian Chechen poet was gunned down, possibly by the same gunman who shot dead Colonel Yury Budanov, a veteran of the Chechen campaign and convicted war criminal(The Moscow Times, Kommersant, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Moskovskie Novosti, Izvestia)In a throwback to Soviet times, St. Petersburg legislators have tentatively approved a bill that would impose fines on gays or lesbians who openly profess their sexual orientation. (The Moscow Times, Nezavisimaya Gazeta)Andrei Bykov will be the first suspect to go on trial in connection with the mass murder of 12 people, including eight adults and four children, in the village of Kushchevskaya in the southern Krasnodar region. (Kommersant, Rossiiskaya Gazeta)For more details on all the news in Russia today, visit our website at en.rian.ruA killer does not change his style: 17 November, 2011, 08:40Edited: 17 November, 2011, 08:47 Vladimir BogdanovFamous Chechen poet and community leader, and Deputy Provost of the Modern Humanities Academy Ruslan Akhtakhanov, was killed late Tuesday night. His body, with several gunshot wounds, was discovered near his home on Begovaya Street.Investigation Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin told Rossiyskaya Gazeta (RG) that, based on the official version, Akhtakhanov’s murder is being treated as a contract killing.“The killer shot the victim in the leg and the head. This method of murder, when, after wounding the victim, the killer fires another ‘confirmation shot’ into the head, is typical of a contract killing. A criminal case has been filed under two articles of the Criminal Code – murder and illegal arms trafficking,” said Markin.According to Markin, the murder was committed with great audacity, in a well-lit area of the street, immediately next to the Third Transport Ring. Officially, the victim was registered in Lytkarino, outside of Moscow.After the attack, the killer got into a Ford Focus, where he was awaited by his accomplice, and fled. The vehicle was found burnt out on Kanatchikov Lane, in the south of Moscow. The fire was so intense that it needed to be extinguished with special foam.Inside the car, investigators recovered the alleged murder weapon – an Izh-71 traumatic pistol with a silencer, converted into a combat pistol. Later, medical experts discovered five gunshot wounds on Akhtakhanov’s body.The fact that the murder was carefully premeditated is also supported by the evidence that the poet was shot in a “blind zone”: an area near the building that is not under video surveillance.[RG’s] law enforcement source does not exclude the possibility that Akhtakhanov’s murder was ordered by members of the North Caucasian criminal underground. He is known to have been captured and held hostage for 47 days during a counterterrorism operation in Chechnya.Akhtakhanov was an avid advocate of keeping the Chechen Republic an integral part of Russia and a supporter of not only religious, but also secular development of the republic. This dissatisfied Chechnya’s radical criminal gangs. Some media sources reported that Akhtakhanov could have been murdered out of personal revenge. But operatives have not been able to confirm this version.Investigators are not excluding the possibility that the same individuals responsible for organizing the killing of Col. Yury Budanov were involved in the murder of the Chechen poet. The signature style of Akhtakhanov’s killers closely resembles that of Budanov’s assassins: the attack took place on a well-lit busy street, the victim sustained several gunshots, including into the head.The manner in which the criminals fled the scene, subsequently destroying the vehicle, is also similar. In both cases, the same type of murder weapon was used, and the license plates on the getaway cars had been earlier stolen from vehicles of the same brand.According to our source from the Investigation Committee, this possibility is currently being actively pursued by the investigators.Yesterday, an airplane carrying Ruslan Akhtakhanov’s body departed for Chechnya. According to the Muslim tradition, he was buried in his home town – in the Cossack village of Znamenskaya, located in the republic’s Nadterechny District.DossierAkhtakhanov was a prominent cultural figure and member of the Writers’ Union of Russia. He was the deputy provost and general director of development at the Modern Humanities Academy. Akhtakhanov was an honorary worker of higher professional education of Russia. He became member of the Writers’ Union in 2009, after the publication of the poetry collection “I’m proud of Chechnya, which gave the world heroes”. By that time, he had written and published seven books. In November 2009, Akhtakhanov received the Artyom Borovik Prize for his firm internationalist position in life and work.The North Caucasus 17 November 2011 05:03 GMT | 6:03 Local Timeby Cem Oguz, head of the Turkish Center for Strategic and International Studies.In the second half of the 1990’s, it had already become obvious that ethnicity wouldn’t be the trigger for the disintegration of the Russian Federation. The Chechen case excluded, the separatist and nationalist trends in Russia, assumed to be leading to the fragmentation of the federal structure, gradually lost much of their momentum. The basic reason behind this astonishing evolution is the fact that eventually ethnic republics’ push for more sovereignty began to revolve around economic considerations. Their ambitious national aspirations served as a useful tool in an ongoing bargaining game over more economic concessions, such as lower taxes or higher federal subsidies. Once achieved through bilateral treaties, the content of which varied from one ethnic republic or region to the other, their main concern has become to maintain their relatively privileged status, particularly vis-a-vis Vladimir Putin’s attempts at creating a more centralized government, universal economic system, as well as set of fiscal rules. Accordingly, their living standards have drastically increased, minimizing the risk of potential unrest. By 1999, for instance, the per capita incomes of Tatarstan, Bashkortostan or Sakha were above the national average. Additionally, due to the Soviet legacy of heavy central planning, once-secessionist republics such as Tatarstan has become economically integrated with the federal government and many regions, because at present their industry is fully dependant on the supply of raw materials or industrial products from other parts of Russia.? While in most parts of Russia separatism has been replaced gradually by economic regionalism, the situation in the North Caucasus was completely different. The inevitable result of political and social instability in the North Caucasus, intensified by economic stagnation, has been a severe blow to regional economies, with serious political repercussions among the ordinary people. Living standards worsened dramatically, while income inequality with other regions of Russia frequently increased. Unemployment became a serious problem. In Dagestan, for instance, the unemployment rate was only 1.57 percent in 1992, but at present it is estimated to have reached almost 80 percent. In terms of industrial output and gross domestic product (GDP), the North Caucasus is classified as one of the least developed regions within the Russian Federation. The North Caucasian republics are at the top of Russia’s regions in terms of the level of federal subsidies they receive from Moscow. Thus, economic integration with the federal government in the North Caucasus amounts to fragile dependency on Moscow, even in terms of basic goods. These desperate economic conditions led to the increasing role of foreign influence. For instance, even though the numbers of Wahhabis is insignificant, their influence on the political process in the region, in Dagestan in particular, has been growing in importance.???????? Rather than ideological or ethnic issues, the most destabilizing factor in the region was the territorial disputes as a consequence of deportations of four of the North Caucasian nationalities during 1943-44 (namely, the Chechen, Ingush, Karachay and Balkars). Deportations have created a rift between repressed and non-repressed peoples and were anchored in the emotional consequences. The Chechens, for instance, did not forgive the “occupation” of Khasavyurt, a region which following the deportation of the Chechens in February 1944 was annexed to Dagestan. A similar attitude is to be seen among the Karachay and Balkar deportees towards their Muslim neighbors the Kabardians and Circassians (Cherkes) who, after their deportation, were resettled on their ancestral lands. The boundaries drawn arbitrarily by the Stalinist regime have been the most crucial factor precluding negotiated adjustments in the post-Soviet era, since territorial units were broken up in such a way as to ensure the improbability of their resurrection in their original form. More importantly, socio-economic tensions emanating from conflicts about the distribution of power and economic resources between the neighboring peoples, which were particularly acute in Kabardino-Balkaria and Dagestan, has made the situation more complex. Indeed, the prospects for instability have lost momentum, but this does not at all mean that they have been completely eliminated. Instead, there are frozen disputes or conflicts. The situation in the North Caucasus will continue to be the most turbulent issue during Putin’s next term in office. C. Cem Oguz ccem@bilkent.edu.trHopes a Russian passport will protect them from Kosovan Muslims and EU: 17 November, 2011, 08:56Edited: 17 November, 2011, 09:02 Sergey SemushkinHaving lost trust in international missions and the KFOR, Kosovan Serbs have turned to Russia. Twenty-one thousand Serbs, whose homeland was basically stolen by the European Union, turned to the State Duma with a request to be granted Russian citizenship.The collective appeal has already been received by Russia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, and will soon be reviewed by MPs. The Serbs are not denying the fact that their petition is an act of desperation. The West continues to demonstratively turn a blind eye to their problems and, in settlement of inter-ethnic disputes, the so-called blue helmets, intended to protect them from attacks by Kosovar Albanians, constantly side with the Kosovans; meanwhile, thousands of Serbs have been killed since the peacekeepers’ arrival to the area. Neither is Belgrade getting involved in the situation, in preference of avoiding confrontation with the European Union (due to Serbia’s aspirations of becoming an EU member). According to the leaders of the Kosovan Serbs, only by becoming citizens of the Russian Federation will they be protected.One of the first people to support the petition was Russia’s Permanent Representative to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin. While speaking at a State Duma round-table discussion yesterday, he drew attention to the fact that settlement of this issue will make it clear both to Russians, as well as citizens of other countries, that “we are worth something.”“Today, Russia is becoming the last hope for people who were confined to the Kosovo-Albanian prison,” said Rogozin. “We have so many abandoned villages, towns, so much territory that needs to be developed. Are we really unable to accept 20,000 people, give them citizenship and include them, not in the immigration program, but the repatriation program, while seeing the Kosovan Serbs as our brothers?”Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov also urged to realize the Serbs’ aspirations.“I think that we should closely look at the appeal of the Kosovan Serbs,” said Zyuganov. “Moreover, I believe that we need to satisfy this request; and if this issue is carried over for consideration, our faction will support the Serbs…they are close to us linguistically, in spirit, and culture, and if they are asking for help and want to become citizens of our country, we must lend them a hand.”Meanwhile, the appeal has not yet reached elected officials.“This petition has not yet been received here, or by the Foreign Affairs Committee,” Evgeny Fedorov, head of the parliamentary group for relations with the parliament of the Republic of Serbia, told Komsomolskaya Pravda (KP). “The State Duma does not issue passports. That’s not within our competence. But because it is a serious level of complaint, we will invite specialists, develop our position, and send it to be put into effect. There is a procedure that must be followed when applying for citizenship, and any person who completes it, has the right to receive citizenship. If this is done as an exception, then the decision must be made by the president.“Today, there are many people, who are trying to get into Russia. A large number of people arrived from America, who settled in the Far East, many people are coming from Europe. As for the Serbs, we don’t know whether or not they are planning to move here. Though, I recently visited the Rostov Region, where residents were happy to welcome them. But I can guarantee that a decision involving all petitioners will not be made – decisions will be made for each person individually,” Fedorov said.“It has never before happened that a large group of foreign nationals have taken Russian citizenship and, at the same time, continued living abroad,” member of the State Duma Security Committee Aleksandr Gurov told KP. “Most likely, this will be impossible. But imagine if we gave them all passports. Russia would be obliged to constantly protect them! What should we do, deploy our troops there? Just imagine what our country would be dragged into once again? Yes, providing assistance is necessary: on the international and humanitarian levels…but making such steps… It will be like in the song of the Semenov regiment: ‘I’m the protector of the Motherland, but my back is always beaten’.”A call to BelgradeDeyan Mirovich, member of the opposition in the Serbian parliament believes it is a means by which to shame one’s government.“This is an initiative of the Kosovar Serbs, living on their land in enclaves. They are not seeing any support from the Serbian authorities and believe that the government in Belgrade is nothing more than a tool of the West. This is especially true after [President of the Republic of Serbia] Tadic urged Kosovo’s Serbs to disarm and dismantle their barricades. The most horrible thing is the fact that the opposition deputies have no effect on the government policy. Meanwhile, for Serbia, Russia is the most popular country. Your prime minister is the most popular politician in Serbia. That is why the Kosovan Serbs have turned to Russia. But they are not yet ready to move to Russia: Kosovo is their home. These people’s request to give them Russian citizenship is a way to draw attention themselves, to warn and shame the Serbian government,” Mirovich says.Russia: Student's Hidden Camera Reveals Illegal Electioneering in School By Alexey Sidorenko On 16 November 2011 @ 22:06 pm In Breaking News,Citizen Media,Digital Activism,Eastern & Central Europe,Education,English,Freedom of Speech,Governance,Law,Media & Journalism,Politics,RuNet Echo,Russia,Russian,Technology & Internet,Video,Weblog | No CommentsA scandal caused by a hidden camera recording at a school in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia has highlighted a serious problem in Russian schools: teachers agitating for the ruling party United Russia [1].Underpaid and dependent on government funding, teachers are one of the pillars of the current political system. Local and regional elections often take place in schools buildings, and the electoral committees in Russia often consist mainly of teachers. Whether it's from fear of losing funding or belief in United Russia's promises, it often leads to illegal electioneering in schools.One brave student takes on the authoritiesUnited Russia posters in Krasnoyarsk school. Photo by Matvey TsivinyukOn 15 November 2011, 15-year-old Matvey Tsivinyuk, uploaded a video of himself being scolded by the school principal, Alexandra Pronina, at Krasnoyarsk Gymnazium number 3 [3] (the website went offline after massive interest from bloggers). Tsivinyuk had been caught defacing political posters that were hanging in the school hallways. The posters with a Russian tricolor flag in the background bore portraits of Prime minister Vladimir Putin, President Dmitry Medvedev and two local politicians (see photo).?Before meeting the principal, Tsivinyuk turned on the video recorder in his smartphone. The dialogue captured by the device has been widely cited as evidence of unlawful actions from school authorities, and also lends a narrative to explain the support for the current political regime.Later that day, Tsivinyuk removed the video from his own profile but bloggers have not let the video [4] disappear:Here is a translation of what is said:Principal: Do you know what this means for you?Tsivinyuk: It means nothing to me because, according to the point 5 of the article 9 of the Law on Political parties… [Matvey correctly cites the law [5] that forbids interference of the political process in education]Principal: Enough, enough, Matvey.?There's no article number 9, number 10, they [the police] will write that you damaged the poster. […] Does your family have lots of money to pay for the fine for the damage?Tsivinyuk: A fine for the piece of paper?Principal [screaming]: For the hooliganism! You understand it's not just a paper, it's a political poster!Tsivinyuk: It can't be in school. Because the activity of political parties on the territory of schools is forbidden.Principal: You understand, it's not agitation.Tsivinyuk: So what is it then?Principal: It is not agitation. People put it there so that everyone could read the biographies [of Medvedev, Putin, and local politicians]. From now on I forbid you to do anything to these posters. You've spoiled several posters. If you will spoil more, I will call the police.Tsivinyuk: And what will they do to me?Principal: I don't know. […] But I have warned you. […]Then the principal compared Tsivinyuk to Lenin, and reminded him of Lenin's expulsion from his school and the university. After a digression about Tsivinyuk's religious beliefs (he's an Orthodox Christian) the Principal exclaimed:Principal: How can a Christian person perform such non-Christian actions? [speaking of defacing a political poster]Tsivinyuk: Political views and religious views are different spheres of life.Principal [screaming]: If you don't understand this, let's meet with your leader [of the Orthodox Christian group Tsivinyuk belongs to]Tsivinuyk: He has nothing to do with this.Principal [screaming]: How is that? For example, I think that no one is teaching you this in school. No one teaches you in school how to do such nasty things, to write bad things on posters. Where and who teaches you then? Where did you get this into your head? We should find the place where you were taught this. […] Once again, the minimum is a fine.Tsivinyuk: For what?Principal: You still don't understand?Tsivinyuk: Well, tell me the article number of the administrative code I have violated.The principal did not explain to Tsivinyuk why the defacement of illegally hung political posters would be cause for administrative or police charges.The case may have never reached the public had it not been for Moscow blogger and journalist Vladimir Varfolomeev who published [6] [ru]?the story in his blog (the post attracted more than 2,000 comments). Siberian and federal websites quickly re-published the story.Vice-governor of Krasnoyarsk, Sergey Ponomarenko, said [7] [ru] that Tsivinyuk's actions were “mean” and this attracted critical comments from bloggers who said United Russia and Ponomarenko himself were the “mean” ones.By the end of the day, Tsivinyuk removed his video (there is no information regarding what pressure was put on him). On his Vkontakte page (Russian equivalent to Facebook) he wrote:Я?не?сдался, но?я?больше не?занимаюсь политикой. Надеюсь, вы?меня правильно поймёте, не лезьте в?дерьмо, думайте о?будущем, берегите друзей.I haven't given up, but I'm not in to politics anymore. I hope you get me right, don't get into this crap, think of the future, take care of your friends.There have been many incidents of this nature leading up to the Russian election in March 2012. Kartanarusheniy.ru [8], a website that crowd-sources reports of electoral fraud, currently lists 737 cases of “Authorities creating preferential conditions [for candidates]”. And last year, a?video [9] [ru]?on YouTube showed teachers in one school giving first-graders gifts while talking about how great United Russia is.The dialogue between the hysterical principal versus the calm, tech-savvy Tsivinyuk who knows the law, represents a huge generational gap, and a hope that the obscurity and ignorance (for instance assuming that all knowledge comes from school) can be exposed and defeated.Update: Vladimir Varfolomeev reports that Tsivinyuk's mother was called to the police. The police so far hasn't explained the reason of the call.Russia’s environmental safeguards for the Arctic. Part II: Arctic: strategies for the future (9 documents)Nov 17, 2011 10:53 Moscow TimeIn 2010 the Gulf of Mexico oil spill prompted Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to put forward a raft of proposals covering insurance against a huge assortment of risks in case of a repeat of such a catastrophe in the future.In an interview with the Wall Street Journal last year, President Medvedev said that there was no global international legal mechanism for dealing with the aftermaths of huge disasters like the one in the Gulf of Mexico. According to the Russian president, it is impossible to deal with the topic at the moment, because there is no technical solution for it. Second, the question arises as to who is going to pay compensation for losses and will the body formally vested with the task have enough assets to do so? If there is not enough money, then who is going to be liable? Here is where the question of insurance against these kinds of risks becomes important.Speaking at the G-20 summit in Toronto in June 2010, Medvedev called for the creation of a slew of international regulatory mechanisms and relevant financial instruments to support shelf oil and gas field development. Sadly, a working group which was to elaborate on the corresponding international legal mechanisms was never created.During his annual address to the Russian Federal Assembly in November 2010, President Medvedev said that the ecology must be considered during assessments of the authorities’ activities and in a separate development at the time, a State Council session saw the discussion of the government’s dealing with environmental protection and that of marine bio-resources. The session approved a new state strategy on what was called the “ecologization” of the Russian economy.BP poured about 11 billion dollars into trying to deal with the aftermath of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and paid 30 billion dollars more to victims of the spill and to compensate them for their losses.?Since the BP oil spill Moscow announced that the Russian shelf will only be open to development by entities which are able to compensate for any possible damage done to the environment or for losses arising from such.An array of government-endorsed amendments to federal law on the Continental Shelf of the Russian Federation aim to protect Russia from catastrophes like the one in the Gulf of Mexico. The amendments are also of great significance to the upcoming development of hydrocarbon fields in the Arctic.Exploration and research companies have to meet a number of requirements which are stipulated by the amendments to the law on the continental shelf, with the Gulf of Mexico disaster turning out to be a powerful impetus for countries to reconsider their shelf development legislation.Ecologically, the Arctic is a very vulnerable region, experts say, and are urging the minimization of projects and activities which cause environmental risks as soon as possible.? Experts say we must tread carefully when implementing full-scale development in the Arctic region, an issue likely to come to the fore in the immediate future.Russia’s environmental safeguards for the Arctic. Part III: Arctic: strategies for the future (9 documents)Nov 17, 2011 10:54 Moscow TimeThe Voice of Russian spoke to the Director-General of the National Energy Security Foundation Konstantin Simonov on the prospects for Arctic development and the Northern Sea Route and the ecological risks involved in Arctic gas production.To begin with Konstantin Simonov feels that any project involving the production of hydrocarbons, above all in such ecologically vulnerable areas as the Arctic, will certainly entail a high level of environmental risk. The expert believes that the risks should not stop new projects and that this has not been a danger, citing the fact Arctic projects have already become reality and are being carried out.Canada and the United States have been carrying out mineral resource acquisition in the region for quite some time and Norway produces liquefied gas at its Snow Maiden facility in the Arctic. The Russian Federation is now considering the development of the Shtokman gas deposit in the Arctic and weighing oil and gas production projects in the Kara Sea. The Arctic projects have been initiated for the sole reason that the world is running out of easy-of-access fields and humanity will soon have to start producing hydrocarbons in complex geological conditions.If fuel is to be produced in the Arctic stringent environmental safety requirements must be met in order to prevent a disaster such as those that have been suffered by many oil companies worldwide. Fortunately no such disaster has ever occurred in Russia.Russia is meeting its ecology-related obligations in the Arctic and the far North. Among the many things that Russia is doing is its program to remove Soviet era waste from the Arctic. Russia has also proposed co-insuring global eco-risks and is looking at all sorts of solutions that will help minimize environmental risks to the Arctic.Global warming has opened up the possibility of new transport corridors that until now would have been impossible to consider, including the Northern Sea Route. An enormous advantage of the Northern Sea Route is that it makes it possible to largely reduce the delivery period for goods, for example, from China to Europe and vice versa. The route from Europe to Asia or from Asia to Europe over the new route is extremely cost-effective as travel time has been cut by days.Several major projects to produce hydrocarbons are about to be launched in the Arctic, so it clearly stands to reason that liquefied cargo carriers will be used to deliver oil and gas to Asian markets where demand is growing due to a refusal to use nuclear energy and rapid economic growth.Konstantin Simonov feels that, technology-wise, the development of the Arctic is something that will require technology on the same scale as that needed for space exploration and this is not an exaggeration. An example of the an extreme situation is in the prospecting of minerals on the Arctic seabed where temperatures can easily drop to 40 degrees or more below zero and which call for using machinery that is reminiscent of moon rovers.There has also arisen the need to decide on one of two competing concepts to produce fuel. One is by using drilling rigs and the other by underwater production techniques. A drilling rig is already operating, namely the? Razlomnaya Project, which will be implemented using a platform which is more than 120 metres high and will be able to resist 12 to 13-metre high waves.Ways are being thought up to deliver liquefied natural gas from the gas fields in severe icy conditions. This is a mammoth task as no one has ever transported liquefied natural gas across thousands of miles of ocean ice but something we will come to grips with since there is no way avoiding it according to the General Director of the National Energy Security Foundation Konstantin Simonov.???National Economic Trends07:43?17/11/2011ALL NEWSBudget Committee advises Duma to adopt 2012-2014 budget in 2nd reading, November 17 (Itar-Tass) —— The State Duma Budget and Tax Committee has recommended the lower house of parliament to pass the 2012-2014 budget in the second reading.The draft budget is scheduled to be debated in the second reading on November 18 and in the third reading on November 22.More than 270 amendments were considered when preparing the document for the second reading.Budget revenues in 2012 are projected at 11.78 trillion roubles, budget expenditures at 12.66 trillion roubles, budget deficit at 0.88 trillion roubles.In 2013, budget revenues will be set at 12.71 trillion roubles, expenditures at 13.73 trillion roubles, deficit at 1.02 trillion roubles.In 2014, budget revenues are expected to be 14.09 trillion roubles, expenditures 14.58 trillion roubles, and deficit 0.49 trillion roubles.The government plans to have a deficit-free budget in 2015.All calculation are based on the assumption that the Urals blend in 2012 will cost 100 U.S. dollars per barrel, GDP will be 58.683 trillion roubles and inflation 6 percent.These indicators are projected to be 97 U.S. dollars per barrel, 64.803 trillion roubles and 5.5 percent respectively in 2013, and 101 U.S. dollars per barrel, 72.493 trillion roubles and 5 percent respectively in 2014.The ceiling for the state internal debt has been set at 6.33 trillion roubles as of January 1, 2013; 7.87 trillion roubles as of January 1, 2014; and 9.22 trillion roubles as of January 1, 2015.The ceiling for the state foreign debt has been set at 48.4 billion U.S. dollars or 34.6 billion euros as of January 1, 2013; 59.4 billion U.S. dollars or 42.4 billion euros as of January 1, 2014; and 69 billion U.S. dollars or 49.3 billion euros as of January 1, 2015.In the current year, the Russian budget may have a surplus of 0.1-0.2 percent of GDP this year, the Finance Ministry said.“At any rate, we expect no deficit,” Deputy Finance Minister Tatyana Nesterenko said.She did not provide any data regarding budget implementation in the first ten months of the year, but noted that there was a surplus as well.Earlier, President Dmitry Medvedev signed amendments to the federal budget for 2011 and the projected period of 2012-2013.The amendments were drafted taking into account the results of the budget implementation in January-August 2011 and also on the basis of updated forecasts of socio-economic development of Russia and the expected results of budget implementation in 2011.The amendments approve the key parameters of the budget for the current fiscal year, which increase the projected GDP, federal budget revenues and expenditures, lower the ceiling for the state internal and foreign debts, and envisage a deficit-free budget.The amendments also increase budget appropriations for the fulfilment of public regulatory obligations in 2011, redistribute budget appropriations within the approved amount of expenditures, and specify contributions to the authorised capital of open joint stock companies.At the same time, Russia will not avoid a budget deficit if oil prices continue to fall, the Finance Ministry said in a medium-term forecast presented by acting Finance Minister Anton Siluanov earlier.The draft budget for 2012 is based on the average annual oil price of 100 U.S. dollars per barrel and GDP of 58.683 trillion roubles.Indicators for 2013 are 97 U.S. dollars per barrel and 64.803 trillion roubles. The projected oil price for 2014 is 101 U.S. dollars per barrel, and GDP is 72.493 trillion roubles.If the average annual price falls to 90 U.S. dollars per barrel, the budget deficit in Russia will be 2.5 percent of GDP, and about 5.4 percent of GDP is the oil price is 60 U.S. dollars per barrel.“In this case we will not be able to direct money to the Reserve Fund and will have to use it,” the acting finance minister said, adding that this would make it hard to balance the budget.RTS Futures Rise as Crude’s Gain Buoys Outlook: Russia Overnight 17, 2011, 1:29 AM ESTBy Leon Lazaroff and Halia Pavliva Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Russian stock futures rose as crude surged above $100 a barrel for the first time in five months, while rising U.S. factory production and homebuilder confidence boosted prospects for the world’s largest energy exporter.Futures expiring in December on Moscow’s dollar-denominated RTS index jumped 1.4 percent to 153,325 yesterday as oil prices in New York climbed. The Bloomberg Russia-US 14 Index of Russian companies traded in New York dropped 1.7 percent, the most in a week, to $98.51. Internet search engine operator Yandex NV tumbled to a four-week low on speculation investors are selling shares before a ban on divesting stock bought in an initial public offering expires next week.Russia benefits from rising oil, which along with natural gas sales makes up about 17 percent of the $1.5 trillion economy and provides as much as 40 percent of government revenue. Reports showing U.S. industrial production advanced more than economists expected in October and homebuilder confidence gained this month to the highest level since May 2010 supported the outlook for the world’s biggest economy and for natural resources demand around the world.“Crude higher is positive but because investors don’t know how the Europe situation is going to be resolved, and where global growth is headed, they remain quite cautious on Russian equities,” said Chris Osborne, chief executive officer of Troika Dialog USA, a unit of Russia’s oldest investment bank, said in a phone interview in New York yesterday.Urals CrudeCrude for December delivery jumped 3.2 percent to $102.59 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest settlement price since May 31. Brent oil for January delivery dropped 0.3 percent to $111.88 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European contract’s premium to West Texas crude narrowed to $9.28 a barrel, the smallest gap since March 8. The spread widened to a record of $27.88 on Oct. 14.Urals crude, Russia’s chief export oil blend, slipped 1.7 percent to $110.80. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index retreated 1.7 percent to 1,236.91, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.6 percent to 11,905.59 as Fitch Ratings said further contagion from Europe’s debt crisis will pose a risk to American banks.The Hague, Netherlands-based Yandex fell 5.2 percent to $23.51, the lowest level since Oct. 10 and leading decliners on the Bloomberg Russia-US 14 Index. Yandex filed for an initial public offering on April 28, and its 180-day lock up on the sale of shares bought by Baring Vostok Capital Partners and Tiger Global Management LLC expires on Nov. 21, according to a regulatory filing.‘Stock Volatility’“The upcoming expiration of the lock up increases Yandex’s stock volatility,” Konstantin Belov, a media analyst at UralSib Financial Corp. in Moscow, said in a phone interview yesterday.OAO Mechel, Russia’s largest coal producer for steelmakers, fell 4.9 percent to $11.35 in New York trading. Mechel’s American depositary receipts have lost 14 percent this month. The company’s shares in Moscow lost 3.8 percent to 365.10 rubles, or the equivalent of $11.85.OAO GMK Norilsk Nickel’s ADRs dropped 3.8 percent to $16.25, the lowest price since Sept. 23, after shares of the world’s largest nickel producer dropped 4.2 percent on Moscow’s Micex index to 5,055 rubles, or $164.25. One Norilsk ADR represents one-tenth of an ordinary share. The Standard & Poor’s GSCI index of 24 raw materials rose 0.9 percent to 672.89 yesterday, the highest level since Aug. 31.‘Hit Twice’“When people get rid of risky assets they sell both Russia and commodities, so Russian commodities-related stocks get hit twice as much,” Maxim Matveev, an analyst at ING Bank in Moscow, said by phone.Russian stocks may fall as looming end-of-year tax payments sap free cash from the market, according to Rye, Man and Gor Securities in Moscow.“Liquidity squeeze and capital flight add pressure on the market,” Vladimir Aleksandrov, a trader at Rye, Man and Gor in Moscow, said in a phone interview. “It’s very volatile. We expect declines in blue chip prices in the near future.”Russia’s three-month MosPrime interbank rate, the cost banks say they are charging to lend to one another, rose to 6.86 percent yesterday, the highest level since December 2009. The shortage of cash on the Russian market may intensify through December as companies and banks face tax deadlines, Natalia Orlova, chief strategist at Alfa Bank in Moscow, said in a phone interview.Cheapest IndexCompanies need to pay about 1.29 trillion rubles ($42 billion) of taxes through to the end of 2011, according to Alfa. Capital flight from Russia may double this year to a net $70 billion, according to the central bank’s estimates.Russia’s benchmark Micex index, which trades at 5.3 times analysts’ earnings estimates for member companies, is the cheapest of the 21 major emerging markets tracked by Bloomberg. The 30-stock index lost 0.3 percent to 1,483.24 yesterday, a one-week low. The RTS Index fell 0.4 percent to 1,527.59.The Micex has lost 12 percent in 2011 compared with a 16 percent slide for Brazil’s Bovespa index, which trades at 10.5 times estimated earnings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Shanghai Composite Index trades at 11.6 times estimated earnings, and the BSE India Sensitive Index has a ratio of 14.5.The Market Vectors Russia ETF, a U.S.-traded fund that holds Russian shares, fell for the second time in three days, losing 2.1 percent to $29.86, while the Bank of New York Mellon Russia ADR Index dropped 1.6 percent to 728.69.The RTS Volatility Index, which measures expected swings in the index futures, slipped for a second day, falling 1.6 percent to 46.22 points.--With assistance from Ksenia Galouchko in New York. Editors: Emma O’Brien, Marie-France HanTo contact the reporters on this story: Leon Lazaroff in New York at llazaroff@; Halia Pavliva in New York at hpavliva@To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Papadopoulos at papadopoulos@Russian Central Banker Doesn't See Strong External Shocks To Economy -(Dow Jones)- Russia isn't likely to be directly effected by the euro zone sovereign debt crisis, but faces a period of slower growth as a result of economic problems abroad, the central bank's deputy chairman Sergei Shvetsov said Thursday."I don't see any external shocks to the Russian economy, but this (European) crisis will be a long one, and it's not realistic to think we will return to the growth rates of the first decade of this century," Shvetsov said at an investment forum."Growth will be slower, inflation lower, and the Russian economy will have to adapt," Shvetsov said.Russia expects its economy to grow by 4.1% in 2011 and 3.7% in 2012. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin hopes to speed that growth up to 6% to 7% in the long term.The central bank expects inflation at 7% or below this year, the lowest reading since Soviet times. -By Ira Iosebashvili, Dow Jones Newswires; +7 495 232-9192, ira.iosebashvili@ --Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen in Moscow contributed to this report. Loan rates unlikely to go up in 2012 , 17.11.2011, Moscow 11:00:05.Loan interest rates are unlikely to increase in 2012, Central Bank of Russia (CBR) First Deputy Chairman Alexey Ulyukaev told reporters.??????"I do not think loan interest rates will go up any further, I expect them to go down," he said, adding that in the short-term the rates may increase, but during 2012 as a whole they are more likely to decrease.??????Addressing the liquidity shortage in the banking sector, Ulyukaev noted that CBR may provide up to RUB 2 trillion (approx. USD 65bn) through repo transactions. CBR: capital outflow to slow down in November , 17.11.2011, Moscow 10:36:13.Capital outflow from Russia amounted to $13bn in October 2011, Alexey Ulyukaev, First Deputy Chairman of the Bank of Russia (CBR), told reporters. "In line with this trend, capital outflow will be even lower in November," he said.??????In September 2011, net capital outflow totaled $13bn as well. According to preliminary data, net private capital outflow from Russia rose threefold year-on-year in the first nine months of 2011 to $49.3bn, up from $16bn.??????In early November, CBR revised upward its capital outflow forecast for 2011 from $36bn to $70bn. Russian Central Bank Reserves Fall $1.8 Billion In Week To Nov 11 -(Dow Jones)- Russia's gold and foreign-exchange reserves fell by $1.8 billion to $516.0 billion in the week ending Nov. 11, the central bank said Thursday.The reserves fell for the second week, as the Bank of Russia sold foreign currency to defend the ruble.The central bank cut its end-2011 forex reserve forecast to $495 billion from a forecast of $515 billion earlier this month.Russia holds the world's third-largest gold and foreign-exchange reserves, after China and Japan. The table below shows Russia's foreign reserves in billions of dollars.Nov 11$516.0Nov 4$517.8Oct 28$522.0Oct 21$514.6Oct 14$517.7Oct 7$510.4Sep 30$516.8Sep 23$526.0Sep 16$532.0Sep 9$538.8Sep 2$543.4Aug 26$541.8Aug 19$544.0Aug 12$540.2Aug 5$537.7July 29$535July 22 $530.9July 15$528.5July 8$526.1July 1$526.7June 24$524.3June 17$520.3June 10$528June 3$522.8May 27$518.3May 20$516.8May 13$514.4May 6$524.7April 29$523.9April 22$517.9April 15$512.8April 8$508.4April 1$504.5March 25$504.0March 18$500.0March 11$497.3March 4$497.2Feb 25$492.2Feb 18$487.4Feb 11$486.1Feb 4$487.0Jan 28$484.7Jan 21$482.0Jan 14$477.5Jan 7$480.7End 2010 $479.4End 2009 $440.6End 2008 $427.1End 2007 $478.8End 2006 $303.7End 2005 $182.2End 2004 $124.5End 2003 $76.9End 2002 $47.8End 2001 $36.6End 2000 $28.0-By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, Dow Jones Newswires; +7 495 232-9197, jacob.pedersen@ (END) Dow Jones Newswires 11-17-110129ET Copyright (c) 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.Russia’s Krasnodar Region Has Record Rice Crop of 940,000 Tons Marina Sysoyeva - Nov 17, 2011 8:12 AM GMT+0100 Russia’s southern Krasnodar region had a record rice crop of 940,000 metric tons this year, the regional administration said. This is about 40,000 tons more than a year earlier, the government said on its website yesterday. The Krasnoarmeisky district had the highest average yield of 7.3 tons from each hectare (2.47 acres), it said. Krasnodar’s total grains crop was 11.5 million tons, Alexander Tkachev, the region’s governor, said in the statement. To contact the reporter on this story: Marina Sysoyeva in Moscow at msysoyeva@ To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@ Business, Energy or Environmental regulations or discussionsSeverstal CEO Mordashov Says Company Deserved U.S. Vehicle Loan Jeff Plungis and Sonja Elmquist - Nov 17, 2011 2:04 AM GMT+0100 OAO Severstal, Russia’s second- largest steelmaker, met all criteria for getting a U.S. advanced-vehicle development loan criticized by some members of Congress, Chief Executive Officer Alexey Mordashov said. Severstal was on the verge of closing a line at its Dearborn, Michigan, plant in 2009 when it applied for the Energy Department loan, Mordashov said in an interview at Severstal’s Columbus, Mississippi, plant, yesterday. The Moscow-based company was the only steelmaker to apply, Mordashov said. “We saw this opportunity, and we believed we fit very well,” Mordashov, who’s ranked by Forbes as Russia’s second- richest person with a fortune of $18.5 billion, said. “We just applied for it and U.S. Steel didn’t. That’s the easiest and most powerful explanation.” Some U.S. lawmakers who increased scrutiny of Energy Department loan programs after the bankruptcy of solar-panel maker Solyndra LLC in September have questioned why a Russian steel company that doesn’t make vehicles or components was approved for a loan from the department’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program. Severstal in July received conditional approval for a $730 million loan over 18 years from the $25 billion fund, a different Energy Department program than the one that gave Solyndra $535 million in loan guarantees. ‘All Parts’ Republican Senators Dan Coats of Indiana and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania on Nov. 7 asked the Energy Department’s inspector general to investigate the Severstal loan. Representative Darrell Issa, a Californian Republican and chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, asked the department Oct. 27 for “answers about the decision-making processes,” saying Severstal didn’t need immediate assistance and that its products aren’t in short supply in the U.S. The loan helped preserve steelmaking jobs at the Michigan plant, enabling it to supply U.S. automakers as they produce more fuel-efficient vehicles, Mordashov said. High-strength steel is a lightweight formulation of the metal used in automotive frames. Advanced high-strength steels are treated to give them greater tensile strength. “To make cars more efficient, it’s necessary to address all parts of the car,” Mordashov said. “We are addressing this with structures made out of steel.” Mordashov spoke after announcing a $550 million expansion of the Mississippi plant, doubling the capacity of a facility that supplies steel to automakers like Bayerische Motoren Werke AG and Daimler AG. Regulators scrutinized Severstal’s application for more than two years, vetting it thoroughly, Mordashov said. Severstal’s financial strength was a prerequisite for the loan, ensuring U.S. taxpayers won’t be on the hook for missed payments, he said. Vehicle Loan Program Under the program, “companies like Nissan and Severstal can set up an American company and apply for a loan to support a project here in the United States,” Damien LaVera, an Energy Department spokesman, said. “This is about creating the innovative clean-tech jobs of tomorrow here in the United States.” Ford Motor Co. (F) is the biggest recipient of loans under the advanced-vehicle program, borrowing $5.91 billion, followed by Nissan Motor Co., which borrowed $1.45 billion. Electric-car producers Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA) and Fisker Automotive Inc. have also received loans. Severstal, which already supplies steel to General Motors Co. (GM) and Ford, plans a cold-rolled steel mill and galvanizing line in Dearborn. It acquired the plant in 2004 as part of its $285.5 billion takeover of bankrupt steel supplier Rouge Industries Inc. Non-U.S. Recipients Under one incentive program created in a 2005 energy bill, companies such as Ormat Technologies, a unit of Yavne, Israel- based Ormat Industries (ORMT) Ltd., are eligible for Energy Department loan guarantees if their projects are located in the U.S., according to the legislation. U.S. units of Seville, Spain-based Abengoa SA have also received loans under the program. The program from which Severstal received its conditional commitment was created in a 2007 energy bill. Mordashov, 46, said in an interview last month that he plans to boost Severstal’s production capacity in the U.S. to 5.2 million metric tons a year, narrowing the gap with competitors U.S. Steel Corp., ArcelorMittal (MT), Nucor Corp. (NUE) and Steel Dynamics Inc. (STLD) To contact the reporters on this story: Jeff Plungis in Washington at jplungis@; Sonja Elmquist in New York at selmquist1@ To contact the editors responsible for this story: Bernard Kohn at bkohn2@; Simon Casey at scasey4@ Russian company increases price of diamonds supplied to Armenia 16, 2011 | 15:16 YEREVAN. - Although international market price of diamonds has fallen by about 20%, the Russian ALROSA company has raised the price of diamonds supplied to Armenia, director of Arevkan diamond company Vardan Andreasyan said at a Wednesday press conference.Nevertheless, the company has not stopped buying raw materials for diamonds from the ALROSA not to disrupt strategic cooperation.“While buying raw materials we knew we would incur losses, but we did it not to stop deliveries in the future,” he said adding that the Russian company sets prices for rough diamonds unilaterally.Director of Lori company Gregory Shahnazaryan also said they had to cut volume of supplies due to rise in prices.Both managers refrained from naming precise price of diamonds, saying it depends on weight, color, degree of damage. For instance, Andreasyan said that a diamond of 0.5 carats was bought for $400, a diamond of 0.75 carats - for $520.Economy Minister Tigran Davtyan also present at the briefing stressed that they are working on diversification of raw material sources.Armenia receives 90% of raw material for diamonds from the Russian ALROSA company.November 17, 2011 11:47High River reduces Q3 gold output 5%. Nov 17 (Interfax) - Canada's High River Gold Mines (HRG), which is controlled by Russia's Severstal (RTS: CHMF) group, reduced gold production 5% quarter-on-quarter to 91,057 oz or 2.8 tonnes in Q3 2011, the company said in a statement.Total gold production decreased 5.0% to 91,057 oz (Q2 2011 - 96,093 oz). Total cash cost per ounce increased 2% to US$720 (Q2 2011 - US$704 per ounce).The Zun-Holba and Irokinda Gold Mines in Russia produced 34,100 oz (Q2 2011 - 33,594) at a total cash cost of US$705 per ounce. Gold production at Berezitovy, also in Russia, was 25,565 ounces (Q2 2011 - 28,746 ounces) (100%) at a total cash cost of US$ 787 per ounce.The Taparko-Bouroum Gold Mine in Burkina Faso produced 31,391 ounces (Q2 2011 - 33,753) at a total cash cost of US$ 681 per ounce.HRG said net gold revenue was $111.5 million, a decrease of 18% from $136.2 million in Q2 2011, an increase of 11% from $100.8 million in Q3 income was $41.3 million ($0.05 per share) compared to a net income of $41.4 million ($0.05 per share) in Q2 2011 and a net income of $24.0 million ($0.03 per share) in Q3 2010. Cash flow from operations was $23.1 million, down from $42.9 million in Q2 2011, and from $26.3 million in Q3 2010. Cash and cash equivalents decreased to $150.0 million from $207.3 million at the end of Q2 2011, and increased from $125.6 million at the end of Q3 2010.Working capital decreased to $296.0 million from $307.2 million at the end of Q2 2011 and increased from $205.3 million at the end of Q3 2010.Current and long term debt decreased to $22.7 million from $24.0 million at the end of Q2 2011 and increased from $22.1 million at the end of Q3 2010. High River is an unhedged gold company with interests in producing mines, development and advanced exploration projects in Russia and Burkina Faso. Two underground mines, Zun-Holba and Irokinda, are situated in the Lake Baikal region of Russia. Two open pit gold mines, Berezitovy in Russia and Taparko-Bouroum in Burkina Faso, are also in production. High River also has a 90% interest in a development project, the Bissa gold project in Burkina Faso, and a 50% interest in an advanced exploration project with NI 43-101 compliant resource estimates, the Prognoz silver project in Russia.Severstal's gold mining unit Nord Gold N.V. on 75.06% of HRG as of the end of August.Pr(Our editorial staff can be reached at eng.editors@interfax.ru) EBRD to provide RUB 1 billion loan to Rosvodokanal Group, 17 Nov 2011Interfax reported that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Russia Rosvodokanal Group signed a second loan agreement on Wednesday for the provision of RUB 1.5 billion to the latter company.Mr Varel Freemen the EBRD first vice president said at an Interfax press conference that this is our second agreement. We will provide a total of RUB 3 billion to Rosvodokanal including the first loan."The loan will be available for 13 years. It was reported in August that Rosvodokanal plans to raise RUB 3 billion in bank financing, 50% of which would be provided by the EBRD. The other half was to come from a Russian financial institution.The funds will likely go to the modernization of Rosvodokanal infrastructure in Kaluga, Tyumen, Orenburg, Barnaul, Tver, Omsk and Krasnodar. EBRD first loan at the same amount of RUB 1.5 billion was raised in 2008. The loan agreement terms foresaw a three-year grace period during which the company would have to return the interest and not the principle. Mr Jean-Patrick Marquet the EBRD's director for municipal and infrastructural projects said that the bank would invest RUB 5 billion in Russia municipal sector in 2011.Ms Natalia Khanjenkova the bank managing director for Russia said including the agreement signed on Wednesday, the EBRD has invested RUB 2 billion in Russia since the start of 2011.She said "With the signing of this project, our bank's investment in 2011 in Russia has already gone over EUR 2 billion. We are continuing to work and this will be a bigger amount by year's end."(Sourced from Interfax)Euroset withdraws from Ukrainian market November, 2011 | By Planet Retail Russian mobile phone retailer Euroset has withdrawn from the Ukrainian market, closing all its stores.Euroset has been reducing stores numbers in Ukraine since 2009. The biggest disposal was in the summer of 2010 when the company shut 150 shops. In December 2010, Euroset had 275 stores in the country and by August that number was down to 170.Euroset chief executive Alexander Malis said: “We have decided to exit the Ukrainian market but we plan to return when the conditions become more favourable.”Car industry investors to be compensated for possible WTO-related losses: 17 November, 2011, 01:40Edited: 17 November, 2011, 11:23 Meeting WTO standards may come as a heavy burden to some industries, but the Russian government is ready to help deal with it to provide a smooth transition.Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says the government will help foreign investors in the country’s car making industry.“We discussed for a long time during Russia’s WTO accession process how we should do this work in future in order not to let our investors down and keep all our promises, and at the same time to meet WTO car-making requirements,” he said at the meeting with German businessmen.Putin says compromises have been reached and the government will take part of the burden to meet its obligations to investors. Foreign car makers currently enjoy tax benefits which may be revoked once Russia joins the WTO. This year the government promised tax benefits to several foreign car companies including Ford, Volkswagen and Renault. In exchange these companies agreed to assemble 300,000 cars a year in Russia using mostly locally made components. These benefits are expected to last until 2020 but may be lifted earlier because of Russia’s accession to the WTO.Russia’s car market is a lure to investors. Car sales grew by 27 percent in the first nine months of the year.Activity in the Oil and Gas sector (including regulatory)01:04?17/11/2011ALL NEWSCompetition between gas producers should be minimised – GECF SG, November 17 (Itar-Tass) —— Competition among gas producing countries must be minimised, Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) Secretary-General Leonid Bokhanovsky said.“We prefer to find ways to minimise competition among gas producing countries. It must be reduced wherever possible to reasonable levels,” Bokhanovsky told Russia Today.In his opinion, “There is lot of other options for the development of gas markets.”Among them he named the Asian market, which has been lately showing a rapid and stable growth, the Latin American market, specifically Brazil, and Chile, which has been buying more and more natural gas and where, according to Bokhanovsky, “there are good prospects for cooperation” among gas producers.In addition, “there are possibilities for good cooperation in swap operations and optimisation of logistical services”, he said.The Gas Exporting Countries Forum is an intergovernmental organisation formed by some of the world's leading natural gas producers. GECF members together control over 70 percent of the world's natural gas reserves, 38 percent of the pipeline trade and 85 percent of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) production.The three largest reserve-holders in the GECF -- Russia, Iran and Qatar -- alone account for about 57 percent of global gas reserves.Nord Stream Below Capacity 17 November 2011LONDON — Nord Stream's natural gas pipeline from?Russia to?Germany is flowing at?less than a?third of?its capacity.Nord Stream is supplying at?a rate of?1 million cubic meters an?hour, finance director Paul Corcoran said Wednesday at?the European Autumn Gas Conference in?Paris."The nominations happen daily and?hourly," Corcoran said. "It's perfectly normal that the?volume changes depending on?the nominations coming from?the customer." It may be a?year to?six months before line one of?the link reaches its full capacity of?27.5 bcm of?gas a?year, he said. It began commercial flows on?Nov. 8.(Bloomberg)Read more: The Moscow Times November 17, 2011 09:08Itera confirms TNK-BP has ended negotiations on 50% stake. Nov 17 (Interfax) - TNK-BP (RTS: TNBP) has stopped negotiations for purchasing a 50% stake in oil and gas company Itera (RTS: ITERA), Itera said.Itera confirmed that TNK-BP was one of its potential partners, but stressed not the only one. Itera needs a strategic investor who will be involved in the business, not just financially, but enabling the company to expand its production base and providing new momentum for growth, Itera said.A spokesperson for TNK-BP told Interfax earlier that TNK-BP had stopped negotiations for purchasing a 50% stake in Itera owing to the significant differences in both sides' positions concerning the transactions' terms.TNK-BP's executive vice-president for gas and electricity supply, Mikhail Slobodin, said that during negotiations for the 50% stake in Itera, TNK-BP's approach towards forming the transaction's value has changed because of the significant changes in the macroeconomic situation. For instance, prices for gas have changed, open discussion on the NRET (natural resources extraction tax) for gas are continuing, and discussions are underway on the law for transport pricing."One of the assets in which Itera has an interest, is in such a state that the increased NRET might be applied [this concerns Purgaz, in which Gazprom (RTS: GAZP) owns 51% and Itera holds 49%]," Slobodin said. Therefore, TNK-BP has insisted on reducing the purchase price for the asset.TNK-BP submitted an application in the summer with Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) for the purchase of a 50% stake in Itera Oil and Gas Company. Russia's Governmental Commission for Overseeing Foreign Investment was expected to review the TNK-BP application in the near future.Several sources earlier said that that TNK-BP might transfer asset assets and cash funds for paying off debt to Itera in order to pay for the stake.Itera Oil and Gas Company is part of Cyprus-registered Itera Group, which is controlled by Igor Makarov.TNK-BP is the third biggest producer of oil in Russia. Britain's BP and the Russian consortium Alfa-Access-Renova (AAR) own TNK-BP on a parity basis.pr vp ih of(Our editorial staff can be reached at eng.editors@interfax.ru)GazpromGazprom offers $1.6bn Eurobond , 17.11.2011, Moscow 10:54:17.Gazprom's subsidiary Gaz Capital SA is offering a $1.6bn two-tranche Eurobond on the Irish Stock Exchange today, a source close to the arrangers of the placement told RBC.??????The yield of the first five-year $1bn tranche is 4.95%, while the yield of the 10-year $600m tranche is 6%. BNP Paribas and J.P. Morgan act as joint book-running managers for the offering and IFC Metropol is the lead co-arranger.??????In October, Gazprom placed a six-month $500m Eurobond to yield 3.5%. Until October, the natural gas monopoly had made no borrowings in 2011. VEB could gain stake in Gazprombank in debt-equity swap , 17.11.2011, Moscow 11:09:56.Vnesheconombank (VEB) could gain a 8%-12% stake in Gazprombank after its debt is converted into shares, Alexander Sobol, deputy chairman of the bank controlled by gas giant Gazprom, said.??????During the economic downturn, Gazprombank attracted two subordinated loans for a total amount of some RUB 90bn (approx. USD 2.9bn) from VEB. In October 2011, Gazprombank's shareholders amended the lender's charter, paving the way for an additional share offering of 10m shares with a par value of RUB 1,000 (approx. USD 32.4). Gazprom Supplied 7% of Europe’s Gas at Spot Rates in Last Year Anna Shiryaevskaya and Denis Maternovsky - Nov 16, 2011 9:00 PM GMT+0100 OAO Gazprom supplied 7 percent of total gas supplies to Europe at prices linked to spot rates last year after revising contracts with some customers, the Russian gas exporter said in a bond prospectus obtained by Bloomberg. Gazprom conducted negotiations last year with customers including EON AG’s Ruhrgas unit, Eni SpA (ENI), GDF Suez (GSZ) SA. They sought to revise prices under contracts because of oversupply in Europe and a gap between spot and long-term prices, according to a preliminary bond prospectus dated Nov. 11, a copy of which Bloomberg News obtained. Gas importers in Europe, who buy about two-thirds of their fuel under long-term contracts, have pressured Gazprom to change its pricing formulas after spot rates fell. The Russian gas producer, which indexes its prices to oil with a lag of as long as nine months, agreed to give weight to gas prices at European hubs in talks with some clients last year. “While we are including trading floor quotations in some of our contracts, we generally consider this pricing mechanism to be unsuitable for determining prices under our long-term contracts due to its volatility and lack of predictability,” Gazprom said in the prospectus. Over the past year, E.ON Ruhrgas, RWE’s Transgas unit, Erdgas Import Salzburg GmbH and Poland’s PGNiG started arbitration against Gazprom, demanding a review of long-term contract prices, according to the prospectus. The company is continuing talks with a number of importers, including EON, RWE and Eni, the prospectus said Sergei Kupriyanov, a spokesman for Gazprom, declined to comment on information in the prospectus. Gazprom shipped about 139 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe last year and expects export volumes to increase to at least 151 billion cubic meters this year, Sergei Chelpanov, deputy head of the state-run company’s export unit, said Nov. 9. To contact the reporters on this story: Anna Shiryaevskaya in Moscow at ashiryaevska@; Denis Maternovsky in Moscow at dmaternovsky@ To contact the editors responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at wkennedy3@; Gavin Serkin at gserkin@ Gazprom mulls boosting gas exports to India , 17.11.2011, Moscow 11:48:38.Russian-Indian energy cooperation was on the agenda of a meeting held yesterday between Gazprom's CEO Alexey Miller and India's Ambassador to Russia Ajai Malhotra, the gas giant said in a statement.??????Specifically, Miller and Malhotra discussed liquefied natural gas (LNG) deliveries to India. Gas consumption in that country is expected to surge 1.7-fold by 2020, Miller noted, emphasizing that this market has opened great opportunities for Gazprom, which is considering boosting its export capacities. Gazprom discloses its subsidiaries’ investment programmes CapitalNovember 17, 2011News: Vedomosti has run an article about Gazprom announcing its investment programme together with its subsidiaries. The paper speculates that planned investments for 2011 amount to USD 41bn (USD 51bn, including Gazprom Neft and Gazprom Energoholding).Our View: The disclosed figures are in line with the company’s previous guidance of USD 39-46bn. The additional investments of Gazprom Neft and Gazprom Energoholding are not directly paid by Gazprom, and therefore should not be considered together. Gazprom’s investment programme remains one of the greatest concerns about the company’s investment case.Gazprom to spend $4 bln on Sochi Olympic projects Maria, Tatiana DolgovaNov 16, 2011 18:37 Moscow TimeThe investments of Russia’s energy giant Gazprom into the Olympic projects in Sochi will reach about $4 billion. In total five large-scale projects are to be implemented under the target program “Construction of the Olympic facilities in Sochi’s development as a mountain climate resort”.The first project is the Dzhubga-Lazarevskoe-Sochi gas pipeline which was put into operation in June.? The 171 km long pipeline has annual throughput capacity of almost 4 billion cubic meters. The launch of the pipeline enabled the switch of a number of Sochi boiler rooms from heating oil and coal to natural gas. The investments in the project reached one billion dollars. In the second half of the 2012, Gazprom plans to launch the Adler thermal power plant, which will provides electricity and heat not only to the Olympic facilities but also to a number of settlements and mini-districts of Sochi, head of Gazprom's department for special projects and research Matvei Geller said."The plant uses modern technologies of gas-steam cycle, which ensures a high key performance indicator – more than 52%. It also uses special closed water cooling cycle technologies, which prevent additional emissions into the atmosphere and make the plant 30% more environmentally friendly than ?similar plants in other regions of the country."One more Olympic project sponsored by Gazpom is the construction of the sport complex for ski and biathlon competitions at the Krasnya Polyana settlement near Sochi and of the Olympic Village for 1,100 guests.At present the construction of the second stage of a mountainous touristic center is under way. The center will be capable to receive more than 12,000 people per hour. The center’s infrastructure includes 15 km long ski runs, a cultural center, bowling, restaurants and shops. It total Gazprom’s investments in the construction of the sport and tourist complex at the Psekhako mountain range will reach ?at least $2 billion. When constructing the facilities the company is also paying particular attention to nature protection activities, Geller stresses. ?????"Only this year we have transplanted 3,000 of rare plants from the area of the construction and resettled about 300 animals mainly amphibians from the area. In total over the last 2 years we planted about 6,000 of plants and resettled around 500 animals. By now we have conduced about 150 nature protection activities."Gazprom has already spent about $3 million on nature protection projects. Besides that, the gas giant is financing the mountainous highway, which leads up to the Psekhako mountain range and will be completed by 2013.? However the load of this road will be relatively small because most of the viewers of the Olympics will use cableways to get to the Olympic facilities in the mountains. Two cableways will be located in the lower platform of Gazprom’s mountainous touristic centre and one more at the Alpica Service railway station where speed trains from Sochi will arrive to. ?The experts from the International Olympic Committee who inspected the energy supply plants of the Olympic facilities have remained satisfied with their condition.16. 11. 11. - 16:04 Gazprom Export chief shrugs off cartel claims manager Alexander Medvedev has hit out at European politicians and competition watchdogs.Asked whether Eastern Europe (EE) must brace for another gas crisis this winter due to the conflict between his company and Ukraine, the Gazprom deputy chairman told Austrian newspaper Die Presse: "(The) energy (sector) has always been connected with politics, but not with political show. We have been observing the staging of such a show by Europe recently."Medvedev heads the Russian gas company’s export branch Gazprom Export. European Commission (EC) investigators searched the offices of Gazprom and around 20 other energy sector firms operating in Europe in September. The EC suspects their involvement in a possible cross-country cartel.A spokesman for OMV AG announced that the Austrian company would "of course fully cooperate" with experts sent out by the EC to clarify the issue. The offices of the Vienna-based enterprise were searched too."If there is a company with intentions to create competition then it is Gazprom. We don’t dream of sky-high prices, we only want to earn what was invested. There has been a will to abandon fair prices since the crisis," Medvedev told Die Presse about the cartel allegations.Speaking about the current crisis in the Eurozone, the group of 17 European Union (EU) members which use the Euro as their currency, Medvedev said: "We put trust into the leading Euro(zone) states. Russia offered its help, but based on economic cooperation. Europe would harm itself by preventing us from investing into the production of electricity or the creation of pipelines."Gazprom masterminds the Nord Stream project, an offshore natural gas pipeline of a length of 1,222 kilometres from Vyborg in Russia to Greifswald, Germany. The Nord Stream endeavour has been under scrutiny for possibly making Europe more dependent on Russian gas. Those in favour of the project point out that Europe would benefit from cooperation with the large Eurasian country in economically difficult times.Nord Stream is expected to reduce Europe’s cooperation with other Eurasian nations with large gas reserves. The project, which was inaugurated earlier this month, also puts more pressure on OMV bosses who are in key positions of economic partnerships behind Nabucco.The Nabucco pipeline is supposed to bring gas from the Caspian Sea to the Austrian province of Lower Austria from where it would be transferred to several European countries. Its construction was postponed to 2013 after suffering setbacks of political and economic background. Planners recently said Nabucco would start transferring gas in six years while business press speculate that the project could be scrapped.OMV is headed by Gerhard Roiss who said in September the firm would invest 2.4 billion Euros in the next 10 years altogether. He explained that a firm-internal efficiency programme would be carried out at the same time. The Republic of Austria’s Federal Industry-Holding Stock Corporation, ?IAG, holds an interest of 31.5 per cent in the company which has more than 31,000 employees in Austria and abroad.Asked whether a decline of gas prices was possible due to overcapacities and the increasing share of shale and liquid gas on the market, Medvedev said he doubted whether shale gas would establish itself for economic reasons. "And there are, of course, limits to the infrastructure for liquid gas. (...) There is no cheap gas and there will be no cheap gas ever again," the Gazprom Export boss told Die Presse.Gazprom’s share in Europe may be halved: 17 November, 2011, 09:08Edited: 17 November, 2011, 09:13 Russia’s gas industry will face some stiff competition Sergey Kulikov Gazprom’s export revenues have been placed in jeopardy. Yesterday, Kiev made the announcement that it has achieved the desired price reduction for Russian gas. A day earlier, a long-term forecast was published, promising a 50 per cent reduction in Russia’s share in the gas market, as well as loss of competitive power due to costly gas production from new fields. The unit cost of production in the Arctic, East Siberia, and Russia’s Far East will be higher than similar costs of gas suppliers from Asia, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region.“The Russian government is going by the premise that negotiations [with Ukraine – Nezavisimaya Gazeta] are continuing. Finalization of agreements means signing new documents,” prime ministerial spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Interfax yesterday. “Until that happens, we believe it is premature to talk about anything.” But the Ukrainian question is only an episode in the new series. This was Moscow’s response to Kiev’s announcement about the agreement, made with the Russian Federation, to lower gas prices from $270 to $220-230 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas. However, the loss of profits from supplies to Ukraine is not the worst news. A much greater effect on profits could be produced by a sharp rise in the supply of gas on the global markets.At the ninth annual International Russian Gas Forum, which was held last Tuesday, head of the Russian Natural Gas Association (RGA), Valery Yazev, said that “Russia may expect some stiff competition for markets and reduction of production cost on Europe’s natural gas market, which will happen while the unit cost of production in the Arctic, East Siberia and the Far East is higher than the analogous expenses of gas suppliers from Asia, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region.”This turn of events, according to the head of RGA, is possible based on the US Energy Information Administration and the International Energy Agency (IEA) predictions for an annual rise in gas production in the countries of the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and Australia, which by 2035 may amount to 700 billion cubic meters of gas. “There are some more-daring predictions out there, based on scenarios with significant rise in gas production in Iran and Saudi Arabia,” said Yazev. “In this case, the total rise in production will be around 1 trillion cubic meters of gas. Of course, all this gas will find consumers, but its price could plummet, in which case the profitability of Arctic and offshore gas production, as well as production of shale gas, will fall sharply.”According to Yazev, temporary reduction of natural gas prices has led to a sharp rise in introduction of gas-powered generating units, which also raises the demand for gas in the long term. Forecasts, predicting a rising natural gas demand in Europe before 2035, compiled by various forecast centers, vary between 100 billion and 155 billion of cubic meters of gas a year – without the consideration of a decline in production and abandonment of the use of nuclear energy. However, an increase in the share of liquefied natural gas on the European gas market, the rise of gas supplies from the South Mediterranean, as well as supplies from Central Asia and South Caucasus, give some experts reason to suggest a significant decrease of up to 13 per cent in Russia’s share in the European gas market by 2040. “Thus the Russian gas industry will face some stiff competition for the share in the European gas market, which will amount to anywhere between 13 per cent and 40 per cent by 2030. We should, of course, be closer to 40 per cent,” said the head of the RGA.Meanwhile, experts interviewed by NG do not entirely agree with the pessimistic assessments. Department director at 2K Audit – Business Consulting/Morrison International, Aleksandr Shtok, agrees that production volumes, mainly in Africa and Asia, will rise, because these regions possess an enormous resource potential for development of gas production. “However, whether or not this will lead to a redistribution of the gas market itself remains unclear,” he says. “First, the demand for gas will also increase. Given the decline of nuclear energy, consumer interest in gas will rise. It should also be mentioned that, in addition to the rise in gas production, national demand in the supplier countries will also skyrocket. Secondly, it is still too early to say as to where the gas will be supplied and what markets it will target. Here, cooperation between Europe and Tajikistan provides an illustrative example. The parties have been engaged in negotiations on gas supplies to the EU for already a number of years, though the Turkmen gas is not yet being delivered to Europe. And third, if we are to talk about the gas market of Europe, it loses to the potential for development of the Asia-Pacific markets, as its rise is limited.”??????????? Nevertheless, in order to hold on to its positions in Europe, Russia needs to start working on reducing the costs of natural gas production already today, argues the analyst. Russia’s most promising natural gas deposits are located either on the Arctic shelf or Siberia, which implies a very high cost of their development. At the same time, transport infrastructure, which connects Russia and Europe, will be an additional competitive advantage over Middle Eastern suppliers.? ?Head of the Investment Analysis Department at Univer, Dmitry Aleksandrov, says that, most likely, the potential growth of production volumes significantly surpasses the potential growth of demand: “However, as evidenced by the recent meeting in Qatar, producers understand the production risks and do not want to sacrifice prices for production volumes.” In turn, director of the National Energy Institute, Sergey Pravosudov, also does not dramatize the situation. “Gas production will indeed rise, but so will its consumption,” he says. “Based on the IEA’s forecasts, by 2035, global consumption of gas will rise by 65 per cent; therefore assertions that gas production will increase at a faster rate than consumption could be said to be rather questionable. As for the EU, it is necessary to consider the decline in Europe’s production in the North Sea, abandonment of nuclear energy, and more frequent application of gas as motor fuel. Russia’s main argument is implementation of joint production, processing, transportation, and marketing projects, which it is offering its partners in the EU and the Asia-Pacific region.”Co-director of the analytical department at InvestCafe Grigory Birg explains that it is the European companies, whose interest in production in Russia continuously rises, that are, first and foremost, risking losing their share of the market. “Gas production in Europe practically has not changed since 2000: in 2010, it equaled 285 billion cubic meters, while consumption rose by 16 per cent, reaching 550 billion cubic meters in 2010,” he says. “The difference between domestic consumption and production increased by more than 40 per cent, and for the next 10 years, the situation will not change.”17 US energy firms, Russia's Gazprom mull investing in Turkey November 2011, Wednesday / ERCAN BAYSAL / ERDUAN JAMES REID, ANKARA / ?STANBULThe rapidly growing Turkish economy has started to garner more attention from international investors, indicated by the fact that 17 American firms and Russia's largest company, Gazprom, are now considering investing in Turkey's energy market. The companies from the US are mostly interested in the renewable energy business in Turkey, while Gazprom, the world's largest national gas extractor, is seriously looking for an opportunity in the country's electricity market.Speaking to a group of reporters in Ankara on Wednesday, Michael Lally, commercial counselor at the US Embassy, said American companies such as Abound Solar, AES Corporation, Clipper Windpower, General Electric, Megtec Systems and SolarReserve are among those that will make a business trip to Turkey starting Dec. 5. It will be the first time for 11 of those companies to seek business opportunities in Turkey, Lally said, adding that cooperation with Turkish companies in third countries, particularly in Russia, the Caucasus and Africa, will also be on the table during discussions to be held during their stay in Turkey.Representatives from the Export-Import Bank of the United States and a number of other financial organizations will also be taking part in the meetings to be held in ?stanbul, Ankara and ?zmir as part of the planned visit, Lally also said.The news related to Gazprom, on the other hand, hit online portals after Alexander Medvedev, director-general of the Russian company's export arm Gazprom Export, announced the company's intentions in Turkey. “We are ready to enter Turkey's electricity market, not only as a supplier but also an investor,” he was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency Thursday. Gazprom's venture into Turkey's domestic electricity market would likely be in partnership with a local operator.Speaking with Today's Zaman on Tuesday, a spokesman for Gazprom declined to comment on specific targets being considered by the state-owned gas giant. “Gazprom is at the preliminary stage of discussions regarding investment in Turkey's electricity grid. We will continue to evaluate the different options in terms of electrical grids in Turkey and potential partners,” he said.The move follows failed privatization tenders this year for the Akdeniz Elektrik grid in Turkey's Mediterranean region and ?stanbul's Anadolu and Rumeli grids as well as the Toroslar, Dicle, Gediz and Trakya grids after the highest bidders for each failed to make payments by the respective deadlines.The inability of top bidders provide funds on time reflects the difficulty of procuring funds from international investors in the current financial climate, analysts suggest. Gazprom, awash with cash after net profit jumped 56 percent to $25 billion for the first half of 2011, could fill the void, benefitting from one of the fastest growing electricity markets in the world, with energy demand expected to double between now and 2020.Medvedev said on Wednesday that negotiations with private Turkish gas distributors were taking place this month in response to the cancelled western pipeline deal with the state-owned Turkish Petroleum Pipeline Corporation (BOTA?), which saw 6 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas supplied through the Balkans annually. "We will decide on the procedure to be applied to Turkey regarding gas sale as of January 1, 2012 during our meeting with Turkish executives in November," with meetings scheduled for next week in ?stanbul, Medvedev said.Medvedev said that Gazprom would be seeking agreements reflecting the market price for gas, with the company pushing for further liberalization of the gas market and a move away from the subsidized rates that governed long-term contracts with BOTA? in the past.In October, BOTA? cancelled the contract after Gazprom refused to offer a rebate on gas prices. Medvedev refuted analysts' suggestion that the terminated contract was surplus to Turkey's requirements, saying that Turkey needed Russian gas.Gazprom supplied 63 percent of all of Turkey's gas imports in 2010, with the cancelled deal representing one-third of that.OLTCHIMGazprom subsidiary interested in takeover / Production cuts continue in November before the sales process for the government-owned stake of petrochemicals group Oltchim (R?mnicu V?lcea / Romania; oltchim.ro) officially began – see of 14.11.2011 – Romanian Economics Minister Ion Ariton was holding talks with a Russian delegation. According to a report from Bucharest, the managers of utilities company Tise (Moscow / Russia; ) "are interested in a takeover and in continuing the business". Ariton pointed to the invitation to tender which was about to be opened, saying that Tise could participate. The government wants to complete the sale of the 54.8% share package by the end of April 2012.Tise was founded in 2003 by several Russian companies, including Tehnopromexport, Zarubejneft and Zarubejneftegaz. At least the latter is a wholly owned subsidiary of oil and gas giant Gazprom.In the meantime, General Director Constantin Roibu has once again decreed technical unemployment due to a lack of working capital and a shortage of raw materials. As a result, 1,000 employees will stay at home from 15-30 November – with 80% remuneration.For Q3 2011, the company reported sales of EUR 75m – down 7% compared with the previous year. The operating loss of around EUR 15m was considerably higher than in the same period of the previous year (EUR 500,000) and also higher than in Q2 2011 (EUR 5.5m). The net loss in Q3 amounted to EUR 24m compared with a loss of EUR 14m in the previous quarter. In Q3 2010, the figures were only just in the red.Over the first nine months, although Oltchim managed to lift sales by 38% to a good EUR 296m, the net loss of EUR 41m is comparable with the figure for the same period last year.Published on 17.11.2011 ................
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