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Basic Political Developments
• RFE/RL: Clinton Urges Closer Cooperation Between NATO And Russia
• RIA: NATO not a threat to Russia — U.S. State Secretary Clinton
• Russia Today: “NATO no challenge to Russian security” – Clinton
• Bloomberg: Clinton Calls for Closer NATO-Russian Cooperation (Update1)
• : Remarks at the NATO Strategic Concept Seminar
• Zeenews: NATO is not an enemy of Russia: Alliance chief - "I would very much like to see the US missile defence system, NATO missile defence system, and a Russian missile defence system with the aim to coordinate a common shield against hostile missiles," he said yesterday.
• Trend.az: Former U.S representative to UN: U.S. will not take any steps to resolve frozen conflicts in post-Soviet countries - The U.S. will not take any steps to resolve the frozen conflicts in the post-Soviet countries, former U.S permanent representative to the United Nations, who is recently serving at American Enterprise Institute, John R. Bolton, said.
• Sofia Echo: Former ambassador Beyrle's father honoured in Moscow
• Russia Today: WWII hero awarded on Fatherland Day - There are still over half a million veterans who have not received their awards, and for the soldiers and their families it is an important recognition of the bravery of the men who fought so hard for their country.
• RIA: Presidential spokesman beaten in Nazran, Ingushetia
• Gazeta.kz: CIS interstate free trade zone agreement will be prepared
• Gazeta.kz: Kazakhstan delegation to take part in session of Customs Union Commission in Moscow
• Kyiv Post: Belarus Ministry: Ukraine's joining Customs Union could be considered after official request
• Gazeta.kz: Customs Union Commission to consider a package of amendments to Customs Code
• Apa.az: OSCE Minsk Group Russian co-chair can be appointed ambassador to Estonia
• RFE/RL: Russian Military Families In Kyrgyzstan To Return Home
• Associated Press: Russia helps Europe's space business - The European Space Agency, whose budget is one third the size of NASA's, and its commercial arm Arianespace, are buying the updated Soviet-era technology because it offers the medium capacity launcher Europe lacks for a fraction of the price of developing its own.
• Flight Global: HELI-EXPO: Russian helicopter industry continues to chalk up rapid growth - Helicopter Industry Association of Russia president Mikhail Kazachkov said during a briefing at Heli-Expo 2010 in Houston that Russian manufacturers were able to produce a total of 186 helicopters in 2009. This is a 9% increase compared with the 169 helicopters produced in 2008.
• World Nuclear News: Russia welcomes EU cooperation talks - The Russian government is welcoming anticipated talks with the European Union (EU) to negotiate a nuclear partnership agreement that would facilitate nuclear trade and exchange of knowledge on safety issues.
• Bellona: PRESS-RELEASE: Bellona urges Rosatom head to expedite Lepse decommissioning
• This is London: Russian cash to keep HMS Belfast shipshape - Russian firms are coming to the aid of HMS Belfast, the former Royal Navy cruiser docked near Tower Bridge.
• The Jamestown Foundation: Russia’s Military Doctrine: New Dangers Appear
• Georgian Daily: ‘Hidden Hunger’ an Increasing Problem for Russia, Experts Say - While few people in Russia are starving, many are not getting the vitamins and minerals they need because, as a result of declining incomes, they are forced to stop purchasing fruits, vegetables, and meat, something officials do not want to discuss but that experts say constitutes “hidden hunger” among many groups in the population.
• Russia Today: Cinema powers up as Russians take time off - Extended holidays make the first quarter of the year one of the least productive periods for the Russian economy. But box-office records are being broken at Russian cinemas as Russian relax on the days off.
• RIA: Moscow workers dig deep in snowiest February for 40 years
• RFE/RL: Russian Left-Wing Party Holds Founding Congress
• Russia Today: ROAR: “Billboards will not improve Stalin’s role in history”
National Economic Trends
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Business, Energy or Environmental regulations or discussions
• Russia Today: Andrei Kostin on VTB and Russian banking - VTB head, Andrei Kostin, is in London with an eye to making investments abroad and spoke exclusively to RT Business. RT began by asking if the bank was in a good position to invest given it will post a loss for 2009.
• Netimperative: Russia search market review: Google on the rise but Yandex rules the roost
Activity in the Oil and Gas sector (including regulatory)
• SE Times: Moscow reaps fruit of long-term plan - Since 1998, when Lukoil set up shop in Bulgaria, Russia has slowly increased its presence and influence in Balkan energy markets by buying companies throughout the region.
• Trend.az: Next international Caspian oil and gas trading and transport conference to be held in Aktau
Gazprom
• BarentsObserver: SDAG: “Shtokman is technically viable”
• China CSR: Citigroup And Gazprom Pioneer Energy-credit Deal In China
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Full Text Articles
Basic Political Developments
RFE/RL: Clinton Urges Closer Cooperation Between NATO And Russia
February 23, 2010
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said Russia and NATO should cooperate more closely to combat growing transnational threats like nuclear proliferation, terrorism, piracy, and cyber security.
In a speech late on February 22 in Washington on the future of the trans-Atlantic military alliance, Clinton rejected Moscow's push a new European security treaty -- which Washington believes would reduce NATO's influence around the world -- and proposed instead that Russia move closer to NATO.
"Let me state this unambiguously: While Russia faces challenges to its security, NATO is not among them," Clinton said. "We want a cooperative NATO-Russia relationship that produces concrete results and draws NATO and Russia closer together."
As NATO has expanded eastward in recent years, to include the Baltics and some Balkan states, Russia has viewed its growth with deep suspicion.
Moscow strongly opposes NATO's plan to offer membership to Georgia and Ukraine, which it regards as still part of its sphere of influence.
Russia has also bristled anew at U.S. plans to build part of its missile defense system in Romania, after scrapping plans to do so in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Since coming into office, President Barack Obama has pursued a path of "resetting" U.S. relations with Russia, which suffered after the short war between Russia and Georgia in 2008.
On February 22, Clinton acknowledged Russia's anger over the Romania site but went a step further than offering the usual reassuring words that the system is not aimed at Moscow.
"Just as Russia is an important partner in efforts to prevent nuclear proliferation, so should it be in missile defense. And we invite Russia to join NATO in developing a missile defense system that can protect all citizens of Europe and Russia," Clinton said.
Clinton also sent a message to Russia that the United States remains committed to European security despite the fact that its attention is being pulled away by events in Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, and even China.
A few months ago, Clinton's deputy, Assistant Secretary for European Affairs Phillip Gordon, reassured a group of European reporters that the United States "continues to stand by our friends in Europe even as we hope to build a much more trusting and useful relationship with Russia."
In her speech, Clinton joined that message with her own, which was that Europe stands to benefit from a closer NATO-Russia relationship.
"European security will benefit if NATO and Russia are more open about our armaments, our military facilities and our exercises," Clinton said. "NATO and Russia should have a regular exchange of information on posture, doctrine, and planned military exercises, as well as specific measures to permit observation of military exercises and to allow visits to new or significantly improved military installations."
She also urged NATO to rethink its guiding doctrine of "strategic concept" to reflect the new threats faced by its 28 member countries.
The guiding principles of NATO's mission are still relevant, but the alliance's method must change, she said.
"Success in a protracted struggle is not simply a matter of having more troops or better equipment. It's also a function of how effectively you adapt to new circumstances," Clinton said. "You don't win by fighting the last war. NATO cannot continue to succeed by looking in the rearview mirror."
Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, is leading a group of experts in the task of updating NATO's strategic concept, which was last reworked in 1999.
The new version is set to be adopted at a NATO summit in Lisbon in November.
compiled from agency reports
RIA: NATO not a threat to Russia — U.S. State Secretary Clinton
05:3123/02/2010
NATO's expansion does not threaten Russia, the U.S. state secretary said in a speech on the alliance's mission on Monday.
"While Russia faces challenges to its security, NATO is not among them," Hillary Clinton said, disagreeing with Russia's new military doctrine that lists NATO's eastward expansion as a threat to the country's security.
Since the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, NATO has expanded from 12 members to 28, absorbing the majority of Moscow's Cold War allies in Eastern Europe and some former Soviet republics.
Clinton also said she wants "a cooperative NATO-Russia relationship that produces concrete results and draws NATO and Russia closer together."
Russia's new military doctrine approved by President Dmitry Medvedev earlier in February also includes the possibility of using of nuclear weapons by Russia and lists U.S. anti-missile shield plans as a national threat.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen took over at the Western military bloc last year pledging to improve ties with Moscow, which were frozen after Russia's five-day war with Georgia in 2008. Russia and NATO have since resumed formal contacts.
Improvements in Russia-NATO relations have been helped by a course towards "resetting" thorny relations between Moscow and Washington taken by Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama.
WASHINGTON, February 23 (RIA Novosti)
Russia Today: “NATO no challenge to Russian security” – Clinton
23 February, 2010, 07:55
Washington has strongly urged Moscow not to view NATO as a major threat to its security. The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made the statement at an international seminar on NATO's mission for the 21st Century.
She said Russia and the Alliance should forge closer and more trustworthy relations.
“Let me state unambiguously, while Russia faces challenges to its security, NATO is not among them. We want a cooperative NATO-Russia relationship that produces concrete results and draws NATO and Russia closer together,” Clinton outlined.
“I think one of our tasks in the next years is to convince Russia that NATO enlargement is not a threat to Russia, not the 21st Century Russia, not Russia which has a lot of other pressing needs and concerns – some of them being threats coming from other sources, certainly not from NATO,” she said.
Earlier, Moscow expressed grave concern over NATO's new strategy on further expansion and its global geopolitical aims.
“Cold war stereotypes remain strong in Euro-Atlantic policies, NATO is continuing its expansion at the same time as it's developing a new strategy. One strategy option would see NATO have global reach and the possibility to use force worldwide. This doesn’t exactly comply with the UN charter, and of course we are worried,” stated Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on February 18.
Russia's newly-adopted military doctrine states the Alliance is the chief source of danger to the security of the country with its ever changing plans on its missile defense shield being installed close to the Russian border.
But in her address, Hillary Clinton called for more openness about the military capabilities of both sides.
“European security will benefit if NATO and Russia are more open about our armaments, our military facilities and our military exercises. NATO and Russia should have a regular exchange of information on posture, doctrine and planned military exercises, as well as specific measures to permit observation of military exercises and to allow visits to new or significantly improved military installations,” the US Secretary of State believes.
Bloomberg: Clinton Calls for Closer NATO-Russian Cooperation (Update1)
February 23, 2010, 01:48 AM EST
By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan
Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Russia to collaborate with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on the missile defense of Europe and in preventing the spread of nuclear weapons.
“While Russia faces challenges to its security, NATO is not among them,” Clinton said in Washington yesterday. “We want a cooperative NATO-Russia relationship that produces concrete results and draws NATO and Russia closer.”
Her comments came NATO representatives convene a meeting today to discuss updating the “strategic concept” of the 61- year-old military alliance among the U.S., Europe and Canada.
“Just as Russia is an important partner in efforts to prevent nuclear proliferation, so should it be in missile defense,” she said in remarks at an event hosted by the Atlantic Council, a Washington policy group.
Clinton urged Russia to be part of the discussion of missile defense for Europe during a stop last month in Paris. “Missile defense, we believe, will make this continent a safer place,” Clinton said then. “That safety could extend to Russia, if Russia decides to cooperate with us.”
Asked by an audience member yesterday if she could imagine Russia someday becoming part of NATO, she replied, “I can imagine it but I’m not sure the Russians can imagine it.”
Main Challenges
In her prepared remarks, Clinton called terrorist attacks and nuclear proliferation the “key challenges” to NATO, which she called the “most successful alliance in history.”
“The danger of a nuclear attack from a non-state actor has increased,” she said. She also said that missile development by North Korea and Iran “are reviving the specter of an interstate nuclear attack.”
Clinton called for NATO allies to focus on emerging threats, including cyber warfare, and to cooperate with private industry in protecting computer networks and energy infrastructure.
“Threats to our networks and infrastructure such as cyber attacks and energy disruptions” will require “close cooperation with the private sector,” she said. “The Alliance has taken preliminary steps such as agreeing to a cyber defense policy. But we must continue to keep pace with the evolution of these emerging dangers.”
NATO is working on a strategy document that will set priorities for the next decade. The previous “strategic concept” dates to 1999, before the Sept. 11 attacks and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Heads of NATO’s 28 governments plan to agree on an updated version at a summit in November.
EU Relationship
Clinton said that in the past, the U.S. has been “ambivalent” about whether NATO should engage in security cooperation with the European Union. “That time is over. We do not see the EU as a competitor of NATO; we see a strong Europe as an essential partner,” she said.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has accused NATO of violating a 1998 pledge not to permanently station “substantial combat forces” on former Warsaw Pact territory.
NATO absorbed former Soviet allies starting in 1999 -- including three former Soviet republics, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania -- at a time when a Russia shorn of its Cold War satellites was struggling to regain its economic footing after defaulting on $40 billion of debt.
Under Putin since 2000, energy-rich Russia has seized on an oil price that peaked at $147 per barrel in July 2008 to revive its economy and gain leverage over oil- and gas-importing states in Europe.
Russia pushed back against further NATO enlargement with its 2008 invasion of Western-leaning Georgia and attempts to reassert control over Ukraine.
‘Real Differences’
“We have real differences with Russia on several issues,” Clinton said, adding that the U.S. wants to use the NATO-Russia Council to discuss those disagreements, including pressing “Russia to live up to its commitments on Georgia.”
In a speech in Paris on Jan. 29, Clinton dismissed two Russian initiatives seen as a bid to boost Russian influence over countries once part of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact and to halt NATO expansion, and rejected a call for new treaties.
“The United States does not see the need for new treaties and we believe discussions of European security should take place within existing forums for European security,” Clinton said yesterday.
Clinton also called for bureaucratic reform of NATO. Its headquarters, she said, “is bulging with over 300 committees, many with overlapping responsibilities.”
She said that “in a time of limited resources, NATO must improve its efficiency if it is to successfully carry out its vital missions.”
--With assistance from James Neuger in Brussels. Editors: Don Frederick, Paul Tighe
To contact the reporter on this story: Indira Lakshmanan at +1-202-654-1277 in Washington or ilakshmanan@
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jim Kirk at +1-202-654-4315 in Washington or jkirk12@
[pic] : Remarks at the NATO Strategic Concept Seminar
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Ritz-Carlton Hotel
Washington, DC
February 22, 2010
Zeenews: NATO is not an enemy of Russia: Alliance chief
Updated on Tuesday, February 23, 2010, 10:31 IST
Washington: Russia has nothing to fear from NATO, and a Kremlin military document naming the alliance's expansion as a key threat is unfounded, said NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
"I don't think this doctrine, this statement, reflects the real world," Rasmussen said.
"NATO is not an enemy of Russia, NATO has no intention whatsoever to attack Russia."
Earlier in February, the Kremlin published a strategy paper listing first among "chief outside military threats" the fact that NATO is attempting to "globalise its functions in contravention of international law."
Rasmussen said he wanted to see better cooperation between NATO and Russia on a range of issues of mutual concern, including Afghanistan and the development of a missile defence shield.
"I would very much like to see the US missile defence system, NATO missile defence system, and a Russian missile defence system with the aim to coordinate a common shield against hostile missiles," he said yesterday.
Russia has clashed with the United States and a number of European countries over plans to establish a missile defence shield that Moscow says is targeted at its soil.
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NATO and the US deny that, saying the shield is intended to counter the threat posed by Iranian weapons systems.
Rasmussen acknowledged disagreements between the Atlantic alliance and Russia, particularly over Georgia, but said cooperation was still possible if Moscow was willing.
PTI
Trend.az: Former U.S representative to UN: U.S. will not take any steps to resolve frozen conflicts in post-Soviet countries
23.02.2010 12:43
U.S, Washington, Feb. 23 / Trend News N. Bogdanova /
The U.S. will not take any steps to resolve the frozen conflicts in the post-Soviet countries, former U.S permanent representative to the United Nations, who is recently serving at American Enterprise Institute, John R. Bolton, said.
"If you look at the Obama's policy towards Russia so far, I think the U.S will try not to re-open the frozen conflicts, not try to find a way so that Russia relates to all post soviet countries and sovereign and independent ones and not even try to solve the conflicts within their borders of those countries. I know it sounds odd, but I think this is what the U.S will do".
There are several unresolved territorial conflicts in the territory of former USSR. The longest one is the conflict between two South Caucasus countries. It began in 1988, due to territorial claims of Armenia against Azerbaijan. About 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions are under the occupation of the Armenian Forces.
Another territorial dispute is the conflict between Georgia and two Georgian republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Mr. Bolton also sows careful optimism on establishing diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey.
"It's a positive event, but I wouldn't overstate the potential implications of it. It is a positive thing to establish a relation with a country after so many years, but I wouldn't overstate it that much. Of course, it's symbolic," he stated.
Turkish and Armenian foreign ministers Ahmet Davutoglu and Edward Nalbandian signed the Ankara-Yerevan protocols in Zurich Oct. 10.
Diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey were broken due to Armenian claims of an alleged genocide and its occupation of Azerbaijani lands. Their border closed in 1993.
Renewing the relations between the U.S and Russia affect other post-Soviet countries, including Georgia and Azerbaijan, expert said.
Bolton pointed out that, "the steps the Obama administration has been taken were trying to mollify Russia, still didn't help it - the relations remain difficult".
Sofia Echo: Former ambassador Beyrle's father honoured in Moscow
Tue, Feb 23 2010 10:26 CET
Few people may realise that the father of John Beyrle, distinguished former US ambassador to Bulgaria and currently ambassador to Russia, is believed to have been the only American soldier to fight against Nazi Germany for both the US and the Soviet armies.
Now the life of Joe Beyrle, who died in 2004 aged 81, is being honoured in a new exhibition in Russia that was opened by his son John - the current US ambassador to Moscow - to commemorate the Allied victory over fascism.
Beyrle was only 20 when he was captured by the Nazis three days after parachuting into Normandy with the US 101st Airborne Division on D-Day in June 1944.
"After seven months in prisoner-of-war camps, in which he was tortured by the Gestapo, he escaped in January 1945 and ran into a Red Army tank battalion. Mr Beyrle raised his hands and shouted the only Russian words he knew — 'Americansky tovarishch' or American comrade — and pleaded with the commander to let him fight with them," writes Tony Halpin in The Times.
Joe Beyrle's son, John Beyrle, was ambassador to Bulgaria between 2005 and 2008. Beyrle was known for his excellent command of Bulgarian which he frequently displayed in television interviews.
Beyrle was succeeded - briefly - by Nancy McEldowney and then the current ambassdor to Bulgaria, James Warlick.
You can read more about the commemoration of Joe Beyrle's life in The Times
Russia Today: WWII hero awarded on Fatherland Day
23 February, 2010, 09:23
After waiting for almost a lifetime, Nikolay Novikov, a Russian WWII hero, has received official recognition of his services to the military. He received his award as Russia celebrates Defenders of the Fatherland Day.
Fatherland Day, also known as Men’s Day, traditionally is an opportunity for Russia's leaders to pay tribute to those who have served their country.
It was only last week that Nikolay Novikov found out that, back in 1943, he had been awarded an Order of the Red Star for his heroic fighting on the front line – holding off Hitler's forces during the Siege of Leningrad.
Stepping forward to proudly receive a medal from the President, he did not mind that it took a little longer than usual to attach. He had already waited more than six decades for this day.
“As our president was fastening the order to my chest, I said to him, ‘You are fastening it for so long.’ To which he replied, ‘For eternity’,” Novikov says.
Over the course of the 900-day resistance, over 600,000 people are thought to have died in the city from cold, famine and the constant and devastating air raids.
“After occupying the enemy’s battery we went ahead along the road and heard mortar fighting. We stopped and tried to guess whether they were targeting us or not… I gave a command ‘hit the deck!’ and we all threw our bodies on the ground, but I only managed to squat down. A mine exploded just a meter away and my whole body was riddled with its fragments”, Novikov remembers.
It was as he lay wounded in hospital that he was awarded the order, but the news never reached him – and he had no idea that he was to be honored as a hero. This is a similar scenario for many war veterans.
“During the war it was often the case that a person earned an award, but then a couple of days later they were wounded and sent to the medical battalion. But they were often assigned to a different military unit after the injury and never received their awards”, historian Yuri Nikifirov explains.
There are still over half a million veterans who have not received their awards, and for the soldiers and their families it is an important recognition of the bravery of the men who fought so hard for their country.
A state commission searches for the unawarded veterans using the help of volunteers, whose aim is to revive more success stories like Nikolay’s.
/GOOGLE TRANSLATION/
RIA: Presidential spokesman beaten in Nazran, Ingushetia
10:13 23/02/2010
MOSCOW, February 23 - RIA Novosti. Five unknowns on Monday beaten in a petrol station in Nazran, the press secretary of President of Ingushetia, Yunus-Bek Evkurova Kahlo Ahilgova and stole his car, told RIA Novosti on Tuesday by phone source in law enforcement agencies.
"Yesterday (Monday) Five unidentified men beat the press secretary of President of Ingushetia, drove a car Mersedes at gas station, located on Victory Street in the Central district of the city. Attackers fled in a stolen car, they are wanted," - "the source said.
He did not specify in what state is now affected.
According to a source, later during the operational search activities hijacked foreign car was found.
"It also set the individual three suspects, the local residents. Now they are wanted," - said the agency interlocutor.
RIA Novosti does not yet have official confirmation of this information in the administration of President of Ingushetia and law enforcement.
Gazeta.kz: CIS interstate free trade zone agreement will be prepared
13:40 23.02.2010
text: "Kazakhstan Today"
Astana. February 23. Kazakhstan Today - The CIS interstate free trade zone agreement will be prepared. The Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov, informed on Monday, following the results of the meeting with the Secretary of State - the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, the OSCE chairman, Kanat Saudabaev, the agency reports.
"We will work on the economic component of our presidency in the CIS in 2010. It also concerns the first stage of the economic development strategy of the CIS until 2020 and preparation for the new interstate free trade zone agreement," S. Lavrov said.
Gazeta.kz: Kazakhstan delegation to take part in session of Customs Union Commission in Moscow
12:18 23.02.2010
text: "Kazakhstan Today"
Astana. February 23. Kazakhstan Today - The session of the Customs Union Commission with participation of the Kazakhstan delegation will take place in Moscow. The official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Askar Abdrahmanov, informed at a briefing in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs on Monday, the agency reports.
"The 48th session of the EurAsEC Integration Committee and the 14th session of the Customs Union Commission with participation of the Kazakhstan delegation headed by First Vice Prime Minister, a member of the EurAsEC Integration Committee and the Customs Union Commission, Umirzak Shukeev, will take place on February 26 in Moscow," A. Abdrahmanov informed.
"The participants of the session of the EurAsEC Integration Committee plan to consider and make decisions in such spheres, as formation of the Customs Union and the uniform economic space, cooperation of the states in the migration sphere, budgetary policy for 2011, and development of the international leasing of agricultural machinery."
Kyiv Post: Belarus Ministry: Ukraine's joining Customs Union could be considered after official request
Yesterday at 13:19 | Interfax-Ukraine
Minsk, February 22 (Interfax-Ukraine) - The issue of Ukraine's joining the Customs Union of Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan could be considered after a relevant official request is submitted to the Customs Union Committee, Anton Kudasov, a deputy director of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry's foreign trade department, said at a round table meeting dedicated to issues of joining the World Trade Organization in Minsk.
"As far as I know, such proposals have not been received yet. We will consider them if they are received," he said, commenting on reports that Ukraine could join the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan during the presidency of its newly elected leader, Victor Yanukovych.
According to Kudasov, Ukraine's joining the Customs Unions doesn't require the adjustment of agreements earlier signed by the sides, but will "require certain attention to the legislation of Ukraine."
"We must consider how it [Ukraine's legislation] corresponds to the level of harmonization between Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan, for example, in the sphere of customs tariffs," Kudasov said.
Gazeta.kz: Customs Union Commission to consider a package of amendments to Customs Code
[15:23] 22/02/2010, "Kazakhstan Today"
Astana. February 22. Kazakhstan Today - The Customs Union Commission will consider a package of amendments to the Customs Code this Friday. The Minister of Finance of Kazakhstan, Bolat Zhamishev, informed today during the governmental hour in Majilis of Parliament, the agency reports.
He reminded that the Customs Code was accepted at the session of the Interstate Council last year.
"Introduction of some amendments to the Customs Code - this document should be considered by the Customs Union Commission this Friday. More changes will be introduced into the document," B. Zhamishev said.
'Following the results of the session of the Customs Union Commission, which will take place on Friday, "the amendments to the Customs Code will be placed on the sites of the Ministry of Finance of Kazakhstan and the Customs Union."
The next 26th session of the Customs Union Commission will take place on February 26, 2010 in Moscow. The Kazakhstan delegation will be headed by First Vice Premier of Kazakhstan, Umirzak Shukeeev.
As informed earlier, the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, Karim Masimov assigned the Kazakhstan negotiation group, on February 19, to defend the earlier accepted Customs Union documents.
Apa.az: OSCE Minsk Group Russian co-chair can be appointed ambassador to Estonia
23 Feb 2010 11:49 ] [pic]
Baku – APA. OSCE Minsk Group co-chair Yuriy Merzlyakov (Russia) can be appointed an ambassador to Estonia.
Earlier Merzlyakov was a Russian ambassador to Kazakhstan, Madagascar and Comoro Islands, APA reports quoting Regnum.
RFE/RL: Russian Military Families In Kyrgyzstan To Return Home
February 22, 2010
BISHKEK -- The commander of Russia's military base in Kyrgyzstan says the families of most officers and servicemen will return to Russia beginning on March 1, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports.
Vladimir Nosov told journalists that the Russian Defense Ministry recently imposed new rules on its military personnel serving abroad. Their families will no longer be allowed to live with them on a permanent basis.
Russia opened its military base in Kant, north of Bishkek, in 2003, within the framework of the Commonwealth of Independent States' Collective Security Treaty. There are some 250 Russian officers and around 150 other personnel stationed there.
Nosovo said that eventually up to 90 percent of the military personnel at Kant will be sent to Russia and replaced by troops without families.
Associated Press: Russia helps Europe's space business
By EMMA VANDORE , 02.22.10, 07:04 AM EST
KOUROU, French Guiana - Joel Barre, the head of Europe's tropical spaceport in French Guiana, is relaxed about letting a former Cold War rival into the very heart of the Guiana Space Center's control center.
Unthinkable twenty years ago, Europe is letting Russians into its space program because they have something Europe needs: a tried and tested mid-range rocket launcher that just happens to be a veteran of the space race.
The Soyuz rocket is expected to make its debut at the Guiana launch site in the second half of the year.
The European Space Agency, whose budget is one third the size of NASA's, and its commercial arm Arianespace, are buying the updated Soviet-era technology because it offers the medium capacity launcher Europe lacks for a fraction of the price of developing its own.
Barre insisted the partnership is a "win-win" deal for Europe and Russia - and one which doesn't undermine Europe's ambitions or threaten its interests.
"Today, Europe has autonomous access to space and the fact that Soyuz is coming here doesn't change that," Barre told The Associated Press as he looked down onto the center's Jupiter control room.
There, Russian engineers will sit next to Arianespace, and - with the aid of an interpreter - jointly decide whether Soyuz is ready for liftoff.
"We need the authority who developed the launcher because when there is a problem in real time .... we need them to be part of the deliberation and eventually the decision," he said.
By the end of the year, Barre hopes to have three types of rocket operational. Besides the Soyuz, which can carry around 3 metric tons, there is the Ariane 5, which can carry up to 10 metric tons and is gearing up for its 50th launch.
ESA is also developing a rocket with 1.5-ton capacity, Vega, due to enter service late this year.
Bogdan Udrea, a professor of aerospace engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida, said acquiring Soyuz "is a smart move because Europe wants to corner a segment of the market that they don't have right now."
"Soyuz is reliable and economical" with more than 1,700 manned and unmanned missions.
Europe has invested euro409 million ($572.56 million) building a Soyuz launch facility. That compares with the euro10 billion ($14 billion) cost of developing Europe's heavy-lift rocket Ariane 5 from scratch.
Space analyst James Oberg said developing a new launch vehicle of the same size as Soyuz would have cost "probably more than they could ever have recouped from commercial sales."
For the Russians, selling Soyuz to Europe means cash. Arianespace has already ordered 14 Soyuz rockets which it sells for around euro65 million-a-piece. The company won't say how much it pays for them.
"For Russian companies it is prestigious" to work in Guiana, said Sergey Ermolaev, one of the senior Russian managers being paid to oversee the setup in Kourou.
Around 200 Russian engineers from Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos and its various contractors are now based at the Hotel du Fleuve in Sinnamary, near Kourou.
To be sure, both sides have taken steps to protect their intellectual property.
Access is restricted and signs in Russian, French and stilted English such as "it is forbidden to use by not Russian personnel" litter the launch pad. The site - 13 kilometers away from the Ariane 5 launch complex - was also chosen to minimize risk.
"I'm sure that they are all keeping their eyes open," said Oberg.
"There are people who are sent there who were probably tasked to look for certain things," he said of the Russians. But he doesn't see a risk for Europe or for Russia.
With the U.S. shuttle fleet set to be grounded soon, NASA and other international partners will have to rely on Soyuz spacecraft alone to ferry their astronauts to the International Space Station and back.
"Once Russians get used to Western cash flow they tend to get addicted" and commercial reasoning prevails, said Oberg.
The Soyuz in Kourou will mostly carry commercial satellites - the first scheduled being UK telecommunications company Avanti Communications Plc.'s HYLAS 2 - but it will also put Europe's navigation system Galileo into space.
Barre said the EU insisted they could also be carried on Ariane 5 so that Europe is not dependent on Russian technology.
The Soyuz relationship dates back to 2003 when Russian and French government first agreed to bring it to Kourou.
In 1996, Europe - through Arianespace and the space arm of Airbus' parent EADS - and Russia joined forces in Starsem, a joint company created to provide Soyuz launch services at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The original launch date has been put back several times as constructors grappled with different weather conditions in tropical Guiana.
To adapt, the teams have made changes such as the addition of a special 52-meter frame which will be rolled out to the launch pad pre-liftoff to install the satellites in the European vertical tradition rather than the Soviet horizontal procedure.
But mostly the blue and yellow metal launch structure - a sort of giant clasp designed to keep the Soviet style rocket with its bulbous head in place - is unchanged.
Still, the schedule is tight for a July liftoff, and Oberg said he wouldn't be surprised if it gets pushed back even into next year.
"When we have a little worry or we are missing something to have to go back to Russia to get it which explains he delay," said Ergolaev. "Eventually we will get there."
DATE:23/02/10
SOURCE:Flight International
Flight Global: HELI-EXPO: Russian helicopter industry continues to chalk up rapid growth
By Brendan Sobie
Russian helicopter manufacturers continue to increase production despite the global economic downturn, which has forced nearly every western manufacturer to cut back on deliveries.
Helicopter Industry Association of Russia president Mikhail Kazachkov said during a briefing at Heli-Expo 2010 in Houston that Russian manufacturers were able to produce a total of 186 helicopters in 2009. This is a 9% increase compared with the 169 helicopters produced in 2008.
"Over the last five years the output of Russian helicopter manufacturers has now increased by 220%," Kazachkov says.
Back in 2004, only 85 helicopters were produced in Russia. The biggest growth occurred in 2008, when production surged by 41% from 120 to 169 helicopters.
Russian manufacturers collectively are now out-producing some of the world's largest helicopter makers. For example Bell delivered only 142 civilian helicopters last year, down from 172 in 2008, while Augusta delivered 156, down from 179, according to Flightglobal HeliCAS figures.
While Russian manufacturers have been steadily increasing production they have been losing market share in their home market.
Kazachkov says that according to official government data at the beginning of this year there were 246 foreign-built helicopters on the Russian civil aircraft registry, which gives foreign manufacturers a 12% share of the 2,118-aircraft market. At the beginning of 2009, there were only 202 foreign-built helicopters officially registered in Russia, accounting for 10% of a market which at that point consisted of 2,071 helicopters.
"Despite constant output growth, Russian helicopter manufacturers fail to meet the domestic market needs due to the fact there's high demand for Russian helicopters outside the country and the bulk of helicopter production is for export," Kazachkov explains.
But he adds that based on data compiled by his association, there are actually about 420 foreign-built helicopters now operating in Russia. Kazachkov says this is a more accurate figure because many general aviation aircraft in Russia that belong to private owners and flying clubs are not on the official registry.
He says there are now 17 types of Western helicopters certified in Russia. Of the eight Western helicopter manufacturers that have delivered aircraft to Russia, Robinson has by far the highest market share. Kazachkov says there are now about 100 Robinson helicopters now operating in Russia. Eurocopter also has a strong presence with about 70 helicopters operating in Russia, followed by Bell with about 20 helicopters.
Kazachkov expects Russia to continue to be a major growth market for Western manufacturers. He says high import duties have partially curtailed growth but these duties will likely be reduced. "The Helicopter Industry Association of Russia is currently doing much work to cut down import duties on helicopter types that are not produced in Russia," he says.
For at least the foreseeable future there seems to be enough local demand for helicopters to satisfy both local and foreign manufacturers. Kazachkov says his association projects overall there will be 505 new helicopters delivered in the Russian market over the next five years. This forecast includes 370 light helicopters, which is the sector that Western manufacturers have made the most inroads, as well as 120 medium helicopters and 15 heavy helicopters.
In terms of types of customers, the Helicopter Industry Association of Russia expects the government will account for 145 of the 505 new helicopters between 2010 and 2014, with corporations accounting for 165 helicopters and private individuals accounting for 195 helicopters.
Vadim Mikheev, representing the Mil Moscow helicopter plant, told the same Heli-Expo briefing that Mil produced 135 helicopters in 2009. This represents a 29% increase over the 105 helicopters produced in 2008 and a 225% increase compared with the 60 helicopters produced by Mil in 2003. Most of this growth is international as Mil now has civilian helicopters operating in over 110 countries.
World Nuclear News: Russia welcomes EU cooperation talks
22 February 2010
The Russian government is welcoming anticipated talks with the European Union (EU) to negotiate a nuclear partnership agreement that would facilitate nuclear trade and exchange of knowledge on safety issues.
The EU's executive arm, the European Commission, was given a mandate to begin talks at the end of last year, and the new college of commissioners taking office for five years this month will be responsible for moving the process forward.
The move was welcomed by Sergei Novikov, spokesman for Rosatom, the Russian state atomic energy company. "I'm sure we'll participate fully in this," he told World Nuclear News. "The European Commission has been given permission to proceed and we think this gives us all the chance to create new opportunities. This should give the green light to new projects."
Russia has negotiated bilateral nuclear cooperation agreements with several EU countries, and Novikov pointed out that such agreements were in place with France, Germany, the UK and several other EU members. "We've worked separately with many EU countries. This is just at the early stages but dialogue in itself is good."
Last autumn, Russia agreed in principle for co-operation on nuclear components with the Czech Republic, with trade centring on Skoda which specialises in nuclear engineering and supplies for the nuclear energy industry.
Russia is one of the main global suppliers of nuclear materials and equipment and a key supplier of nuclear fuel and related nuclear fuel cycle services to nuclear power plant operators in the EU. Several EU member states – including Bulgaria and Slovakia – currently operate Russian-designed nuclear power stations. If the agreement is secured (as expected), it would follow four similar EU deals with the Australia, Canada, Kazakhstan and the USA and further reflect the EU's desire to shift away from carbon-based fuels – with nuclear energy being a key part of future EU energy mixes. Outgoing EU energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs has hailed the talks as "an important step, which will give a new impetus to EU-Russia relations in the energy sector."
The Latvian said it was "in the interest of both sides to reach a comprehensive agreement on nuclear cooperation," given that it would create "a stable and predictable legal framework both for the governments and the industrial operators," it would try to harmonise Russian safety and security standards with those in the EU, boosting "legitimate nuclear trade."
The importance of forging such a deal has risen for the EU because of the accession of 12 new member states since 2004, many of which were former communist states with older Russia-designed reactors, some of which the EU has insisted be closed. But newer Russian reactors are highly regarded and this has been recognised by the Commission. It said in a communiqué: "Several EU member states are operating reactors of Russian design and further reactors are planned." It noted "the importance of Russia as a nuclear supplier to the EU", and also indicated the potential breadth of the talks, underlining the importance of "nuclear safety, nuclear liability and non-proliferation" in EU-Russia bilateral relations.
By Mark Lowe and Keith Nuthall
for World Nuclear News
Bellona: PRESS-RELEASE: Bellona urges Rosatom head to expedite Lepse decommissioning
MURMANSK – Bellona has extended an open letter to the Russian nuclear authority’s head Sergei Kiriyenko asking that he clear the bureaucratic hurdles blocking the decommissioning of the Lepse, a technical support vessel which was used to defuel nuclear icebreakers and submarines and still has not been unburdened from the nuclear and radioactive waste stored in its holds. The Lepse is moored just two kilometres from residential buildings of the Far Northern city of Murmansk. Bellona, 22/02-2010 - Translated by Maria Kaminskaya
The wharf that the floating maintenance facility Lepse is anchored at belongs to the state-owned Atomflot – the nuclear icebreaker operator company that was recently transferred under the purview of the Russian nuclear state corporation Rosatom. Just beyond the port lies the treacherous ship channel of the Kola Bay. A couple of kilometres off the Atomflot facilities stretch the residential blocks of the large northern city of Murmansk.
The Lepse is still holding the high-level radioactive waste and damaged nuclear rods the vessel was used to unload from nuclear-powered icebreakers and submarines, including spent nuclear fuel (SNF) taken off the first Soviet nuclear icebreaker, the Lenin – now retrofitted to function as a museum and moored in Murmansk.
The first remediation project for the Lepse was initiated by Bellona as far back as 1994, when the European community started pledging funds to help safeguard the floating hazard. Sixteen years on, the project is still spinning the wheels.
Bellona believes there are no financial or technological factors in the current structure of the Lepse decommissioning project that could interfere with its practical realisation. Absent of such inhibiting factors, the only explanation remains that the impediments are of bureaucratic nature and stem from Rosatom’s administrative handling of the Lepse project.
Given the urgency and significance of the project, Bellona therefore extends a request to Rosatom head Sergei Kiriyenko asking to take all necessary measures to expedite the decommissioning process. Bellona’s open letter to Kiriyenko is available here (in Russian).
The Lepse's troubles – basic facts
For many years now, the Lepse has remained the source of one of the most challenging issues of nuclear and radiation safety – it is, in effect, the most hazardous floating facility in Russia. Radioactivity levels of the SNF stored in its holds are currently at around 2.5·1016 becquerels (or 680,000 curies). Estimates show the fuel contains a total of 260 kilograms of Uranium-235, 156 kilograms of fission products and eight kilograms of the fissile radionuclide Plutonium-239. Gamma radiation both in the holds and in adjacent spaces is hundreds of thousands of times that of natural background radiation levels. The SNF holds store cases and caissons containing 639 spent fuel rods, including damaged SNF that was unloaded from the Lenin after accidents the icebreaker sustained in 1965 and 1967.
Despite all precautions in place, the risk of a navigation-related accident – the possibility of a collision with another vessel – still remains for the Lepse.
The necessity to decommission the Lepse was well determined as early as 1989 – at the time Russia was still part of the Soviet Union – as reflected in a decree by the Central Committee of the then-ruling Communist Party of the USSR. Various research and design organisations were instructed to find a technological solution to handle the Lepse and its dangerous cargo, but state funding dried up in 1994, amid the economic and social turmoil of the 1990s, when the newly independent Russia was making a strenuous transition toward a free market economy.
It was in that same year 1994 that international institutions and organisations came to support the struggling project, offering financial aid, and in 1995, the Lepse project was included in the European Commission’s agenda. Yet, because of an absence of bilateral and multilateral agreements that could unite Russia with donor nations and international financial institutions in a consolidated effort to tackle the Lepse hazard, the project remained effectively frozen for another eight years.
In 2003, after all the necessary agreements were signed, a concrete estimate was finally settled on for costs to be borne by international organisations involved in the project: They were expected to earmark over €12million to see the project to completion.
The following year, however, saw a number of disputes emerging between the French-based contractor SGN, which was charged with developing the project of unloading spent fuel rods from the Lepse's holds, and the Murmansk Shipping Company, which was managing the project on the Russian side. The conflict brought its own share of delays into the endeavour.
In 2005, following a joint decision by Rosatom and Rosmorrechflot – the Federal Agency for Sea and River Transport, which oversees the management of Russia’s sea- and river-going fleet – an independent non-for-profit organisation called Aspekt-Konversiya was appointed as the contractor for the development of a comprehensive decommissioning project for the floating maintenance vessel Lepse.
In accordance with a TACIS contract signed between Aspekt-Konversiya and the European Commission, a package of project and organisational documentation was worked out between December 2005 and April 2007 for the comprehensive decommissioning of the Lepse. The documentation spells out the following project stages:
1. developing a working project;
2. preparing the vessel for towing to the shiprepairing yard Nerpa in Murmansk Region;
3. preparing special infrastructure at Nerpa to take delivery of the vessel;
4. designing and construction of an accessory building to adjoin the SNF storage facility (Building 5) on the territory of Atomflot;
5. towing the vessel to Nerpa and cradling it;
6. dismantling the hull, its elements and machinery;
7. unloading SNF from the holds;
8. transporting SNF-holding containers back to Atomflot;
9. placing containers with SNF for temporary storage in the accessory building of the SNF storage facility (Building 5) or transporting them to the Ural-based reprocessing plant Mayak;
10. reprocessing liquid and solid radioactive waste;
11. packing the remaining vessel elements into two block packages;
12. transporting the block packages for long-term storage in Sayda Bay, on the Kola Peninsula, and placing them in long-term storage.
At present, Aspekt-Konversiya is no longer the contractor on the Lepse project. The responsibility for project implementation lies with the state-owned Federal Centre for Nuclear and Radiation Safety (FC NRS), a Rosatom structure charged with overseeing the management of SNF and radioactive waste in Russia and the realisation of the Federal Target Programme “Nuclear and Radiation Safety in 2008 and for the Period through 2015.”
A grant implementing agreement was signed on June 5, 2008, between the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, acting as the administrator of the Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership (NDEP) donor funds, Rosatom, and FC NRS as the grant recipient. Contained within the NDEP fund is a so-called nuclear window for nuclear clean-up in Russia. NDEP expenditures, whose holdings are now in the hundreds of millions of Euros, are guided by its donor nations and institutions: Russia, Denmark, Finland, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, France, the UK and the European Commission.
The grant provides for the first stage of the project, which includes:
- developing working documentation for the decommissioning process,
- improving radiation conditions on the vessel,
- transporting the vessel to the shiprepairing yard Nerpa,
- preparing infrastructure at Nerpa for the unloading of SNF, including deliveries of specialised equipment.
A Project Management Team has been put together by FC NRS. As per the language of the implementing grant agreement, an international consultant is provided for this group to ensure all works meet international standards and are done in conformity with internationally accepted technologies. At the same time, all works under the project must also be in accord with the regulations and legislation in force in the Russian Federation.
The Project Management Team has prepared a tender to choose an International Consultant to work with the team and sent out letters to organisations that have previously stated their interest in the project, inviting them to submit their contract bid proposals. In preliminary plans, the selection of an International Consultant for the team was supposed to be completed by late June 2009, after all submitted bid proposals were considered.
Also according to these plans, in 2009, the Lepse was supposed to be towed to the shiprepairing yard Nerpa, located in Snezhnogorsk in Murmansk Region.
The Lepse decommissioning project is part of the Federal Target Program “Nuclear and Radiation Safety in the Russian Federation in 2008 and for the Period through 2015.” Funds are being allocated from the state budget for the implementation of this programme item.
This is London: Russian cash to keep HMS Belfast shipshape
Ross Lydall
22.02.10
Russian firms are coming to the aid of HMS Belfast, the former Royal Navy cruiser docked near Tower Bridge.
The vessel, which is in need of repairs, is the sole survivor of the Arctic convoys that kept Russia supplied and able to fight the Germans during the Second World War.
So far Russian businesses in London have contributed £250,000. The aim is to double this by 9 May, when the country celebrates Victory Day.
The Russian embassy in London is also seeking to contact veterans of the convoys. A Russian jubilee medal commemorating 65 years since the end of the war will be awarded to about 15 former sailors in a ceremony on HMS Belfast, which entered service in 1939, on 24 March.
Fundraising efforts to replace the rusting masts on the ship, which is operated by the Imperial War Museum, began three years ago but were hit by the economic downturn.
Hopes that Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, would authorise a £1 million donation failed to materialise.
Brad King, director of HMS Belfast, said: “I thought it would be really nice if Russian businesses could help. We are part of Russia's history and the ship has touched a lot of lives.
"We felt it was probably best to get official support from the Russian government, and Vladimir Putin, who was then president, did sign it off.
"Since then we have been working out ways of getting companies to support us. The Russian embassy has swung behind it to help it along.”
Veterans of the convoys can email the Russian embassy at: Office@ or write to: 6/7 Kensington Palace Gardens, London, W8 4QP.
The Jamestown Foundation: Russia’s Military Doctrine: New Dangers Appear
[tt_news]=36073&tx_ttnews[backPid]=7&cHash=be6c3aeeb0
Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 7 Issue: 35
February 22, 2010 03:46 PM Age: 8 hrs
By: Jacob W. Kipp
In the immediate aftermath of President Dmitry Medvedev signing the new Russian military doctrine most attention focused on the fact that a first preemptive nuclear strike was not mentioned in the document and on the attention given to NATO as the chief source of “danger” to the security of the Russian Federation. Comments by NATO’s leadership that the doctrine was not a realistic portrayal of NATO were reported by the press, but there was no strong criticism of that aspect of the doctrine. Instead, Russian authors drew attention to the gap between Russia's conventional military capabilities vis-a-vis NATO and its reliance on nuclear weapons in a conventional conflict.
Oleg Nikiforov, however, addressed the issue of NATO-Russian relations and explored Western assessments of Russia’s military power in a review of a recent article by Margarete Klein for the German Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik. Klein had opined that Russia’s great power pretensions are not based on real military capabilities and that economic and demographic problems mean that it is unlikely to achieve military modernization. Nikiforov notes the prominence of the think tank and its close relationship to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government. For Nikiforov, the article asked whether Russia is a “paper tiger or a real threat,” and answered with a qualified both. Russia’s military modernization will not pose a direct threat to NATO members, but its increased capabilities might permit it to more effectively intervene in its periphery, where it will be a real threat to successor states and with it the possibility of NATO intervention. In this regard, the Russian-Georgian conflict in 2008 appears to be a sign of the willingness of the Russian government to act even at the risk of creating an international crisis. He also notes her negative prognosis on the likelihood of success for the “new look” of the Russian armed forces, based upon the inability of their defense industry to produce modern weapons in a timely fashion, which leaves the prospect of conflict high and the ability to manage it at a conventional level low (Nezavisimoe Voennoe Obozrenie, February 5).
Olga Bozheva noted that the doctrine appeared on the eve of the Munich Conference on Global and European Security and created quite a stir. There, Russia raised concerns about US plans to deploy elements of an Anti Ballistic Missile (ABM) system in Romania, while the West expressed concern over the role of nuclear weapons in the Russian military doctrine. Citing reduced capabilities of early warning in the event of a nuclear attack and declining offensive nuclear capabilities, Bozheva depicted the doctrine’s nuclear pronouncements as a de facto admission of Russian military weakness. The doctrine offers nothing but fine words about the “new look” of the armed forces promised by Defense Minister Anatoliy Serdyukov, and Western leaders are likely to read the Russian defense posture as nothing more than a bluff seeking to conceal real weakness. The bluff will not work for long. Similarly, the new doctrine proclaimed NATO expansion to be the primary danger to Russian security, and the president approved the decision to purchase one helicopter amphibious assault ship of the Mistral class from France. This contradiction revealed the deeper problem of Russian defense, the absence of a “machine-building complex” to support domestic military requirements. Bozheva labeled the new military doctrine as an “anti-military doctrine” (Moskovsky Komsomolets, February 8).
Aleksandr Khramchikhin, the Deputy Director of the Institute for Political and Military Analysis, highlighted the potential for conflict on the Russian border, which had nothing to do with NATO, but was likely, if unleashed, to lead to a much wider war. Khramchikhin pointed to increased tensions between the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. He warned that neither Seoul nor Pyongyang, and neither Beijing nor Washington wanted to start a conflict, but the large arsenals and the heightened tension might lead to an uncontrolled escalation bringing in other powers. Khramchikhin, who has written extensively over the last few years on China’s emergence as a regional superpower and modern military power, notes a basic asymmetry between the armed forces of the North and South, with the latter enjoying technological superiority but the North prepared to conduct a dogged defense. US intervention on the side of South Korea would not fundamentally change that military balance, or bring the war to a rapid conclusion. US forces are currently overcommitted in other theaters and lack the strategic reserve to occupy the North. Khramchikhin characterized such a conflict as a catastrophe for everyone. Moreover, North Korea could make use of it nuclear arms delivered by short-range missiles and aircraft or as nuclear mines. Such an escalation would demand that China acted (Nezavisimoe Voennoe Obozrenie, February 4).
Only one week after Khramchikhin’s article, a group of “NATO Elders,” tasked with developing NATO’s new strategic concept visited Moscow. The group headed by the former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, stated that they were there to listen. They showed considerable interest in Russia’s new military doctrine and took several opportunities to remind Russian audiences of the challenge that China posed for international stability. The elders pointed out that the new military doctrine did not even mention China, while naming NATO’s expansion into post-Soviet space as the primary danger for Russian security interests. Russian specialists explained these remarks as a result of the increased tension between Washington and Beijing after the United States announced the sale of F-16’s to Taiwan, and characterized the new relationship as a “cold war” (Nezavisimaya Gazeta, February 12).
The silence about the rise of China and its implications for Moscow has been deafening. Sino-Russian cooperation to counter-balance a US-dominated unipolar order made some strategic sense when tensions between the United States and China did not look like they carried any risk of conflict. However, Russian observers now see the new tensions as the emergence of a “duel” between China and the United States for leadership. Thus far, there is no significant risk that the two powers will come to blows, it is clear that they are heading towards cooler relations with Beijing responding to the announced arms sale by cutting military-to-military contacts and threatening sanctions against the American firms involved in such sales to Taiwan. Vladimir Kuzar presented these tensions as marking the end of the mutually advantageous economic partnership between Washington and China, as Beijing asserts its regional power and seeks its own solutions to global issues like Iran and North Korea. He concludes his article by warning that the Sino-American duel “can create new and dangerous tension in world politics.” Yet, he does not address the implications of those dangers for Russia’s own security (Krasnaya Zvezda, February 10).
Georgian Daily: ‘Hidden Hunger’ an Increasing Problem for Russia, Experts Say
February 22, 2010
Paul Goble
While few people in Russia are starving, many are not getting the vitamins and minerals they need because, as a result of declining incomes, they are forced to stop purchasing fruits, vegetables, and meat, something officials do not want to discuss but that experts say constitutes “hidden hunger” among many groups in the population.
In an article on the “Krestyanskiye vedomosti” portal, Ilya Dashkovsky says that even those who heatedly deny that there is real hunger in Russia – something many experts say exists as well – “do not deny that Russians are not getting a large amount of necessary vitamins and microelements (agronews.ru/newsshow.php?NId=57409).
For example, he points out, medical specialists say that Russians should be consuming on average 22 kilograms of fish every year but that they are in fact eating only 13 kilograms, with many groups, including pensioners, the 24.5 million officially poor, and the residents of hard hit company towns getting far less.
The Food and Agricultural Organization found that five percent of Russians were not getting the right die in 1995-97, but it did not report the problem at all in 2006. And after that year, Dashkovsky notes, “there are not data,” allowing some government experts and officials to deny that the problem exists.
“At the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences,” the agricultural journalist says, the government experts denied there was any “problem” with hunger in Russia. Meanwhile, Dashkovsky says, officials refused to provide any information at all, insisting that their ministries where not responsible but that others might be.
Thus, the press service at the health ministry said that the agricultural ministry was involved with this issue, but spokesmen at the latter “in turn” suggested that the journalist ask the ministry that had sent him to them. But other experts, he said, “have not doubts that many Russians are starving.”
Natalya Tikhonova, a specialist on social policy at the Higher School of Economics says that hunger and bad diet currently are manifest in five to six percent of the population. And she said that most of those affected are members of the working poor, whose low wages and irregular employment mean that they do not eat properly.
Another expert, David Epshtein, a researcher on regional agrarian policy at the North West Scientific Research Institute of the Economy of Agriculture, said that there are no reliable official statistics on this problem but that there is tangential evidence that Russians are not eating properly or enough.
In 1990, Russians on average consumed 75 kilograms of meat a year; now, they eat only 61 kilograms. But in some regions, the latter figure is much lower: In parts of the North Caucasus, it does not exceed 40 kilograms. In Kostroma oblast, it is 41 kilograms, and in Vladimir oblast, it is only 46.
Meat consumption is far from the only indicator, Epshtein insists. In 1990, Russians ate 387 kilograms of milk and milk products a year, but in 2008, the overall figure was only 243 kilograms. And again in some regions, it was much lower. In Tyumen, for example, the 2008 rate was 165 kilograms.
And egg consumption has also fallen dramatically. In 1990, Russians on average ate 297 eggs a year; now, they eat 256. But in Kamchatka, Chukotka, Daghestan, and Tyva, among others, that figure is only 120 to 150, and in Tyva it is 83 – less than one-third the number of only 20 years ago.
Having given up meat, milk and eggs, he notes, Russians have compensated by consuming more bread, potatoes and sugar, a pattern that hides the fact that they are not getting the foods they need and the reality that this shortfall will have serious health consequences for the current generation and future ones.
According to Epshtein, even the average level of consumption of key food groups “cannot be considered sufficient to support the requirements of a healthy individual.” Consequently, “it is clear that in regions with low levels of income, [the situation] is much worse, and that “the poorer part of the population is systematically not eating properly.
Epshtein says that “not less than 15 percent” of the Russian population is not eating enough and that “from 50 to 70 percent of the population is eating at a level below medical norms” when it comes to key vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. Other specialists concur with that assessment.
Dmitry Larionov of the Moscow Council on Land Relations says that pensioners in Russia today can afford to feed themselves “a ration that is comparable with the food provided to German prisoners of war in the USSR in 1945.” And that means that 20 to 25 million Russians face difficulties in providing themselves with food.
In addition to the ways in which Russians like people elsewhere compensate for being unable to buy good food through the consumption of bread, potatoes, and sugar and thus hide their hunger, there is another reason why “hidden hunger” in Russia is something few people in that country focus on.
Social support groups in Moscow and St. Petersburg provide sufficient support that no one, not even the unemployed or elderly, is starving in those cities. “But in the regions the situation is entirely different, even though in this area as in so many others few people talk about that.
Sergey Shugayev, a consultant on inter-budgetary relations for the Accounting Chamber and president of the Organizing Committee of the All-Russian Social Organization “Rural Russia,” says that he is “certain that even working citizens in company towns are not eating enough, especially in Primorsky kray and in the Urals.”
In villages, people still maintain gardens and thus can survive but in these company towns, Shugayev says, people have lost that interest and set of skills. And consequently, they can do little. Indeed, he says, “people [in such places] simply do not know that they are not getting necessary vitamins and minerals.”
But there is one reason why more officials are paying some attention to the problem. An increasing number of draft-age men are so underweight that they either cannot be taken in – some 50,000 were deferred in the latest draft round – or sent to special fattening up units – 20,000 this year – until they weigh enough to perform their duties.
The kind of hunger Russians are experiencing, Dashkovsky says, is “not the hunger which exists in Africa where people are dying from not having enough to eat, but that doesn’t mean that anyone should accept the existing situation as somehow normal.” It is anything but, and more people are going to have to focus on the problem.
Many talk about the impact of alcoholism and poor medical services on the life expectancy, but they ignore the ways in which inadequate diet affects the same measure. Indeed, he says “no one takes into account the influence of hidden hunger in Russia on life expectancy.” Moscow doesn’t see the problems of the regions, and so officials don’t talk about it.
Russia Today: Cinema powers up as Russians take time off
23 February, 2010, 09:49
Extended holidays make the first quarter of the year one of the least productive periods for the Russian economy. But box-office records are being broken at Russian cinemas as Russian relax on the days off.
Russia's developing cinema market experienced almost double digit growth in 2008. Box office revenues delivered a river of cash for producers, distributors and exhibitors. But the economic strife of 2009 has proved to be a reality check for the movie romance.
But the new year brings new beginnings, with more Russians visiting the cinema in January than ever before according to Olga Proskuryakova, PR Director for Formula Kino Cinema.
“This January has broken all the records partly due to the long holidays as well as the appeal of watching a major film with 3D technology. Revenues from movies in 3D are 3-4 times more than movies in the usual format.”
Big releases and new 3D technology at the digital multiplexes encouraged people out of their houses to enjoy what is still a relatively cheap form of entertainment, especially when the money spent is roubles, but counted in dollars. Georgy Samsonov, Editor in Chief at Russian film Business Magazine, says Rouble denominated revenues held up during the downturn.
“Revenues decreased in dollar terms. Compared to 2008, it fell from $930 million dollars to around $736 million in 2009. But at the same time the attendance increased by 5 million tickets. While the price of a ticket in rouble terms remained the same, it generated fewer dollars.”
James Cameron's space fantasy, Avatar, is the leading draw worldwide, taking more than $2 billion in the 9 weeks since its release.
The innovative new technology trick worked for Russia’s box office income – attracting more viewers despite the economic uncertainty. The long holidays in January and other upcoming holidays, may well see Russia return to industry leading growth.
RIA: Moscow workers dig deep in snowiest February for 40 years
10:5023/02/2010
Municipal services in Moscow cleared 425,000 cubic meters of snow from city streets in one day as the Russian capital struggles through its snowiest February for 40 years.
"In 24 hours, the city removed 425 thousand cubic meters of snow from the streets. The snow removal involved 12,000 snow-clearing machines and 8,500 dump trucks," city spokesman Igor Pergamenshchik told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.
Russia is marking Defenders of the Fatherland Day at the end of a four-day weekend that saw little break in the snowfall until Tuesday morning.
But the holiday was canceled for many of the city's snow-clearance teams.
"Public utilities continue to operate in emergency mode. The snow must be removed," Pergamenshchik said.
He said 5,500 people were working to clear the snow ahead of Wednesday's return to work.
Meteorologists say February in Moscow was the snowiest in the past 40 years, with five days of the month to go.
MOSCOW, February 23 (RIA Novosti)
RFE/RL: Russian Left-Wing Party Holds Founding Congress
February 22, 2010
MOSCOW -- The founding congress of the United Russian Labor Front (ROTF), a new left-wing party, opened today in Moscow, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports.
Party officials said they plan to adopt a charter and a program, to create party chapters in Russian regions, and to elect party leaders.
Sergei Udaltsov, the party's cochairman and main candidate to be leader of the ROTF, said the party's top priority is to become an officially registered, full-fledged leftist political party. He told RFE/RL that representatives from 70 Russian regions were attending the congress.
Udaltsov added that trade union representatives from carmakers Ford and AvtoVAZ, air-traffic controllers, and residents of the Moscow suburb of Rechnik whose homes have been demolished have said they will join the new party.
Moscow-based political analyst Vladimir Pribylovsky told RFE/RL he thinks there is room for another political party in Russia that would be further to the left than the Communist Party and would defend the interests of workers. He explained that "the Communist Party of Gennady Zyuganov is in many ways not communist: it combines nostalgic 'Sovietism' with Russian nationalism and religious aspirations, [Russian] Orthodoxy."
Pribylovsky characterized the Communist leadership as "more bourgeois than revolutionary." He predicted that younger voters who previously voted for the Communist Party may well switch their allegiance to the ROTF.
Pribylovsky added, however, that the ROTF will probably be denied registration because it does not fit the government's mold for an opposition party.
Russia Today: ROAR: “Billboards will not improve Stalin’s role in history”
23 February, 2010, 11:00
The idea of the Moscow authorities placing stands with information about Joseph Stalin during World War II has immediately found its supporters and opponents.
Moscow’s Committee on Advertising, Information and Displaying Advertisements plans to place billboards and stands with information on Stalin as part of preparations to decorate the city for the 65th anniversary of the Soviet people’s victory in the Great Patriotic War. They will be placed at sites where militia detachments were formed during WWII.
The name of “The Father of Nations,” as Stalin was once called, has not been present during celebrations since the Soviet era, the media say.
This May, Moscow “may become Stalingrad,” Izvestia daily said, referring to the city where Soviet troops defeated Germans in one of the major battles of WWII in 1943.
Stalin will become “a hero” on stands since a certain part of the decorations are dedicated to him, the paper said. This design and political decision of the Mayor’s Office was initiated by Vladimir Dolgikh, chairman of the Moscow Council of Veterans and a former secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the paper said.
The city will boast more decorations for Victory Day compared to previous years, including banners with inscriptions in English for foreign guests, the daily said.
Moscow will be also “generously decorated with Stalin,” the paper said, adding that a special topic called “the role of the commander-in-chief in the Great Patriotic war has been created.”
Stalin will be present on displays with archived photographs and historical posters that will be placed at locations where veterans usually meet during celebrations.
The city authorities are ready to defend their decision. “All the statements that the Moscow government will be conducting a propaganda campaign for Stalin are blatant and cynical lies,” said Vladimir Makarov, the head of the city’s committee on advertising. “No more than 10 stands with photographs of Stalin will be erected, purely for information purposes,” he said.
“The Soviet people won the war, and Stalin was the leader of the country,” Makarov said. “We are not going to hide Stalin on photographs taken at the Tehran or Yalta conferences,” Makarov said. “We cannot fight Stalinism with Stalinist methods,” he added.
The decision to place the stands with Stalin has been supported by many veterans and Communists. “History should be as it is, and people should learn from mistakes and be proud of their victories,” said Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Communist Party.
The victory in May 1945 would have been impossible “without industrialization, without thousands of assembled tanks,” Zyuganov was quoted by the media as saying.
“And all this was thanks to Stalin, the commander-in-chief,” Zyuganov said. “On the other hand, all Soviet citizens contributed to the victory,” he added.
Those who fought in the war and worked in the background “have very positive attitudes to the role of Stalin” in the victory, said Ivan Khorkov, a member of the city’s council of veterans. “He is really an outstanding state and military figure,” Khorkov told Vesti FM radio.
Human rights activists have immediately opposed the plans of the mayor’s office and urged the officials to reconsider them.
“The intention of the authorities, who use veterans as a pretext, to fill the city streets with portraits of an executioner, should be considered as a political provocation, as another test being conducted by Stalinists,” Aleksandr Brod, head of the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights and a member of Public Chamber, told Interfax news agency.
Placing stands with Stalin in the city “is a disgusting idea,” believes Svetlana Gannushkina, chair the Civic Assistance committee for refugees. Not all veterans agree with their colleagues, she told Vesti FM radio.
It is inappropriate to place portraits of a man “who eliminated millions of people and was responsible for the fact that… the Soviet Union was not prepared for the war,” Gannushkina said.
Discussions about Stalin’s role should be “more serious than attempts to place a billboard saying that Stalin is good and cause the opposition of other people,” believes Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, head of the Synodal Department for Church and Society of the Russian Orthodox Church.
“I can expect that someone will spoil these billboards, someone will protest against them,” he told Radonezh and Voice of Russia joint radio program.
Lyudmila Alekseeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki group, has already promised to protest against the stands “with all possible means.” “It will be a shame if Victory Day, the brightest day in our history, is darkened with the appearance of Stalin’s portraits,” she told Izvestia.
“Stalin’s ambiguous role in the life of our country cannot be improved with billboards,” Boris Gryzlov, speaker of the State Duma and head of the ruling United Russia party’s supreme committee, told Interfax. “It would be rather appropriate to speak about the role of the people, veterans who brought victory to the country.”
The portraits of Stalin will offend millions of people, Lev Ponomarev, head of the For Human Rights public movement, told Gazeta daily. “It was not his personal merit in the Red Army’s victory, so history has disposed,” he said.
Sergey Borisov, RT
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Business, Energy or Environmental regulations or discussions
Russia Today: Andrei Kostin on VTB and Russian banking
22 February, 2010, 23:28
VTB head, Andrei Kostin, is in London with an eye to making investments abroad and spoke exclusively to RT Business.
RT began by asking if the bank was in a good position to invest given it will post a loss for 2009.
AK: “The loss is mainly based on growth of our provisions and we very much expect that this year will be quite different, and we can compensate whatever losses we had last year. So we have a very high capital adequacy as a result of the additional capitalization last year. So we are quite in a position to do this, but will be very selective. We still rely on the organic growth as our major driving force in our development, but we will also be seeing some good chances and opportunities happen in business, and will be making decision from that as well.”
RT: And what figures are you expecting for 2010?
AK: “We expect something around 2 billion dollars net profits, for this year, maybe slightly less.”
RT: What is the key issue for the banking industry?
AK: “I think competitiveness, issues of capitalization in general, that’s quite an issue. I think that, although the banks like VTB, Sberbank resolved this issue last year, there still could be a problem for some Russian banks, particularly, if you take into account the fact of non-performing loans, which are probably not as high as many expected, but still exert some pressure on the capital base of the Russian banking sector.”
RT: You mentioned non-performing loads (NPL’s), which you predict could rise to 10 per cent, what’s happening in the real economy to make that happen?
AK: “I think it’s vice versa, if things go worse in the real economy, then the banks will be badly affected, but we see now the signs of stabilization in the real economy and we expect, personally, I mean our analyst, the growth of around 5 per cent at least of GDP during this year, so it does provide quite a reasonable basis for banks in increasing our loans again and to limit the amount of NPLs overall.”
Netimperative: Russia search market review: Google on the rise but Yandex rules the roost
Added:
Feb 23, 2010
With Russia set to overtake the UK’s search market in terms of size this year, Reform Digital looks into the key factors affecting this growing sector. What it found was a country where Google doesn’t rule the roost, click fraud is on the wane and Facebook is only the seventh biggest social network…
The research forms the first in a series of International Search Reviews from search marketing firm Reform Digital, aimed at giving insights into the key search markets around the world.
Key findings from the report are:
· Market size: Russia is the 8th largest market of internet users (soon to move ahead of UK into 7th) and like many Asian markets, still relatively untapped (60% of the adult population in major cities like Moscow, but only 36% overall).
· Yandex top search engine: Yandex is the clear market leader in Russia, and the preference amongst users too. Google is catering to international marketers better than other local Russian search engines though
· Google on the rise: Unlike China, where Google has a sort of preference amongst the higher educated users - in Russia, Yandex is the top choice for all demographics. Google is second, but closer than it used to be (up from 5% share in 2006 to 34% now)
· Search engine optimisation: Overall, SEO still a few years behind
· Broadband take-up is also quite slower than most large countries
· Use of Mobile internet and Broadband did not rise with the recent wave in many countries, but is now starting to kick off
· Social Networking is big here with Comscore claiming that users in Russia spend more time on social networks than any one else. The top choice of social network was Vkontakte.ru, followed by odnoklassniki.ru and mail.ru – while Facebook was a distant seventh.
· PPC: Russian-based sites and domains have a clear advantage in PPC, especially in Yandex.
· International marketers prefer to use Google for PPC in Russia, as Yandex has a very limited interface (its only available in Russian - though they will manage your PPC on your behalf. Oddly enough, not too many western marketers have taken Yandex up on that offer).
· Watch your click data and PPC spend very carefully due to click fraud (but its not as bad as it used to be, and its no longer the top country for click fraud)
A short summary of the search review paper can be seen at
The PDF is available at -
Activity in the Oil and Gas sector (including regulatory)
SE Times: Moscow reaps fruit of long-term plan
22/02/2010
Since 1998, when Lukoil set up shop in Bulgaria, Russia has slowly increased its presence and influence in Balkan energy markets by buying companies throughout the region.
Analysis by Marko Biocina for Southeast European Times in Zagreb -- 22/02/10
Over the past ten years, Russian oil companies have become dominant market leaders in the distribution of oil throughout Southeastern Europe. Russia continues to aggressively develop and control the flow of oil and natural gas in the region. This, observers say, was calculated for significant influence -- both commercial and political -- in the region.
When the Russian oil company Lukoil built its first petrol filling station in the Balkans -- a 1998 project in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia -- few analysts saw it as the beginning of a long-term strategy for energy dominance in Southeastern Europe.
The most recent evidence of Russian's plan occurred in March 2009 when Surgutneftegaz bought a 21% ownership stake in Hungary's central energetic company MOL, previously held by Austrian OMV.
Surgutneftegaz is one of Russia's least transparent oil companies, with alleged ownership ties to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. By buying into the Hungarian company, Surgutneftegaz automatically gained a stake in Croatia's INA, whose 47% share is owned by MOL.
To limit Surgutneftegaz's influence, the Hungarian company changed its shareholder voting rules. But there is no doubt that by entering into the ownership structure of MOL and INA, the Russians achieved entry into the Croatian and Hungarian market. This is not only a business triumph, but points to the geopolitical success of a ten-year Russian strategy.
Russian companies now operate in all of the energy markets of Southeastern Europe.
The dominant position in Bulgaria is held by Lukoil, which also has operations in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Montenegro and Croatia. Russia's influence in Serbia was further strengthened last year when state-owned Gazprom took over Naftna Industries in Serbia. In BiH, Russia owns Naftna Industries in Republika Srpska (NIRS).
It is clear that none of this occurred by chance or without great forethought. Indeed, the long-term strategy was executed through the business and political sectors, with the business component unfolding over a decade.
During that time, some Russian companies made deals for short-term losses now seen as a bigger strategy for later success. The Russians expanded in the region by buying up existing firms and if that failed, set up and developed their own energy firms connected to existing ones.
The process was costly, but well co-ordinated. In the final tally, Russian companies will have achieved almost complete control of retail sales, refineries and oil and natural gas transportation systems in every Southeastern European country in the next few years.
One year after the privately run Lukoil -- owned in part by the US-based ConocoPhillips -- set up business in Bulgaria, it bought 58% of the Neftochim refinery for 74m euros. Lukoil is considered the most transparent of all Russian oil companies. The Bulgarian plant purchased in 1999 is located in the Black Sea city of Burgas.
Lukoil's Burgas refinery is the largest in the Balkans and has become a base for further Lukoil development throughout the region. Lukoil is also one of the biggest companies in Bulgaria, generating 9% of the Bulgarian GDP and paying one-fourth of all tax revenue in the country.
In late 2003, the company undertook its largest investment when it purchased a 79.5% of Serbian oil company Beopetrol for 117m euros. Beopetrol owned about 200 petrol filling stations, and held 20% of the retail market for oil derivatives in Serbia.
Most of the petrol filling stations were once owned by INA and were seized by Serbia when the Yugoslav war broke out. Beopetrol's service stations were outdated and burdened with a variety of property rights problems.
Lukoil spent over five years and 76m euros to turn the company around before it managed to turn a profit in Serbia. These problems in Serbia slowed the company's expansion plans and Lukoil's next acquisition didn't occur for another two years.
On August 17th 2005, based on a deal hammered out with the Macedonian government, a Lukoil subsidiary was set up in that country which now runs a dozen service stations. Many analysts were amazed at the time that a company as large as Lukoil would spend significant resources on a market as small and closed as Macedonia. But it is clear that the company felt it was important to secure a presence in every country in the region.
In 2006, Lukoil tried to do business in Slovenia by way of a strategic partnership with the Slovenian state-owned company Petrol. The deal was thwarted by Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, allegedly after receiving direct instructions from Brussels to do so. Nevertheless, Lukoil that same year continued to expand its business, and in October of 2006 a subsidiary company was set up in Montenegro.
Negotiations were launched that same year on the privatisation of NIRS with Russian investors. The company includes a crude oil refinery in Bosanski Brod, an oil refinery in Modrica and the Banja Luka-based Petrol distribution company.
The deal was wrapped up ten months later. And while RS Prime Minister Milorad Dodik said at the time that it was an excellent deal for his nation and the Russian partners would invest significant funds to develop refineries, a report by the local branch of NGO Transparency International said the entire transaction was marked by irregularities.
Dodik claimed that the refinery was being sold to Russian company Zarubezhneft, even though the formal owner of the refinery turned out to be a previously unknown firm called Neftgazinkor. And the money to be used for the purchase was sent from the account of the Russian commercial bank Vnesheconombank. This left the true owners of the refinery unknown, with suspicions that they are close to the leadership of Gazprom.
In 2007, Lukoil began to show serious interest in the Croatian market. The company tried to buy Tifon from retired General Ivan Cermak. Tifon was a significant retail chain with 36 modern petrol filling stations, some twenty new locations and a market share of 7%.
Such an acquisition would have allowed Lukoil to compete with INA in a very short time. But Hungary's MOL made a better offer and Lukoil was forced to delay its entry to the Croatian market. It did so in April of 2008 when it purchased a small Croatian firm called Europa Mil, with eight service stations and a river terminal in Vukovar.
Almost parallel to this acquisition, Lukoil purchased the Roksped chain of service stations in Montenegro for 26.5m euros. Few saw Lukoil's operations in the region as a threat, mostly because of the positive image it had as a privately owned company. That attitude changed only after companies under the direct control of the Russian leadership began operating in Serbia and BiH.
In late 2007, a third Russian player emerged in the Balkans -- the state-owned energy giant Gazprom. It intended to buy NIS from the state through a subsidiary company, Gazproneft.
The Russians paid 400m euros for NIS and agreed to invest a further 550m euros by 2012. The deal was signed by Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica. Independent analysts said the company was sold for significantly less than it was worth and speculated that this was with the aim of securing Russian political support in the Serbian campaign against the independence of Kosovo.
In 2007, NIS saw profits of 125m euros and it paid 1.2 billion euros in taxes. Based on these figures, many analysts concluded that Serbia handed over control of its energy system to Russia at a very cheap price. The Russians gain a similar control in Hungary if they succeed in achieving key ownership in MOL.
So far, this hasn't happened. But it would undoubtedly be seen as a significant increase in Russian influence. Because some of the countries in the region are already EU members -- and considering that others will become members in the future -- it can be assumed that the Russians are establishing future political leverage within the EU via one of the most important issues of the 21st century: energy.
Trend.az: Next international Caspian oil and gas trading and transport conference to be held in Aktau
22.02.2010 19:36
Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb.22 / Trend Capital/
Confidence Capital Company invites to attend the 4th International Caspian Oil and Gas Trading and Transport Conference, which will be held on April 26 - 27 in Aktau \(Kazakhstan\).
Selection of the venue is not accidental. The only international sea port of the Republic functions in Aktau. As a result of investment projects, which aim to improve transport infrastructure, Aktau will be a crucial link between Europe and Asia.
The conference will be attended by more than 500 visitors and delegates from 25 countries. Traditional participants are representatives of major oil and gas companies, international banks, service companies such as: BP, GOGC, Exxon Mobil, Statoil, Total, ENI, Deutsche Bank, Litasco, Neste Oil, TOTSA, Trafigura, BNP Paribas, SGS, Transbunker, Shell, Vitol, LUKOIL, Mazeikiu Nafta Trading House, RussNeft, TNK-BP, Gazprom, Gunvor, NIORDC, LITASCO and others.
Conference will focus on the development of transport infrastructure, relationship of the Caspian Sea and the partner countries, the energy resources trade, logistics problems and their solutions, the analysis of ongoing and future oil and gas projects.
Gazprom
BarentsObserver: SDAG: “Shtokman is technically viable”
2010-02-22
The Shtokman project is technically viable and the Shtokman Development AG (SDAG) will make good money with an oil price of 60 USD per barrel, company leaders told the press.
Almost a month after the SDAG decided to postpone the project’s final investment decision until 2011 and production start-up with three years, CEO Yuri Komarov and his deputy Erve Madeo now confirm that a technical and economic assessment study shows that the project is technically viable, as well as profitable.
With an oil price of 60 USD/barrel, the SDAG will be commercially “highly efficient”, Komarov and Madeo said, Vremya.ru reports.
The SDAG leaders also confirmed that all tender processes will be completed in the course of 2010.
Talking about the LNG plant and the land-based part of the project, the company representatives admitted that not all design issues have been settled. The preliminary designs do not fit with the chosen location for the installations, the village of Teriberka, northeast of Murmansk city, they said.
Read more - Vremya Novostey
China CSR: Citigroup And Gazprom Pioneer Energy-credit Deal In China
February 23, 2010
Citigroup and OAO Gazprom have signed a small but pioneering deal in China that may lay the foundation for a larger scale national market for carbon trading.
According to the CNY500,000 agreement, the American bank and the Russian gas giant will purchase energy-intensity credits from three Tianjin heating companies that have outperformed the energy efficiency targets set by the city government. It is said the energy they have saved will be packaged as carbon emission quotas and sold to other public units or buildings that have not completed this year's goals.
John Shi, the CEO of Arreon Carbon, a carbon credits broker from the UK, believes this is the first step toward building a fully implemented carbon-intensity market in China. Arreon Carbon, along with Tianjin municipal government and Tianjin Climate Change, a JV between China National Petroleum Corp and Chicago Climate Exchange, has secured the finalization of the deal.
Currently there are several carbon trading markets in China cities, but up until now, there is still no legal basis for carbon trading in the country. Among the cities with a carbon trading market, Tianjin has apparently taken the lead in attracting high-profile investors such as Citigroup, Gazprom and CNPC.
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