Russia
Russia 091224
Basic Political Developments
• Reuters: Russia test-fires Soviet missile to extend lifespan
• RIA: Russia successfully launches heavy Voyevoda missile
• RTT News: START Talks In Mid-January: Crowley
• RIA: Russia paid small price in crisis – Medvedev: Speaking live on state television in his review of the outgoing year, Medvedev said: "The year was extremely difficult and saw many dramatic events. We have survived and are continuing to develop, paying, in my opinion, a relatively small price for the international financial and economic crisis."
• Interfax: Russia could have approx 9% inflation in 2009 – Medvedev
• Sofia Echo: Bulgaria’s Energy Minister in Christmas Eve visit to Moscow - Bulgaria’s Energy Minister Traicho Traikov, accompanied by his deputy Maya Hristova and Bulgarian Energy Holding boss Galina Tosheva were in Moscow on December 24 2009 to meet Russian energy minister Sergey Shmatko.
• Focus: RBC Daily: Some are dissatisfied with Burgas-Alexandroupolis project
• : Egypt, Russia to negotiate FTA in early 2010
• : Saudis invest in Urals project - Dubai-based Novaar Capital Management, the family office of a descendant of Saudi Arabia's founder, will invest through a joint venture with government-owned Ural IndustrialUral Polar.
• RIA: RIA Novosti presents Arabic edition of Moscow News in Saudi Arabia
• AFP: Georgia, Russia agree to re-open border crossing: Tbilisi
• Interfax: Kazbegi-Upper Lars checkpoint at Russian-Georgian border may reopen next spring
• Apa.az: Georgia and Russia resume air traffic
• Civil.ge: Georgia to Launch Russian-Language Caucasus TV in January
• Gazeta.kz: Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia to form single economic area by 1 January 2012
• The Straits Times: Russia sticks with missile - 'We are certainly not going to cancel Bulava,' Anatoly Serdyukov told the Rossiyskaya Gazeta in an interview to be published on Thursday, parts of which were obtained by Interfax news agency.
• Itar-Tass: RF Defence Min not to refuse from Bulava sea-launched missile
• Xinhua: Russia likely to buy foreign helicopter carrier: DM
• OfficialWire: French, Dutch Enter Russian Carrier Bid
• Russia Today: Icebreaking guard ship ready for patrol
• RIA: Russia set to start Superjet 100 deliveries in mid-2010
• RIA: Russia may penalize Siemens for Sapsan train glitches
• The Moscow Times: Medvedev Reminds Kudrin to Be Polite - President Dmitry Medvedev had to remind Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin to mind his manners Wednesday after a testy debate about a national payments system with Vneshekonombank chief Vladimir Dmitriyev
• The Moscow Times: Online to Replace Waiting in Line - Dealing with the government — for both Russians and foreigners — may actually start getting easier next year, because President Dmitry Medvedev is pushing for all state services to be available online. He told a Kremlin meeting on the issue Wednesday that he wanted it done by 2015.
• The Moscow Times: Patriarch Kirill Speaks Up for Gays
• Itar-Tass: Alexander Zhilkin to take office of Astrakhan region governor
• RIA: Ingush leader dissatisfied with fight against corruption in republic - The leader of Russia's North Caucus republic of Ingushetia admitted on Thursday to failing to fight corruption, citing "unscrupulousness" on the part of some judges.
• RIA: Borderguards HQ in Ingushetia comes under grenade fire
• Itar-Tass: Nine workers die in Yevstyuninskaya iron-ore mine blast
• Online.: Court Gives Yukos a Rare Victory
• The Moscow Times: Court Rules Lebedev’s Arrest Illegal
• The Moscow Times: Police Tout Increase in Solved Cases
• The Moscow Times: Holiday Shoppers Try to Stretch $275
• The Financial: Russia's top sanitary official predicts second wave of swine flu in spring
• Telegraph.co.uk: Russian comedy: KVN was the TV outlet for anti-Soviet Union thoughts - Dmitry Medvedev's rise to the presidency was unexpected. As it became public that Russia's deputy prime minister would be likely successor to Vladimir Putin, a team from Moscow State University performed a TV skit as Medvedev himself roared with laughter in the front row.
• Telegraph.co.uk: Russia to curb carbon dioxide emissions despite Copenhagen Climate Change summit - Despite ambivalent results at the Copenhagen summit, Russia still plans to commit to lower CO2 targets and reduce harmful emissions. This comes as part of a broader plan to improve energy efficiency and spur economic growth through green technologies.
National Economic Trends
• Reuters: INTERVIEW - Russia state grain trader open for business - Russia's new state grain trader will welcome foreign investors as it pushes for a 40 percent share of the country's grain export market, a market that could almost double in five years with a $3 billion cash injection.
Business, Energy or Environmental regulations or discussions
• Reuters: Russian markets -- Factors to Watch on Dec 24
• The Moscow Times: EBRD, Russia Sign Accord
• The Financial: EBRD and Russian government to cooperate on energy efficiency
• Interfax: Banks have 564.5 bln rbs on CBR correspondent accounts on December 24
• Reuters: Russia's VEB postpones $2 bln bond issue
• The Moscow Times: OGK-3 Sells Norilsk Shares
• The Moscow Times: Rusnano’s Plans for 2010
• : RUSNANO Sums Up The Year 2009
• Bloomberg: Standard Bank Boosts Troika Dialog Stake to 36%, Kommersant Says
• Bloomberg: Troika Dialog Boosts Bonus Pool to $86 Million, Kommersant Says
• Reuters: Russia's Troika cuts Kamaz, AvtoVAZ stakes –paper
• Interfax: MTS buys another 11.06% of Comstar, ups stake to 61.97%
• The Moscow Times: Aeroflot Shares Increase 9% on Cost Cutting
• Bloomberg: Magnit Board Approves Sale of 5.5 Billion Rubles of Bonds
Activity in the Oil and Gas sector (including regulatory)
• News.az: Russia’s oil and gas reserves to rise in 2009 - Growth in oil reserves will near 500 mln tons in 2009, while growth in gas reserves will total 650 bn cu m, Russian minister.
• Interfax: Decision on zero duty for oil from 22 East Siberian fields ready
• Reuters: Russia LUKOIL sees 2009 income falling 34-45 pct
• Bloomberg: Lukoil Net Income May Reach $6 Billion This Year, Alekperov Says
• Steel Guru: LUKoil interests in Conoco asset sales
• Bloomberg: Transneft Concerned Bulgaria May Back Out of Bosporus Pipeline
• Your Oil and Gas News: TNK-BP Sold Over 280,000 Tons of Oil Products in 2009 at Exchanges
Gazprom
• RBC: Gazprom Neft passes 2010 investment program
• The Moscow Times: Gazprom Clarifies EDF Deal
• UkrainianJournal: Russia’s Gazprom agrees to extend natural gas payment deadline
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Full Text Articles
Basic Political Developments
Reuters: Russia test-fires Soviet missile to extend lifespan
Thu Dec 24, 2009 2:00pm IST
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia on Thursday said it had successfully test-fired an RS-20V intercontinental ballistic missile as part of a wider attempt to extend the lifespan of its Soviet-era nuclear arsenal.
"The launch was carried out as part of experimental construction work aimed at confirming the flight characteristics of the RS-20V missile and to extend its life span to 23 years," Russia's Strategic Missile Forces said in a statement.
The 22-tonne RS-20V missile hit a target on the Kamchatka peninsular on Russia's Pacific coast after being fired from the Orenburg region, more than 6,500 km (4,000 miles) away, a spokesman for the Strategic Missile Forces said.
The missile, which can pierce missile defence systems and is known in the West as the SS-18 "Satan", was seen by the United States as one of the Soviet Union's most dangerous "first strike" nuclear weapons.
The 34-metre (112 ft) missile has a range of 16,000 km (9,940 miles) and can carry at least 10 nuclear warheads.
Russia, which is trying to build several new types of missiles, says extending the life of its Soviet-era missiles is a cost-effective way to preserve nuclear parity with the United States.
The RS-20V missile, known in Russia as the Voyevoda, was initially intended to be used for 15 years but Russia has kept the missiles deployed.
"The extension of the lifespan of the Voyevoda to 25 years will allow us to extend its service by 10 years," the Strategic Missile Forces said, adding that the missile fired on Thursday had been in Russia's arsenal for more than 21 years.
Earlier this year, the commander of the missile forces was quoted by Russian media as saying Russia wanted to keep the RS-20V in service until 2019.
Russia and the United States are working on a new treaty to cut vast Cold War arsenals of nuclear weapons and say a deal could be reached next year.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, editing by Robin Pomeroy)
RIA: Russia successfully launches heavy Voyevoda missile
Russia successfully fired a heavy Voyevoda (SS-18 Satan) missile capable of carrying 10 warheads on Thursday morning, a Defense Ministry spokesman said.
"The Strategic Missile Forces launched an intercontinental ballistic missile RS-20V (Voyevoda) from a site in the Orenburg region [southern Urals]," Col. Vadim Koval said.
Koval said the missile hit the targets on Kamchatka, Far East.
He said the launch was designed to test the missile's performance with the aim of extending its service life from to 25 years.
Introduced almost 21 years ago, the missile will remain in service until 2019, the Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) commander said earlier this year.
Col. Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov said Russia is developing a new ICBM comparable to the SS-18, and would gradually decommission older versions of the missile "in order to ensure nuclear safety."
The missile is armed with a warhead fitting 10 multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles (MIRVs) with a yield of 550 to 750 kilotons each. It has a maximum range of 11,000 km (6,800 miles) with a launch mass of over 210 tons and a payload of 8.8 tons.
According to publicly available sources, Russia currently has 88 SS-18 missile silo launchers, most of them deployed at the Dombarovsky missile base in the Orenburg Region.
MOSCOW, December 24 (RIA Novosti)
RTT News: START Talks In Mid-January: Crowley
12/24/2009 3:21 AM ET
(RTTNews) - Talks on finding a successor to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) between the United States and Russia will resume in mid-next month, as the two former cold-war rivals failed to meet the deadlines of both December 5 and the year-end to finalize one.
Announcing the fresh schedule for the talks, Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs P J Crowley told reporters Wednesday in Washington that the U.S delegation, led by Assistant Secretary Rose Gottemoeller returned over the week-end from START negotiations in Geneva for a recess.
The American goal was to conclude a solid treaty for President Barack Obama's signature as soon as possible, he said.
A team of officials from both the countries, which held intensive negotiations for past few months to find a successor treaty to the START that expired December 5, held the eighth round of talks in Geneva from November 9 to December 19.
"The issues that we're working through in terms of numbers and verification and the complex issues, regarding these kinds of systems..it does take significant time to work through it. It is very, very complex," Crowley said.
He said the U.S. had hoped to resolve the complex issues that these treaty negotiations presented by the year-end, but he was not particularly concerned that it was taking more time given the complexity of the issues.
RIA: Russia paid small price in crisis - Medvedev
12:4324/12/2009
President Dmitry Medvedev reiterated on Thursday that Russia has survived the global economic crisis with no major losses.
Speaking live on state television in his review of the outgoing year, Medvedev said: "The year was extremely difficult and saw many dramatic events. We have survived and are continuing to develop, paying, in my opinion, a relatively small price for the international financial and economic crisis."
He said Russia could see a GDP growth of 2.5% to 5% next year.
"We hope the next year will see the GDP grow. The extent is so far hard to predict, but analysts estimate it to be between 2.5% and 5%, in an optimistic scenario," Medvedev said.
Russia was hard hit by the global financial crisis and subsequent recession as prices for Urals crude, its main export commodity, plunged more than 70% from a record $147 in July 2008. The World Bank, however, said the country's short-term macroeconomic fundamentals made it better prepared than many emerging economies to deal with the crisis.
In a live interview with the top managers of Channel One, Rossiya and NTV channels, Medvedev said the government has continued paying welfare benefits throughout the crisis and raised pensions this year.
MOSCOW, December 24 (RIA Novosti)
Interfax: Russia could have approx 9% inflation in 2009 – Medvedev
MOSCOW. Dec 24 (Interfax) - Russia could have approximately 9% inflation this year, significantly less than in 2008, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in a televised interview with Russia's leading TV bosses.
"Inflation was about 13% last year and will be somewhere in the region of 9% this year," he said.
Sofia Echo: Bulgaria’s Energy Minister in Christmas Eve visit to Moscow
hu, Dec 24 2009 09:31 CET
byClive Leviev-Sawyer
Bulgaria’s Energy Minister Traicho Traikov, accompanied by his deputy Maya Hristova and Bulgarian Energy Holding boss Galina Tosheva were in Moscow on December 24 2009 to meet Russian energy minister Sergey Shmatko.
Trakov’s ministry said that the meeting was being held to discuss "energy issues of mutual interest to the two countries".
Reports pointed out that there was nothing especially dramatic about the meeting being on Christmas Eve, because in Russia December 24 is not Christmas Eve, given that the Patriarchate of Moscow continues to use the Julian calendar, putting Christmas in early January.
Nor, according to a report by Bulgarian news website Mediapool, quoting Traikov’s ministry, should dramatic developments or "grandiose solutions" be expected from the meeting.
The Bulgarian Government that took office in July 2009 has been cool towards the major Russian-dominated energy projects to which the former Bulgarian Socialist Party-led government committed the country.
Prime Minister Boiko Borissov has kept Moscow waiting for clarity about whether Sofia will be prepared to go ahead with these projects, including the resumption of the Belene nuclear power station project about which the former government made a deal with Russian constructors, the South Stream gas pipeline and the Bourgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline project.
Traikov’s office said that the Bulgarian delegation was going to Moscow with no specific demands.
Shmatkov and Traikov met earlier in December in the framework of the intergovernmental commission on economic co-operation.
Through the Russian media, Moscow has sent several signals aimed at putting pressure on Bulgaria to clarify its stance. These signals have included scenarios in which South Stream would be re-routed to skirt Bulgaria.
On Belene, Russia reportedly has offered to finance the work of their companies on the nuke project.
Recent Russian media reports also have sought to portray current proposals for the Bourgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline as unlikely to pay off for the Russian companies involved.
Focus: RBC Daily: Some are dissatisfied with Burgas-Alexandroupolis project
[pic][pic][pic]24 December 2009 | 11:38 | FOCUS News Agency [pic][pic][pic]
Moscow. Bulgaria’s new government, which assumed the power in summer, said it will reexamine its engagements in the joint energy projects with Russia. Then, there was a concern that the Russian-Bulgarian-Greek oil pipeline project will not be realized.
In interview to RBC Daily, Trans Balkan Pipeline CEO Alexander Tarakanov answered to questions connected to Burgas-Alexandroupolis realization and what is it that does not suit Bulgaria in this project.
“There are completely different positions spread in the media. There is an official position, settled in the protocol: the countries will cooperate for project’s development. This is what we count on, too. Indeed, there are some parties that are dissatisfied with the project. I think that every single project of this type develops in the same analogical way. I cannot say that everything is going on well with Bulgaria, the way we want it to be, but to some great extent the dialog with the leadership is positive. We understand that there is a new government, which has to examine the issues around Burgas-Alexandroupolis’ construction”, Tarakanov remarked.
In his words, there is already an approximate evaluation on project’s cost, which will be announced in a month.
As far as the oil volumes are concerned, Tarakanov said that the issue is being discussed with the Russian shareholders: Transneft. Rosneft and Gazprom Neft and that Kazakhstan has shown interest in the deliveries.
: Egypt, Russia to negotiate FTA in early 2010
23 December 2009
CAIRO: Egypt and Russia are looking to establish a free trade agreement (FTA) and may cooperate on the construction to Egypt's first nuclear power plant, officials said Wednesday.
They also discussed ways to increase Russian wheat imports to Egypt.
Egypt's Minister of Trade and Industry Rachid Mohamed Rachid and his Russian counterpart Victor Khristenko said negotiations on the bilateral FTA will start in the first quarter of 2010.
The two sides, which are also looking to double the volume of trade, signed a memorandum of understanding for the FTA in 2007, but negotiations were delayed due to Russia's entry into an agreement with Kazakhstan and Belarus, a ministry statement said.
"During our meeting, we discussed that joint desire of both governments to double our bilateral trade from $2 billion to $4 billion over the upcoming few years," Rachid said.
Russia also discussed the possibility of helping Egypt construct its first nuclear power plant.
Earlier in the week Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif met with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to discuss enhancing economic ties and bilateral investments.
Mubarak and Nazif visited Moscow in November and met with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Because Russian-Egyptian economic cooperation and investment has received headlines in the past, the latest announcements may evoke a sense of déjà vu, but the economic crisis had delayed the actual establishment of the Russian Industrial Zone and proposed FTA.
The zone will be constructed in a million square meters of Burj El- Arab, an industrial city 30 km southwest of Alexandria.
Egypt looked to increase imports of Russian wheat, heavy machinery and nuclear expertise.
"We are talking about a framework to support buying wheat, so we are looking at things like linking prices to global prices and greater understanding on issues like quality and shipping," Reuters quoted Rachid as saying.
Egypt was looking at "how to find a mechanism to guarantee these (increased wheat) quantities will always be at best prices and best specifications," he added.
Rachid pointed out that the Russian-Egyptian trade relationship was one of those least affected by the economic crisis. Trade volume with Russia jumped from $800,000 million in 2004 to over $2 billion by 2007.
Rachid expressed confidence that trade would reach the targeted level of $4 billion over the coming years.
Russian investment in Egypt topped $727 million last April, and Russia hopes particularly to focus on automotive, aircraft and heavy machinery manufacture.
Rachid said the FTA would be similar in nature to Egypt's current trade relationship with the Arab region and the EU.
Egypt's relationship with Russia was under pressure in June after a dispute over the quality of grain sent from Russia. This was settled by Russia's agreement to inspect wheat shipments to Egypt, the world's largest wheat importer.
The relationship appears strong again, particularly as Egypt tests the sensitive subject of nuclear power production.
Responding to questions on the nuclear plant, Rachid said, "Egypt is convinced that Russia is one of the most experienced countries in nuclear power generation. The Minister of Electricity has laid down certain rules for how companies will be chosen for involvement in the building of a nuclear power plant in Egypt."
Minister Khristenko replied that Russia is happy to share its expertise, and is currently constructing 28 new domestic nuclear power plants.
Although the trade ministers voiced their mutual interest in establishing an FTA, Rachid explained that, "In light of developments on the Russian side regarding a unified customs system between Kazakhstan and Russia, Egypt will need to coordinate with all three parties," reaffirming the agreement to take steps to coordinate.
Bilateral trade between the two countries reached $2.07 billion in 2008, with Egyptian exports to Russia reaching $191.6 million and imports from Russia reaching $1.88 billion.
From January to May 2009, bilateral trade reached $793.6 million with Egyptian exports to Russia dropping.
By Annelle Sheline
: Saudis invest in Urals project
By Simeon Kerr in Dubai
Published: December 24 2009 02:00 | Last updated: December 24 2009 02:00
A consortium led by a Saudi royal has struck a deal to invest in an infrastructure project in Russia's Urals region, pointing to an upswing in business ties between the two largest oil producing countries.
Dubai-based Novaar Capital Management, the family office of a descendant of Saudi Arabia's founder, will invest through a joint venture with government-owned Ural IndustrialUral Polar.
The projects are in an area that produces two-thirds of Russia's oil and almost half its metals.
A person close to the deal said Novaar would invest $750m and seek to raise more funds for the projects.
Prince Saud bin Mansour Al Saud has signed a memorandum of understanding with Nikolai Vinnichenko, presidential en-voy to the Urals Federal District.
"We look forward to . . . demonstrating how private capital from the Gulf Cooperation Council can work with Russian state organisations to the benefit of all," David Mapplebeck, chief investment officer of Novaar, said.
A Russian state fund has invested $4.2bn in Ural Polar.
The Saudi-Russian joint venture plans to focus initially on transport and power generation, including the 354km line linking the port of Salekhar with Nadym, a force in Russia's gas industry.
Ural Polar hopes private investment will make up three-quarters of the estimated $28bn it needs to attract in the coming years.
Many of Russia's largest companies, such as TNK-BP and Lukoil, are expected to take part as funders and operators.
Authorities have estimated that the largely unexplored region could hold hundreds of billions of dollars of untapped mineral wealth.
Power and transport links are vitals for any attempts to mine these largely untapped resources.
Prince Saud, who is in his early 30s, set up Novaar at the Dubai International Financial Centre in February this year to act as an investment vehicle for himself and other members of the Saud family.
Russian-Saudi ties, helped by bilateral visits, have been on the mend as tensions over Chechnya have subsided and Riyadh has failed to echo western concerns over Russia's invasion of Georgia.
But analysts have been disappointed with the scope of ties, which have been limited to bilateral trade flows of about $1bn and some Russian investment in the Saudi gas sector.
RIA: RIA Novosti presents Arabic edition of Moscow News in Saudi Arabia
01:2324/12/2009
Russian news agency RIA Novosti has held a presentation of the Arabic edition of the Moscow News paper, Anbaa Mosku, in the capital of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh.
The presentation on Wednesday, led by Anbaa Mosku chief editor Raed Jaber, attracted a large number of Saudi Arabian journalists, representatives of cultural, scientific and business circles.
"Our goal is to help Arabian readers find answers to questions about the events in Russia or about Russia's policies on the global arena," Raed Jaber said.
RIA Novosti resumed the Arabic edition of the Moscow News paper in November after a 17-year break as part of the Russian government's new strategy to step up relations with the Arab world.
Anbaa Mosku will be a monthly publication with a circulation of 150,000 copies in 15 Arab countries and Israel. If it proves a success, the paper could switch to weekly or even daily editions, RIA Novosti chief editor Svetlana Mironyuk has said.
RIA Novosti has already held presentations of the newspaper in Egypt, Algeria, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Syria, Jordan and Jerusalem.
RIYADH, December 24 (RIA Novosti)
AFP: Georgia, Russia agree to re-open border crossing: Tbilisi
(AFP) – 22 minutes ago
TBILISI — Georgia and Russia, who fought a brief war last year, have agreed to re-open their land border to traffic three years after it was closed, Georgia's foreign ministry said Thursday.
The two countries have reached a deal to re-open the Upper Lars checkpoint, which was closed in 2006, Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Nino Kalandadze said.
It is the only land border crossing that does not go through Georgia's Russian-backed rebel regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia which were the focus of the 2008 conflict.
"The decision to re-open (the border) has been made," she told journalists, adding that she expected the crossing to re-open by the beginning of March.
Interfax: Kazbegi-Upper Lars checkpoint at Russian-Georgian border may reopen next spring
TBILISI. Dec 24 (Interfax) - The Kazbegi-Upper Lars checkpoint at the Russian-Georgian border could be reopened in March 2010, Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Nino Kalandadze said at a news briefing on Thursday.
Georgia and Russia will hold negotiations and stipulate a decision within the next two weeks, she said.
"There is a verbal agreement now that not only transit cargo but also cargo traveling from Georgia to Russia and Georgian citizens will be able to cross the checkpoint," Kalandadze said.
Negotiations between Georgia and Russia on reopening the checkpoint are proceeding with Switzerland's mediation, she said.
Russia closed the checkpoint in 2006.
Apa.az: Georgia and Russia resume air traffic
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[ 23 Dec 2009 22:51 ] [pic]
Baku – APA. Flights tickets from Georgia to Russia are on sale. APA reports quoting “RIA Novosty” that the tickets are available in Tbilisi International Airport. The first charter flight to Moscow is expected to be at 12:20 with local time on December 26.
Airzena-Georgian Airlines has asked the Russian Ministry of Transport to allow it to charter daily flights from Dec. 26 to Jan. 15 and to restore regular flights from Jan. 5. The application was being considered at the Russian Ministry of Transport, the company said.
Earlier, Russian President Dimitry Medvedev had spoken about reinstating flights between Georgia and Russia: “I don’t see any serious obstacles [in this issue], since that stems first and foremost from the public’s interests”.
After Medvedev’s statement, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili also supported the resumption of the flights.
Note that the flights between the two countries were suspended on August 8, 2008 because of war in South Ossetia.
|Civil.ge: Georgia to Launch Russian-Language Caucasus TV in January |
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|Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 24 Dec.'09 / 11:55 | |
The Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) will launch its third channel, the Russian-language First Caucasian, in January targeting the audience in post-Soviet space with focus on the Caucasus region, chairman of GPB’s board of trustees, Levan Gakheladze, said.
“Some may view the goal of this new channel as counter-propaganda to Russian TV channels and I do not rule out this to be the case,” he told RFE/RL Georgian service on December 24.
“On the other hand this is a desire to export truth about Georgia,” Gakheladze added. “We want to report our truth to our target audience, which is very much interested in it.”
The new channel, which will go out on satellite and cable, will have regular news bulletins with 70% of news reports dedicated to developments in Georgia and the remaining to foreign affairs, including current events in Russia, including in its North Caucasus republics.
“We want to say truth about what is happening also in Russia – not only in North Caucasus, but also in Moscow,” Gakheladze said and added without specifying that number of “very prominent” Russian journalists had already expressed interest in cooperation with the new channel.
In earlier media interviews Gakheladze said that the new channel’s annual budget will be roughly GEL 3 million.
The 2010 state budget envisages GEL 22 million funding for the Georgian Public Broadcaster, down from GEL 25.5 million in 2009.
GPB currently runs two television channels – the First and the Second (the First Caucasian Channel will be the third one); it also operates two radio stations. Next year the GPB also plans reorganization of the Second Channel to switch its programming into a C-SPAN or BBC Parliament-type.
Gakheladze said that apart of the public funding, which GPB receives, the broadcaster also projected roughly GEL 6-7 million inflow from ad revenues, as well as from other non-public funds, including revenues from renting of various facilities it owns. GPB’s channels have no right to air advertisement during primetime, except of the cases when they broadcast sport events.
Gazeta.kz: Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia to form single economic area by 1 January 2012
24.12.2009
text: Gazeta.kz, exclusively for Gazeta.kz
The presidents of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia approved the action plan on forming the single economic area and signed a joint statement on the Customs Union which will become effective on 1 January 2010.
The document was signed by Alexander Lukashenko, Nursultan Nazarbayev and Dmitry Medvedev in Almaty on 19 December, BelTA learnt from the press service of the Belarusian President.
The governments of the three countries jointly with the Customs Union Commission should provide the fulfillment of the action plan and inform the EurAsEC Interstate Council and the Customs Union supreme body.
According to Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia should not lose the momentum in setting up the single economic area. “A big decision regarding the single economic area was taken in Minsk. It is very important to maintain the momentum,” Alexander Lukasehnko said.
The presidents of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia confirmed their aspiration to develop the single economic area no later than 1 January 2012. If the action plan on forming the single economic area is implemented, all the basic elements of this union will come into effect in Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia. The three countries will have the agreed economic policy and the uniform rules related to business competition and industrial subsidies. The participating countries will ensure the free movement of services, capital and workforce.
Within the framework of the single economic area, the three countries will develop the regulations on mutual access to natural resources and set the economic assistance rules. The Presidents agreed to respect the balance of interests and facilitate the solution of the most difficult problems. As it was mentioned, the Customs Union will help increase the mutual trade of the three countries. The Presidents also agreed on the necessity of taking prompt measures to create a full-fledged single economic area.
Later that day Almaty hosted the informal CIS summit. Taking part in it were Presidents of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
The Heads of the CIS states consider these informal meetings to be very useful, because they allow discussing a wide range of problems. Such meetings should be held in future, said President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev at the opening of the informal summit.
He also said that the Presidents came to Kazakhstan to share their opinions on the problems that were of mutual interest and discuss the joint efforts in the future. He recalled that one of such meetings in Sochi triggered the formation of the EurAsEC.
Apart from that, the presidents stressed that the problem of regional security is of high importance.
Dec 24, 2009
The Straits Times: Russia sticks with missile
MOSCOW - RUSSIA will press ahead with its Bulava missile programme, the country's defence minister was quoted as saying on Wednesday, despite another failed test launch earlier this month.
'We are certainly not going to cancel Bulava,' Anatoly Serdyukov told the Rossiyskaya Gazeta in an interview to be published on Thursday, parts of which were obtained by Interfax news agency.
'There's a whole series of problems and unfortunately we can not resolve them as quickly as we would like,' he added. 'Nevertheless, I believe that the missile will fly.' The latest test over Russia's White Sea on Dec 10 ended in failure, owing to 'instability' in the Bulava's engine.
The submarine-launched missile, which can be equipped with up to 10 individually targeted nuclear warheads, will have a maximum range of 8,000km when fully operational.
It is central to Russia's plan to revamp its ageing weapons arsenal, but has been dogged by persistent technical problems. – AFP
Itar-Tass: RF Defence Min not to refuse from Bulava sea-launched missile
24.12.2009, 05.34
MOSCOW, December 24 (Itar-Tass) - The Russian Defence Ministry does not intend to refuse from the adoption for service in the army of the intercontinental ballistic missile Bulava, despite the fact that several it launches sere unsuccessful, RF Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said in an interview published by the Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily on Thursday.
Answering a question is the Bulava problems have affected the keel laying of the fourth nuclear-powered submarine of the 955 Borei project that was planned for December 22, the minister said, “The keel laying will be held and we will definitely not refuse from Bulava.”
“What is the cause of unsuccessful launches? I think that, actually, there are many causes, also the unpreparedness of the production facilities for doing everything precisely,” believes Serdyukov. “The labour discipline issue has also had its effect here. Somebody is trying to replace materials with some other, this also entails mass of consequences. In general, there is a whole can of worms there and the problems are settled, unfortunately, not so quickly as we would want,” he added. “Nevertheless, I think that the missile will fly,” the RF defence minister is certain.
Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky said earlier that in his view it is impossible to refuse from the submarine-launched intercontinental ballistic missile Bulava, despite its recent unsuccessful tests, and impossible to replace it with another missile. “We shall continue (to work with Bulava). Just think, how can it be replaced with any other,” the commander told Itar-Tass.
Answering a question if it is real to develop another missile instead of Bulava or to use instead of it the recently adopted for service in the RF Navy Sineva (RSM-54) strategic missile installed on the 667BDRM project nuclear-powered submarines of the Dolphin class (Delta 5 by NATO classification), Admiral Vysotsky said: “It’s impossible.”
The Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology is chiefly responsible for the Bulava missile’s design. Bulava carries the NATO reporting name SS-NX-30 and has been assigned the GRAU index 3M30. In international treaties, the common designation RSM-56 is used.
The Bulava design is based on the Topol M, but is both lighter and more sophisticated. The two missiles are expected to have comparable ranges, and similar CEP and warhead configurations. The Bulava is designed to be capable of surviving a nuclear blast at a minimum distance of 500 metres. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has claimed that Bulava could penetrate any potential anti-missile defence system.
The decision on developing the Bulava missile was adopted in 1998 after three unsuccessful tests of the Bark missile of the Miass Construction Bureau named after Makeyev. The missile completed the first stage launch-tests at the end of 2004. It was originally scheduled for completion in late 2006, but is now not expected to enter service until 2009. The first boats to carry the Bulava will be the forthcoming Borei class submarines, which will be outfitted with sixteen missiles each. The first three boats of this class will be deployed in 2010 (a total of 5 were planned for 2015.) A land-based variant is also expected.
On 19 September 2008, a senior Navy official announced that Russia will adopt the new Bulava-M submarine-based ballistic missile for service with the Navy in 2009. However, as of July 2009 about half of the tests of the submarine-based Bulava-M have been failures.
The first test launches conducted on 27 September 2005, and 21 December 2005, from the Dmitry Donskoi, a Typhoon class ballistic missile submarine, were successful. The next three flight tests, on 7 September 2006, 25 October 2006, and 24 December 2006, ended in failures of the missile, the causes of which have not yet been revealed.
One successful test launch was conducted on 28 June 2007, although some reports claim problems with the missile’s warheads. On August 5, 2007 Russia made a decision to start serial production of the Bulava sea-launched ballistic missile. However, this did not happen, and after a longer period of reviewing the programme the decision was made to continue the flight testing.
On 25 July 2008, the Dmitry Donskoi went to sea to conduct tests of the new launching system. Three more tests were conducted during 2008. The first was conducted on 18 September 2008 at 18:45 Moscow time. Some reports did however say that the test was not quite successful and that the bus failed to separate the warheads, or that the missile carried no warheads at all. The second was conducted on 28 November 2008 from a submerged Typhoon class submarine in the White Sea. First reports suggested that is was a successful test. The third and last test of 2008 was conducted at 03:00 GMT on 23 December 2008, but failed after the missile went off-course and self-destructed. On December 23, 2008 a senior Russian Navy official said that at least five more Bulava tests will be conducted during 2009.
In February 2009 it was announced that the flight tests would be resumed in March 2009. This was later delayed to June 2009. On July 15 a new test was conducted, ending in another failure when the missile’s first stage malfunctioned shortly after launch.
Xinhua: Russia likely to buy foreign helicopter carrier: DM
2009-12-24 06:00:23
MOSCOW, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- Russia's purchase of a foreign helicopter carrier is highly likely, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov told the daily Rosiiskaya Gazeta in an interview.
"We are now analyzing the terms on which it may be delivered to us. But I think the chances are very high," Serdyukov said in the interview to be published on Thursday.
Negotiations on the purchase of the French helicopter carrier Mistral are progressing "well enough," he said, adding that talks on the acquisition of a similar vessel are underway with other countries.
Serdyukov also said Russia may buy some elements of the French military hardware. "We are interested only in certain specific elements. For instance, communication and control systems," he said.
The defense minister said Russia's military reform will continue over the next few years.
"According to the presidential decree, the troops will be reduced to 1 million by 2016," said Serdyukov.
He said another major task is the rearmament of the armed forces. "We expect the share of modern hardware and weapons to reach one third by 2012 and then rise to 70-100 percent by 2020," he said.
Serdyukov reiterated that the military will not give up its troubled Bulava submarine-launched intercontinental missile despite repeated unsuccessful test launches.
He attributed the test failures to many factors, including the ill-equipped production facilities. "Nevertheless, I believe the missile will fly ultimately," he said.
OfficialWire: French, Dutch Enter Russian Carrier Bid
|Published on December 24, 2009 |
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|by EU News Network |
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|( and OfficialWire) |
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|MOSCOW, RUSSIA |
Spain and the Netherlands have joined France in the bidding to outfit Russia with a helicopter carrier.
"Yes, we are holding talks, and not just with the French, but with the Netherlands and Spain, about the acquisition of a ship of this class," Russian navy chief Vladimir Vysotsky was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
France is pitching its helicopter carrier Mistral, which last month sailed to St. Petersburg to convince the Kremlin to agree to what would be the largest arms deal ever signed with a Western country.
Dutch ship maker Damen Schelde and Spanish shipyard Navantia would classify for such a huge project.
But observers say the 650-foot Mistral is still favored to win the contract.
The vessel is capable of transporting and deploying 16 helicopters, up to 70 vehicles and 450 soldiers, although troop numbers can be doubled for short-term deployment.
Russia is eager to buy three or four Mistral carriers together with a license to build more of the ships itself.
Russian navy officials began calling for the vessel earlier this year, frustrated with the time it took their Black Sea fleet to carry out amphibious landing operations in the war with Georgia.
The ship has an estimated price tag of around $750 million and can deploy four landing barges at great speed. France would love to strike a deal with Russia, which has never purchased a foreign-made military vessel.
The Mistral is armed with two Simbad missile launchers and four 12.7mm M2-HB Browning machine guns. Equipped with a 69-bed hospital, the Mistral carriers are integrated into the NATO Response Force and have completed U.N. and EU-led peacekeeping missions.
Meanwhile, Russian newspaper Kommersant reports that Moscow will sell 20 MiG-29 fighter jets to Myanmar. The contract is worth around $570 million, the paper said, relying on information from an official with Russian weapons maker Rosoboronexport.
Military-run Myanmar is under Western sanctions, but India, China and Russia are said to have delivered defense equipment there.
Russia Today: Icebreaking guard ship ready for patrol
24 December, 2009, 10:38
The first vessel of a new icebreaking series 22120 built in St Petersburg is ready for its maiden voyage. Next year she will be deployed by the Russian border guard forces.
The ship is designed to serve in the cold waters of northern seas and is able to break ice more than half a meter thick, reports ITAR-TASS.
With a displacement of 1066 tons and hull length of 71 meters, its maximum velocity is 24 knots (44.5 kph). It also has a landing pad for reconnaissance helicopters, which can be used to locate smugglers, poachers and other maritime offenders.
Vessels of this class will be used for patrol duties in the Gulf of Finland, Barents Sea, Sea of Azov and the Pacific Ocean.
RIA: Russia set to start Superjet 100 deliveries in mid-2010
05:1324/12/2009
Russia's Sukhoi Civil Aircraft company will start deliveries of its new Superjet 100 regional airliner in the middle of 2010, the Russian industry and trade minister has said.
The Superjet-100 project is a family of medium-haul passenger aircraft developed by Sukhoi in cooperation with U.S. and European aviation corporations, including Boeing, Snecma, Thales, Messier Dowty, Liebherr Aerospace and Honeywell.
"The first commercial deliveries will start in the middle of next year. Regular flights will follow. We are hoping to start training the crews for this plane next spring," Viktor Khristenko said in an interview published in Rossiiskaya Gazeta on Thursday.
The minister said Sukhoi is currently running Superjet 100 certification tests in line with European, the U.S. and Russian standards, which would allow the plane to operate without restrictions anywhere in the world.
Sukhoi, part of Russia's United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), plans to manufacture at least 700 Superjet 100s, and intends to sell 35% of them to North America, 25% to Europe, 10% to Latin America, and 7% to Russia and China.
Currently, the company has at least 122 firm orders for Superjet 100 airliners. The first aircraft are expected to be delivered to Armenia's national airline Armavia and Russia's flagship air carrier Aeroflot.
MOSCOW, December 24 (RIA Novosti)
RIA: Russia may penalize Siemens for Sapsan train glitches
04:2024/12/2009
Russian Railways (RZD) could impose fines on Siemens AG for several technical problems experienced by a high-speed train built by the German engineering giant for Russia, the RZD chief said.
RZD signed a deal to buy eight Sapsan high-speed trains from Siemens in 2006, followed by a 30-year maintenance contract in April 2007.
The train made its first commercial run between Russia's two largest cities in a record time of 3 hours and 45 minutes on December 18 but developed a number of problems, including faulty automatic doors, since then.
On Monday, the train arrived in St. Petersburg with a 42-minute delay because two capacitors in a second carriage malfunctioned on the way.
"Our contract stipulates penalties for technical problems caused by the manufacturer's fault, and we will certainly impose such penalties without going to court," Vladimir Yakunin said at a news briefing on Wednesday.
Sapsan, Russia's first train capable of travelling at a speed of 250 kilometers per hour (155 mph), has 10 cars, of which two are first class and eight are second class, and can carry 604 passengers.
At present, two Sapsan trains make three runs between Moscow and St. Petersburg daily.
It takes approximately eight hours for most Russian trains to cover 650 km (about 400 miles) that separate Moscow from Saint Petersburg. Nevsky Express, which had been considered Russia's fastest train, is able to cover the distance in 4 hours and 30 minutes.
MOSCOW, December 24 (RIA Novosti)
The Moscow Times: Medvedev Reminds Kudrin to Be Polite
24 December 2009
By Scott Rose
President Dmitry Medvedev had to remind Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin to mind his manners Wednesday after a testy debate about a national payments system with Vneshekonombank chief Vladimir Dmitriyev.
Dmitriyev said a law was needed to create a national payment system that would be operated by a noncommercial entity and could include some 80 percent of Russian banks. Currently, several regional systems are operated by commercial banks, primarily state retail giant Sberbank, and these are not enough, he said.
“The idea is that [banks] could work through the operator with the public and cooperate with state bodies,” Dmitriyev told a meeting of the State Council, Interfax reported.
He said the system could be created within a year after the law was passed.
VEB is “ready to become the platform,” he said. Otherwise, a planned postal bank based on bailed-out Svyaz Bank and Russian Post could serve as the operator.
Kudrin, who also holds the rank of deputy prime minister, lashed out at Dmitriyev’s “inaccurate” comments.
“Dmitriyev, in his speech, gave a contentious, I’d even say conceptually inaccurate, approach to a national payments system,” Kudrin said, Interfax reported. “He’s confusing a powerful domestic system for handling accounts … with a national payment system.”
Kudrin said a bill to create a national payment system was being prepared by a working group, including representatives from the Finance and Economic Development ministries, the Central Bank and the banking industry.
But “the government hasn’t discussed this proposal by VEB, and these proposals came as something of a surprise for me today,” Kudrin said.
Medvedev said there would be time to discuss the payment system, which he proposed would complement his plan to make more government services available electronically.
“And there’s a second thing,” Medvedev said. “It’s small, but important. In our country, it’s historically accepted that when speaking about people who are present, we address them by name and patronymic, not in the third person.”
Turning to Kudrin, he added: “Alexei Leonidovich, I’d ask you not to forget that.”
Kudrin apologized to Medvedev, who responded that he was not the one who should be asked for forgiveness.
The Moscow Times: Online to Replace Waiting in Line
24 December 2009
By Anatoly Medetsky and Alex Anishyuk
British citizen Tremayne Elson recently spent six hours in a Moscow line to reregister the Antal Russia Recruitment Company where he is managing director, starting the ordeal at 5 p.m.
“You queued to get into the compound, then you queued to get into the building, then you queued to get a ticket to give you a place in the queue to go to the counter,” he said. “I got pictures of it. It was just complete chaos.”
Dealing with the government — for both Russians and foreigners — may actually start getting easier next year, because President Dmitry Medvedev is pushing for all state services to be available online. He told a Kremlin meeting on the issue Wednesday that he wanted it done by 2015.
People will be able to apply for some of the services online at
Gosuslugi.ru by the summer, Communications and Press Minister Igor Shchyogolev said at the meeting. The services will include registration of marriages, obtaining driver’s licenses or birth certificates and filing complaints to the police.
Individuals and companies, including foreign adoption agencies, will have the opportunity to file for visas, set up businesses and apply for various other licenses and registrations. Pharmaceutical companies will be able to seek permission to market their products.
The government unveiled the web site Dec. 1 and is now filling it with information and options. Handled by state-controlled Rostelecom, the portal now tells visitors about the documents, costs and time frames for specific services, has a search engine and lists links to other government web sites. One of the links takes visitors to the Prosecutor General’s Office page that invites tips on corrupt officials.
Clicking on “Required Documents” expands the list of paperwork to include remarks about which papers are required specifically from foreign applicants. But the site will not have an English-language version, said a spokeswoman for the Communications and Press Ministry, which oversees the measure.
Medvedev warned that officials must make a priority of providing online services to build the so-called electronic government.
“Those who will not deal with this matter, are simply not fit for work in modern conditions,” he said at the meeting.
Elson — who said he used the web back home to set up a business and apply for a driver’s license — welcomed the prospect of similar opportunities here.
“For most things that people have to go somewhere for in Russia, the process is just so diabolical that anything to cut down on the amount of physical visiting of state offices has to be a good thing,” he said.
Describing the excruciating line at a Federal Tax Service office in October, he recalled that the door to the compound was one-person wide so that when people started coming out, they blocked the “kilometer-long” incoming trickle. For Elson, all the trouble was to sign just one document.
Daniel McGrath, who works for a major multinational company in Moscow, said he would appreciate saving time on taking care of his Russian driver’s license, which he has to do every six months.
“Once a year I lose at least half a working day, basically, to go to Tsaritsyno to renew my driver’s license,” he said, referring to one of Moscow’s districts. “Anything that would speed that process would be more than welcome.”
Stephane Philip, deputy director of the French Chamber of Commerce in Russia, agreed that the electronic government would “make life simpler,” but said French companies needed to learn more about the opportunity.
Luc Jones, a partner at Antal Russia, said most companies employing white-collar foreign staff hire local private agencies to do visa- and work permit-related legwork for their staff. Many such companies and employees may not notice the change, he said.
Chris Weafer, chief strategist at UralSib, said he didn’t have to worry about any of his legal matters.
“If I need some paperwork done, what I basically do is fill out a special corporate form outlining which document I need and normally in two weeks I get it,” he said.
Leonid Romanov, a lawyer with Alinga Group, a consultancy that helps foreigners resolve legal hurdles, said the cost of such services could drop if the web site works well.
The more up-to-date way of tackling Russian bureaucracy is unlikely to affect foreign adoptions, which take 18 months or more, said a Moscow employee at an international adoption agency, who asked not to be identified to avoid possible repercussions for her work.
Couples will continue to have to send their documents by mail and visit Russia three or four times to meet the child and undergo various formalities, she said.
Government agencies have grown more scrupulous in handling foreign adoption requests after several deaths of adopted Russian children in the United States in recent years, she said.
Romanov, the Alinga lawyer, warned that the new web-based system had to guarantee against any leakage of confidential data contained in the online exchanges with officials.
“Data should be properly encoded to make interaction via the Internet secure and trustworthy,” he said.
Online services will take time to work properly and gain popularity but will eventually improve the environment for living and doing business in Russia, he said.
Alexei Filipenkov, a partner at the agency Visa Delight, which facilitates visa and registration formalities, approved of the idea of an Internet savvy government, saying it presented “interesting” options, such as a less-painful way to make official invitations for foreigners to come to the country and register them when they arrive.
Unfortunately, the web site so far doesn’t have a section for companies to apply for work permits for their foreign employees, he noted.
The Communications and Press Ministry spokeswoman said government agencies were still uploading data to the portal.
The Moscow Times: Patriarch Kirill Speaks Up for Gays
24 December 2009
The Associated Press
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill said Wednesday that although the church views homosexuality as a sin, gays should not face discrimination.
Kirill said “those who sin” must not be punished and therefore the church opposes any discrimination. Same-sex unions, however, should not be considered equal to heterosexual marriages, he said.
“We accept all the choices a person makes — in terms of their sexuality as well,” the patriarch said, RIA-Novosti reported.
Gay rights advocates argue that homosexuality is not wrong because it is an in-born orientation, but the church insists that it is a choice.
It was unclear to what extent the patriarch was easing church dogma in his carefully chosen statements, made during a meeting with visiting Council of Europe Secretary-General Thorbjorn Jagland.
Opposition to gay rights remains widespread in Russia, where homosexuality was decriminalized only in 1993.
Several high-profile Russian politicians have spoken against gay rights. Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov once described gays as “sodomites” and has blamed them for spreading AIDS.
Kirill, who was elected patriarch in January, has been seen as a modernizer and a politically savvy figure, but so far he has made no major statements that would signal a shift in the church’s conservative views on homosexuality and abortion.
Itar-Tass: Alexander Zhilkin to take office of Astrakhan region governor
24.12.2009, 02.03
VOLGOGRAD, December 24 (Itar-Tass) - Alexander Zhilkin is taking office of the Astrakhan region’s governor. The press service of the administration of the Astrakhan region told Itar-Tass that his inauguration ceremony will be held in Astrakhan on Thursday.
Zhilkin, 50, born in the Astrakhan region, will become the second Russian governor who took this post in accordance with the new order of vesting powers in heads of RF subjects offered by the Russian president in 2008. Head of the Sverdlovsk region administration Alexander Misharin became the first such governor on November 23.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev proposed the candidature of Zhilkin for the post of governor. On December 9, deputies of the Astrakhan regional Duma (legislature) unanimously voted for his candidacy.
Alexander Zhilkin has a degree of Ph.D. in Economics he has for a long time worked in the education sphere. In 1991 – 2004 he was first deputy head of the Astrakhan region administration and since 2004 – regional governor.
Endless steppes and the green banks of the Volga; the ice of the Northern Caspian and flowering lotus fields-Astrakhan Region located in the Caspian Lowlands of south-western Russia is all of these things. Its rich historical past, the unique beauty of its natural landscapes, and age-old traditions of hospitality have attracted tourists for a long time. The region was formed as part of the Russian Federation on December 27, 1943 by decree of the Supreme Soviet Presidium of the USSR, although Astrakhan Province was actually formed by Peter the Great in November 1717. It has an exceptionally favourable geographical location as a link between the Northern Caucasus and southern Russia and between Kazakhstan and Central Asia. It also connects Russia with Iran via the Caspian Sea. Astrakhan Region extends 120 km from west to east between Kalmykia and Kazakhstan and 375 km from north to south along the Volga and Akhtuba rivers to the Caspian Sea. It covers an area of 44 100 sq km or 0.3% of the area of the Russian Federation and borders on Kazakhstan in the east, Volgograd Region in the north and northwest, and the Republic of Kalmykia in the west.
Astrakhan Region has been Russia's “fish plant” for the past 400 years. It is known for sterlet soup, sturgeon, and black caviar and is the capital of the Caspian fisheries. Fish are not only caught here, but are also processed into high-quality products. Astrakhan's processing plants dry and smoke Caspian roach (also called vobla) and prepare balyk [cured steaks of sturgeon and other similar fish], Caspian herring, and various canned fish.
The region is made up of 11 rural districts, 6 cities (the largest are Astrakhan, Akhtubinsk, Kamyzyak, Znamensk, and Kharabali), and 442 villages and other small communities. The capital is the old Russian city of Astrakhan situated on the scenic banks of the Volga River. The city lies 1534 km southeast of Moscow on islands of the Volga delta and is known for its large number of bridges over the branches and channels of the Volga that pass through it.
The first written mentions of Astrakhan date from the 13th century when the Astrakhan Khanate was formed in the Lower Volga after the collapse of the Golden Horde. For several centuries, Astrakhan was the crossroads of trade routes between Europe and Asia.
Today, Astrakhan (pop. about 484 000) is an important industrial and cultural centre and a major cargo transfer point from rail to sea and river transport and vice versa. The city's main industrial sectors are shipbuilding, the light and food industries, and engineering and metalworking. Znamensk is a city of missile specialists. It is a relatively young city that grew up from mud huts and tents, and its history is inseparably linked with the Kapustin Yar test range. Through the efforts of its residents, the streets of Kapustin Yar gradually became green. Thousands of trees were planted in parks and around houses, barracks, and soldiers' messes. Everyone from generals to soldiers and pensioners to first-grade pupils had their own “personal trees” to care for.
Astrakhan Region is rightly considered the pearl of the Caspian. Due to its location in the delta of the Volga River, which flows for more than 400 km through the region, the territory has an abundance of water resources. The Caspian Sea and the great Volga are its greatest assets. Water occupies about 10% of the region; there are nearly 900 rivers in the Volga delta, the deepest being the Bakhtemir, Staraya Volga, Kizan, Bolda, and Kigach rivers. The region also has no equal in the world in its abundance and variety of valuable fish species. Fish are the region's main resource base: more than 70 species of fish are found in the Volga and Caspian Sea alone, including a unique shoal of sturgeon varieties (Russian sturgeon, beluga, and stellate sturgeon). Most of the black caviar and sturgeon supplied to the world market comes from Astrakhan Region. Eight fish hatcheries in the region breed sturgeon and salmon and more than 25 million young bream and sazan (a member of the carp family) are raised annually.
RIA: Ingush leader dissatisfied with fight against corruption in republic
12:1224/12/2009
MOSCOW, December 24 (RIA Novosti) - The leader of Russia's North Caucus republic of Ingushetia admitted on Thursday to failing to fight corruption, citing "unscrupulousness" on the part of some judges.
Yunus-Bek Yevkurov returned to Ingushetia, one of Russia's poorest regions and situated in the mainly Muslim North Caucasus, in August after being treated in Moscow for extensive injuries he sustained during a suicide car bomb attack on his motorcade in June.
"There are no results... I am very dissatisfied with this work, the fight against corruption," the Ingush president said.
He complained of judges who let embezzlers go with fines of up to 300,000 rubles ($9,800) and described them as criminals worse than a dozen Chechen militants put together.
"It's turned out that judges are immune and have the right to everything, while no laws are applicable against them," Yevkurov said.
He said he had stripped five judges of their powers jointly with the chairman of the Ingush Supreme Court last year, and another five judges lost their positions in 2009.
Yevkurov warned judges and also some investigators who he said were working "incorrectly" that every effort would be done to make them "work honestly," and pledged that the fight against corruption would be followed through.
In October, Yevkurov dismissed the government due to corruption and the Cabinet's failure to tackle socio-economic problems and corruption.
Ingushetia has been hit by a series of high-profile attacks on troops, police and other officials recently. Violence has been linked to separatists in neighboring Chechnya and local inter-clan rivalry.
RIA: Borderguards HQ in Ingushetia comes under grenade fire
03:0324/12/2009
A borderguards headquarters in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia has come under fire from grenade launchers, a local police source said.
According to the source, a group of unidentified assailants fired at least two grenades at the borderguards HQ building in the city of Nazran at about 21.45 Moscow time (18.45 GMT) on Wednesday.
No casualties have been reported so far. Police are assessing the structural damage to the bulding and sweeping the area in search for the attackers.
Russia's mainly Muslim North Caucasus republics, especially Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia, have seen an upsurge of militant violence this year, with frequent attacks on police and officials.
Nazran, the largest city in Ingushetia, saw the worst attack in August, when at least 20 officers died in a truck bombing at the police headquarters.
In June, Ingush President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov survived a car bomb attack on his motorcade.
ROSTOV-ON-DON, December 24 (RIA Novosti)
Itar-Tass: Nine workers die in Yevstyuninskaya iron-ore mine blast
24.12.2009, 08.58
MOSCOW, December 24 (Itar-Tass) - Death toll as a result of a blast in the iron-ore mine Yevstyuninskaya (the Vysogorsky ore-dressing complex (VODC), near the city of Nizhny Tagil, Sverdlovsk Region) has risen to nine. The body of a worker who had been reckoned missing was found on the night from Wednesday to Thursday.
All the dead bodies have been brought above ground. Seven of them have been identified while another two are not identified so far, the news channel Vesti reported.
The blast at the Yevstyuninskaya mine occurred at 13:35 local time on Wednesday. There were 124 workers in the mine at the moment. One hundred and fourteen have been evacuated.
The VODC (which is part of the EurAs Group) suspended the operation of the Yevstyuninskaya mine. Mining operations were suspended on Thursday in view of the fact that a spontaneous detonation of explosives had occurred during the transportation of blasting materials to a subterranean depot of the enterprise at a depth of 180 metres.
Rescuers have issued a list of the names of the caved-in mineworkers. These are Sergei Sidorov, Vladimir Agapitov, Sergei Ilyichyov, Nikolai Shestakov, Viktor Kotrov, Nikita Kirichenko, Vassily Tryastsyn, Ivan Prosvetov, and Raisa Gerasimenko.
Criminal proceedings have been instituted in connection with the fact of the blast under the provisions of the Criminal Code article listing "A breach of safety rules during the conduct of building operations or other kinds of work that entailed the death of two or more people through negligence".
The VODC, which comprises several subterranean iron-ore mines with ore processing facilities, is located near Nizhny Tagil, 180 km north of Yekaterinburg. The VODC develops the Vysogorskoye, Lebyazhinskoye, Yestyuninskoye, and Mednorudyanskoye iron ore deposits. This is one of major ore-dressing enterprises in the Urals. The complex engages in the mining and turns out an enriched ore, sinter cakes, limestone, natural stone, and other products. The EurAs Group is in control of 100 percent of the shares of the VODC public joint-stock company.
DECEMBER 24, 2009
Online.: Court Gives Yukos a Rare Victory
By GREGORY L. WHITE
MOSCOW -- Russia's highest court struck down the 2003 arrest of the business partner of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, but lawyers said the ruling is a largely symbolic victory that isn't likely to lead to the release of Platon Lebedev.
The ruling was a rare win in Russian court for former shareholders of OAO Yukos. The Russian oil giant was driven into bankruptcy by back-tax claims and sold off earlier this decade in what was widely viewed as a politically motivated attack by the Kremlin on a politically ambitious oligarch.
Messrs. Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were convicted of fraud and tax evasion in 2005 and sentenced to eight years in prison. They are now on trial in Moscow for new Yukos-related charges that could lead to sentences of 15 years or more apiece if they're convicted. The case is being watched as a test of President Dmitry Medvedev's pledges to strengthen the rule of law and judicial independence.
The Presidium of Russia's Supreme Court said Wednesday that the initial decision to keep Mr. Lebedev, one of Yukos's main shareholders, in jail before his trial was illegal. Lawyers said the top court's decision was essentially dictated by a 2007 ruling of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, which said Russia violated Mr. Lebedev's rights in its handling of his pre-trial detention. Russia is bound by treaty to honor the Strasbourg court's rulings, which in recent years have frequently come against Russia's government.
The prosecutor at Wednesday's hearing had asked the top Russian court not to strike down lower Russian court rulings that upheld the arrest, requesting instead a nonbinding finding against the officials who had been involved in the cases. Prosecutors declined to comment on the ruling, beyond saying that it won't lead to Mr. Lebedev's release. Mr. Lebedev's defense lawyers said they will consider using the ruling to challenge other elements of the case. They said they don't see signs of a major shift in the way Russian courts approach the Yukos case.
"They're fulfilling their obligations as written in the law, and with an 18-month delay," said Elena Liptser, Mr. Lebedev's defense lawyer.
Several other Yukos-related cases are still pending there, including a parallel complaint against the October 2003 jailing of Mr. Khodorkovsky, as well as challenges of the 2005 convictions. Rulings in some are expected in the next few months.
The current criminal case against Messrs. Khodorkovsky and Lebedev is being handled with closer attention to court procedure than the first case, according to lawyers in Russia who are tracking it, possibly to reduce the risk of appeals to the Strasbourg court.
Lawyers said rulings like Wednesday's could also strengthen the Russian government's arguments in Western courts that Mr. Khodorkovsky and his colleagues can get justice in Russia.
Write to Gregory L. White at greg.white@
The Moscow Times: Court Rules Lebedev’s Arrest Illegal
24 December 2009
By Alexandra Odynova
The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the 2003 arrest of Yukos partner Platon Lebedev was illegal, marking the biggest victory yet for former Yukos owners in their long-running legal fight with the government.
The Supreme Court decision, which follows a similar ruling by the European Court of Human Rights in 2007, does not mean that Lebedev will be freed or that investigators will revisit his 2005 conviction on tax and fraud changes, prosecutors and his lawyers said.
But it does offer hope to Lebedev and former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky that Russian courts might accept future rulings by the European Court of Human Rights, including a $100 billion lawsuit against the Russian government that the court will start considering on Jan. 14.
Lebedev was jubilant about the Supreme Court’s ruling, which said his rights had been violated when a lower Russian court ordered his arrest in 2003, his lawyer Vladimir Krasnov said.
“Platon said that it was a victory,” Krasnov told The Moscow Times.
“But,” he said, “it’s hard to predict now what effect it [the ruling] will have later on.”
Lebedev, wearing his trademark dark tracksuit, arrived in the courtroom against his will, but he was broadly smiling at his defense team a few hours later.
Lebedev asked the court last Friday to postpone Wednesday’s hearing until next year and to excuse him from attending if it was held earlier. “I refuse to take part in the hearing because it is impossible to prepare for it in such a short period of time,” Lebedev said in a statement.
Deputy Prosecutor Viktor Grin, who attended the hearing Wednesday, had little to say about the ruling. Asked whether it meant that Lebedev would be freed, he loudly answered, “No,” and rushed out of the courtroom without commenting further, The Associated Press reported.
He spoke for less than a minute during the hearing and refused to talk to reporters afterward.
Repeated calls to the Supreme Court’s spokesman went unanswered Wednesday afternoon.
It took the presidium of judges in the Supreme Court about an hour to draft the ruling.
Lebedev told the court that despite its ruling, no one has been punished for the violations during his arrest. “No guilty people have suffered for it,” Lebedev said, according to a transcript of the hearing published on the web site Khodorkovsky.ru.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2007 that Lebedev was illegally placed under arrest in 2003 and ordered the Russian government to pay him 10,000 euros ($14,200). Lebedev has said the money would be donated to charity.
The Supreme Court’s ruling “gives a hope that judges will start noticing the European court’s decisions in the framework of the Yukos cases,” Khodorkovsky’s lawyer Vadim Klyuvgant said.
He said it was the Supreme Court’s duty to uphold the European court’s ruling and complained that it had taken the Russian court 18 months to act.
Khodorkovsky has also filed a lawsuit about his arrest with the European court, but it has not been heard yet. Khodorkovsky and Lebedev have also filed lawsuits about their convictions. Both men are serving eight-year sentences.
A Moscow court opened a second trial against the two in March on charges of embezzling more than $25 billion in oil.
President Dmitry Medvedev was to discuss the effectiveness of the European court and other issues with visiting Council of Europe Secretary-General Thorbjorn Jagland on Wednesday, the Kremlin said in a statement. Asked by a journalist about the timing of the Supreme Court’s ruling Wednesday, Jagland said he did not think that it was meant to coincide with his visit. “I would find it strange to suggest that the Supreme Court made its decision to please me,” he said, Interfax reported.
Lilia Shevtsova, who follows the Khodorkovsky trial at the Carnegie Moscow Center, said it was not clear why the court had decided to rule now after an 18-month delay and cautioned about reading too much into the verdict. “The Russian court’s decision just reflects the dual nature of the Kremlin,” she said. “On the one hand, it can’t ignore Strasbourg, but that also doesn’t mean that Lebedev will be released soon.”
Even while the Supreme Court was overturning Lebedev’s arrest, the government’s legal onslaught against Yukos was continuing to unfold. Moscow’s Basmanny District Court on Wednesday ordered the arrest in absentia of former Yukos treasurer Andrei Leonovich on money-laundering charges. Leonovich has lived in Britain since 2004.
Khodorkovsky has dismissed all charges against him and his company as punishment from Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin for his political and business ambitions.
Prime Minister Putin made it clear in a recent televised call-in show that he believed Khodorkovsky should stay in prison. Asked when Khodorkovsky might be released, Putin grew visibly angry and accused Khodorkovsky and other former Yukos officials of murder.
Putin’s spokesman could not be reached for comment on Putin’s reaction to the Supreme Court ruling.
The Moscow Times: Police Tout Increase in Solved Cases
24 December 2009
By Natalya Krainova
The Interior Ministry, which suffered a series of embarrassing, high-profile crimes by police officers this year, announced Wednesday that its investigators cracked more cases in 2009 than the previous year.
Police investigators solved slightly more than 410,000 crimes out of 1.9 million investigated in the first 11 months of the year, or 6.5 percent more than in the same period last year, the ministry’s investigative committee said in a statement.
In comparison, the number of crimes solved by investigators dropped by 10 percent in 2008 and by 14 percent in 2007, the statement said.
Police officers have long been accused of padding their records of how many crimes they have solved in order to receive promotions and other perks, a practice that the Interior Ministry started cracking down on several years ago and might have led to the lower statistics in 2007 and 2008.
The crackdown also sought to improve the reputation of the police force. But the effort has sagged this year amid headline-grabbing crimes like a Moscow policeman who killed three people in an April shooting spree and a regional policeman who made a YouTube appeal to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin last month to end police corruption.
Interior Ministry officials did not address police-related crime or padded statistics at a news conference where they presented an annual report on police performance Wednesday.
The ministry’s top investigator, Alexei Anichin, said “the most pressing” crimes this year were corruption, economic violations and the illegal seizure of businesses and property.
Police opened 38,000 criminal cases on corruption charges from January to November, sending to court 31,000 of the cases, including 6,147 involving large-scale corruption, said a senior investigator, Mukhammed Mussov.
Most corruption charges involved embezzlement through abuse of power, the ministry statement said.
Anichin also said the Interior Ministry had closed a tax evasion case against Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a Moscow detention center of heart failure on Nov. 16. Magnitsky was detained in November 2008 after he and Hermitage Capital accused senior Interior Ministry officials of stealing budget funds.
Anichin declined to comment on a criminal investigation into Magnitsky’s death, saying the case was being handled by the Investigative Committee with the Prosecutor General’s Office.
The Moscow Times: Holiday Shoppers Try to Stretch $275
24 December 2009
By Irina Filatova
From the crowds in Okhotny Ryad, you’d never know it was a workday. On a recent afternoon, people were strolling past shop windows decorated with garlands, artificial Christmas trees and fashionably dressed mannequins sporting Santa Claus caps.
As the New Year’s shopping season enters its frantic last week, most customers said they hadn’t changed their plans much since last year, while store mangers seemed buoyed by sales after a sleepy November.
Tatyana, a 55-year-old teacher who came to Moscow a few days ago from the Zabaikalsky region in Siberia, looked confused as she stood at the balustrade of the mall’s second level. She has no idea what to give her son.
“He said I shouldn’t get him anything, but I can’t leave him without a present. It’s always so hard to find something for a young man. At the very least I’ll buy him cologne,” she said.
Many of the people in Okhotny Ryad, one of the largest malls in downtown Moscow, did not want to give their names. Most said they were looking for traditional presents again this year — especially cosmetics and candy.
Irina Litvinenko, a corporate clients manager, complained that it was because there aren’t many affordable options in Russia.
“I’ll give traditional presents to my friends, such as perfume and cosmetics kits. Something original is too expensive, and these things are affordable and always necessary, especially for ladies,” said Litvinenko, 33.
The average Russian will buy up to a dozen New Year’s presents this year, spending a total of 8,400 rubles ($275), consulting company Deloitte said in a survey released earlier this month. Total spending for the country’s biggest holiday — including presents, food and entertainment — will average 16,700 rubles this season, the report said.
Last year, the total for holiday spending was 19,800 rubles, the report said, without giving a breakdown. It did say, however, that 49 percent of people wanted to be given money this year, up from 36 percent in 2008.
Store mangers said the amount of money that customers were ready to spend varied enormously, but most said it was shaping up to be a decent holiday season.
“People will pay anywhere from 100 rubles to 10,000 rubles and more at a time,” said a manger at souvenir shop Krasny Kub, or Red Cube, who did not want to be identified because she was not authorized to talk to the media.
She said people were buying everything, “from cups to disco balls,” and sales at the shop had increased twofold in December from the same month last year.
“Our sales have jumped by at least 50 percent this month compared with November,” said Anna Ledovskaya, a manager at L’Occitane, which sells French hair- and body-care products. “The customer flow increased starting from Dec. 16. People are buying presents for relatives. Parents are buying little things for their kids’ teachers and nannies,” she said.
Most customers at Okhotny Ryad, which caters to a middle-class clientele, said their spending on presents wouldn’t be more than 10,000 rubles and many complained that another year of high inflation was partly responsible for higher spending.
“I’m planning to spend up to 10,000 rubles on presents this year. That’ll be more than I spent last year because the prices have increased by 20 to 30 percent, I think,” said Dragan Markovich, 48, a Serb who has been living in Moscow for the last six years.
The government expects inflation to reach about 9 percent for the year, and the State Statistics Service said Wednesday that prices had risen 0.2 percent in the week ending Monday.
Analysts said there had been no changes in consumer behavior ahead of the holidays, because presents are one of the last things that people stop buying in a crisis.
“It’s beyond belief for people not to buy presents. Even in a crisis, they want to please their nearest,” said Anna Romanova, a research director at Synovate Russia, a market research company. “Most people buy customary things — cosmetics, shirts, ties. There’s a traditional boom in the perfumery and household appliance sectors now.”
Managers at some souvenir shops argued that those gifts were banal and boring, while people wanted to get something unconventional and interesting.
“The most popular item people buy at our store as a present is a telescopic fork, which is 62 centimeters long,” said Vladlen Azaryev, an administrator at novelty items shop Le Futur. “It may be very useful for a lady who wants to give her boyfriend something delicious to try from her plate if he’s sitting far away,” he said jokingly.
But only young shoppers seemed to be looking for something out of the ordinary.
Ksenia Sleptsova, a 19-year-old law student, said she wanted to find a meaningful gift for her father, an officer in the paratroops. “My dad collects souvenirs related to the armed forces, and I want to get him something special,” she said. “I’ve heard there’s a kitchenware kit at one of the shops. Even though it’s not customary to give kitchenware to men, I’m sure he’ll understand when he gets a herring dish in the form of an assault rifle from me.”
|The Financial: Russia's top sanitary official predicts second wave of swine flu in spring |
| |
|24/12/2009 10:47 (00:31 minutes ago) |
|The FINANCIAL -- According to RIA Novosti, Russia's top sanitary official said the country should prepare for a second stage of |
|swine flu epidemic, which could break out in spring. |
Gennady Onishchenko said, however, that as long as the A/H1N1 virus does not mutate, there will be no emergency situation announced in the country. Mutations of swine flu virus have been registered in 31 countries, but research on changes in the virus genome being held around the world has shown that the virus does not become more aggressive.
"The virus behaves quite predictably. It has been registered in 190 countries, but in the overwhelming majority of cases (95%) infections were light," the sanitary official said.
However, he said, it is better to get vaccinated against swine flu.
Onishchenko said some 6 million flu and acute respiratory viral infection cases had been registered in Russia in November this year, while there were only 2 million cases last November.
Only 27-30% of this year's infections in Russia were swine flu, he said.
Russia's sanitary watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said there were 21,000 swine flu cases officially registered across the country as of December 7.
Four vaccines against the virus have been tested and registered in Russia. The government has allocated 4 billion rubles ($140 million) to buy the initial 43 million doses of vaccines. Russia's sanitary authorities said they planned to have 35.5 million doses before the end of the year.
Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on its website that as of December 13, at least 10,582 people throughout the world had died of swine flu, with about a thousand passing away during the previous week. However, every year, up to 500,000 people die from seasonal flu.
Telegraph.co.uk: Russian comedy: KVN was the TV outlet for anti-Soviet Union thoughts
This online supplement is produced and published by Rossiyskaya Gazeta (Russia), which takes sole responsibility for the content.
Evgeny Tipikin, Russia Now
Published: 6:11PM GMT 23 Dec 2009
Dmitry Medvedev's rise to the presidency was unexpected. As it became public that Russia's deputy prime minister would be likely successor to Vladimir Putin, a team from Moscow State University performed a TV skit as Medvedev himself roared with laughter in the front row.
The students portrayed Mr Medvedev's fictional school reunion. His former classmates fawned over the president-to-be, asking if he remembered them and laughing uproariously at his lame jokes. A clueless former classmate arrives, boasting: "I've been in the woods for the past five years – no TV, no radio… nothing!"
Oblivious to Medvedev's fame, the guy smacks him on the back and says "What's up, Dima?" When they pose for a class photo, the unknowing hero gives the future president bunny ears. Tell this story to any Russian, and he'll respond, "Only on KVN."
The abbreviation KVN is as recognisable a Soviet brand as the Bolshoi Ballet or Yuri Gagarin's smile. When it debuted on national television in the Sixties, KVN, or Klub Vesyolykh i Nakhodchivykh (The Club of the Merry and Quick-Witted), was the only legal form of unorthodox thought.
This humorous survivor from Soviet civilisation is a unique creation, not borrowed from the West.
Games and skits between teams of college students are played out in front of a live studio audience. At first it consisted of competitions involving general erudition, but it evolved into contests of wits that favoured the player who made the smartest joke. The key to the show became improvisation, jokes and put-ons, as well as uncontrollable laughter.
Its first incarnation began in 1956. Like a bolt from the blue at the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party, Khrushchev delivered his secret speech denouncing Stalin. His unmasking of the personality cult was like a breath of fresh air – and freedom.
The following year Moscow hosted the World Youth Festival. The Soviet intelligentsia was full of hope, creative projects and brilliant ideas.
It was then, during the so-called "Thaw," that producers came up with the idea of "enlivening" television, still totally controlled by the ruling regime.
The message was completely new for Soviet TV: participants included not only the hosts, but members of the audience. Filmed live, they took part in various contests.
The show helped demonstrate that, after decades of being stifled in the name of Party and State, every person could be interesting on his own and, more significantly, have his own opinion. This was a fantastic breakthrough, a revolution of sorts.
In the beginning the show was not KVN, but VVV – or Vecher Vesyolykh Voprosov (An Evening of Merry Questions). After only its third show, VVV was taken off air by the authorities in the wake of an "incident."
VVV had decided to award a prize at the next taping to any audience member who arrived at the studio dressed in a fur coat, hat and felt boots (it was then the middle of summer) and carrying a newspaper dated December 31 of the previous year.
Unfortunately, when the show's host (famous composer Nikita Bogoslovsky) announced the conditions, he forgot to mention the newspaper.
Naturally, almost everyone owned winter clothing, and, when the show was scheduled to start taping, the studio was stampeded by hundreds of people in fur coats and felt boots.
They surged past the police and chaos ensued. The show was pulled, but nothing was put in its place. All evening, televisions tuned to VVV showed the message: INTERRUPTED FOR TECHNICAL REASONS.
This technical interruption lasted four years until KVN rose from dead air in 1961. It was originally filmed in black-and-white and grew fantastically popular overnight, eventually becoming the longest-running show on both Soviet and Russian TV.
KVN soon became a social movement. Copy-cat "KVNchiks" were put on at universities, factories, schools and pioneer camps. KVN went around the country auditioning teams, the best of which wound up on television.
Since teams often made ironic remarks about Soviet reality and ideology (those were the jokes the audience liked best), the show was soon no longer live, but taped. Ideologically dubious humour was often edited out.
More recently, the game has been played in Western Europe, Israel and the United States. The first international competition – between the former Soviet Union and Israel – was held in Moscow in 1992.
A world championship between teams from the States, Israel and the former Soviet Union took place in Israel in 1994.
In one skit, following several bank defaults and economic crises, a KVN team from the city of Tula offered the following domain name to Russia's largest state bank, Sberbank: . In Russian, "deneg net" reads "no money."
In the old days, KVN acted as a safety valve through which the steam of social tension was released by the power of laughter. The media atmosphere in Russia has since changed, and KVN has become one of many comedy sketch shows.
Prime minister Vladimir Putin even appeared on the show several years ago to celebrate its 45th anniversary: it is still one of the few places – perhaps the only one – that the former president has laughed at an impression of himself.
The joke's on us
In the Sixties, a man ran naked through the streets of Moscow yelling: "Khruschev is an idiot! Khruschev is an idiot!" The man was given 101 years in the Gulag: one year for public indecency, 100 for releasing state secrets.
Traffic police stop a car.
Policeman: "Have you drunk vodka today?"
Driver: "No."
Policeman: "Breathe into the tube... Well, no alcohol is detected... Maybe the tube is broken." (Breathes into the tube himself.) "No, it's working!"
Two Muscovites meet.
"How's life?"
"Fantastic."
"Do you read the papers?"
"Of course! How else would I know?"
Brezhnev and Napoleon meet in the next world.
"Oh-h-h, if only we'd had such a brilliant commander as yourself in the Soviet Union instead of Stalin," Brezhnev says to Napoleon, "then we wouldn't have allowed Hitler to cross our threshold."
"And if I had newspapers like your Pravda," says Napoleon, "not a soul would have heard about Waterloo."
When Nasa started sending up astronauts, they discovered that ballpoint pens wouldn't work in zero gravity. Scientists spent a decade and $12m developing a pen that writes in space, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300C. The Russians used a pencil.
Telegraph.co.uk: Russia to curb carbon dioxide emissions despite Copenhagen Climate Change summit
This online supplement is produced and published by Rossiyskaya Gazeta (Russia), which takes sole responsibility for the content.
Ilya Zinenko, Gazeta
Published: 3:28PM GMT 23 Dec 2009
Despite ambivalent results at the Copenhagen summit, Russia still plans to commit to lower CO2 targets and reduce harmful emissions. This comes as part of a broader plan to improve energy efficiency and spur economic growth through green technologies.
On the heels of the summit, president Dmitry Medvedev had pledged to cut Russia's harmful emissions to 25pc less than the 1990 level if other leaders follow. Mr Medvedev also promised to make Russian industry 40pc more energy efficient by 2020.
Previously, presidential Aide Arkady Dvorkovich had pledged $200m to a multibillion-dollar fund to support poor nations, but not before a successor to the Kyoto Protocol on reducing harmful emissions would be signed.
However, speaking at an informal meeting with his counterparts from post-Soviet states, Mr Medvedev echoed the words of several commentators: "There are results, but they are rather modest."
On the eve of his trip to Copenhagen, President Dmitry Medvedev spoke on his videoblog about the question of climate change, emphasising Moscow's firm position on the need for joint action by the world's major powers.
He said that international co-operation on this issue is essential, and that all commitments should be taken on by the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases – the USA, Russia, China, India and Brazil – at the same time, otherwise they would be meaningless.
"I would especially like to stress this: these should be commitments that we make at the same time and that we keep together. If our efforts are uncoordinated they will be ineffective and meaningless. This issue is essential, and I say again, we need to get to grips with all this together," said Mr Medvedev.
"[However], the commitments must be consistent with our economic potential and, very importantly, each country's development priorities. We understand that young industrial economies will have a greater requirement for energy resources than the post-industrial powers that have already developed their economies," he continued, recognising the interests of developing countries.
"We are now taking an active part in the drawing up of a new agreement on a climate regime for the so-called 'post-Kyoto' period, the period after 2012," the president said later, at a conference on the development of power engineering.
"Even if the talk about the climate and the global changes taking place in the environment is not confirmed, as a minimum we shall lose nothing, because we shall engage in energy efficiency and have a certain effect on improving the surrounding world," said Mr Medvedev.
"But if, God forbid, what the scientists are currently saying turns out to be true in one way or another, it still definitely follows that that is what we have to do. So that means we win either way."
The commitments that Russia has made in accordance with the Kyoto protocol envisage only a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in 2008–2012 to a level no higher than that of 1990. Even so, according to ecologists' data, as a result of the economic recession emissions have never reached that level in Russia's recent history.
Russia's emissions grew between 2000 and 2007, but incommensurably more slowly than its GDP – by just 1pc per year (on 1990's level) – and before the crisis they had reached 66pc of the 1990 base level, said WWF Russia. Greenpeace agrees that the target of "reducing emissions" by 25pc actually means a growth in emissions.
Ecologists nevertheless believe that the plans that have been announced with regard to the rise in emissions can only be welcomed. "Growth of up to 75pc means that, thanks to energy efficiency and energy saving measures, the trend will be maintained and strengthened," said a WWF statement.
"In terms of the 'percentage' for 2020, we are actually the leader among the major countries. But it's not just a matter of the percentage – what's more important is to stop the growth in emissions and to start to reduce them. That's what will show whether Russia is developing on the basis of new systems rather than the old ones," said Alexei Kokorin, head of WWF's climate programme.
"Medvedev is trying to position Russia so that on the one hand he can show that it is aiming for modernisation and vote for a new agreement, while at the same time not damaging relations with its strategic partners, primarily China," explained Alexei Mukhin, head of the Centre for Political Information.
He recalls that the main opponents of restrictions are the USA and China, which have not signed the Kyoto protocol: production in these countries is so highly developed that restrictions would be disastrous for their economies.
Earlier, at a meeting with Danish premier Lars Lokke Rasmussen, prime minister Vladimir Putin stated that Russia is ready to support Denmark's efforts to push ahead with the post-Kyoto ideas, but on a number of conditions: first, the world's major economies must sign up to the document; and, second, that greater account is taken of the potential for Russia's forests to absorb carbon dioxide. In Mr Putin's view, the Kyoto protocol underestimated Russia's forests.
National Economic Trends
Reuters: INTERVIEW - Russia state grain trader open for business
Wed Dec 23, 2009 11:25pm IST
By Aleksandras Budrys
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's new state grain trader will welcome foreign investors as it pushes for a 40 percent share of the country's grain export market, a market that could almost double in five years with a $3 billion cash injection.
Sergei Levin, chief executive of the United Grain Company, said Russia could have 35 million to 40 million tonnes a year of grain left over for export as early as 2015. Part of his task is to ensure the infrastucture is there to support it.
"We are open to any market players, both Russian and foreign," Levin, 44, told Reuters in his first ever interview with an international news organisation.
The United Grain Company has loomed large over Russia's grain trading community since its formation in March, with many foreign players uncertain as to the role the Kremlin-backed firm will play on the market of the world's No. 3 wheat exporter.
Some analysts have said Russia, which hosted the inaugural World Grain Forum in June, could be making a state push to grab a bigger share of food and grain markets in the same way it has strengthened its grip on the oil, gas and metals industries.
Levin, a qualified physicist and a lawyer with no previous background in agriculture, was invited to lead the firm in August.
"I had no hesitation," he said, sitting in his freshly redecorated office in central Moscow. "For a manager, two things are interesting: to change occupation and to develop new projects from scratch."
UGC aims to upgrade Russia's obsolete infrastructure, which is unfit to support ambitious plans to raise grain exports. Levin estimates investments totalling 99 billion roubles ($3.3 billion) will be necessary by 2015.
"The target set by the state is to sell the country's exportable grain surplus and to modernise the infrastructure.
"If the most efficient way to do this is to give away a controlling stake to private capital, I believe the state will seriously consider such a possibility," Levin said.
"If private capital is not interested in this target, the state will consider other forms of financing, direct from the budget, state guarantees for project finance or others."
Levin said he expected private investors to contribute about 25 billion roubles, a quarter of the sum, but declined to specify the stake in UGC such companies might receive in return.
LAWYER TURNED GRAIN MAN
Levin, like President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, studied law in Russia's second city, St Petersburg.
Immediately before his appointment at UGC, he worked for the Federal Agency for State Reserves, one of the most secretive institutions in Russia, responsible for storage of commodities for the nation's survival during war and natural calamity.
The UGC's first major act was to absorb the state-owned Food Market Regulation Agency responsible for grain intervention purchases and sales, but its ambitions do not stop there.
Russian grain output was expected to reach between 120 million and 130 million tonnes within 10 years, Levin said, from the 93-95 million tonnes expected in 2009.
"Our exportable surplus by 2015 may be 35-40 million tonnes, which is double the record level reached in 2008/09," he said. Russia exported over 23 million tonnes of grain in 2008/09.
Another problem facing Russia is its shortage of elevators. Levin said less than one-third of the 118 million tonnes of storage capacity in Russia could be considered modern, with the rest built in the 1950s and 1960s.
Russian ports, incapable of handling more than 23-24 million tonnes of grain exports annually, also need to be modernised.
EXPLORING NEW MARKETS
Levin said UGC would start in earnest next year by selling about 4 million tonnes of grain from state stocks next year.
Six million to 8 million tonnes of grain acquired through interventions would be exportable, he said, although UGC would not ship the whole amount.
"Nobody will take a decision to sell such a big volume instantly on the world market as it will immediately push prices down, which no country, including Russia, will appreciate."
Levin said UGC aimed to increase exports to 16 million tonnes annually by 2015, which would be around 40 percent of its high-end forecast for total Russian exports by that year.
Levin also said UGC would target the main buyers of Russian grain, primarily Egypt, which accounts for about a quarter of Russian wheat exports. But it will also seek new buyers.
"We are not going to stick only to the existing markets. We will be looking for new markets so far not reached by our exporters."
(Editing by Robin Paxton; Editing by Keiron Henderson)
Business, Energy or Environmental regulations or discussions
Reuters: Russian markets -- Factors to Watch on Dec 24
MOSCOW, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Here are events and news stories that could move Russian markets on Thursday.
You can reach us on: +7 495 775 1242
STOCKS CALL (Contributions to moscow.newsroom@):
Olma: "Brent futures are trading noticeably above $75 a barrel, which could be sufficient basis for a pre-new year rally...High activity from non-residents in coming days is unlikely -- Western traders are preparing for Christmas."
Alor: "The oil sector shares could be among the favourites at the open...Demand will remain for Gazprom shares. LUKOIL, which has recently lagged the broader market trend, could also be in demand."
EVENTS (All times GMT):
MOSCOW- Russia's President Medvedev to give a TV-interview on the results of the year for leading national TV channels, 0900
CAIRO- Russia's Industry Minister Viktor Khristenko to visit Egypt (final day)
MOSCOW- The Central Bank to offer 50 billion roubles of Series 12 OBR bills at a top-up auction
MOSCOW- The Central Bank publishes weekly reserves data.
IN THE PAPERS:
Brokerage Troika Dialog ended its financial year to September 2009 with a loss of almost $50 million after paying out $86 million in bonuses, Kommersant business daily reports.
Unicredit has no plans to sell off its assets in the CIS and expects the situation in the region to start improving next year, its chief executive Alessandro Profumo tells Vedomosti.
TOP STORIES IN RUSSIA AND THE CIS: TOP NEWS: Explosion kills 8 at Evraz iron mine in Russia Russia backs off threat to block US poultry
COMPANIES/MARKETS: Troika cuts Kamaz, AvtoVAZ stakes -paper ECONOMY/POLITICS: Russia will borrow despite higher oil-Kudrin Russia CPI up 0.2 pct in latest week
ENERGY: Rosneft awards Jan ESPO, Q1 CPC crude oil Russia ESPO crude could be game changer in Asia Russia may supply oil to Belarus without deal
COMMODITIES: INTERVIEW-State grain trader open for business BPC settles 2010 China potash deal at $350/T
MARKETS CLOSE/LATEST:
RTS 1,451.48 +1.18 pct
MSCI Russia 797.80 +1.58 pct
MSCI Emerging Markets 971.54 +0.74 pct
Russia 30-year Eurobond yield: 5.392/5.349 pct
EMBI+ Russia 199 basis points over
Rouble/dollar 30.2000
Rouble/euro 43.0775
NYMEX crude $76.10
ICE Brent crude $77.38
For Russian company news, double click on
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Keywords: RUSSIA FACTORS/ (Moscow Newsroom, +7495 775 1242, moscow.newsroom@)
The Moscow Times: EBRD, Russia Sign Accord
24 December 2009
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said Wednesday that it signed an accord with the government to help find ways to cut the Russia’s “extremely high levels of energy use.”
That may include starting a “carbon market” for transactions between companies and between governments and implementing so-called green investment schemes for commercializing greenhouse gas emissions, the EBRD said.
|The Financial: EBRD and Russian government to cooperate on energy efficiency |
| |
|24/12/2009 11:41 (00:03 minutes ago) |
|The FINANCIAL -- The EBRD and the Russian government today announced plans to cooperate on ways to promote energy efficiency, a |
|major priority for a country which makes an exceptionally intensive use of its vast energy resources. |
"An Energy Efficiency Action Plan defining the areas in which the Bank and the government could work together in order to cut energy waste has been signed by EBRD President Thomas Mirow and Russia’s Minister of Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina," EBRD reported.
Other countries which have already signed Energy Efficiency Action Plans with the EBRD are Bulgaria, Kazakhstan and Ukraine .
Both sides have in a Memorandum of Understanding stated their intention to broaden cooperation in building up initiatives aimed at increasing investments in energy efficiency projects in all sectors, including carbon finance.
Under the terms of the Memorandum, the Ministry and the EBRD will together identify areas in which cooperation can be most effective in terms of achieving a significant improvement in Russian energy efficiency. The Ministry will also supply the EBRD with information on regulations being developed regarding energy efficiency, as well as provide the Bank with support on the development of energy efficiency projects.
The EBRD said it would look into the possibility of launching a carbon market facilitation programme in Russia which would cover both transactions involving the private sector as well as those between the Russian Federation and sovereign partners.
Carbon trading, through the financial incentives it offers to implementing qualifying projects, is an important element in the government’s efforts to reduce the country’s extremely high levels of energy use.
The Bank also expressed its readiness to explore the possibility of implementing so-called Green Investment Schemes. Under these schemes, a country sells Assigned Amount Units (the trading and accounting unit for greenhouse gas emissions) to a buyer needing to meet emission reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol. The seller then uses the proceeds to co-finance projects designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
The EBRD and the Ministry will also cooperate on ways to develop a legal and regulatory framework facilitating private investments in energy efficiency in new sectors such as existing public and residential buildings. This is an area with a vast potential for energy savings but from which private investments have so far been excluded.
Other areas where the EBRD could scale up investments in energy efficiency include:
• The power sector
• Renewable energy
• The oil, gas and mining sectors
• Industry
• Municipal infrastructure
• Transport
• Small and Medium-sized businesses (through loans to the banking sector)
In all these sectors, the EBRD is ready to identify donor-funded grants to finance energy-efficiency audits in support of potential projects.
Interfax: Banks have 564.5 bln rbs on CBR correspondent accounts on December 24
MOSCOW. December 24 (Interfax) - Russian banks have 564.5 billion rubles on correspondent accounts in the Central Bank as of December 24 including 337.7 billion rubles for Moscow banks.
The balance on December 23 was 621.2 billion rublesand 436.7 billion rubles, respectively.
Banks had 347.6 billion rubles on deposit accounts in the Central Bank on December 24 against 255.2 billion rubles on previous day.
Reuters: Russia's VEB postpones $2 bln bond issue
3:10am EST
MOSCOW, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Russian state bank VEB said on Thursday it was indefinitely postponing a $2 billion bond issue originally scheduled for Dec. 25. The bank did not give a reason for the postponement of the issue of foreign currency debt issue aimed at domestic investors.
VEB -- which acted as the government agent in distributing state anti-crisis funds -- placed its debut tranche of such bonds, also worth $2 billion, among 10 buyers in June, at a coupon of 2.24 percent. [ID:nL31008370]
In total, it planned to issue $10 billion of such paper [ID:nL71002835] and has also started preparations for a Eurobond issue which could be used to finance lending and investment activity [ID:nLB667708]. (Reporting by Oksana Kobzeva; Writing by Toni Vorobyova)
The Moscow Times: OGK-3 Sells Norilsk Shares
24 December 2009
OGK-3, a utility controlled by Norilsk Nickel, sold its stake in its parent company to two offshore companies for about $100 million, OGK-3 spokesman Maxim Radetsky said Wednesday.
The utility sold its 0.4 percent stake to Corbiere Holdings and Raleigh Investments, Radetsky said, declining to comment on the ownership of the two buyers.
The Moscow Times: Rusnano’s Plans for 2010
24 December 2009
Rusnano may borrow 30 billion to 50 billion rubles ($1.64 billion) next year to fund projects, and the borrowings will be guaranteed by the state, chief executive Anatoly Chubais said Wednesday.
Russia’s nanotechnology industry may grow to 900 billion rubles ($29.5 billion) in annual revenue within five years, he said, predicting that there would be a “flow of innovative companies” to hold share sales in Moscow during the first quarter of next year.
Rusnano invested 91 billion rubles this year in 61 projects, he said.
|Posted: December 24, 2009 |
|: RUSNANO Sums Up The Year 2009 |
| |
|(Nanowerk News) RUSNANO CEO Anatoly Chubais held a press conference in Moscow to announce the results of the Corporation’s activity in|
|2009. |
|A priority direction for RUSNANO is co-investment in industry, infrastructure and educational projects in the field of nanotechnology.|
|The Corporation started to accept applications for nanotechnology projects financing beginning April 1, 2008. As of December 22, 2009 |
|RUSNANO received 1,356 applications with requested financing exceeding 1.8 trillion rubles, including financing requested from the |
|Corporation exceeding 1.1 trillion rubles. 237 project applications now undergo the Corporation’s expert evaluation procedures. |
|By December 23, 2009 the Supervisory Council of RUSNANO approved financing of 61 projects, including 51 industry projects, three |
|infrastructure projects, one educational project, as well as six investment funds. The total financing of these 61 projects amounts to|
|192.8 billion rubles, including the financing from RUSNANO 91 billion rubles. |
|The projects’ financing is increasing rapidly. By the end of 2008 the Supervisory Council approved seven projects, as of 23 December |
|2009 the number increased almost eight times to 54 projects. The number of projects increased partly due to the new approach to the |
|Corporation’s investment policy, the essence of which is the gradual transition from the passive acceptance of applications to active |
|search of investment projects. In July 2009 the Corporation achieved its designed capacity of starting 15 new projects per quarter. |
|By the end of 2009 RUSNANO eliminated the underrun in the actual funding of projects from targets set by the Corporation’s strategy. |
|Furthermore, the actual volume of project’s financing in 2008-2009 amounted to 31.8 billion rubles comparing to the target of 29 |
|billion rubles. |
|In addition to the industrial projects co-financing, the RUSNANO approach to nanotech industry development implies establishing the |
|R&D, financial and educational infrastructure of the innovative economy. In 2009 it was decided to form five venture capital funds |
|with the Corporation’s participation. RUSNANO and MICEX also launched the new Market for Innovations and Investments (MICEX MII), |
|designed to attract investment, especially in mid and small capitalization sector of Russia's innovative economy. The first IPO at |
|MICEX MII was launched on December 10, 2009. |
|In 2009 RUSNANO adopted key documents, laying the foundations of the Corporation’s activities in several key areas including |
|education. The concept of RUSNANO activities in education was approved by the Supervisory Council on 4 August 2009. According to the |
|document, RUSNANO will focus on building human resources capacity through support of education programs of advanced training and |
|retraining for nanotechnology industry professionals. In 2009 RUSNANO held four competitive tenders for this kind of educational |
|programs. By 2015 the number of the educational programs supported by RUSNANO should increase to 120. Another area of RUSNANO |
|activities is assistance in the preparation of professional standards. RUSNANO plans to participate in the development of |
|inter-institutional educational training programs for the high qualification workforce and adaptation of the best foreign training |
|courses. |
|On October 13, 2009 the Supervisory Council of the Corporation approved the concept of nanotechnology centers—infrastructure |
|facilities intended for the commercialization of nanotechnology developments. The key feature of nanotechnology centers is the |
|concentration of technological equipment and incubation competence for small innovative companies (marketing, management and |
|information support). The first competitive tender to create nanotechnology center is to be announced before the end of this year and |
|to be finalized in the first quarter of 2010. |
|On October 6-8, 2009 Moscow hosted the Second Nanotechnology International Forum, designed to provide a global platform for |
|professional discussion of nanotechnology developments and innovations. This year it was attended by 11,394 participants and visitors |
|from Russia and 38 foreign countries. |
|In December 2009 RUSNANO, in accordance with the decision of the Government of the Russian Federation, transferred 66.4 billion rubles|
|of temporarily free funds to the state budget. By the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No 1454-r the transfer of |
|RUSNANO’s free funds to the state budget is carried out on a return basis: it is expected that in 2010-2012 these funds will be |
|transferred back to the Corporation. |
|However, in order to implement the government approved strategy of increasing total sales of Russia's nanotechnology-enabled products |
|to 900 billion rubles by 2015—RUSNANO needs to invest about 310 billion rubles in nanotech projects. Therefore in 2010 RUSNANO plans |
|to raise funds in the form of external loans guaranteed by the State. |
|Source: RUSNANO (press release) |
Bloomberg: Standard Bank Boosts Troika Dialog Stake to 36%, Kommersant Says
By Denis Maternovsky
Dec. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Standard Bank Group Ltd., Africa’s largest lender, boosted its stake in Moscow-based Troika Dialog to as much as 36 percent, Kommersant reported, citing unidentifed bankers familiar with the matter.
Standard Bank exercised its rights to increase its stake after Troika sold $174 million of shares in automakers OAO AvtoVAZ and OAO KamAZ, the Russian newspaper said today.
Johannesburg-based Standard Bank said in October, a month after winning regulatory approval to buy 33 percent of Troika, that it had no immediate plans to raise its stake in Russia’s oldest investment bank.
To contact the reporter on this story: Denis Maternovsky in Moscow at dmaternovsky@
Last Updated: December 24, 2009 00:50 EST
Bloomberg: Troika Dialog Boosts Bonus Pool to $86 Million, Kommersant Says
By Denis Maternovsky
Dec. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Troika Dialog, Russia’s oldest investment bank, increased bonus payments to staff by 26 percent this year to $86 million, the Moscow-based Kommersant newspaper reported today, citing internal documents.
To contact the reporter on this story: Denis Maternovsky in Moscow at dmaternovsky@
Last Updated: December 24, 2009 00:58 EST
Reuters: Russia's Troika cuts Kamaz, AvtoVAZ stakes –paper
1:14am EST
MOSCOW, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Russian brokerage Troika Dialog has reduced its stakes in truck maker Kamaz and car manufacturer AvtoVAZ , earning at least $174 million for the shares, Kommersant business daily reported on Thursday.
The sale paved the way for South Africa's Standard Bank to increase its holding in Troika to over 36 percent from 33 percent, as such a deal was conditional on the Russian company reducing stakes in some of its strategic investments, unnamed banking sources told Kommersant.
Troika Dialog Chief Executive Ruben Vardanyan confirmed to the paper that Standard Bank's stake in the brokerage had increased, but declined to comment on Kamaz and AvtoVAZ.
Sources told Kommersant the shares were bought by other stake holders. Troika owned 44 percent of KamAZ, while state corporation Russian Technologies had 37.8 percent.
Germany's Daimler had 10 percent and was in talks with Troika over increasing this [ID:nLDE5BH1G9], but sources told Kommersant that Daimler was not the buyer this time.
AvtoVAZ, for its part, is 25-percent owned by France's Renault . Russian Technologies and Troika also each own a quarter of the troubled company, which has been hard hit by falling demand during Russia's first recession in a decade.
A source at the state corporation told the paper that Russian Technologies did not buy any shares of either company from Troika. (Writing by Toni Vorobyova; Editing by Valerie Lee)
Interfax: MTS buys another 11.06% of Comstar, ups stake to 61.97%
MOSCOW. Dec 24 (Interfax) - Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) (RTS: MTSS) has acquired a further 11.06% of the shares in Comstar-UTS to increase its overall interest in the fixed-line provider to 61.97%, MTS said in a statement.
MTS said Comstar's stake in Moscow City Telephone Network (MGTS) (RTS: MGTS) rises to 69.93%.
MTS exchanged 31,816,462 treasury shares (1.6% of issues shares) and paid $8.3 million cash for 11.06% (46,232) Comstar shares owned by MGTS Finance.
MGTS Finance swapped shares in MTS and paid $7.3 million for 14.2% of MGTS (2,462,687 ordinary and 11,135,428 preferred shares), sold by NCH, a group of investment funds, which became the owner of 1.6% in MTS as a result of the deal, MTS spokeswoman Yelena Kokhanovskaya told Interfax.
"In line with Comstar's strategy to achieve more effective governance by building a larger stake in MGTS, its key asset, and to simplify the Group's ownership structure, this series of transactions has resulted in an increase in Comstar's stake in MGTS to 69.93%, and the cross ownership between MGTS group and Comstar-UTS has been reduced to 2.75%," said Sergey Pridantsev, President and Chief Executive Officer of Comstar-UTS.
MGTS no longer has any large minority shareholders in the run-up to an asset swap with the Svyazinvest holding, in which Тthe holding will hand 23% of MGTS (28% ordinary shares) to Comstar.
MTS closed the acquisition of 50.91% of fixed line provider Comstar UTS from the Sistema holding (RTS: AFKS) for $1.272 billion in October. Sistema is the biggest shareholder in MTS.
The Moscow Times: Aeroflot Shares Increase 9% on Cost Cutting
24 December 2009
Bloomberg
Shares in Aeroflot, the biggest airline in Eastern Europe, jumped the most in almost 11 months on Wednesday after the state carrier cut costs more than analysts expected and forecast a 25 percent gain in passenger traffic next year.
Aeroflot shares rose 9.1 percent to 52.37 rubles at the close in Moscow trading, the biggest gain since Jan. 26. The shares closed at their highest value since Nov. 17, 2008.
Aeroflot said late Tuesday that it slashed operating costs 34 percent to $2.16 billion in the first nine months of the year. That helped the company increase net income 21 percent to $170.4 million, even as revenue declined 31 percent to $2.46 billion.
“Aeroflot continued to demonstrate strong operating performance after the end of the high season,” VTB Capital analysts led by Yelena Sakhanova wrote in a research note Wednesday. The growth in profitability on weaker revenue “points to a market recovery and provides sound optimism to management,” VTB added.
Fuel expenses, the biggest cost item, declined 59 percent in January through September, helped by lower prices and a switch to a bidding system for suppliers. Payroll costs declined 24 percent as Aeroflot cut 4 percent of its staff.
Aeroflot expects to increase passenger traffic 25 percent next year versus this year and raise the ratio of filled seats per flight to 72 percent from about 69 percent now.
“The reported results and the company outlook will be a trigger for the stock,” said Andrei Rozhkov, an analyst at Metropol.
Bloomberg: Magnit Board Approves Sale of 5.5 Billion Rubles of Bonds
By Maria Ermakova
Dec. 24 (Bloomberg) -- OAO Magnit may sell 5.5 billion rubles ($183 million) of bonds after the Russian retailer’s board approved the plan, Oleg Goncharov, head of investor relations for the Krasnodar-based company, said by telephone today.
To contact the reporter on this story: Maria Ermakova in Moscow at mermakova@
Last Updated: December 24, 2009 01:47 EST
Activity in the Oil and Gas sector (including regulatory)
News.az: Russia’s oil and gas reserves to rise in 2009
Thu 24 December 2009 | 08:57 GMT
Growth in oil reserves will near 500 mln tons in 2009, while growth in gas reserves will total 650 bn cu m, Russian minister.
Growth in oil reserves will near 500 mln tons in 2009, while growth in gas reserves will total 650 bn cu m, Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology Yuri Trutnev said in his interview to Vesti TV channel.
He said this result will help ensure full reproduction of oil and gas reserves.
“We should admit that crisis and decline in financing in most spheres including geological survey has affected us. We are reducing the geological survey by 10% this year though passing to the level of complete recovery. Growth in oil reserves will near 500 mln tons and growth in gas reserves will make 650 bn cu m”, he said.
Trutnev noted that oil production will be preserved on the level of 2009, according to the ministry’s forecast.
“Oil production will be preserved on the same level with 2009. In this connection, we should ensure reproduction of reserves. We should not use the reserves of the previous years, we should explore not less than we produce”, the minister said.
He also announced that the ministry is planning to submit to the government the draft strategy of geological sphere development until 2030.
“The work on this document is nearing completion. We will finish this work early next year”, he said.
According to the Ministry of Nature, growth in oil and gas reserves also made 500 mln tons and 650 bn cu m respectively in 2008.
Interfax: Decision on zero duty for oil from 22 East Siberian fields ready
MOSCOW. Dec 24 (Interfax) - A decision to set a zero-rated export duty on oil produced at 22 East Siberian fields is now ready, Andrei Slepnev, a deputy economic development minister, told reporters.
"The proposal is at an advanced stage. We already have a zero duty on oil to be produced at 13 fields and a decision on 22 fields is now ready," Slepnev said.
Reuters: Russia LUKOIL sees 2009 income falling 34-45 pct
Thu Dec 24, 2009 9:14am GMT
MOSCOW, Dec 24 (Reuters) - LUKOIL (LKOH.MM: Quote, Profile, Research), Russia's No.2 oil producer, expects net profit to fall this year by 34-45 percent because of weaker oil prices, the company's chief executive told state television channel Vesti.
"The company's profit has decreased, but it stabilised and we hope to close the year with net profit at around $5-$6 billion," said Vagit Alekperov.
In 2008, LUKOIL's net profit edged down by 4 percent to $9.1 billion, while for January-September 2009 its earnings fell to $5.3 billion from $10.8 billion in the same period last year.
Earlier this month, Russia's largest private oil company, 20 percent owned by U.S. oil major ConocoPhillips (COP.N: Quote, Profile, Research), cut its long-term output targets to match weaker European demand and to accumulate more cash to pay higher dividends. [ID:nGEE5B70D9] (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by David Cowell)
Bloomberg: Lukoil Net Income May Reach $6 Billion This Year, Alekperov Says
By Stephen Bierman
Dec. 24 (Bloomberg) -- OAO Lukoil, Russia’s largest non- state oil company, may have net income of $6 billion this year, Chief Executive Officer Vagit Alekperov said on state television today.
To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Bierman in Moscow at sbierman1@
Last Updated: December 24, 2009 01:50 EST
Steel Guru: LUKoil interests in Conoco asset sales
Mr Vagit Alekperov CEO of LUKoil called on the government to ease access to big oil deposits and said that his oil producer hoped it would be first in line to buy if partner ConocoPhillips was about to sell key assets.
Mr Alekperov said that “We are strategic partners. Today they are restructuring their assets and I hope that we would be among the first to know about to study the need to take part in projects that Conoco will offer to the market.”
Conoco which owns 20% of LUKoil has said it will keep the strategic stake but could sell pipelines, terminals and gas assets in North America as part of a USD 10 billion asset sale plan.
Mr Alekperov said that Conoco’s restructuring was one of the reasons why the US major did not partner LUKoil in its winning bid for the giant Iraqi West Qurna-2 field despite an earlier plan the two firms would combine their efforts. He added that “They thought that at the current stage the firm’s restructuring is more important for them adding that no other joint projects with Conoco were affected.”
(Sourced from Reuters)
Bloomberg: Transneft Concerned Bulgaria May Back Out of Bosporus Pipeline
By Stephen Bierman
Dec. 24 (Bloomberg) -- OAO Transneft, Russia’s state-run pipeline operator, is concerned that Bulgaria’s new government will back out of a proposed oil pipeline designed to relieve tanker congestion in the Turkish Bosporus Straits.
“This government has made an unambigious announcement that this project is not profitable to Bulgaria,” Chief Executive Officer Nikolai Tokarev said in an interview with Russian state television station Vesti-24 today.
Bulgaria’s opposition to the link is a “worry” to Transneft as the government hasn’t come up with any alternatives, he said.
Russia, Bulgaria and Greece are examining the construction of a 285-kilometer (177-mile) pipeline linking the Bulgarian city of Burgas with the Greek port of Alexandroupolis, bypassing Turkey’s crowded Bosporus and Dardanelles straits.
Since Bulgaria elected Boiko Borissov as prime minister in the summer, Russia has signed an accord with Italy and Turkey on building a separate Bosporus bypass running across Turkey from the Black Sea Port of Samsun to the country’s major Mediterranean export port at Ceyhan.
To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Bierman in Moscow sbierman1@.
Last Updated: December 24, 2009 03:12 EST
Your Oil and Gas News: TNK-BP Sold Over 280,000 Tons of Oil Products in 2009 at Exchanges
Thursday, Dec 24, 2009
TNK-BP sold 29,880 tons of oil products, including 16,380 tons of diesel fuel, 10,980 tons of Ai—92 gasoline and 2,520 tons of Ai—95 gasoline, in the latest auction of large lots of oil products at the Saint Petersburg International Commodity Exchange on Tuesday, the press service of the company told to the Petroleum Information Agency (ANI). This was the last auction of the company this year at the Saint Petersburg International Commodity Exchange.
The overall amount of oil products sold by TNK-BP at exchange auctions in 2009 exceeds 280,000 tons, of which 160,560 tons of fuel was sold in large lots. In November and December, the volume of sales at exchange auctions was close to 15% of the demand for oil products of TNK-BP on the domestic market. TNK-BP fuel is bought by sales subsidiaries of vertically integrated companies, including subsidiaries of TNK-BP and other wholesale and retail traders.
“We are welcoming the fact that the government has included oil products into the list of goods that budget-funded enterprises will have to purchase in H1 2010 on electronic trading floors. This measure will considerably improve the liquidity of exchange fuel trading, which is essential for successful development of the exchange fuel trading mechanism.
Liquidity of fuel sales at the Saint Petersburg International Commodity Exchange may be a major step towards better transparency and higher efficiency of the Russian domestic market of oil products,” the press service of the company quoted the words of Jonathan Kollek, Vice President, Sales, Trading and Logistics, TNK-BP.
“Attainment of this goal requires active participation of all major players of the market and centralization of sales volumes at one commodity exchange. Dispersion of sales volumes over several markets decreases the liquidity of sales and diminishes the final effect,” said Mr. Kollek.
Next year, TNK-BP is going to increase the volume of fuel sales at exchanges.
Gazprom
RBC: Gazprom Neft passes 2010 investment program
RBC, 24.12.2009, Moscow 11:41:29.Gazprom Neft's board of directors approved the company's investment program for 2010, which provides for about RUB 140bn (approx. USD 4.59bn) worth of investments, or 13 percent less than this year's program, the RBC Daily newspaper reported today. Meanwhile, this year's program was significantly expanded due to the acquisition of Sibir Energy. Furthermore, the oil company plans to bring its oil production up to 50m tonnes in 2010.
At the same time, Gazprom Neft does not intend to decrease its expenditures next year, and RUB 140bn (approx. USD 4.59bn) is 1.5 times greater than was originally planned for 2009.
As reported earlier, the company's actual investments may amount to RUB 166.4bn (approx. USD 5.46bn) this year.
The Moscow Times: Gazprom Clarifies EDF Deal
24 December 2009
Gazprom will buy power from Electricite de France for resale as part of an agreement between the two companies, Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov said Wednesday.
He denied a report in French daily Les Echos that said Gazprom might become a French electricity supplier as EDF wants to pay for its planned stake of between 10 percent and 20 percent in the South Stream pipeline in kind.
“These things are interconnected, as they are parts of our agreement,” Kupriyanov said. “But it is wrong to say that this will be the payment for the South Stream stake.”
(Bloomberg)
UkrainianJournal: Russia’s Gazprom agrees to extend natural gas payment deadline
Journal Staff Report
|KIEV, Dec. 23 – Russian gas giant Gazprom on Tuesday agreed to extend by four days the deadline allowing Naftogaz Ukrayiny to |
|make the next payment for natural gas imports by January 11. |
| |
|The decision means there will be no gas disputes between Gazprom and Naftogaz – and no European gas supply disruptions – at least|
|through January 11. |
| |
|Russia, as well as Ukraine, celebrate Orthodox Christmas on January 7, which together with New Year holidays make it difficult to|
|arrange banking transactions in the period. |
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