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Russia 090813
Basic Political Developments
• Merkel to Hawk Shipbuilder - German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Dmitry Medvedev will discuss the future of the Wadan Yards, a shipbuilder in northern Germany, when they meet for talks in Sochi on Thursday, government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm told reporters in Berlin on Wednesday.
• Iceland Said to Reject Loan - Iceland rejected a 4 billion euro ($5.7 billion) loan from Russia in October and decided to turn to the International Monetary Fund instead, Russia’s ambassador to the island Victor I. Tatarintsev said.
• The fight for the Shtokman base - The developers of the Shtokman field in the Barents Sea have announced a tender for the project logistics base. Analysts believe a Shtokman base in the nearby Norway would not only facilitate smooth field development, but also stimulate general Norwegian-Russian relations and revitalize plans for a joint cross-border industrial zone in the area.
• Washington for constructive relations between Russia, Ukraine - "It is important for Ukraine and Russia to have a constructive relationship," Philip Crowley said on Wednesday, after being asked to comment on the Russian president's recent "scathing attack" on his Ukrainian counterpart.
• Reports: Two Die in Abkhaz Blasts - Two people were killed after an explosive device, placed in a garbage can in breakaway Abkhazia’s resort town of Gagra, went off on August 12, the Russian news agencies reported.
• Bomb goes off near restaurant in Sukhum, no one hurt - An explosion roared through the seaside embankment in the Abkhazian capital on Wednesday evening. Nugzar Samsonia, the acting head of the Abkhazian State Security Service, told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.
• Law enforcers investigate blasts in Gagra & Sukhum - Police in Abkhazia have launched an investigation into a blast in the resort town of Gagra which claimed two lives. The explosion that occurred at 16:47 Moscow time on Wednesday has been classified as a terror strike. A 52-year old woman, Lyudmila Surina, was killed immediately while Dmitry Metreveli, 25, died of wounds later.
• Russian citizen accused of espionage in favour of Georgia tried in South Ossetia
• CIS member states hold discussions in Russian Foreign Ministry concerning 64th session of UN General Assembly - The representatives of CIS member states held discussions in Russian Foreign Ministry concerning the issues included into the agenda of the 64th session of the UN General Assembly, APA reports quoting the website of Russian Foreign Ministry. Representatives of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Armenia and CIS Executive Committee attended the discussions. Azerbaijan and Ukraine attended the discussions in capacity of observers.
• Pessimistic voice about CIS lingers on - By People’s Daily Online and contributed by PD resident reporter in Kazakhstan Chen Zhixin
• Customs Union to make the case for WTO accession - Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan have formed a single negotiating group to gain accession to the World Trade Organisation. But the newly-formed "Customs Union" may face obstacles.
• Customs Union created uniform WTO group - The Customs Union has created uniform negotiation group for joining World Trade Organization (WTO) headed by Maxim Medvedkov. First Vice Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Igor Shuvalov, informed, following the results of the seventh session of the Customs Union Commission taken place in Moscow on Wednesday, Kazakhstan Today agency reports citing RBC.
• Customs Union Commission coordinated scheme of distribution of customs payments for transporting goods
• Egypt Has a Problem With Russian Wheat - A Scandal Strains a Key State Food Plan and a Trade Route
• Russia sides with Hezbollah against Israel?
• Navy Intensifies Search for Lost Ship - President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the Navy on Wednesday to step up a search for a cargo ship with a Russian crew that disappeared last month off the coast of France in a possible pirate attack.
• Operator of Missing Ship Says Vessel Likely Hijacked - "My view is that it is most likely that the vessel has been hijacked," said Viktor Matveyev, director of the Finnish company, Solchart, which operates the vessel.
• Russian border guards hold exercises in Pacific Ocean - Russian border guards have staged an exercise involving the use of the Federal Security Service planes in the Pacific Ocean off the Kamchatka coast.
• Russian border guards exercise in Pacific with FSB aviation
• Russian army drills to defend oil, gas exports - The Russian army is holding its first major training exercises to protect against what Moscow sees as possible terrorist attacks on its vital oil and gas export routes, the military and media said Wednesday.
• New Russian Military Doctrine to Address Nukes in Classified Section - "The new military doctrine, being developed under the leadership of the Russian Security Council, will differ from the current one. It will have two parts -- the open part mostly dealing with the military-political aspects, and the closed part, which will clearly formulate the legal aspects of the army and navy's employment, including the use of nuclear weapons as an instrument of strategic deterrence," said Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, co-chairman of the panel drafting the document.
• Ruin of Harvest in Russia Will Shake World Markets - Russia may have to face a food crisis next winter. Whole fields of fodder and cereal crops have been withered by scorching sun in the European part of the country. The RusBusinessNews observer found out how big the losses in the Urals are, and what farmers and grain traders should expect in 2010.
• Chechnya leaders and rebels to meet for peace talks - Exiled separatist Akhmed Zakayev invited to join congress convened to rebuild war-ravaged nation
• World Chechen Congress may meet before end of 2009 – envoy
• World Chechen Congress Created - A leading Chechen exile and the speaker of Chechnya’s parliament announced Wednesday the creation of a World Chechen Congress to draw up “a joint political platform on all crucial issues” to reconcile the republic.
• New Hope for Peace in Chechnya - In a groundbreaking move to resolve the ongoing conflict in Chechnya, the Chechnya Peace Forum has mediated the first talks in nine years to seek lasting political stability in the region. Last month, Akhmed Zakayev, the exiled prime minister of the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, and Dukvakha Abdurakhmanov, the speaker of Chechnya’s parliament, met in Oslo and spoke for the first time in public about their negotiations.
• EU speaks out on Chechnya murders - The Swedish EU presidency has urged Russia to protect its NGO community after a string of killings of human rights activists in Chechnya.
• Medvedev reinstates in post Ingushetia president
• Wounded leader returns as Ingush president: Kremlin - The president of Ingushetia, badly wounded in a bomb attack in June, has returned to his post as leader of the increasingly unstable Russian region, the Kremlin said on Thursday.
• Russia's Medvedev approves Ingush president's return to work
• Population census postponed - - We are preparing to postpone the population census from October 2010 to October 2012, Deputy Head of the State Statistic Service Aleksandr Surinov told Prime-TASS. The reason for this is the ongoing world economic crisis.
• Gryzlov: State Duma to remove Anatoly Aksakov from the National Banking Council for ruble devaluation proposal
• Scientists Accuse FSB of ‘Witch Hunt’ in Letter
• 'Raiding' Underlines Russian Legal Dysfunction - 3 Lawyers Targeted After Uncovering Seizure of Firms
• Opposition Allowed to Run - The presidential administration has ordered that opposition candidates be allowed to run in October regional elections after their disbarment from previous elections prompted a backlash against United Russia, Vedomosti reported Wednesday.
• Kemerovo deputies suspected of embezzling four mln rbls of funds - Embezzlement of funds from the regional budget, allocated to pay salaries to workers of educational establishments, was confirmed in the city of Myski, Kemerovo Region, Itar-Tass learnt at the regional administration on Thursday.
• Would Russians In Ferghana Valley Guarantee Stability Or Spell Disaster? - Russia's recently announced plan to set up a second military base in Kyrgyzstan has evoked considerable reaction as proponents and detractors debate whether such a facility will boost or strain security efforts the region.
• TV case tests Russian gay rights - A former reality show celebrity has become the first person in Russia to go to court over claims that he is gay.
National Economic Trends
• Russia's international reserves up $1.4 bln to $403.4 bln in week
• Russia's gold/forex reserves go up on July 31-Aug 7
• Regulators Intervene To Bolster the Ruble - The Central Bank waded into the currency market for the second day running on Wednesday to keep the ruble from wilting further amid weak oil prices and disappointing economic data, traders and analysts said. The regulator sold between $100 million and $200 million after a larger intervention on Tuesday of around $500 million, traders said. The last time the Central Bank noticeably stepped in to defend the ruble was on July 10 and 13.
Business, Energy or Environmental regulations or discussions
• Bill Gives Priority to Gas Power - The government submitted a bill that would give priority access to the wholesale electricity markets to electricity stations that are fueled by associated gas, the Energy Ministry said Wednesday.
• Russia considers postponing duty increase - According to representatives of the Finnish ministry of foreign trade, Elvira Nabiullina, Russian minister for economic development and the industry, said during her meeting with Paavo Väyrynen, Finnish minister for foreign trade and development, that the Russian government would decide on the possible postponement during the next one or two months.
• VEB Commits $200 Million to Macquarie-Renaissance Fund
• Standard Bank Says Russian Deal With Troika Dialog On Track
• Russia to Start 'Clunkers' Plan - Russian lawmakers plan to support the country's domestic-car industry with a trade-in program similar to the "cash for clunkers" plans that have lifted auto sales in Europe and the U.S.
• $1Bln in Emergency Loans Almost Gone, AvtoVAZ Says
• Russian truck maker KamAZ posts $50 mln half-yearly loss
• New Airline to Start $8 Flights to 4 Cities - New low-cost airline Avianova will begin flying out of Vnukovo Airport to four Russian cities on Aug. 27, with one-way tickets starting at 250 rubles ($7.70), Avianova director Vladimir Gorbunov said Wednesday.
• Moody's Interfax assigns Aa1.ru rating to Oblast of Samara's RUB2.4 bn bond
• IKEA Starting Plant Construction in Tyumen Oblast
• Jabil Russia postpone Sony production until September - Jabil was supposed to start producing for Sony already in August. However due to a number of technical issues the production start has been moved to autumn. Jabil intends to assemble LCD TVs in Russia. Lower import duties have created favourable conditions for the development of assembly production in the country.
• Pork production in Russia continues to decline 13 Aug 2009
Activity in the Oil and Gas sector (including regulatory)
• Rosneft Snaps Up License to Explore Offshore Shelf of Abkhazia
• Hungarian MOL Takes Steps to Keep Production License in Russia
• Sibir Energy chairman, CEO step down
• Alfa Laval Wins SEK 110 Million Energy Efficiency Order from One of the Biggest Refineries in Russia
Gazprom
• Yamal Authorities Suggest Reviewing Gazprom’s Tax Payments
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Full Text Articles
Basic Political Developments
Merkel to Hawk Shipbuilder
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Dmitry Medvedev will discuss the future of the Wadan Yards, a shipbuilder in northern Germany, when they meet for talks in Sochi on Thursday, government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm told reporters in Berlin on Wednesday.
The German government and the state government of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania consider the possibility of a new Russian investor as an “interesting approach,” Wilhelm said. (Bloomberg)
Iceland Said to Reject Loan
Iceland rejected a 4 billion euro ($5.7 billion) loan from Russia in October and decided to turn to the International Monetary Fund instead, Russia’s ambassador to the island Victor I. Tatarintsev said.
“I think that if your government would have approved to take our loan, the situation in Iceland would have been quite another one,” Tatarintsev said in a video interview with Netvarpid.is, posted on the news portal’s web site. Taking the loan would have meant “no big crisis” for Iceland, he added. (Bloomberg)
The fight for the Shtokman base
2009-08-13
The developers of the Shtokman field in the Barents Sea have announced a tender for the project logistics base. Analysts believe a Shtokman base in the nearby Norway would not only facilitate smooth field development, but also stimulate general Norwegian-Russian relations and revitalize plans for a joint cross-border industrial zone in the area.
The location of the Shtokman base in Norway would prepare the ground for historic business cooperation in the Norwegian-Russian borderland and give real contents to the idea about a Pomor Zone, a joint Norwegian-Russian economic-industrial zone in the two countries’ border areas.
However, time might have run out for the Norwegians. The tender had deadline on August 8, and it remains unknown how many, if any, Norwegian companies have submitted bids.
Base requirements
That tender included the whole integrated project logistics base with all facilities. The base, consisting of existing infrastructure or new facilities, will be leased for a minimum of 25 years and be accessible by road, railway and sea. The 1st part of the base is to be ready in October 2011, the tender text posted on the website of the SDAG reads.
Kirkenes
The Norwegian town of Kirkenes, located only few kilometers from the Russian border, has long eyed major benefits from the Shtokman development. The town, which has a all-the-year deep and ice-free port, is by many seen as an possible alternative for Shtokman base functions.
Interestingly, two companies are already in the process of developing base facilities in the town. The companies, one controlled by Tschudi Shipping and the other by Bergen Group, are today about to build facilities. The Shtokman field is believed to be the key motivation in both companies’ base investments.
Cooperative aspects
Adviser and port and shipping expert in the Norwegian Barents Secretariat, Oddgeir Danielsen, believes the Shtokman Development AG is seriously considering a Norwegian base alternative. He argues that Kirkenes is the most competitive Norwegian site for the base functions with the necessary geographical location and infrastructure available.
He also maintains that modest level of Norwegian bureaucracy, efficient customs mechanisms and long experience from base management play to the Norwegian advantage.
A Norwegian location for the Shtokman logistics base would also have important political aspects. Mr. Danielsen believes that a Norwegian Shtokman base with strong Russian involvement and ownership interests would be a lighthouse in Norwegian-Russian relations and help spur also a number of other new projects in the two countries’ borderland.
That would be the start of what Norwegian Foreign Ministry planner have branded the “Pomor Zone”, a cross-border economic and industrial zone along the Barents Sea. Using the two countries’ comparative advantages, is one of the main ideas behind the zone proposal. That same idea could now be applied also in the Shtokman process.
Washington for constructive relations between Russia, Ukraine
WASHINGTON, August 13 (RIA Novosti) - Washington wants to see constructive relations between Ukraine and Russia, and supports Kiev's right to make its own choices, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of State said.
"It is important for Ukraine and Russia to have a constructive relationship," Philip Crowley said on Wednesday, after being asked to comment on the Russian president's recent "scathing attack" on his Ukrainian counterpart.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev blamed Ukraine's Viktor Yushchenko on Tuesday for the worsening in relations between the two former Soviet republics, expressing his "deep concern at the current, without exaggeration, crisis in Russian-Ukrainian relations."
Relations between Moscow and Kiev have been marred in recent years following a number of gas disputes, Ukraine's desire to join NATO, and the Soviet-era famine in Ukraine.
Crowley also reiterated the U.S.'s support for Ukraine's right as a sovereign state to pursue its interests "in any way that it chooses."
"Going forward, Ukraine has a right to make its own choices, and we feel that it has a right to join NATO if it chooses," the U.S. official said.
Ukraine has been pursuing NATO membership since pro-Western Yushchenko was inaugurated in January 2005. However, regular opinion polls show that the majority of Ukrainians continue to oppose joining the alliance.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden also expressed Washington's support for Kiev's NATO plans during a visit to Ukraine in late July.
Reports: Two Die in Abkhaz Blasts
Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 13 Aug.'09 / 10:51
Two people were killed after an explosive device, placed in a garbage can in breakaway Abkhazia’s resort town of Gagra, went off on August 12, the Russian news agencies reported.
No one was injured in a separate explosion later on the same day in the breakaway region’s capital Sokhumi.
Explosion in Gagra occurred at about 4:50pm local time killing a 52-year-old woman and injuring at least four people; one of them, a 25-year-old man, died later in hospital, Russian news agencies Itar-Tass and Kavkazsky Uzel reported.
Vladimir Putin, who was visiting Sokhumi at the time of explosion in Gagra, said at a joint news conference with the Abkhaz leader, Sergey Bagapsh, that the blast was “echoes” of the last year’s war.
“We can still see those echoes even today and the incident in Gagra is a confirmation to that,” Putin said.
In a second incident an explosive device, placed close to the seashore, went off at about 8:20pm local time in Sokhumi. According to the Russian news agencies, by the time of second explosion, PM Putin had already departed from Sokhumi back to Sochi, Russia’s Black Sea resort less then 50 kilometers away from Abkhazia.
Bomb goes off near restaurant in Sukhum, no one hurt
SUKHUM, Abkhazia, August 13 (Itar-Tass) - An explosion roared through the seaside embankment in the Abkhazian capital on Wednesday evening.
Nugzar Samsonia, the acting head of the Abkhazian State Security Service, told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.
The explosive device had been planted under a tree near the Elbrus restaurant. Members of a visiting Russian delegation and journalists who had covered Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s working visit to Abkhazia were reportedly inside the restaurant at the time of the blast. No one was hurt.
Samsonia confirmed that another bomb had gone off in the resort town of Gagra earlier on Wednesday. Two employees of the local cultural centre are believed to have died in the blast. Another three people were wounded.
Law enforcers investigate blasts in Gagra & Sukhum
SUKHUM, Abkhazia, August 13 (Itar-Tass) -- Police in Abkhazia have launched an investigation into a blast in the resort town of Gagra which claimed two lives. The explosion that occurred at 16:47 Moscow time on Wednesday has been classified as a terror strike. A 52-year old woman, Lyudmila Surina, was killed immediately while Dmitry Metreveli, 25, died of wounds later.
‘The explosive device was planted in a trash container near a building where a commercial firm had an office,’ Ramin Gablaya, Abkhazia’s first deputy interior minister, said.
As a result two people died and an entire family, consisting of a husband, a wife and a child, got shrapnel wounds. Four more people turned to hospital for help.
The Gagra administration has promised assistance to the families of the dead and to those who were wounded in the blast.
The investigative centre comprises Abkhazia’s first deputy interior minister Ramin Gablaya, Beslan Kvitsiniya, the first deputy chief prosecutor, and Astamur Ketsba, the administration head of the Gagra region.
An explosion also hit a seaside embankment in the Abkhazian capital on Wednesday evening, Nugzar Samsonia, the acting head of the Abkhazian State Security Service, told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.
The explosive device had been planted under a tree near the Elbrus restaurant. Members of a visiting Russian delegation and journalists who had covered Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s working visit to Abkhazia were reportedly inside the restaurant at the time of the blast. No one was hurt.
Russian citizen accused of espionage in favour of Georgia tried in South Ossetia
12.08.2009
The Supreme Court of Georgia’s Russian-backed breakaway republic of South Ossetia has begun hearings of the first case on espionage in favour of Georgia, Russian news agencies are reporting today. The native of South Ossetia and the citizen of Russia Alexander Khachirov is accused that within four years according to orders of the Georgian secret services he had filmed transport and military objects in the republic.
Radio Ekho Moskvy notes that the criminal case is being heard in closed regime in connection with classified character of information obtained by Khachirov. In case the accused is found guilty he will get from 12 till 20 years of imprisonment, radio adds.
Khachirov has been charged according to the Russian Federation Criminal Code articles on treason in the form of espionage and illegal circulation of weapons and explosives, daily Kommersant writes. Investigation also accuses him of preparations for explosion of an anti-tank mine near one of the Russian military units in Vladikavkaz.
According to the Federal Security Service (FSB) of the Russian Federation, Khachirov has admitted that he filmed the Russian vehicles and military objects under orders of the Georgian secret services. He has told at interrogations that he was recruited by the Georgian secret services in 2004.
A VAZ-2106 vehicle belonging to Khachirov was equipped with espionage equipment for carrying out of secret video shooting of an international automobile check point Nizhny Zamaragh, protection systems of Rok tunnel connecting North and South Ossetia, military objects of the Russian 58th army. In the territory of Georgia, officers of secret services received the videomaterials and supplied the agent with new equipment for videorecording. At the interrogation Khachirov admitted that he received about 100 dollars for each finished shooting of an object. According to investigators, the materials which have been filmed by Khachirov, could have been used by the Georgian authorities during the attack on South Ossetia in August a year ago.
CIS member states hold discussions in Russian Foreign Ministry concerning 64th session of UN General Assembly
13 Aug 2009 12:47
Baku. Viktoria Dementieva – APA. The representatives of CIS member states held discussions in Russian Foreign Ministry concerning the issues included into the agenda of the 64th session of the UN General Assembly, APA reports quoting the website of Russian Foreign Ministry. Representatives of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Armenia and CIS Executive Committee attended the discussions. Azerbaijan and Ukraine attended the discussions in capacity of observers.
The representatives of CIS member states exchanged views on urgent issues on the agenda of the session. The participants underlined the necessity of adopting resolution on the 65th anniversary of the World War II.
Agreement was reached to continue contacts among the delegations of CIS member states during the 64th session of the UN General Assembly.
Pessimistic voice about CIS lingers on
15:24, August 13, 2009
Ever since the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) more than two decades ago, Russia has constantly stepped up its integration process, whereas other CIS states have enhanced or beefed up vigilance against Russia's "group captain image", and some of these countries even oriented themselves toward a de-integration tendency.
In the wake of the "color revolution" in Georgia and Ukraine, these two nations and Moldova accelerated their pace "westward" and seeked to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In April 2005, Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova announced their objective to advance the ongoing democratic processes and attain the goal of European integration. Russia, however, maintains that the organization is a political alliance in the area of the "former Soviet Russia" to oppose or counter itself and other CIS nations under an aegis of the United States and the European Union (EU).
In August 2005, Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova launched "the Community of Democratic Choice". Then, President Saakashvili explicitly stated that"Georgia has become a very important country" in Europe. On the 26th of the same month, Turkmenistan announced the annulment of its full CIS status at the CIS Summit conference held at Kazan.
Upon the outbreak of Russia-Georgia conflict in August 2008, President Saakashvili soon announced Georgia's withdrawal from the CIS and urged other CIS states to follow suit. Ukraine, however, did not follow in Georgia's footsteps because of its complex political situation and difficult economic conditions, but Russia-Ukraine relations waver in an impasse, and a natural gas war erupted in early this year made the Ukraine-Russia ties even worse.
On the issue concerning Russia's Black Sea Fleet stationing in Crimea, Ukrainians have insisted on the pullout of the Russian fleet from Sevastopol by 2017, and refused to have more talks with Russians on the issue. Analysts nevertheless acknowledged that Ukraine has to make a choice between CIS and NATO on a long run.
Together with Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have been regarded as the core CIS members, which heavily rely on Russia and consequently become active participants in varied CIS projects. For example, Belarus imports some 90 percent of its fuel from Russia, and the Belarus-Russia trade turnover made up over half of its total foreign trade volume.
With the swaying of core CIS member states recently, the pace for the CIS integration has turned increasingly harder and much more difficult. But CIS members have all along aspired to enhance their economic cooperation owing to a growing impact from the global financial crisis.
On May 22 this year, Astana hosted a meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of Governments. It features targets of the CIS Economic Development Strategy, which is a comprehensive document covering the period up to 2020 and a mutually agreed system of the CIS States'views on their economic growth and integration processes. In June, a breakthrough was effected or brought about on a commission of the custom union being set up between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. And the commission of the custom union is expected to begin its work as of July 2011.
Meanwhile, CIS member states also hope that Russia will assure to open up its labor market. According to the incomplete statistics so far available, there are now 3.6 million Ukrainians, 2 million Uzbekistanis, 1 million Tajikistanis and half a million Moldovans working in Russia along with a large number of Kirghizstanis, Azerbaijanis and Armenians.
The "territorial issue" is one of the major factors for CIS member states to stay on within the CIS, and Russia has been asked repeatedly to mediate between Azerbaijan and Armenia over their pending issue of Naika and on the status of the Transnistria strip along Moldova's Dniester River Left Bank.
Hence, the CIS will certainly not perish or wither away since it has provided a platform at least for conferences or consultations of CIS leaders, just as a top researcher at the Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan has claimed.
Out of their interest considerations, some analysts also acknowledge, the "glancing around" foreign policies pursued by some CIS member states could possibly continue in the months or years to come.
By People’s Daily Online and contributed by PD resident reporter in Kazakhstan Chen Zhixin
Customs Union to make the case for WTO accession
12 August, 2009, 22:56
Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan have formed a single negotiating group to gain accession to the World Trade Organisation. But the newly-formed "Customs Union" may face obstacles.
After 16 years of talks and coming 95% of the way towards WTO membership, Russia changed its priorities.
In June Prime Minister Vladimir Putin declared that Russia would now seek entry to the Trade group as part of the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. It was a shock to experts worldwide, with Aleksey Portnyansky, Director of the Office on Russia’s Accession to the WTO saying the customs union being created will be a first for the world body.
“We’ve seen customs territories joining the WTO, but the bid by the customs union has no precedent. Under WTO rules it can be joined either by a country or by a customs territory which has the full autonomy in its foreign trade. The customs union which is being created now doesn’t have such independence.”
The creation of the Customs Union is a top economic priority for Russia. Analysts say it will help Russia become a regional centre and strengthen its economic and political influence.
But First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, says the Customs Union states have formed a single negotiating team.
“Our priority is that Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan enter the WTO at the same time and on the same terms. If the sides are forced to accept any other decision, we will be ready for them, but these decisions need to be coordinated with country leaders. We are proceeding from the idea that the strategic goal is that all three countries become members of the WTO.”
Igor Shuvalov says in case of legal difficulties the parties will hold bilateral talks. Another challenge for the Union will be to synchronize Kazakh and Belorussian economic laws with those of Russia which already comply to a high level with those of the EU.
Experts say that the joint accession is possible, but it may make it more complicated for Russia to join the World Trade Organisation. The first round of talks between the Customs Union and the WTO is due to start in September.
Customs Union created uniform WTO group
11:23 13.08.2009
text: Kazakhstan Today
The Customs Union has created uniform negotiation group for joining World Trade Organization (WTO) headed by Maxim Medvedkov. First Vice Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Igor Shuvalov, informed, following the results of the seventh session of the Customs Union Commission taken place in Moscow on Wednesday, Kazakhstan Today agency reports citing RBC.
"We have created the negotiation group, which consists of the representatives of all three states. They are skilled negotiators. We have agreed that this uniform group will be headed by M. Medvedkov," I. Shuvalov said. Now, M. Medvedkov heads the Russian delegation at the negotiations for joining WTO.
"This negotiation group will carry out the negotiations on introduction of the Customs Union to WTO and for introduction of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan to WTO on acceptable conditions," I. Shuvalov said. First Vice Prime Minister underlined that "the priority is introduction of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan on the same conditions and at a time".
He informed that the group will be created by August 24 and will immediately start formal negotiations with WTO Secretariat."
Customs Union Commission coordinated scheme of distribution of customs payments for transporting goods
13:02 13.08.2009
The Customs Union Commission coordinated the scheme of distribution of customs payments for the transporting goods. First Vice Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Igor Shuvalov, informed, following the results of the seventh session of the Customs Union Commission taken place in Moscow on Wednesday, Kazakhstan Today agency reports citing television channel Vesti.
According to the television channel, the participants of the session of the Customs Union Commission discussed how payments for the transporting goods will be distributed. As a result, they agreed on the scheme, which suits all three states.
According to I. Shuvalov, this "scheme is the most transparent, the simplest in application and does not require additional bureaucratic decisions."
The amended project of the Customs Code will be presented in November to the meeting of the leaders of the states of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
AUGUST 13, 2009
Egypt Has a Problem With Russian Wheat
A Scandal Strains a Key State Food Plan and a Trade Route
By SARAH MCFARLANE
A criminal investigation into a shipment of Russian wheat in Egypt is having ripple effects across the world's wheat market and putting pressure on a bread program vital to the government.
Since the investigation began in May, authorities have rejected several Russian wheat shipments arriving in ports, citing quality concerns. They have also detained and released on bail four staff members from the government wheat buyer's office, and continue to detain the head of a large Egyptian grain trading firm.
Egypt's General Prosecution Office says it suspects forged inspection certificates were used for a Russian wheat shipment that contained too many insects and weed seeds for human consumption.
The investigation has discouraged traders from offering Russian wheat, which is some of the cheapest in the world, on worries that unclear purchasing standards could lead to shipments being rejected or delayed.
When global grain prices jumped last year and demand for subsidized bread increased, the resulting food shortages caused protests in Egypt. The unrest provided a stark reminder of the dangers facing governments of developing nations who let people go hungry.
It is also a significant wheat market. With 83 million people, Egypt is the most populous Arab nation and the second-most populous African state. Egypt's General Authority for Supply Commodities, or GASC, buys around six million tons of wheat each year to supply the subsidized bread program. In recent years, roughly half of this has been sourced from Russia, which has undercut other wheat producers.
But in recent months, GASC has bought more French wheat than usual, purchasing around 570,000 tons since July, compared with 90,000 tons of Russian wheat. As long as traders are reluctant to offer Russian wheat, the Egyptian government will have to absorb the extra cost of buying more expensive wheat from other countries -- likely to be millions of dollars -- rather than increasing bread prices.
"The costs to Egypt could be really high," said Keith Flury, wheat market analyst at German-based research firm F.O. Licht.
Global wheat prices are below last year's highs, as the world reaps a second consecutive bumper wheat crop, which will buffer Egypt to some extent. But to ensure the government secures the quality of wheat it needs at fair prices, Egypt wants to keep its sourcing options open.
Since the investigation began, officials have increased their scrutiny of Russian wheat imports at Egyptian ports. Grain trading houses have reacted either by ceasing to offer Russian wheat, or by charging a $10- to $15-a-ton premium for Russian wheat sales to the Egyptian government.
In March, Russian wheat offers to Egypt were around $20 lower a ton than for U.S. or French wheat. However, now it is only around $3 a ton less, partly because of the risk of selling to Egypt. Traders say they are simply pricing in a premium for risks associated with a sudden lack of clarity in government standards.
"Over the past few weeks, there have been efforts to clarify regulations pertaining to inspection of wheat and the storage facilities in which imported wheat is being shipped," said an official from Egypt's Ministry of Trade and Industry. "If this is being seen as a type of rigidity, this is probably just a time of adjustment to these regulations," the official said.
Officials at GASC, along with the chief executive of one of Egypt's largest wheat importers, Egyptian Traders Co., are being questioned by the country's General Prosecution Office over allegations that documents relating to a shipment of Russian wheat were forged.
Ashraf El Attal, the chief executive of Egyptian Traders Co. was unavailable to comment Wednesday, as "he is being investigated at the moment," a company representative said.
RIAS Trading SA, the Swiss office of Rosinteragroservis, Russia's second-largest grain exporter, said the information on the inspection certificate presented by Egyptian Traders Co. to GASC for the wheat was different from the information RIAS had on its certificate issued before the shipment left Russia.
Prior to the investigation, GASC considered up to 18 offers from local and international trading houses when it tendered for wheat. In recent months, most of Egypt's local grain trade houses have ceased to make offers to GASC, cutting the bids for its latest tender to nine. Only two of those offers included Russian wheat.
Some Russian grain exporters have begun to exclude Egypt as a potential destination for their wheat because of the risks associated with trading wheat with the country.
RIAS has had a shipment of wheat -- the Sea Bird -- held for three months at the Red Sea port of Safaga as a result of a payment dispute between GASC and Egyptian Traders Co. for a previous shipment.
"For me, Egypt is off the map," said Chris Vanhonacker, commercial director at RIAS. "It's in the same category as Somalia because the detention of the Sea Bird is an act of piracy."
A GASC official said in July it was holding the shipment until it received payment from Egyptian Traders Co. for a previous shipment.
Traders say U.S.-based grain merchant Bunge declined to make an offer to GASC in its tender last week, holding off until the government answered its letter requesting clarification of the bid terms. Bunge declined to comment on the matter.
"It's quite a murky situation, especially with some of the [grain] companies wanting clarification from GASC and not getting it," said F.O. Licht's Mr. Flury.
—Summer Said in Dubai contributed to this article.
Write to Sarah McFarlane at sarah.mcfarlane@
FROM JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETIN
Russia sides with Hezbollah against Israel?
Sources: Intel agents snooping, relaying information to terror group
Posted: August 13, 2009
12:20 am Eastern
The Russian intelligence service may be providing valuable information to Hezbollah about Israeli activities, prompting concern in Tel Aviv that any future military initiative against the group may not come as a surprise, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
Russia's Federal Security Service, or FSB, may be providing intelligence based on intercepts it is acquiring from its enlarged presence in the Middle East, especially at a new base in Tartus, Syria, according to informed sources. The Syrians have allowed Russia to enlarge facilities at Tartus to increase its naval presence. Tartus is only 25 miles from Lebanon's northern border with Syria.
Russia's increased presence in Syria is meant to dampen any notion to attack either Syria or Lebanon. At the same time, it has permitted the Russians to introduce sophisticated surveillance systems capable of blanketing all of Lebanon and Syria.
For Hezbollah, such coverage comes at a time when Israel has warned Hezbollah that it will launch attacks on its positions in Lebanon should there be any provocations into Israel launched from there.
To date, Israeli officials have not officially commented on reports of FSB-Hezbollah cooperation. However, sources say that without the intelligence provided by the Israeli spy network in Lebanon, the Israeli Air Force would not have knocked out Hezbollah medium-range missile launchers during the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The prospect of cooperation between the FSB and Hezbollah has led to one unconfirmed report from the Israeli website DEBKAfile claiming that the Russian intelligence service assisted Hezbollah in uncovering an alleged Israeli spy ring in Lebanon. Called the Al-Alam spy ring, it reportedly operated primarily in southern Lebanon, leading to the arrest of some 70 people of varying national origins.
In addition to Lebanese, the alleged spies also were said to be Palestinian and Egyptian citizens.
The spy ring reportedly developed following the 2006 failed Israeli military effort in Lebanon to eliminate Hezbollah.
To date, the Russians have not commented on providing information to Hezbollah. Nevertheless, the relationship between the Russians and Hezbollah has a long history.
It began between the then-Soviet Union and the Shiite religious leadership in Lebanon as far back as 1972 when Soviet authorities were asked to provide humanitarian aid. Between 1972 and 1975, Soviet military officers were in contact with Iranian opposition members and radical Lebanese Shiite groups who were undergoing training in Palestinian camps which the Soviet officers visited.
Navy Intensifies Search for Lost Ship
13 August 2009By Anna Malpas / The Moscow Times
President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the Navy on Wednesday to step up a search for a cargo ship with a Russian crew that disappeared last month off the coast of France in a possible pirate attack.
Medvedev told Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov to take all necessary measures to find and, if necessary, liberate the Arctic Sea, the Kremlin said in a statement.
Naval ships are searching for the Arctic Sea, and the ministry is using all search methods at its disposal, including satellites, a Defense Ministry spokesman told Interfax.
Two nuclear submarines will join the search, Channel One television reported.
“Under the orders of President Dmitry Medvedev, all Russian Navy ships in the Atlantic have been sent to join the search for the Arctic Sea,” Navy commander Vladimir Vysotsky said, Itar-Tass reported.
The 4,000-ton cargo ship with a 15-member Russian crew disappeared in mysterious circumstances en route to Algeria from Finland. British coast guards spoke to someone on the Maltese-flagged bulk carrier on July 28 as it was apparently entering the Straits of Dover between England and France, the BBC reported.
The Malta Maritime Authority, which has been trying to trace the Arctic Sea, said Wednesday that the vessel had not approached the Straits of Gibraltar, which indicated that it was headed out into the Atlantic Ocean, Reuters reported.
Arctic Sea’s transponder last signaled its position when the ship was off the coast of northern France on July 30. It was only on Aug. 3 that Interpol contacted the British coast guards to say the ship had been hijacked, the BBC reported.
After the ship disappeared, Swedish media reported that it had been attacked in the Baltic Sea on July 24. Men who called themselves Swedish police officers boarded the ship, tied up the crew and carried out a search, before leaving the ship, the reports said.
Relatives of the Russian sailors appealed to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in an open letter published in Russian newspapers on Wednesday, asking him to intensify the search.
“We, the wives and relatives of the sailors of the missing vessel Arctic Sea, ask for a full-scale search and rescue operation to begin with the use of all the necessary Russian special forces,” the letter said. “We also ask for an official request to search for the ship to be made to the Western European countries close to whose shores the ship disappeared. What’s important to us is for our relatives to return home safe and unharmed.”
The brief, unsigned letter was first published Tuesday on SovFracht Maritime Bulletin, a web site whose editor Mikhail Voitenko is a well-known investigator of piracy.
The relatives of the crew members are also demanding a criminal investigation into the disappearance, said Sergei Portenko, the deputy chairman of the northern branch of the Russian Sailors’ Trade Union.
The demand has been sent to the Russian leadership and to law enforcement agencies, as well as to the ship’s operating company and the International Transport Workers’ Federation, Portenko told Interfax.
The tabloid Tvoi Den published a list of the 15 crew members on Tuesday, but the men haven’t officially been identified.
The ship was built in 1991 and was originally named Okhotskoye. It flies the Maltese flag and is operated by Solchart Arkhangelsk Ltd., Interfax reported.
The ship was carrying $1.8 million worth of sawn wood belonging to Finnish paper company Stora Enso, SovFracht Maritime Bulletin reported Monday.
Operator of Missing Ship Says Vessel Likely Hijacked
August 13, 2009
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The operator of a merchant cargo ship that has disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean said on Thursday it believed the vessel has been hijacked.
The Maltese-registered, Finnish-chartered vessel disappeared while sailing from Finland to the Algerian port of Bejaia, where it was due to have docked on August 4 with a $1.3-million load of timber.
"My view is that it is most likely that the vessel has been hijacked," said Viktor Matveyev, director of the Finnish company, Solchart, which operates the vessel.
On Wednesday Russian warships were ordered to join the hunt for the Arctic Sea, a 4,000-tonne bulk carrier with a 15-strong Russian crew that went missing shortly after passing through the Dover Strait between France and Britain late last month.
Relatives of the crew declined to comment when contacted by Reuters on Thursday.
The vessel's movements were last recorded on the AisLive ship tracking system off the coast of northern France on July 30, although it has also been spotted off Portugal.
The Malta Maritime Authority said it received reports it was boarded by men posing as police in Swedish waters on July 24.
The vessel was boarded by "eight to twelve persons allegedly masked and wearing uniforms bearing the word 'police' and armed with guns and pistols," the Maltese authority said on Wednesday.
Crew members were assaulted, tied, gagged and blindfolded and some were seriously hurt, it said. They were also questioned about drug trafficking by those posing as police.
Swedish authorities have told Maltese officials that no Swedish law enforcement agencies were involved.
(Reporting by Conor Sweeney and Guy Faulconbridge)
Russian border guards hold exercises in Pacific Ocean
PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, August 13 (Itar-Tass) - Russian border guards have staged an exercise involving the use of the Federal Security Service planes in the Pacific Ocean off the Kamchatka coast.
The Askold Pynko patrol ship, the Oryol border escort-vessel, the AN-72 helicopter of the Russian Federal Security Service, a Ka-72 deck-based aviation helicopter and a Mi-8 helicopter took part in the drill.
The border troops trained to chase ships that intrude Russian territorial waters, use aviation to stop it and to dismount FSB commando units onboard of the detained vessel with the help of helicopters. They also drilled how to search and save ships in distress. Representatives of the German federal police watched the exercises.
Russian border guards exercise in Pacific with FSB aviation
PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, August 13 (RIA Novosti) - Russian coast guards and Federal Security Service (FSB) air units have conducted a series of exercises in the Pacific, a spokesman said on Thursday.
He said the tactical exercise rehearsed actions to counter unlawful activities at sea, as well as search and rescue operations, and involved a patrol boat, a frigate, a helicopter carrier, and several warplanes and helicopters.
The exercise was observed by a group of visiting police officers from Germany.
"The German guests were impressed by the high professionalism of the Russian pilots," the FSB spokesman said, adding that all the missions were successfully accomplished.
Russian army drills to defend oil, gas exports
Wed Aug 12, 2009 3:27pm EDT
By Dmitry Solovyov
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian army is holding its first major training exercises to protect against what Moscow sees as possible terrorist attacks on its vital oil and gas export routes, the military and media said Wednesday.
Sweeping drills in the Siberian Military district, covering a theater of operations spanning hundreds of miles (km) from Irkutsk to Buryatia near Lake Baikal, started Monday and entered their main phase Wednesday.
"The main focus of the drills is training for effective and preventative measures to counter terrorism and deal with the aftermath of emergencies, as well as with abnormal situations linked to transporting hydrocarbons," the Defense Ministry said on its Website mil.ru.
Russia, the world's No. 2 oil exporter, is building a pipeline to carry oil from huge new fields in eastern Siberia to energy-hungry Asian markets, including China, a move that will diversify Moscow's energy reach beyond its traditional European markets.
The Defense Ministry said the army had joined forces with other Russian security bodies for the exercises, but did not elaborate.
The ministry did note, however, that protecting railways and "other important facilities of the Siberian Military District" figured in the exercises.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily said similar drills would be held in northern and north-western Russia in late August and early September focusing on threats to Russia's gas export route to the West.
It said that in addition to the Leningrad Military District, Russia's Black Sea and Baltic fleets and ally Belarus's military units would take part.
Seeking to diversify its gas exports to Europe and bypass its unpredictable post-Soviet transit partner Ukraine, Russia heads up the Nord Stream gas project which is supposed to have a twin pipeline up and running in 2011.
Nord Stream would bring 55 billion cubic metres of Russian gas to Germany and other European Union consumers each year across the Baltic seabed.
(Reporting by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Michael Roddy)
New Russian Military Doctrine to Address Nukes in Classified Section
Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009
An updated Russian military doctrine to be issued this year is expected to address the country's nuclear weapons strategy in its classified section, Interfax reported yesterday (see GSN, May 21).
"The new military doctrine, being developed under the leadership of the Russian Security Council, will differ from the current one. It will have two parts -- the open part mostly dealing with the military-political aspects, and the closed part, which will clearly formulate the legal aspects of the army and navy's employment, including the use of nuclear weapons as an instrument of strategic deterrence," said Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, co-chairman of the panel drafting the document.
The United States and other Western nations classify portions of their military doctrines, Nogovitsyn noted.
"We have been carefully studying the leading documents and the United States and NATO's position on military issues, which also have closed sections. But all this does not mean that the Russian side is trying to fan tensions, or position Washington and the alliance as a main threat," he said (Interfax, Aug. 11).
NATO and Russia should tap a five-year-old joint panel to discuss strategic matters, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen yesterday told Russia's ambassador to the military alliance.
Fogh Rasmussen hopes to establish "a strategic partnership between NATO and and Russia ... because we face many common security threats," deputy spokeswoman Carmen Romero said.
The new head of NATO and Russian Ambassador Dmitry Rogozin discussed how the sides could work together to counter nuclear proliferation and terrorism, Romero added (Slobodan Lekic, Associated Press/Google News, Aug. 11).
Ruin of Harvest in Russia Will Shake World Markets
11.08.2009 — Analysis
Russia may have to face a food crisis next winter. Whole fields of fodder and cereal crops have been withered by scorching sun in the European part of the country. The RusBusinessNews observer found out how big the losses in the Urals are, and what farmers and grain traders should expect in 2010.
Russian agrarians are finishing stocking up the fodder for the winter and have serious reasons for a grave concern. 243 thousand hectares of crops have burnt out in the Chelyabinsk Oblast. Kurgan farmers need three tons of coarse and succulent fodder per one animal; they now have stocked up only 15-20% of the required amount. In the Sverdlovsk Oblast the level of fodder inventory is one third lower than last year.
The situation is relatively stable only in the Western Siberia and Prikamye (lands near the Kama river). Stocking up fodder is going according to plan in the Tyumen Oblast. Country dwellers, however, do not think there would be any surplus. Only the Perm Krai, one of the very few subjects of the Russian Federation, managed to accumulate some reserves.
Agrarians are left without fodder due to the unpredictable Urals weather. The region has traditionally been considered high-risk for crop farming, whilst June had been uncustomary hot this year. The air in the Kurgan Oblast got as hot as 30 centigrade, ground - plus 50. Emergency situation has been declared due to drought in some districts of the Chelyabinsk Oblast.
The end of July saw some rain at long last. These rains were not much help to farmers. "We have not seen hail like this for 15 years," Pavel Vasin, Director of the Kalininskaya Agro Company (Chelyabinsk), told RusBusinessNews. "435 hectares of crops had suffered then. This time we lost 3,000 hectares of wheat, 716 hectares of annual grasses, 639 hectares of barley, 223 hectares of peas, and 100 hectares of oats."
Urals agrarians are trying to find, quickly, places where more hay can be cut - fields and pastures which are unused currently. Yuri Simonov, a specialist from the Department for International Relations of the Ministry for Agriculture of the Chelyabinsk Oblast, informed RusBusinessNews that, as of 6 August 2009, the total area of hayfields has exceeded the plan 1.5 times and only 60% of the needed fodder has been stocked up. Some agrarians started the second sowing of annual plants in hope that by the fall it would be possible to add the new seedlings to the stockpile. If that does not work, then it would be necessary to import fodder into the region.
Agrarians from other subjects of the Russian Federation are unlikely to be able to help their colleagues in the Urals. Almost all of the European part of Russia has suffered from the drought. Shortages of cereals may amount to 10-15 million tons in the country as a whole. The Orenburg Oblast has lost more than 80% of cereals to the drought; the damage amounts to billions of roubles.
Even if some reserves are found, it is as likely as not that, in the situation of shortages, the market prices for fodder and cereals will start creeping up. This might worsen the financial situation in the agricultural sphere. The debts of the Urals agricultural companies have already reached hundreds of millions of roubles. In the beginning of the sowing season agrarians were buying seeds against the future harvest, and leased and took out loans for equipment. The grasses have burned together with the money; many agricultural companies are now on the brink of bankruptcy.
They do not expect any help from local authorities. The Department for Agriculture and Processing Industry of the Kurgan Oblast informed RusBusinessNews that in the current situation of crisis the local budget simply does not have any funds available. The Governor of the Chelyabinsk Oblast Pyotr Sumin promised to help the countryside: 331 million roubles will be allocated to purchase fodder. This, however, is only a part of the money needed. The money will mainly be made available to those companies which raise cattle. Small farms, most likely, will have to slaughter the animals having no food for them.
The Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin promised to help Russian farmers. In the beginning of August 2009 in the field meeting in the Orenburg Oblast he made a statement that a hundred billion roubles can be allocated for the overcoming of consequences of the drought and natural disasters. It is not clear, however, how soon the money would reach the regions, nor how it will be distributed.
Even if the problem is resolved within the country, the loss of millions of tons of agricultural products in the burnt-out Russian fields will still affect the world markets. Last year Russian agrarians managed to harvest 108 million tons of cereals - a record-breaking amount for the post-Soviet time. More than 20% of it was officially reported to have been exported abroad. Russian grain took up to 14% of the world market. This year the country will not be as generous. This is why the world cereals prices might start to creep up by the autumn.
Yevghenia Yeryomina
Chechnya leaders and rebels to meet for peace talks
Exiled separatist Akhmed Zakayev invited to join congress convened to rebuild war-ravaged nation
David Hearst
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 12 August 2009 19.06 BST
A senior member of the pro-Moscow government in Chechnya and an exiled leader of separatist rebels said today they would convene a peace conference as a first step to ending the conflict that has been raging in the republic for 15 years.
After talks mediated by Norway, the Chechen parliamentary speaker, Dukhvakha Abdurakmanov, said he would convene "a world Chechen congress" with Akhmed Zakayev, the man Moscow has been trying to extradite from the UK for armed mutiny, kidnap and attempted murder since 2001.
Adurakmanov said: "The objectives of my meetings and official dialogue with Akhmed Zakayev are to strengthen political stablility with the ultimate goal of consolidating the Chechen nation."
Asked whether he was speaking for the Russian government, which has branded Zakayev a terrorist, Adurakmanov said the president, Dmitri Medvedev, and the prime minister, Vladimir Putin, were aware of the talks.
Last year Putin lambasted Britain for refusing to hand over Zakayev. He accused Britain of allowing itself to be used as a launch pad for attacks against Russia. "If we were to give safe haven to militants of the IRA, with arms in their hands, what would you do?" he said.
Neither the date, venue, nor remit of the congress appears agreed, although delegates will include representatives from the government of the Chechen president, Ramzan Kadyrov, as well as Russia, the rebel movement and the Chechen diaspora.
Zakayev said: "We cannot say the war is finished. The conflict in Chechnya will not be solved without Moscow's political will. We do not conceal that the congress will have hard issues to resolve, but we need to show patience to move the process forward."
Last month Zakayev called on the rebels to lay down their arms, but within days this order was defied by one of his former deputies, Doku Umarov, whose forces attacked a police convoy, killing five officers.
Zakayev, a former foreign minister of the separatist goverment of Aslan Maskhadov, has been denounced by the military wing of the Chechen resistance, leading analysts in Moscow to conclude that talks with him are symbolic. But having persuaded Moscow to end the counter-terrorist campaign in Chechnya, Kadyrov himself is under pressure to stop the attacks on his police and consolidate his hold over the republic.
Kadyrov is pressing for the charges against Zakayev to be dropped and has suggested he could be a minister in his government. A former rebel himself, Kadyrov has offered a series of amnesties to rebel fighters.
Important differences remain between Kadyrov and Zakayev. Each deny the legitimacy of the other's government, and Zakayev continues to style himself as the prime minister of Maskhadov's government. He remains influential among the Chechen diaspora, whom Kadyrov wants to entice home.
Both Abdurakmanov and Zakayev condemned the killings this week of human rights workers, which they claimed had been organised to discredit Kadyrov, although Zakayev said the Chechen president bore "political but not criminal responsibility" for the murders.
World Chechen Congress may meet before end of 2009 – envoy
MOSCOW. Aug 12 (Interfax) - A session of the World Chechen Congress
that is to be held under an agreement between the head of the Chechen
parliament, Dukvakha Abdurakhmanov, and Chechen separatist envoy Akhmed
Zakayev may be convened before the end of 2009, Zakayev said in a radio
program on Wednesday.
"We need to convene the World Chechen Congress to work out a single
political platform, and we have decided to file an appeal with the
leadership of this congress so that we are able to organize and carry
through such a congress before the end of the year," Zakayev told the
Russian News Service radio.
"[A session of the] World Chechen Congress was held in Copenhagen
in 2002, after that this congress was registered in Brussels, and it is
an absolutely independent institution," he said.
"The principle of forming such a congress is that delegates from
all over the world must be represented - from America, Russia, Britain,
Chechnya, from anywhere where there is a [Chechen] community, - they
must all be represented at this forum," Zakayev said.
"For me the main point in this issue is that Moscow has confirmed
its essential consent to these consultations and to the further search
for political solutions and [solutions to] disputes, it is the greatest
source of encouragement for me," he said. "It is a very positive step
toward lasting peace."
Zakayev confirmed that he wants to return to Chechnya eventually.
"It is true that I am doing everything under my control to return, to
live in Chechnya and to change the situation in Chechnya for the
better," he said.
However, he said, the fact that he is a member of the separatist
Chechen government elected in 1997 is an obstacle to his return.
"It is a matter of time, and I think time will come when all these
problems that we are talking about get solved and I have a real
opportunity to return home and live at home," Zakayev said.
"Naturally, there are different positions, different views, and it
is at the congress that we should work out a common political platform
on the basis of which we would deal with tasks relating to the present
and future of the Chechen people and Chechen society," Zakayev said.
Zakayev and Abdurakhmanov reached the agreement on the next session
of the World Chechen Congress at talks in Oslo.
World Chechen Congress Created
13 August 2009Bloomberg
LONDON — A leading Chechen exile and the speaker of Chechnya’s parliament announced Wednesday the creation of a World Chechen Congress to draw up “a joint political platform on all crucial issues” to reconcile the republic.
“The objectives of my meetings and official dialogue with Akhmed Zakayev are to strengthen political stability with the ultimate goal of consolidating the Chechen nation,” Speaker Dukhvakha Abdurakhmanov said at a news conference with Zakayev, a former Chechen foreign minister now living in Britain who has been named prime minister of a government in exile. “As a result of our consultations in London, we are united in calling on the independent World Chechen Congress to take the process forward.”
Asked why the Chechen authorities were negotiating with Zakayev, who is wanted by federal prosecutors, Abdurakhmanov said the world was changing. Zakayev refused to be drawn about a possible return to Chechnya.
“The prospects for Chechen-Russian relations and the Chechen people are going in the right direction for the first time in 20 years,” said Ivar Amundsen, director of the Norwegian nonprofit group Chechnya Peace Forum that mediated the London talks and a first round July 24. (Comment, Page 8.)
New Hope for Peace in Chechnya
13 August 2009By Ivar Amundsen
In a groundbreaking move to resolve the ongoing conflict in Chechnya, the Chechnya Peace Forum has mediated the first talks in nine years to seek lasting political stability in the region. Last month, Akhmed Zakayev, the exiled prime minister of the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, and Dukvakha Abdurakhmanov, the speaker of Chechnya’s parliament, met in Oslo and spoke for the first time in public about their negotiations.
Continuing these discussions behind closed doors, the most recent meeting between both sides took place Wednesday in London. As a direct result of these talks, a commitment to convene the World Chechen Congress was announced.
As the mediator and host of these talks, I am delighted with these landmark developments. Both parties in these Russian-Chechen consultations have taken an important step toward transforming the geopolitical landscape. This process can have a radical impact on both Russia and Chechnya. By reaching an agreement on the necessity to convene the World Chechen Congress, the prospects for Chechen-Russian relations and the Chechen people are going in the right direction for the first time in 20 years.
I have spent many years trying to promote the cause of democracy, the rule of law, peace and human rights in Chechnya with the hope of encouraging a new negotiated settlement between the Russian government and the resistance movement.
The Kremlin-friendly government under Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov has not been able to stabilize and control the continual violence, kidnappings and abductions and other human rights abuses that remain commonplace in Chechnya. The killings of Chechen charity worker Zarema Sadulayeva and her husband, Umar Dzhabrailov, on Tuesday are the latest case of brutal violence against human rights workers in the republic. Like the work of human rights activist Natalya Estemirova, who was killed in Chechnya in mid-July, Sadulayeva’s work gave many people hope that the rest of the world would not turn a blind eye to what is happening in Chechnya.
That is why these talks are so crucial in the hope of putting an end to the struggle of the Chechen people. Approved at the highest levels of the Russian leadership, this new dialogue is certainly a significant step toward a serious political discourse between the Kremlin’s official representatives and the Chechen opposition. Abdurakhmanov made it clear in Oslo and again in London that his talks with Zakayev were approved by both President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. This is of particular significance because now a direct and promising Russian-Chechen dialogue for Chechnya’s future has started on an official level. It also represents a shift in Russia’s approach for peace in the North Caucasus.
Engaging both sides through settlement talks rather than violence is the only way to achieve stability in the region, and for the first time in a decade there is a desire to establish a unifying platform in the hope of reaching a joint agreement through political resolution.
This is indeed why many would call these talks a breakthrough in the much-needed peace process. Of course, there is a lot more work to do, but my hope is that these talks will ultimately lead to a higher degree of Chechen autonomy within the Russian Federation.
Ivar Amundsen is the director of the London-based Chechnya Peace Forum.
EU speaks out on Chechnya murders
ANDREW RETTMAN
Today @ 09:15 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The Swedish EU presidency has urged Russia to protect its NGO community after a string of killings of human rights activists in Chechnya.
The EU statement comes after the bodies of Alik Dzhabrailov and his wife Zarema Sadulayeva, who worked for the children's charity Save the Generation, were found dumped in the Chechen capital Grozny on Tuesday (11 August).
Mr Dzhabrailov may have been targeted because of alleged links with separatists. But his wife on Monday night asked kidnappers to take her as well, family members reported.
"It is important that an investigation into these latest murders is conducted promptly, transparently and thoroughly. The perpetrators must be brought to justice," the Swedish statement said.
"The EU urges the Russian authorities to do everything in their power to ensure the protection of human rights defenders."
The Save the Generation deaths follow the shooting in July of civil rights activist Nataliya Estemirova and the earlier slayings in Moscow of Chechnya human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and reporter Anna Politkovskaya.
A spokesman for German chancellor Angela Merkel told DPA that she will raise the topic at a meeting with Russian president Dmitry Medvedev in Sochi on Friday.
Mr Medvedev himself has condemned the Grozny killings as "vile."
Previous statements by both Moscow and Brussels have done little to bring people to justice, however.
The string of murders has been widely linked to the regime of Ramzan Kadyrov, the 32-year old president of the semi-autonomous Chechen republic, who dresses in Armani sportswear and lives in a mansion with caged lions.
Mr Kadyrov has blamed "militants" trying to destabilise his rule.
Two of Russia's leading human rights organisations, the Memorial NGO and the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, have pulled out of Chechnya in recent days due to safety concerns.
"The light of public scrutiny is gradually being turned off in Chechnya. First, international organisations and journalists were banned from the region, and now, local civil society is being eliminated," Amnesty International said.
The situation in Chechnya is part of growing instability in Russia's North Caucasus region.
In neighbouring Ingushetia, gunmen on Wednesday murdered the local construction minister while he was sitting at his office desk. A suicide bomb in June almost took the life of Ingushetia's president Yunus-Bek Yevkurov.
Medvedev reinstates in post Ingushetia president
MOSCOW, August 13 (Itar-Tass) -- Yunus-Bek Yevkurov resumed his office of Ingushetia’s president on Thursday.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree on recognizing invalid the July 3 presidential decree on the acting president of the Russian Republic of Ingushetia. Rashid Gaisanov was appointed as acting president of the republic.
Wounded leader returns as Ingush president: Kremlin
(AFP) – 40 minutes ago
MOSCOW — The president of Ingushetia, badly wounded in a bomb attack in June, has returned to his post as leader of the increasingly unstable Russian region, the Kremlin said on Thursday.
However Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, who is still recovering in a Moscow sanatorium, will only return to Ingushetia at the end of this month, his spokesman said.
President Dmitry Medvedev cancelled a decree of July 3 which had appointed Rashid Gaisanov acting president of Ingushetia while Yevkurov recovered from serious head injuries, the Kremlin said in a statement.
"Yevkurov has again returned to his duties as president of Ingushetia," the Kremlin said.
Yevkurov returns amid mounting fears over the stability of Ingushetia, a day after its construction minister was shot dead in a brazen attack inside his own office and with almost daily attacks on security forces.
"He wants to return to work as quickly as possible but the doctors are insisting that the treatment continues. We are expecting him in Ingushetia at the end of the month," his press secretary Kaloi Akhilgov told the RIA Novosti news agency.
Yevkurov had been released from hospital earlier this week and television pictures showed him dressed in a black tracksuit emblazoned with "Russia" walking with the support of one crutch but apparently largely recovered.
The decorated former paratroop commander was appointed by the Kremlin last year to halt the militant violence and also to reduce corruption in Ingushetia which had reached endemic levels in recent years.
There have been increased militant attacks over the last months throughout Russia's Caucasus region, where Islamist militants are battling pro-Kremlin local authorities and Russian security forces in a low-level insurgency.
Russia's Medvedev approves Ingush president's return to work
MAGAS, August 13 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday signed a decree reinstating Ingush President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, who survived an assassination attempt in June and was discharged from a Moscow hospital this week.
While Yevkurov was receiving medical treatment in Moscow, Rashid Gaisanov, was appointed acting president of the Russian southern republic of Ingushetia.
Yevkurov underwent a series of operations in Moscow after sustaining head and internal injuries when a car bomb exploded as his motorcade passed by on June 22.
Though Yevkurov has resumed his post, he is expected to return to the North Caucasus republic by the end of August.
"I can't name the exact date because it hasn't yet been determined. We expect [Yevkurov] back in Ingushetia by the end of this month," Ingush presidential secretary Kaloi Akhilgov told RIA Novosti on Thursday.
The secretary also said that a large meeting is due to be held with city and regional heads when Yevkurov returns to give him an opportunity to get up to speed with the current situation in the republic.
"On arrival in the republic, I will hold an extended governmental session to receive reports on how work has progressed," Yevkurov told government daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta on Tuesday.
Russia's mainly Muslim North Caucasus regions have seen a rise in violence in recent months. Attacks on police, officials and troops have been reported almost daily in Ingushetia and Dagestan that border Chechnya, which saw two separatist wars in the late 1990s-early 2000s.
A group led by notorious Chechen warlord Doku Umarov has claimed responsibility for the bombing, which also killed two people accompanying the president. Umarov is a former underground president of Chechnya and now the self-proclaimed leader of the North Caucasus, or the "Caucasus emirate."
A series of high-profile killings in Ingushetia and Dagestan followed the attack on Yevkurov.
Ingushetia's forensics chief died in July in a shooting, and the republic's Supreme Court judge and Dagestan's interior minister were assassinated in June. And more recently in a daring daylight attack the Ingush construction minister was gunned down in his office on Wednesday.
In neighboring Chechnya, a number of attacks have been carried out against human rights activists, which have been condemned by the international community and Dmitry Medvedev.
Respected human rights activist, Natalya Estemirova, was abducted and killed last month. And in a similar attack Zarema Sadulayeva, the head of a children's charity in Chechnya, and her husband, Alik Dzhabrailov, were kidnapped on Monday and found dead in the trunk of their car Tuesday. All three had been shot in the head and chest.
Population census postponed
2009-08-12
The planned 2010 Russian population census will probably be postponed until 2012. The reason is the economic crisis.
- We are preparing to postpone the population census from October 2010 to October 2012, Deputy Head of the State Statistic Service Aleksandr Surinov told Prime-TASS. The reason for this is the ongoing world economic crisis.
A population census will cost no less than 10 billion RUB. 17 billion RUB have been earmarked for preparation and implementation of the census in the federal budget.
The census cannot be conducted in 2011, because it is an election year with large federal expenses. According to Russian law, a population census should be held at least once every 10th year. The last census was held in 2002.
The next Russian population census might reveal that the population is much larger than accounted for. As BarentsObserver reported, a “rehearsal” census in three regions in October 2008 showed that two percent more people were living in these areas than officially registered. In the 2002 census 1.8 million unregistered persons were found
Gryzlov: State Duma to remove Anatoly Aksakov from the National Banking Council for ruble devaluation proposal
13.08.2009 - RIA NOVOSTI/ Banki.ru
At the beginning of the autumn session the State Duma intends to initiate the removal of Anatoly Aksakov, State Duma member and chairman of the Association of Regional Banks Rossiya, from the National Banking Council, speaker of the Russian parliament’s lower chamber Boris Gryzlov told the news agency Wednesday.
In his video blog on August 6 Aksakov proposed the ruble’s sharp devaluation by 30—40% in a bid “to save the national industrial sector”. United Russia members called this proposal to be “antinational”. “I gave an order to the deputy head of the United Russia faction and chairman of the State Duma’s Committee for the Financial Market Vladislav Reznik to work out the issue of making amendments to the list of State Duma members that hold office in the National Banking Council," Gryzlov said. According to him, “at issue is to dismiss Anatoly Aksakov from the NBC”.
Next morning after Aksakov voiced his proposal the ruble began to weaken on the FX market against the dollar and the euro and this trend intensified after the Bank of Russia made an assumption that the national currency will remain highly volatile.
Scientists Accuse FSB of ‘Witch Hunt’ in Letter
13 August 2009By Natalya Krainova / The Moscow Times
A group of scientists and human rights activists published an open letter to President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday, accusing the Federal Security Service of waging a witch hunt against scientists.
Several scientists have been convicted of espionage and illegally exporting technology in recent years, including TsNIIMash-Export head Igor Reshetin, physicist Valentin Danilov, weapons researcher Igor Sutyagin and Ufa-based physicist Oskar Kaibyshev.
“The fact that the scientists are behind bars because of court rulings doesn’t prove their guilt,” said the letter addressed to Medvedev, which was published Wednesday in Novaya Gazeta. “You yourself have admitted several times that courts depend on political will.”
The letter, which is the fourth time in the past two years that the signatories have written to Medvedev about their concerns, was signed by Nobel Prize laureate Vitaly Ginzburg, State Prize laureate Yury Ryzhov, Higher School of Economics professor Yevgeny Yasin, Helsinki Group head Lyudmila Alexeyeva, Glasnost Defense Foundation head Alexei Simonov and Public Committee to Protect Scientists secretary Ernst Chyorny.
According to Ryzhov, Medvedev has said he only saw the third letter.
“The president promised to deal with it, but a rather long time has passed, and we have heard nothing of it,” Ryzhov told The Moscow Times.
Prosecutors have written short replies to each of the previous letters “from which it emerges that they have not read the letters,” Chyorny said by telephone.
A Kremlin spokeswoman said it was customary practice in the administration that letters to Medvedev be sent to the “relevant state agencies for evaluation” before they go to the president.
The spokeswoman could not say whether Medvedev had seen the letters.
A request for comment faxed to the Federal Security Service went unanswered.
The scientists and activists previously addressed Medvedev about the issue in June 2008, October and May, and the letters were passed to Medvedev “in person” by Alexeyeva, Simonov and Right Cause co-leader Leonid Gozman, the latest open letter said.
Ryzhov said the signatories of the open letter had no expectations that the president would reply but hoped that the letter would “rouse” public opinion in the same way that a letter in support of former Yukos lawyer Svetlana Bakhmina, which was signed by tens of thousands of people, led to her release from prison earlier this year.
'Raiding' Underlines Russian Legal Dysfunction
3 Lawyers Targeted After Uncovering Seizure of Firms
By Philip P. Pan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Then they uncovered evidence of a breathtaking crime: Top police and tax authority officials appeared to have quietly seized ownership of Hermitage firms and used them to arrange a $230 million tax refund.
Now, the lawyers themselves are in legal trouble. One has been jailed. The two others have fled the country. All three face charges that seem intended to discredit Hermitage and divert attention from the enormous theft.
Their plight highlights the hazards of practicing law in Russia's corruption-ridden courts despite nearly two decades of reforms supported by hundreds of millions in U.S. and European aid. Prosecutors and police continue to dominate the judiciary as they did in the Soviet era, but unrestrained by the institutions of the old Communist system or the checks of a genuine democracy, the opportunities for abuse have grown.
No crime illustrates the state of the legal system better than what is known as "reiderstvo," or raiding -- the takeover of businesses through court rulings and other ostensibly legal means with the help of crooked judges or police. The practice is so widespread that local media have reported what raiders charge: $10,000 to alter a corporate registry, $50,000 to open a criminal case, $300,000 for a court order.
Hermitage, once Russia's largest foreign shareholder with more than $4 billion in holdings, says it encountered a bold variation on reiderstvo: When raiders failed to seize its assets, they looted the Russian treasury instead, then went after the lawyers who caught them.
President Dmitry Medvedev, a lawyer himself, has called "legal nihilism" the main obstacle to growth in Russia and has condemned raiding as "shameful." But neither he nor his government has responded to Hermitage's pleas for help or the protests of the Moscow bar association and international legal groups.
In a statement last month, the Interior Ministry touted its success in solving the tax theft. But the money has not been recovered, nor have any officials been arrested. Prosecutors have charged only a convicted killer named on documents as Hermitage's new owner.
Courts in Cohorts
For years, Hermitage targeted corruption in the state enterprises in which it invested. In 2005, it upset someone in power, and its British chief, William Browder, was barred from entering Russia. As a precaution, the fund sold its Russian assets and moved most employees overseas.
Then, in June 2007, police raided its Moscow offices and those of its Moscow-based law firm, Firestone Duncan. Brandishing warrants for material about a Hermitage affiliate suspected of tax evasion, they confiscated much more. When one lawyer objected, police beat him so badly that he was hospitalized for two weeks, said Jamison Firestone, the American head of the law firm.
Three days later, Hermitage hired the prominent Moscow defense lawyer Eduard Khayretdinov.
A taciturn former cop and judge, Khayretdinov, 50, was among a pioneering generation who joined the bar in the early 1990s as lawyers first began to operate independently of the state. It was a hopeful move, he recalled, made as then-President Boris Yeltsin's reformers were trying to build an impartial judiciary.
Nearly two decades later, Russian lawyers are the embodiment of that incomplete task. Some are corrupt middlemen, pulling strings and delivering bribes. Others risk arrest and violence in pursuit of justice. Most try to avoid trouble, though figuring out how is more difficult than ever. If the party once controlled the courts, now the highest bidder often does.
Khayretdinov tried to make a difference. In a nation with a conviction rate near 99 percent -- higher, some say, than under Joseph Stalin -- he managed to win the release of five clients in 15 years. "I understood that our system was getting worse, but every time I prepared to speak in court, I honestly believed the court would hear me," he said.
In October 2007, he discovered that lawsuits had been filed in St. Petersburg against three Hermitage firms that once held shares of Gazprom, the state energy giant. Without telling his client, judges had issued more than $400 million in rulings against the firms.
Photographing each page of the court files, Khayretdinov realized that lawyers representing the firms had essentially pleaded guilty in every case. But Hermitage had never hired them.
In Moscow, Hermitage checked the government's corporate registration database and was astonished to discover that it no longer owned the subsidiaries. A business in Kazan, 400 miles from Moscow, was listed as the proprietor.
Complex Maneuvering
Raiding, a mix of extortion, identity theft and simple thuggery, has emerged as major problem for the Russian economy, where property rights remain clouded by the chaotic privatizations of the 1990s. A U.S. Justice Department official in Moscow has described it as "a new and sophisticated form of organized crime" that "poses a serious threat to foreign investors" and has even spilled into American courts.
In one high-profile case, the Norwegian telecom giant Telenor is battling an attempt to seize its stake in a Russian mobile operator after a Siberian court issued a $2.8 billion ruling against it. But smaller domestic firms are usually the victims. One veteran police official has estimated that as many as 10,000 takeovers occur annually but that fewer than 100 are prosecuted and result in convictions.
Raiding is difficult to investigate because it relies on police and judicial corruption and often involves complex legal maneuvering. Hermitage turned to Sergei Magnitsky, 37, a specialist in tax law at Firestone Duncan who was also a licensed auditor. "The best I ever saw," Firestone said.
To take ownership of the firms, Magnitsky concluded, the thieves would have needed original corporate seals and founding documents -- items that police had seized in the raids.
The lawyers suspected the involvement of Lt. Col. Artem Kveuznetsov, an Interior Ministry official who supervised the raids and had been poking around Hermitage bank accounts. He had no clear link to the lawsuits, but raiders often use criminal cases to smear their victims and obtain key documents.
On Nov. 29, 2007, Hermitage confronted Maj. Pavel Karpov, the officer supervising the tax probe, with its findings. The company says he blanched and motioned one of its attorneys to his desk. Apparently worried that his office was bugged, he typed a message: Kuznetsov had pressured him to open the inquiry.
Kuznetsov and Karpov referred a reporter's queries to the Interior Ministry, which did not respond to faxed questions.
Only one law enforcement agency opened a probe into Hermitage's allegations. But when Magnitsky showed up 10 minutes early for a meeting with its investigator last summer, Kuznetsov was in the office.
Looting the Treasury
Why would anyone go to the trouble of obtaining multimillion-dollar judgments against companies that no longer hold any assets?
The mystery stumped Vladimir Pastukhov, 46, a longtime Hermitage adviser and a law professor at the Higher School of Economics. "No one knew what the crime was, but it was clear that if we didn't immediately argue our case, Hermitage would be blamed for something," he recalled.
He and the others filed a series of court motions. Prosecutors responded by indicting Hermitage executives in absentia and disclosing that the powerful Federal Security Service, the domestic successor to the KGB, had initiated the tax inquiry.
It was Browder, the company's British chief, who first suggested that the raiders might be using the court rulings to erase profits on paper and apply for a huge tax refund. The lawyers were skeptical. Magnitsky noted that it often took years to get a refund in Russia.
But then they discovered that the firms had opened accounts at two banks that reported a spike in deposits afterward. With more digging, they confirmed that $230 million was deposited days after the companies applied for a tax refund. The money quickly disappeared overseas.
When Hermitage reported the fraud in July 2008, police went after the lawyers, summoning them to Kazan.
After speaking to police, Pastukhov concluded that he would be arrested if he went. "I used to believe that if you were persistent and targeted, you could get results, even in the Russian courts," he said after fleeing to London. "But I've changed my mind. I'll never step into another courtroom again as a Russian lawyer."
Khayretdinov was sure he could prove his innocence and hid in Russia for months. But then police accused him of improperly representing the stolen firms because Hermitage no longer owned them. He decided he had no hope in court and flew to London.
Magnitsky never considered leaving because he didn't believe he could be jailed for nothing, colleagues said. But in November, police charged him with helping a Hermitage firm evade taxes in 2001. His attorney said he didn't even begin working with the firm until 2002.
"They've told him that if he says bad things about Hermitage, they'll let him go," Firestone said. "But Sergei told them no. . . . He believes the only way that Russia gets better, the only way the law starts to work here, is if good people stand up for it."
Opposition Allowed to Run
13 August 2009The Moscow Times
The presidential administration has ordered that opposition candidates be allowed to run in October regional elections after their disbarment from previous elections prompted a backlash against United Russia, Vedomosti reported Wednesday.
Instructions have been sent out to judges, election committees and prosecutors that those who remove opposition activists will have to reinstate them, Vedomosti said, citing a source close to the presidential administration and an unidentified United Russia official.
“You remove your opponent, [but] all the same our candidates aren’t the ones who win,” the United Russia official said.
Refusing to register opposition candidates on technicalities has proved an unsuccessful tactic, leading to a protest vote against United Russia, analysts told Vedomosti. For example, Communist candidates weren’t allowed to run for the city legislature in Vyshny Volochyok last fall, but the Liberal Democrat Party beat United Russia. In Tver, the Communists won a local election after candidates from several grass-roots organizations were barred.
On Oct. 11, regional elections will be held in Moscow, the Marii-El republic and the Tula region. Voters will elect mayors in Grozny, Astrakhan and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.
Kemerovo deputies suspected of embezzling four mln rbls of funds
KEMEROVO, August 13 (Itar-Tass) - Embezzlement of funds from the regional budget, allocated to pay salaries to workers of educational establishments, was confirmed in the city of Myski, Kemerovo Region, Itar-Tass learnt at the regional administration on Thursday.
Specialists of the educational department and the main financial agency of the Kemerovo Region examined facts of improper use of budgetary funds. It was established that between 2006 and 2008, repeated payments were made to people who were not on the staff of educations establishments in Myski as well as to private accounts, opened at bank officers, from the salary fund of local educational establishments. “At the time, Alexander Pavlenko headed the municipal educational department, while Vera Ananyeva was his deputy. Later, they were elected deputies of the city council, and Pavlenko was elected its head,” the regional administration noted.
It was established during inspections that four million roubles were illegally deposited to their accounts over the above period. On a demand from the regional governor, materials on the embezzlement of budgetary funds were forwarded to the local branch of the Federal Security Service for the Kemerovo Region. A criminal case was instituted, and investigation is underway.
The local branch of the United Russia Party will hold a meeting in Myski on Thursday to discuss the question on expelling Pavlenko and Ananyeva from the party.
Would Russians In Ferghana Valley Guarantee Stability Or Spell Disaster?
August 12, 2009
By Farangis Najibullah
Russia's recently announced plan to set up a second military base in Kyrgyzstan has evoked considerable reaction as proponents and detractors debate whether such a facility will boost or strain security efforts the region.
Moscow appears to be eyeing two possible sites in southern Kyrgyzstan that lie in the Central Asia's most densely populated and volatile region, the Ferghana Valley.
Ferghana straddles the borders of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, is home to a combustible mix of high unemployment, diverse ethnicity, and religious conservatism.
Each of the sites shortlisted for the facility, Osh and Batken, is also near Kyrgyzstan's border with Uzbekistan.
Uzbek officials are reportedly concerned that such a base might provoke religious and extremist groups, and rumors of the deal prompted alarm from Tashkent even before the details were agreed during a recent Collective Security Treaty Organization Treaty (CSTO) summit on August 1.
Kyrgyz authorities have repeatedly asserted that the main security threats are from the south -- from areas bordering Uzbekistan.
But the Uzbek Foreign Ministry's Jahon news agency published a statement saying there was no need for a Russian base in the area, and that it would help destabilize all of Central Asia.
'The Pulse Of Central Asia'
The Ferghana Valley has a long history of ethnic tension and uprisings, and is home to a number of groups banned in many Central Asian states. The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), an alleged terrorist group whose operations now span South and Central Asia, was created there, and the banned Islamist Hizb-ut-Tahrir has been more active there than in any other part of Central Asia.
It has also witnessed periodic bloodshed, such as when ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz clashes in Osh killed nearly 300 people in 1990 or a popular uprising in the Uzbek city of Andijon was crushed by government forces in May 2005, killing or injuring hundreds more.
More recently, three attacks by unknown groups took place along the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border within a span of 24 hours on May 26.
Such incidents appear to lend credence to Uzbekistan's fears of provoking extremists in the region.
But regional experts say Tashkent's opposition to a second Russian base in Kyrgyzstan has little to do with its stated objections. They suggest Uzbekistan, which considers itself a regional power, is wary of seeing increased Russian influence in Central Asia.
"Being present in a potentially unstable area, the Ferghana Valley, would mean that Russia has put its hands on the pulse of Central Asia," Andrei Grozin, the head Central Asia department at the Institute of the CIS Countries in Moscow, says. "Besides, Moscow wants to show who's the boss in Central Asia."
Hackles are already up among outsiders over draft legislation making the rounds in Russia that would make it easier to deploy troops internationally to counter aggression against Russian or foreign militaries. Russia's current counterterrorism law allows for deployments abroad to fight terrorism.
Grozin argues that an increased Russian presence would make it increasingly difficult for Uzbekistan to bully its neighbors.
"The presence of a Russian military base is perceived by many in Tashkent like the presence of a Russian military base in [Georgia's breakaway republics of] South Ossetia or Abkhazia, for example," Grozin tells RFE/RL.
"They all understand that when a Russian military structure emerges in the area of Uzbek interests, it will be harder for Tashkent to put pressure on Bishkek and Dushanbe."
Tashkent Intransigence?
Uzbekistan has a history of isolating itself when it comes to multilateral efforts. Taskhent has threatened to leave the Russia-dominated CSTO, and along with Belarus has refused to sign off on the organization's creation of a rapid-reaction force to fight terrorism.
Anna Matveeva, a visiting fellow with the Crisis States Research Centre at the London School of Economics, says that by setting up a second base in Kyrgyzstan, Russia would demonstrate that it does not consider Uzbekistan its favored partner in Central Asia.
"Uzbekistan has not been a stable partner to anyone," Matveeva says. "It frequently changes its foreign policy, shifting from Russia to the West, from the U.S. to China and so on. Kyrgyzstan, however, has been much more loyal to Russia."
Matveeva says Uzbekistan's warning about a new Russian military presence increasing the threat of militancy is "baseless."
"There is also quite a lot of military presence in Ferghana Valley and especially a huge Uzbek military buildup," Matveeva says. "The Russian base -- it will still take time until something of that order materializes -- will still be a very limited presence, we are not talking about deployment of a kind of big army unit there."
She notes the presence of a larger Russian military facility in Tajikistan "in a very devout area" near the border with Afghanistan and says, "It doesn't really provoke any passions of any kind."
TV case tests Russian gay rights
By Ben Tavener
BBC Russian Service
A former reality show celebrity has become the first person in Russia to go to court over claims that he is gay.
Vasily Pechen, who appeared on Russian reality shows Big Brother and Dom 2, made Russian legal history by bringing the case to a Moscow court this week.
He says that publications in a tabloid newspaper and gay news website, which also claimed he regularly frequented gay clubs and even received money in return for sex, caused irreparable damage to his TV career.
Mr Pechen also said the publications, which were accompanied by revealing pictures of the Z-list celebrity, even contributed to his mother's death due to the stress caused by the claims.
In total, he is seeking up to four million roubles (£76,000) by way of compensation: the sum he claims his career would be worth if not for false claims about his sexual orientation.
Second attempt at fame?
However, legal expert and Moscow gay pride organiser Nikolai Alekseev said that the case would be baseless if the claims only concerned Mr Pechen's orientation.
"Being gay in Russia is no longer a criminal offence and no longer considered a mental illness," Mr Alekseev told the BBC Russian Service.
"If he tries to take someone to court because they said he was gay, he probably will not get very far.
"The second part of the claim concerning the publication of indecent photos of the claimant and accusations that he worked as a prostitute have a better chance of success."
However, when approached for further information about the reality show participant, Russian TV company TNT said they could barely remember who he was.
"Perhaps he just wants to remind the world of his existence," said the company's press office.
Changing attitudes?
Attitudes towards gay people in Russia remain generally negative, which might explain Mr Pechen's desire to refute the claims over his sexuality so robustly and so publicly.
However, human rights activist Edward Murzin - who tried to apply for a same-sex partnership in Russia in 2005, although not gay himself - says reality shows like Big Brother and Dom 2 have gone a long way to break down taboos in Russian society, especially among youngsters.
The website GayRussia.ru, which is also run by Mr Alekseev, carried out a survey in 2005 with the Levada Center into public attitudes towards sexual minorities in Russia.
The poll showed that the majority of Russians still oppose gay marriage and the idea of a gay president, but support a ban on sexual orientation discrimination.
Although larger Russian cities do have active gay communities and gay scenes, and attitudes towards gay people are slowly changing, few people in Russia are openly gay and discrimination remains widespread and virtually unchallenged.
All applications for organising a gay pride march in Moscow have been blocked by the Russian authorities, and any attempts to hold the event without permission have ended in violence, with demonstrators being arrested and beaten by the security forces.
Homosexuality was decriminalised in Russia in 1993 and was removed from the official list of mental illnesses in 1999.
However, there is equally no legislation protecting people from discrimination or harassment on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
There is also no formal recognition of same-sex relationships.
National Economic Trends
Russia's international reserves up $1.4 bln to $403.4 bln in week
MOSCOW, August 13 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's international reserves, largely holding gold and foreign exchange, increased by $1.4 billion to $403.4 billion in the week of July 31 - August 7, the Central Bank of Russia said on Thursday.
Russia's gold/forex reserves go up on July 31-Aug 7
MOSCOW, August 13 (Itar-Tass) - - Russia's gold and foreign exchange reserves grew by 1.4 billion US dollars from 402.0to 403.4 billion dollars (or by 0.3 percent) in the period from July 31-August 7, the Prime-Tass business news agency reports with reference to the foreign and public relations department of the Central Bank of Russia (CBR).
The country's foreign exchange reserves record, when Russia’s gold and foreign exchange reserves registered on August 8, 2008 was 598.1 billion US dollars.
As compared to the January 1 level, when the index amounted to 427.08 billion dollars, the reserves reduced by 5.5 percent.
Regulators Intervene To Bolster the Ruble
13 August 2009Reuters
The Central Bank waded into the currency market for the second day running on Wednesday to keep the ruble from wilting further amid weak oil prices and disappointing economic data, traders and analysts said.
The regulator sold between $100 million and $200 million after a larger intervention on Tuesday of around $500 million, traders said. The last time the Central Bank noticeably stepped in to defend the ruble was on July 10 and 13.
Against the dollar on Wednesday, the ruble fell to 32.38, its lowest level since July 13. Against the euro, which has seen a broad surge in value, the ruble wilted to 46.0, the weakest since Feb. 25.
The Central Bank’s intervention prevented the currency from dropping below 39 to the dual currency basket, made up of 0.55 dollars and 0.45 euros and used by the regulator to guide its foreign exchange policies.
The regulator has vowed to keep the ruble trading within a range of 26 to 41 to the basket.
“Right now we are feeling around for the level where the Central Bank will stop us,” said Viktor Anisimov of Alba Alliance bank. “But if it doesn’t resist, then we can move past 39 [rubles to the basket].”
The Central Bank’s last noticeable interventions a month ago came when the value of the currency fell to 39.04 to the basket.
Analysts said the pressure on the ruble stems from lower oil prices, a stock market correction and the news on Tuesday that the economy saw its worst year-on-year contraction on record in the second quarter of 2009.
“I believe we are close to the end of this decline, but still there is a risk of seeing the ruble at 39.20 to the dual currency basket,” said a currency trader at a local bank.
Business, Energy or Environmental regulations or discussions
Bill Gives Priority to Gas Power
13 August 2009By Nadia Popova / The Moscow Times
The government submitted a bill that would give priority access to the wholesale electricity markets to electricity stations that are fueled by associated gas, the Energy Ministry said Wednesday.
The bill aims to help oil producers, which are obliged by law to utilize an annual 95 percent of their associated gas by 2012.
“The bill will give an incentive to investors to build power stations that use associated gas to produce electricity,” the ministry said in an e-mailed response to questions. “And it will also make it more economical for oil companies to refine associated gas.”
As little as 25 percent of 55 billion cubic meters of associated gas extracted annually in Russia is refined, the ministry said. Most of it is flared — a process that sends tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In January, the government ruled that 95 percent of all the associated gas extracted in Russia annually must be utilized by 2012.
It wasn’t immediately clear how power stations using associated gas would be given priority. System Operator, which regulates the markets, accepts bids to determine which power station will supply the market on a daily basis. It said it would not change its basic bidding process. “It will just give us other criteria for choosing a generator,” said Dmitry Batarin, a spokesman for the regulator. Priority is currently given to nuclear stations, which don’t have flexibility in the volumes they trade.
Only two power stations currently use associated gas: Surgut Power Station, controlled by OGK-4, and Nizhnevartovsk Power Station, jointly owned by TNK-BP and OGK-1, said Vladimir Sklyar, a utilities analyst with Renaissance Capital.
“There aren’t many areas left in the country where associated gas-fired stations can be built,” Sklyar said. “Fuel is already indicated in the contracts the generators have signed … and they can’t change it without the prior consent of the System Operator.”
Oil producers welcomed the government’s initiative. “We hope the government’s decision will soon be implemented in practice,” said Nikolai Gorelov, spokesman at TNK-BP.
Russia considers postponing duty increase
[tt_news]=715&tx_ttnews[backPid]=13&cHash=d4e3935e83
(13 August 2009)
The Russian government is presently considering whether to postpone the increase in export duties on roundwood planned for 1 January 2010 by another year. According to representatives of the Finnish ministry of foreign trade, Elvira Nabiullina, Russian minister for economic development and the industry, said during her meeting with Paavo Väyrynen, Finnish minister for foreign trade and development, that the Russian government would decide on the possible postponement during the next one or two months.
VEB Commits $200 Million to Macquarie-Renaissance Fund
By Stephen Bierman
Aug. 12 (Bloomberg) -- VEB, Russia’s state development bank, will invest $200 million into an infrastructure fund set up by Macquarie Ltd., Australia’s largest investment bank, and Moscow-based Renaissance Capital.
The Macquarie Renaissance Infrastructure Fund has reached a total of $530 million with the VEB commitment, according to an e-mailed statement from the fund today.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Finance Corporation have pledged $100 million each, the fund said. Renaissance and Macquarie each committed $50 million. Kazyna Capital Management of Kazakhstan has made a $30 million commitment.
The Macquarie Renaissance Infrastructure Fund will invest at least half of its money in Russia, and a maximum of 25 percent in Ukraine, Kazakhstan and the other countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States, the EBRD said in June.
To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Bierman in Moscow sbierman1@.
Last Updated: August 12, 2009 10:39 EDT
AUGUST 13, 2009, 3:59 A.M. ET
Standard Bank Says Russian Deal With Troika Dialog On Track
JOHANNESBURG (Dow Jones)--Standard Bank Group Ltd. (SBK.JO) Thursday said it continues to work on a deal that will see it take one-third of Troika Dialog (TROYVT.RS), Russia's largest independent investment bank.
"The detailed planning for the implementation of this transaction and the regulatory process are on track," the Johannesburg-based company, Africa's largest lender by assets, said.
Standard Bank in March said it planned to buy a 33% stake in Troika, part funded by the sale of its ZAO Standard Bank operation in Russia to Troika.
-By Robb M. Stewart, Dow Jones Newswires; +27 11 783 7848; robb.stewart@
AUGUST 13, 2009
Russia to Start 'Clunkers' Plan
By WILL BLAND and STEVE MCGRATH
Russian lawmakers plan to support the country's domestic-car industry with a trade-in program similar to the "cash for clunkers" plans that have lifted auto sales in Europe and the U.S.
The Trade and Industry Ministry hopes to sway prospective car buyers by offering a 50,000 ruble ($1,550) rebate toward a new car when they hand in old vehicles to be scrapped, a ministry spokeswoman said. The program is expected to be launched early next year, she said.
To qualify, cars must be more than 10 years old, and the rebate can be spent only on Russian-made cars. That would include cars made by companies such as Ford Motor Co., Renault SA, General Motors Co., Volkswagen AG and Nissan Motor Co., all of which have factories in Russia. These scrapping deals benefit manufacturers of small cars because to get the discount, consumers must buy cars with low carbon-dioxide emissions.
Ford has been a big beneficiary because its subcompact Fiesta and Ka models meet the criteria. However, most European governments have set a budget for the programs, and they are set to end when the money runs out. The company warned that industrywide sales in Europe, the world's second-largest auto market after the U.S., could fall by as many as two million new vehicles in 2010 if the programs are cut off at the end of this year.
Despite the scrapping programs, industry executives remain cautious, predicting the downturn will last through at least next year. One of the biggest struggles is in Russia, where the drop in oil prices has pushed the economy into a deep recession and pushed the country off its course to become the biggest auto market in Europe.
Write to Will Bland at william.bland@ and Steve McGrath at steve.mcgrath@
$1Bln in Emergency Loans Almost Gone, AvtoVAZ Says
13 August 2009By Gleb Stolyarov / Reuters
AvtoVAZ, partly owned by Renault, said it has spent nearly all the 33 billion rubles ($1 billion) in emergency loans it got from the state, mainly to settle debts to suppliers.
In March, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ordered 25 billion rubles in state funds to be disbursed to AvtoVAZ and asked state banks to provide bridging loans of another 8 billion rubles.
In a statement on Wednesday, AvtoVAZ said it had spent 24.3 billion rubles out of the 25 billion ruble loan, having repaid the 8.04 billion ruble bridge loan, 14.02 billion rubles to suppliers and the rest as wages, taxes and loans.
It has also spent 6.17 billion rubles from the bridge loan to settle accounts with suppliers, 1.63 billion rubles to pay wages and 0.2 billion rubles to pay taxes.
It said the state loans allowed it to see overdue debts fall 75 percent, while the amount it owes suppliers fell by over 85 percent.
VTB Capital analyst Yelena Sakhnova said it would be difficult for AvtoVAZ, which owed 28 billion rubles to suppliers as of March 31, to pay out the remainder without state support.
“Despite a certain revival in July, demand for the Lada remains very low,” Sakhnova said.
Sales of AvtoVAZ’s Lada brand fell 42 percent year on year in July to 32,426 cars.
Total car sales in Russia fell 58 percent last month compared with the same period a year ago, a slightly worse showing than the 56 percent slump seen in June, according to data from the Association of European Businesses.
The backbone of the country’s rescue package for the auto industry has been a subsidy offered to banks for lowering the price of car loans.
Russian truck maker KamAZ posts $50 mln half-yearly loss
MOSCOW, August 13 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's largest truck producer KamAZ announced on Thursday net losses according to Russian Accounting Standards of 1.62 billion rubles ($50 million) in January-June 2009.
KamAZ, based in the Volga Republic of Tatarstan, posted a net profit of 2.63 billion rubles ($82 million) in the same period last year.
KamAZ produces more than 30 models of trucks, as well as trailers, buses, tractors and spare parts. It also manufactures engines, power units, and components.
The company has assembly facilities in Poland, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, Vietnam and Ukraine.
KamAZ heavy-duty trucks have won the Paris-Dakar rally on several occasions.
New Airline to Start $8 Flights to 4 Cities
13 August 2009By Maria Antonova / The Moscow Times
New low-cost airline Avianova will begin flying out of Vnukovo Airport to four Russian cities on Aug. 27, with one-way tickets starting at 250 rubles ($7.70), Avianova director Vladimir Gorbunov said Wednesday.
The airline’s fleet of two Airbus A320 jets will initially fly to Sochi, Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don and Samara, while Naberezhniye Chelny and Astrakhan will be added within a month, Gorbunov said at a news conference.
“We hope to get two more planes in time for the winter schedule,” said Gorbunov, who was previously an executive at Airbus’ Russia and CIS branch.
Avianova has the first two planes on a five-year lease from the International Lease Finance Corp. They are both 12 years old and were previously operated by US Airways.
Avianova is controlled by Alfa Group and Indigo Partners, a U.S. investment firm, through Russian company Luch. Alfa Group is the ultimate majority shareholder through its investment subsidiary A1, said Andrew Pyne, the founder and former chief executive of Viva Macau, a low-cost carrier in Asia-Pacific, who was introduced at the news conference as a representative of both Alfa Group and Indigo.
He declined to give investment figures, details on the size of the stakes or identify the board directors.
Media reports have suggested that Pyne will run the airline but could not be appointed to the top post because of federal rules limiting foreigners in the domestic airline industry.
A startup like Avianova would need an investment of at least $15 million, but that would cover the “bare minimum,” said Dmitry Baranov, a senior analyst at Finam Investment.
Avianova’s main competition will come from the only other low-cost domestic carrier, Sky Express, and media reports have suggested that Avianova has based its business strategy on its rival’s. Pyne denied that, telling The Moscow Times, “Our business plan is independently constructed and not based on anyone else’s.”
Avianova’s flight schedule is tight, and it might face problems with only two planes, said Sky Express director Marina Bukalova.
“It’s a very risky schedule, even before two more cities are added,” she told The Moscow Times.
Typical service time between landing and takeoff is 40 minutes at Vnukovo, while it can take an hour at regional airports, she said.
Avianova’s web site shows, for example, that the airline has scheduled a 25-minute stop at Vnukovo for a plane arriving from Samara and leaving for Rostov on Sept. 13, while the other plane is in Krasnodar at the same time.
Tickets to the first four destinations became available for purchase online Tuesday night. The base price of 250 rubles is available for about 45 seats out of 180, and the fare increases to 5,000 rubles at the date of departure, said airline sales director Zhanna Shalimova.
The base price does not include airport and booking fees, so the 250 ruble fare will actually cost 623 rubles.
Moody's Interfax assigns Aa1.ru rating to Oblast of Samara's RUB2.4 bn bond
13.08.2009 - Moody's Investors Service
Moscow, August 12, 2009 -- Moody's Interfax Rating Agency has assigned a Aa1.ru national scale rating (NSR) to the Oblast of Samara's RUB2.425 billion bond (approximately USD75 million), to be issued on 14 August 2009. This senior unsecured amortised bond with a fixed coupon rate is due in May 2013. It will be used to fund the Oblast's budget deficit and strengthen its liquidity position. Moscow-based Moody's Interfax is majority-owned by Moody's Investors Service, a leading global rating agency.
Moody's Interfax notes that the Oblast of Samara's Aa1.ru NSR is supported by the region's historically strong operating balances, moderate debt burden and favourable maturity profile, as well as rapid economic development in the recent past. However, these factors are offset by an expected significant deterioration in the operating balances arising from a recessionary-driven tax revenue decline, coupled with some rigidity on the expenditure side. Nevertheless, Moody's Interfax notes that the Oblast's debt burden, including the new bond issue, will remain moderate.
The last rating action was implemented on 27 June 2008, when Moody's Interfax assigned an Aa1.ru rating to the Oblast's RUB8.3 billion bond.
The principal methodologies used in rating the region are "Regional and Local Governments Outside the US" and "The Application of Joint-Default Analysis to Regional and Local Governments", which can be found at in the Credit Policy & Methodologies directory, in the Ratings Methodologies sub-directory. Other methodologies and factors that may have been considered in the process of rating these cities can also be found in the Credit Policy & Methodologies directory.
Located 1,098km south-east of Moscow, the Oblast of Samara has a population of 3.2 million people, accounting for 2% of Russia's total population, and contributed approximately 2% to national GDP. The region has a strong industrial base and considerable natural resources, principally oil and gas.
IKEA Starting Plant Construction in Tyumen Oblast
12.08.2009 — News
IKEA is investing 50 million Euro into the construction of a timber processing plant in the Tyumen Oblast. The Swedish company registered its two subsidiaries, Arbor-Ishim and Arbor-Ishim-Les, in the Ishim district.
The regional government informed RusBusinessNews that IKEA has already signed a lease contract for 2.5 million square metres of forestry land. In the autumn the company is planning to start the construction of the production facility buildings. A 36 hectare plot 4 kilometres away from Ishim has been allocated for the timber processing plant which would create about 300 jobs.
Jabil Russia postpone Sony production until September
Updated 10:10, evertiq reported on July 31st that EMS giant Jabil Circuit will start producing in Russia in August.
According to evertiq's information Jabil was supposed to start producing for Sony already in August. However due to a number of technical issues the production start has been moved to autumn. Specific dates have not yet been identified, but according to information evertiq has received the production may start in September instead. Jabil intends to assemble LCD TVs in Russia. Lower import duties have created favourable conditions for the development of assembly production in the country.
Pork production in Russia continues to decline 13 Aug 2009
Pork production in Russia continues to decline, sources in the Ministry of Agriculture have said.
By Evegen Vorotnikov
Among the main reasons of this are: the reducing of pig numbers, lack of selection and breeding work, and the irregularity of investments in the industry.
According to recent pork market research, amid the crisis, the level of pork production in Russia this year will fall about two times the amount, while the dynamics of consumption by almost three times.
The level of consumption of pork in Russia remains quite low, two times lower than in developed countries. High prices for this type of meat are also constraining the consumption. At the end of last year, pork prices rose by nearly 25% due to an increase in production costs, in particular feed.
Currently the Russian pork import market is very strong due to high production efficiency and low costs in other countries.
Activity in the Oil and Gas sector (including regulatory)
Rosneft Snaps Up License to Explore Offshore Shelf of Abkhazia
by Rigzone Staff
8/12/2009
URL:
Citing Chief Executive Sergei Bogdanchikov, Prime-Tass news agency reported Wednesday that Russian oil major Rosneft was granted a license to explore and develop oil on the offshore shelf of the Georgian breakaway republic of Abkhazia.
Accoding to Bogdanchikov, Rosneft, in addition to processing already existing seismic data of the region, will conduct its own seismic survey over the license, completing the first stage of seismic acquisition by the end of 2011.
Hungarian MOL Takes Steps to Keep Production License in Russia
[tt_news]=35401&tx_ttnews[backPid]=7&cHash=75155fd109
Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 6 Issue: 155
August 12, 2009 03:18 PM Age: 10 hrs
Category: Eurasia Daily Monitor, Vlad’s Corner, Russia, Hungary, Energy, Foreign Policy, Economics, Home Page
By: Vladimir Socor
Hungarian MOL's oil-producing joint venture in Russia, ZMB, has gained a respite from the Russian authorities' threat to revoke its production license. ZMB (Zapadno-Malobalyk), a parity joint venture of MOL with Russneft in western Siberia's Khanty-Mansi district, had recently been warned by Russia's mineral resources supervisory authority, RosNedra, to capture and use the associated gas at its oil wells, rather than flaring or re-injecting it. A meeting of ZMB's board of directors in Budapest has decided to address RosNedra's demand in a positive way (ITAR-TASS, August 10, 11).
Utilization of associated gas is a systemic problem in the Russian oil industry. Russian authorities seem to have targeted ZMB selectively at this point. In future, however, RosNedra may use the ZMB case as a precedent with regard to other oil companies in Russia.
RosNedra issued a first warning in April and another one in early July, when it gave ZMB only six months to comply. Some observers have interpreted this as pressure on MOL to accept Surgut Neftegaz's surreptitious grab of 21 percent of MOL's shares in March -a move that fell short of compliance with Hungarian law and contravened MOL's corporate transparency requirements. MOL has not ruled out a connection between Surgut's and RosNedra's moves, but neither does MOL presume such a connection (EDM, July 20). Instead, MOL seeks to address the associated gas issue on technical and commercial merits.
At its meeting, the ZMB board approved measures to utilize 95 percent of the associated gas at its oil wells. The company will build a gas-fired power plant at the field and use that electricity for ZMB's production purposes. The company will also drill 12 additional wells at the field. The entire program is to be financed from the company's 2009 second-semester revenues, not loans. In addition to these measures, MOL and ZMB expect to comply with RosNedra's requirements and to retain the production license (Interfax, Vilaggazdasag, Platts Commodity News, August 7).
ZMB's associated gas utilization problem can be traced largely to the state company Rosneft, which has since 2007 declined to take the associated gas from ZMB. Prior to that year, ZMB was pumping 60 percent of its associated gas into a pipeline link to Yuzhno-Malobalinsk, a nearby field of the defunct company Yukos' unit, Yuganskneftegaz, for collection and transportation. After the Kremlin's destruction of Mikhail Khodorkovsky's Yukos, however, state-owned Rosneft took over Yuganskneftegaz, including Yuzhno-Malobalinsk, and stopped accepting ZMB's associated gas there. This gave RosNedra in due course the excuse for threatening ZMB with revoking the license and MOL with losing its Russian asset.
This MOL asset is, in a sense, a Yukos-legacy project. ZMB started out as a Yukos-MOL parity joint venture in 2003. During the destruction of Yukos, tycoon Mikhail Gutseriyev's Russneft company took over the Yukos 50 percent share in ZMB in 2005. Two years later Gutseriyev had to flee Russia. This history, along with RosNedra's current handling of the associated gas issue, reflects the precarious legal basis for foreign and domestic investors in Russia's oil and gas sector.
Facing natural gas production shortfalls in the years immediately ahead, the Russian government wants oil companies to reduce the widespread practice of flaring the associated gas at the oil well. Instead, the government is urging the oil companies to invest in capturing the associated gas and pumping it into Russia's central gas supply system. Such operations would require massive investments. Moreover, those gas volumes would likely be used for internal consumption in Russia, making it unprofitable for foreign companies to sell the gas at the state-controlled, rock-bottom prices on Russia's internal gas market. Meanwhile, the gas flaring poses severe environmental problems both locally and in terms of continental climate-change.
According to the Minister of Natural Resources Yuri Trutnev, Russia processes only 30 percent of the gas produced. No gas-processing plant has been built in Russia during the last 17 years. Moreover, according to other ministry officials, no installations have been built in the last 30 years for associated gas processing, and there is almost no infrastructure for its transportation (ITAR-TASS, August 10).
Russian authorities have been content thus far with urging the companies, stopping short of coercion. The ZMB case, however, may serve as a harbinger that the authorities could threaten larger players with penalties or cancelation of licenses over the issue of associated gas.
UPDATE 1-Sibir Energy chairman, CEO step down
Wed Aug 12, 2009 2:27pm EDT
* Vadim Yakovlev named chairman, succeeds William Guinness
* Igor Tsibelman named CEO, succeeds Stuard Detmer
* 3 non-executive directors also appointed (Adds detail)
LONDON, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Russian oil and gas explorer Sibir Energy (SBE.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Wednesday its chairman and chief executive have both stepped-down from the board.
In a statement it said William Guinness would be succeeded as chairman by non-executive director Vadim Yakovlev, while Igor Tsibelman, previously deputy CEO, would become CEO in place of Stuard Detmer.
The appointments reflect the control over the business of Gazprom Neft (SIBN.MM: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the oil arm of the the world's largest gas company Gazprom (GAZP.MM: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which has acquired ownership over a majority of the voting rights of Sibir's shares.
Sibir also announced the appointment of three non-executive directors -- Dmitry Bekker, Maxim Viktorov and Andrei Martianov.
Bekker is a representative of The Central Fuel Company and the Moscow city government, while Viktorov and Martianov are nominees of The Central Fuel Company and Gazprom Neft, respectively.
Trading in Sibir's shares was suspended in February on London's AIM after it was revealed that debt from property deals of one of its main shareholders, Shalva Chigirinsky, was higher than had previously been announced. [ID:nLJ308825]
(Reporting by James Davey; Editing Bernard Orr)
Alfa Laval Wins SEK 110 Million Energy Efficiency Order from One of the Biggest Refineries in Russia
Regulatory News:
Alfa Laval – a world leader in heat transfer, centrifugal separation and fluid handling – has received an order for compact heat exchangers from one of the major refineries in Russia. The order value is about SEK 110 million and delivery is scheduled for 2010.
The Alfa Laval compact heat exchangers will be used for preheating the crude oil before it goes into one of the main distillation processes. By using Alfa Laval’s compact heat exchangers it is possible to recover heat from several streams of the refinery process. As a result the Russian refinery will be able to reduce its energy consumption by 340 MW and CO2 emissions by 850 000 tonnes annually. The reduction of CO2 emissions corresponds to approximately the emissions from all family cars during one year in Stockholm, the Swedish capital.
"The order confirms that Alfa Laval’s compact heat exchangers has an outstanding offer that fits the refinery needs; technical, financial and environmental”, says Lars Renström, President and CEO of the Alfa Laval Group. "It is also evidence that Russian refineries’ continuous to investment in energy efficiency.”
Did you know that… by replacing the traditional shell-and-tube equipment with Alfa Laval’s compact heat exchangers, a refinery reduces its energy consumption to the extent that the pay-back time for such an investment is less than a year?
Alfa Laval is a leading global provider of specialized products and engineering solutions based on its key technologies of heat transfer, separation and fluid handling.
The company’s equipment, systems and services are dedicated to assisting customers in optimizing the performance of their processes. The solutions help them to heat, cool, separate and transport products in industries that produce food and beverages, chemicals and petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, starch, sugar and ethanol.
Alfa Laval’s products are also used in power plants, aboard ships, in the mechanical engineering industry, in the mining industry and for wastewater treatment, as well as for comfort climate and refrigeration applications.
Alfa Laval’s worldwide organization works closely with customers in nearly 100 countries to help them stay ahead in the global arena.
Alfa Laval is listed on the Nordic Exchange, Nordic Large Cap, and, in 2008, posted annual sales of about SEK 28 billion (approx. 2.9 billion Euros). The company has some 12 000 employees.
This information was brought to you by Cision
Gazprom
Yamal Authorities Suggest Reviewing Gazprom’s Tax Payments
12.08.2009 — News
Yuri Neyelov, the Governor of Yamal, has suggested introducing amendments to the Russian tax legislation which would bind OJSC to increase payments to regional budgets. Should these be adopted the gas monopoly will have to pay the profit tax not only at the location of the head office and subsidiary companies but also to budgets of territories where there is property of OJSC Gazprom.
Yamal is Russia's main gas producing region. The production capacities of OJSC Gazprom located in this subject of the Federation define, to a significant degree, the company's capitalisation. In Mr. Neyelov's opinion OJSC Gazprom should pay not only the property tax on real estate to regional budgets, but the property tax on movable assets too.
YaNAO government informed RusBusinessNews that these initiatives may significantly augment the region's budget. Yamal ended the first half of 2009 with a 9.46 billion roubles budget surplus. At the same time the authorities predict a worsening of the financial situation next year.
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