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Russia 110120Basic Political DevelopmentsUS seeks further nuclear cuts with Russia - Washington has begun preparing for negotiations with Moscow on reducing tactical nuclear weapons, US Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance Rose Gottemoeller said.Russian, Turkish FMs to co-chair Joint Strategic Planning GroupTurkey, Russia Accelerate Cooperation - Lavrov will attend the first meeting of the Turkish-Russian Joint Strategic Planning Group, which is carrying out preparatory work ahead of the High-Level Cooperation Council meeting scheduled to be held in Moscow in March. “Since Turkey and Russia have elections this year, we should resolve any problems before the elections,” Russian Ambassador to Ankara Vladimir Ivanovskiy said in a recent interview with daily Cumhuriyet.Afghan president to visit Moscow to discuss cooperation, assistance - Karzai is scheduled to have talks with President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday, January 21. Later in the day, he will meet with members of the Russian business community at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Afghan president embarks on official visit to Russia - Karzai will be accompanied by a delegation of 80 officials, key ministers and businessmen. Following his visit, an agreement on trade and economic cooperation could be signed between the countries.Four New Afghan Air Force Mi-17s Arrive in Kabul - Afghan Air Force receives four new Mi-17 helicopters at the Afghan Air Force Base in Kabul, Afghanistan. The new choppers bring the total size of the Mi-17 fleet to 35.Russian, Belarusian premiers to discuss energy prices, nuclear power plantNatural gas prices, oil supplies to dominate Russian-Belarusian talks - “A number of pressing issues of bilateral cooperation are expected to be discussed, including the terms of oil supplies in 2011, the price of natural gas in 2011, the construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant, and a loan from the EurAsEC anti-crisis fund,” the press service of the Belarusian government said. Rosneft VP says no Belarus oil war expectedUPDATE 1-Russia's Putin to seek solution to Belarus oil row - Russian crude oil flows to Poland and Germany via Belarus along the Druzhba pipeline remain intact. Putin will meet his Belarussian counterpart Mikhail Myasnikovich on Thursday in Russia to discuss "bilateral cooperation in the energy sphere", among other issues, the government website said.Russian ambassador to attend inauguration of Belarus presidentUkraine and Russia team up on military airplane project - Defense Minister Mykhailo Yezhel is planning soon to meet with the leadership of the Russian Defense Ministry and discuss the implementation of a project to create An-70 medium-range transport aircraft. A third of Ukrainians want closer ties with Russia - According to a telephone survey conducted by the IFAK International Research Agency and Deutsche Welle media company, 28 percent of Ukrainians support the orientation on the alliance with Russia, 18 percent said that Ukraine should pursue their own interests, not looking at the neighbors, and 14 percent supported the orientation on the EU.THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION v. THE UKRAINIAN MINORITY IN RUSSIA - In November of 2010, following an almost identical pattern of proceedings, the Russian government “persuaded” the Russian Supreme Court to liquidate another All Russian Ukrainian organization, the Federal National Cultural Autonomy of Ukrainians in Russia. Subsequently, Russia’s Foreign Minister Lavrov acknowledged that the liquidation was the result of political activity.Jaroslaw Kaczynski put responsibility on Russia for Smolensk air crashPoland to air grievances on Russia plane crash probe at EU levelRussia maintains freeze on US art shows - RUSSIA said on Thursday it would not send any new art exhibitions to the United States until the two sides had settled a dispute over the return of a Jewish library to New York. Medvedev to meet Public Chamber members over pressing domestic issuesMedvedev, Public Chamber members to talk corruption, interethnic problemsMedvedev to hold anti-corruption meetingVictor Bout allowed family visit Alleged arms dealer Bout's wife to meet with husbandAll Russians wishing to leave Tunisia come homeDiplomats Fumble as Uzbekistan Jails Russian - Relatives of a retired Russian colonel jailed on treason charges in Uzbekistan have spent almost four months campaigning for his release. But Russian officials say they can't intervene because they don't even know what exactly the man is accused of doing.OVER 200,000 PEOPLE DODGING DRAFT IN RUSSIA - GENERAL STAFF30% of Russian conscripts unfit for military service for health reasons - General StaffTargets of Russia's autumn military draft met - General StaffRussian Defense Ministry wants MPs to prolong spring draft until Aug 31Sukhoi leans towards stretched version of Superjet 100 Russian icebreakers towing refrigerator vessel to clear watersAll 5 dead sailors identified as Partner schooner crewmenUN probes Russian jail-death case - UN commissioners have started investigating the death of Russian lawyer Sergey Magnitsky, who died in pre-trial custody in 2009.Austria Won't Seek to Arrest Chechen - No request has been sent to Moscow to extradite Lecha Bogatyryov, who is accused of shooting Israilov in Vienna in January 2009, a spokesman for the Austrian Justice Ministry said.The 90th anniversary of the autonomy of Dagestan to be celebrated in Makhachkala Russian church to be built next to Europarl, Council of Europe edificesPolice: 21 seized at Moscow rally for slain lawyer - Police spokesman Anatoly Lastovetsky told The Associated Press on Wednesday that people wearing masks at the rally were detained as well as those who lit flares. He said they should only be held briefly.Russia’s future policemen to have tax returns checkedReuters PRESS DIGEST - Russia - Jan 20RIA Russian Press at a Glance, Thursday, January 20, 2011Vedomosti: VKontakte with jail - A first-ever criminal case against a social networking site user has been filed in Russia for violation of intellectual property rights. He may face up to six years in prison for posting 18 audio recordings on his VKontakte site.? COMMENT: Russia’s Novovoronezh NPP readies to decommission two old reactors: Can it do it safely?A Sporting Chance - Can Russia Turn Sport Investment Into More Gold Medals at the Sochi Olympic Games? Skirting the Creed - How Archpriest Chaplin Hopes His Orthodox Dress Code Will Catch On in Secular Russia Is Unclear, but He Has Roiled RuNet Nezavisimaya: The Rodina-2 project is being tossed to the masses - The Communist Party predicts elections with “fireworks” and unexpected twists By Ivan Rodin, Aleksandra Samarina and Maria Bondarenko (Rostov-on-Don) MOSCOW BLOG: The risk of democratisation in Russia - Russia's population is clearly becoming restless – a natural consequence of the rise in income levels over the past decade. The crisis only made them more agitated, as it caused incomes to dip. In December, central Moscow became the scene of street battles as football fans clashed in inter-ethnic violence over several days following the murder of a fan. The area around Kievskaya was closed and groups of Omon special forces roamed the streets for the first time in more than a decade and half. The riots were the most dramatic manifestation of the palpable unease growing amongst the population. National Economic TrendsRussia May Reduce Raw Sugar-Imports Tax in March, IKAR Says Russian international reserves down $3.2 bln in weekRuble Rally Spurs Best OFZ Demand in Four Months: Russia Credit Weekly inflation at 0.6% - reaches 1.4% YTD, higher than last year Rossiskaya Gazeta: Rewards for innovators - They will be exempt from property taxes and be eligible for deferment of paymentsBusiness, Energy or Environmental regulations or discussionsPWC: Are Russian IPOs back? - As Nord Gold, the gold mining division of Severstal, becomes the fourth Russian company in recent days to announce its intention to list on the London Stock Exchange, the question is: are Russian IPOs really coming back? Vimpelcom to meet Eurobond investors – sourceRussia's Norilsk mulls no 2010 dividend-paperGoldman Sachs shakes up Moscow leadership againMoscow, Seoul set up LED joint ventureRussian passenger car sales to increase 20% in 2011 - PWCUPDATE 1-DSM, Russia's KA enter automomotive plastics JVsPrivate equity firm General Atlantic takes $200M stake in security software vendor Kaspersky LabYandex's revenue up 43% YoY in 2010 Yandex, the country’s most-used search engine, said in an e-mailed statement Wednesday that revenue rose 43 percent last year to 12.5 billion rubles ($416.67 million). (Bloomberg)Nord Gold, a unit of billionaire Alexei Mordashov’s steelmaker Severstal, was valued at as much as $5.5 billion by Troika Dialog, which is managing its initial public offering in London. (Bloomberg)Goldman Sachs Group is moving French investment banking chief Jean Raby to Moscow to help oversee its Russian office, said two people with direct knowledge of the transfer. (Bloomberg)Israeli Internet service provider Netvision said it decided to halt its activities in Georgia, saying the decision would lead to a loss of as much as 7 million shekels ($1.96 million). (Bloomberg)Activity in the Oil and Gas sector (including regulatory)Novatek Begins Bond Roadshow Russian court supported Total in tax disputeRosneft, BP to complete asset swap soon Rosneft-BP partnership to invest $1 bln-$2 bln in explorationBP boss Bob Dudley holds talks with TNK-BP Russian oligarchs over Rosneft - The chief executive of BP has held talks with its Russian oligarch partners about letting them join its ?10bn Arctic deal with a Kremlin-backed company. BP Used Boutique Firm as Adviser on Partnership With RosneftBP–Rosneft Deal: Beyond Energy - By Ariel CohenTransneft Castigates Foreigners and Nazis - “What’s all the hype about a Nazi?” Transneft spokesman Igor Dyomin told The Moscow Times, in a reference to Navalny and his expulsion from the Yabloko political party in 2007 for alleged nationalist activities. “We have enough problems in Russia without the Nazis.”ONGC expresses interest in expanding its presence in Russia; ready to buy a stake in a state-owned company LUKOIL to create joint venture by the end of this year to develop the Black Sea EDC in talks with Transocean on acquiring Caspian offshore drilling platform Austrian OMV Helped Russian Surgut Launch Takeover Attempt Against Hungarian MOLGazpromGazprom and CNPC closer positions when discussing the technical parameters of gas supply to China Gazprom in talks to buy into Isramco gas licenses - The Russian giant is not deterred by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's support for the Sheshinski committee recommendations.What's in it for Gazprom? - Gazprom's entry into the Israeli market has far-reaching political and strategic implications.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Full Text ArticlesBasic Political DevelopmentsUS seeks further nuclear cuts with Russia 20, 2011 10:14 Moscow TimeWashington has begun preparing for negotiations with Moscow on reducing tactical nuclear weapons, US Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance Rose Gottemoeller said.She said that the United States is also seeking to promote the two countries’ dialogue on nonstrategic nuclear weapons.Moscow takes a rather firm stand on the issue: before reducing tactical arms, the sides need to fulfill their obligations under the bilateral Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which is currently undergoing ratification in the State Duma. ?Furthermore, missile defense and the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) remain high on the agenda as well.Russian, Turkish FMs to co-chair Joint Strategic Planning Group, January 20 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu will co-chair the first session of the Joint Strategic Planning Group (JSPG) on January 20. The JSPG as a floor for discussing matters concerning bilateral interaction in international affairs was set up in May 2010 as a result of talks between Presidents Dmitry Medvedev of Russia and Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara. The discussion mechanism functions within the framework of the Top-Level Cooperation Council, which was formed at the same time, and is aimed at strengthening the partnership in the political, trade-and-economic, cultural and humanitarian spheres. “The participants in the Istanbul session are planning to exchange views on a wide range of items that are on the bilateral and international agendas. The sides will discuss interaction in the fight against extremism and terrorism, prospects for the formation of a new European security architecture in the light of the Russian initiative relating to the adoption of an appropriate treaty, and cooperation in the Black Sea area,” an official at the Russian Foreign Ministry said.Turkey, Russia Accelerate Cooperation, 20 January 2011Russia's top diplomat, Sergey Lavrov, was set to arrive in Istanbul on Wednesday for a two-day visit to participate in a meeting of a high-level cooperation council between Turkey and Russia.Lavrov will attend the first meeting of the Turkish-Russian Joint Strategic Planning Group, which is carrying out preparatory work ahead of the High-Level Cooperation Council meeting scheduled to be held in Moscow in March. “Since Turkey and Russia have elections this year, we should resolve any problems before the elections,” Russian Ambassador to Ankara Vladimir Ivanovskiy said in a recent interview with daily Cumhuriyet.The High-Level Cooperation Council between Russia and Turkey is an intergovernmental cooperation mechanism that lays the foundation for the strategic partnership of the two countries.Lavrov will meet with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu during his stay in Turkey. The Russian minister will exchange views on recent developments in the Balkans, the Caucasus, Cyprus, Middle East problems, Iraq and Afghanistan along with bilateral relations.Iran will be a major topic in the discussions. EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton and Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Said Jalili will participate in talks between six world power countries (the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany) and Iran in Istanbul on Thursday and Friday. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov will represent Russia.The two countries signed a readmission agreement on Tuesday in order to implement a mutual facilitation in visa regime. “The visa exemption concerns all citizens of the two countries who travel for up to 30 days,” a diplomat from the Russian Embassy in Ankara told the Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review on Wednesday.Russia and Turkey signed an agreement in May 2010 for the mutual visa facilitation as part of a series of accords signed during Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to Ankara. “Following the signed agreements’ adoption in Turkish Parliament, the new visa regime will be applied,” the same diplomat said.Turkish-Russian ties have predominantly expanded on an economic basis, especially with energy deals. Projects in the energy sector such as Samsun-Ceyhan, South Stream and Nabucco will also be on the agenda of the preparatory talks. Turkey receives 70 percent of its energy resources, including gas and oil, from Russia. Turkey will also put into operation its first Turkish nuclear power plant with Russian-Turkish cooperation.The two countries have trade ties totaling some $40 billion.Lavrov will visit Turkey on Thursday and the first meeting of joint strategic planning group will be held.By Sevinc Kusukkosum (HDN)Thursday, 20 January 2011Journal of Turkish Weekly Afghan president to visit Moscow to discuss cooperation, assistance, January 20 (Itar-Tass) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai will arrive in Moscow on Thursday, January 20, for talks with the Russian leadership to discuss ways to achieve political stabilisation in his country and garner guarantees for further Russian military hardware supplies to Afghan government troops. Karzai is scheduled to have talks with President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday, January 21. Later in the day, he will meet with members of the Russian business community at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Moscow and Kabul have lately intensified their military-technical cooperation. In November 2010, Russia donated 20,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles and more than two million cartridges for them to Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry.Afghan president embarks on official visit to Russia President Hamid Karzai is embarking on an official two-day visit to Russia on the invitation of President Dmitry Medvedev, the Kremlin press service said.Talks between the two leaders are to be held Friday.Karzai will be accompanied by a delegation of 80 officials, key ministers and businessmen. Following his visit, an agreement on trade and economic cooperation could be signed between the countries.Karzai earlier said he was looking forward to visiting Moscow to hold talks on Russian-Afghan ties, including joint efforts in the fight against drugs and supplying humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.In mid-November, during the NATO summit in Lisbon, the Russian government approved an agreement with NATO allowing the alliance to carry supplies to and from Afghanistan via Russian territory.The new deal on the so-called reverse transit allows NATO to ship armored vehicles and other equipment from Afghanistan back to Europe by the same route through Central Asia and Russia.MOSCOW/KABUL, January 20 (RIA Novosti)Four New Afghan Air Force Mi-17s Arrive in Kabul – Afghan Air Force receives four new Mi-17 helicopters at the Afghan Air Force Base in Kabul, Afghanistan. The new choppers bring the total size of the Mi-17 fleet to 35.And according to Aviation Week and Space Technology: story from August 30, 2010:The No. 1 procurement priority identified by U.S. officials to complete their mission to equip and train the Afghanistan security forces is the acquisition of dozens of additional Mi-17 helicopters.The single-rotor Mi-17s are ideal for the quasi-military security needs in Afghanistan. The Russian multirole helicopter is often configured for military, police and civilian uses. It has a large sliding door and can carry a relatively large amount of cargo and dozens of passengers, troops or wounded people. It can also be outfitted with rescue hoist., Belarusian premiers to discuss energy prices, nuclear power plant Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will meet with his Belarusian counterpart Mikhail Myasnikovich to discuss economic and energy cooperation.The Belarusian premier intends to negotiate a decrease in the natural gas price, the terms of oil supply in 2011 as well as the construction of a Belarusian nuclear power plant and a loan from the Eurasian Economic Community (Eurasec), comprising Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.Belarus has made no secret of its desire to negotiate a better price for Russian gas. Russia slashed supplies to Belarus in a row over gas payments in June 2010, but later resumed them after Minsk paid off its $200 million debt to Gazprom.As regards oil, Russian oil companies have now suspended supplies to Belarus until new contracts on the price of duty-free oil are signed. Russia canceled oil duties for Belarus from January 1.MOSCOW, January 20 (RIA Novosti)Natural gas prices, oil supplies to dominate Russian-Belarusian talks, January 20 (Itar-Tass) -- Natural gas prices and oil supplies will dominate the talks with new Belarusian Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich in Moscow on Thursday, January 20. “A number of pressing issues of bilateral cooperation are expected to be discussed, including the terms of oil supplies in 2011, the price of natural gas in 2011, the construction of the Belarusian nuclear power plant, and a loan from the EurAsEC anti-crisis fund,” the press service of the Belarusian government said. The two sides also plan to discuss the preparation of the next meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Union State and consider current issues concerning the creation of the Common Economic Space and the operation of the Customs Union formed by Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia. Myasnikovich will be in Russia on a working visit. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Myasnikovich will discuss pressing issues of bilateral cooperation, including in the fields of trade, economy and energy, and prospects for joint work in the Customs Union.Rosneft VP says no Belarus oil war expected Jan 20, 2011 7:23am GMTMOSCOW Jan 20 (Reuters) - Vice President of Russia's largest crude producer, Rosneft (ROSN.MM), said on Thursday he didn't expect any major crisis with Belarus over Russian oil supplies, which were halted due to price disagreement."I don't expect a major crisis with Belarus," he told Reuters when asked about discussions over Russian oil supply, as Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin meets his Belarussian counterpart Mikhail Myasnikovich to talk about the crude deliveries.(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin and Jessica Bachman; editing by Toni Vorobyova) UPDATE 1-Russia's Putin to seek solution to Belarus oil row Jan 20, 2011 8:24am GMT* Rosneft does not expect oil crisis with Belarus* No option but to resume flows - Energy Min source* Russian oil transit to Europe via Belarus intact* Putin has stepped in to strike energy deals in the past(Adds Rosneft, Russian Energy Ministry source comments)MOSCOW, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will meet his Belarussian counterpart on Thursday in a bid to resolve an oil row that has already cut oil product exports to Europe, unsettling the trading community.Russian companies stopped supplying crude oil to Belarussian refineries, which have a daily capacity of 360,000 barrels, on Jan. 1 as the two sides were unable to strike a pricing agreement.The spat has already resulted in Minsk suspending diesel exports to Europe, traders say, although Belarus insists supplies have not been cut.Russian crude oil flows to Poland and Germany via Belarus along the Druzhba pipeline remain intact. Putin will meet his Belarussian counterpart Mikhail Myasnikovich on Thursday in Russia to discuss "bilateral cooperation in the energy sphere", among other issues, the government website said.Putin, the most influential political figure in Russia, has been Moscow's last resort when it was unable to strike gas and oil deals with its neighbours in recent years. He brokered gas deals with Ukraine and a similar agreement with Belarus. (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin and Jessica Bachman; editing by Matthew Jones) Russian ambassador to attend inauguration of Belarus president, January 20 (Itar-Tass) - Russian ambassador to Belarus Alexander Surikov will represent Russia at an inauguration ceremony of President-elect Alexander Lukashenko who was re-elected to another presidential term last December, said Vadim Gusev, a diplomat at the Russian diplomatic mission in Minsk, on Thursday. Russian ambassador Alexander Surikov, who received an invitation to the inauguration, will be an official representative from Russia at the inauguration ceremony, Gusev told Itar-Tass. The inauguration of Belarussian president-elect Alexander Lukashenko will be held in the Palace of the Republic in Minsk on January 21, the presidential press service of Belarus told Itar-Tass. The inauguration of Belarussian president-elect Alexander Lukashenko will be held on January 21. The inauguration ceremony will be broadcast by all the channels of Belarussian television. A live broadcast is to begin at 12.50 pm local time" (1.50 p. m. Moscow time), the press service said. Under the constitution president comes into office after he takes a presidential oath at a gala ceremony in the presence of deputies of both chambers of the Belarussian parliament and judges of the Constitutional and Supreme Courts. The opposition media sources said that ambassadors of EU countries would not be present at Lukashenko’s inauguration because they will be away from Belarus on the inauguration day. Ukraine and Russia team up on military airplane projectToday at 10:53 | Interfax-Ukraine Defense Minister Mykhailo Yezhel is planning soon to meet with the leadership of the Russian Defense Ministry and discuss the implementation of a project to create An-70 medium-range transport aircraft. "The Russian side now starts financing the project, and soon we will meet with either the defense minister or his deputy in charge of armament in order to outline the priorities for financing the creation of this aircraft," Yezhel said in an exclusive interview with Interfax -Ukraine.He recalled that the designing of this aircraft had already been completed.The program to create An-70 medium-range short takeoff and landing transport aircraft is being implemented in cooperation with Russia. Read more: third of Ukrainians want closer ties with RussiaToday at 09:11 | Interfax-Ukraine More than a third (35 percent) of Ukrainians wants simultaneously develop close relations with Russia and the European Union. According to a telephone survey conducted by the IFAK International Research Agency and Deutsche Welle media company, 28 percent of Ukrainians support the orientation on the alliance with Russia, 18 percent said that Ukraine should pursue their own interests, not looking at the neighbors, and 14 percent supported the orientation on the EU.The survey was conducted on December 9-20, 2011, 1,000 respondents from Russia and Ukraine were polled.As concerns the possible timeframe for Ukraine’s joining the EU, 21 percent of Ukrainians named two to five years, 18 percent five to ten years, while 16 percent said that Ukraine does not need to join the EU at all. As for Russians, 23 percent believe that Russia could join the EU within a year or two, 16 percent within two to five years and 18 percent said that the country should not join the EU. Read more: RUSSIAN FEDERATION v. THE UKRAINIAN MINORITY IN RUSSIA Union of Ukrainians of Russia (UUR) is the central coordinating organization for the Ukrainian ethnic minority in the Russian Federation (RF). It was formed in 1992 and registered with the Ministry of Justice of the RF in 1994.Its nightmare began on July 22, 2009, when the Russian Ministry of Justice noticed it for an audit. The audit lasted almost three weeks. The findings were minor and ministerial in nature, updating its list of members, adding certain provisions to its by-laws in order to comply with the Russian statute and the like. Upon receipt of the findings the UUR’s Executive convened a meeting on September 12, 2009, passed what it deemed to be the necessary motions, began the process of updating its membership lists, including deleting inactive members. In the meantime the Ministry notified the UUR that pending correction of the defects, its activities were suspended until May 2, 2010. Twice, once in December 2009 and then again in March 2010, the UUR wrote to the Ministry refuting some of the allegations and advising that it had cured the defects which needed correction. The Ministry did not respond.On December 10, 2010 the Russian government brought an action in the Supreme Court of the RF to liquidate the UUR. The complaint referenced Russian law and repeated five allegations from the audit findings, specifically, that its list of members included an autonomous non-commercial organization which could not be its member since it was autonomous, that the list of members itself was not well documented, that its qualified members do not operate in more than half the regions of the RF as required since it’s an All-Russian public association, that its by-laws do not specifically provide for the election of its governing body by a qualifying majority and that while the law allows for members who are foreign citizens, they must be lawfully on the territory of the RF, yet the UUR’s by-laws do not include that restriction. Interestingly enough, there were no allegations that the UUR included actual members who were foreign citizens.The complaint acknowledged receipt of the two responses from UUR but rejected them as insufficient. The government then alleged that the UUR’s meeting of September12, 2009 was not conducted in accordance with administrative regulations in that the members present at such meeting as well as information on the voting results were not disclosed. The government deemed it impossible to determine the validity of the action taken.Additionally, the government stated that the UUR had violated its suspension because its co-chair appeared on “Radio Liberty” on January 4, 2010 and on a television program entitled “Freedom of Thought” on April 27, 2010. Finally, the government alleged that in connection with this matter, the Ministry had forwarded a notice to the UUR on November11, 2010, which notice was returned with the note “addressee vacated”. Thus, the government alleged, the UUR failed to notify the appropriate authorities of its change of address which was yet another violation.The government requested a court order liquidating the UUR based on “repeated and gross violations” and “failure to cure the violations within the time period imposed.”Assuming “arguendo” the accuracy of all factual allegations in the complaint, the violations/defects alleged were minor by any democratic measure and, essentially of a ministerial nature. Furthermore, no allegations were made that the violations were of a repeated nature or that these violations persisted despite previous admonishments. No allegations were made of prior audits, similar findings and failure to comply. Still, the government concluded that the violations alleged were both “repeated and gross”. For dissolution the Russian law requires “repeated or gross.”Despite the absence of a “prima facie” case the government’s confidence borders on arrogance. The Supreme Court of the RF is expected to rubberstamp the government’s position. Exposure of the judicial system in Russia as an instrument of government politics does not seem to trouble the existing powers in Russia. This matter is scheduled to be heard by the court on January 31, 2011. Over the last few years a pattern has emerged in the RF – an unrelenting war against perceived enemies of the state, including ethnic communities not kowtowing to govern- pressure and the executive branch exploiting the legislative and judicial to implement its policies. Ukrainians in Russia have felt this pressure. Murders of Ukrainian activists remain unsolved. A Ukrainian language class at a Moscow public lyceum has been discontinued and very recently a Moscow library of Ukrainian literature was ransacked, shut, reopened, then ransacked and its head librarian assaulted.The reference in the complaint to the organization’s co-chair appearance on radio and television (“Radio Liberty” and “Freedom of thought”) violating the organization’s suspension, hints at the government’s political motivation. The appearances had nothing to do with the pending proceeding. Regardless of his position, the subject individual is also a human being possessed with the right of freedom of speech protected under international law, Russia’s treaties, covenants and its own Constitution, irrespective of any administrative suspension.In November of 2010, following an almost identical pattern of proceedings, the Russian government “persuaded” the Russian Supreme Court to liquidate another All Russian Ukrainian organization, the Federal National Cultural Autonomy of Ukrainians in Russia. Subsequently, Russia’s Foreign Minister Lavrov acknowledged that the liquidation was the result of political activity.During Russia’s last presidential election process in 2008, the OSCE was restricted in the allotment of election observers. The OSCE refused to participate. Then President Putin admonished the OSCE not to “teach” Russia. Lavrov, foreign minister then and now, said that no self-respecting country would bow to “ultimatums” set by the OSCE. President Putin concluded his admonishment to the OSCE with the words, “Let them teach their wives to make cabbage soup!”January 19, 2011 Askold S. Lozynskyj Askold S. Lozynskyj, a New York City attorney at law, is immediate past president of the Ukrainian World Congress. Jaroslaw Kaczynski put responsibility on Russia for Smolensk air crash, January 20 (Itar-Tass) - The responsibility for the tragedy near Smolensk rests with the Russian side. This statement was made on Wednesday at the national parliament by the twin brother of former Polish President Lech Kaczynski who had died in the air disaster. Jaroslaw Kaczynski is convinced that “the crew of the airliner was deluded, and this was the reason for the tragedy”. “The direct responsibility rests with the Russian side,” he said. At the same time, specialists of the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) who published the final report last week on circumstances of the crash of the Polish Tu-154M airliner, drew the conclusion that the disaster took place as a result of actions by the crew who decided, under conditions of a psychological pressure, to land under unfavourable weather conditions. The head of the opposition Law and Justice Party suggested that the legislature should fully spurn down the IAC report. “We want the government to get out of the trap. Therefore, we suggest a resolution, ditching the IAC report,” noted Kaczynski. “We shall not permit provoking ourselves. We want to know the truth; this is our duty, and we shall fulfil it. Russians should keep in mind international opinion,” he said. Poland to air grievances on Russia plane crash probe at EU level RETTMANToday @ 09:30 CETEUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Polish investigators looking into the air disaster in Smolensk last year plan to complain about Russia's alleged mishandling of the probe at a new EU civil aviation club.Speaking to the Polish Press Agency in Brussels on Wednesday (19 January), Edmund Klich, a Polish lieutenant who worked with Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK) on the Smolensk crash, said he will bring detailed grievances to a meeting of the European Network of Civil Aviation Safety Investigation Authorities in Cologne in April."It's about raising awareness at the EU level about problems in the crash investigation relating to Annex 13 and problems in co-operating with the Russians, so that people in the EU know that it's not so easy to work with the Russians," he explained. "I think we have to put forward this problem in an international forum ... Russia violated Annex 13 on numerous occasions, now let the specialists decide."Russia took sole custody of the investigation under a 1947 international agreement, the Chicago Convention, Annex 13 of which says it is obliged to share all documents with Poland and to take its observations into account in the final report.The MAK report, published last week, appalled Warsaw by putting all the blame on Polish pilots without mentioning Poland's views on the poor quality of the Russian airport in Smolensk and mistakes made by Russian air traffic controllers.The European Network of Civil Aviation Safety Investigation Authorities was created last September to advise EU institutions, make EU-wide air safety recommendations and promote best practices in investigation procedures.The Smolensk crash, which killed former Polish president Lech Kaczynski and 95 other senior Polish officials, is a hot topic in upcoming Polish elections, with the opposition Law and Justice Party, led by Lech Kaczynski's twin brother, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, accusing the government of being soft on Russia for the sake of better relations. Jaroslaw Kaczynski at a heated debate in the Polish parliament on Wednesday said: "MAK is, from the point of view of European regulations, an institution whose reports deserve only to be laughed at."Commenting on Poland's efforts to improve relations with Russia, he added: "Latvia for 18 years did not even have a border or any relations with Russia and developed very well under these conditions ... Russia is today a weakening country which has to take account of international opinion."For his part, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who is keen to secure a second term in the October elections and to run a smooth Polish EU presidency later this year, said Moscow is a "difficult partner," but accused Mr Kaczynski of trying to start a "Cold War" with Russia for the sake of political gain."The issuing of clarifying the Smolensk catastrophe is very important for us Poles, but let's not kid ourselves that it's a priority for all the countries of the world," he noted. "I count among the chief interests of Poland ... positive, correct relations with its neighbours," he added. "The international standing of Poland, in the EU as in the wider world, depends - and this is unequivocal, there can be no discussion here - on the type of relations we have with our neighbours."Jan 20, 2011 Russia maintains freeze on US art shows - RUSSIA said on Thursday it would not send any new art exhibitions to the United States until the two sides had settled a dispute over the return of a Jewish library to New York. A US judge ruled in August that the Russian government must return an archive that once belonged to a Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi but was seized by Soviet troops in Nazi Germany. The vast library is being claimed by a Hasidic group in New York but the Russian government insists that it is a part of its state archive. Russian Culture Minister Alexander Avdeyev told Moscow Echo radio that Moscow imposed its US exhibition restriction in August and that the order remains in place. 'We stopped sending exhibitions to the United States in August (because) one American organisation made a completely illegitimate claim on this collection of books,' Mr Avdeyev told the radio station. Russia had no intention of ceding the library 'which has never left Russian territory ... because we have our own believers who respect these books no less' than do Jews in the United States, he added. Moscow feared that the US authorities might seize Russian exhibitions and hold them, in breach of international law, he said. The library was state property and 'the state is not subject to jurisdiction under international law,' Mr Avdeyev said. The collection is known in Russia as the Schneersohn Library in honor of its original owner Rabbi Joseph Isaac Schneersohn, who had no heirs when he left Russia a decade after the imposition of the Soviet state. -- AFPMedvedev to meet Public Chamber members over pressing domestic issues, January 20 (Itar-Tass) -- President Dmitry Medvedev will meet with members of the Public Chamber civil society watchdog on Thursday, January 20 to discuss the most pressing issues facing the country. Some of these issues, which the Public Chamber could help resolve, were specified by the president at the latest working meetings. Speaking at a meeting of the Anti-Corruption Council last week, Medvedev called, among other things, for more intensive public control in this field. Another issue to be discussed may be ethnic relations in Russia, a problem that has deteriorated after the killing of a football fan in Moscow and ensuing riots caused by mistakes in the investigation of the this crime.Medvedev, Public Chamber members to talk corruption, interethnic problems of Russia's Public Chamber will meet with President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday to discuss corruption, law enforcement reform and interethnic issues.The Berlin-based non-governmental anti-corruption organization Transparency International has persistently rated Russia one of the most corrupt nations in the world. In the 2010 Corruption Perception Index, Russia was ranked 154th of 178, below countries like Kenya, Laos and Papua New Guinea.Medvedev, who announced the fight against corruption as a priority for him on the post of the country's leader, admitted in 2010 that the anti-corruption drive had so far yielded few practical results.In July 2010, Medvedev signed five laws on the work of Russia's police but said new legislation was still needed as part of ongoing reforms aimed, in particular, at eradicating corruption in law enforcement bodies, whose conduct has become a great concern after a number of high-profile police scandals.Interethnic problems came to the foreground in December, when Spartak Moscow football fan Sviridov was shot dead in a brawl with migrants from Russia's mainly Muslim North Caucasus region.The incident sparked race-hate riots and ethnic clashes across Russia in December, including a brawl between over 5,000 football supporters and police outside the Kremlin walls.MOSCOW, January 20 (RIA Novosti)Medvedev to hold anti-corruption meeting 20, 2011 09:06 Moscow TimeMembers of the Russian Public Chamber plan to discuss corruption, interethnic relations and the reform of the law enforcement system at the meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday.According to one of the chamber’s members, Olga Kostina, the head of state encharged the institution to prepare annual reports on corruption and measures to combat it. Mr. Medvedev recently admitted that there is no considerable progress in the country’s anti-corruption efforts as yet.To prepare the report, the Public Chamber will start regional information hotlines to examine and investigate Russian citizens’ complaints of corruption.Victor Bout allowed family visit News line, January 20Family members of alleged arms baron Victor Bout have received permission from US authorities to visit him in his New York prison. Bout wife Alla told the RIA Novosti news agency that the visit is scheduled for January 24 and will last for three hours. Bout’s mother and daughter will also join in. Alla Bout said that the family had been trying to receive permission to see Victor Bout ever since their arrival in New York in early January. Victor Bout was extradited to the United States from Thailand in November 2010. He is accused of illegal arms trafficking, ties to terrorists and supplying arms to Columbian rebels. The first pre-trail hearings in Bout’s case are scheduled for Friday.Alleged arms dealer Bout's wife to meet with husband Bout, the wife of alleged Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, extradited to the United States from Thailand late last year, has been allowed to see her husband."We were allowed this first meeting [since extradition] on Monday, January 24, from noon to 3 p.m.," Alla told RIA Novosti on Wednesday evening. Alla, as well as Bout's daughter Liza and mother Raisa, arrived in New York in early January.Bout is being held in a New York detention center while he awaits trial in the United States on charges that include conspiring to supply arms to terrorist groups and kill U.S. nationals. He denies all the charges against him.Alla said the authorities allowed a three-hour meeting even though the standard meeting time is one hour, but added that she was not allowed to take any items, even a pen, with her.Russia has repeatedly said the United States has been using illegitimate methods towards Bout, including both extradition procedures and treatment in the U.S. jail.Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier said the United States used unacceptable methods while questioning Bout's wife, who had come to see her husband.Former Russian army officer Bout was arrested in Thailand in March 2008 during a sting operation led by U.S. agents. He was extradited to the United States in November after spending more than two and half years in Thai prisons.The extradition process saw both the U.S. and Russian governments exert considerable diplomatic pressure on Thailand.NEW YORK, January 20 (RIA Novosti)All Russians wishing to leave Tunisia come home, January 20 (Itar-Tass) -- All Russian citizens who wished to leave Tunisia have come home, the Foreign Ministry said. “A Tunisian NouvelAir flight brought 101 Russian tourist from Tunisia to Moscow yesterday evening,” the ministry said on Wednesday, January 19. “So, measures to bring the compatriots who wished to go home have largely been completed.” “In the process of sending Russian citizens from Tunisia, which was done in a state of emergency and a 17:00 to 7:00 curfew introduced there on January 14, the Russian Embassy kept constant contact with the Tunisian tour operators. The staff of the diplomatic mission travelled to the places where Russian citizens were staying in order to study the situation on the ground,” the ministry said. “All compatriots were given timely assistance adequate to the situation. Employees of the consular section of the embassy excised control over the departure of Russian tourists and other categories of citizens at Monastir’s airport, assisting them the best they could,” the ministry said.Diplomats Fumble as Uzbekistan Jails Russian January 2011By Alexandra OdynovaLast summer, Russian authorities made a show of caring for its citizens, agreeing to a spy swap with the United States for 10 busted agents, including redhead media darling Anna Chapman. But not everyone seems to enjoy such attention.Relatives of a retired Russian colonel jailed on treason charges in Uzbekistan have spent almost four months campaigning for his release. But Russian officials say they can't intervene because they don't even know what exactly the man is accused of doing.Yury Korepanov, 63, was detained on Oct. 30 as he was returning to his home in the Sverdlovsk region after a visit with one of two sons in Uzbekistan. On Jan. 11, an Uzbek military court jailed him for 16 years on murky treason charges delivered at a closed trial.“I saw him off at the train station in late October and haven't seen him since,” Korepanov's son Maxim said by telephone from Uzbekistan on Wednesday.“I don't know any details about the charges because the hearing was closed,” he added. “All I know are titles of the articles" in the Criminal Code.The authoritarian Uzbek government has not commented on why Korepanov was charged with treason. Korepanov spent almost 40 years in military service in the country, first with Soviet troops stationed in the republic and later in the Uzbek Defense Ministry, before returning to his native Sverdlovsk region in 2003. He obtained Russian citizenship and found employment at the Vodokanal water service company while moonlighting as a guard at the Yekaterinburg military commissariat, Maxim Korepanov said.A possible reason for the charges might be that he has not formally rejected his Uzbek citizenship, said Alexander Burkov, a State Duma deputy with A Just Russia. The convoluted procedure to give up citizenship “takes several months” and requires approval from senior Uzbek officials, Burkov said by telephone.A Foreign Ministry representative in Yekaterinburg told The Moscow Times that Korepanov possibly “had problems” rejecting Uzbek citizenship. He did not elaborate and asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to comment on the issue.“But his Russian passport was issued legally and correctly in the Sverdlovsk region,” said Burkov, himself a native of the region.Korepanov remains in a detention center, where he is not allowed to see anyone but his lawyer, his son said, adding that an appeal would be filed within days.The retired colonel suffers from ulcers and arrhythmia, an abnormal heart rhythm, both of which have worsened in prison, Maxim Korepanov said.But he said his father “feels OK and is treating the situation sarcastically,” saying he has finally gotten some well-deserved rest after years of work.Meanwhile, the two sons have been busy campaigning against their father's arrest, appealing to, among others, the Russian Embassy in Tashkent, the Uzbek and Russian foreign ministries, Yekaterinburg's ombudsman, political parties and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev.Russian officials in Uzbekistan and Yekaterinburg told The Moscow Times that they could not intervene because of diplomatic norms.Uzbek diplomats have ignored four notes sent by the Russian Embassy between November and Wednesday in connection with the case, embassy spokesman Sergei Kochenko said.“The first note asking about the case was sent on Nov. 18, after his relatives appealed to the embassy,” Kochenko said by telephone, adding that the most recent note was sent Wednesday.He said the Uzbek Foreign Ministry's only reply was that it was working on a response.Diplomats' hands are tied until “at least some kind of reply comes,” said the Foreign Ministry representative in Yekaterinburg.“The Foreign Ministry can't be pushy but only ask politely,” the official said. “But the Uzbek side is hunkering down.” The fuss appears to be finally reaching a boiling point, with Russia's ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, calling for tougher action Wednesday.“An outrageous situation. Decisive interference is needed,” Rogozin wrote on Twitter.A Just Russia's Burkov said the Duma also urged the Foreign Ministry to take action this week.He complained about a lack of information on Korepanov's case. But the prisoner is nevertheless a “Russian citizen and must get help — even though he is an ordinary man, a pensioner and not an intelligence service agent,” Burkov said, referring to the spies returned to Russia last summer.01/20 11:28 ? OVER 200,000 PEOPLE DODGING DRAFT IN RUSSIA - GENERAL STAFF Updated: Thursday, January 20, 2011, 08:38 GMT 11:38 MCK General Staff: More than 200 thousand people dodging draft in Russia than 200 thousand people are evading military service in Russia, said teh Deputy Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces, Colonel General Vasily Smirnov. In autumn and winter of 2010 278,821 citizens were called to military service", said the Chief of Staff.12:0130% of Russian conscripts unfit for military service for health reasons - General Staff of Russia's autumn military draft met - General Staff Defense Ministry wants MPs to prolong spring draft until Aug 31 leans towards stretched version of Superjet 100 Kerry RealsDATE:20/01/11SOURCE:Flight InternationalA decision on whether to produce a larger or smaller version of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 will be made by the time of the Paris air show in June, but the Russian manufacturer is leaning towards a stretched version.Superjet International chief executive Carlo Logli says Sukhoi is "passing through a review of the product family", but is "more interested in a stretched version than a shrunk version". The stretched version would have between 100 and 130 seats."We would prefer to go up rather than down [in size] but the market will tell us," says Logli. "By Paris we will make it clear to everyone."Sukhoi has 10 aircraft in production and plans to produce 14 Superjets in 2011. Sukhoi Holdings general director Mikhail Pogosyan says that in the coming two to three years the production rate will increase to between 40 and 50 aircraft a year, rising to between 60 and 70 once other members of the family are launched.Russian industry minister Viktor Khristenko, during a recent visit to the Perm engine plant, suggested that the Aviadvigatel PD-14 engine would be applicable to an aircraft he identified as the "Superjet 130".Russian icebreakers towing refrigerator vessel to clear waters Admiral Makarov and Krasin icebreakers have resumed their effort to tow the Bereg Nadezhdy refrigerator vessel toward clear waters, the Far Eastern Shipping Company said pany spokeswoman Tatyana Kulikova said the rescue effort resumed early Thursday local time (Wednesday evening Moscow time), with the Krasin leading the convoy. The Victoria tanker has been dispatched to refuel the ships.The rescue effort has been hampered by strong winds, low visibility and shifting ice floes. The ships have to cover about 45 miles, after which the icebreakers will return for the Sodruzhestvo mother fishery ship they had earlier left in a safe area.The Bereg Nadezhdy ship, the Professor Kizevetter research vessel, and the Sodruzhestvo mother fishery ship, carrying altogether over 400 people, got stuck in two-meter-thick ice in the Sea of Okhotsk on December 31. Two other ships, the Mys Yelizavety and the Anton Gurin, became trapped a few days later.The Admiral Makarov released the Professor Kizevetter and the Mys Yelizavety vessels from the ice trap, while the Anton Gurin managed to cope on its own.VLADIVOSTOK, January 20 (RIA Novosti)All 5 dead sailors identified as Partner schooner crewmen, January 20 (Itar-Tass) -- All five dead sailors were identified as crewmen from the Partner schooner, which got missing in the Tatar Strait more than two weeks ago. The relatives identified three residents of the city of Sovetskaya Gavan in the Khabarovsk Territory, namely the son and the father, who worked as a bosun and a sailor and a 31-year-old sailor, as well as two Sakhalin residents, who worked as a cook and a sailor, the press service of the Far Eastern transport investigation department told Itar-Tass on Thursday. The detectives continue the investigation into the details of the tragic death of the Partner crewmen. The Cambodia-flagged Partner schooner gave the SOS signals on January 7. The schooner had the crew of 14 Russian citizens, mainly Sakhalin residents. Some 48,000 square kilometers of the sea area, more than 1,000 kilometers of the coastline have been searched through and about 43,000 square kilometers have been surveyed from the air from the beginning of the search operation. During the search operation five crewmen were found dead with three dead crewmen found on January 13. Three ground search teams continue the search for the schooner crew on Thursday, the Far Eastern regional EMERCOM center told Itar-Tass. They will be searching on the coastline from the city of Chekhov to the city of Nevelsk. The search teams include EMERCOM state inspectors on small-sized vessels, rescuers from the Sakhalin rescue team and officials from the Kholmsk district authorities. The vessels, which are passing through the probable Partner wreckage area, are looking for the schooner. UN probes Russian jail-death case News line, January 20UN commissioners have started investigating the death of Russian lawyer Sergey Magnitsky, who died in pre-trial custody in 2009. The UN took the case after a complaint from the non-governmental organization Redress claiming that Magnitsky was held in very harsh conditions and died after he was rejected medical assistance. The case will be probed by special commissioners, who deal with extrajudicial killings, tortures and test judges’ objectivity. Magnitsky’s colleagues and human rights activists blame Russian investigators for his death.Austria Won't Seek to Arrest Chechen January 2011By Nikolaus von TwickelAustria said Wednesday that it would not seek the extradition of the suspected killer of Chechen refugee Umar Israilov, even after national media reported that he was wounded in a shooting in Chechnya earlier this month.No request has been sent to Moscow to extradite Lecha Bogatyryov, who is accused of shooting Israilov in Vienna in January 2009, a spokesman for the Austrian Justice Ministry said.He said the decision was based on the ministry's belief that any request would be futile because of a constitutional ban on the extradition of Russian citizens. "We principally do not ask Russia for the extradition of its own citizens because we know this is ruled out by the Constitution," the spokesman, Stefan Benner, said by telephone from Vienna.Four men are currently standing trial in Vienna on accusations of organizing and carrying out the brazen killing, which took place in broad daylight.The trial, which resumed Wednesday with testimony from a relative of Israilov, is politically charged because prosecutors have suggested that Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov ordered the killing to silence a vocal critic.According to prosecutors, Israilov, who had lived in Austria since 2005, faced pressure from Kadyrov's emissaries to return home and drop plans to file a suit at the European Court of Human Rights over claims that he was tortured by Kadyrov himself.The court has asked that Kadyrov be called as a witness, and an official request has been sent to Moscow to hear him "either in person or via video link or through Russian law enforcement organs," said Andreas Schüller, a lawyer representing Israilov's family.Kadyrov has denied wrongdoing. His spokespeople were not immediately available for comment Wednesday.Bogatyryov and an accomplice are thought to have chased Israilov through busy streets before killing him with shots at close range. He fled to Russia days later and is believed to be hiding in Chechnya.On Jan. 9, he was hospitalized with gunshot wounds after an ambush on a special forces commander hostile to Kadyrov, Rosbalt.ru reported this week, citing a source in the security forces.Unknown gunmen opened fire on commander Bislan Elimkhanov's motorcade outside the Khankala military base, killing his driver and wounding him and five other people, the report said.Bogatyryov was a member of a local Interior Ministry guard unit, and it was unclear which role he played in the attack, the report said.But Bogatyryov told investigators that he had not taken part in the shooting and had been at the scene by chance, Kommersant reported Tuesday, citing a source in the Chechen Investigative Committee.The Chechen Interior Ministry would not confirm whether wounded Bogatyryov was the same person sought in connection with Israilov's death, the report said.But both Rosbalt and Kommersant said he is 35, which correlates with Austrian court documents that say Bogatyryov was born on March 14, 1975.Elimkhanov is a former commander of the Zapad military battalion and now commands a special forces company formed after a downgrading of the battalion in 2008.The Zapad and Vostok battalions, which reported directly to the federal Defense Ministry, were regarded as the major forces in Chechnya not led by Kadyrov loyalists. Former Vostok commander Sulim Yamadayev was shot dead in Dubai in March 2009. His brother Ruslan was gunned down in Moscow in 2008, and his family has blamed Kadyrov for leading a vendetta against the Yamadayevs.The 90th anniversary of the autonomy of Dagestan to be celebrated in Makhachkala , 10:55Makhachkala, January 20, 2011. On January, 20, the solemn ceremony devoted to the 90th anniversary from the date of approval of the Decree about formation of the Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic will take place in Makhachkala. Heads of public authorities, deputies of the State Duma and the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation from Dagestan, heads of the federal and republican ministries and departments, representatives of local governments, statesmen will take part in the event.The President of the Republic of Dagestan Magomedsalam Magomedov will spoke with the main report.20 January 2011, 12:31Russian church to be built next to Europarl, Council of Europe edifices, January 20, Interfax - Strasbourg municipal authorities have approved the allotment of land to the All Saints parish of the Russian Orthodox Church for building a church and a parish center."Half a hectare of land has been allotted in a picturesque location in the city center, on the bank of a canal linked to the River Rhine, in the direct proximity to the Orangerie Park and the edifices of the Council of Europe and the European Parliament," representative of the Russian Church in Strasbourg Hegumen Filaret (Bulekov) told Interfax-Religion.Acclaimed St. Petersburg architect Yury Kirs, who had taken part in the reconstruction of many churches in Russia and the construction of churches outside the country, drafted the design of the new church and the parish center. Kirs is the author of the St. Sergius Church in Johannesburg, South Africa, and the Apostle Philip Church in the United Arab Emirates. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all Russia blessed the Strasbourg project."The future church and the parish center will not only decorate the ancient European city but will also promote rich spiritual traditions of the Russian Orthodox Church in Western Europe," Father Filaret, who is the senior priest of the All Saints parish, said.Police: 21 seized at Moscow rally for slain lawyer(AP) – 11 hours agoMOSCOW (AP) — Russian police arrested 21 people Wednesday at a Moscow memorial rally for a human rights lawyer who was shot in a brazen, broad-daylight killing near the Kremlin two years ago.Hundreds of people attended the rally in memory of rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and reporter Anastasiya Baburova, whose slayings caused outrage in Russian liberal circles and in the West.During the after-dark vigil on a central square, people at the rally released Chinese lanterns into the air, holding candles and clutching portraits of Markelov and Baburova.Police spokesman Anatoly Lastovetsky told The Associated Press on Wednesday that people wearing masks at the rally were detained as well as those who lit flares. He said they should only be held briefly.Markelov, 34, an authoritative lawyer whose work had angered nationalists, and Baburova, 25, a journalist walking with him from a news conference, were shot in a central Moscow street by a masked gunman.The trial of a man and a suspected female accomplice opens in Moscow next week.Prosecutors accuse Nikita Tikhonov, 30, and his girlfriend Yevgeniya Khasis, 26, of killing Markelov because of his work as lawyer for hate crime victims. Tikhonov gunned down Baburova as the murder witness, the prosecutors say. Both Tikhonov and Khasis, known nationalists, deny the accusations.Investigators say they found the murder weapon in Tikhonov's apartment a few days before his arrest in November 2009.Neither of the suspects have an alibi because they could not recall their actions on that day, Tikhonov's lawyer, Alexander Vasilyev, said Tuesday.Russia has seen a string of contract-style killings of human rights advocates and journalists. Few are solved.Nationalists have targeted labor immigrants from the Central Asia and Russia's southern Caucasus region, accusing them of stealing jobs from ethnic Slavs and imposing their culture.Ethnic tensions are simmering as nationalists protest the killing of a Slavic soccer fan in a fight with people from the Caucasus in early December. Around 5,000 people, including racists, rioted near the Kremlin walls, chanting "Russia for Russians!" in response to police inaction over the killing of Yegor Sviridov. A memorial rally by nationalists held at the bus stop where Sviridov was shot occurred peacefully last week.Since the unrest, authorities have proposed tightening restrictions on public gatherings and limiting movements into the big cities.Kremlin critics say the tensions have been deliberately fanned to justify a squeeze on the opposition movement prior to the 2012 presidential elections cycle.___AP writer Nataliya Vasilyeva contributed to this story.(This version CORRECTS Corrects spelling of contributor name.)Copyright ? 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Russia’s future policemen to have tax returns checked 20, 2011 12:28 Moscow TimeIncome tax declarations of all future police officers will be verified by the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office, Chairman of State Duma’s Security Committee Vladimir Vassilyev said.?The new Law “On the Police”, which was developed as part of the Russian law enforcement system reform last year, will come into force on March 1st, 2011. ?On January 19th, a Russian militia Lieutenant General, Alexander Bokov, was detained on fraud and tax evasion charges. He is also suspected of extorting $46 million. PRESS DIGEST - Russia - Jan 20 Jan 20, 2011 8:03am GMTMOSCOW Jan 20 (Reuters) - The following are some of the leading stories in Russia's newspapers on Thursday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.KOMMERSANTkommersant.ru- Russia's Central Bank plans to sell its 29.8 percent stake in the MICEX stock exchange, the daily writes citing its sources.- Fifteen percent stake in Russia's largest developer of anti-malware software, Kaspersky Labs, was bought by the U.S. investment fund General Atlantic, which plans company's IPO in the next five years, the paper writes.- More than 500 people gathered in Moscow on Wednesday to honour the memory of a lawyer Stanislav Markelov and a journalist Anastasia Baburova, murdered two years ago, the paper says.- Despite the almost 30-percent cuts in the Moscow police, the level of crime in Russia's capital declined by 12 percent in 2010, the daily cites officials. VEDOMOSTIvedomosti.ru- Russia's nickel miner Norilsk Nickel (GMKN.MM) is unlikely to pay out dividends for 2010, the paper writes citing sources.- A social network user faces six years in prison for posting on his page 18 audio tracks of a famous Russian band, the daily writes.- A branch of United Russia party in St Petersburg boycotted speech of a leader of Russia's upper house of parliament, the daily says.NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETAng.ru- Deputy mayor of Moscow Vladimir Resin has denied rumours about building a new residence for Moscow mayor in the most posh area outside city, the daily says.MOSKOVSKY KOMSOMOLETSmk.ru- Arkady Dvorkovich, the Kremlin's top economic adviser, proposed to abandon scholarships for students whereas Prime Minister Putin in 2010 said that scholarships should be increased. Russian Press at a Glance, Thursday, January 20, 2011 20/01/2011? RIA Novosti. RybchinskiyPOLITICSAustria said Wednesday that it would not seek the extradition of the suspected killer of Chechen refugee Umar Israilov, even after national media reported that he was wounded in a shooting in Chechnya earlier this month.(Moscow Times)President Dmitry Medvedev pledged to pursue Middle East peace and to "tear the heads off" the unknown attackers who brutally beat Kommersant reporter Oleg Kashin in November.(Moscow Times)The Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK) made the unprecedented decision to publish air traffic controllers' conversations.(Rossiiskaya Gazeta)The European Parliament will today vote on a resolution assessing the situation in Belarus after December's presidential election in the country.(Nezavisimaya Gazeta)ECONOMY & BUSINESSRussia's MICEX exchange covering 70% of stock trade may lose its founder, the Russian Central Bank, as a shareholder. President Dmitry Medvedev gave instructions to the government and bank to make the exchange a private company.(Kommersant)American investment fund General Atlantic bought some 15% of Russia's largest antivirus software producer Kaspersky Lab for $150 million - $225 million. The new shareholder will help the company hold an IPO and reinforce positions on the U.S. market.(Kommersant, Vedomosti)The risk of doing business in Russia will increase in the eyes of many foreign investors after the second conviction of Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky last month, Kremlin economic aide Arkady Dvorkovich said Wednesday.(Moscow Times)Transneft, the state-owned pipeline company, hit back at critics Wednesday with a stinging personal attack on campaigning blogger Alexei Navalny and criticism of foreign governments that, it alleges, sought to disrupt an oil link to the Pacific Ocean.(Moscow Times)Russia, holder of almost $500 billion in foreign currency reserves, anticipates joining China and Japan in buying bonds from European rescue funds to help stem a debt crisis in the euro zone.(Moscow Times)Moscow may earn over 27 billion rubles ($904 million) from selling its 75% stake in Vnukovo Airport.(Kommersant)Companies efficiently using state of the art equipment will receive benefits on property tax for three years, says a bill adopted by the State Duma on the first reading.(Rossiiskaya Gazeta)Scandinavian banking group Nordea analysts raised their forecast on Russia's 2011 GDP growth to 5.4% from 4.5%.(Nezavisimaya Gazeta)SOCIETYRussia has launched the first criminal case against a social networking site user for copyright violation. The 26-year-old Muscovite faces up to six years in prison for posting 18 audio recordings on his page on the Vkontakte site.(Vedomosti)Yelena Kotova, an official accused of corruption while representing Russia on the EBRD's board of directors, is the first board member to lose diplomatic immunity since the bank was founded in 1991.(Moscow Times)Vedomosti: VKontakte with jail: 20 January, 2011, 07:32Edited: 20 January, 2011, 08:23 By Timofey Dzyadko and Aleksey Nikolsky A first-ever criminal case against a social networking site user has been filed in Russia for violation of intellectual property rights. He may face up to six years in prison for posting 18 audio recordings on his VKontakte site.? The Ministry of Interior’s Cyber Crime Prevention Department has filed a criminal case against a 26-year-old Moscow resident who posted 18 audio recordings “of a famous Russian band” on his VKontakte page, the department’s announced. The case has been filed under Article 146 of the Criminal Code, “Violation of Copyright and Neighboring Rights” (up to six years in prison) at the request of the Nikitin record company, which owns the exclusive rights to these recordings. According to a source in the Interior Ministry, the violator “has not been arrested and will, most likely, not face jail time” (the ministry has not officially commented on the case).??? This is the first criminal case against a social networking website user filed for illegally publishing audio content, say officials. Criminal proceedings have been held against VKontakte users for dissemination of extremist and pornographic materials, but this is the first case filed for copyright infringement, confirms VKontakte spokesman, Vladislav Tsyplyukhin. Representatives of the Cyber Crime Prevention Department and the Nikitin record company are not disclosing the user’s name.??? In the course of the investigation, experts with the Cyber Crime Prevention Department established that the user’s published audio recordings have been downloaded more than 200,000 times, and assessed Nikitin’s damages at 108,000 rubles. Such “unlawful activity” is becoming increasingly more common, while copyright owners are sustaining “enormous losses,” reads the department’s report. It plans to intensify the fight against pirated content distribution online and continue bringing offenders to justice.?? Internet companies, which are dealing with more and more lawsuits from copyright owners, are insisting on holding the users personally responsible. In October 2010, the directors of Google’s office in Russia, as well as Yandex, Mail.Ru, Rambler and VKontakte, addressed an open letter with a request to free them from responsibility for content uploaded by users. In return, they offered to audio and video copyright owners to verify the legality of the content published online, and if pirated content is found, to notify the website’s administrators, who will take appropriate action. The user’s accountability for uploading illegal content is obvious, but it is not enough to reduce the volume of piracy on the web, says the acting director general of Zoomby, a video hosting site, Yulia Mitrovich.? Autonomous Nonprofit Organization “TV-Novosti”, 2005 - 2011. All rights reserved. COMMENT: Russia’s Novovoronezh NPP readies to decommission two old reactors: Can it do it safely? - Decommissioning aged nuclear power plants (NPPs) and handling nuclear waste remain two Achilles’ heels of nuclear energy – something that was yet again confirmed by a recent attempt to assess the environmental impact of Russia’s first ever project to decommission VVER-type reactors, two shut-down units of Novovoronezh NPP in Central European Russia. This trial balloon threatens to become a dangerous and costly experiment, ecologists say, as it might lead to accidents and loads of newly generated radioactive waste. Andrei Ozharovsky, 19/01-2011 - Translated by Maria Kaminskaya Experimental dismantlement of experimental reactorsReactor Units 1 and 2 of Novovoronezh NPP, a plant located 42 kilometres south of the town of Voronezh, were the first reactors built in the Soviet VVER series of pressurised water reactors that could be called experimental prototype reactors. The Soviet Union started developing this model in the late 1950s based on shell-type reactors used on nuclear submarines. The reactors VVER-210 and VVER-365 were launched at Novovoronezh in 1964 and 1969, respectively.Reactor Unit 1 was shut down when its design-basis twenty-year operational term expired in 1984. The first instinct of the nuclear industry was to modernise the reactor, instead of shutting it down, but the tragedy that occurred at Ukraine’s Chernobyl in April 1986 made it clear that its further operation was unsafe. It was officially taken offline in 1988.The second reactor was shut down in 1990 – even before its engineered operational lifespan ran out – following a decree by what was then the Ministry of Atomic Energy of the USSR, which cited “major non-conformance of design specifications to current safety requirements, as well as the economic inadvisability of [the reactor’s] modernisation.”Works to render the old units safe for future decommissioning were started as soon as the reactors were taken down. But it was not until over twenty years later that today’s successor to the Soviet atomic energy ministry, the Russian State Nuclear Corporation Rosatom, decided to develop the actual decommissioning project.The public information department of the Russian NPP operator company, Concern Rosenergoatom, referred to the Novovoronezh decommissioning plans in a November 2010 statement as a “pilot project of the nuclear branch” – something that would indicate that further decommissioning projects for Russia’s VVER reactors would likely follow the same procedure that has been worked out for Novovoronezh.The statement was a report by Rosenergoatom’s press service on a public hearing held in the plant’s home town of Novovoronezh to present a preliminary version of an environmental impact assessment (EIA) report on future decommissioning works. The company also set a December deadline to file remarks or suggestions regarding the EIA document.? ?The project “provides for step-by-step disassembly and liquidation of equipment, systems, constructions and building structures, disposal of all radioactive waste as well as [reclamation] of the NPP unit for further use,” the statement said, adding that this was what is called a “brownfield” scenario for the “first Russian project for decommissioning of an NPP with VVER-type reactors.”But a “pilot project” would also mean that, as Russia has no experience decommissioning VVER-type reactors, the endeavour is, in essence, a potentially dangerous experiment.No money for decommissioning?Sources at Novovoronezh NPP told Bellona that in the past twenty years that the two old reactors stayed offline, awaiting decommissioning, certain vigorous, if chaotic, activities were in progress at the units absent of any decommissioning project: What parts of equipment or components remained uncontaminated by the many years of operation were being pulled apart and mysteriously lost track of. Indeed, copper wiring, power generators, and any other electrical equipment can easily be dismantled and sold for profit. The same, however, cannot be said about the radioactively contaminated parts of an old reactor unit – the reactor itself, the pipes of the primary coolant circuit, or steam generators.There is no verifying this information. As per the current condition of the two shut-down reactors, the EIA report does not provide any data on that.It looks therefore, judging by the information from Bellona’s sources, as if that stage of dismantlement that could prove profitable has already been taken care by someone. Someone has made a bargain on what could be taken away and sold for some sort of profit. There is no information on which and how many parts have been sold and at what price.Likewise, it is unclear where the money went – one would hope it was Rosatom’s special decommissioning fund. After all, the expensive preliminary works to render the reactors’ radioactive parts safe for dismantlement and decommissioning will, as per the project, be carried out with money from that fund.“As regards the funding, there is a decommissioning fund that was accumulated in the course of many years. This money was locked in accounts held by [Rosatom’s] Concern Rosenergoatom. The start of this project of reactor decommissioning, its approval by the Russian [Chief State Expert Evaluation Department], the ecological impact assessment, and a license by [the Russian federal industry oversight agency] Rostekhnadzor will prompt the unfreezing of this funding and the launch of decommissioning works,” Valery Novak, Rosenergoatom’s head for design and engineering branch, said in a recent news report.But Rosenergoatom’s environmental impact report on the decommissioning project says quite the opposite: Rosatom is not ready to finance all decommissioning works at the site.“At present, the limit set for deductions to the Reserve Fund for financing decommissioning costs is too low to allow for the creation of a sufficient accruable part in the reserve, or to provide enough funding to fully carry out works required to prepare, transport, and dispose of [spent nuclear fuel] after its temporary on-site storage at [the nuclear power plant].”Problems with the EIA reportThere is as yet little clarity as to the size of Rosatom’s decommissioning fund or sources from which funding is entered on its accounts, or how this funding will be spent. Experts estimate the costs of works required to decommission a nuclear power plant as ranging between half a billion and a billion euros, or more, per each reactor unit. Such assessments appear, for instance, in a 2006 study done by Professor Stephen Thomas of the British University of Greenwich.Professor Thomas says decommissioning works fall into three principal stages. Stage 1, lasting the first several months after a shutdown, involves removal of spent nuclear fuel (about one sixth of total costs); Stage 2 takes up to 40 years and envisions dismantlement of uncontaminated and slightly contaminated reactor parts (about a third of total costs); and Stage 3, which takes between nine and 135 years, focuses on removing the core and requires half of all decommissioning costs. This extended period also includes the long time it takes until radioactivity levels of certain isotopes, like caesium or strontium, subside to safe enough levels.Works that have allegedly already been performed at the closed reactors of Novovoronezh NPP are probably closer now to Stage 2, though there is no confirmation of the current progress. The official environmental impact document offers no assessment at all of the total time frame envisioned for the entire decommissioning process, nor for any of its stages.In fact, environmentalists are already voicing strong criticism of the official EIA statement, saying it is both incomplete and misleading.A number of NGOs – the environmental group Ecodefense!, GROZA, and the Interregional Human Rights Group Voronezh/Chernozemye – have written a critical letter to the organisers of the public hearing in Novovoronezh, posing a range of serious questions with regard to the EIA report.“The document lacks certain very important information which is essential for an environmental impact assessment,” says the letter that the environmentalists handed over to Novovoronezh city administration last month. “The EIA report is incomplete […] and cannot be accepted in its current version, since it could mislead both those responsible for decision-making and the population.”The absence of any concrete time frames is one of the issues the environmentalists raised with Rosenergoatom’s Novovoronezh EIA statement.“The document does not specify the duration of any of the decommissioning stages, nor the amount of radioactive waste that will be generated at each decommissioning stage,” the letter said.The problem is that absent of any concrete time frames, it is impossible to assess the risks of various projects or works undertaken as part of the decommissioning process or the impact they might have on the environment.What about the waste?Rosenergoatom’s environmental impact statement says: “At each of the decommissioning stages (‘Preparation for monitored storage,’ ‘Monitored storage,’ ‘Disposal of the [nuclear power] unit as a source of radiation hazard’) harmful substances may come into existence, both radioactive and non-radioactive. Generation of radioactive substances occurs during works involving dismantlement, fragmentation, and disposal of contaminated equipment and structures; when decontaminating premises and equipment; and during reprocessing of [radioactive waste].But the report omits the most important information that has to do with radioactive waste – the actual amounts of waste expected to be generated in the decommissioning process.“The document offers no quantitative assessment or qualitative analysis of radioactive waste that will be produced during decommissioning works on Power Units 1 and 2 of Novovoronezh NPP,” environmentalists said in their letter to the organisers of the November public hearing in Novovoronezh. “There are no data on the amounts, radioactivity levels, or isotope composition of anticipated radioactive waste. Without these data, it is impossible to assess the impact of decommissioning works on the environment.”In particular, the letter said, the report has no information on the contaminated equipment and pipelines to be dismantled during decommissioning.“For this kind of radioactive waste, this is [supposed to be] quite a considerable amount – we’re talking both about the reactor vessel, and the equipment inside the reactor, and the components of the primary loop,” the letter continued.Strangely enough, the report is indeed silent on the amounts of waste expected to be produced during decommissioning. The EIA statement’s authors do mention the amounts of waste they expect to be generated on a yearly basis – but they say nothing about how many years this or that type of works is going to take.The report says, for instance:“The plasma-based [radioactive waste] reprocessing complex is expected to produce on the order of 142 cubic metres of liquid [radioactive waste] in stillage residue per year.” But nothing is said on the total amount of liquid waste expected from the entire decommissioning process. ?Or: “The amount of [liquid radioactive waste] to be drained from the hot cell into the special-purpose sewage system of Reactor Unit 1 does not exceed 20 cubic metres per year, to a combined radioactivity of 18.5 * 1010 becquerels (5 curies).” Yet, again, nothing is said about the total amount of liquid waste that will be generated from decommissioning the units.Another example: “The amount of [solid radioactive waste] to be generated is assessed at an average of 65 cubic metres per year. The data on solid radioactive waste comprise: flammable materials (58 percent), metals (8 percent), plastics (6 percent), buildings’ brickwork (6 percent), and other materials (22 percent)…” but there is no assessment of the overall amount of solid radioactive waste that will result from the entire decommissioning process.Calculations show that if decommissioning works last a total of around 50 years, as suggested in Thomas’ study, the overall amount of liquid and solid radioactive waste will reach 8,150 cubic metres and 3,250 cubic metres, respectively.Since hardly any experience has been accumulated globally with decommissioning nuclear power reactors, comparisons are hard to come by, but one could be made with the data contained in the decommissioning plans developed by Lithuania in 2005 for its Soviet-built Ignalina NPP, which was shut down for good on December 31, 2009. The reactors at Ignalina are much more powerful and belong to a completely different design series, but the expected amounts of resulting waste should be of a similar scale.? ?The Lithuanians anticipate producing some 5,900 cubic metres of high-level radioactive waste and around 130,000 cubic metres of solid medium- and low-level radioactive waste during the decommissioning of Ignalina’s two RBMK reactors. Lithuania’s 5,900 cubic metres of high-level radioactive waste are quite on par with the figure of 3,250 cubic metres for solid radioactive waste expected at Novovoronezh. But nothing resembling the 130,000 cubic metres estimated by the Lithuanians for solid medium- and low-level waste is found in the EIA report for Novovoronezh decommissioning. Have the experts behind the Novovoronezh report completely forgotten about medium- and low-level radioactive waste? But this waste will be generated whether or not Rosenergoatom wants it to. What will happen to it? How will it be handled?Waste storage and related problemsThe resulting radioactive waste needs to be stored somewhere, and that makes for yet another separate headache.At one point in the environmental impact report, its authors do mention one substantive assessment: 20,000 containers. But the language provides no clarity as to what kind of containers are meant or how much waste they can contain. Twenty thousand containers – does that make 10,000 cubic metres? The report offers no answers on that account.“According to the assessments made, the overall amount of radioactive waste generated during the decommissioning will total around 20,000 [unrecoverable protective containers].” Yet, no substantiation is provided for that assessment, nor any data that will place the resulting waste into appropriate types of classes. Furthermore, the report mentions at one point that the site is furnished with a place suitable for temporary storage, but it can only accommodate 10,000 containers. There is no information as to how the remaining 10,000 containers will be stored once they are filled.“The document has no description provided for the conditions in which the radioactive waste expected to be generated during decommissioning works on Reactor Units 1 and 2 of Novovoronezh NPP will be transported and stored,” Ecodefense!, GROZA, and the Human Rights Group Voronezh/Chernozemye said in their letter. “There is a roster and descriptions of [solid radioactive waste storage facilities], but no information on how long they have been in operation, nor any factual data on how filled they are to date, nor about how much and which types of waste resulting from the decommissioning will be sent to which storage facilities or for how long.”Likewise, the report provides no scenarios for potential accidents or incidents that may take place during transportation or storage – such as damage sustained by the waste or a storage facility or the risks of atmospheric precipitation coming into contact with the waste – and makes no assessment of environmental damage that can occur as a result.??Current problems and Rostekhnadzor’s assessmentsAs it happens, Novovoronezh NPP is already dealing with a number of pressing issues it is experiencing with storage of solid and radioactive waste accumulated on site.Even Rostekhnadzor – an agency that rarely takes a critical stand when it comes to practices observed in the nuclear industry – has been forced to take notice of violations of radioactive waste storage guidelines that inspectors discovered at Novovoronezh. These concern the management of treated waste – or waste that has been duly processed in preparation for transportation, storage, reprocessing, or disposal – and non-treated waste.“In breach of [2002 Sanitary Rules for Management of Radioactive Waste], non-treated [solid and liquid radioactive] waste from Units 1 and 2 of Novovoronezh NPP is being held in storage beyond design-basis time frames; in breach of [2002 Sanitary Rules for Management of Radioactive Waste], treated radioactive waste is being stored at the NPP in barrels with service periods under 50 years,” Rostekhnadzor said in its yearly report for 2009.Rosenergoatom’s environmental impact report for Novovoronezh decommissioning says: “Metal containers with evaporate concentrate will be moved for storage to the 10,000-container temporary storage site located on [Novovoronezh NPP’s] industrial premises.” However, no time frames are determined for how long the containers – or, to be precise, half of them – will stay in storage there. The project thus seems to prepare the plant for certain failure, pushing it for repeat violations with regard to storage of waste in unsuitable conditions.Just as it made no provisions for possible accident scenarios involving storage of waste off site, the EIA report makes no mention of environmental risks emerging from potential accidents or incidents affecting the 10,000 containers with radioactive waste at the on-site storage facility.?Accidents and incidents – underrating the dangerOne of the more serious issues that environmentalists point to with regard to Rosenergoatom’s Novovoronezh decommissioning EIA report is what they refer to as an inaccurate analysis of possible accident risks.“The document contains no quantitative or qualitative assessment of radioactive discharges that may occur during an accident. The claim that existing safety standards will not be breached under any accident scenarios is unsubstantiated,” the open letter by Ecodefense!, GROZA, and Voronezh/Chernozemye said. “There is no basis not to consider emergency situations or accidents associated with a possible failure of the gas scrubber system. It is evident that such an accident may lead to a release into the surrounding environment of radionuclides with a combined activity exceeding accepted norms.”The environmentalists are concerned that the relevant section in the report does not examine any possibility at all of accidents or abnormal functioning of the equipment or erroneous actions on the part of the personnel. Accordingly, they reiterate, it provides no accident scenarios for emergency situations involving damage, contact with atmospheric precipitation, or leaks, nor any assessments of resulting environmental harm.This, in turn, creates a skewed view of potential damage to population health.“Calculations of population exposure doses have not been done for situations involving disruptions to normal operational conditions during accidents and incidents,” the letter continued.Again, no analysis is provided for how malfunctioning equipment or personnel’s errors may lead to increased exposure of the population residing nearby, even though, according to the environmentalists, the section on non-radioactive discharges does consider a scenario involving destruction of the plasma-based reprocessing complex as a result of external impact, while another section, on potential accidents at the site, deals with accident scenarios leading to potential discharges of radioactive dust and gases into the atmosphere.“It is obvious that destruction of the plasma-based radioactive waste reprocessing facility occurring as a result of external impact or for other reasons may lead to significant discharges of radionuclides into the surrounding environment,” the letter said.The EIA report gets approved – but questions lingerThough serious issues remain unresolved with the future decommissioning project, Rosenergoatom reported the environmental impact assessment a done deal.Rosenergoatom said in its November press release that over 350 people took part in the hearing in Novovoronezh, including representatives of the operator company as well as specialists from scientific institutions and Rostekhnadzor.“ It was particularly noted that the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the forecast state of the environment and living conditions make it possible to evaluate the impact of decommissioning of [the] power units […] as environmentally safe,” the report said. “The [hearing’s] participants took a favourable view of the EIA preliminary materials. The [hearing has] been declared valid.”A news report by the Russian news agency REGNUM said the project was discussed at an extended meeting of the Novovoronezh City Public Council and received broad public support. ?“We fear absolutely nothing from living next to the NPP, it makes us happy, even, that there is a nuclear power plant nearby,” the agency quoted one of the hearing’s participants, Yelena Pavlenko, as saying. Pavlenko heads the regional branch of the all-Russian Children’s Ecological Movement “Zelyonaya Planeta” (Green Planet), the report said.But the city public council’s support or the children’s ecological movement’s enthusiasm notwithstanding, nuclear officials will still have to find answers to environmentalists’ questions about the expected amounts of radioactive waste or possible risks of accidents.“The nuclear industry must create a ‘greenfield’ at the site where the reactors [are now standing], whatever that costs,” Ecodefense! co-chairman Vladimir Slivyak told Bellona, referring to a concept which – compared to that of a “brownfield” – implies complete remediation of land formerly used for industrial purposes in order to return it to natural state.The question now is whether, armed with the environmental impact assessment report that is criticised so heavily for containing so many crucial gaps, Rosatom will even be successful in building a “brownfield” there in the first place.January 19, 2011A Sporting Chance Rose GriffinRussia ProfileCan Russia Turn Sport Investment Into More Gold Medals at the Sochi Olympic Games? At the start of the week Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Sports Minister Valery Mutko announced plans to invest in the Russian sports industry in order to boost conditions for both professional and amateur athletes. But will these measures improve Russians’ sporting abilities??Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Monday visited the Novogorsk training camp near Moscow to discuss Russia’s sports development strategy up to 2020. “Popular sport really needs to become accessible and that means infrastructure has to develop,” said Putin, who added that the number of Russians who regularly practice some form of sport increased to 25 million last year, up by two million since 2008. The government is aiming to increase this figure to 42 million by 2015. Saying that investment in sports is a government priority, Putin said that over the next three years 90 billion rubles ($3 million) will be invested in the sector, with the majority of that to be spent in 2011. Mutko announced that Russian schools will have to add more compulsory sports lessons to the weekly timetable. Timur Zainashev is a 28-year old Muscovite who has been playing sport in Moscow regularly since childhood. “I’ve played sport in many places, from independently in the park to elite fitness clubs with Turkish saunas and swimming pools,” he said. “I strongly support Putin’s initiative. We also have to change the people’s mindset, to cultivate awareness of a healthier way of life, and of course, to build and support sports facilities.” Zainashev pointed to the number of top class professional sportsmen whose own careers are over as potential trainers for these new facilities. The Sports Ministry said that 300 new sports facilities were built with money from the federal budget in 2010, adding to the growing private fitness sector. Zainashev is lucky enough to be from a part of the capital that has benefitted from state investment. “In my region of Yasnevo they built a public swimming pool and games center, which even has facilities for disabled people,” he said.?Russia’s leading companies such as Gazprom, Rusal and LUKoil have also started to promote sport among their employees, as well as supporting national and local teams. But Zainashev says the situation is considerably worse outside Moscow: “Moscow is a different country – there is not as much variety in the regions. As a rule, there are professional sports clubs built in the Soviet era, and the public facilities are bad. It’s worst in villages where the main sport is drinking.” While at Novogorsk, Putin stressed that national sporting success is a key weapon in the battle to increase the number of Russians regularly playing sport. If that is the case, then the country looks to be in trouble: last year Russian sports fans were disappointed with the national team’s woeful performance at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, winning fewer gold medals than in any tournament since the collapse of the Soviet Union. And in soccer, which became known as “Russia’s national game” during its bid to host the World Cup, the soccer team failed to qualify in last year’s tournament. Success on the international stage is particularly important for inspiring people to take up more sport in Russia, a country where some of its most successful and popular sportsmen spend most of their time playing and competing abroad. Utah Jazz basketball star Andrei Kirilenko became an American citizen last week. Although he plays for the national team during the NBA offseason, Kirilenko, who was the youngest ever player to compete in the Russian Super League, has been competing in the United States since 2000.?It is not surprising that the United States – the home of basketball -- attracts the world’s top basketball talent, but Russian stars in a number of other disciplines are taking advantage of more lucrative opportunities abroad, from tennis golden girl Maria Sharapova to soccer stars Andrei Arshavin and Yuri Zhirkov. The more opportunities Russian sports fans have to see these stars compete, the better, if Russia is to produce a younger generation of talented sportsmen, as well as a healthier population all around.?In a move that should both encourage athletes to stay at home and boost their performance, the government has also announced plans to increase athletes’ salaries. Members of Russia’s national sports teams can now expect wages of 35,000 to 120,000 rubles ($1,200 to $4,000)."We have secured support from the budget and an average salary will be increased to around 80,000 rubles ($2,800," Mutko said, RIA Novosti reported. The average salary for Russian athletes is currently 12,000 to 20,000 rubles ($400 to $670). But whether Russian government investment automatically means a greater medal haul or qualification to more international competitions is debatable. The UK is set to host the Summer Olympic Games in 2012. A spokesperson for UK Sport, the organization which coordinates investment of public funds in sport, told Russia Profile that the organization is investing in athletes with potential for the games to be held in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 as well as London 2012, although the main investment planning is done on a four year cycle. A total of 1,400 athletes are currently supported by the program. The UK also has access to revenue from a National Lottery in addition to government funding. “The introduction of lottery funding for elite athletes in the UK in 1997 has transformed the high performance sporting system here, and, as you will know, the results on the world stage have reflected this,” UK Sport’s spokesperson said. Great Britain came in 36th place at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta in 1996, but rose to fourth place in the rankings in Beijing. “Around half of our funding currently comes from the National Lottery, but this is set to increase post-2012 to around 65 percent.” ?This is not a resource that Russian sportsmen can utilize.?January 19, 2011Skirting the Creed Tom BalmforthRussia ProfileHow Archpriest Chaplin Hopes His Orthodox Dress Code Will Catch On in Secular Russia Is Unclear, but He Has Roiled RuNet The Russian Orthodox official, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, believes that Russia should adhere to a nationwide dress code and that scantily dressed Russian women would be better off binning their mini-skirts and scrubbing off their lipstick. Russian men in cities should also toss aside T-shirts and shorts, unless of course they are tramps who are to be pitied. The precise cut of this Orthodox dress code is not yet known, but strip bars and brothels are apparently let off the hook. Chaplin on Tuesday stood by his contentious December comments that Russians need to take a leaf out of their Muslim brethren’s book and cover themselves up in line with a Russia-wide Orthodox dress code. Chaplin, the chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for Relations between Church and Society, yesterday explained that it is not just up to a woman what she wears and that women in skimpy clothes are a target for rape and violence by men. “A woman counting on an encounter in the street, on the metro, or in a bar, not only risks running into a drunk idiot, but also will find herself in the company of men who do not have a scrap of intelligence and self-respect. Perhaps she could happen upon a sober idiot, but then, is she searching properly?” asked Chaplin. “It is not a bad thing that companies, universities and schools have their own dress codes. It would be good to think up a Russia-wide dress code (at strip bars and brothels, so be it, it can be done without),” he said with an apparent witty flourish.?Chaplin voiced similar off the cuff beliefs at a December round-table on inter-ethnic relations. At the RIA Novosti conference, a female sociology researcher asked a Caucasus representative to Moscow how Caucasus immigrants in Moscow are educated to treat Slavic women who wear mini-skirts properly. After the representative replied, Chaplin offered his side: “If a woman is wearing a mini-skirt, then she is provoking not only people from the Caucasus but also Russians. If on top of that she is drunk, it is even more provocative. If on top of that she herself actively provokes contact, and is then surprised that it ends in rape, then moreover she is not in the right.” Russia’s blogosphere, RuNet, erupted. Chaplin says he did not mean that women are solely to blame for men behaving violently against them. But the comments won a predictably furious reception from Russian bloggers and generated an angry online petition addressed to Patriarch Kirill, signed by 1948 Russians. “It is a cause for serious concern that recent statements from the highest ranks of the Russian Orthodox Church have been made that not only destroy the dignity of Russian women, but also excuse discrimination and violence against them,” reads the open letter to Patriarch Kirill. “I’m Orthodox, I dress correctly, I don’t support Vsevolod Chaplin…Christ would never have said this,” wrote the last signatory of the petition. Observers are bemused by Chaplin’s rationale, which one put down to him “trying to be provocative.” “Apart from anything, Russia is a secular state,” said Andrei Sinelnikov, the deputy director of ANNA, a Russian NGO working to prevent violence against women. “Secondly, I absolutely disagree with what he said about mini-skirts because it shifts the blame onto the women who suffer and makes them seem like criminals.” Bloggers too were stumped. “I find it hard to imagine a situation in which a ‘self-respecting person’ gets up to leave a restaurant after noticing that a girl at the table next to him has bright lipstick on or has donned a mini-skirt. But on the scale of single institutions, dress codes are already in place without any archpriest’s tips and without any particular religion in general. For that reason, Chaplin’s reasoning on the Russia wide dress code is not clear to me,” wrote blogger and commentator Anton Nosik. Other bloggers have been more savage in their dismissal. “Chaplin is so stupid that he doesn’t understand that violence is not caused by provocation from women but by society’s degradation,” said blogger Dmitry Yakushev, who also called Chaplin’s ideas “medieval philistinism.” Chaplin’s vision though is not tailored to women alone. “A man in a city wearing shorts and a T-shirt, trainers or slippers is also not worthy of respect. Only of pity – if he is a tramp, for instance,” he wrote in the open letter published by Interfax Russia yesterday. Elsewhere in Russia, rights organizations have condemned the local government’s pressure on women in Chechnya to wear headscarves. Last year several Chechen women not wearing the traditional Muslim garment were fired upon by paintballs from unmarked cars. Anyhow, few but Chaplin seem to expect anything to come of this controversial sermon. He himself appears rather cocky. “I think we will live to a time when badly dressed people will be led out of nice places. Or self-respecting people will get up and leave such places,” he concluded. Nezavisimaya: The Rodina-2 project is being tossed to the masses: 20 January, 2011, 06:02Edited: 20 January, 2011, 06:02 The Communist Party predicts elections with “fireworks” and unexpected twists By Ivan Rodin, Aleksandra Samarina and Maria Bondarenko (Rostov-on-Don) One of the key signs of the upcoming federal elections year is dissemination of information about their various scenarios. Nezavisimaya Gazeta (NG) was informed that the question about the Just Russia party’s format of participation in the parliamentary race is currently being considered. Meanwhile, the former leader of the Rodina (Homeland) Party current Russian envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, is once again on the horizon. And suddenly, talks have resumed about a so-called Rodina-2, which is expected to emerge not long before the elections in place of Just Russia. Immediately after the New Year’s holidays, talks have resumed about Federation Council Chairman Sergey Mironov not holding on to his post for much longer. But the issue will not so much concern him as his party, which allegedly also faces, if not closure of its project, which is regarded as unsuccessful by the Kremlin, then at least reformation. Recall that late last year, similar assumptions were made about the rapidly-approaching emergence of a so-called Rodina-2 – naturally, under the leadership of Rogozin. Meanwhile, according to this scenario, the Just Russia party should be eliminated so as not to take up space and share its personnel and organizational resources with the young organization. NG correspondents tried verifying these rumors. It was discovered that some of the patriotically-minded politicians believe in Rogozin’s second appearance before the people, and even say that he had, just recently, addressed a letter to the Russian Cossacks – asking them whether or not they will support him, in case anything happened. Meanwhile, he seemed to have ignored the official Cossack structures. Indeed, their representatives unanimously told NG yesterday that they know nothing about Rogozin’s actions.?? The Cossack ataman of the nongovernmental organization The Great Don Army, Nikolay Kozitsyn, told NG that Rogozin did not turn to them for support, but the ataman does not exclude the possibility that a proposal is yet to come. If it does, then they will think about what to do next. As for the Cossacks registered with The Great Don Army, Viktor Vodolatsky’s deputy ataman, Vladimir Voronin, says that no proposals were made. But if Rogozin does decide to turn to them, he will not receive any support because the Don Cossacks exclusively support the United Russia party.????? NG correspondents asked Rogozin whether he plans to participate in the upcoming election campaigns – parliamentary and presidential. “I have not yet decided,” responded the politician. Meanwhile, he called rumors about the authorities’ creating a Rodina analogue “absolute nonsense”: “I don’t know anything about that. And then, I don’t think that creation of political parties from the top produces any serious results.” At the same time, Rogozin, according to him, is carefully following the development of events in Russia and is worried about everything happening there.?? While commenting on the latest events fueled by ethnic conflicts, he regrets that today, the country lacks “sane politicians in the parliament, who should hold the responsibility for all these processes.”“The parliament is, of course, lacking people who are capable of being popular authorities in this environment,” he stated. “I think that there is an enormous niche for politicians. A patriotic citizen who thinks about the future of his country is concerned about giving the national movement a meaningful quality, so that is does not fall into the abyss of extremism. These people are ready to prove that there can be patriotism without fascism. The latter is generally unthinkable in my country.”It turns out that the socialist revolutionaries are aware about the scenario involving Rogozin. For example, one of NG’s sources alleged that the option of changing Just Russia for another player has indeed already been reported to the top leadership. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, however, has yet to agree. He seems to have noted to reporters that he has already worked with Rogozin, which resulted in many negative experiences, and that it would be best not to make such mistakes on the eve of the 2012 elections.However, another source in the Lower House stressed that the Rodina-2 option remains in effect. The deadline for making a final decision, according to him, is April of this year. Then, it will still be possible to create and register a party without the embarrassing haste which would show everyone that the Kremlin has created another puppet. Perhaps, indicated the source, another operation will be conducted with Mironov’s party: new people may be injected into the existing structure, which will be cleared out in advance. NG learned that many in the Just Russia party are not against Rogozin’s revival.?????? The social revolutionaries’ official comments, however, are negative. For example, the deputy head of the Just Russia faction in the State Duma, Mikhail Emelyanov, referred to the disseminated information as “a way to pressure the party and its leadership.” In his opinion, Just Russia’s current positions are, from the electoral viewpoint, very attractive. But United Russia, which would like to restore its image of a socially oriented party, does not like this. It is understandable, noted Emelyanov, that “they are trying to shift us from these positions.”“And because they have, so far, been unsuccessful in this, the following method of pressure is being applied – ‘if you don’t act the way you are told to act, it means that you might not be here tomorrow,’” he said.As for Dmitry Rogozin’s possible comeback to domestic politics, Emelyanov effectively repeated the prime minister’s assessments, as reported by NG’s sources: “Rogozin wasn’t removed from the country before the last presidential election just to be brought back before the upcoming one.” Emelyanov also believes that, as a potential presidential candidate, Rogozin may be a threat to the tandem in 2012 – the nationalist spectrum is currently on the rise, but has no prospective leaders.“And you must remember what Rogozin became known for – it was his nationalistic campaign ads, from which the defeat of Rodina began,” he recalled.?? The secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, Sergey Obukhov, confirmed to NG that the Communists know all about these and other Kremlin options.“It’s a dirty game – and we know it,” he stated.Nevertheless, NG’s source emphasized that, one way or another, there will clearly not be a “business as usual” scenario in the next federal elections.“In this case, the Communist Party simply gets a blocking stake in the State Duma, so we are predicting elections with ‘fireworks’ and unexpected twists,” the source said.? Autonomous Nonprofit Organization “TV-Novosti”, 2005 - 2011. All rights reserved. MOSCOW BLOG: The risk of democratisation in Russia January 20, 2011In January, protests in Tunisia forced out the autocratic president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who abruptly fled the country for Saudi Arabia. It was one of a string of revolts against autocratic leaders in recent years; those in the former Soviet Union (FSU) have been dubbed "coloured revolutions" and they haunt the bad dreams of leaders from Minsk to Tashkent. The big question for Tunisia now is what sort of regime will take over: a democracy is not a given, but it's what everyone is hoping for. Renaissance Capital issued an interesting report shortly after the events in Tunisia looking at the mechanisms that drive revolutions and revolts, in which it tries to identify the tell-tale signs for dictators. While the paper focused on African nations, the parallels with the FSU region are obvious. It identified three basic rules of democratisation: 1. The richer the people are, the more likely they are to revolt, but once a democracy, a country never abandons the system; 2. Large net energy exporters are not democracies; 3. The greater the proportion of young men in the population, the more likely a revolt. The revolution metrics Wealth is obviously a key factor. Poor populations think only about where the next meal is coming from. A relatively well-off middle class is more concerned with the quality of life, public services and personal freedoms. Citing a study first done in 1959 and updated in a paper entitled, "Modernization: Theories and facts", by Adam Przeworski and Fernando Limongi in 1997, Rencap's report sketches out the measurable metrics of revolution. Using 2009 purchasing power parity in dollars as a basis, then the odds of a revolution happening in a country with an average per-capita income of under $2,000 are very low. However, as incomes rise to $2,000-8,000, then the chances of a revolt become a modest 1-2% in any given year. Things get riskier if wages are rising or falling: if wages are rising, then the chances of a revolt go up to 4-5% (because people are more focused on the shortcomings in their quality of living); and if wages are falling, the risk of a revolt goes up even more to 6-11% (because people want political power to change an obviously bad situation). Tunisia had a 2009 per-capita income of $8,300, which put it at the top end of the danger range. And all across the FSU, the risk of revolt against overbearing regimes is also high, as all the countries are already at the top end of the $2,000-8,000 income bracket. Moreover, in the last two years the odds of a revolt have risen, as incomes fell due to to the crisis: Kyrgyzstan and Moldova have both ousted corrupt presidents since the global crisis hit. Russia stands out on the wealth score, as its citizens have the highest income in the region, on the order of about $14,000. As a middle-income country, Russia should have long ago joined the "immortal" democracies like those in the West - no country with an income level over $14,000 has ever lost its democracy once established. But then there's the second law of democratisation – big energy exporters aren't democracies. "Of the 20 largest net oil exporters in 2008, according to the data we have from BP, just three were fully free democracies according to Freedom House. Of these, two were democracies before they became large net energy exporters (Canada and Norway), so obeyed the first rule, with only the third (Mexico) being an interesting exception to the rule," the report says. Still, Russia's population is clearly becoming restless – a natural consequence of the rise in income levels over the past decade. The crisis only made them more agitated, as it caused incomes to dip. In December, central Moscow became the scene of street battles as football fans clashed in inter-ethnic violence over several days following the murder of a fan. The area around Kievskaya was closed and groups of Omon special forces roamed the streets for the first time in more than a decade and half. The riots were the most dramatic manifestation of the palpable unease growing amongst the population. And it could get worse this year, as the reason why the second law of democratisation holds true is that energy-rich countries make so much money they don't tax their populations. If the people don't have to pay tax, the average man is not fussed about political representation. "With little direct taxation, there are fewer demands for direct representation. Equally, as the UK discovered to its cost in 1776, when you do tax your people, they might protest," says Charles Robertson, chief economist at Renaissance Capital. Russians pay amongst the lowest taxes in the region, but that too will change this year when a raft of new taxes are introduced to help cover the state's first deficit in a decade. Man up Russia is also vulnerable to the third danger: lots of young men. Frustrated youth in poor countries are likely to band together and hit the streets. "The 'youth bulge' theory suggests that when the share of young people in a country exceeds 30% of its population, the risk of war or revolution is particularly high," says Robertson, who takes 15% as the start of the "danger range" when dictators should start to worry about a youth uprising. Tunisia's share of men aged 15-34 stands at 17.3% and, indeed, most of the Middle East and Africa are already over the threshold. A large, young population is more a problem of the Middle East and Central Asia - Kazakhstan is the only country in the FSU to have hit the 15% level - but a glance at Russia's age distribution chart below from Rosstat for 2007 shows there is a big bulge of trouble-making young men with a medium age of about 20 years now, although the overall average age in Russia is already in the late 40s and rising. The final point to make is that while wealth, taxes and youth can all coalesce into regime-changing riots, this doesn't necessarily lead to the emergence of democracies. Kyrgyzstan's "tulip" revolution pushed out former president Askar Akayev only to replace him with the autocratic Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who was in turn ousted last year. The increased tensions, falling incomes and new taxes come at the worst time for the Kremlin. As the events in Minsk in December show, there is no time more likely to catalyse civil unrest than elections and Russia has two big ones coming up - the Duma elections in December and presidential elections in 2012. The trouble is that if the Putin/Medvedev tandem is ousted, there is no obvious opposition candidate waiting in the wings to take over. However, there are lots of well-connected Kremlin insiders who would be prepared to take their place, none of whom would be much of an improvement. National Economic TrendsRussia May Reduce Raw Sugar-Imports Tax in March, IKAR Says Marina SysoyevaJan. 20 (Bloomberg) -- The tax on Russia’s imports of raw sugar may be cut to $50 a metric ton in March from $140 a ton now to help efforts to control inflation, the Institute for Agriculture Market Studies said. “There are chances that the government can agree on a reduction of the raw-sugar import tax in March instead of May, because the government is very much alarmed by the inflation problem,” Yevgeny Ivanov, an analyst at the Moscow-based researcher, said by phone today. “Prices for vegetables, oil products and other goods and services rose sharply in the last weeks of 2010 and at the beginning of this year.” Russia’s annual inflation rate accelerated last month to 8.8 percent, the highest in a year, the Federal Statistics Service said Jan. 11. Under a joint customs agreement with Belarus and Kazakhstan, Russia taxes the imports based on monthly prices in New York trading, with a one-month lag before changes take effect. The tax will remain at $140 a ton in February, the Customs Union Commission, which oversees the tariff, said last week. The duty was at the same level in October, November, December and this month. The institute, also known as IKAR, forecast raw sugar imports to exceed 200,000 metric tons in January and 120,000 tons in both February and March. Last year, Russia imported 221,120 tons of sugar in January, 47,500 tons in February and 300,380 tons in March, according to IKAR. To contact the reporter on this story: Marina Sysoyeva in Moscow msysoyeva@. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@. Last Updated: January 20, 2011 04:19 ESTJanuary 20, 2011 11:55Russian international reserves down $3.2 bln in week. Jan 20 (Interfax) - Russia's international reserves down $3.2 billion to $477.5 billion in the week to January 14, the Central Bank said on Thursday.The reserves stood at $480.7 billion on January 7.They consist of highly liquid financial assets at the disposal of the CB and Russian government, including foreign currency, monetary gold, special drawing rights, the reserve position at the IMF and other reserve assets.Ruble Rally Spurs Best OFZ Demand in Four Months: Russia Credit Emma O’BrienJan. 20 (Bloomberg) -- The ruble’s rally is luring the strongest demand for domestic bonds since October, helping government plans to double borrowing this year. The Finance Ministry sold 29.8 billion rubles ($1 billion) of the 30 billion rubles offered in yesterday’s auction of so- called OFZs due in March 2014, the most since Oct. 6, according to data compiled by the central bank. Demand was almost double the offer. The highest oil prices in more than two years are boosting confidence among investors that the world’s biggest energy exporter will rebound from 2009’s record economic contraction and return to the near-10 percent growth rates from before the financial crisis. The ruble jumped 4.8 percent against the dollar since Dec. 1, outpacing the 2.1 percent gain in the Brazilian real and 1.2 percent increase for the Chinese yuan. “The ruble outlook has improved significantly since the fourth quarter as oil prices climbed to almost $100 a barrel and capital outflows abated,” Nikolay Podguzov, head of fixed- income strategy at VTB Capital, Russia’s second-largest bank, said by e-mail. “With oil prices at current levels, the Finance Ministry has greater flexibility with its borrowing plan.” The 4.2 percent rally in oil since Dec. 1 has underpinned the ruble’s climb, luring investors as the government sets out to plug the nation’s third annual budget deficit by selling a record 1.74 trillion rubles of local debt. Crude oil, which along with natural gas makes up a quarter of Russia’s economic output, hit a 27-month-high of $92.58 a barrel on Jan. 3, and traded at $90.41 in New York today. More Demand Bids at yesterday’s auction totaled 58.6 billion rubles, the most relative to the amount tendered since Oct. 13, Bank Rossii data show. The new securities were sold at an average yield of 7.03 percent, within the ministry’s 7 percent to 7.10 percent guidance issued on Jan. 18. The Finance Ministry scrapped two OFZ auctions in December, preferring to tap its Reserve Fund, which shrank by $15.5 billion last month to $25.4 billion, to cover a budget deficit equal to 3.9 percent of gross domestic product. The tender of 2016 OFZs scheduled for Dec. 15 was pulled after yields reached a record-high, and the last sale of 2010 was canceled because of “unfavorable market conditions,” according to a statement from the ministry on Dec. 21. The redemption of 41 billion rubles of five-year OFZs by the Finance Ministry yesterday put an “extraordinary volume of unused money” onto the market that could be used to buy the 2014 bonds, Alexander Ovchinnikov, vice president for global markets in Moscow at Troika Dialog, Russia’s oldest investment bank, said by e-mail yesterday. Ruble, Swaps The ruble dropped from a three-month high against the dollar today, falling 0.4 percent to 29.9225 per dollar by 10:27 a.m. in Moscow. Non-deliverable forwards, or NDFs, which provide a guide to expectations of currency movements and interest-rate differentials and allow companies to hedge against fluctuations, show the ruble at 30.1394 per dollar in three months. The cost of protecting Russian debt against non-payment for five years using credit-default swaps dropped 1 basis point to 139 yesterday, according to data provider CMA. The contracts pay the buyer face value in exchange for the underlying securities or the cash equivalent should a government or company fail to adhere to its debt agreements. Credit-default swaps for Russia, rated Baa1 by Moody’s Investors Service, its third-lowest investment-grade ranking, cost 2 basis points less than similar contracts for Turkey, which is rated four levels lower at Ba2. Investors Soured The extra yield investors demand to hold Russian debt rather than U.S. Treasuries rose 1 basis point, or 0.01 percentage point, to 195, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. EMBI+ indexes. The difference compares with 137 for debt of similarly rated Mexico and 176 for Brazil, which is rated two steps lower at Baa3 by Moody’s. The yieldspread on Russian bonds is 49 basis points below the average for emerging markets, according to JPMorgan indexes, the widest for two weeks. With inflation at a one-year high of 8.8 percent in December, traders are pricing in 84 basis points of increases to Russia’s key interest rates over the next three months, according to forward rate agreements. The central bank last raised the refinancing rate in December 2008 and it now sits at a record-low 7.75 percent after 14 cuts between April 2009 and May last year. The specter of rising rates has soured some investors toward OFZs. Raiffeisen Kapitalanlage Gmbh, which holds government ruble debt, didn’t take part in yesterday’s auction, said Ronald Schneider, who helps manage 800 million euros ($1.1 billion) of Russian and other emerging-market debt at the Vienna-based company. Attractive Yield “We’re positive on the ruble, but not so spectacular on OFZs because of the tending of rates upward,” Schneider said by telephone yesterday. The bonds maturing in three years sold yesterday were viewed by the market as “more or less risk-free,” as the shorter term means the price won’t be affected by higher rates for too long, Ovchinnikov said. Given the expectation of rate increases, the maturity of yesterday’s issue “was about right,” Alexey Krivolap, the head of fixed-income sales at Moscow-based investment bank IFC Metropol, said by e-mail yesterday. “Anything longer than five years would be difficult, but two to four years is still attractive.” The difference between yields on OFZs maturing in five years and bonds due in July next year topped 167 basis points on Jan. 12, the most in three months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. To contact the reporter on this story: Emma O’Brien in Moscow at eobrien6@ To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gavin Serkin at gserkin@. Last Updated: January 20, 2011 03:01 ESTWeekly inflation at 0.6% - reaches 1.4% YTD, higher than last year CapitalJanuary 20, 2011News: According to Rosstat, inflation for the week ending 17 January reached 0.6%, with YTD inflation up to 1.4% (0.5% and 1.2%, respectively, in 2010). The headline number was greatly affected by food prices (buckwheat +2.9%, millet +1.9%, sugar +1.6%, beef +1.4% vegetables +2.4%) and boosted by the 1.3% rise in petrol prices and communal and electricity tariffs (1.6-2.1% and 1.4%, respectively). Our View: The data suggests that inflationary pressures remain at a persistently high level, with the YTD reading already threatening the upper band of the official 2011 inflation forecast (7.0%). The authorities are certainly concerned about the situation, with this year's utility tariffs hikes already drawing the attention of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who urged regional authorities to keep rises under control. The ongoing rise in food prices also remains a major concern, although as the domestic rise is part of the current global upward trend there is relatively little the authorities can do about it, apart from introducing rather harmful direct price caps. The data supports our view that the CBR will hike the benchmark rates 50bp in 1Q11. At the same time, January is the month that exhibits the strongest distortions in inflationary data. Thus, the CBR might opt not to hike rates at its next meeting (likely on 28 January) but wait for February's inflation and January's economic data (due to be released in mid-February) before making a decision on rates. Alexey MoiseevRossiskaya Gazeta: Rewards for innovators: 20 January, 2011, 03:25Edited: 20 January, 2011, 03:25 They will be exempt from property taxes and be eligible for deferment of payments By Ilya AkimovEnterprises that effectively use the latest technological equipment will receive property tax breaks for three years. These amendments are included in a bill which has already passed a first reading in the State Duma. This was announced to Rossiyakaya Gazeta (RG) by the State Duma Budget and Tax Committee chairman, Yury Vasilyev, who also talked about other key documents that should be expected to pass in the first 10 days of the spring session.? In January, legislative amendments which will lay the legal grounds for the creation of federal and regional highway funds will be prepared for the first reading. The federal highway fund will be formed along with the country’s budget.“Its funding,” explained Vasilyev, “will be determined based on the forecasted federal budget revenues from tax and non-tax revenues. These sources are expected to include revenues from the excise taxes on fuel, rental fees for land allocated for right of ways, as well as tolls registered outside of Russia.” A review of the document is scheduled for February.?????? The committee also took up a bill that should settle the controversies that arise in applying certain provisions of the Tax Code. It will help regulate the value-added tax on building and assembly works conducted in course of modernization and reconstruction, leading to a decrease in the initial cost of a facility.?? When foreign currency is used for tax deductions, re-computation will be conducted in rubles based on the rate set by the Bank of Russia, and if the tariff rates on the preformed works are reduced, taxes will be reduced accordingly. Moreover, this bill will also affect the development of the sports industry by exempting offices that rent out sports facilities for sporting and entertainment events, conducted by sports organizing committees, from the VAT.?? “I would like to especially emphasize the changes and additions to Part Two of the Tax Code,” stressed Vasilyev. “They will make it possible to significantly expedite the procedure of VAT reimbursement. We are working on new amendments for the regulation of tax arrears, default interest and fines.”They will help turn the mechanism of provision of tax deferments from nominal to realistic. New opportunities will emerge for using the investments tax credit, which today is not in high demand. In other words, explained the deputy, a taxpayer investing in the development of production, its modernization, in R&D, creation of jobs for the handicapped, and in measures to protect the environment, will have the opportunity to defer tax payments (especially on income and property) until a later date, after signing a relevant agreement with the Tax Service. As a result, the investments tax credit mechanism could become a considerable source of support for the regions’ development of the production and scientific potential for the modernization of the economy.?????????? “Currently, bills on additional tax preferences for families with three and more minor children are in the development stages,” said Vasilyev. “The size of the tax rebate could rise to 3,000 rubles per month for each child, starting with the third child. Moreover, taxable income should completely exclude money received to support children or from charitable organizations.”? Autonomous Nonprofit Organization “TV-Novosti”, 2005 - 2011. All rights reserved. Business, Energy or Environmental regulations or discussionsAre Russian IPOs back? 19, 2011As Nord Gold, the gold mining division of Severstal, becomes the fourth Russian company in recent days to announce its intention to list on the London Stock Exchange, the question is: are Russian IPOs really coming back? "PwC has been involved in the three Russian IPOs announced last week, and we are working on a few more deals scheduled for the first half of 2011. With the stock volatility steadily declining since its last peak in May 2010, and coupled with the strong performance from the recent round of Russian listings (mail.ru, O'Key Group, Transcontainer all listed in November 2010, raising $1.8bn, with strong after-market performance) we see the 2011 outlook for the Russian IPOs in London as very positive," says Clifford Tompsett, Head of International IPO Centre at PwC. "While most Russian companies will continue to prefer listing of depositary receipts on the Main Board (with the less onerous requirements it entails), we anticipate that more CIS companies will start choosing "gold-standard" premium listing on the LSE, as they increase their profile and expand internationally. AIM market is expected to continue attracting growing entrepreneurial companies, and particularly mid-size mining and oil & gas companies from Kazakhstan and Russia."Although Asian markets will, no doubt, remain attractive for the issuers from this region, particularly for the ones with a strong nexus to China growth story, we have noticed a certain cooling of interest in HK from the CIS companies, after the mixed success of 2010 IPOs on HKEx. Until HK market becomes more familiar and more comfortable with the CIS companies, we expect that the majority of those planning to access international capital markets will do so in London over the next few years. "Overall, and similar to global macroeconomic trends, we expect the bulk of the activity in London and in the global capital markets to continue coming from the emerging markets, with strong domestic capital raising activity complemented by the emerging market companies seeking international listings on large, well recognised exchanges like the LSE for reasons of higher valuations, better liquidity, political protection and international expansion." Vimpelcom to meet Eurobond investors – source ESTMOSCOW, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Russian mobile company Vimpelcom (VIP.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) will hold meet investors early next week to test the market for a planned Eurobond issue, a banking source told Reuters on Thursday.Vimpelcom, which needs funds for a potential takeover bid worth more than $6 billion for Egyptian company Orascom Telecom (ORTE.CA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Italian group Wind, will meet investors in London on Jan. 24 in London and in New York on Jan. 25 , he said.The company is considering a dollar Eurobond and has chosen Barclays Capital (BARC.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Citi (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) as arrangers, the source said.Vimpelcom was not available to comment. (Reporting by Oksana Kobzeva; Writing by Katya Golubkova; Editing by Dan Lalor) Russia's Norilsk mulls no 2010 dividend-paper Jan 20, 2011 5:44am GMTMOSCOW Jan 20 (Reuters) - Russia's Norilsk Nickel , the world's largest palladium and nickel miner, may drop the dividend payout on its 2010 results as it launched a $4.5 billion share buyback, Russian daily Vedomosti said on Thursday. The paper, citing a source close to the firm's board of directors, said the company is discussing no dividend payout as one of the options. Vedomosti also cited a shareholder source that the Norilsk management has started consultations about the zero dividend with some of the shareholders. (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Dhara Ranasinghe) Goldman Sachs shakes up Moscow leadership again 20, 2011By Ivan Anderzhanov.American investment bank Goldman Sachs is again shaking up its Russian leadership by relocating Paris-based rainmaker Jean Raby to Moscow to co-head its business.Goldman only a year ago named Christopher Barter as a sole-head after sending David Schwimmer to New York.The bank, which is the most successful securities firm on Wall Street, has struggled to match its performance in Russia. It was excluded from last year's roster of banks to handle the sovereign eurobond and has also struggled to make a meaningful impact in advising companies on equity issuance.Raby will run investment banking while Barter will take of securities, according to a company insider.Moscow, Seoul set up LED joint venture 20, 2011 10:27 Moscow TimeRussia and South Korea are going to launch a joint venture to produce LED (light-emitting-diode) lamps in the Amur Region. An agreement to this effect was signed on January 20th in Russia’s Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk.?The project is aimed at implementing President Dmitry Medvedev’s energy efficiency program. Apart from building a factory to recover medical, biological and inductrial waste, South Korea expressed its readiness to invest in the region’s agroindustrial and construction sectors.Russian passenger car sales to increase 20% in 2011 - PWC of new passenger cars in Russia will most likely grow 20% this year to 2.1 million, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) said on Thursday.Under PWC's optimistic prognosis, sales will rise 35% to 2.4 million, the consultant said in a research note.Last year, passenger cars sales increased 30% to 1.76 million. In money terms, sales soared 31% to $33.7 billion in 2010, PWC said on Thursday.PWC figures almost coincided with a forecast by the Ministry for Industry and Trade, which said 2010 sales would amount to 1.75 million cars, a 28.5% growth compared with 2009.Last week the Association of European Businesses' Automobile Manufacturers Committee said that sales of cars and light commercial vehicles, or LCVs, grew 30% in 2010 to 1.9 million compared to 2009.It expects 2011 sales of cars and LCVs in Russia to amount to 2.24 million and reach the pre-crisis level of 2.8-2.9 million in 2012.MOSCOW, January 20 (RIA Novosti)UPDATE 1-DSM, Russia's KA enter automomotive plastics JVs EST* DSM, KuibyshevAzot to co-operate on engineering plastics* Dutch DSM to hold majority stake in two joint ventures(Adds detail)AMSTERDAM, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Dutch DSM (DSMN.AS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Thursday it would take a majority stake in two engineering plastics joint ventures in Russia with KuibyshevAzot (KAZT.RTS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to tap into an expected recovery in the Russian car market.Russia's annual car sales are expected to return to pre-crisis levels of 2.9 million units in 2012, on the back of the government's car scrappage scheme and pent-up demand. [ID:nLDE70C0UX]Russia had been on track to overtake Germany as Europe's biggest car market before the global economic crisis sparked a collapse in sales in 2009.DSM and KuibyshevAzot (KA), a Russian chemicals company, said on Thursday they would set up a marketing and sales joint venture in Russia and other countries in the region, with DSM taking a 51 percent stake.DSM added it will buy 80 percent of an engineering plastics plant located at a KA manufacturing site, but did not disclose the financial details or the capacity of the plant. Engineering plastics are used in the auto industry.The deal, under which DSM will receive royalty income over a period of 15 years, is subject to regulatory approval. The acquisition of the KA plant is expected to be completed in the first quarter. (Reporting by Aaron Gray-Block; Editing by Sara Webb) Private equity firm General Atlantic takes $200M stake in security software vendor Kaspersky Lab 19, 2011 | Dean TakahashiPrivate equity firm General Atlantic has purchased a 20 percent stake in Kaspersky Lab for $200 million. The deal shows that security technology companies are hot and it shows how much value Kaspersky has created in its 13 years as an antivirus software vendor, according to the newspaper Vedomosti (translated via Quintura).General Atlantic bought the stake from Natalya Kaspersky, chairman and co-founder of Kaspersky Lab, which is based in Moscow. The company has more than 300 million users of its antivirus software and other security products. It adds more than 150,000 new users every day. Kaspersky Lab has more than 2,000 employees. General Atlantic will become the second-largest shareholder and will take a board seat. Eugene Kaspersky, chief executive, still owns 50 percent of the company.The company reported revenue of $391 million in 2009 and its revenues grew an estimated 35 percent in 2009. The company is the No. 4 security software vendor, behind Symantec, McAfee and Trend Micro.Yandex's revenue up 43% YoY in 2010 CapitalJanuary 20, 2011Event: Yesterday (19 January), Yandex announced its unaudited 2010 financial results. Revenue grew 43% YoY to reach $410mn, while revenue from contextual advertising, which contributes 88% of the company's total revenue, increased 45% YoY. Having increased its search market share by 5.2 ppts to 64.1% in 2010, Yandex outperformed the online advertising market, which grew 37% YoY in 9M10. We expect the online advertising market to grow 25-30% in 2011. Positive statistics from Yandex are a clear indication of the recovery of the online advertising market and, in our view, other media companies, including Mail.Ru Group, could potentially report better-than-expected results for 2010. David FergusonFor the Record January 2011Yandex, the country’s most-used search engine, said in an e-mailed statement Wednesday that revenue rose 43 percent last year to 12.5 billion rubles ($416.67 million). (Bloomberg)Nord Gold, a unit of billionaire Alexei Mordashov’s steelmaker Severstal, was valued at as much as $5.5 billion by Troika Dialog, which is managing its initial public offering in London. (Bloomberg)Goldman Sachs Group is moving French investment banking chief Jean Raby to Moscow to help oversee its Russian office, said two people with direct knowledge of the transfer. (Bloomberg)Israeli Internet service provider Netvision said it decided to halt its activities in Georgia, saying the decision would lead to a loss of as much as 7 million shekels ($1.96 million). (Bloomberg)Activity in the Oil and Gas sector (including regulatory)Novatek Begins Bond Roadshow ? 2011 Energy Intelligence Group, Inc. ?(click for details)Thursday, January 20, 2011SummaryTop Russian gas independent Novatek will today begin a roadshow for European and US investors as it prepares to sell eurobonds worth up to $1.5 billion to fund merger and acquisition activity. Russian court supported Total in tax dispute The presidium of the Russian Higher Arbitration Court has supported the French company Total’s right to the reimbursement of 336 million RUB in the Kharyaga oil project.The court left unchanged the verdicts of three other courts, newspaper Vedomosti reports. It was the Federal Tax Service in Arkhangelsk Oblast and Nenets AO which demanded that Total pay 336 million RUB in VAT.Total is operator company in the Kharyaga oil field in the far northern Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The project is one of three Russian projects operated on the basis of a Production Sharing Agreement, a principle which grants the company the right not to pay VAT. Partners in the Kharyaga project are besides Total (40%), Statoil (30%), Zarubezhneft (20 %) and the Nenets Oil Company (10%).The sum covers the period May-December 2005.Total is a key foreign investor in Russia. In addition to it engagement in the Kharyaga project, the company also holds a 25 percent state in the Shtokman Development Company. The company also seeks to engage in several other projects, among them in the Termokarstovoye gas condensate project in the Yamal- Nenets regionText: Atle StaalesenRosneft, BP to complete asset swap soon , 20.01.2011, Moscow 10:45:12.Russian oil major Rosneft and UK-based oil company BP are expected to complete an asset swap in three-four weeks, Rosneft President Eduard Khudainatov told reporters yesterday.??????During this time, BP is expected to issue additional shares and Rosneft is expected to buy back a small amount of its own shares as part of the deal, he said. Under their recent agreement, Rosneft will get a 5-percent stake in BP in exchange for its 9.5-percent stake.??????Khudainatov also noted that Rosneft and BP intended to submit proposals on the taxation of their joint venture to develop Russia's Arctic shelf to Russia's Finance Ministry within three weeks.??????According to Khudainatov, Rosneft may take part in BP's projects in other countries, particularly in Asia, and the company is currently discussing the matter with BP. 10:10Rosneft-BP partnership to invest $1 bln-$2 bln in exploration boss Bob Dudley holds talks with TNK-BP Russian oligarchs over Rosneft chief executive of BP has held talks with its Russian oligarch partners about letting them join its ?10bn Arctic deal with a Kremlin-backed company. By Rowena Mason 6:00AM GMT 20 Jan 2011The billionaires, who jointly own TNK-BP with the British oil giant, have claimed they are being left out in the cold by the new alliance with Rosneft and suggested they want to gatecrash the deal. On Wednesday, BP chief Bob Dudley said he had spoken to Mikhail Fridman, the billionaire who leads TNK-BP, on "friendly" terms about the tie-up. "We have an agreement with them to consider them joining anything we do in Russia. So, yes, we're talking with them about them joining the Arctic deal," he told The Daily Telegraph. However, Mr Dudley hinted it may not be possible. "The reality is that there's quite high criteria in terms of spending and expertise. We have to judge whether it fits their objectives,” he added. BP has risked alienating a number of countries and partners in striking the deal with Rosneft. However, neither the City nor the markets have reacted badly to the tie-up, with BP’s share price having risen 1pc to 506p since the deal was unveiled. Over in America, several politicians have raised concerns, apparently on grounds of “national and economic security”, at a time when BP’s reputation has already been harmed by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill last year. However, Mr Dudley brushed off US concerns on Wednesday. “There have been a couple of unusual comments,” he said. “I think most people recognise that a 5pc shareholding will not change our direction. I don’t think it’s going to create difficulties for us. Our commitment to the US is as strong as ever.” Mr Dudley added that most feedback from America had been “very, very thoughtful”. In Britain, Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, has criticised the deal, calling it “worrying”. In addition, Yukos, the company formerly run by jailed oil man Mikhail Khodorkovsky, has fired off a warning to BP shareholders. The company said that BP’s deal with Rosneft is founded on “illegal auctions, bogus bankruptcy fire sales and expropriations”. Rosneft swept up most of the oil fields that had belonged to Yukos after Mr Khodorkovsky had been convicted of fraud and sentenced to nine years in a Siberian jail in 2003. The verdict was widely condemned as unsafe by the international community. The links to Yukos have prompted former Labour foreign minister Chris Bryant to question the role of the UK energy secretary in giving the alliance his blessing. “It is extraordinary that Chris Huhne took part in this,” Mr Bryant said. “If I were the minister, I would want to see the anti-corruption strategy and the environmental impact survey and await the legal ruling on Yukos shareholders.” January 19, 2011, 4:41 pm BP Used Boutique Firm as Adviser on Partnership With Rosneft JULIA WERDIGIERLONDON — In the energy business, companies usually think big. But for a cross-border, multibillion-dollar deal, BP went small, selecting a little-known boutique firm as its sole adviser.Philip S. O. Lambert, a former investment banker, and his firm, Lambert Energy Advisory of London, advised BP on a partnership with Rosneft of Russia to explore the Russian Arctic. The deal, which was announced on Friday, includes a share swap agreement between the companies worth about $7.8 billion.Mr. Lambert, 49, landed the deal because of decades of experience advising companies in the oil and gas industry and his connections in Russia, said a person familiar with the transaction who declined to be identified for fear of upsetting him.BP usually uses its own mergers and acquisitions department to structure and execute deals. But it has increasingly sought help from outside financial advisers since coming under pressure to find buyers for a range of assets to pay expenses related to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year.Among others, the company hired Standard Chartered Bank to advise on the sale of assets in North America and Egypt to the Apache Corporation. It also took strategic advice from Goldman Sachs and the Blackstone Group after the spill.But for the deal with Rosneft, BP shunned the large investment banks.Even after the BP deal and having advised giants like Gazprom and Royal Dutch Shell in the past, Mr. Lambert prefers to remain under the radar.When asked about his work on Thursday, he said simply, “I don’t like talking about myself.” He said his advisory firm had worked with BP in the past but gave no other details.Lambert Energy Advisory’s links with BP include Jeremy Q. Greenstock, who joined the advisory boutique as a consultant in July. Mr. Greenstock, 67, is a former British envoy in Baghdad and worked as a diplomat in Saudi Arabia and Dubai. He has also been a special adviser for BP.Mr. Lambert started his career as an oil analyst for a British stockbroker in the 1980s before moving to Kleinwort Benson, the British merchant bank. Kleinwort had just established itself as a specialist in privatizations after helping Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s government sell assets, including British Telecom.After the fall of Communism in 1989, the bank and Mr. Lambert’s expertise in such transactions was much sought after by Russia. Mr. Lambert started to work closely with Russia’s gas monopoly, Gazprom, on several transactions, including selling shares to foreign investors.Mr. Lambert left Kleinwort in 1999 to found his advisory firm. The firm operates from a fourth-floor office in the stylish Mayfair district in London and has about 15 employees. It had a profit of ?1.4 million, or $2.2 million, in 2009, according to public filings at Companies House.Lambert Energy Advisory advised the Norwegian government on the privatization of Statoil and Petronas of Malaysia on a partnership deal in Egypt in 2005.Other directors at Lambert Energy Advisory include Alexander Landia, chairman of the Siberian Coal and Energy Company and a former investment banking colleague of Mr. Lambert’s, and Tore I. Sandvold, member of the board at oil-field services provider Schlumberger.BP–Rosneft Deal: Beyond Energy By Ariel Cohen On January 19, 2011 @ 4:00 pm In American Leadership | No CommentsOn January 15, British Petroleum (BP) agreed to form a joint venture with Russia’s state-owned Rosneft to develop three of Rosneft’s offshore exploration blocks in northern Russia. The two companies will jointly explore for oil and gas in the Russian Arctic, one of the world’s last remaining unexplored hydrocarbon basins. HYPERLINK "" Rosneft will receive BP shares equivalent to a 5 percent stake, valued at $7.8 billion, while BP will receive a 9.5 percent stake in Rosneft, in addition to the 1.3 percent it already owns. [2]Hailed by First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, Putin’s key ally, the deal is a ground-breaking step in the global oil market and makes Russian state-owned giant Rosneft, which Sechin chairs, the single largest BP shareholder [3].Since 1997, BP has had the longest presence as a Western oil company operating in the Russian energy market. In 2003, BP established its Russian joint-venture, TNK-BP, the largest foreign investment in Russia, a result of the merger of Russian companies TNK, SIDANKO, and Onako with the majority of BP’s Russian oil assets. The company was 50 percent owned by BP and 50 percent by a group of Russia-connected investors: Alfa Group, Access Industries, and Renova (AAR).That partnership ended in tears: TNK-BP lost its ownership over the giant Kovykta field in eastern Siberia to Gazprom. The Russian billionaires who own AAR pushed Robert Dudley, the current CEO of BP, out of the country and installed Maxim Barsky, a man to their liking, in his place.The Kremlin-controlled Rosneft has grown to be an oil giant because of the company’s ownership by the Government of Russia (GOR). In 2003, following drummed-up tax claims, the GOR presented YUKOS—once Russia’s biggest publicly traded oil company, controlled by Mikhail Khodorkovsky—with a series of tax claims that amounted to $27 billion. In a non-competitive, tightly state-run auction, Rosneft acquired ownership of YUKOS’s principal oil producing entity, Yuganskneftegaz. These assets were essentially expropriated by the Kremlin after YUKOS’s breakup. Khodorkovsky was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2005 and again to 14 years in December 2010. The majority of legal experts agree that there was no sufficient evidence against YUKOS’s owner to convict in both cases, and the harsh prosecutions were political.The Council of Europe has condemned Russia’s campaign against YUKOS and its owners as manufactured for political reasons and a violation of human rights. [4] Sechin, the chairman of Rosneft, was the political power in charge of the YUKOS breakup.The top tier of the Russian political leadership and Russia’s state-owned energy companies (often referred to as Russia’s “national champions”) enjoy a close, mutually beneficial relationship where the Kremlin insiders and top managers of energy firms operate under an opaque system of sharing political and commercial incentives. No major deal in the Russian energy market happens without a prior Kremlin approval.For Rosneft, the Friday’s agreement is a lucrative opportunity to pick up BP shares while the prices are still depressed following the Deepwater Horizon disaster last year. The deal also grants Rosneft much-needed technology and expertise in offshore development. While BP gets Rosneft stock, which is underperforming, it also gets access to much-needed barrels in the ground—for now. Russia is a harsh place for oil companies. But there is more.The deal may have a number of negative political ramifications. First, allowing Rosneft, a Russian state-controlled company, to become its second largest shareholder of BP—which provides one pound sterling out of every three to the British pension funds—would create additional leverage for the Russian government in the United Kingdom. Second, it leverages Russian influence in those numerous countries where BP is active. Last but not least, BP may share ownership in the allegedly illegally appropriated assets from YUKOS, which Rosneft acquired for less-than-market price valuations and are tied up in litigation in Europe and against which U.S. YUKOS shareholders may have claims.Oil, like politics, makes strange bedfellows, and, the BP–Rosneft deal is the latest example. According to the international watchdog Transparency International, Russia is notoriously corrupt [5]. Oil companies, which owe fiduciary duty to their shareholders, have to follow the caveat emptor dictum when getting in bed with Russia’s strongmen and the state-owned corporations they control.Transneft Castigates Foreigners and Nazis January 2011By Howard AmosTransneft, the state-owned pipeline company, hit back at critics Wednesday with a stinging personal attack on campaigning blogger Alexei Navalny and criticism of foreign governments that, it alleges, sought to disrupt an oil link to the Pacific Ocean. “What’s all the hype about a Nazi?” Transneft spokesman Igor Dyomin told The Moscow Times, in a reference to Navalny and his expulsion from the Yabloko political party in 2007 for alleged nationalist activities. “We have enough problems in Russia without the Nazis.”He added that although he couldn’t see any anti-Semitism in Navalny, “Nazism there is.”In November, Navalny published a document from the Audit Chamber on his LiveJournal blog that he claimed proved Transneft’s guilt in the theft of $4 billion from the construction of the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline, or ESPO, the first stage of which was completed last year. Transneft’s president Nikolai Tokarev also criticized Navalny. “You know how they settle accounts in the countryside. They find the village idiot, give him three kopeks and he runs around all day saying what he was told. In the evening the whole village conducts a retrial,” he said on state-owned channel Rossia-24. “That’s exactly how Navalny acts.”“That’s ridiculous,” Navalny said by e-mail. “They call me a village idiot, and then they call me a Nazi. I wonder if they are going to comment on the Transneft report that I’ve published? OK, I’m Nazi, but where is the stolen money?”Tokarev said, however, that Navalny was just one part of the wider problem of an “information war” against Transneft. The ESPO is a “serious and powerful corridor to East Asia and the Pacific Ocean” he said. “Such Russian ambitions did not suit a lot of people.”The 4,070-kilometer ESPO pipeline will be the world’s longest when its second stage is completed in 2013. At a cost of $25 billion it is the biggest infrastructure project of post-Soviet Russia. “We have created serious political and economic advantages for Russia,” Tokarev said. He claimed that several foreign governments aimed to stall the ESPO, held meetings with social and ecological groups opposed to the construction of the ESPO in the far eastern region of Sakha and then financed those groups to obstruct Transneft’s work. On his blog, Navalny wrote that Tokarev’s words were typical of the “we steal, we thieve and then we accuse all the enemies of Russia” mentality.Dyomin declined to identify which foreign governments or social organizations Tokarev was talking about. “We consider it all in the past because the pipeline has now been built,” he said.Then-President Vladimir Putin ordered the rerouting of the ESPO away from Lake Baikal in 2006. As a result, the pipeline was built through Sakha, leading to conflict between the company and nongovernmental organizations in the area. Valentina Dmitriyeva, a representative of the coalition Our House is Yakutia, an informal grouping of registered and nonregistered organizations that campaigned against the ESPO, said by telephone that the “pronouncements of the head of Transneft do not correspond to reality.”She cited the case of the protests against the construction of the ESPO’s crossing of the Lena River in summer 2008 which, she said, far from being funded from abroad actually received a presidential grant for 100,000 rubles ($3,400) from the Public Chamber. Transneft did not use the under-river tunnel for the ESPO crossing of the Lena that protestors demanded, but reserve pipelines currently under construction will employ this technology.Alexei Knizhnikov, head of WWF Russia’s oil and gas environment policy, said the protests in Sakha were not opposed to the ESPO on principal, but were just “trying to force Transneft to follow best practice.”He added that it was possible that some international donors financed NGO activity in Sakha but that he couldn’t imagine in what country’s interest it would be to block pipeline construction in eastern Russia. “China is very involved in [the ESPO] and the U.S. and Japan receive oil from it,” he said. “Everybody gets some kind of hydrocarbons from Russia.”ONGC expresses interest in expanding its presence in Russia; ready to buy a stake in a state-owned company CapitalJanuary 20, 2011Event: Yesterday (19 January), Indian newspaper Mint quoted an unidentified executive from ONGC Videsh saying that his company would be interested in acquiring a strategic equity stake in one of Russia's state-owned companies, such as Rosneft or Zarubezhneft, in exchange for participation in upstream projects in Russia. Action: Positive for sentiment towards the whole Russian oil sector, in our view. Rationale: ONGC has been trying to expand its presence in Russia for a few years, having acquired a 20% stake in Sakhalin-1, 100% of Imperial Energy and about 1% of Rosneft (during the IPO). Last year the company also made a bid for the Trebs and Titov fields and signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Sistema on a potential merger of oil business units in Russia, so these comments are not surprising. The broader implications, in our view, are that there are probably active negotiations taking place behind the scenes between international oil companies and the Russian government about participation in various projects. Last month various sources reported that ExxonMobil is interested in the joint development of offshore projects with Rosneft, and that the latter apparently suggested cooperation with Gazprom in some of the Far Eastern offshore blocks in Russia. The Russian oil sector has lagged the broader stock market and remains significantly undervalued compared with international peers, mainly due to weak investment sentiment. In our view, increased competition among foreign majors for participation in Russian projects could be the important catalyst that would change the sentiment and bring the Russian oil sector back into the spotlight. Ildar DavletshinLUKOIL to create joint venture by the end of this year to develop the Black Sea CapitalJanuary 20, 2011News: According to Kommersant, LUKOIL plans to create a joint venture with Ukrainian Chernomorneftegaz (a subsidiary of Naftogaz Ukraine) by the end of this year to develop oil and gas fields in the Black Sea. The reserves have not yet been confirmed. The paper speculates that in 5-7 years, LUKOIL might produce 2-3mmtn of oil and 7-10bcm of gas from these fields. Our View: The project might add 2-3% to the company's crude production in 2015-17, which is marginal. In terms of international expansion, LUKOIL is currently concentrating on developing its West Qurna-2 project in Iraq, Cape Three Points Deep Water in Ghana and the CI-205,101,401 blocks in Cote d'Ivoire. The company's other important international goal is to agree price conditions with China in order to increase its gas production in Uzbekistan, where the company currently produces around 3bcm (with the possibility to increase this volumes up to 20bcm). Lev SnykovEDC in talks with Transocean on acquiring Caspian offshore drilling platform BankJanuary 20, 2011EDC is in talks with Transocean on acquiring the Trident XX offshore drilling platform in the Caspian Sea for a price tag of $260m, according to Vedomosti, citing an EDC press release. The deal may close as early as January 31. The rig is currently leased by Petronas, which is conducting exploration work in the Turkmen area of the Caspian. EDC is unlikely to alter this arrangement, at least for the next couple of years until the contract with Petronas expires, after which there is likely to be significant demand for the rig from other Caspian players, potentially LUKoil and Dragon Oil. Leasing rates for the rig have not been disclosed; however, we note that the Caspian region has a major shortage of rigs and rates are near historical highs. We therefore welcome the deal and EDC's continuing efforts to diversify from its core onshore business with LUKoil. Pavel SorokinAustrian OMV Helped Russian Surgut Launch Takeover Attempt Against Hungarian MOL 19, 2011Vladimir SocorTwo parallel court proceedings in Vienna have confirmed that Austrian OMV and Russian Surgut Neftegaz had coordinated their hostile takeover attempts against Hungarian MOL.The Austrian and the Russian company were targeting MOL’s oil-refining business, which is recognized as the most efficient in Central Europe. The US investment bank J.P. Morgan helped broker the Surgut-OMV deal, enabling Surgut to pursue its own hostile attempts against MOL to this day, after OMV had desisted.The Vienna proceedings are ongoing before a criminal court and an administrative court, with OMV’s CEO, Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer, at the center of both cases. Both stem from OMV’s 2009 sale of its 21 percent stake in MOL to Surgut. In the criminal case, the Vienna Prosecutor’s Office has charged Ruttenstorfer with insider trading, based on the conclusion of the Austrian Financial Markets Supervisory Agency’s (FMA) 2010 investigation. In the administrative court, Ruttenstorfer is charged with misleading investors by withholding information about the imminent OMV-Surgut deal.According to Austrian and international media reports, court testimonies from three OMV board members have confirmed the earlier circumstantial evidence about OMV-Surgut collusion against MOL, and provided additional information in this regard. The investigation and the court testimonies have pieced together a detailed chronology of the affair (Dow Jones Newswires, January 12; Der Standard, January 13; MTI, January 14).OMV had long been interested in the Slovnaft refinery in Bratislava, owned by MOL (following a privatization tender which OMV had lost). The Austrian company considered a two-stage deal, whereby OMV would sell its 21 percent MOL stake to Surgut, with an option for OMV to buy back Slovnaft later from Surgut’s hands.On March 14, 2009, Ruttenstorfer met with Surgut executives and a J.P. Morgan executive in Vienna. They broached a possible sale of OMV’s 21 percent stake in MOL (by far the single largest stake in the Hungarian company) to Surgut.On March 16, OMV top management started drafting the terms of a deal with the Russian company. On March 18, nevertheless, Ruttenstorfer granted an interview to Profil, an influential Vienna weekly, firmly ruling out a sale of OMV’s MOL shares during 2009 at least.On March 22, the J.P. Morgan executive notified OMV that Surgut wishes to complete the sale-and-purchase of the MOL stake quickly.On March 23, Ruttenstorfer’s denial of intent to sell was published in Profil. On that same day, Ruttenstorfer purchased 620,000 Euros (almost $ 900,000) worth of OMV shares (duly notified, and as part of the company’s executive compensation program).On March 26, Ruttenstorfer flew to Moscow for negotiations with Surgut. That meeting seemed to have ended without an immediate result.On March 29, however, a late-night meeting also in Moscow clinched the outcome. On March 30, OMV and Surgut stunned the markets (and shocked Hungary) with the announcement that the MOL stake had changed hands for $1.9 billion (1.4 billion Euros), contrary to OMV’s many previous denials of any such intent in Hungary. Moreover, Surgut paid to OMV almost double the value held by those same shares on the stock exchange on the eve of the announcement.Surgut ruled out the option for OMV to buy back Slovnaft from the Russian company. Apparently, Surgut coveted MOL’s highly efficient oil-refining business undivided. This probably explains Surgut’s extraordinary overpayment to OMV for those shares.The market reacted by lifting OMV’s share price, thus boosting the value of shares that Ruttenstorfer had acquired a few days earlier. This provided a basis for the FMA financial regulator agency’s investigation and the prosecutor’s case in court. If found guilty, the OMV CEO faces possible fines, not imprisonment. Ruttenstorfer’s mandate as company chief is due to expire in 2011 in any case, while both Ruttenstorfer and the OMV board have denied any wrongdoing in this connection (EDM, November 19, 2010).However minor, the personal episode helped expose far larger issues of energy policy, strategic business, and public interest behind this case, affecting several Central European countries within the European Union.OMV instantly approved the deal as a straight business matter, apparently without regard to the multiple adverse ramifications: for fellow-EU member Hungary, energy supply security in Central Europe, and the integrity of the legal and regulatory environment in EU territory. J.P. Morgan mediated the deal also without apparent regard to such considerations. The proposed OMV-Surgut buy-back option (a swap deal) would have resulted in a breakup of MOL between Surgut and OMV. The 21 percent stake, currently in Surgut’s hands after its deal with OMV, enables the Kremlin-connected Surgut to exert pressure on MOL and Hungary.While the OMV-Surgut collusion may not in itself have broken existing laws, it demonstrates the hostile nature of the takeover attempt, as well as OMV’s apparent readiness to become a stalking horse for Surgut in Hungary. Both OMV and Surgut had all along denied any hostile intentions regarding MOL; but the testimonies in the Vienna court cases show the opposite.Russian energy companies have acquired major oil-industry assets in EU countries during the financial crisis (Germany and the Netherlands), and are considering more (Poland and Lithuania). Hungary is defending itself successfully thus far. Surgut and the Russian government are asking the European Commission to intercede for legalizing Surgut’s stake in MOL. The EU needs to take a stand against such predatory takeovers in EU territory.Source: 09:08 ? CNPC, Gazprom close to consensus on gas deliveries to China (repeat) and CNPC closer positions when discussing the technical parameters of gas supply to China TRANSLATION19.01.2011 15:20 As part of Firefox (the Roadmap) to an agreement in June 2009, the Russian-Chinese memorandum on cooperation in natural gas, in Sanya of China (PRC) held another round of commercial negotiations between Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) the organization of Russian natural gas supplies to China. Gazprom delegation was headed by Deputy Chairman Alexander Medvedev, China - Vice President of CNPC Van Duntszin. The parties continued to work on the basis of expanded core terms of gas supplies from Russia to China and much closer positions when discussing the technical parameters of the supply chain. Were also reviewed options for financing the project of Russian gas supplies to the "Western" route (the Altai project), which could further increase the performance of its economic efficiency. According to the results of negotiations is defined schedule a joint work of Russian and Chinese experts in preparation for the next round of talks to be held in St. Petersburg in March.Gazprom in talks to buy into Isramco gas licenses Russian giant is not deterred by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's support for the Sheshinski committee recommendations.19 January 11 15:18, Koby YeshayahouAt least one major international natural gas company is apparently undeterred by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statement that he will support the Sheshinski committee recommendations and the warnings by Israeli oil and gas exploration companies and investors that foreign energy companies will abandon the country. Sources inform ''Globes'' that Russia's OAO Gazprom (Nasdaq: OZGPY; LSE: OGZD; DAX: GAZ; RTS: GAZP) is in talks with Isramco Ltd. (Nasdaq: ISRL; TASE: ISRA.L) to acquire part of the rights in its gas licenses. Isramco owns 28.7% of the Tamar gas field, which is due to begin gas deliveries to Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) (TASE: ELEC.B22) in the first half of 2013. Isramco also owns rights in the Shimshon and Daniel offshore licenses. Analysis of the 3D seismic survey of Shimshon points to 1.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas with a 15% chance of geological success. The results of the seismic survey of the Daniel license have not yet been published. Isramco CEO Yossi Levy told "Globes", "According to the markets, Gazprom is in talks with all the companies. We neither confirm nor deny rumors." In the past, the Russian media has reported that Gazprom was considering acquiring stakes in Ratio Oil Exploration (1992) LP's (TASE:RATI.L) Gal licenses, but nothing ever came of it. Isramco's share price fell 6.2% by mid-afternoon on the TASE today to NIS 0.394, giving a market cap of NIS 4.76 billion. Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - globes- - on January 19, 2011 ? Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2011What's in it for Gazprom?'s entry into the Israeli market has far-reaching political and strategic implications.19 January 11 15:21, Koby YeshayahouIn late November 2010, the Russian media quoted OAO Gazprom (Nasdaq: OZGPY; LSE: OGZD; DAX: GAZ; RTS: GAZP) executives as saying that the company was considering entering the Israeli market. One report said that Gazprom wanted to buy up to 50% of a private gas exploration company. Following the reports, executives of Israeli oil exploration companies held meetings with Gazprom executives in London and Moscow. The big question is what Gazprom's objectives are. The main concern of Israel's energy executives is that Gazprom wants to block their ambitions to export natural gas to Europe. Gazprom is the world's largest natural gas company. Other top global energy companies, such as Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) and Royal Dutch Shell plc (NYSE: RDS; LSE: RDSA), still avoid the Israeli market, because of concerns about Arab reaction, but Gazprom is not worried about any boycott. It has a monopoly on Russia's natural gas transportation, and owns the world's largest natural gas reserves. Gazprom's entry into the Israeli market has far-reaching political and strategic implications. It is not only a huge energy company; its top executives are also Russia's leaders. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was Gazprom's CEO before taking up his new job. Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - globes- - on January 19, 2011 ? Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2011 ................
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