Russia - WikiLeaks



Russia 111010Basic Political DevelopmentsRussia ready in principle to buy Spanish debt - Dvorkovich, attending a conference in Moscow with Spanish Economy Minister Elena Salgado, said Salgado had met Russia's former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Salgado left the event without taking questions from reporters.Syrian opposition members to visit Russia Tuesday: official - The delegation, which will meet Russian diplomats on an unofficial basis, will consist of "five or six representatives of various opposition parties," Bogdanov said, speaking on the sidelines of a forum in Rhodes, Greece.Bogdanov: Dialogue is Sole Exit from Current Crisis in SyriaRussia’s Syria game - Seeking advantage after AssadDeputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov’s Consultations at the Turkish Foreign Ministry - The parties examined the range of issues relating to the development of Russian-Turkish relations, and expressed mutual satisfaction with the considerable momentum gained in bilateral political dialogue. They devoted special attention to economic and trade cooperation, with emphasis on the implementation of joint large-scale energy projects. The parties discussed the progress made in preparing for the meeting of the Joint Strategic Planning Group chaired by the ministers of foreign affairs of the two countries, scheduled in Moscow for early 2012. FM: Iran to follow issue of S-300 missiles - Russia must fulfill its contractual commitment and deliver the S-300 missile system to Iran as the system is not subject to UN Security Council sanctions, reported Press TV with reference to IRNA quoting Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi as saying.Iran Says May Accept Russian Deal To End Nuclear Standoff With WestIranian, Russian Experts to Study Moscow's Proposal for Tehran's N. Issue - Speaking in a joint press conference with his visiting Kazakh counterpart Yerzhan Kazykhanov here in Tehran last night, Salehi said Tehran accepts and welcomes the Russian offer "in principle". Russian Astronaut Assured of Iran's Rapid Progress in Space Technology - "Today I saw the footages of the launch of Iran's first satellite to the space and I felt that I am in space once again," Victor Garbatcov said in Iran's central province of Isfahan on Sunday. LAVROV INTERVIEW TO PROFILE.RU, China ready to submit balanced resolution on Syria UN SC Res on Syria creates conditions for external interferenceRF wants legal guarantees that European missile shield is not aimed against it-LavrovRussia relaxed about its security despite missile defense odds with NATO - LavrovRussia ready for Euro ABM – LavrovLavrov slams US’ unwillingness to destroy Afghan poppy fieldsRussia concerned about possible use of Libyan model in the future Putin's China visit eyes further bilateral cooperationBeijing, Moscow to sign deal to increase Russian hi-tech exports2012 to be declared Russia-China Tourism Cross Year - ZhukovPutin's visit to strengthen bilateral tiesPutin's visit to enhance China-Russia cooperation: expertPutin's China visit watched for strategic signalsPublic component of Russia-China Energy dialogue - This story by Igor Tomberg, Director of Energy and Transit Studies Center of the Institute for Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Science, professor at the Moscow State Foreign Relations Institute of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Strategic Culture Foundation expert, was published in International Affairs magazine.Senior NATO commander to talk Euro missile shield in Moscow - NATO Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, U.S. Admiral James Stavridis and Russia's Chief of the General Staff Nikolai Makarov will make another attempt to overcome the deadlock in Russia-NATO talks on European missile defense during their meeting in Moscow on Monday.Russia, US to simplify visa formalities - The agreement sets out the conditions for issuing visas for short-term official trips, as well as the conditions for issuance of Russian business, private, humanitarian and tourist visas and U.S. B1/B2 visas, the approved draft note said.Long pursued, arms suspect faces trial in NY court - U.S. prosecutors will face defense questions about the sting's validity and his treatment by federal agents. His attorneys had also claimed Bout was targeted because the U.S. was embarrassed by its use of his air companies in Iraq — but they agreed last week to avoid that argument unless prosecutors allude to it during questioning. Jury selection starts Tuesday.Russia-EU PPC to discuss easier visa rules, migration, crime fight - The Russia-EU Permanent Partnership Council will discuss the development of cooperation between the EU and Russia in freedom, security and justice and will set guidelines to broaden and develop this cooperation, Polish organizers said in a statement.Tanzania: Gvt: ‘Uranium project is rewarding’ - Russian government owned, the 'ROSATOM' Corporation is undertaking the project, according to Mr Maketa… 'ROSATOM' Corporation is going to improve the project, including the training of local staff so that later on the Tanzanian government can produce its own local experts.RF Sea Master-1 crew sails with relief for Kenya under NATO convoy Russia and Georgia hit another dead end in WTO talks - Several officials have said that Russia could be formally admitted to the WTO in December if accession talks remain on track, and it's likely that the US and EU - which are reported to have agreed all major issues on Russian membership - will be in contact with Tiblisi to urge it to ease its objections. However, Kapanadze claimed Georgia has felt no heat from the West, saying there was "no pressure on Georgia on this issue."Kazakhstan, Russia mull grain swap to cut transport costs - Under the plan, southern Kazakhstan could import grain from Russia’s agricultural south, while grain-rich northern Kazakhstan could export excess grain to eastern Russia, which is closer.Russia delivers 2 missile boats for Turkmenistan Navy - The missile boats are built at the Sredne-Nevsky shipbuilding plant within Russian-Turkmen military-technical cooperation.Ingushetia ready to provide Azerbaijan with state guarantees - Ingushetia is ready to provide Azerbaijan with state guarantees to implement major projects, Ingushetia's President Yunus-bek Yevkurov said. His statement was posted on the presidential official website on Saturday.Humanitarian cooperation contributes to sustainable development – Medvedev - Dmitriy Medvedev said in his message to the Baku International Humanitarian Forum read out by Chief of Staff of Presidential Administration of Russia Sergey Narishkin.Russia patriarch, Moldova agree to build cathedral in ChisinauFire onboard Russian research vessel off Norway put outGuiana Space Centre starts preparing for Soyuz-ST-B launchRussia to send 700-tonne ship to Mars moon in NovemberTatar Mufti Upset That 'Immoral' Actresses Attend Muslim Film Festival Russia: Suspected anarchist guerilla released for nowBoeing 737 fails to take off from Tomsk because of hydraulic system failureBaikal region launches investigation in Mi-8 emergency landingQuake rocks Kamchatka’s eastern coast, no victims reportedPRESS DIGEST - Russia - Oct 10vedomosti.ruRussia's federal budget surplus in January-September of 2011 reached 1.09 trillion roubles ($34 billion), the daily says.Russia's federal anti-monopoly service has opened investigations into oil companies TNK-BP and Bashneft over high petrol prices, the paper reports.The number of Russians choosing Greece as a beach vacation destination grew 65 percent this January-September year-on-year, the paper writes.kommersant.ruRussia and China will sign a memorandum on cooperation in modernization during Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's visit to Beijing this week, the paper writes.Fifty-five percent of Russians expected Vladimir Putin to run for president next March, the daily quotes recent VTsIOM poll.Police detained around 100 activists from far-right groups who tried to hold a rally on Saturday over the death of a Russian allegedly killed by an Azeri citizen, the paper writes.ng.ruRussian President Dmitry Medvedev has become the leader of the United Russia party's list for the December parliamentary elections, the paper writes.Russian Press at a Glance, Monday, October 10, 2011Wildly ambitious plans for Vladivostok - Vladivostok, the mythical terminus of the Trans-Siberian railway, is being turned upside down in a huge rebuilding project that aims to turn the city into the Russian Far East's answer to Istanbul or San Francisco.Future-oriented aim - About three trillion rubles will be invested in the defense industry over the next 10 years. Chavez’s cocuy advance - Venezuela will either pay Russia back with local moonshine or not pay back at all ?Russia Profile Weekly Experts Panel: Reactions to Putin’s and Medvedev’s Decision to Rule RussiaBack to the U.S.S.R. - Vladimir Putin’s intention to return to the Kremlin has opposition critics warning that the country is reverting to Soviet times. But is that what Russia secretly wants? by Owen Matthews ?Russian political life far from Putin and Kremlin - In far-off Moscow, the authorities are fond of suggesting that only a spoiled elite in the capital carp about eroding freedoms, controlled elections and a gloom they compare to the later days of the Soviet Union.By Kathy LallyNational Economic TrendsRussia ups Jan-Aug trade surplus 18.6% to $137.2 bln - customs (Part 2)Debt levels spiraling - Russia's public debt rose by 71.6% between January 2009 and July 1, 2011 to reach RUB4.6 trillion, whilst domestic debt increased 2.4 times, the Chamber of Accounts revealed on October 4, reports Moskovskiye Novosti. Kommersant: Private banks’ loans grow more expensive, state not concerned Russian Railways keeps insisting on privatising a 25% stake in TransContainerBankers Without Borders - Russian Lenders Hope to Take Advantage of Global Economic Woes to Expand OverseasBusiness, Energy or Environmental regulations or discussionsNovatek, X5 Retail, Sberbank May Move: Russian Equity PreviewRussian companies top US$550 bn in foreign mining interestsRaspadskaya to miss 2011 coking coal output target by 24pct – ReportAdidas eyes double-digit growth in RussiaOvoca Gold gets key certificate for Olcha deposit in RussiaItalian bankers are invited to Russia to place railway tracksRussia's X5 Retail cuts full-year sales outlookRussia's Kamaz turns profit in first half 2011Reasons Why Foreign Firms Are Forsaking Franchises - "Foreigners are cautious about the?political and?economic situation in?Russia. The?franchising scheme requires stability and?predictability of?the economy," said Alexei Mogila, head of?the trade real estate department at?Penny Lane Realty.?In Russia, It's a Start - The merger of two Moscow exchanges is a first step to becoming a financial hub. But there's plenty more to do. By POLYA LESOVAActivity in the Oil and Gas sector (including regulatory)Russia May Require Bourse Oil Trading, Kommersant SaysLukoil signs $500m loan deal for Kazakh project Lukoil to Spend More Than $10 Billion Next Year, Interfax SaysRosneft pays for Carabobo access: ReportsGazpromGazprom guarantees proper load of BeltransgazIran rejects Gazprom Neft as partner in Azar fieldRussia's Gazprom interested in energy assets in Bulgaria – reportGazprom Seeks Power Assets From Japan to U.K. to Fill Atomic GapGazprom Neft: 1.8 bln boe of C1+C2 reserves added, equal to 10% of 3P reservesGazprom may find oil for PhosAgro gas chemicals complex in Cherepovets------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Full Text ArticlesBasic Political DevelopmentsRussia ready in principle to buy Spanish debt EDTMOSCOW, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Russia is ready in principle to buy Spanish government debt once the euro zone's member states have put in place a strategy to overcome the currency bloc's debt crisis, Arkady Dvorkovich, economic adviser to President Dmitry Medvedev, said on Monday."When the European countries announce a concrete and clear strategy to exit the crisis, and if in the framework of this strategy support from Russia and other BRIC countries is necessary, then we would provide such support," Dvorkovich said.Dvorkovich, attending a conference in Moscow with Spanish Economy Minister Elena Salgado, said Salgado had met Russia's former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Salgado left the event without taking questions from reporters.The so-called BRIC quartet, comprising Brazil, Russia, India and China, is a loose coalition of large emerging countries that together hold the bulk of the world's foreign exchange reserves.Syrian opposition members to visit Russia Tuesday: official 08, 2011 09:55 AM MOSCOW: Russia expects a delegation of Syrian opposition politicians to visit Tuesday, a senior foreign ministry official said on Saturday."We are ready to meet them at the foreign ministry. This could happen on October 11 if they manage to arrive in time," deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov told the ITAR-TASS news agency.Russia on Tuesday sparked outrage from the Western powers on Tuesday when, along with China, it used its right of veto against a Western-backed UN resolution condemning Bashar al-Assad's use of deadly force.The delegation, which will meet Russian diplomats on an unofficial basis, will consist of "five or six representatives of various opposition parties," Bogdanov said, speaking on the sidelines of a forum in Rhodes, Greece."We are ready to listen to the arguments of the opposition of the Damascus regime and on the other hand to lay out our assessments and forecasts directly without middlemen."Russia first announced the forthcoming visit on Wednesday, without giving an exact date.A second delegation from the opposition Syrian National Council formed in Istanbul was expected to visit this month, Bogdanov confirmed the earlier announcement, without giving a date.Moscow has already hosted several Syrian opposition members while achieving few concrete results, with the latest delegation in September including the head of National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria Ammar Qurabi.Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday called on Assad either to reform or resign, saying he wanted to see an end to the brutal crackdown on protesters, but reaffirmed Russia's stance against foreign intervention.am/ssBogdanov: Dialogue is Sole Exit from Current Crisis in Syria 08, 2011MOSCOW, (SANA)_Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said Syria is the ''cornerstone'' of the political structure in the Middle East, adding that the situation in Syria has a strong effect on many regional aspects.In a statement to the Russian Itar-Tas News Agency on Saturday, Bogdanov underlined the importance of the national dialogue in Syria to prevent escalation of the situation.He said that the Russian policy aims to solve problems in Syria through dialogue, provided that violence is not used by either side.Dzasokhov: Russia Veto of UNSC Draft Resolution on Syria Took into Consideration Historical Relations Chairman of the Russian-Syrian Friendship Association Alexander Dzasokhov said Russia took a correct strategic stance by vetoing a Western draft resolution on Syria at the UN Security Council.In a statement to SANA reporter in Moscow, Dzasokhov said that the Russian stance against the draft resolution took into account Syria's important role in the region and the historical relations binding the peoples of the two countries.He said he is proud of the Russian stance which is consistent with Russia's foreign policies.''Had it been passed, the resolution would have constituted a precedent and turned the international community into a source of danger and threat to other countries,'' said Dzasokhov.Dzasokhov hailed the reform program in Syria, adding he was informed that local elections in Syria are slated for December 12, expressing trust that the political, social and economic reforms will be carried out one after another.He hoped Syria would succeed in carrying out reforms, which cannot be achieved through killings and destruction, but through synchronizing efforts to protect the Syrian interests.M. Ismael Russia’s Syria gameSeeking advantage after AssadLast Updated: 1:24 AM, October 10, 2011Posted: 10:11 PM, October 9, 2011Read more: few weeks ago, a senior Russian official assured me that his government wouldn’t block “a strong resolution” in support of the uprising in Syria. Yet Russia this month vetoed a fairly mild UN Security Council resolution.But then Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov invited the Syrian opposition to Moscow, implying that President Bashar al-Assad was no longer an exclusive interlocutor. And just 48 hours after the veto, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called on Assad to either reform or step aside.Why is Russia behaving like an erratic banana republic rather than a mature power dealing with a threat to regional peace?Start with the back story. Just 15 years after it was put on the map as an independent country, Syria chose the Soviet Union -- Russia -- as its principal protector. Over the years, that dependence developed into the backbone of Syrian national strategy. Even in the 1970s, when then-President Hafez al-Assad served US interests by crushing the left both within Syria and in Lebanon and making sure that Israel was no longer threatened, Damascus maintained close ties with Moscow.With the end of the Cold War, Russia lost interest in Syria and other Arab military regimes. But events may be resurrecting some of that interest.Vladimir Putin’s return as president signals Russia’s return to a more aggressive anti-West posture, scraping off the veneer of diplomatic politesse provided by Medvedev. Putin thinks that America is in decline and that Russia can make a comeback as a “superpower,” at least in the Middle East and Eastern Europe.And in the Middle East, Russia has no friend except Syria. Iranian mullahs may be tactical allies when it comes to thumbing noses at America, but they won’t play second fiddle to Putin -- they fancy their own regime as the Middle East’s “superpower.”Putin knows that Assad is doomed. But he wants to ensure that Russia has a say in choosing his successor. The emergence of a string of pro-West regimes from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean could shut Russia out of what Putin regards as part of its rightful zone of influence.Another factor: The Russian lease on the Crimean port of Sevastopol runs out in 2017 and can’t be extended without Ukraine’s accord. Sevastopol is Russia’s largest naval base and its lifeline to maintaining a blue-water navy via the Black Sea, the Dardanelles and the Mediterranean. Losing the base would leave Russia a virtually landlocked country. Its enclave of Kaliningrad can never be developed into a major naval asset, while the Siberian coast in the far east is hard to resupply.By 2017, Ukraine may well be a member of both the European Union and NATO -- and it would be odd indeed for a NATO member to host Russia’s biggest military bases. So Moscow has been seeking an alternative to Sevastapol for the last decade. Russian strategists believe they’ve found it on Syria’s Mediterranean coast. In 2002, Moscow and Damascus held preliminary talks on the subject. Initially, the idea was to transform the Syrian port of Tartus into an all-purpose aerial/naval base for both nations’ use. But European investment in the years since has turned Tartus into Syria’s major commercial port, ahead of Latakia. Then, too, the area’s population is largely “mainline” Muslims, who might resent the decision by a minority Alawite regime to offer bases to foreign powers. There is also the Iran factor. As the chief supporter of the Assad regime, the Islamic Republic demands facilities for its own navy. In February, an Iranian flotilla visited Syria for the first time ever, amid reports that “mooring facilities” would be built to host a permanent presence.Russia knows enough about the region to know that the Assad regime won’t stand much longer. This is why Putin is looking for a “median” solution: a new Syrian regime in which Moscow’s friends, meaning elements of the Assad regime, would have a place strong enough to offer the Russian navy an outlet when, and if, Ukraine throws it out.Read more: RELEASE Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov’s Consultations at the Turkish Foreign Ministry Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Titov held meetings in Ankara with Feridun Sinirlioglu, Undersecretary at the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Fatih Ceylan and Ayse Sezgin, Deputy Undersecretaries, on October 5-6. The parties examined the range of issues relating to the development of Russian-Turkish relations, and expressed mutual satisfaction with the considerable momentum gained in bilateral political dialogue. They devoted special attention to economic and trade cooperation, with emphasis on the implementation of joint large-scale energy projects. The parties discussed the progress made in preparing for the meeting of the Joint Strategic Planning Group chaired by the ministers of foreign affairs of the two countries, scheduled in Moscow for early 2012. A thorough exchange of views took place on topical international issues, including the pan-European security question and the developments in the Middle East, the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean. October 6, 2011FM: Iran to follow issue of S-300 missiles October 2011, 10:40 (GMT+05:00)Azerbaijan , Baku, Oct. 10 / Trend Russia must fulfill its contractual commitment and deliver the S-300 missile system to Iran as the system is not subject to UN Security Council sanctions, reported Press TV with reference to IRNA quoting Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi as saying.Asked about the non-delivery of the Russian missiles by a lawmaker in the Iranian Majlis (Parliament) on Sunday, Salehi said that the issue was being pursued through diplomatic channels."The Foreign Ministry has taken political and legal steps in parallel," he said.Referring to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's decree prohibiting the delivery of the missile system to Iran, Salehi said, "Summoning the Russian envoy to the Foreign Ministry...and urging Iran's diplomats to discuss the issue with Russian counterparts were examples of those steps.""This issue will be followed until achieving a result and serving the country's interests. Foreign Ministry has also taken steps to use the capacity of Paris International Court [of Arbitration]," he said.Salehi said that the Russians have tried to change Iran's mind about filing a lawsuit but Iran's Foreign Ministry will seriously pursue the matter with the help of other relevant bodies to reach a final result."The Russians thought that through the non-delivery of these missiles to Iran after President Barack Obama was elected...they could solve problems related to the [US] missile shield and also expand trade and nuclear ties [with Washington]," he said.Under a USD 800-million contract signed in 2007, Russia was required to provide Iran with at least five S-300 air defense systems.Russia has returned Iran's $167 million prepayment recently.However, the delivery was repeatedly delayed until the UN Security Council adopted US-engineered sanctions Resolution 1929 against Iran in June last year.Russian President Dmitry Medvedev issued a decree in September to prohibit the delivery of the defensive system to Iran.In August, Seyyed Mahmoud-Reza Sajjadi, Iran's ambassador to Russia, said Tehran had filed a lawsuit against Russia at the International Court of Justice over Moscow's refusal to deliver the air defense systems.This is while Commander of the Khatam al-Anbiya Air Defense Base Brigadier General Farzad Esmaili told Fars News Agency on September 20 that Iran was building a more sophisticated version of Russia's S-300 missile defense system at home."The flaws and defects of the (Russian) S-300 system have been corrected in the indigenous version of the system and its conceptual designing has been finished," he added.The S-300, a series of Russian long range surface-to-air missile systems, were developed to defend against aircraft and cruise missiles. Subsequent variations were developed to intercept ballistic missiles.Iran Says May Accept Russian Deal To End Nuclear Standoff With West(Sunday, October 9th, 2011)Iran tentatively accepts a Russian “step-by-step” deal to end Tehran’s nuclear standoff with the West, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Saturday, reiterating what he called Iran’s right to peaceful nuclear energy.In July, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told U.S. President Barack Obama of Moscow’s “step-by-step” approach, under which Iran could address questions about its nuclear program and be rewarded with a gradual easing of sanctions imposed by countries that fear Tehran is seeking nuclear weapons, a charge it denies.Speaking in a joint press conference with Kazakh Foreign Minister Yerzhan Kazykhanov, Salehi was quoted by the semi-official FARS news agency as saying that Tehran accepts the Russian offer “in principle,” adding that the “proposal displays Russians’ goodwill for ending this superficial nuclear case of Iran.”“We emphasize our right to use the peaceful nuclear energy as much as we are loyal and committed to the [International Atomic Energy] Agency’s statute,” the Iranian foreign minister told FARS.With Israel and Washington both keeping the possibility open of launching pre-emptive strikes on Iran to stop it getting nuclear weapons, the negotiations are a possible way to avoid what analysts say would be highly risky military action.But after the failure of the last talks, between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France, plus Germany (known as the EU3+3 or P5+1), in Istanbul in January, few analysts expect a breakthrough.Russia backed a fourth round of UN sanctions against Tehran in June 2010 but has criticized tighter measures imposed unilaterally by the United States and the European Union and emphasized its opposition to military action.Therefore, Tehran might be more receptive to an approach from Moscow than one from the West — the E3+3’s delegation is led by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.READ MORE: HAARETZIranian, Russian Experts to Study Moscow's Proposal for Tehran's N. Issue (FNA)- Iranian and Russian experts are due to convene in a series of meetings in the near future to study and discuss details of a step-by-step proposal offered by Moscow to end the nuclear standoff between Iran and the West, Tehran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi announced Saturday night. Speaking in a joint press conference with his visiting Kazakh counterpart Yerzhan Kazykhanov here in Tehran last night, Salehi said Tehran accepts and welcomes the Russian offer "in principle". "This proposal displays Russians' goodwill for ending this superficial nuclear case of Iran," Salehi stated. He said the Russian proposal has many details, and the two countries have decided to put it to further discussions. The foreign minister underlined that Tehran would accept and welcome any kind of proposal with a fair approach and respect for Iran's rights. "We emphasize our right to use the peaceful nuclear energy as much as we are loyal and committed to the (International Atomic Energy) Agency's statute," the Iranian foreign minister reiterated. On July 13, the Russian foreign minister proposed a new 'step-by-step' approach toward Iran's nuclear program that would enable the Islamic Republic to take steps to address the questions raised by the IAEA. According to the proposed plan, Iran can revive negotiations to alleviate individual concerns of the IAEA about its nuclear activities and be rewarded along the way by the partial removal of sanctions. The approach would start out with the easiest questions and move on to more complicated ones that would require a longer time for a response. Iran has repeatedly stressed that according to the modality plan agreed by the Islamic Republic and the IAEA in 2007, the agency should close Iran's nuclear dossier since Tehran has addressed and resolved all issues of contention. News number: 9007160258 15:32 | 2011-10-09Russian Astronaut Assured of Iran's Rapid Progress in Space Technology (FNA)- A former Russian astronaut who is on a visit to Iran said he is confident that Iran will make eye-catching progress in space technology in the near future. "Today I saw the footages of the launch of Iran's first satellite to the space and I felt that I am in space once again," Victor Garbatcov said in Iran's central province of Isfahan on Sunday. "I am sure that Iran will achieve much progress in area of space sciences in the near future," he said. Iran's space industries are very young. Iranian researchers and scientists started their first steps on this path less than a decade ago and now the country has built its own satellite, satellite carrier, launch pad, land stations for satellite data transfer and communication and even started laboratory tests for sending man into space; and it has done all these while it has been under the toughest possible sanctions of the US-led West. On Tuesday, Head of Iran's Space Agency Hamid Fazeli renewed his earlier promise that Iran would send a live monkey into space, but did not give any specific date for action. Fazeli had said in mid-June that Iran plans to launch a Kavoshgar-5 rocket with a 285-kilogram capsule carrying a monkey to an altitude of 120 kilometers (74 miles)." "Our scientists are exerting continuous efforts on this project... our colleagues are busy with empirical studies and sub-system testing of this project so it is a success," he said on Tuesday. In mid-March, Iran's space organization announced the launch of the Kavoshgar-4 rocket carrying a test capsule designed to house the monkey. The capsule had been unveiled in February by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, along with four new prototypes of home-built satellites the country hopes to launch before March 2012. At the time, Fazeli called the launch of a large animal into space as the first step towards sending a man into space, which Tehran says is scheduled for 2020. Iran has already sent small animals into space - a rat, turtles and worms - aboard a capsule carried by its Kavoshgar-3 rocket in 2010. The Islamic republic, which first put a satellite into orbit in 2009, has outlined an ambitious space program and has, thus far, made giant progress in the field despite western sanctions and pressures against its advancement. Iran announced in February that it planned to unveil and send two recently-built satellites into space in the near future. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced in 2010 that Iran plans to send astronauts into space in 2024. But, later he said that the issue had gone under a second study at a cabinet meeting and that the cabinet had decided to implement the plan in 2019, five years earlier than the date envisaged in the original plan. Omid (hope) was Iran's first research satellite that was designed for gathering information and testing equipment. After orbiting for three months, Omid successfully completed its mission without any problem. It completed more than 700 orbits over seven weeks and reentered the Earth's atmosphere on April 25, 2009. After launching Omid, Tehran unveiled three new satellites called Tolou, Mesbah II and Navid, respectively. Iran has also unveiled its latest achievements in designing and producing satellite carriers very recently. A new generation of home-made satellites and a new satellite carrier called Simorgh (Phoenix) were among the latest achievements unveiled by Iran's aerospace industries. The milk-bottle shaped rocket is equipped to carry a 60-kilogram (132-pound) satellite 500 kilometers (310 miles) into orbit. The 27-meter (90 foot) tall multi-stage rocket weighs 85 tons and its liquid fuel propulsion system has a thrust of up to 143 tons. Iran is one of the 24 founding members of the United Nations' Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS), which was set up in 1959. Russia, China ready to submit balanced resolution on Syria 10, 2011 11:42 Moscow TimeRussia and China are prepared to submit to the UN Security Council a balanced resolution on Syria, one that condemns violence and urges the warring factions to sit down at the negotiating table. This came in a statement for the Profile magazine by the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Russia’s topmost diplomat levelled scathing criticism at the West’s draft resolution that Russia and China voted down on the 4th of this month. Lavrov said that the draft in question suggests using the Libyan scenario for Syria and will not prevent the West from interfering again in the course of events in Syria. Lavrov added that Russia seeks to ensure that conflicts are resolved on the basis of international law providing for a negotiated settlement. IF.12:21?10/10/2011ALL NEWSUN SC Res on Syria creates conditions for external interference, October 10 (Itar-Tass) — The U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria creates conditions for the external interference, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.In an interview with the Profile weekly published on Monday, Lavrov said the U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria created conditions for the external interference and Russia came against this.“The resolution put forth by our Western partners causes damage to several provisions and we come against it,” he stressed.In particular, instead of “weapons embargo” the resolution calls for “displaying vigilance” related to all arms supplies to Syria, the minister noted. “By taking into account our partners’ capabilities we can be sure that if this resolution is adopted, they will turn “this vigilance” into the real embargo. We remember how they complied with the embargo imposed on Libya. Despite the embargo, our partners’ capabilities are well-known for us. They seek to arm one of the parties involved in the conflict.”“In addition, the resolution contains an ultimatum, and only to the government of Bashar al-Assad: if we are not satisfied with your behaviour in a month, we will impose sanctions. Thus, we can say if the resolution is adopted, it will be refuted by its addressee. We come against this and we wouldn’t want to create conditions for the inevitable external interference,” Lavrov pointed out.“We are concerned over the fact that when during discussions on the resolution, we proposed to include a point on the impossibility of the external interference under any circumstances, the co-authors of the resolution – Western countries – flatly refused. In our view, the West’s statement saying Syria is ‘another thing’ and ‘the Libyan scenario’ cannot be used are seriously overvalued,” the minister said.“We call for adopting a balanced resolution, which will condemn violence of any side. In addition, we want to demand al-Assad continue reforms, it is necessary to convince the Syrian opposition to start talks and come to an agreement. We are ready to propose such resolution jointly with our Chinese partners,” Lavrov said.Last week, the Foreign Ministry reported that Russia was ready for further work with the U.N. Security Council due to a new draft resolution on Syria that was prepared jointly with China.The resolution, which was blocked earlier, “was based on means of easing tension and differed by the ultimatum against Damascus, and threatened to use sanctions on the Syrian authorities”, the ministry said.“Such approach runs counter the peaceful settlement of the crisis on the basis of all-Syrian national dialogue and could incite a large-scale conflict and destabilisation in the region as a whole,” the ministry said.On October 4, Russia and China blocked efforts of other major powers to pass a U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria, with a dramatic dual veto thwarting a call for an immediate halt to the crackdown in Syria against opponents of President Bashar al-Assad. Nine of the 15-member council countries, including the United States, voted in favour of adopting the resolution.“From the very beginning the Russian Federation took intensive constructive efforts to work out an effective reaction from the U.N. Security Council to the dramatic events in Syria. Over a month ago Russian and Chinese partners prepared a draft resolution, which was amended later due to the concerns of other Security Council members. It was based on the respect of national sovereignty, Syria’s territorial integrity and the non-interference into its affairs, the repudiation of confrontation and an equal and substantial dialogue in order to ensure civil peace and national accord by carrying out social, economic and political reforms in the country,” the ministry said.“Our proposals on the need for the Syrian opposition to dissociate itself from extremists and on the inadmissibility to interfere into internal affairs by military means were ignored. And due to the sad ‘Libyan lesson’ this cannot not disquiet, especially in light of the statements saying the implementation of the U.N. Security Council resolutions on Libya by the North Atlantic Alliance is a ‘model’ that means the gross abuse of U.N. Security Council resolutions in order to carry out unilateral plans on neutralising unwanted regimes,” the ministry said.“We warned several times that we would counter the attempts to turn the Libyan scenario into a norm because this can cause damage to the authority and the reputation of the U.N. Security Council. We believe it important that all members of the world community respected the principle of supremacy of international law in full, without exemptions and double standards,” the ministry said.“We do not advocate Bashar Al-Assad’s regime. We believe that it is unacceptable to continue violence. We condemn the suppression of peaceful demonstrations. But we cannot close eyes to speculations by the radical opposition to protest actions of the part of the Syrian population. It does not hide its extremist plans by using open terror tactics,” the ministry said.“Russia continues the exacting work with Damascus. We call the Syrian leadership to carry out reforms as soon as possible, free all detainees, promote a dialogue with the political opposition, make wide access to the country by international mass media, and step up interaction with the LAS. This has yielded results: the reforms, even late, have started to be realised,” the ministry said.12:06?10/10/2011ALL NEWSRF wants legal guarantees that European missile shield is not aimed against it-Lavrov, October 10 (Itar-Tass) —— Russia needs legal guarantees that the European missile defence systems will not be aimed at its strategic nuclear deterrence forces, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with the Profil weekly that came out of Monday.At the same time, the foreign minister admitted the lack of progress in talks with the United State on the European missile shield.“There is no progress. The only positive thing worth to be mentioned is the fact that in the course of bilateral contacts with our American colleagues and multilateral Russia-NATO contacts we have hardened to the view that our approach is the only right one, that the European missile defence shield must be shaped in somewhat another manner than the one proposed by the United States and approved by the North Atlantic Alliance,” he said.According to Lavrov, the U.S. plans provide for the deployment, at the third and fourth phases, of defence shield elements in Europe that might pose risks to Russia’s ballistic missiles and submarine-based missiles. “They say it is not aimed against us, but on the other hand, they refuse to write it down as their liability. But we need at least legally binding guarantees that this system is not aimed against us. Now they are unwilling to give us such guarantees. It means that we shall have to look for other ways to ensure our security,” he stressed.Russia’s Western partners are “stretching the truth” when they say that is a bid to compensate risks linked with the European missile defence system, Russia is creating conditions for arms race, the Russian foreign minister noted. Instead, the arms race, he said, “stems from the American missile defence system.”“But shall not response to it: our development plans provide for possibilities without extra spending to secure out territory and our positions in the sphere of strategic stability,” he stressed.Russia has “projects that may help not to be worried about its security regardless of how the situation develops further,” Lavrov added.Russia relaxed about its security despite missile defense odds with NATO - Lavrov 09/10/2011MOSCOW, October 9 (RIA Novosti)Russia has its own defense projects that leave the country relaxed about its security despite the controversy with NATO over the European missile defense shield, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday.In an interview with Russia’s Profil political weekly Lavrov said that Russia had enough defense projects that “allow not to worry about our security under any circumstances” and do not need “additional serious expenses.”The minister however did not elaborate on the projects.“Some of our Western partners ask: "Why do you threaten…to engage the world in the arms race?" It’s an ambiguous approach, because it’s the U.S.-designed missile defense scheme that implies an arms race,” Lavrov said, referring to the NATO’s reluctance to provide legally binding guarantees that its missiles would not be directed against Russia.Russia and NATO agreed to cooperate on European missile defense system at the Lisbon Summit in November 2010. President Dmitry Medvedev proposed a joint system with full-scale interoperability to ensure that NATO's system will not be directed against Moscow. The alliance, however, favors two independent systems which exchange information.Last week Moscow warned it may stop cooperation with Washington on a missile shield in Europe after the United States and Spain announced an agreement to deploy a number of U.S. Navy cruisers in Spain as part of the nascent missile defense program.Russia ready for Euro ABM – Lavrov 10, 2011 02:32 Moscow TimeIn Russia there are projects currently underway, which will not require large expenditure, but which will allow the Russian Federation not to worry about the security of the country no matter what configuration is taken by the European ABM system, stated Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in an interview with the Russian magazine "Profil".He stressed that Moscow does not intend to start an arms race.At the Russia-NATO summit in Lisbon in November of last year, the parties agreed to cooperate on missile defense in Europe.Moscow insists on full participation in the project, as well as on written assurances that missile defense will not be directed against it.NATO and the U.S. offer to trust them at their word and do not want to fix any guarantees?in?documents or binding instruments.(RIAN)11:59?10/10/2011ALL NEWSLavrov slams US’ unwillingness to destroy Afghan poppy fields, October 10 (Itar-Tass) — Russian Foreign Ministry Sergei Lavrov has strongly criticized the U.S. authorities’ unwillingness to destroy poppy fields in Afghanistan.“It’s difficult to perceive why our American partners do not want the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan to engage in this (in destroying poppy fields),” he told the MDG-6 Forum that opened in Moscow on Monday.“This issue has already been remaining unresolved for several years, while this is the key issue in the fight against drug trafficking and as a result against the spread of HIV/AIDS,” he said.“The tragedy of this situation is that in Europe young people from a well-to-do social environment become victims of the disease (AIDS) as a result of the spread of drug addiction,” Lavrov said expressing confidence that “it is necessary to counteract not only drug abuse but also the spread.”“We attach special importance to strong and radical increase in the efficiency of efforts of the international community in the fight against drug threat emanating from Afghanistan,” he said.“Over the past ten years the production and export of drugs from Afghanistan increased several times over to all possible markets – Central Asia, the CIS, Europe and something is trafficked to the United States as well,” the diplomat said referring to the U.S. arguments saying that destruction of Afghanistan’s poppy fields would not resolve the problem as would create difficulties for agricultural producers.Russia concerned about possible use of Libyan model in the future October 2011 | 11:06 | FOCUS News AgencyHome / WorldMoscow. The scenario applied by the West in Libya should not be turned into a model for solution to analogical internal political conflicts, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, ITAR-TASS reports.“We were concerned by the statements of the NATO leaders that the Libyan model could be used again in the future. It is very bad that our colleagues think this way, because the Libyan model is a sever violation of the decision of the UN Security Council and of the international law,” Lavrov remarked. Putin's China visit eyes further bilateral cooperation 08:49:11MOSCOW, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's upcoming official visit to China this week is expected to push the cooperation between the two countries to a new high.Prior to his two-day trip to China starting on Tuesday, Putin said the two countries "have enjoyed an unparalleled partnership" and that he believed the upcoming meetings with the Chinese leaders will see "a positive development" in bilateral relations.In recent years, the two countries have made remarkable achievements in bilateral ties.Political mutual trust between China and Russia has been growing steadily, as the two countries have witnessed frequent contacts between their top leaders.Chinese President Hu Jintao paid a state visit to Russia in June and marked together with Russian leaders the 10th anniversary of the China-Russia Treaty on Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation.During the visit, Hu and his Russian colleagues reached consensus on the future development of bilateral ties in the next decade and signed a joint statement on the current international situation and on major international issues, which would also help the international community to meet global challenges.According to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei, the two sides have supported each other in the international arena, as the two have carried out close coordination and jointly coped with new changes in the international situation to safeguard their common interests and promote the democratization of international relations.Leaders of the two countries have also concerted their efforts on promoting bilateral cooperation, as a number of large projects in energy, science and military technology are being conducted.Trade between the two countries has recovered from the global financial crisis and rebounded to a pre-crisis level. Bilateral trade volume in the first half of this year stood at 35.9 billion U.S. dollars, a 39.6-percent hike compared with last year.According to a forecast from China's Ministry of Commerce, bilateral trade volume is expected to exceed 70 billion dollars in 2011, setting a new record.Both China and Russia have also agreed to make efforts to meet the target of bilateral trade volume reaching 100 billion dollars by 2015, and to 200 billion by 2020.Along with the developments in political and economic and trade spheres, cultural cooperation and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries have also maintained a sound momentum.According to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong, people-to-people communication and non-governmental activities have developed robustly in recent years."The concept of friendship for generations to come has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the two peoples, laying a more solid social foundation for China-Russia ties," he said.Last year, more than 2.37 million Russians toured China, up 36 percent compared with 2009. Russia is currently the third largest tourist source country of China.The reciprocal "Tourism Year" to be respectively held in Russia in 2012 and in China in 2013 will also help the two peoples understand each other better.Leaders of both countries have stressed that the relations between China and Russia are becoming a model on bilateral relationship of the world's big powers. And local analysts believed that further development of the Sino-Russian ties would also promote the development of the world's peace and stability.Beijing, Moscow to sign deal to increase Russian hi-tech exports 10/10/2011MOSCOW, October 10 (RIA Novosti)Beijing and Moscow will sign an agreement to increase Russian hi-tech exports during Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's visit to China, Kommersant business daily quoted Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov as saying on Monday.Zhukov said that the memorandum which Putin planned to sign during his visit on October 11-12 "covered innovation cooperation in industry, nanotechnologies, space research, biotechnologies, information industry and others.""All this must produce the effect of increasing the share of hi-tech machines in Russian exports to China," Zhukov said.The two sides plan to sign deals on 20 projects worth $7 billion, he added.10:53?10/10/2011ALL NEWSRussia, China on home stretch in talks on long-range plane project, October 10 (Itar-Tass) — Russia and China have entered the final phase in the negotiations on the crationt of long-range plane project, RF Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov told journalists on the results of the 15th meeting of the Russian-Chinese commission for the preparation of regular meetings between the two countries’ governments.“We’ve come to grips with discussing the project to create a long-haul wide-body plane,” said Zhukov. “Our Chinese partners have taken a long time to consider if they should engage in cooperation with us, and now we are closely dealing with this.”The RF deputy prime minister also said that another project on the creations of a heavy helicopter is being actively discussed at present.According to Zhukov, the issues of energy resources supply to China were not discussed on Monday. A special venue – the energy dialogue forum have been created to address these issues, he said.“Today, we have not discussed these issues at the meeting of the commission for the preparation of the meetings of the prime ministers. They will be discussed within the prime ministers’ dialogue and at their meeting,” the RF deputy prime minister said.RF Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will pay a working visit to Beijing on October 11-12 at the invitation of Premier of the Chinese State Council Wen Jiabao. During the visit, Putin will take part in the 16th regular meeting of the heads of government of Russia and China in Beijing and have a conversation with Chinese President Hu Jintao, the RF government’s press service reported earlier. “During Russian-Chinese talks, the sides plan to discuss a wide range of issues of economic, scientific, technical and humanitarian cooperation. Special attention will be paid to the improvement of the mutual trade infrastructure, expansion of investment interaction and cooperation in highly technological fields, and implementation of long-term projects in the field of energy. The sides will also exchange opinions on topical international and regional problems,” it said.10:15?10/10/2011ALL NEWS2012 to be declared Russia-China Tourism Cross Year - Zhukov, October 10 (Itar-Tass) — Events of a cross year devoted to the development of tourism between Russia and China will be held in 2012, RF Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov told journalists on the results of the 15th meeting of the Russia-China commission for the preparation of regular meetings of the two countries’ governments.“You know, we have had the Years of Russia in China and of China in Russia, then the Years of the Russian Language in China and the Chinese Language in Russia. Next, 2012, will be the Cross Tourism Year,” Zhukov said.According to him, many events linked with the development of the tourism exchanges between the two countries are to be held.“China currently is becoming more and more popular tourism destination for Russians,” the deputy prime minister noted. “We hope that the Chinese tourists, and there are many of them, will be travelling to Russia with pleasure. Actually, thus is the goal of these cross years.”Putin's visit to strengthen bilateral ties: 2011-10-10 06:42(Xinhua)MOSCOW - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's upcoming visit to China will facilitate the comprehensive development of the China-Russia strategic cooperative partnership, Chinese Ambassador to Russia Li Hui said on Sunday.Thanks to the efforts from both sides, recent years have seen China-Russia relations reach unprecedentedly high levels, Li said, adding that the relationship between the two world giants has set a good example for international relations, especially relations between big powers.Putin's upcoming visit will be another significant event in the development of bilateral relations following the exchange of visits between Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Li said.Looking into the future, the ambassador proposed that each of the two sides continue supporting the other's choice of development mode based on its own realities and backing the other's efforts in defending its core interests.While exploring new fields of cooperation, the two countries should further expand their current mutually beneficial cooperation programs, Li said, expressing the hope that bilateral trade will reach $100 billion by 2015 and 200 billion dollars by 2020.In addition, China and Russia need to step up cooperation in energy, investment and scientific research among many other areas, the ambassador said.With regards to international issues, Li said that as permanent members of the UN Security Council, both China and Russia shoulder special responsibilities in maintaining world peace and security.Meanwhile, as key members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and leading emerging economies, the two countries play an important role in shaping a multi-polar world and enhancing democracy in international relations, he added.China and Russia have a wide range of common interests in pushing forward the reform of the international financial system by increasing the representation of developing countries, Li said.He added that an increasingly closer China-Russia strategic coordination in international issues will not only serve their fundamental interests, but contribute to the formation of a more equitable world order.The ambassador also called for closer cultural exchanges between China and Russia, saying the reciprocal "Tourism Year" activities, to be held in Russia in 2012 and in China in 2013, will further deepen the understanding and trust between the two peoples.Despite changes in the international arena, consolidating the China-Russia strategic cooperative partnership remains a priority in China's foreign policy, said the ambassador.Recalling that Hu's historic visit to Russia in June charted the course for the future development of bilateral ties, Li said he is confident that Putin's visit will inject new vigor into the process.Putin is due to visit China on Tuesday and Wednesday. He will attend the 16th regular meeting between the two country's premiers.Putin's visit to enhance China-Russia cooperation: expert 08:48:05MOSCOW, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's visit to China would further boost the two countries' cooperation in both bilateral and global issues, a Russian expert has said.At the invitation of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Putin will pay an official visit to China on Tuesday and Wednesday and attend the 16th regular meeting between the two countries' premiers.President Hu Jintao and other Chinese leaders will meet Putin to discuss bilateral relations and international and regional issues of common concern.Sergei Luzyanin, deputy director of the Far East Institute of the Russian Academy of Science, told Xinhua in a recent interview that Putin's visit would first of all enhance the two nations' interaction in world issues."They would discuss global issues, including the situation in the Middle East. Moscow and Beijing have a similar approach to the situation in Syria," Luzyanin said."They secured the stabilization there by vetoing UN resolutions on Syria and preventing NATO from intervening," Luzyanin said.Besides cooperation in the UN Security Council, Russia and China have developed important interactions within BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the G20, the expert said."Russia and China are equally concerned about the threats from Afghanistan such as drug trafficking and the possible overflowing of instability to Central Asian countries," he said.The scholar also said both Moscow and Beijing are preparing for a possible second wave of the financial crisis that looms over Europe."The first strike of the crisis in 2009 left Russia and China with different experience," he said.Russia and China have learnt from that experience how important the flexibility of financial regulations was and both began experiments to avoid depending too much on the volatile U.S. dollar."These let us believe Russia and China won't be the passive observers of the second wave of the financial crisis should it really come," Luzyanin said.As for bilateral ties, Luzyanin said the China-Russia comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership has been currently at its best time ever, which allows the two countries to conduct various joint projects ranging from technical to cultural areas.Luzyanin said the reciprocal years of tourism between Russia and China in 2012 and 2013 will also help strengthen bilateral ties, as tourism plays not only a cultural but an ever increasing economic role."In the last three years, as the number of Russian visitors to China has amounted to over 2 million, a new economic phenomenon has appeared -- some Russian business started to mushroom in China in the form of joint ventures or independent small-sized companies. I think tourism inevitably contributes to the other areas of economy," the Russian pundit said.Luzyanin said Putin will also touch upon Russia-China trade during his visit.Bilateral trade has been growing. The two countries have planned to further expand annual bilateral trade to 100 billion dollars in the next three years from 60 billion U.S. dollars in 2011. For Russia, it has also been trying to diversity its exports to China.Besides trade, Putin is expected to use the visit to woo more Chinese investment."Putin might discuss with his Chinese hosts about cooperation on gas and oil projects, aviation, space exploration, hi-tech industry, as well as the program of co-development of Russia's Far East and China's northeast regions," the expert predicts.Putin's China visit watched for strategic signals, Oct 9 2011By Gleb BryanskiMOSCOW (Reuters) - Vladimir Putin visits China on Tuesday in his first foreign trip since revealing plans to reclaim Russia's presidency, addressing a challenging relationship with a giant neighbour whose growth is both an opportunity and a potential threat for Moscow.For Putin, whose main focus has been domestic in nearly four years as prime minister, the trip sets in motion a return to forefront of Russian foreign policy ahead of a March election in which he is expected to win a six-year term as president.Beneath talk of strategic relations and shared stances on world affairs, wrangling over a gas pact worth a potential $1 trillion points up the tough issues he will confront in dealing with Russia's far more populous, faster growing neighbour.China, facing its own leadership transition next year, may try to gauge Putin's plans for what could be 12 years at the helm of a country whose natural resources and nuclear arms make it a factor in Beijing's economic and geopolitical strategies."The significance of this trip exceeds that of a normal prime minister-level visit," said Zhao Huasheng, director at the Center for Russia and Central Asia Studies at Shanghai's Fudan University.Putin will bring an army of executives including the CEOs of state-controlled energy firms Gazprom and Rosneft and aluminium producer UC RUSAL, all eager to exchange their wares for Chinese cash.His meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao will feature warm affirmations of friendship and solidarity on big global issues between two countries that often move in lockstep to counter the United States and Europe.VETOTheir double veto last week of a European-drafted, U.S.-backed U.N. Security Council resolution to condemn Syria's crackdown on pro-democracy protesters was a warning against Western meddling in their own countries and others worldwide.Putin may use the trip to show the West an emphasis on China as Russia's geopolitical partner and a customer for its energy.He did just that in a televised meeting with Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller on Oct. 3, pointedly ordering him to prepare proposals on expansion into Asian markets, seen as a way to diversify Russian energy exports away from stagnant Europe.President Dmitry Medvedev has not been cool to China since Putin steered him into the Kremlin after his own 2000-2008 presidency, but his emphasis has been on presenting a friendlier face to the West and improving ties with the United States.Putin's meeting with Miller followed European Commission raids on offices of Gazprom subsidiaries in Europe that underscored persistent tensions over the continent's heavy reliance on Russian gas, which EU members want to reduce.But China's friendly political ties with Russia, and their partnership in the loose BRIC grouping that also includes India and Brazil, do not make Beijing less of a tough customer when it comes to energy deals.GAS DEALPutin will likely seek to resolve the price disagreements that have prevented Russia nailing down a 30-year deal to supply China with up to 68 billion cubic metres of gas per year.But Gazprom's export chief told Reuters last month that the five-year-old negotiations might not end this year, pushing back initial deliveries beyond the latest target of 2016.Meanwhile, China is cultivating other sources of energy supplies, particularly in ex-Soviet Central Asia.A report this month by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said China was gaining the upper hand in the relationship as it becomes less reliant on Russia for advanced weapons and looks elsewhere for some of its energy.It said Russia's significance to China would continue to diminish in the coming years, and that "there are strategic planners in Beijing and Moscow who view the other side as the ultimate strategic threat in the long term".While Putin may use China as a foil against the West, the pragmatic former KGB officer is well aware of such concerns.As he prepares for what could be two six-year terms as president, "the risks from China's growth will be watched more closely than the opportunities", said Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of the journal Russia in Global Affairs.At an investor conference on Thursday, Putin used a joke to play down the challenge posed by China's faster growth after TPG Capital co-founder David Bonderman outlined China's path to becoming the world's largest economy."He got me worried. He said that the United States is so far the world's biggest economy but China will undoubtedly take over. So we now need to keep our foreign currency reserves in yuan while the Chinese will keep them in dollars," Putin said."That will be an interesting Russian doll."(Additional reporting by Michael Martina in Beijing; Editing by Steve Gutterman and Kevin Liffey)Public component of Russia-China Energy dialogue 06/10/2011This story by Igor Tomberg, Director of Energy and Transit Studies Center of the Institute for Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Science, professor at the Moscow State Foreign Relations Institute of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Strategic Culture Foundation expert, was published in International Affairs magazine.The coming visit of Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to China on October 11-12 will be aimed at giving stability to the Russian-Chinese strategic partnership in the economy. Energy industry traditionally tops the list of complicated and sometimes pressing issues of the Russian-Chinese partnership…Cooperation in energy sector is an important component of Russia-China strategic partnership.? The new format of bilateral cooperation - Russia-China Energy Dialogue co-chaired by the chairman of the Russian government Igor Sechin and Vice Prime Minister of the State Council of China Wang Qishan - has made it possible to bring the discussion of pressing issues of the Russian-Chinese energy cooperation to a qualitatively new level. Nevertheless, recently there have been problems and even certain recession in oil and gas cooperation between two countries. Risks of non-payments for Russian oil are getting higher. Coordination of terms of the final agreement on Russian gas supplies is going slowly though there have been some promising moves recently. Despite efforts on the level of the leaders of two countries the prospects of cooperation in oil and gas industry Russia continues to play a purely raw-material exports role. Russian energy companies are entering the Chinese national market very slowly and episodically.Speaking everywhere about Russia-China strategic partnership in energy sector we forget that selling raw materials has nothing to do with strategic partnership. There are different ways to enter the Chinese market. Like Turkmenistan - by selling raw materials on its border (that is what have we have chosen so far). But we can also follow the Russian government’s doctrine on ensuring energy security of the supplier.? It is like adding third dimension to a two-dimension trade - supplier is present on the market of consumer as a rightful market participant. In case with Gazprom, for example, this intensive participation implies not only supplies of resources but also technological and financial participation in the formation of the national market. That means not only gas supplies but also participation gas distribution networks (buying assets and constricting new facilities), trying to get control over least operational management of the interior gas distribution networks. The inlet gas price becomes and important but not a defining component because the profit making center moves from the border deeper into the country. This is a colossal task not only politically but also technically. To remove accent in energy of a big country from coal to gas especially in energy production, to switch almost 1.5 billion population to gas networks is a really strategic task which requires serious preparations.It is clear that certain details of partnership of the two countries, its medium and long term perspectives require preliminary scientific analysis. Harmonization of interests of two countries in energy security and objectively contradictory interests of the authorized companies (Gazprom, Rosneft, CNPC, Sinopec) can be also included into this group of problems. No doubt that long term state interests of two countries are much wider and more diverse and the priority among them is mutual rapprochement of Russia and China. In full these interests can be voiced only in the framework of a wide public dialogue.It is obvious that it is time to include in Russia-China Energy Dialogue one more non- governmental and social component – the dialogue of Russian and Chinese experts in oil and gas industry.? A positive example here is cooperation of experts within Russia-EU Energy Dialogue, which? made it possible not only to find solutions for wide range of problems but what is crucially important – to bring a creative atmosphere into working on serious inter-governmental documents. It has become necessary to provide expert supervision of bilateral contacts in energy sector both to analyze strategic tasks of the Russian-Chinese partnership and settlement of different technical questions, search of mutually acceptable solutions of the contradictions.The activities of energy dialogue of experts should cover all main fields of energy cooperation: oil, gas, coal, electricity, transportation component.?Russian and Chinese experts could work together in the following directions: coordination of energy strategies of two countries, forecast and scenarios; market and infrastructure development; energy efficiency and alternative energy sources. In case with China the creation of atmosphere of mutual consideration of interests of each party, wide public explanation of positions on a certain problem hampering cooperation, finally? more complete and profound study of the Chinese fuel and energy complex and its mechanisms by Russian experts are regarded as exceptionally important .Moscow sees significant interest on behalf of its Chinese partners and experts in wider interaction. Though Russian agencies are taking certain steps to expand cooperation so far these steps were spontaneous and not very efficient.Senior NATO commander to talk Euro missile shield in Moscow 10/10/2011MOSCOW, October 10 (RIA Novosti)NATO Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, U.S. Admiral James Stavridis and Russia's Chief of the General Staff Nikolai Makarov will make another attempt to overcome the deadlock in Russia-NATO talks on European missile defense during their meeting in Moscow on Monday.Makarov and Stavridis are expected to discuss "the current state and prospects of Russia-NATO cooperation in the military sphere," including the creation of the European missile shield, and address "relevant regional and international security issues," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.Russia’s envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin said on Monday the talks between Moscow and the alliance on European missile defense have yielded "zero results."?“Our partners are not going to make any serious advances during the talks,” he said, adding that NATO leadership was interested in “lowering the profile” of media coverage of the talks “in order to hide its principal refusal to… consider Russia’s objective demands from the public.”He reiterated that NATO should provide Moscow with legal guarantees that its projected European missile defense shield will not be directed at Russia.Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed concerns on Sunday that Moscow's disagreements with NATO over the issue could lead to a new arms race. In an interview with Russia's Profil political weekly, the minister said Russia had its own defense projects allowing Moscow "not to worry about our security under any circumstance" while avoiding "additional serious expenses."Russia and NATO agreed to cooperate on European missile defense system at the Lisbon Summit in November 2010. President Dmitry Medvedev proposed a joint system with full-scale interoperability to ensure that NATO's system will not be directed against Moscow. The alliance, however, favors two independent systems which exchange information.The Russian Foreign Ministry warned last week that by refusing to provide legal guarantees on its missile shield, NATO could miss the chance to "turn anti-missile defense from an area of confrontation into an area of cooperation."Anti-piracy cooperationDuring his stay in the Russian capital, the U.S. official will also meet with Russian Navy Commander Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky to discuss cooperation between Russia and NATO in fighting sea piracy, including the prospects of Russia's participation in the NATO-led counter-terrorism Operation Active Endeavour in the Mediterranean Sea.Russian joined the operation, which was launched after the 9/11 attacks, in February 2006, but temporarily withdrew from the project in the summer of 2010.On Tuesday, Stavridis will also visit the Volga city of Volgograd, where he will meet with Russia's Southern Military District commanders.Russia, US to simplify visa formalitiesToday at 09:33 | Interfax-Ukraine Moscow - The Russian government has approved a draft agreement with the United States, which makes it simpler for the two countries' citizens to obtain visas. It is proposed that the agreement be concluded through the exchange of notes, according to a document posted in the databank of government acts. The same document approves the draft of a Russian note.The agreement sets out the conditions for issuing visas for short-term official trips, as well as the conditions for issuance of Russian business, private, humanitarian and tourist visas and U.S. B1/B2 visas, the approved draft note said.The countries' diplomatic missions and consular departments will normally make the decision about a visa within 15 calendar days from the start of processing, the note said. The period for making a decision on a visa application can be extended in certain cases. At the same time, this period can be reduced to three business days or less in urgent cases.The parties shall agree to issue normally multiple-entry visas for a stay of no more than six months from the date of each entry and valid for 36 months from the issue date, the draft agreement said. This agreement shall be valid, provided the parties observe the principles of reciprocity.For short-term official trips, the parties agree to issue mainly multiple-entry visas for a stay of up to three months from the date of each entry and valid for 12 months from the issue date.When considering a visa application, diplomatic missions may request additional information to confirm the stated purpose of the trip and available funding, the draft document said. A joint recommended list of documents for submitting such information will be agreed by the parties through diplomatic channels, the draft agreement said."The provisions of the note do not aim to limit the powers of the competent authorities of either party to refuse a visa, to cancel a visa, to refuse entry or exit to another country's citizens, or to limit their stay in accordance with the national laws," the note said.In the event that this proposal is acceptable for the U.S., the said Russian note and the note sent by the U.S. Embassy in response shall be deemed to constitute an agreement simplifying visa formalities, which will become effective within 30 days from the date of receipt through diplomatic channels of the last written notice about completion of internal procedures, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. Read more: pursued, arms suspect faces trial in NY court LARRY NEUMEISTER, STEPHEN BRAUN updated 39 minutes agoWASHINGTON?— For nearly two decades, Viktor Bout ruled an empire of the air. He dispatched a private fleet of long-haul cargo planes that spanned the globe, shipping heavy machinery, frozen chickens and more. The Russian businessman is grounded now, facing trial this week in a New York federal courtroom for what Western governments insist was his real specialty — arranging delivery of tons of weapons that inflamed violence across the world's war zones. A former Soviet military officer with command of four languages, Bout is known as the "Merchant of Death," the nickname long used by American and international officials to describe his suspected prominence in the illicit arms trade. He has been banned from international travel for violating United Nations arms embargos, targeted by a U.S. asset freeze and he inspired the role of the fictitious arms trafficker played by Nicholas Cage in the 2005 action film, "Lord of War."He is believed to have amassed a fortune estimated as high as $6 billion. His clients, according to official investigations, included African dictators Moammar Gadhafi, Charles Taylor and the Taliban mullahs who once ran Afghanistan. Planes linked to his network even flew supplies to Iraq for the U.S. armed forces.Bout, 44, eluded arrest until U.S. narcotics agents lured him to Thailand in a 2008 sting operation, charging him with conspiring to sell anti-aircraft missiles and other weapons to undercover informants posing as South American terrorists. Protesting his innocence, Bout was extradited to New York in November after enduring a grueling, two-year limbo in a Bangkok prison while the U.S. and Russia squared off in a diplomatic tug-of-war.His arrest was a high point in efforts to stem the flow of black market arms, but the case has set off Cold War echoes. For Russia, Bout's prosecution is seen as American overreach, stoking fears he will be pressed to open up about his ties to Russia's military and intelligence circles.U.S. prosecutors will face defense questions about the sting's validity and his treatment by federal agents. His attorneys had also claimed Bout was targeted because the U.S. was embarrassed by its use of his air companies in Iraq — but they agreed last week to avoid that argument unless prosecutors allude to it during questioning. Jury selection starts Tuesday."There are powerful people in Russia who are quite frankly worried that he might spill his guts," said Michael Braun, a former Drug Enforcement Administration chief of operations who led the Bout investigation.Sergei Markov, a Russian lawmaker and member of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's ruling United Russia party, agreed: "They want to extract information from him."Bout's attorney, Albert Y. Dayan, said his client "never had any intention of transferring arms to anyone" in the sting. He added last week that "we believe that most of the reputation he has developed is imposed rather than actual."Trying to mute the prejudicial effects of Bout's notoriety, U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin said last week she will try a tactic new to federal trials, requiring jurors to sign a pledge not to research Bout on the Internet or other media.It will not be easy. The Web is flooded with photographs of a haggard Bout in his Thai jail cell, as well as news stories, websites and Facebook pages. There have been documentaries, books and a suspense novel based on the Russian businessman. Bout dismissed the "Lord of War" film as "a bad movie." A rock group, DePotorland, recently released a new video for a song about Bout, "We Deliver."Bout's transport network got its start in the early 1990s, soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Leasing and then buying old Russian-made cargo planes known for their durability and lumbering size, Bout amassed an air armada that grew to more than 60 aircraft by the late 1990s, according to U.S. officials. The planes were constantly on the move, flying from Africa to Afghanistan and hopscotching to bases in Belgium, South Africa, Swaziland, the United Arab Emirates and across Eastern Europe.The planes brimmed with loads ranging from diamonds to gladiolas. But by the late 1990s, U.S. and UN officials and anti-arms-trade activists had pinpointed the flights as a key source of assault rifles and more sophisticated weapons systems turning up in the violence-plagued African nations of Liberia, Angola, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. U.S. officials later said Bout's air operations also earned $50 million aiding the Taliban in Afghanistan."It was his air fleet, his easy access to arms and his ability to reach the most violent parts of the world that made Viktor Bout so much more than the run of the mill arms dealer," said Juan Zarate, a top counterterrorism official for the Bush administration and now a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.Describing Bout as a transnational threat capable of aiding terrorists and other violent groups, the U.S. targeted him with financial sanctions for alleged arms work in Liberia and the Congo. Belgium indicted him on money laundering charges in 2002 and Interpol issued an international warrant, but Bout retreated to Moscow, where Russian officials spurned the inquiries.When Bout was arrested in Bangkok in March 2008 by the DEA and Thai police, Russian diplomats were quick to defend him. The case has become a Russian cause celebre in the months since his extradition. Bout's wife, Alla, and his mother and daughter have come to pre-trial hearings and are expected to attend the trial in New York.If Bout were convicted, Markov said, "Russia will protest. Bout is a Russian citizen, and it's the Russian authorities' duty to protect his rights." Sergei Prikhodko, the senior foreign policy aide to President Dmitry Medvedev, said in November that there are no secrets, military or otherwise, that Bout could pass to the Americans. Still, some Russian parliament members have raised the possibility of a swap similar to last year's trade of Russian sleeper agents arrested in the U.S. for prisoners held in Russia.U.S. authorities have not speculated publicly on any deal, but such a move would be opposed by the DEA and prosecutors. "I don't see that in the cards," said Braun, the former DEA official who now is managing partner of the Virginia-based Spectre Group International security firm.Bout faces a possible life sentence if convicted. He is charged with conspiring to sell millions of dollars in weapons to DEA informants acting as officials of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucianarios de Colombia, or FARC, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization operating in Colombia. He is also accused of conspiring to kill Americans. Prosecutors said he offered to sell 700 to 800 surface-to-air missiles, 5,000 AK-47 firearms, millions of rounds of ammunition, land mines, night-vision equipment and ultra-light airplanes that could carry missiles to the undercover informants.Bout has won some legal challenges. The judge ruled that the government could not use statements that Bout made to federal agents after his 2008 arrest. Scheindlin also suggested DEA agents had testified falsely in claiming they had not pressed Bout to cooperate with them, but she later withdrew that accusation after prosecutors protested.Even without the ability to use Bout's statements, prosecutors have Bout's wiretapped conversations and documents and emails lifted from his seized laptop. The undercover informants are expected to testify along with Andrew Smulian, a veteran pilot arrested with Bout who had worked with the Russian dating back to 1996.Bout has not talked publicly in the courtroom, but defense lawyer Kenneth Kaplan said Bout has been helping his attorneys prepare for trial while he studies a new language, Hindu."He's been anxiously awaiting his day in court," Kaplan said.___Associated Press writer Vladimir Isachenkov also contributed to this report from Moscow. Braun and a co-author wrote the 2007 book, "Merchant of Death," about Bout.Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. 02:33?10/10/2011ALL NEWSRussia-EU PPC to discuss easier visa rules, migration, crime fight, October 10 (Itar-Tass) —— The Russia-EU Permanent Partnership Council (PPC) on Freedom, Security and Justice will open its 15th session here on Monday.Russian Justice Minister Alexander Konovalov, who is the presidential special envoy for cooperation with the European Union in freedom, security and justice, will head the Russian delegation at the forum. Officials from the Russian Interior Ministry, the Federal Security Service and the Federal Migration Service will also participate in the PPC session. EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmstrom will represent the European Commission. Justice Minister Krzysztof Kwiatkowski and Interior Minister Jerzy Miller will represent Poland, which is presiding in the EU Council.The Russia-EU Permanent Partnership Council will discuss the development of cooperation between the EU and Russia in freedom, security and justice and will set guidelines to broaden and develop this cooperation, Polish organizers said in a statement.The PPC session will focus on “visa-free travel talks, including easier visa rules, migration and the struggle against transnational organized crime and drug trafficking,” the Russian Justice Ministry reported. “The interlocutors are to approve a working schedule of the Russian-EU migration dialogue for 2011-2012, consider the negotiated list of joint steps towards a visa-free regime of short-term trips for the citizens from Russia and the EU states and are to sum up the results, which the experts achieved on the guidelines of cooperation,” the Justice Ministry said. The PPC session “will set priorities in building a common Russia-EU space in freedom, security and justice,” the Russian Justice Ministry reported.An official opening ceremony is scheduled for Monday evening, but a working meeting and its result summarizing is scheduled for Tuesday on the agenda of the PPC session.The Russia-EU Permanent Partnership Council held the previous 14th session in St. Petersburg last May. High on the agenda of the previous PPC session was visa-free travel talks between Russia and the EU. The PPC members decided to continue these talks and to take gradual steps on the issue through easier visa rules.Gvt: ‘Uranium project is rewarding’, 10 October 2011 09:45By The Citizen CorrespondentNamtumbo. Mantra Resources uranium project in Namtumbo District of Ruvuma region has started benefiting residents and large part of population in the area.District Commissioner, Mr Saveri Maketa, said, the project has already begun to yield fruits, as the environment has already changed to new characteristics feature. The project in the Seleous Game Reserve estimated at Sh600 billion, and is awaiting for an approval by the United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) soon, according to Mr Maketa.“Employment is there, that over 1500 residents in the district and others in the region are assured of their daily bread,” he expresses.He said the construction of permanent township roads to and from the site is underway to connect the area with? the major highway.Agricultural infrastructure in villages is about to improve as farmers are set to form groups to enable the district provide them technical and material support to enable them grow crops, vegetables and fruits in large quantity so as to feed workers at the mining site.According to him the district council will provide loans to the farmers for an intended farming project.Russian government owned, the 'ROSATOM' Corporation is undertaking the project, according to Mr Maketa.He says the firm has several branches including ARMZ which operates in a number of countries including? China, Turkey, Belarus, Vietnam, Ukraine, Armenia, Jordan and? Kazakhstan.The Prime Minister Mr Mizengo Pinda supported the project during a recent Bunge session saying it was vital to the national development.Assuring Tanzanians, Mr Pinda said that the case of game reserve’s conservation laws was considered and that the United Nations Educational Science and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is working on it for an approval of the project as soon the arrangements are over.The Legislator Magdalena Sakaya (CUF) wanted assurance of the safety of heritage and life of animals in Selous Games Reserve. The Selous Games Reserve is Africa's home of variety of birds, crocodile, elephant, lion, leopards, cheetahs, and black rhino, the animals who constitute attraction of tourism industry.According to reports the mining companies would generate about Sh400bn annually from which the treasury would get about Sh7.5bn only. 'ROSATOM' Corporation is going to improve the project, including the training of local staff so that later on the Tanzanian government can produce its own local experts.Senior geologist, also spokesman for the ministry of Energy and Minerals , Aloyce Tesha underlined benefits? expected from the project, being employment, technology, training as well as increasing national income in both local and foreign currencies.Study shows deposit estimated at over 25.1 million tonnes and that production of over 3.7 million pounds of yellow cake and that the deposit is to last for over 12 years.The production cost for a single yellow cake is estimated at $ 25.05 which has been already included into working capital estimation for the project reported to be $298 million.The deposit in an area of about 100 square kilometres is expected to produce of 88.3 million pounds, according to government figures.The uranium undertaking is reported to have involved the Tanzania Atomic Energy Commission (TAEC), the National Environment Management Council (NEMC), key institutions on the matter.06:47?10/10/2011ALL NEWSRF Sea Master-1 crew sails with relief for Kenya under NATO convoy , October 10 (Itar-Tass) —— The Russian crew of the freighter Sea Master-1 realizes the danger of Somali pirates, but keeps sailing with the relief supplies from the Port Sudan (Sudan) to the Kenyan port Mombasa on Monday. The Sea Master-1 freighter has four security guards onboard and a NATO warship is convoying the bulk carrier, the Russian sailors told the Far Eastern regional branch of the Russian Trade Union of Sailors by phone on Monday.The freighter is to arrive in Mombasa with the relief supplies (about 5,000 tonnes of wheat) on October 15-16. The Sea Master-1 crew is made of 20 sailors from the Far Eastern port of Nakhodka. Seven sailors demand replacement from the shipowner in the port of Mombasa and the delivery to the homeland, the rest of them did not make the foresaid demands.Under the rules of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), in which the Russian Trade Union of Sailors is incorporated, the sailing in the piracy-hazardous zone envisages a double salary for the sailors, the chairman of the Far Eastern regional branch of the Russian Trade Union of Sailors, Nikolai Sukhanov, told Itar-Tass by phone. The Sea Master-1 crew did not receive the double salary. The Sea Master-1 crew is entitled to other major payments in case of heavy aftermaths of the clash with pirates, but the Russian sailors did not receive any compensations. The sailors, who insist on the replacement from the ship, demand the full remuneration for them on the ITF rates and the Russian trade union supports these demands.Sukhanov noted that an official of the Sea Master-1 shipowner was to arrive in Nakhodka from Sudan in order to solve the crew’s problems in the country up to probable changes in the Sea Master-1 sailing routes. The Sea Master-1 freighter is sailing in the Gulf of Aden, where the pirates are rampaging. The pirates are keeping 15 ships, 277 sailors in captivity. The pirates killed 15 sailors in the attacks on the ships.Russia and Georgia hit another dead end in WTO talks 10, 2011Despite pressure from the US on Tiblisi, talks to break the Georgian log-jam on Russian membership of the WTO broke down on Saturday. Georgia says that there is no point in holding further talks unless Russia changes its position on how to deal with South Ossetian and Abkhazian trade, whilst Moscow claims another effort to hammer out a deal is due in mid-Ocober, reports Reuters.The Russian application to join the global trade club was first lodged in 1993. Whilst Moscow's enthusiasm to join has regularly wavered during that drawn out process, encouraged by resumed pressure from Washington and Brussels, officials have begun jostling once again to claim that this is the year. However, Georgia remains the last major stumbling block, according to reports, having halted WTO talks during the five-days war with Russia in 2008 as Tiblisi attempted to retake the breakaway regions. The Caucus nation now demands some measure of control over South Ossetia and Abkhazia's trade borders before it will drop its veto against Russian membership, despite reports that it is under pressure from the West to allow Russia's progress to proceed.Swiss-mediated talks at the weekend were designed to turn that pressure into an agreement, but Georgian officials say the meeting broke down quickly. "The negotiations are over and we can say that they collapsed, ended with no result at all," Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergi Kapanadze reported. He said the sticking point was Russia's refusal to let Georgia have access to information about trade in the two breakaway regions. "Georgia cannot give its consent to Russia's entry to the WTO until Russia changes its position on trade within the occupied territories," he reiterated.A Swiss proposal involving "monitoring of trade corridors by international observers" had been agreed by Georgia but rejected by Russia, he claimed, reports AFP, adding that the talks were the last agreed round of negotiations "and we do not see any sense in continuing talks just for the sake of talks." However, a Russian source suggested another round of talks is due on October 17. Several officials have said that Russia could be formally admitted to the WTO in December if accession talks remain on track, and it's likely that the US and EU - which are reported to have agreed all major issues on Russian membership - will be in contact with Tiblisi to urge it to ease its objections. However, Kapanadze claimed Georgia has felt no heat from the West, saying there was "no pressure on Georgia on this issue."Kazakhstan, Russia mull grain swap to cut transport costs 10/10/2011ASTANA, October 10 (RIA Novosti)Kazakhstan and Russia are discussing grain swap operations to cut transportation costs, the Kazakh agriculture minister said on Monday.Under the plan, southern Kazakhstan could import grain from Russia’s agricultural south, while grain-rich northern Kazakhstan could export excess grain to eastern Russia, which is closer.“We are proactively cooperating with the Russian Grain Union and are considering grain swap operations with Russia, because they also have transport problems there as they grow grain mainly in the south and the consumers are in the north and Far East,” Agriculture Minister Asylzhan Mamytbekov said.Speaking in the lower house, Mamytbekov said the swaps would be mutually advantageous, and it would also resolve the problem of storing excess grain in northern Kazakhstan.This year Kazakhstan is expecting a net harvest of 22-23 million tons of grain, the largest in the past 60 years. It plans to export 10 million tons.00:27?10/10/2011ALL NEWSRussia delivers 2 missile boats for Turkmenistan Navy, October 10 (Itar-Tass) —— Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov visited a mooring of a Turkmen naval unit, where two newly built missile boats had recently anchored. The missile boats are built at the Sredne-Nevsky shipbuilding plant within Russian-Turkmen military-technical cooperation. The president visited the missile boats. The visit was broadcast on the national television.“Turkmenistan as any country with the entry to the sea needs the warships for patrolling its maritime border, ensuring security and combating terrorism, poaching and drug trafficking,” the president told naval sailors. “The Caspian Sea will always be the sea of friendship and accord, which Turkmenistan’s policy of neutrality, openness and good neighborliness pursues for,” Berdymukhamedov pointed out.President Berdymukhamedov stated about his decision to build a modern naval fleet on the Caspian Sea in August 2009 at a meeting of the Turkmen Security Council. The Naval Institute of the Turkmen Defence Ministry was founded already in 2010. The program to develop the Navy for the period until 2015 was developed and approved under the main provisions of the Military Doctrine of Turkmenistan.“The approval of this document heralds the beginning of important and responsible work to form domestic naval forces in the Defence Ministry that should protect the interests of our country in the Caspian Sea,” the president remarked on Sunday.The Sunday event “points to the permanent upgrading of the domestic fleet, which is systematically replenished with advanced military hardware,” the president underlined.Ingushetia ready to provide Azerbaijan with state guarantees October 2011, 14:35 (GMT+05:00)Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 9 / Trend /Ingushetia is ready to provide Azerbaijan with state guarantees to implement major projects, Ingushetia's President Yunus-bek Yevkurov said. His statement was posted on the presidential official website on Saturday."I have high hopes for both sides' cooperation," Yevkurov said.Ingushetia has made several lucrative proposals to Azerbaijan to develop tourism, the agroindustrial complex and hydro-power engineering this week.Azerbaijan and Ingushetia signed a strategic agreement on economic cooperation last Tuesday. The signing ceremony took place during Russian Deputy Prime Minister, the Russian President's Plenipotentiary Envoy to the North Caucasus Federal District Alexander Khloponin's official visit to Azerbaijan. He was accompanied by officials and business representatives.Ingushetia's delegation was headed by President Yunus-bek Yevkurov.Khloponin said during the visit that the mutual exchange in cultural and economic spheres within the intergovernmental agreements will positively affect the turnover and the extent of cooperation between the two countries."The agreement is the beginning of our fruitful relations," he said. "I would like to reach another, higher level of cooperation."About 71 subjects of the Russian Federation are involved in foreign trade with Azerbaijan. About 15 Russian regions signed an agreement on trade-economic, scientific-technical and cultural cooperation.In 2011, Azerbaijan and Russia plan to reach a record index $2.8-3 billion in trade turnover. A $2.4-billion record index in trade turnover was reached between Azerbaijan and Russia in 2008.Humanitarian cooperation contributes to sustainable development – Medvedev 10 October 2011 07:25 GMT | 9:25 Local TimeHumanitarian cooperation plays an important stabilizing role in present-day world, President Dmitriy Medvedev has announced.'It (humanitarian cooperation) contributes to sustainable development, positively impacts the relationship between two countries, and permeates almost every sphere of human activity from economics, science and culture, to legal policy and security issues,' Dmitriy Medvedev said in his message to the Baku International Humanitarian Forum read out by Chief of Staff of Presidential Administration of Russia Sergey Narishkin.The International Humanitarian Forum titled “XXI century: Hopes and Challenges” opened in Gulustan Palace in Baku on Monday.The Russian President notes that "humanitarian cooperation is rightly called soft power, as it helps to remove barriers in a dialogue of civilizations, uniting nations and peoples based on values ??of fairness and tolerance, solidarity and mutual respect."Medvedev adds that the need for humanitarian touch in international relations is becoming more visible in recent years."New inter-state mechanisms, which are example of effective cooperation of creative elites, are being created and of course, community initiatives and movements that have made significant contributions to formation of a new humanitarian space play a special role. I am sure that the Baku Forum will take its rightful place among them," Medvedev noted in his message.Interfax-Azerbaijan01:18?10/10/2011ALL NEWSRussia patriarch, Moldova agree to build cathedral in Chisinau, October 10 (Itar-Tass) —— Visiting Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill and the Moldovan leadership agreed at a meeting on Sunday to build a cathedral of the Moldovan Orthodox Church in Chisinau.“We agreed to begin the construction of a cathedral, which should be the symbol of the unity of our society,” Moldovan Prime Minister Vlad Filat said at the meeting with the supreme hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church.“We will begin to put into practice this idea next spring,” he added.The prime minister also pledged that the republic will continue to provide the Christian education, particularly “religion basics lessons at school” and “the publishing of the books so that our children will study and grow up with the love for the God.”Vlad Filat thanked Patriarch Kirill for his visit to Moldova. “We were waiting for you. We were preparing for your visit with all our heart. You should know that we – the citizens of the republic, we – believers, we love you and you are always with us,” the Moldovan premier noted.“I would like to express gratitude to you on behalf of our citizens for the rain, which you brought together with you and which we were longing for,” he pointed out.Moldova did not see the rain for three months and on Sunday, when the patriarch served the divine liturgy, a heavy rain has been going on since early morning to gladden Moldovan citizens.Patriarch Kirill admitted that he likes Moldova very much since his visit to the country as the metropolitan. “I am feeling here always at home among hospitable, soft-hearted and fair-minded people,” he said. “Today I had an opportunity to make sure of this looking at shining faces of people. I could not look into all the faces from under the umbrellas, but when I managed to look into the face I saw shining eyes filled with kindness and love,” the patriarch noted. “I heard welcoming words addressed to me. Therefore, my visit to Moldova is filled with this optimistic mood,” Patriarch Kirill underlined.04:16?10/10/2011Top NewsFire onboard Russian research vessel off Norway put out, October 10 (Itar-Tass) —— The fire, which broke out onboard the Russian research vessel Academician Lazarev, was put out, several crewmen from a 30-strong crew were evacuated, the chief of the Norwegian rescue team Asbjorn Viste said on Monday.The Russian research vessel gave the SOS signals on Sunday, 70 nautical miles northwest of Sor-Trondelag on the Atlantic coast.The Norwegian emergency authority dispatched the helicopters and several vessels, including the ship Ocean Sky from the Draugen oil platform and the firefighting vessel Far Seeker. High waves and strong winds hampered the rescue operation, the local authorities reported.The Academician Lazarev belongs to the joint stock company Sevmorneftegeophysics with the head office in Murmansk.18:29?09/10/2011ALL NEWSGuiana Space Centre starts preparing for Soyuz-ST-B launch, October 9 (Itar-Tass) —— The Guiana Space Centre has began preparing Russian Soyuz-ST-B launch vehicle for its first launch scheduled for October 20. The missile should put into the orbit two Galileo navigational satellites, Arianespace, France’s operator of Soyuz-ST told ARMS-TASS on Sunday."Our work continues according to schedule," head of operations at the Soyuz launch complex Jean-Claude Garreau said.Soyuz-ST-V rocket is completely assembled in horizontal position ahead of schedule in testing facility of Baikonur.Now the rocket may be taken to the launch pad and brought to the vertical position. In this position, Fregat-MT upper stage, two Galileo satellites and protective cover of the payload fairing will be docked to the rocket.Fregat-MT upper stage will be fuelled, and then engineers will begin installation of Galileo satellites.Russia to send 700-tonne ship to Mars moon in NovemberToday at 09:47 | Interfax-Ukraine Moscow - Space research is one of the key priorities of the Russian Space Agency, head of the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) Vladimir Popovkin said. "The first priority is to study the Solar System planets - Mars, Moon and others," Popovkin said during the governmental hour at the State Duma on Friday.The Phobos-Grunt space station is due to be launched to Phobos, one of the moons of Mars, in November, he said."The spacecraft will lift off from the Earth with 700 tonnes and go back to the Earth with 50 grams of useful soil. Can you imagine the difficulty of sending a human there," Popovkin said.The second important problem Roscosmos has been working on is studying remote galaxies, he said. Launches in 2013 will be performed in the X-ray spectrum, in 2015 in ultraviolet, and in 2017 in millimeters, Popovkin said.As regards the GLONASS program, the creation of ground infrastructure is currently the most important task, Popovkin said."Whereas today the accuracy is 5.6 meters, by 2015 we must reach a meter with the help of various additions," he said. Read more: Mufti Upset That 'Immoral' Actresses Attend Muslim Film Festival 10, 2011 KAZAN, Tatarstan -- Tatarstan's chief mufti says he sent a protest letter to the Russian republic's Culture Ministry about the "immoral background" of some actresses who attended the Muslim Film Festival held last month in Kazan, RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service reports.Mufti Ildus Faiz wrote in a letter to Culture Minister Airat Sibagatullin, which was also posted on the Russian Islamic University website, that Tatar religious officials did not take part in selecting the festival's films, as the ministry has claimed.Faiz also wrote that he objected to the fact that the winner for best actress at the festival, Sibel Kekilli from Germany, had previously had roles in X-rated films.The mufti also expressed displeasure with the choice of honored guests at the festival, saying that Russian actress Olga Kabo was one of the first movie stars to be filmed naked in Russia and therefore should not have been part of a festival that has "Muslim" as part of its official name.Faiz wrote that "either invite religious authorities to take part in the process of selecting the movies for the festival or exclude the word 'Muslim' from the event's name."Faiz declined to comment to RFE/RL regarding his letter, saying he is does not want to bring public attention to the matter.Tatar Deputy Culture Minister Guzal Nigmatullina was not available for comment regarding the ministry's statement that religious authorities took part in the selection of the films for the festival.Her representative told RFE/RL on October 7 that she was feeling sick and had gone to see a doctor.Read more in Tatar here Russia: Suspected anarchist guerilla released for now, October 10 2011 @ 12:41 AM CDTContributed by: AdminOn the 28th and 29th of September, 2011, four persons (two young men and two young women) were detained in Moscow, suspected of crimes under statute 213 part 2 (“hooliganism”) and statute 167 part 2 (“property destruction with arson”) of Russian criminal codex. They are suspected of having committed a bomb attack against traffic police station in 22th kilometre of Moscow ringroad 7th of June 2011, and arson against an excavator in construction site of Volokamski motorway 5th of June 2011.Russia: Suspected anarchist guerilla released for nowA statement by Anarchist Black Cross of Moscow:Suspected “anarchist guerilla” of Moscow released, but investigations are going on (Russia)On the 28th and 29th of September, 2011, four persons (two young men and two young women) were detained in Moscow, suspected of crimes under statute 213 part 2 (“hooliganism”) and statute 167 part 2 (“property destruction with arson”) of Russian criminal codex. They are suspected of having committed a bomb attack against traffic police station in 22th kilometre of Moscow ringroad 7th of June 2011, and arson against an excavator in construction site of Volokamski motorway 5th of June 2011. Police did not have any proof about participation of the arrested in these actions, and on the 3th of October all of them were released. Goal of the arrests was solely to pressure anarchists to give testimony with means of psychological and physical torture.Arrests, searches and interrogations were done as a common operation of UGRO (Criminal Investigation Department), FSB (ex-KGB / intelligence service) and Center E (Center for Counteraction Against Extremism). Also fifth search was committed, at home of anarchist K – his home was searched already second time this year Apparently K was not arrested as he managed to contact his lawyer, who was immediately available for interrogations.During arrests, mobile phones, computers (including those of relatives), digital medium, crossbow, kitchen knives, gasoline container (belonging to father of one of the arrested) were confiscated. Literature and leaflets were confiscated from K. Police claimed in their website, that a molotov cocktail was confiscated as well, but this was misinformation.A was arrested 28th of September, late in the evening. As he was returning home, three undercover officers who had been hiding in car disguised as paramedics, attacked him. He was taken to a forest by masked officers, who held him at a gunpoint and demanded him to give testimony against himself, and later on he was beaten up. Papers on his arrest were filled only the next day, and officially he was arrested only 29th of September.29th of September around 9:30 AM, B was arrested. Three undercover cops, who were also hiding in a car disguised as paramedics, jumped her from behind, without presenting any documents. B managed to wound two of them with a knife, but as wounds of the officers were not serious and legality of the arrest method was dubious at least, no charges were pressed against her. B turned 18 years old only few days before the arrests, and police was not hiding the fact that they consciously decided to move forward with the arrests only when B was not underage anymore.29th of September around 8 PM C was arrested at his home. FSB broke in to his house with help of local police. After arrest, C was also beaten up by the police. Conditions of the arrest of the fourth person are unknown.According to laws of the Russian federation, maximum period of arrest without a court decision is 48 hours. However, police bypassed these laws illegally by arresting suspected immediately after 48 hours by pressing other charges against them. Even original arrests were filled with false dates. Thus B spent in arrest all together 103 hours, without any court decisions.Right now, arrested are suspected of two criminal cases, but no charges have been pressed against them. Almost all of them have now lawyers, but funds are much needed for legal costs.If you want to donate for the lawyer costs, please visit Besides interrogations on arson and bomb attack, police has launched a wide effort to track down anarchist infrastructure and circle of friends of the arrested. As nobody was officially charged, it is much possible that new arrestes and searches will follow.Anarchist Black Cross of Moscow NewsBoeing 737 fails to take off from Tomsk because of hydraulic system failure, October 10 (Itar-Tass) —— A Boeing 737 operated by UTair airlines on Monday failed to take off from the Tomsk airport because of a malfunction of the hydraulic system, a source in the West Siberian transport prosecutor’s office told Itar-Tass.The plane was scheduled to take off from Tomsk for Moscow at 04:40 a.m. Moscow time, but a blinker signalled the failure of the hydraulic system, the source said.Passengers will be taken to Moscow by another plane.The transport prosecutor’s office has launched a check.05:52?10/10/2011ALL NEWSBaikal region launches investigation in Mi-8 emergency landing, October 10 (Itar-Tass) —— The Baikal Region launched an investigation into an emergency landing, which a helicopter Mi-8 had made in the Kyra district on Sunday. A committee of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations headed by the commander of the Russian emergency aviation Sergei Fyodorov arrived in Chita for the investigation.“The helicopter was damaged in a tough landing in the woody highlands about 100 kilometers away from Kyra,” Fyodorov told a press briefing in Chita. However, he noted “the qualified actions,” which the helicopter crew and the rescue team had taken. “There are several theories of the emergency landing, the final theory will be made public after the investigation,” he said.“The helicopter, which crash landed, is lying on its side,” said a helicopter commander Alexander Andronov, who evacuated the crew from the crashed helicopter. He also noted a difficult nighttime landing on a little plain in the rugged terrain. To help the crew from the crashed helicopter Andronov’s crew examined the landing site thrice and landed the helicopter only after that.The regional emergency situation service confirmed at a press briefing that the crew and passengers from the crash landed Mi-8 helicopter got no severe wounds.The emergency helicopter Mi-8 has made an emergency landing in the Baikal Region on October 9. The helicopter was carrying three crewmen and four staffers of the aerial forest protection service. Mi-8, which was patrolling and extinguishing the fires in the region, where the emergency is in effect since October 3, failed to get on the line at the scheduled time on Sunday. The helicopter was reported missing in the Kyra district in the Baikal Region. Then the helicopter’s location was detected near the town of Altan not far from the Mongolian border thanks to the emergency position-indicating radio beacon, which set off several times.Despite the nighttime another helicopter Mi-8 was dispatched to search for the missing helicopter and the ground search was launched. The search operation involved 15 machines and 113 people, including firemen, policemen, staffers from the aerial forest protection service, officials from the Kyra district authorities and other agencies. The search operation was complicated by the fact that the helicopter disappeared from the radar screens in the hard-to-reach taiga. The helicopter Mi-8 was found from the air at 5.09 p.m. Moscow time on Sunday. The Mi-8 crew and passengers were already brought at about 6.30 p.m. Moscow time to Chita.08:46?10/10/2011ALL NEWSQuake rocks Kamchatka’s eastern coast, no victims reported, October 10 (Itar-Tass) — An earthquake measuring 4.9 points on the Richter scale rocked the Avacha Bay, Kamchatka’s eastern coast.No victims or destructions were reported. No tsunami warning was issued, the Kamchatka office of the geophysical service of the Russia Academy of Sciences told Itar-Tass on Monday.The earth tremor was registered at 13:16 local time (05:16 Moscow time). The quake’s epicentre was located 142 kilometers east of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski. The focus was located at the depth of up to 70 kilometers.Tremors measuring 3-4 points were felt in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski.PRESS DIGEST - Russia - Oct 10 EDTMOSCOW, Oct 10 (Reuters) - The following are some of the leading stories in Russia's newspapers on Monday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.VEDOMOSTIvedomosti.ru- Russia's federal budget surplus in January-September of 2011 reached 1.09 trillion roubles ($34 billion), the daily says.- Russia's federal anti-monopoly service has opened investigations into oil companies TNK-BP and Bashneft over high petrol prices, the paper reports.- The number of Russians choosing Greece as a beach vacation destination grew 65 percent this January-September year-on-year, the paper writes.KOMMERSANTkommersant.ru- Russia and China will sign a memorandum on cooperation in modernization during Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's visit to Beijing this week, the paper writes.- Fifty-five percent of Russians expected Vladimir Putin to run for president next March, the daily quotes recent VTsIOM poll.- Police detained around 100 activists from far-right groups who tried to hold a rally on Saturday over the death of a Russian allegedly killed by an Azeri citizen, the paper writes.NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETAng.ru- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has become the leader of the United Russia party's list for the December parliamentary elections, the paper writes.($1 = 32.050 Russian Roubles) (Writing by Ludmila Danilova)Russian Press at a Glance, Monday, October 10, 2011 10/10/2011POLITICSRussian President Dmitry Medvedev met with representatives of the United Russia party for the first time since he and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced their plans to exchange jobs after the 2012 presidential elections. Medvedev, who will lead the party in the December 4 parliamentary polls, said “real action” was needed to improve Russians’ lives, and called on his party members to avoid being “heady with success.”(Kommersant, Nezavisimaya Gazeta)Veteran journalist Larry King met with Russian journalists and representatives of political and business elites during his visit to Moscow last week. (Kommersant, Moskovskiye Novosti)Russian billionaire Boris Ivanishvili has vowed to sell his assets in Russia in order to challenge Georgia’s governing party in the 2012 parliamentary polls. Where do Ivanishvili’s billions originate from? What are his Russian assets and how much do they cost?(Vedomosti) A Ukrainian court will begin announcing its verdict in the trial of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Tuesday. The trial has posed a serious threat to Ukraine’s integration with Europe. (Nezavisimaya Gazeta)Russia and Venezuela have signed an agreement on a $4 billion loan for the oil-rich Latin American country to buy Russian weapons. Experts say the loan is politically, not economically motivated. (Nezavisimaya Gazeta)?BUSINESSA lack of liquidity facing the Russian banking sector forces banks to increase their retail credit interest rates. (Kommersant)The Russian parliament’s lower house passed a bill on Friday allowing loan debtors to clear all due payments earlier than is stipulated by the contract without any sanctions. (Vedomosti) The unfavorable market situation is driving more and more Russian publicly traded companies to reacquire their own shares. Russian leading potash producer Uralkali has announced plans to spend up to $2.5 billion to require its stock.(Vedomosti)?SOCIETYSome 100 people were detained in downtown Moscow on Saturday during an unauthorized protest against the killing of a Russian football fan in early October. Protesters accused police of trying to cover up the crime, raising fears of a repetition of last year’s race-hate riots in Moscow. The suspected criminal, an Azeri national, has been put on the federal and Interpol wanted lists. (Kommersant)The government has introduced a bill in the Russian parliament’s lower house allowing people without passports to be expelled from Russia.? (Moskovskiye Novosti)OIL&GAZThe Russian Energy Ministry has introduced a bill to the government obliging oil companies to place at least 3 percent of crude oil and 15 percent of oil products on the commodity markets. Those violating the law would face restrictions on oil exports via Russian pipelines.(Kommersant)CRIMEAnarchists in the Moscow region set fire to more than a dozen cars in the past few days. Videos of the burning cars have been posted on the internet.(Moskovsky Komsomolets)??For more details on all the news in Russia today, visit our website at ambitious plans for Vladivostok Dermy, AFP October 10, 2011, 1:32 pm Vladivostok, the mythical terminus of the Trans-Siberian railway, is being turned upside down in a huge rebuilding project that aims to turn the city into the Russian Far East's answer to Istanbul or San Francisco.A city closed to foreigners under the Soviet Union due to its hosting of the Pacific Fleet, Vladivostok suffered after the USSR collapse as inhabitants left, buildings crumbled and it acquired a seedy reputation for mafia crime.But in one of the Kremlin's most wildly ambitious construction projects, the city currently resembles a vast building site as massive new hotel complexes, highways and two bridges are built to host a major summit in 2012.And as if welcoming leaders including the US president at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit was not enough, the meeting is due to be held on an island outside Vladivostok that has never been connected to the mainland.Russki Ostrov (Russian Island) has until now been a sleepy verdant area popular largely with daytrippers and nature lovers who make the journey by ferry.All that will change with the construction of the APEC conference facilities on the island and - the crowning glory of the entire project - a gigantic 1.9-kilometre bridge to connect it to the mainland.The authorities hope the bridge will become a symbol of the city and the Russian Far East."This will be our Golden Gate Bridge, like in San Francisco!" enthused Alexander Machevsky, the spokesman of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov who is the government's pointman for the project.Just one month after the summit is over, the new complex on the island will host Russia's Federal Far Eastern University and its 25,000 students.In the medium term, the university wants to attract some 35,000 students not just from all around Russia but also abroad, according to local Vladivostok official Alexei Moisseyenko.The project goes far beyond the works on Russki Ostrov. Some 43 kilometres of new highway are being built, currently causing horrific traffic jams, as well as a new airport terminal.A barely less ambitious bridge of 1.4 kilometres is also being built across Vladivostok's Golden Horn inlet which should relieve the city of the traffic congestion that has become a daily trauma for residents.Officials are proud to boast the city will be the Istanbul of the Far East, a regional hub replete with magnificent suspension bridges.The cost, naturally, is astronomical. The federal program sets out $US20 billion ($A20.5 billion) in spending but according to Moisseyenko even this is going to be overshot.Some 23,000 workers are now working round the clock to ensure that the facilities are finished on time, though strikes over unpaid wages have caused some delays.And in one bizarre incident this summer, Muslim migrant workers from ex-Soviet Central Asia downed tools in protest at not being allowed to bring alcohol onto the site to celebrate the end of the holy month of Ramadan.But the stakes are high. The ultimate aim of the project is to reverse a major population decline that risks harming Russia's hold on a region next door to a resurgent China.The project is championed by Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, keenly aware of the need to show the strength of Russia's Far East to its Asian neighbours.According to Machevsky, the authorities want to make the city a metropolis of one million people. Currently the population is 600,000.To reach this aim, massive investment is going to be needed. "We are hoping to attract 300 billion rubles ($A9.5 billion)) annually compared with 120 billion ($A3.8 billion)) at the moment," Sergei Darkin, the governor of the Primorye region of which Vladivostok is part, told AFP.The construction has caused inevitable controversy in the city but many residents are happy to acknowledge that Vladivostok's ramshackle infrastructure was in dire need of change."It's great for the development of the city," said one local, Larissa Kovalenko, 40. Viktor Chernikov, a pensioner, was also happy, even if he believed there was still a lot to be done."Now residential buildings need to be built," he said.Most controversial is the hosting of the APEC summit itself in September 2012, an event that will only last a few days yet is the main focus of the construction efforts."A huge sum has gone into the building on Russki Ostrov and the building of bridges that are going to be of little use except for the summit," said Natalya Zubarevich, expert at the Independent Institute of Social Policy."This money could have been spent in the reconstruction of the infrastructure of the city itself or in the service sector. Then Vladivostok would have had a chance to integrate itself within the Asia Pacific region."Future-oriented aim: 10 October, 2011, 07:02Edited: 10 October, 2011, 07:17 Kira Latukhina About three trillion rubles will be invested in the defense industry over the next 10 years. Russia will have an entirely new army and navy as they will be radically modernized. Complete re-armament will be carried out over the next 10 years. Last Friday Vladimir Putin turned 59 years old. He celebrated his birthday with family and friends. The guests from abroad included Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. “These were absolutely private visits,” Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, told Interfax. ?The head of government’s birthday was not free of his tight schedule – before celebrating the event with relatives, he held a meeting dedicated to the defense industry. Last year, Vladimir Putin spent October 7th at his “small motherland” in St. Petersburg – also working.??? ?It will be impossible to re-arm the military with existing resources. The defense industry complex is in need of extensive modernization. What this process requires was discussed at the meeting led by Putin. ?“If we want to have weapons that meet the needs of modern warfare and keep up with the challenges of the future, we need to address the question of updating the defense industry complex itself,” said Putin. “We have a solid foundation and a good workforce. The armament systems which we will be producing must not only be up-to-date, they need to be future-oriented,” he said.?? A lot of money has been invested in the domestic defense industry, and it is capable of producing advanced technologies, argues the prime minister. Last year, 75% of investments in defense enterprises went toward purchasing new equipment and a training program for young specialists had been created. “This is a good indicator that company and industry directors understand what’s at stake and are headed in the right direction,” said Putin. These are only the first steps he stressed. The fundamental modernization of 1,700 enterprises still lies ahead. Vladimir Putin recalled that profitability should be no less than 15%.????? ?“In other words, it is necessary to prepare the industry for large-scale mass production of advanced technologies and armament samples and military specifications which fully meet the needs of the Armed Forces in terms of quality and, just as importantly, price,” said Putin. The main tool used should be the federal target program “Development of the defense industry complex of the Russian Federation until 2020.”? “Naturally, during the re-armament of the army and the navy, the focus will be mainly on the domestic defense industry,” said the prime minister. “Over the next decade, we will need to invest about 3 trillion rubles in the defense industry complex – which is a colossal amount,” he said. Funds for technical re-equipment of defense industry enterprises have already been appropriated in the draft federal budget for 2012-2014. They amount to a total of 440 billion rubles.???? Vladimir Putin is confident that these investments will contribute to the modernization of the country as this has been the case at all times and in all countries: “As soon as large investments are made in the defense industry then, one way or another, they are indirectly reflected in the general technological level of the entire economy, stimulating the development of high-tech industries, including research and development work”.About 20% of funds will go toward R&D. A lot of money will also be allocated for the production of control and communication systems and creation of an electrical component base, without which creating modern weapons is impossible. “Moreover, we will support enterprises that are attracting funds and investments for industry renewal,” promised the chairman of the government. Starting from 2015, the government will subsidize interest on loans from Russian banks for projects associated with the development of the military industry complex.?????? ?The program needs to be adopted as soon as possible. “To my knowledge, the basic parameters have been coordinated between the state departments. All that remains are some technical details – they are also important, but these technical details need to be quickly resolved so we can put the end point,” concluded Vladimir Putin.Chavez’s cocuy advance: 10 October, 2011, 00:21Edited: 10 October, 2011, 07:20 Anastasia BashkatovaVenezuela will either pay Russia back with local moonshine or not pay back at all ?Russia has helped Venezuela with a loan $4 billion. Caracas will use the money to purchase Russian arms. In response, President Hugo Chavez promised Russia bananas and agave vodka. Nezavisimaya Gazeta’s (NG) experts believe that the Russian loan is political and not economic. Experts don’t deny that there is always, if not economic, then a political risk that Venezuela won’t return the money. The RF has an unfortunate experience. Since the 1990s, the country has written off nearly $100 billion for its borrowers. However, the current leadership considers Venezuela a useful friend, say experts. Therefore, the RF is a lot more willing to issue credit to Caracas than, for example, Minsk. Last week, Russia fueled its friendship with Venezuela with an additional loan. ?On Friday news agencies reported that Moscow had issued a $4 billion loan for “military and technical cooperation.” In 2012, the first half of the loan will be transferred to the Venezuelan budget, and in 2013 the second. According to President Hugo Chavez, the credit will provide an opportunity to re-arm the military, work on strengthening defense, and protect the country’s natural resources. Thus, the arms embargo which was imposed on Venezuela by the US in 2006 will not be an obstacle.?? The credit will be granted through the joint Russian-Venezuelan Bank. It was created several years ago in order to facilitate transactions with, Russia’s key partner in Latin America. Gazprom and VTB Bank hold 25% plus one share in the bank. The National Development Fund of Venezuela has 50% minus two shares.The $4 billion currently being allocated is not the only loan issued to Venezuela by Russia. In 2010 the RF helped Caracas with $2.2 billion. The money was issued for the purchase of Russian T-72S tanks and air defense artillery. Between 2005 and 2007 Venezuela purchased at least $4 billion worth of military equipment from Russia. It included Sukhoi Su-30MK multi-functional fighter aircraft, military helicopters and small arms. Now, the shopping list includes ZSU 23x4 anti-aircraft guns, portable mortars and armored personnel carriers.?????? ?The Russian-Venezuelan Bank not only specializes in issuing loans to Caracas, but also in funding joint projects. In future, China is likely to get involved in this process. The parties plan to open a representative branch in Beijing. ?In the meantime, Caracas is discussing plans to create a joint banana growing venture with Moscow. In addition to a banana paradise, Chavez promised Russia an alternative to vodka – a national alcoholic drink from agave cocuy. He asked Russian deputy prime minister, Igor Sechin, to consider the possibility of accepting Venezuela’s firewater export.?? Chavez is also developing the idea of creating a new oil cartel, similar to OPEC. The “new OPEC” will be open exclusively to oil giants, and not more than four to five countries. Chavez expressed this idea on Thursday, during the Russian delegation’s visit to Venezuela, which was headed by Igor Sechin and energy minister Sergey Shmatko. Russia’s reaction to Chavez’s proposal has not been reported.??? Experts interviewed by NG are confident that the reason for Russia’s loan allocation to Venezuela is not economic, but political.“Money, in this case, is not being allocated out of commercial, but political, interests. It is to support the Venezuelan regime, which is friendly to Russia in general, as well as a number of Russian companies close to the Russian government,”says Sergey Karaganov, chairman of the Presidium of the Foreign and Defense Policy Council.At the same time, the president of the Politika Fund, Vyacheslav Nikonov, says that Russia has not been repaid all the loans it allocated to developing countries. Since the 1990s, Russia has been forced to write off $100 billion in loans. According to press reports, the written-off debt includes nearly $5 billion for Ethiopia, $5 billion for Algeria, $10 billion for Vietnam, almost the same amount for Syria, and slightly more for Mongolia, as well as more than $11 billion for Afghanistan. In 2008, Russia wrote off about $12 billion of Iraq’s debt as well as nearly $5 billion of Libyan debt. Debt relief for North Korea, to the amount of $11 billion, was considered. Most often the reason for debt cancellation was either regime change or the economic collapse of the regime, sometimes due to outside intervention. Against this background, the loan to Venezuela seems to be too risky for some observers.???????????? “Venezuela’s financial solvency is undeniable. This year, based on the new statistics of proven world oil reserves, Venezuela came in first – surpassing Saudi Arabia and Russia,” says Nikonov. “In this country, however, which is under US pressure, various political upheavals are of course possible. And this loan does have an element of political risk.”? “There is a risk that Russia’s money will disappear or will not be fully repaid in the event of Venezuela’s economic collapse or sudden regime change,” agrees Karaganov. However, he adds that the loan is being allocated for Venezuela’s subsequent arms purchases and not the country’s budget; therefore, ideally, there will not be any major problems. ?In addition to Venezuela, Russian loans are sought by the neighboring countries, towards which Russia has a discriminate approach. In the summer of 2011, an agreement was signed with Belarus for the allocation of $3 billion over four years from the EurAsEC Anti-Crisis Fund. Most of the money was to be provided by the RF. Minsk is expected to receive the first tranche, to the amount of $1.2 million, before the end of this year.But after Belarus’s introduction of import restrictions, the future of the second tranche came under question. First, Russia’s Finance Ministry indicated that Minsk could be deprived of the promised loan before promising that this would not happen. However, nothing is standing in Russia’s way of again lashing out against Belarus.??? The problems is, say experts, the fact that the Belarusian economy can no longer exist without external borrowing, and there are no attempts to change the situation. In addition to that, economic issues are mixed with the political. Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko’s constant verbal attacks on Russia do not go unnoticed. “It is in Russia’s interests to see regime change in Belarus as it often conducts an anti-Russian policy,” says Karaganov. “And we can have any approach to the Chavez regime, but as far as I understand, Russia’s current leadership believes Chavez is more useful for us.”Russia Profile Weekly Experts Panel: Reactions to Putin’s and Medvedev’s Decision to Rule Russia by Vladimir Frolov Russia Profile 10/07/2011 Contributors: Patrick Armstrong, Vladimir Belaeff, Alexandre StrokanovAlthough it is not the custom of the Experts Panel to dwell on the same subject as the week before, Vladimir Putin’s and Dmitry Medvedev’s decision to trade places and continue to rule Russia for the next decade or two remains the hottest political subject in the country, and, as the events of the past week have demonstrated, requires additional analysis. How severe is the legitimacy crisis that the Kremlin has unleashed with the tandem’s decision to trade places? Does it threaten the political stability in Russia? Could it lead to mass street protests, as Russians feel betrayed and duped by their leaders?It appears that the tandem’s decision to rule this land did not go down well, and even encountered ridicule and open resistance. It has been criticized and laughed at in the media, including on federal television channels. It has unleashed a wave of pessimism among the educated and well-off urban middle class. And, most importantly, it has encountered open resistance within Russia’s ruling elites, with former Finance Minister and one of Putin’s closest associates, Alexei Kudrin, openly questioning Medvedev’s authority and signaling that he did not wish to be part of the new regime. Both Putin and Medvedev have been savaged in the Russian blogosphere and in Western media. The tandem has obviously been stunned by such a negative public reaction.On Friday night, Medvedev had to give a hastily prepared interview to major Russian news channels, in which he sought to explain his decision to step down as president and promised major reforms and a completely new line up of government were he to become prime minister next year. But he sounded lame and defensive, arguing implausibly that the tandem’s decision did not deprive Russians of their democratic choice and that the 2011 and 2012 election results were not preordained. This only aggravated the bad feelings that Russians have begun to harbor toward their rulers.It appears now that the Kremlin has a full-blown legitimacy crisis on its hands that could seriously undermine the authority of the new president (Putin) and the new prime minister (Medvedev).Two things have particularly incensed the Russian public. One was Putin’s decision to return as president for life in a system of unchecked, highly personalized power (putting Russia instantly in the ranks of such “ancient” regimes as Alexander Lukashenko’s Belarus, Nursultan Nazarbaev’s Kazakhstan, or Islam Karimov’s Uzbekistan). This has been perceived as a signal that under Putin, Russia would not be modernizing, but rather de-modernizing, with no meaningful political and market reforms. Many have compared Putin to late Soviet rulers, like Stalin and Brezhnev. A widely circulated photoshop portrait of a graying Putin in Brezhnev’s military uniform, ablaze with decorations, neatly summed up the expectations many Russians have toward 12 more years of Putin’s rule.The second grievance deals with Medvedev and Putin misleading the public about the deal to keep trading places which they made in 2007 when they created the tandem. It appears that Medvedev, even more than Putin, has been exposed as a cynical liar who has never been a real president and never intended to become one, content with temporarily warming the seat for the real owner of the franchise. Some critics in the blogosphere have even contended that Medvedev may have violated the Constitution when he took the oath of office, knowing full well that he was just faking the presidency. Indeed, the term “fake” has become a widely accepted characterization of Medvedev, signaling the dramatic loss in his political credibility and popular opprobrium due to his weakness as a dependent ruler.Medvedev’s most ardent critics are his recent supporters among the liberal intelligentsia, political pundits and even some business leaders. They have experienced a sense of betrayal in Medvedev’s decision to step down without competing with Putin, and criticized Medvedev for faking the liberal democratic impulses he has sought to promote during his presidency. To them, Medvedev appeared as insincere, deceptive, weak and selfish.Another credibility crisis seems to have engulfed United Russia, which learned only a week before that it has a new electoral leader and possibly a new leader of the party itself – Medvedev – while Putin managed to distance himself from United Russia, which he still formally leads. All of this happened without any internal party debate or even informal consultations with the party elders. It showed the Russian public that United Russia had nothing to do with the actual governing or influencing key decisions in state policy. United Russia was exposed as another major fake (something many in Russia suspected long before, but which has never been put on such public display).The Kremlin now faces a situation where Russia’s key institutions – the presidency, the government and the majority party – have been exposed as subterfuges to the highly personalized power of Vladimir Putin, Russia’s national leader. Only Putin has authority and only Putin has real power. Everything else seems to be a legalistic and PR smokescreen.How severe is the legitimacy crisis that the Kremlin has unleashed with the tandem’s decision to trade places? Does it threaten the political stability in Russia? Could it lead to mass street protests, as Russians feel betrayed and duped by their leaders? How will it impact the results of the parliamentary elections of 2011 and the presidential election of 2012? Could United Russia lose its constitutional majority in the Duma or even the simple majority of 226 seats? Has Medvedev’s reputation been irreparably damaged, or does he have a shot at redemption? How will the plunge in his political credibility affect his chances of being appointed Russia’s prime minister or his capability to run a government of modernizers, as he has promised to do?Patrick Armstrong , Patrick Armstrong Analysis, Ottawa, CanadaTo my mind, the shock and disappointment was not that Putin would run for president, but Medvedev’s admission that this had always been the plan. Was Medvedev ever truly president, or was he only a seat-warmer? At the least, Putin and Medvedev could have run against each other, giving Russians a more serious choice than they had between the establishment and Gennady Zyuganov and Vladimir Zhirinovskiy. But instead, we have this hole-in-the-corner decision that makes a mockery of Medvedev’s oath of office. Will any president of Russia be taken seriously by anyone while Putin lives?The next shock is the damage Putin has done to his own cause. Remember his famous statement that Russia should be a “dictatorship of the law?” I read this at the time as an intention to build a rule-of-law state. Or at least a rule-of-rules state: clear rules for all to understand and clear and fair punishment for those who break them. But hasn’t he just shown that while there may be a written set of rules, they aren’t the real rules? His return shows that not even he believes the political structure he erected on the ruins of the Soviet Union and the 1990s can work without his hand on the tiller. And to say nothing of making Russia look like another president-for-life-istan, I thought Putin was more patriotic. It’s almost an admission of failure.I know many Russians welcome the decision and some argue that, in the potentially difficult times coming both in Russia and outside, it is better that Putin’s proven hand be on the tiller. Others argue that this will allow a new and more effective stab at the modernization that Russia needs. Maybe. History does show very few examples of leaders who never lost their creativity and authority, and it seems that Putin thinks he’s one of them. But most presidents-for-life are a drag on their country: eventually they clog up with sycophants and complacency.He will be elected – there’s little doubt of that. And it will be a popular choice requiring no fixing by the Kremlin. He is still extremely popular, and for good reason. There will be no rioting in the streets and only protests by the people who protest anyway. Stories of mass emigration are fantasies. But what about six years later? Or twelve?And the outside world will do business with him; some are even relieved that they know who the real boss is. But the anti-Russia crowd, already strangely obsessed with Putin, will be given a fresh wind and will go on shouting that Russia is just a dictatorship: always was and always will be. Will we see more NATO expansion? More “colored revolutions?” More hysteria over the “energy weapon?” Missiles in the neighborhood?Putin could truly have been the George Washington of his country. Establishing it, settling it, guiding it and then setting the precedent that two terms are enough for any mortal. That would have been a true service to a country that has seen too much one-man rule. His successors, like Washington’s, would have respected the example for decades. Instead, we have the rule that the leader is the leader until death carries him off.It’s a disappointing and shabby decision.Alexandre Strokanov, Professor of History, Director of Institute of Russian Language, History and Culture, Lyndon State College, Lyndonville, VTI would not necessarily agree that the general public’s reaction to this announcement was negative. I will say that it was a rather expected decision, and people in the country accepted it as the right choice which was finally made.It is absolutely correct that Medvedev’s most ardent critics today were his supporters a few days ago, who have now run away and abandoned him as soon as it became clear that he will vacate the Kremlin next year. Actually, the same happened with the liberal supporters of their previous role model, Boris Yeltsin, when it became obvious that his days were numbered.Indeed, this is a perfect reflection of the fact that the so-called liberals were those people who wished to split up the tandem, and obviously failed. It is also interesting that while Medvedev reacted to a statement made by Aleksei Kudrin, he absolutely ignored a tweet from his own adviser, Arkady Dvorkovich. Why do we see such selective discipline enforcement on the president’s behalf?What is obvious in this story is that the presidential administration failed miserably in dealing with the transition. Of course, it would have looked much better if the decision to trade places came from the United Russia and was not presented as a long-time done deal between these two leaders, who act without even consulting the country’s dominant party. The fact that words about a “deal” slipped Medvedev’s tongue suggests how inexperienced he still is in real politics; it is obviously a serious political mistake.Dmitry Medvedev was absolutely honest in the television interview and it is absolutely correct that Putin is more popular among Russian people and within United Russia. This is exactly what should have been said at the congress, and not words about the “deal.” It would have been much better if the question about who will be the candidate from United Russia was discussed at the congress and a democratic vote took place. Meanwhile, I think if delegates of the congress were allowed to speak freely, the overwhelming majority would have probably expressed their support for Putin. Of course, it would have made Medvedev feel bad, but this is a real democracy and this is exactly what happened between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton at the primaries: Obama won because he was more popular than Clinton. Such primaries could have taken place at the United Russia congress.Medvedev’s interview with three major television channels was good in one more respect. He is absolutely right to say that the results of the State Duma elections in December are not pre-ordained. His political future will depend on these results, at least with respect to his ability to occupy the position of Russia’s prime minister in 2012. However, his more distant career, of course, depends more on his compatibility with Putin.Vladimir Belaeff, Global Society Institute, San Francisco, CAWhat we have is a community of people who are a priori against Putin, who are now angry and declaring in many diverse ways that they are against Putin. It is indicative that they assume Putin will be elected president in 2012, i.e. they recognize that Putin is highly popular with the majority of the Russian electorate.Now the old hatred against Putin has been joined by newer anger with Medvedev. It seems that an imaginary President Medvedev disappointed the Putin-hating community, and then a real Medvedev appeared, who (surprise?) worked with Putin for nearly two decades before the presidency and reiterated, once again, the strategic and tactical harmony of the two gentlemen. The Putin-Medvedev collaboration had been public for years and was demonstrated many times by the principals themselves. How the Putin-haters managed to invent and believe in a Medvedev – a secret adversary of Putin – remains a topic for study by social psychologists. There may be evidence of significant mental disarray in this delusion.The Putin- and Medvedev-haters are an articulate and very vocal community, with easy access to diverse media and sources of expression inside Russia. They will also get very friendly platforms among the Western media, which share their beliefs. Whether these protestors will have a real political impact on Russian elections remains very questionable. United Russia nominated Putin for the presidency in the 2012 elections for one important reason: he is truly popular, electable, and likely to win. One would be very surprised if the party would not have nominated him. Imagine the U.S. Democratic Party not nominating Franklin Roosevelt or John Kennedy, or the Republican Party not nominating Dwight Eisenhower or Ronald Reagan. Every political party nominates those candidates who are most likely to win – this is basic.The real problem that Putin-haters have is that they just cannot generate alternative candidates and programs that are sufficiently competitive for voters in Russia. This objective reality must be faced soberly and rationally – without emotion. We have commented about this many times in recent months.Just like Washington D.C. has its Beltway, Moscow has its Garden Ring (Sadovoye Koltso, of much smaller circumference than the Beltway). Much of the anti-Putin-Medvedev extravaganza happens within the Garden Ring. What may seem like a sweeping wave of protests is a storm in a teacup when taken in relation to Russia as a whole. Of course, those who like to believe in the mass appeal of ideas to which they themselves adhere would happily exaggerate the impact of the declarations with which they agree in principle. Finally, in the spirit of mental hygiene and inner peace, one would like to remind Putin-haters that hate, especially of the unrequited kind (Putin seems supremely indifferent to the abuse directed at him), harms the haters’ minds and corrodes their souls. In the words of the immortal Voltaire, one would recommend that, instead of hating Putin and Medvedev, they follow Candide’s final advice and “cultivate their own gardens” – or simply mind their own business.Back to the U.S.S.R. Putin’s intention to return to the Kremlin has opposition critics warning that the country is reverting to Soviet times. But is that what Russia secretly wants? by Owen Matthews ?| October 10, 2011 1:00 AM EDT When the history of Russia’s next revolution is written, Vladimir Putin’s decision last month to return to the Kremlin will surely mark the point where it all began. Before the prime minister’s announcement of his 2012 presidential bid, Russia had a chance—a slim one—of eventually becoming a functional democracy where regimes change through the ballot box. With Putin’s return, Russia tips inexorably toward becoming just another petro-dictatorship whose regime is propped up by oil money and repression. This is a fateful moment in Russian history, because suddenly it’s more likely that change, when it does come, will arrive from outside, not inside, the system. “Revolution is now inevitable,” says blogger and anti-corruption campaigner Alexey Navalny. “Maybe in five months, maybe in two years, maybe in seven years.”After the Putin news broke, Photoshop jokers posted images of Putin in 2024—the date when his likely two next presidential terms will come to an end—as a jowly, Brezhnev-like figure in a uniform studded with self-awarded medals. “The return of Putin means long years of Brezhnev-style stagnation,” says Eduard Boyakov, director of Moscow’s avant-garde Praktika Theater. The parallel is an apt one. After the oil crisis of 1973, the Soviet Union, then as now the world’s biggest oil producer, was flush with cash that covered up the catastrophic dysfunction of the Soviet economy and allowed the Communist Party elite to enrich itself. Apparatchiks pretended to believe in the lofty principles of communism as they built themselves villas and rode luxury yachts. Meanwhile, the KGB ruthlessly squashed any signs of opposition and rewarded conformist writers and filmmakers with places at the trough. Substitute “democracy” for “communism” and “FSB” for “KGB,” and you’re back to the future.Pity the outgoing President Dmitry Medvedev and those who believed in his reformist message. Like the tragic hero from a Russian novel, Medvedev saw his country’s doom all too clearly—but was unable, or unwilling, to do anything about it. “Should Russia continue to drag into the future our primitive raw-materials economy, endemic corruption, and inveterate habit of relying on the state, foreign countries or some all-powerful doctrine to solve our problems?” Medvedev wrote on the Kremlin’s blog in the early days of his presidential career. Yet instead of fixing the problem by jailing corrupt officials and stimulating real economic growth, Medvedev just talked. During his four years in power, corruption grew to a staggering one third of Russia’s GDP, or $300 billion a year, according to Russia’s Anti-Corruption Committee, an NGO. At the same time, resentment of thieving bureaucrats and dysfunctional government has only grown. Polls show that Russians harbor a deep distrust of just about every state institution, from the police (distrusted by 78 percent of the population) to bureaucrats (a whopping 99 percent of respondents said they didn’t believe officials’ income declarations).“There is a huge negative energy among the public ready to explode any moment,” says Gennady Gudkov, a former KGB colonel and Duma deputy from the opposition Fair Russia party. “To relieve this increasing aggression Russia urgently needs free debate—but that will weaken the Kremlin.” In other words, Putin and his circle have “eaten so much power and money” that they can’t afford to allow real democracy or dissent for fear of being brought to account—and losing their money and freedom. “Reform is dangerous for Putin,” says Gudkov. “Because he is the creator of the system and he is now its hostage.”Medvedev, in a particularly cruel piece of political theater, announced the end of his career in front of orchestrated crowds at the annual conference of United Russia, Putin’s pet party. But even more cruel was Medvedev’s admission that he and Putin had agreed as early as 2007 that the older man would return in 2012 (the Russian Constitution bans more than two consecutive presidential terms, so Putin stood down in 2008). Putin loyalists like Nikita Borovikov, the leader of the pro-Kremlin Nashi youth movement, are delighted at the return of a “super-effective manager who is focused on the needs of society”—and at the end of Medvedev’s experiment with liberalism. Nashi also seems to welcome a return to the cult of personality. To celebrate Putin’s 59th birthday last week, 1,500 Nashi members lined up and sang a birthday song to please him.It’s likely that Putin 2.0 will be, if anything, more repressive that the first version. “Nobody changes at the age of 60; Putin will eventually develop into a tougher dictator and run Russia the way [Hosni] Mubarak ran Egypt or [Muammar] Gaddafi Libya,” says former deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov, now an opposition leader. “Russia is entering a destructive stage of its history that will cause the country to fall apart.” Last week, in what looked very much like a manifesto for his third and fourth terms, Putin published an article calling for a “Eurasian Union” based on Russia’s fledgling customs union with Belarus and Kazakhstan. Medvedev tried to talk up democracy and reform—but polls show that the general public would prefer to go back to the U.S.S.R. Russians overwhelmingly favor “order” over democracy by nearly five to one. And the corrupt practices of Duma parties in the 1990s—high jinks like selling parliamentary seats to mafia bosses, for instance, or voting to give themselves apartments, cars, and sinecures—gave democracy itself a bad name. An attempt by Medvedev’s team to create a pseudoliberal party headed by oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov this summer was summarily stamped out by Putin loyalists. It was a clear signal that more dissent would not be tolerated.“We are going to see a different Putin from the Putin we saw in 2000 or 2008,” says Alexei Venediktov, the director of the radio program Echo of Moscow, who interacts with Putin personally on a regular basis. “I can see that an authoritarian style of rule is closer to him than any other.” He also remains, very firmly, a Homo Sovieticus. Putin famously doesn’t use a computer and, says Venediktov, “despises” the Internet because it “enlarges the zone of free thought for Russian society and changes people.” As for the media, Putin sees it as “an instrument of a dictator’s communication with the public.”Why, if his instincts are so authoritarian, does Putin bother with maintaining the charade of democracy at all? Those who know him well say that one reason he remains attached to the forms—though obviously not the practice—of democracy is sentimental. It’s easy to forget that for all his later crackdowns on liberty, Putin was originally the protégé of two great Russian democrats, St. Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak and President Boris Yeltsin, and remains a close personal friend of the Yeltsin family. Paying lip service to democracy is part of Putin’s “personal moral debt” to the men who put him in power, according to one former member of the Yeltsin inner circle who remains close to Putin.As for the practicalities of Russia’s fake democracy, look no further than East Germany, where Putin spent the formative years of his KGB career in the 1980s. The Democratic Republic of Germany had political parties, contested elections, and a Parliament—all under the watchful eye of the Communist Party, who approved all “parties” and candidates. As the German Communist leader Walter Ulbricht put it, “Everything has to look democratic, but it should be under our control.” Putin took that principle very much to heart. Vanity, too, plays a part. Being a member of the world’s top democratic club is a key part of the self-image of Russia’s leaders. To keep Russia’s place at the top table of the G8, Russia needs to preserve at least a semblance of democracy.What Putin doesn’t rate is the real utility of democracy—a safety valve for social tension and a mechanism for essential feedback on government policy. As Medvedev put it, “Democracy is not an abstract value, it’s an effective management system.” Putin apparently disagrees. Real democracy—along with a free press and independent courts—would allow corrupt and incompetent officials to potentially be brought to account. That would clearly undermine the very basis of Putin’s power, built on a vertically integrated pyramid of bureaucrats who pass money up the chain and receive protection in return. Hence the “managed” democracy cooked up by Kremlin ideologues early in the Putin era, guided by the words of Ulbricht.A real opposition that refuses to cooperate with the Kremlin still exists but is tiny and marginal and hasn’t had any seats in the Duma for years. Figures like former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov, and former deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov are banned from state-owned TV channels, their parties poll in single digits, and their meetings are regularly busted up by overwhelming police force. More effective dissent has been achieved by people with no explicit political agenda—ecological activist Yevgenia Chirikova, for instance, who successfully led a rebellion of Muscovites against the clear-cutting of a greenbelt forest to make way for a new road. Or the blogger Navalny, who began publishing documents and details of outrageous government corruption, and whose site now attracts leaks, information, and donations from hundreds of thousands of citizens disgusted by the thieving of government employees.Meanwhile, the authorities’ attempts to bump up United Russia’s poll numbers in the run-up to Duma elections in December range from the farcical to the grotesque. Cheesy publicity stunts have been cooked up: a “Congress of Blondes,” for instance, is to be held in the Kremlin’s favorite resort city of Sochi in support of Putin. Support has been drummed up in true Soviet style: last month 200 students of Moscow’s Maimonides State Jewish Academy found themselves lined up in a concert hall. The rector asked all those “brave enough” to refuse joining Putin’s All-Russia People’s Front to step forward and explain their reasons to the whole university. Only 15 did.Many members of the elite—including senior members of the government—realize that crushing dissent is foolish and self-defeating. “A crackdown will sooner or later make people want to revolt,” says Sen. Alexander Pochinok. “To avoid that it would be logical to have normal democratic elections—everybody in the Kremlin understands that.”But what’s really shocking is how many Russians—even smart, educated ones—welcome the idea of Putin’s return. Indeed, the key disconnect between Russians and foreigners lies in this: seen from the West, Russia could be so much better. Seen from Russia, through the wreckage of empire and totalitarianism, it could be so much worse. “Probably we do not have perfect democracy, but we do have a kind of democracy, albeit with our own national characteristics,” says United Russia Duma deputy Robert Schlegel, the youngest Duma member and a former Nashi commissar. “Only 20 years ago we had a totalitarian regime in Russia. If we let people decide who they want to rule them, the majority would choose Stalin.”The depressing thing is that Schlegel is probably right. In 2009, during an infamous TV phone-in to select the Hero of Russia, Stalin was chosen by a wide margin (the true results were suppressed on Kremlin orders). Debating why the Russian people are so allegedly backward, masochistic, and reactionary has been a favorite dinner-table conversation topic among Russia’s intelligentsia for a couple of centuries now, with no definitive answer in sight. Dmitry Oreshkin, an independent analyst, puts Russia’s political development “somewhere between a stone age of slaves and the developed feudalism with weak signs of the first bourgeoisie.” But the point is that it remains an article of faith among today’s elite that Russia’s people are, in the words of one minister close to Putin, “not ready” to be given real power. “Look what happened in 1993 and 1995,” he says: two years when Russian voters elected rabid ultranationalists and then Communists into Parliament.Above all, Putin’s return is an admission that post-Soviet Russia has failed to create functional state institutions. It’s also the sign of a failure of nerve—when confronted with even as small a challenge as Prokhorov’s tame liberals, Putin’s circle panicked. Clearly, the system Putin created is incapable of bearing even a few pounds per square inch of real dissent. Putin’s return changes nothing about the way Russia is run today. But the return of Russia’s once and future tsar changes everything about Russia’s future—which now bears a chilling resemblance to its past, repression and revolution included.Russian political life far from Putin and Kremlin Kathy Lally, Monday, October?10, 2:20?AM NIZHNY TAGIL, Russia — In far-off Moscow, the authorities are fond of suggesting that only a spoiled elite in the capital carp about eroding freedoms, controlled elections and a gloom they compare to the later days of the Soviet Union.“There are people who think that the atmosphere in the country is suffocating,” Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, told television interviewers last week, “while others want three percentage points off their taxes to get their farm going.”Those others presumably toil in places such as Nizhny Tagil, an industrial city of about 360,000 on the eastern side of the Ural Mountains. Here, people have been rallying against high gas prices, not the political maneuvering in Moscow.They are indeed practical, but they have their dreams.Over the summer, a 24-year-old high-school dropout and former convict named Yegor Bychkov began living his.In July, the billionaire owner of the New Jersey Nets, Mikhail Prokhorov, invited Bychkov to Moscow. They sat in an office near the helicopter pad where Prokhorov was about to whirl off, drinking coffee and talking politics.With the Kremlin’s blessing, Prokhorov was attempting to build an inert party called Right Cause and provide a political home for disenchanted liberal voters. He quickly, however, ventured beyond the slogans and sound bites the Kremlin — which espouses managed democracy — had imagined by spending time sizing up local heroes such as Bychkov, who had run a detox center.In August, Prokhorov asked the young man to run on his ticket for the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, in December. Bychkov was inspired. He saw a way for an ordinary person to start changing this huge country.Prokhorov is “a patriot,” Bychkov said. “He lives in Russia and he wants to do something to make it better. There aren’t many oligarchs like him left.”A month later, the political career that Prokhorov began in June was over, upended by Kremlin machinations. He went back to his business amid public observations that the episode was a powerful reminder of the authorities’ refusal to brook any political independence.But Bychkov remains, now filled with new aspirations.Heavy hand of police When he was 15, Bychkov dropped out of school and headed to the oil and gas city of Surgut, more than 500 miles away in Siberia. He worked at odd jobs there for two years. After returning home, he ended up running a branch of the City Without Drugs foundation established by Yevgeny Roizman, who became a Prokhorov political ally.Last October, Bychkov was sentenced to 31 / 2 years in prison on charges of kidnapping drug addicts. The news provoked powerful — and rare — public outrage. At his bare-bones detox center, addicts were often restrained as they dried out, and treated with prayer and fasting. Maybe he was misguided, people said, but since when did the police care about heroin addicts? There had to be another reason.President Dmitry Medvedev ordered an examination of the case. Even the nation’s tough drug czar, former KGB man Viktor Ivanov, sympathized. Bychkov’s sentence was soon suspended, and he emerged from prison a different person.“I realized I had no future, no education, no car, no apartment,” he said, “only a criminal record and a $10,000 debt.”A year after his release,he is close to getting his high school degree and wants to enter the university and study law. He has a job writing a column for an independent newspaper, the Tagil Variant. In politics, he said, he could get the government to do the work it should be doing, such as treating drug addicts.Bychkov said his prison record wouldn’t hurt him, considering the constituency here. “We have more prisons here than theaters,” he said, “two movie theaters, two dramatic theaters — and six prisons.”Eyeing the future Like many Russian cities, Nizhny Tagil is trying to push toward the future while being pulled back by the past. Streams of yellow and gray smoke swirl over the city from Soviet-era metal factories, still the heart of the local economy.It’s no Moscow, where, Peskov said, people sit in expensive restaurants, eating $35-a-plate Italian meals and fretting about the fate of the country.On Newspaper Street, the staff of Tagil Variant tries to put out an unvarnished paper, tactfully. “The head of the press service of the city administration visited,” said Valery Klimtsev, the director, “and said, ‘Please, no surrealism. No freedom of speech.’?”Around the corner on Karl Marx Street, elderly women stand, selling fur hats and woolen mittens.Outside town, Yelena Barabadze, 50, is walking to the store for bread. She’s dismayed by the way the authorities are controlling the election process.Eventually things will change, she said, but probably not for her generation.Bychkov can wait. The next State Duma elections are in five years. By then, he’ll have a college degree. And he’ll only be 29 years old.National Economic TrendsOctober 10, 2011 11:36Russia ups Jan-Aug trade surplus 18.6% to $137.2 bln - customs (Part 2). Oct 10 (Interfax) - Russia ended August with an eight-month foreign trade surplus of $137.2 billion, up 18.6% over Jan-Aug of last year, according to Federal Customs Service (FCS) figures.Russia did $526.4 billion worth of trade during those eight months, a 35.5% year-on-year increase. Trade turnover with countries outside the Commonwealth of Independent States increased 34.6% to $447 billion, and trade with CIS countries was up 40.8% at $79.4 billion.The country's balance of trade with non-CIS countries was $116.1 billion (up $17.3 billion) and with CIS countries - $21.1 billion (up $4.2 billion.Russia's exports were worth $331.8 billion in Jan-Aug, up 31.6% year-on-year. That included $281.5 billion in exports to non-CIS countries (up 30.6%) and to CIS countries - $50.3 billion (up 47.5%).Russia's imports amounted to $194.6 billion in Jan-Aug, 42.6% more year-on-year. The country imported $165.5 billion worth of goods from non-CIS states (up 41.8%) and $29.1 billion worth from the CIS (up 47.5%).Cf(Our editorial staff can be reached at eng.editors@interfax.ru)Debt levels spiraling 9, 2011Russia's public debt rose by 71.6% between January 2009 and July 1, 2011 to reach RUB4.6 trillion, whilst domestic debt increased 2.4 times, the Chamber of Accounts revealed on October 4, reports Moskovskiye Novosti. Those levels of debt are only likely to increase in the near term however. The draft budget for 2012-2014 provides for doubling public debt. At the same time, Russia's domestic debt as of September 1, 2011 equalled RUB3.7 trillion and may increase to RUB9.2 trillion by 2015, according to the Finance Ministry. Currently Russia's foreign debt equals $36.9bn and the government plan is to limit the increase to $69bn by 2015. However, the debt/GDP ratio are still, "far from the ceiling values", says the Chamber of Accounts, which has been set at a very modest - by international standards - 25%. The current public debt equals about 9% of GDP. In 2012, it will not exceed 16%.The ratio of annual expenses for the repayment and servicing of public debt to revenues of the federal budget is currently running at a modest 6.2%, although this is expected to rise to 10.5% next year and then to 12.3% in 2014, the chamber said. The share of debt in the form of securities has increased from 72.8% to 80.7% in 2009-2011. The remainder is direct debt to other countries and financial institutions.Kommersant: Private banks’ loans grow more expensive, state not concerned October 2011 | 08:14 | FOCUS News AgencyHome / WorldMoscow. Threats about lack of liquidity, which is hanging over the Russian banking sector after the closure of the foreign capital markets, forces the banks to hike the interest rates on the loans for the small enterprises. Eight out of the twenty biggest banks increased the interests or are getting ready to do it in case the situation continues aggravating, Russian Kommersant daily writes.After the corporate loans started growing more expensive, now it’s turn for those aimed for smaller companies. Several big banks announced interest hike almost simultaneously. Russian Railways keeps insisting on privatising a 25% stake in TransContainer CapitalOctober 10, 2011News: Vedomosti has quoted a letter from President of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin to First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov (dated 4 October), asking to sell 25% stake in TransContainer during the upcoming auctionOur View: Russian Railways has been insisting on the sale of 25% for quite a while. In turn, the Ministry for Economic Development and Ministry of Transport have said that it would be more rational to sell 50% in the company. Last week, the Ministry for Economic Development once again reiterated its position to sell 50% + 2 shares after discussion with potential bidders in the Ministry at the end of September. Participating in the discussion were FESCO, UCL Holding, Globaltrans and Summa. In our view, selling a 50% stake would be more rational to attract bidders, since perspective owners would be interested in control. Selling 25% would only benefit FESCO, because it already has 12.5% acquired during the IPO. Moreover, 11RUSSIAN FEDERATION/CIS 10 October 2011 Morning Comment for TransContainer shareholders, the sale of 50% is more important since this would trigger a mandatory offer by a new owner (were 25% to be sold, only FESCO would have to make an offer, having crossed the 30% ownership threshold). Still, this discussion is not the final step and we expect more clarity in the coming months when the government is to decide on the key parameters of the TransContainer privatisation (including the timing and size of the stake). The privatisation, which might happen in 1H12, remains the key driver for TransContainer. We do not cover the stock. Elena SakhnovaBankers Without Borders Lenders Hope to Take Advantage of Global Economic Woes to Expand OverseasBy Tai Adelaja Russia Profile 10/10/2011 Even as Russia's largest banks remain under the insidious grip of politicians, many have continued to look beyond national borders to boost their investment-banking operations. Russia’s top lender Sberbank has reportedly set its eyes on Turkish lender DenizBank, in its latest effort to expand its presence overseas. Details about negotiations, not just costs, remain murky, but Sberbank has mandated two investment banks – the Russian affiliate of Deutsche Bank and Troika Dialog Investment Company – to negotiate the purchase, Kommersant Daily reported on Saturday citing unnamed sources inside the bank.Sberbank’s CEO German Gref said in September that Sberbank was considering acquisitions in Turkey and Poland to help transform Russia’s largest and oldest bank from a large domestic financial institution into a leading international bank. "We have worked out a clear strategy for our presence in Europe," Gref said. "As a mid-term goal, we marked two countries for our presence – Turkey and Poland. These markets are very interesting to us." In 2008, the state-controlled bank unveiled a five-year strategy – Sberbank’s 2014 strategy – to generate between five and seven percent of its earnings abroad.Other state-controlled banks are following Sberbank’s lead into overseas expansion. Sberbank’s main competitor, VTB Capital, the investment-banking arm of Russia's second-largest lender, said it plans to hire about 100 bankers abroad and open offices in Turkey and Bulgaria to compete in emerging markets with the likes of JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank. VTB Capital hopes to increase its international staff by about 25 percent over the next year to 18 months, Atanas Bostandjiev, who runs VTB Capital’s operations outside of Russia, told Bloomberg in an interview. “We are the Russian investment banking champion and we have the goal of being recognized as the global emerging-market investment bank,” Bostandjiev said at VTB’s annual investment conference in Moscow on Friday. Yury Solovyev, the first deputy president of VTB Group and board chairman at VTB Capital, was also quoted by the agency as saying that VTB is using its leading position in Russia as a “platform” for global expansion to “capitalize on the problems of the global banks.” The current global banking woes, he said, create "an opportunity and an empty space we would like to fill.” Russian experts agreed, saying that the euro zone crisis in particular has opened a rare window of opportunity for Russian banks to target acquisitions beyond the country's borders. "There can be no talk of putting DenizBank on sale, for instance, were it not for the Dexia problems," said Andrei Chernyavsky, a due diligence consultant at 2K Audit Business Consulting. Dexia, the French-Belgian bank, which received a government bailout in 2008, was forced to seek government help again last week because of its heavy exposure to Greek debt and problems accessing wholesale funds. The governments of France and Belgium, which are shareholders in Dexia, on Sunday agreed to nationalize the bank, which helps finance hundreds of towns in both countries but has become the first European bank to fall victim to the euro zone crisis. Government officials had raced to prop up Dexia by pumping in billions of euros in taxpayer money before global financial markets opened on Monday, The New York Times reported. The struggling French-Belgium Financial group owns 99.79 percent in DenizBank, which has an estimated $21 billion in assets and is a significant player in the Turkish market.The French daily Les Echos first reported on Friday that Russia’s Sberbank, along with several other investors, has expressed interest in acquiring DenizBank assets. "There is interest. The price is the decisive issue," Interfax cited an unnamed source inside the bank as saying on Friday. Sberbank's press service could not immediately confirm the deal, but said that “the bank’s development strategy until 2014 does not exclude the acquisition or participation in the banking institutions of Central and Eastern Europe.” Sberbank’s Chief Financial Officer Anton Karamzin declined to comment on the deal, but confirmed that the top lender was aware that Dexia has been reviewing its options for potential asset sales in a number of regional markets, including in Turkey.If successful, DenizBank will not be the first foreign acquisition by Sberbank. Last month, the bank bought 100 percent stake in Volksbank International AG, which operates a banking network in many countries including Austria, Germany, France, Italy and Ukraine. It is also in an alliance with BNP Pariba's Cetelem to develop Point-of-Sale (POS) crediting. Before shifting its focus to international expansion, however, the bank acquired Russia’s privately owned Troika Dialog bank in March, a deal experts say extended the government’s reach into the country’s investment banking business.Vladimir Svinarenko, the director of Solid Financial Services, said a possible DenizBank deal could catapult Sberbank into the top-ten bracket of Turkish banks. However, the deal could still face some hurdles, including the high cost of Turkish assets and the threat of a possible nationalization of Dexia, Svinarenko said. "Since Turkish lender DenizBank is seen as Dexia's most saleable asset, there's no question of selling it at a discount," Svinarenko said. "It is also a known fact that Sberbank does not like to buy at a premium."Business, Energy or Environmental regulations or discussionsNovatek, X5 Retail, Sberbank May Move: Russian Equity Preview 10, 2011, 12:22 AM EDTBy Henry Meyer Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The following companies may be active in Russian trading. Stock symbols are in parentheses and share prices are from the previous close, unless noted otherwise.The 30-stock Micex Index advanced 2.5 percent to 1,351.42.OAO Novatek (NOTK RM): Russia’s second-biggest gas producer may report third-quarter operating results. Novatek gained 2.7 percent to 371.22 rubles in Moscow.X5 Retail Group NV (FIVE LI): Russia’s largest retailer by sales may issue a third-quarter trading update. Its London- listed shares increased 2.7 percent to $26.96.OAO Sberbank (SBER03 RX): Russia’s largest lender engaged Deutsche Bank AG and Troika Dialog to advise it on the possible acquisition of Dexia SA’s Turkish subsidiary Denizbank, Kommersant reported, citing unidentified people close to Sberbank. The stock rose 3.7 percent to 68.18 rubles.--Editor: David RisserTo contact the reporter on this story: Henry Meyer in Moscow at hmeyer4@To contact the editor responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@Russian companies top US$550 bn in foreign mining interests, 10 October 2011As a key speaker at the recent Mining and Exploration Forum and Expo (MINEX) in Moscow, Intierra Resource Intelligence, the world’s leading supplier of business intelligence to the mineral resources sector, revealed that Russian companies have reached US$550 billion in foreign mining interests held.During a detailed presentation, Director of Mapping and Tenements, Peter Godwin, further stated that Intierra’s research showed Russian-held resources at operating mines were now in the vicinity of US$325 billion, whilst new deposits were worth US$225 billion.Mr. Godwin’s presentation, titled Russian Mining – Domestic and Foreign Activity / Global Funding, gave the audience a deep analysis of the key metrics and factors in play for the expanding Russian mining sector both globally and domestically.MINEX Russia is a key mining sector and business event in Russia; bringing together more than 500 international resource sector professionals. This year the main theme of the forum was “Russia – Open for business”, highlighting key positive developments and emerging business opportunities for new ventures in the mineral exploration and mining sector in Russia.Ends --Raspadskaya to miss 2011 coking coal output target by 24pct – Report, 10 Oct 2011Russian producer of coking coal OAO Raspadskaya may produce less than 6.5 million tonnes this year, missing its output target by 24% percent, Kommersant reported, citing analysts’ estimates.Raspadskaya produced 400,000 tonnes of coal a month in July and August versus average 576,000 tonnes a month in the first half, the Moscow-based newspaper said, citing Metal-Courier data. The company will probably miss its full-year output target of 8.5 million tonnes, according to the newspaper.Raspadskaya had a market value of about USD 2.2 billion yesterday, while steelmaker Evraz Group SA and Raspadskaya management have been seeking to sell the company for more than $5 billion in the first half of the year, Kommersant said.(Sourced from Bloomberg)Adidas eyes double-digit growth in Russia ISTMOSCOW/FRANKFURT, Oct 10 (Reuters) - German sporting goods company Adidas (ADSGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) expects investment in its own stores and rising consumer spending in Russia to propel the region into becoming one of its top three markets behind the United States and China, it said on Monday. Adidas expects its sales in the Russia/CIS region, which includes former Soviet satellite states such as Ukraine and Kazakhstan, to surpass 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) by 2013 and to grow by a double-digit percentage annually until 2015, Chief Executive Herbert Hainer said at an investor day in Moscow. Adidas, the world's second-largest sports apparel company after Nike , did not give current sales for the region, which is currently its fourth-largest market in terms of sales after the United States, China and Japan. The group says it is the market leader in Russia/CIS, where soccer, running and outdoor items are among its key products. It will also step up its store opening programme, increasing its network of own stores to 800 by the end of this year, and then to more than 1,200 by 2015. ($1 = 0.741 Euros) (Reporting by Christian Kraemer and Victoria Bryan; Editing by Hans-Juergen Peters) Ovoca Gold gets key certificate for Olcha deposit in Russia am by Andre LambertiRussia-focused Ovoca Gold (LON:OVG) has received a key permit which allows the group to apply for a mining licence on the presently drilled reserves of the Olcha deposit, part of the Rassoshinskaya licence. The Russian State regulatory body concerning the certification of state resources has granted to the company a Certificate of Discovery regarding Olcha, the company announced.With this certificate in hand, Ovoca’s Russian subsidiary ZAO Bulun can apply for a mining permit on the presently drilled reserves. Such licenses are typically issued for 25 years, with a target work program leading up to production at some point within the license term. The certified reserves equal 279,000 ounces of gold at a grade of 13.4 grammes per tonne and 655,000 ounces silver at a grade of 31.6 g/t in the Russian reserve category C1 + C2 - which is not JORC compliant.Russian legislation does not consider the Olcha deposit strategic as it is below the established strategic threshold of 1.6 million ounces gold in the Russian reserve C1 + C2 category. Chief executive Tim McCutcheon said: "We are all extremely pleased with the issue of the Certificate of Discovery for Olcha. As I have mentioned before, Ovoca has a long and successful track record of working in Russia to get things done and add shareholder value. Now that we have the Certificate, we will immediately complete and file the formal application to receive the full exploitation license, which we expect to receive sometime early 2012."The company’s two main projects are located in the Magadan region: Stakhanovsky and Rassoshinskaya, which together contain an inferred resource of 1 million ounces of gold. Olcha accounts for 650,000 ounces of the total resource.Ovoca expects first gold production at Stakhanovsky at the beginning of 2014.Italian bankers are invited to Russia to place railway tracks — AnalysisItalian capital seeks application in Russia. The chairman of the Board of Directors at Banca Intesa Antonio Fallico said that Russia is safe from economic turmoil for the next few years, which enhances its appeal to investors. The banker is willing to participate in financing of a number of major projects in the Urals. The high-speed Ekaterinburg-Moscow railway might be one of them. Experts, however, do not believe that the Italians have serious intentions regarding their participation in the project: The investment feasibility study for the railway has not been prepared and no approval of its construction has been received. The RusBusinessNews columnist has found it out that the Intesa Sanpaolo Group is not involved in financing of projects in Russia, though manufacturers have already noticed its presence on the market, as the Italians have become serious competition to Russian banks. The construction of the high-speed Ekaterinburg-Moscow railway of 1,600 kilometers long, totaling 1.5 trillion rubles, was offered by the Sverdlovsk regional governor, Alexander Misharin. The project will be developed in two stages: The first stage is scheduled for completion by the 2018 FIFA World Cup when the railroad connects Ekaterinburg and Kazan; then the line will be extended further to Moscow to facilitate commuting for participants of the EXPO-2020 Exhibition (if it takes place in Ekaterinburg) from the Russian capital to the Urals. The issue of the construction tender is expected by the end of 2012. However, it is going to happen only after the approval of the RF government, which has not been issued yet. Therefore, at the moment, Skorostnye Magistrali OJSC is focused on promoting the project and preparing a favorable political decision.Oleg Dunayev, the head of the expert group at the RF Federation Council, states that the Sverdlovsk regional government has to solve a difficult problem: It should reconcile interests of elite groups, garner support of the top-tier people of the country and find a non-standard solution for the project implementation. The financing system offered today is not realistic: The region counts on federal funds that are not available. The hopes pinned on Russian Railways are also groundless, as the corporation has a lot of other problems.The Italian bankers arrived in the Urals at the right moment. Antonio Fallico said that in addition to lending money to small and medium-sized business, he would like to participate in projects of large companies. Though Intesa Sanpaolo has no experience in project financing in Russia, the banker promised to look into the possibility of investing in the high-speed railroad from Ekaterinburg to Moscow. He reminded that he is involved in the Russian Railways' project aimed at development of high-speed rail traffic in Russia. However, A. Fallico's words did not spark any enthusiasm of Russian experts. According to Yevgeni Bolotin, the deputy chairperson of the Ural Bank Union, the banker's phrase was very typical of such cases: "Yes, we are ready to look into the project". However, it is very different from saying: "We have looked into your proposal and are willing to invest 1.5 billion euro". It can take a lot of time until the agreement with the Russian party is signed, but the originators of the high-speed rail idea do not have such time.Pavel Kurchanov, the head of the unit at the Investment Department of Russian Railways, OJSC, thinks that it is too early to give any comment on A. Fallico's words: "I do not know whether Intesa participates in construction of high-speed railroads. Furthermore, there is still no investment rationale for the project of the Ekaterinburg-Moscow high-speed railway; therefore, there is nothing to talk about".Vladimir Semyonov, the chairman of the Board of Directors at Uraltransbank, OJSC, is sure that the Italians came to the Urals only to "gain" money. In his opinion, Intesa offers the same products as Russian banks do. Industry needs not only low-interest loans but also technologies. According to V. Semyonov, no one has seen the Italians among the investors in the new Russian industrialization.Alexander Trakhtenberg, the deputy general director of Lorri, OJSC, does not agree with Russian bankers. In his opinion, Intesa Sanpaolo not only "gains" money in Russia, but also participates in upgrading of the economy in the Lipetsk Region: It finances infrastructure development and finances construction of industrial facilities.Besides, foreign lenders operate differently from their Russian colleagues. For example, it took only one hour for the BSGV Bank, one day - for the Raiffeisen Bank, and two weeks - for Sberbank to reply the letter from Lorri. Russian banks have a long way to go to become customer-focused - not to mention partnership with industrial companies. Therefore, during the crisis of 2008 their behavior was different from that of the foreign banks. The latter called manufacturers and asked why they did not come for funds. Russian lenders preferred to sit on money bags not to give them away. Manufacturers value that foreign loans are given for eight years and at a lower interest rate, thus helping manufacturers to save millions of dollars. The only issue where representatives of the real sector cannot reach agreement with foreign lenders is assessment of country risks. A. Trakhtenberg asserts that foreign analysis tend to overstate risks related to lending of Russian manufacturing companies, as they are still in thrall to outdated stereotypes.Due to their lack of confidence in Russia, the Italians may refuse from financing the high-speed Ekaterinburg-Moscow railroad. The project is highly unlikely to come off without foreign capital. Yevgeni Bolotin thinks that it will be difficult to find investment resources in Russia: "We are not able to create inexpensive and sought-after financial capitals. In my opinion, it is the key problem that causes all the other problems: lack of long-term money in the country, citizens' distrust in the banking system, imperfect legislation, etc." Oleg Dunayev also thinks that the high-speed railway cannot be built without foreign participation: "It should be an international project, because costs are very high. It is obvious that the region should focus all the efforts on solving this particular issue. However, I was in Ekaterinburg not long ago and came to conclusion that there are programs and there are talks, without any actual movement". Vladimir TerletskyRussia's X5 Retail cuts full-year sales outlook EDTMOSCOW, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Russian food retailer X5 cut its full-year 2011 sales growth outlook on Monday, citing worsening economic conditions, and warned its margins could take a hit from a price-cutting campaign aimed at keeping customers.X5 now expects full-year rouble gross retail sales growth to be closer to 35 percent, compared to an earlier target of 40 percent, the company said in a statement."The continuing deterioration of the macro-economic environment could further deepen our customers' trading down in Q4 2011 and beyond," the company said in a statement .Its third-quarter sales grew 32 percent in rouble terms, down from a 41 percent increase in the previous quarter.Like-for-like sales increased 4 percent in rouble terms compared to a 10 percent rise in the second quarter.Russia's Kamaz turns profit in first half 2011 EDTMOSCOW, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Russian truck maker Kamaz said on Monday it moved into the black during the first half of 2011, posting a net profit of 87 million roubles ($2,7 million) compared to a 397 million rouble loss during the same period of 2010.The company, 11 percent owned by Germany's Daimler (DAIGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), said revenues for the period rose by 39 percent to 44.2 billion roubles. ($1 = 32.050 Russian Roubles) (Reporting By John Bowker; Editing by Vladimir Soldatikin)Reasons Why Foreign Firms Are Forsaking Franchises 10 October 2011By Irina FilatovaEvery morning Christopher Wynne, an?American living in?Moscow for?the last 10 years, is off to?a battlefield, armed not with an?assault rifle but a?rolling pin and?pizza cutter.Wynne, who is chief executive of?Papa John's Russia, a?local franchisee of?the U.S. pizza delivery chain, said his company faces many problems, including bureaucracy and?high interest rates.?"Doing business in?Russia is somewhere between sport and?war every day. You have to?face a?lot of?challenges," he said.These problems, however, are typical for?most franchises operating in?Russia and?result in?some foreign companies giving up franchising in?order to?run their operations directly."Foreigners are cautious about the?political and?economic situation in?Russia. The?franchising scheme requires stability and?predictability of?the economy," said Alexei Mogila, head of?the trade real estate department at?Penny Lane Realty.?It is also not that easy to?get a?loan to?open a?new chain because interest rates are high compared with other countries, Penny Lane Realty said in?a statement.Annual interest rates for?a franchisee seeking a?loan in?France and?Britain are 4 percent and?7 percent, respectively, while the?rate in?Russia reaches 18 percent a?year, Penny Lane Realty said."One of?the best ways for?small businesses to?grow in?the West is with debt. You can get long-term cheap financing for?small businesses in?Europe or America, but here it's very difficult," Wynne said by?telephone.?But while Wynne's firm is doing well, with 20 restaurants operating in?Moscow and?two in?Siberia, Mogila said about 15 foreign companies have refused to?prolong their agreements with local partners over the?last couple of?years and?have started to?manage their outlets by?themselves.?"A stable trend has appeared in?the retail real estate market as many companies are considering the?opportunity of?working independently today," he said.Growing sales in?the local market result in?foreign companies seeking to?work independently in?order to?retain control over the?brand, Mogila said.Such firms include German denim brand Mustang, which opened a?subsidiary in?Moscow in?2009 after its contract expired with local distributor Jeans Symphony. The?company was in?charge of?Mustang's local supplies and?developing the?brand's franchising program locally.Although Mustang, which currently has 19 stores in?Russia, was satisfied with its local partner's work, the?jeans maker decided "to take our business to?the next level," said Robert Scanlon, chief executive of?Mustang Russia.?"We actually repeated the?experience of?many Western brands in?Russia who initially test the?water by?working with a?local distributor and?subsequently move on?to open their own companies in?Russia," he said in?e-mailed comments.?Scanlon said having wholly owned stores "provides greater control over the?brand, customer service, product flow, [and] merchandising."At?the same time, other foreign fashion retailers like Mango, Promod and?New Yorker prefer to?develop corporate stores along with the?franchising program, said the?head of?a Russian franchisee of?a European fashion brand."To cancel an?agreement with a?franchisee means to?lose everything. No one rejects his partners," he said, adding that it is much easier to?work with a?local partner, which has market knowledge.?Companies that cancel franchising agreements have to?either buy out their stores from?a local partner and?then deliver on?all the?obligations with shopping centers, or close them, he said.According to?Fashion Consulting Group, a?market researcher, working independently provides a?number of?advantages for?foreign companies that are not involved in?the distributors' competition and?can implement brand development strategies and?reduce expenses that inevitably arise from?working with an?agent.On?the other hand, the?"unpredictability of?the market" and?need to?make operative decisions without having the?opportunity to?rely on?a local partner with market knowledge involve certain risks, Fashion Consulting Group said in?e-mailed comments.Although launching a?franchising program is more convenient because a?franchisee bears the?major expenses, directly managing stores ensures that advertising budgets are spent properly and?foreign firms' corporate standards met, said Mogila, of?Penny Lane Realty.Some local franchisees fail to?meet corporate standards, which results in?foreign firms canceling franchising agreements, said Yury Mikhailichenko, executive director of?the Russian Franchising Association.?"Foreign firms are used to?working in?line with high standards, while a?store in?some regional town doesn't always meet these standards due to?the poor infrastructure and?low cultural level," he said by?telephone, adding, however, that this is rather the?exception than the?rule.Wynne, of?Papa John's Russia, said executives from?the U.S. headquarters come to?Russia every month to?check whether the?franchisee is meeting corporate standards, which range from?the ingredients used to?prepare pizza to?the way the?staff dresses and?the restaurants are designed.Another possible reason for?giving up the?franchising scheme is that some franchisees violate agreements. Some local partners "start taking the?business as their own and?cease to?pay royalties," Mikhailichenko said.One recent example is Israel's fashion retailer Castro Model, which canceled its agreement with Russian franchisee Plaza Group earlier this year, saying the?firm had repeatedly violated the?conditions of?the agreement.?Both Castro Model and?Plaza Group declined to?comment on?the issue last week, but Castro told online industry newspaper Retailer.ru in?February that the?company had made a?decision to?cancel the?agreement because the?franchisee owed it a?total of?$1 million and?"never paid its debt on?schedule."The?Israeli company also demanded that the?franchisee close the?three local stores operating under the?Castro brand, Retailer.ru reported, citing Castro.?However, the?Castro stores in?Mega Belaya Dacha shopping center in?Moscow, as well as two others?— in?Volgograd and?Yekaterinburg — appeared to?be working when contacted last week.The?store managers declined to?comment on?the issue.According to?Penny Lane Realty, only 40 percent of?the domestic franchise market belongs to?U.S. and?European brands, while the?rest are domestic chains.Among recent entrants that have come to?Russia's franchise market over the?last two years are Dunkin' Donuts, Cinnabon, GAP, Wendy's and?Victoria's Secret.?Despite the?challenges, many companies — foreign and?domestic — are opening franchising chains in?Russia, with the?number of?local franchisees having increased 30 percent over the?last year, said Mikhailichenko.It is rather difficult for?a foreign company to?manage its stores remotely and?handle logistics without a?local partner, he said."As a?rule, managing a?few stores is not a?problem, but if a?well-known brand is expanding its business in?Russia, it's very difficult to?cover the?country's territory with its remote cities like Vladivostok or Khabarovsk without a?franchising program," he said.Wendy's, one of?the world's largest fast-food chains, which opened its first restaurant in?Moscow earlier this year and?plans to?launch at?least 180 locations across the?country, said the?franchising model "has proven effective" for?the company."We are predominately using a?franchise business model as we expand the?Wendy's brand in?key markets around the?world," Wendy's spokesman Bob Bertini said.?The?company's Russian franchisee, Wenrus Restaurant Group, has good restaurant experience and?market knowledge, he said in?e-mailed comments.However, Wendy's biggest rival McDonald's, which is represented by?franchisees at?about 80 percent of?its outlets around the?world, still owns and?directly manages the?nearly 300 restaurants it has set up across the?country in?the 20 years it has been operating in?Russia."It's important to?create a?strong operational base and?effective logistics before we start developing franchising in?Russia," the?company said in?e-mailed comments.Read more: The Moscow Times OCTOBER 10, 2011In Russia, It's a Start merger of two Moscow exchanges is a first step to becoming a financial hub. But there's plenty more to do.By POLYA LESOVA Moscow has a lot riding on a new exchange.The city's RTS and Micex exchanges recently announced they will merge, in hopes of simplifying the investment process, boosting liquidity and attracting more investors. The consolidated group would rank ninth world-wide in market capitalization and somewhere below 15th in revenue as of 2010—and officials hope to reach the top 10 in both within five years.Russian officials see the marriage as the first step in a much broader effort: turning the capital into a financial hub that draws businesses and investors from abroad. But the quest is likely to be long and arduous.Moscow—and Russia—must overcome a reputation for widespread corruption, poor infrastructure and a murky legal system. And that will mean implementing institutional reforms and improving the business environment—measures the government has long discussed but never carried out."The single trading platform is very good," says Lilit Gevorgyan, country analyst at IHS Global Insight. "On the other hand, you cannot have this infrastructure isolated from the general business environment in Russia, which has been deteriorating."Moving Toward StabilitySome experts think Russia has little choice but to take the reform agenda seriously, since it sorely needs foreign investment. Though the country has a fast-growing economy and lots of natural resources, it suffers big swings in its equity markets, and investors rush for the exits during crises. That happened after the 2008 financial crash, and the economy contracted violently.Already, says Ivan Tchakarov, chief economist at Renaissance Capital in Moscow, Russia is running a fiscal deficit, and in three years' time will run a current-account deficit. The 2008 crisis "was a wake-up call," Mr. Tchakarov says. "The Russian authorities were really humbled by this crisis.… Russia will need foreign money to finance this deficit. It's a totally new macroeconomic paradigm for this government."Russia created the exchanges in the wake of another crisis: the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Micex, which stands for Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange, was founded in 1992 by Russia's central bank and leading commercial banks and became a leader in stocks, bonds and foreign exchange. Its smaller rival, RTS, or Russian Trading System, came along three years later and took the lead in derivatives.The two exchange groups have their own clearinghouses and depositories, so investors have had to open separate accounts to do business with each exchange. The merger will create one large trading platform and will smooth the way toward settling big-picture issues, like establishing a central depository.Micex will hold around 75% of the combined exchange, with RTS taking 25%. The initial public offering of the joint exchange is planned for 2013."There is a lot of complementarity between our groups," says Micex President Ruben Aganbegyan, who will be CEO of the combined exchange. "With combining, we can provide many more services and effectively reduce costs."Many industry experts also have high hopes for the deal. "Russia is a big equity market, but I don't think it needs two exchanges," says Roland Nash, senior partner at Verno Capital in Moscow. "The merger moves toward creating a world-class exchange, and that is a necessary condition if Moscow is ever going to become a financial center."A Long Road AheadStill, there's a lot more work to be done. Investors have a laundry list of concerns about the Russian market—among them corruption, red tape, a weak judicial system and lack of protection for the rights of minority shareholders.Transparency International's 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index, which ranks 178 countries according to perception of corruption in the public sector, had Russia at 154th place, at the same level as Papua New Guinea and Tajikistan. Its score: 2.1 on a scale from zero (highly corrupt) to 10 (very clean).Russia has guarded jealously the state's role in industries considered strategically important. Its business sector is dominated by large state-controlled companies such as banking group Sberbank, oil producer Rosneft and gas giant Gazprom. In recent years, a series of high-profile cases—from the challenges faced by BP PLC and Royal Dutch Shell PLC to the imprisonment of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former head of oil company Yukos—have underscored that in Russia political power often trumps the rule of law."The plan of turning Moscow into a financial center will remain a dream unless the fundamental issues are addressed," says Ms. Gevorgyan of IHS. "Russia has to work on its image. This is being reinforced by the scandals. Over the last decade, that's the image that has developed—of the strong state that comes in and crushes business when it is in its interest."Moscow itself needs a lot of work, too. Analysts say the city needs to upgrade its infrastructure—from roads to apartments and offices—and become a more attractive place to live and work if it hopes to attract star traders and bankers. Moscow ranked 61st out of 75 cities on the Global Financial Centers Index produced by the London-based Z/Yen think tank in September this year; that marked an improvement from its No. 68 ranking in the March survey. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who has said that creating a financial center is a critical task, has proposed numerous economic reforms, including decentralizing power, reducing the state's role in the country's biggest companies, fighting corruption and strengthening the rule of law. Working groups within the government are hammering out plans and working with international consultants to figure out what Moscow needs to become a successful hub."Just the fact that they are taking it seriously is a major step forward," says Mark Yeandle from Z/Yen, who is working with the Russian government on the effort. "They are spending a considerable amount of money to find out what makes a center more successful."Some think all the clean-up efforts are worthwhile even if Russia doesn't reach its goal. "The aim of becoming a financial center, even if Moscow never makes it, allows the reformers in Russia to do a lot of the necessary reforms anyway," Mr. Nash says. "It is a nice, easily communicable, proud Russia aim. To create a financial center, you need to bring down inflation. You need to improve the number of investors in Russia. That's great anyway."Ms. Lesova is London bureau chief for MarketWatch. She can be reached at polya.lesova@.Activity in the Oil and Gas sector (including regulatory)Russia May Require Bourse Oil Trading, Kommersant Says Jason Corcoran - Oct 10, 2011 6:37 AM GMT+0200 (Corrects attribution in headline.) Russia’s Energy Ministry plans to require oil companies to sell at least 3 percent of their crude oil and 15 percent of petroleum products on the stock market, Kommersant reported, citing the latest version of a bill. If companies don’t comply, they will be limited in their ability to export using Transneft’s pipelines, the newspaper said. To contact the reporter on this story: Jason Corcoran at Jcorcoran13@ To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gavin Serkin at gserkin@ Lukoil signs $500m loan deal for Kazakh project , 10.10.2011, Moscow 11:14:27.Lukoil has secured a 5-year $500m loan to finance the investment program and working capital of its Kazakhstan-based subsidiary Turgai-Petroleum, the Russian oil major said in a statement.??????The London branch of the Bank of China is the lead arranger with contributions from a syndicate of banks, including BNP Paribas, Citibank Kazakhstan, Deutsche Bank and Raiffeisen Bank International, in two tranches. Under the terms of the loan, Lukoil is supposed to get the first $300m tranche once the credit agreement is signed, while the second tranche will be provided within the following 18 months. Both tranches carry an interest rate of LIBOR + 2.85%. Lukoil to Spend More Than $10 Billion Next Year, Interfax Says Stephen Bierman - Oct 10, 2011 9:09 AM GMT+0200 OAO Lukoil, Russia’s second-largest oil producer, plans to invest about $10 billion in its business this year and more than that next year, Interfax reported, citing Chief Executive Officer Vagit Alekperov. Lukoil will start projects in Iraq and the Caspian Sea in the “near future,” Alekperov said in Krasnodar, Russia, according to Interfax. To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Bierman in Moscow at sbierman1@. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at wkennedy3@. Rosneft pays for Carabobo access: Reports state-controlled oil giant Rosneft will pay $1 billion for access to Venezuela's Carabobo 2 block and may tie-up with a partner to develop the project, Russian business daily Kommersant reported on Saturday. News wires ?10 October 2011 05:29 GMT Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA said on Friday it would partner with Rosneft, Russia's top oil producer, to work in the Carabobo 2 block in the southern Orinoco extra heavy crude belt, Reuters reported. The parties did not disclose details of the deal, which was clinched during a visit by Russia's top oil official, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin. Rosneft will pay an initial $600 million for the right to develop the oil field, with a $400 million payment to follow after the final investment decision is taken, Kommersant quoted sources close to the deal as saying. The paper also said that PDVSA will have 60% of the venture, while Rosneft, with a 40% stake, may seek a partner to help it develop the project. "It may well be our strategic partner -- ExxonMobil. This step is seen logical," the newspaper quoted a Rosneft source as saying. In August, Exxon Mobil and Rosneft signed an agreement to extract oil and gas from the Russian Arctic, in the most significant US-Russian corporate deal since US President Barack Obama began a push to improve ties, Reuters reported. Rosneft's press office declined to comment on details of the deal to Kommersant while a source close to Exxon told the newspaper there were no discussions with Rosneft on the possible tie-up in Venezuela. Rosneft is also one of five Russian companies in a consortium working with PDVSA to develop the Junin block 6 of the Orinoco belt. Carabobo 2 had been one of the last major ventures to be awarded in the Orinoco, where the South American OPEC member is pinning hopes for future production increases. Exxon is currently involved in a multibillion-dollar arbitration against PDVSA, seeking compensation for the nationalisation of its assets in 2007 when Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez pushed foreign oil companies into minority partnerships at projects in the Orinoco Belt, Reuters reported. Published:?10 October 2011 05:29 GMT ?|?Last updated:?40 minutes ago GazpromGazprom guarantees proper load of Beltransgaz CapitalOctober 10, 2011News: According to Interfax, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has confirmed that Gazprom agreed to the conditions of gas transit through Beltransgaz's pipelines and the privatisation of the national pipeline system. Lukashenko underlined that the Beltransgaz deal would only go through once Gazprom had signed an agreement guaranteeing the transit volumes. The president also said that the government was not yet ready to privatise refineries under the conditions offered. Our View: As we have already mentioned, the main risk stemming from these negotiations is that Gazprom might be used as a vehicle to reach political goals. However, as there is still no clarity over the conditions of either the Beltransgaz deal or the guarantee agreement between Gazprom and Belarus, we do not expect the stock to react to the news.22:11?09/10/2011ALL NEWSIran rejects Gazprom Neft as partner in Azar field, October 9 (Itar-Tass) —— Iran refuses from cooperation with Russia’s Gazprom Neft Company in development of the Azar oil field, Head of the National Iranian Oil Company Ahmad Ghalebani told the Fars news agency on Sunday.“We have come to the final decision to stop cooperation with that company at the Azar field and to have an agreement on its development with an Iranian contractor,” he said. “Unfortunately, the Russian company dragged out its obligations despite several warnings from the National Iranian Oil Company, which were not heard.”The Azar oil field was opened in 2005. According to Russia’s LUKOIL, Azar contains two billion barrels of oil. In November of 2009, Gazprom Neft and the National Iranian Oil Company signed a memorandum on mutual understanding on the field as well as on the Shangule field.In late August of the current year, Iran announced suspension of Gazprom Neft’s participation in development of Azar, which was caused by “protracted implementation of the project,” as Iranian sources said then. However, on September 12, Russia’s Minister of Energy Sergei Shmatko told a news conference following launch of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant that he had agreed with Iran’s Minister of Oil Rostam Ghasemi to make a final decision on the matter within a month.“We should offer solutions to provide further work of the Russian company at that field,” he said.Russia's Gazprom interested in energy assets in Bulgaria – report, Oct 09 2011 20:54 CET byDnevnik.bgRussia's gas giant Gazprom is interested in energy assets in Bulgaria, UK, Germany and the Benelux countries, Denis Fyodorov, chief executive of the group's power unit GazpromEnergoHolding, said as quoted by Reuters on October 7 2011."We plan to present three or four projects (in Europe) to the board of directors to the board (of Gazprom) by the end of the year. We have a short list (of European assets) which contains about 10 projects," Fyodorov told reporters.According to Fyodorov, Gazprom was seeking to fully control the assets where it decided to participate and was ready to pay for them in cash. Joint ventures are being negotiated only with German utility RWE, he said.Meanwhile, mass-circulation daily Trud quoted a source as saying that Gazprom was looking at Bulgaria's coal-fired power plant in Varna, owned by Czech energy group CEZ, which has been on the lookout for a strategic partner for two years.Gazprom and RWE launched three-month exclusive talks about setting up a gas and coal power joint venture in Germany, Britain and the Benelux countries in July. On October 6, the companies said they would extend talks to the end of the year.Fyodorov said that Gazprom was keen on entering the electricity markets of Japan, South Korea and China, as well as Turkey.Gazprom Seeks Power Assets From Japan to U.K. to Fill Atomic Gap. 7 (Bloomberg) -- OAO Gazprom, the world's biggest gas producer, is seeking electricity generating assets from Japan to the U.K. as the closure of nuclear reactors raises demand for gas-fired power stations.Gazprom may pick three to four projects in Europe to submit for board approval by year-end and will hire an adviser on entering Asian power generation, said Denis Fedorov, head of the OOO Gazprom Energoholding electricity unit. The Moscow-based company wants controlling stakes.“‘We shouldn't be feared but looked at as a partner,” Fedorov said. “Nothing will happen other than an increase in competition in the power market, there will be no monopoly.”European Union antitrust regulators raided Gazprom's gas trading ventures last month as part of a competition probe. The 27-nation bloc is backing a gas link bypassing Russia, and some members had considered expanding nuclear power, to weaken dependence on Gazprom after winter gas flows across Ukraine were disrupted at least twice since 2006.The Europe Union, Gazprom's biggest gas market by revenue, is now revising plans for nuclear power after the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan lead to a reactor meltdown. Germany, the biggest economy in the bloc, has decided to shut its atomic plants by 2022.‘Intensive' TalksAlexei Miller, the Russian gas exporter's chief executive officer, has made electricity a priority to bolster corporate cash flows and expand internationally to compete with companies such as EON AG, Electricite de France SA and Endesa SA.About 10 potential assets in Europe have been identified, Fedorov told reporters in his Moscow office late on Oct. 5, without naming any projects.Gazprom and RWE AG are holding exclusive talks on forming a power-generation joint venture with new or existing, gas or coal-fired plants in Germany, the U.K., and the Benelux countries. The work will continue “intensively” until the end of the year, the two companies said yesterday.Any acquisitions will be financed with cash, Fedorov said, declining to elaborate on the accord.The Russian producer is also considering several projects in Bulgaria and is looking at Turkey and Romania, Fedorov said. With no budget or capacity targets, the division is open for any interesting projects, he said.‘Undesirable' ConcentrationAt home, Gazprom Energoholding controls four generators with a combined capacity of 37 gigawatts, which is about 17 percent of Russia's total. The utility agreed to buy billionaire Viktor Vekselberg's electricity assets in July in a deal that may boost its market share to 25 percent. That has met resistance from the antitrust watchdog, which has called it “undesirable.”The board may vote on the deal by the end of the year, Fedorov said. Vekselberg's Renova Group, one of the biggest investors in Russia's power market through its IES Holding unit, will have at least 25 percent plus one share in the combined utility, and Gazprom will hold no more than 75 percent, according to the July accord.Gazprom is ready to meet requirements set by the antitrust regulator, including selling assets in some regions, Fedorov said. The Federal Anti-Monopoly Agency is reviewing the deal.The utility, which is merging its OGK-2 and OGK-6 wholesale generators, targets an initial public offering in 2014 or 2015, Fedorov said, without giving details. Management may consider Asian exchanges, visiting them this year or next.‘Colossal Investments'“There will be colossal investments,'” Fedorov said, referring to investor interest in Gazprom Energoholding. “No one in Russia has raised such major foreign investment in recent years.”Banks have approached Fedorov over the past three months with unidentified international investors expressing interest in controlling stakes in Gazprom Energoholding's generators even before an IPO, the executive said.As Gazprom seeks to diversify its supply markets, Gazprom may build Asian gas-fired power plants, Fedorov said. The company is starting talks and may identify the first projects in no less than a year, he said.“Japan, South Korea and China are the three countries where we will focus the most attention,” Fedorov said. “If we supply gas to China, we are interested in building a vertical chain to the consumer.”Gazprom is negotiating a gas sales contract with China, the world's biggest energy consumer, and aims to build a pipeline across Siberia to carry the fuel. Plans to build another link across the Korean peninsula advanced after Russia helped broker between the North and South.Asian demand for gas may increase as the economy grows and Japan's nuclear disaster in March shut down reactors. China plans to move to gas, which burns cleaner than traditional coal- fired plants, while Korea, which buys liquefied natural gas, seeks to cut import costs.Gazprom wants to supply as much gas to Asia as it does to Europe, Miller has said.Talks with Asian partners may be “no less difficult than with European partners,” Fedorov said.--Editors: Torrey Clark, Stephen CunninghamGazprom Neft: 1.8 bln boe of C1+C2 reserves added, equal to 10% of 3P reserves 10, 2011C1+C2 reserves increased by 1.8 bln boe. Russia's state commis- sion for geological reserves has accepted Gazprom Neft's (SIBN RX - Hold) updated estimate for reserves at its Chona group in Eastern Siberia. The company has added more than 100 mln tons (730 mln bbl) of C1+C2 oil reserves under the Russian classification, raising Chona's total C1+C2 oil reserves to 125 mln tons (920 mln bbl). Gas reserves under these categories were also revised upwards by 175 bcm (6.1 tcf) to 225 bcm (7.9 tcf). Total upward revisions were 1.8 bln boe, bringing the total C1+C2 reserves to 2.3 bln. Additional reserves equal to 10% of 3P. Russian recoverable C1+C2 reserves are not directly comparable with PRMS or SEC re- serves. The Russian estimate is generally broader than 3P reserves and includes prospective resources. However, we note that Gazprom Neft's new C1+C2 oil and gas reserves added the equivalent of 14% to 2P and 10% to 3P reserves, a sizeable increase in our view. Gazprom Neft Hold Proximity to ESPO to enable production in the medium term. The Chona group of fields is located in Eastern Siberia, on the borders of Irkutsk Region and Yakutia, about 80 km from the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline. Gazprom Neft obtained the licenses for the fields in 2005-7. With this major increase in reserves, we believe the group may reach peak production within 5-7 years from now, representing close to 6-8% of Gazprom Neft's current oil production. We have a Hold recommendation on Gazprom Neft with a target price of $5.5/share.Gazprom may find oil for PhosAgro gas chemicals complex in Cherepovets, 08 Oct 2011Interfax citing Mr Valery Golubev deputy chief of Gazprom as saying that Russian gas giant Gazprom may find gas for the PhosAgro gas chemicals complex in Cherepovets.Mr Golubev said Per PhosAgro plans the complex might be built by 2015. He said that "We will by that time have put the Bovanenkovskoye deposit into operation and the Bovanenkovo-Ukhta-Torzhok trunk gas pipeline to work. Gazprom and PhosAgro interests coincide both as to timing and possibility. It is totally possible that they and we will decide to do such a project."As reported, the gas chemicals complex would be set up around the infrastructure of PhosAgro Cherepovets companies OJSC Ammophos, OJSC Cherepovets Azot and CJSC Agro-Cherepovets. At present PhosAgro outfits in Cherepovets are processing 2 billion cubic meters of gas per year. Total investment in creating the gas chemicals complex would be RUB 53 billion spread over ten years. The future facility processing volume should reach 1.65 million tonnes of ethylene per year.In creating the complex plans call for setting up the production of ammonia, melamine, and a future increase in own electrical power generation. The complex will also produce polymer product and plastics. The project should lead to increased output of high-technology products of the deep and comprehensive processing of raw hydrocarbons - from mineral fertilizers to fine chemicals. Primarily, that would be the production of polymer and composite materials used in the automotive, aviation and defense industries and medicine - and the replacement of like imported products.The number of employees at the complex is expected to exceed 2,000. It would contribute additional tax revenues to budgets of all levels that could run to over RUB 4 billion.(Sourced from Interfax) ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download