Russia 1111121

Basic Political Developments Russian warships enter Syrian waters to prevent NATO attack: report - “Russian

warships are due to arrive at Syrian territorial waters, a Syrian news agency said on Thursday, indicating that the move represented a clear message to the West that Moscow would resist any foreign intervention in the country’s civil unrest,” reports Haaretz.

Russian Delegation Starts a Solidarity Visit to Syria to Convey Reality to Russian People - Russian Duma Council candidate of the Russian Communist Party, Irina Filatova, told SANA that Russia is a friendly country to Syria, pointing out that the purpose of the visit is to inspect the reality of the events and convey it to the Russian leadership and people.

U.S. ready to provide Russia with missile shield details - "During the consultations [U.S. Undersecretary of State for Arms Control Ellen] Tauscher said Washington was ready to provide information about the missile's speed after it uses up all of its fuel. This information, referred to as burnout velocity (VBO) in international documents, helps to determine how to target it," Kommersant said.

o US Congress decides to intercept - Republicans will not allow disclosure of missile defense secrets to Russia Kirill Belyaninov (New York), Gennady Sysoev

Russia, US hold successful joint anti-drug operations over past year - He cited as an example Operations Asian, Tajik Express and Octopus, the destruction of four large drug laboratories in Afghanistan and the neutralization of a criminal group attempting cocaine contraband to Russia from Brazil.

Visa regime simplified - Russia and the United States have signed an agreement significantly simplifying the visa regime by allowing citizens of the two states to obtain three-year multiple-entry visas. 

FBI and Homeland Security launch probe as foreign cyber attackers target U.S. water supply - A pump was damaged after hackers from Russia got into a water plant control system in Illinois last week.

Brussels hosts Fifth European Russian Forum Russia, Poland ‘closer’ to decision on rehabilitation of Katyn Massacre victims Commerce chamber head hails pace of RF-Macedonia cooperation - According to

him, Macedonia “has reached certain progress in improving the investment climate in the country”. He said “the program to attract foreign investments developed by the Macedonian government yields more and more favorable results every day, which increases the presence of foreign capital in the economy of the Republic of Macedonia”.

Kazakh, RF FMs to discuss Caspian issue, energy and space ties - Kazakh Foreign Minister Yerzhan Kazykhanov arrives in Moscow for his first official visit after the appointment. He will meet with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to discuss a wide range of issues.

Lukashenko: Eurasian Union could be formed before end of 2013 Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan become first contenders for membership in the

Eurasian Economic Union

Visit of the Holiest Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill to Kyrgyzstan postponed - Moscow Patriarch's office as saying on November 20 that the vladiko Kirill postpones his official visit tentatively until December 2, 2011 because he feels unwell,” reads the message.

o Patriarch Kirill feels good; his health not in danger – spokesperson Turkmenistan rejects Russian doubts over gas reserves - Turkmenistan tells

Russia it will diversify gas exports; Says "clumsy" Gazprom remarks "utterly tactless"; Strongman Turkmen leader renames South Iolotan structure; Turkmen "renaissance" hinges on new gas export routes

RF 1st deputy prime minister, Vietnam leaders to discuss ties - Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov will meet on Monday with Vietnamese leadership to discuss the development of Russian-Vietnamese ties in economy, trade, investments and the energy sector.

Major engineering company sues Vietnamese assembly corporation for $43 mln RF, Canada scientists, politicians to discuss Arctic development - The

International Conference on Siberian North and Arctic: Global Challenges of the 21st Century opens on Monday in Krasnoyarsk.

Medvedev ratifies customs coop documents with Abkhazia, S Ossetia Tajik court to consider appeal of Russian pilots on November 22

o Tajik court takes for consideration complaints of Rolkan pilotso Russia threatens Tajikistan with import sanctions - Russia's Federal

Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Monitoring, Rosselkhoznadzor, said it may impose temporary restrictions on vegetable imports from Tajikistan in connection with what it called "violations" of hygiene regulations.

Draft Law Might Add to Foreigners' Taxes - On top of paying relocation fees and higher salaries, companies could face paying insurance fees for foreign workers starting next year.

Chechen militant threatens Turkey after killings - Doku Umarov, who has survived numerous attempts on his life by Russia, said the militants were killed by Russian agents whose activities had been deliberately tolerated by the Turkish secret services.

o Appeal of Emir Dokku Abu Usman to people and government of Turkey Russia’s Chechen Republic sees 131 militants eliminated in 9 months Over 100 kg of explosives seized in Chechnya Manhunt for militants resumes in Chechen highlands - "The operation is being

held under extremely difficult conditions. Two militants were killed in a clash yesterday. One of them was identified as Ilyas Khizriyev, a resident of Kurchaloi," Kadyrov said.

Counter-terrorist operation regime imposed in Nalchiko Police block group of militants in Kabardino-Balkaria

Last chance to send Russian Mars moon probe expires Monday Owner of SKorean trawler asks Chukotka authorities for help Medvedev, Putin to address nation after Dec. 4 elections

o Medvedev to present state-of-the-nation address to new State Duma – Gryzlov

Medvedev urges "tough" action against attempts to fan ethnic, religious strife Meeting with Muslim clergy - Before the meeting Dmitry Medvedev visited First

Cathedral Mosque of Ufa. Russian Central Elections Commission opens hotline Suing for the right not to vote - The Siberian electoral battle is as tough as well as

cold. According to the polls, the pro-government United Russia party is in the lead, however the opposition is not giving up.

Russian Press at a Glance, Monday, November 21, 2011 Customs Union Forming Closer Ties - By Anatoly Medetsky The Logic of Putin's Third Term - By Richard Lourie Kurdish Cameraman: Vladimir Putin Is ‘A Simple Man’ - Ilhan Coskun, a 22-

year-old Kurdish resident of Germany, is part of a German television team recently given exclusive access to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Crowd boos and whistles Putin speech at fight How a Banana Tycoon Lured Bolshoi Stars to His Theater - By DAVID M.

HERSZENHORN Russia's Medvedev "Only World Leader" Who Understands Internet, Says

Wikipedia Founder

National Economic Trends Sberbank CEO: Privatization of state-owned assets put on ice Deputy PM Igor Sechin has proposed not selling shares below the previous

privatisation sale price Russian Hopes of WTO Debt-Grade Boost Dashed by Rating Companies Finance ministry projects small 2011 budget surplus Finance Ministry opposes tax hikes Kremlin pledges lower taxes RF Finance Ministry not to increase taxes in coming 3 уears Tax rates might be lowered in next 3 yrs – Dvorkovich Tax burden in Russia is not low, comes to around 40% - Dvorkovich Russian companies’ tax debts down by 8% as of January 1 CBR announces $64bn capital outflow for 10M11 Capital flees from Russian investment climate

Business, Energy or Environmental regulations or discussions Integra, Evraz, Mobile TeleSystems: Russian Equities Preview Introduction of patent system in Russia postponed MICEX, RTS looking to sell derivatives to U.S. investors Russia's Novolipetsk Steel, Evraz eye 29% stake in Vietnam Steel EuroChem buys back $1bn worth of shares RusHydro announces plans for Far East Alstom extends partnership with RusHydro to thermal power generation and

creates joint venture with KER to address the Russian HVDC market Russia's Acron, Norway's Yara end dispute Ericsson getting Russia mobile ARMENIA TO INCREASE ROUGH SUPPLY FROM ALROSA IN 2012 21

November 2011

SRDSIL to Sell Alrosa Rough Diamonds Worth $5.2 Million in December Doing business in Russia - Bernard Sucher, a member of the Board of Directors at

Aton Group, talked to RBTH about the challenges and the benefits of working in finances in Russia.

Activity in the Oil and Gas sector (including regulatory) TNK-BP to sink up to $800m in domestic and foreign E&P TNK-BP TO CLOSE DEAL ON BRAZILIAN PROJECT IN NEXT 3 MTHS -

TOP MANAGER UPDATE 1-TNK-BP seeks to bid for more Vietnam oil/gas blocks Lukoil CEO: Production At Iraq's West Qurna-2 To Begin In 2013 LUKOIL seeks to explore oil/gas with Petrovietnam Tensions Increasing Over Caspian Energy Riches - Written by John Daly    Gas and geopolitics: Prospects for Russia – by Sameer Jafri

Gazprom Gazprom Neft Increases Omsk Refinery Investment, Oil Daily Says Russian Gazprom, KazMunaiGaz plan to develop Caspian gas fields Gazprombank Namibia Talks Banatski Dvor gas storage to open Monday Turkmenistan accuses "Gazprom" of distorting country's gas reserves Gazprom to Sign Gas Accord With Belarus Nov. 25, Interfax Says Gazprom is looking for new support for South Stream Gazprom to make increased MET payments starting in 2012

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Full Text Articles

Basic Political Developments

Russian warships enter Syrian waters to prevent NATO attack: reporthttp://nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/International/19-Nov-2011/Russian-warships-enter-Syrian-waters-to-prevent-NATO-attack-report

Submitted 2 days ago Russian warships have entered Syrian territorial waters in an aggressive move designed to prevent any NATO-led attack on the country under the guise of a “humanitarian intervention”.“Russian warships are due to arrive at Syrian territorial waters, a Syrian news agency said on Thursday, indicating that the move represented a clear message to the West that

Moscow would resist any foreign intervention in the country’s civil unrest,” reports Haaretz.Russia has stepped up efforts to defend Syria in recent days, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov keen to frame the violence in the country as a civil war in defiance of claims by western powers that President Bashar al-Assad has overseen a bloody crackdown on innocent protesters.As we saw prior to the attack on Libya, which was also framed as a “humanitarian intervention,” NATO powers are keen to demonize Assad’s government by characterizing attacks by his forces as atrocities while largely ignoring similar attacks by opposition forces, such as this week’s raid on a Syrian air force intelligence complex that killed or wounded 20 security police.U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner rejects Russia’s claim that Syria is in a civil war, stating, “We believe it’s very much the Assad regime carrying out a campaign of violence, intimidation, and repression against innocent protesters.”Of course, we heard similar rhetoric even as NATO-backed Al-Qaeda rebels were commandeering fighter jets and firing rocket-propelled grenades in Libya, actions also undertaken by “innocent protesters,” we were told at the time.As we have previously reported, despite overwhelming speculation that Iran will be the next target of a military assault, Syria is the likeliest target for the next salvo of NATO-backed regime change.US President Barack Obama got the ball rolling back in August when he called on President al-Assad to step down. The UN has already withdrawn all non-essential staff from the country.Without Russia’s help, Syria would be largely defenseless against a NATO attack. “I don’t see any purely military problems. Syria has no defence against Western systems … [But] it would be more risky than Libya. It would be a heavy military operation,” former French air force chief Jean Rannou commented.

Given that the western press has proven adept at manufacturing lies to justify military interventions, whether the actions of Assad’s regime represent genuine atrocities or legitimate conduct in the midst of a civil war remains unclear. Some have claimed the abuses are being embellished, while both former CIA agent Robert Baer and ex-MI6 officer Alastair Crooke point out that the Syrian people definitely want change, but not in the form of a NATO “humanitarian” assault. (The EU Times)

Russian Delegation Starts a Solidarity Visit to Syria to Convey Reality to Russian People

http://www.sana.sy/eng/337/2011/11/21/382725.htm

Nov 21, 2011

DAMASCUS, (SANA) - A Russian delegation including parliamentary candidates, journalists and members of popular and student organizations, on Saturday started a solidarity visit to Syria to inspect the reality of its events.

Russian Duma Council candidate of the Russian Communist Party, Irina Filatova, told SANA that Russia is a friendly country to Syria, pointing out that the purpose of the visit is to inspect the reality of the events and convey it to the Russian leadership and people.

For his part, Duma candidate of the United Russia Party, Ilya Kostanov, said much of the information coming to the Russian media is various and contradicted "but what I see here is that there are terrorist acts and huge foreign pressure on Syria. However, what is most import is that the Syrians can solve their problems by themselves."

Alexander Ivachev, Assistant MP and secretary of the Communist Youth Union Branch, expressed the Russian Communist Party's support to the Syrian issues, stressing the importance of solving the internal problems without foreign interference.

He added that Syria is the leading state of the Arab region's society "and we support its political and economic line."

Athlete Bruce Khlebnikov, activist at the Russian Nashi Youth Movement of the United Russia Party, said "I don't believe the media which are reporting news about Syria. I've just arrived in Syria and I have a great sense that the situation is very stable and safe."

He noted that he plans to present athletic shows in expression of his support and solidarity with Syria and its people.

Journalist Lena Kandakji of Moscow Radio, said that the delegation has come to inspect the real image and convey it to the Russian public.

"There is a media attack on Syria, we don't know why. We want the Russian media to be transparent and report the reality of what is taking place in Syria to the Russian people. I'm pretty sure that what is being circulated is within the media campaigns led by the West against Syria," she added.

Anna Starikova, a journalist, said "We in Russia are sure that what is happening in Syria isn't a civil war; rather it is a media war. I'm certain that the US is waging the war on Syria to undermine its leading role in the Middle East region… and the Syrian people will remain united."

Wael Jneid, head of the Syrian Arab community in Russia, said that the visiting Russian youth came to express their solidarity with the Syrian youth, noting the Russian supportive stance towards Syria is not only on the level of the leadership but also on the popular level.

Nawwaf Ibrahim, head of the Syrian Students Union Branch in Russia and at the Commonwealth of Independent States, said the delegation includes political, social, cultural, party and sports figures, as well as representatives of health organizations, environment protection and human rights associations, in addition to teachers, sociology professors, journalists and youths.

Johan Backman, Professor of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Helsinki, accompanying the delegation, said "I don't believe what journalism writes against Syria as it presents a wrong picture of what happens. I came to get acquainted with the reality by myself. I was determined to visit Syria despite the warning issued by the Finnish Foreign Ministry against travelling to Syria," considering this warning as "shameful".

The Russian delegation's visit is due to last until November 26th, with several meetings scheduled to be held with Syrian academic and religious figures, in addition to visits to a number of cities and areas.

Patriarch Hazim to the Russian Delegation: Syrians are Living in One Big Home; Syria

Patriarch Ignatius IV Hazim of Antioch and All the East for Greek Orthodox stressed in his meeting with the Russian delegation that the Syrians are living in one big home called the homeland.

Patriarch Hazim expressed gratitude to Russia for its standing by Syria under the current circumstances.

Members of the delegation stressed their confidence that what is really happening is very different from what some media are promoting.

Russian Delegation Visits Injured Army and Law-Enforcement Personnel

Later on Sunday, the Russian delegation visited injured army, law-enforcement and security forces personnel at Tishreen Military Hospital and presented them with gifts in a sign of solidarity and appreciation of their sacrifices.

In a statement to SANA, Prof. Backman said that what they are witnessing in Syria isn't civil war but rather terrorist who attack the army and security forces and commit murder, affirming that there are criminal groups who are kidnapping people and demand ransoms.

He pointed out that western countries and foreign forces are attempting to exploit these events to carry out their own plans and agendas and destroy Syria.

In turn, journalist, historian and history professor Sergei Balmasov said that according to his expertise as a military journalist, the injured people he saw were attacked by trained and proficient snipers.

Earlier on Sunday, the delegation visited the towns of Maaloula and Sednaya and toured their churches and monasteries. 

M. Nassr /H. Said

U.S. ready to provide Russia with missile shield detailshttp://en.ria.ru/russia/20111121/168883920.html

06:51 21/11/2011

MOSCOW, November 21 (RIA Novosti)

The United States is ready to provide Russia with technical specifics of interceptor missiles of the European missile defense system, Russia's Kommersant daily said on Monday, citing U.S. sources.

The newspaper said Russian specialists were invited to take part in tests of RIM-161 Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) and visit the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) headquarters at the Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado.

"During the consultations [U.S. Undersecretary of State for Arms Control Ellen] Tauscher said Washington was ready to provide information about the missile's speed after it uses up all of its fuel. This information, referred to as burnout velocity (VBO) in international documents, helps to determine how to target it," Kommersant said.

In October, Moscow's NATO envoy Dmitry Rogozin said Russian talks with the United States on missile defense had hit a dead end.

The Kremlin says the U.S. expanding anti-missile system in Europe is a potential threat to Russian nuclear arsenal, while Washington tries to convince Moscow that the system poses no threat to Russia and is needed to protect against missiles that could be fired by countries with smaller arsenals such as Iran.

The missile shield dispute between Russia and the U.S. has undermined efforts to build on improvements in relations between the former Cold War foes and is intensified by Russia's uncertainty of U.S. policy after the November 2012 presidential elections.

US Congress decides to intercepthttp://rt.com/politics/press/kommersant/us-missile-russia-congress/en/

Published: 21 November, 2011, 09:11Edited: 21 November, 2011, 09:14

Republicans will not allow disclosure of missile defense secrets to Russia Kirill Belyaninov (New York), Gennady Sysoev

Washington continues to try and reach an agreement on missile defense with Moscow, while convincing the Russian Federation that it is not the target of its missile shield in Europe. According to some sources, during her recent visit to Moscow, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Ellen Tauscher had expressed readiness to provide technical specifications for the sea-based SM-3 interceptor missiles, which will serve as the foundation of the Euro-ABM system, to Russia. Washington officials believe this will convince Kremlin that the US interceptors are incapable of shooting down Russia’s ballistic missiles, thus eliminating Moscow’s main concerns. However, having learned about the administration’s initiative, republican congressmen demanded an end to these negotiations with Russia.

The launch

The readiness to present technical specifications for the SM-3 interceptor missiles to Russia develops an earlier US initiative. Kommersant has learned that, in October, Washington had extended an official invitation to Russian experts to participate in the SM-3 flight test in 2012 and visit the Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, which is the home to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). Meanwhile, Washington believes that the transfer of secret technical information on SM-3 will convince the Kremlin that the flight speed of the interceptors is too low to pose as a threat to Russia’s ballistic missiles.     

US sources say that during her October trip to Moscow, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Ellen Tauscher offered to present to the Russian side technical specifications for the SM-3 interceptors, which are expected to serve as the foundation for the missile defense system in Europe. In course of the consultations, Tauscher said that Washington is ready to disclose information on the burnout velocity. These data, abbreviated in international documents as VBO, make it possible to determine how to destroy a missile.  

The US State Department refused to confirm or deny reports about the ongoing negotiations with Moscow on technical data for US interceptor missiles. Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance Rose Gottemoeller told Kommersant that the continuing disputes over the missile defense system are not linked to America’s deployment of interceptors in Europe. “Americans are very practical-minded people and we’ve always had a very practical-minded approach to this,” Rose

Gottemoeller explained to Kommersant. “Some people in Russia have said things like, ‘Well, we want a marriage here. We don’t just want a proposal of marriage’…I wanted us all to be aware of false dichotomies because in some societies, it’s the betrothal that is when you actually get into the real deal in terms of understanding what the contractual arrangements will be, what the dowry is going to be, what the overall resources that will be applied to the marriage will be. So I think in many cases, it’s the proposal stage or the dowry stage and the betrothal that is more important than the wedding itself…it’s really important that Russia be able to understand that. Well, there’s an American expression, our money is where our mouth is, that it is the cooperation that will help Russia to understand that our money is where our mouth is, that we really do have a system here that is directed against threats coming toward Europe, emanating from regions to the south, and it has nothing to do with the Russian strategic offensive deterrent.”

The interception

However, perhaps there will be no need in convincing Russia in the importance if the new US initiative. It has become known to some influential congressional Republicans, who immediately accused the White House of leading secret negotiations with Moscow, which could threaten US security. Chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces Mike Turner said that the House Armed Services Committee will “oppose any effort by the administration to provide to Russia information on the burnout velocity, also known as VBO, of SM-3 missile interceptors.”

Republicans believe that by conducting endless negotiations and setting forth new demands, Moscow is not really interested in finding a compromise. In their opinion, Russian experts are simply trying to use the negotiations to obtain new information about the US military plans. In the winter of last year, during the discussion of the START Treaty, representatives of the Republican Party in Congress insisted on inclusion of an article, specifying that the new agreement will not limit the capabilities of missile defense systems. According to Mike Turner, disclosure of information about the SM-3 could be only the beginning, and in the end, Moscow could demand to conclude a treaty, limiting the maximum velocity of intercepts. 

Kommersant learned that, late last week, Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) handed a letter to the Director for Russia and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council, Michael McFaul, who awaits confirmation as the next ambassador to Moscow, demanding full disclosure of information about the White House administration’s secret negotiations on missile defense with Russian representatives. “How could a decision to release SM-3 VBO data, regardless of whether such decision is taken, be consistent with the administration’s decision that ‘the United States will not provide missile defense interceptor telemetry to Russia under the New START Treaty’,” asks the senator.    

Experts say that the Republican effervescence, when it comes to the issue of missile defense, greatly devalues the new American initiative. After all, even if Moscow shows an interest, the Barack Obama administration will be forced to spend a long time

convincing its political opponents at home that the White House and the State Department initiative does not pose a threat to the US national security. The final choice will be either to officially deny the existence of such initiative or abandon it without further explanation.  

Something similar happened to the declaration, which was to be signed during the Russian and US presidents’ meeting at the G-8 summit in Deauville in May – it was designed to eliminate Moscow’s concerns that the missile defense system is aimed against it. According to Kommersant’s sources, on the eve of the meeting, the Department of State had drafted the appropriate agreement – its initiator was Ellen Tauscher. But days before the summit, President Barack Obama refused to sign it, according to Kommersant’s sources in Russia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, under pressure from the Pentagon and the CIA.

21:20 20/11/2011ALL NEWS

Russia, US hold successful joint anti-drug operations over past year

http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/276812.html

WASHINGTON DC, November 20 (Itar-Tass) —— Russian and U.S. security services have had a number of successful joint operations to block drug trafficking over the past year, Federal Drug Control Service Director Viktor Ivanov said.

He cited as an example Operations Asian, Tajik Express and Octopus, the destruction of four large drug laboratories in Afghanistan and the neutralization of a criminal group attempting cocaine contraband to Russia from Brazil.

Ivanov said that the suppression of drug trafficking would continue and a number of new joint operations had been planned. However, these operations must be coordinated with the authorities of Afghanistan and will require rapider reaction of NATO servicemen stationed in that country, he said.

In addition to the joint anti-drug staff, Russia has proposed the establishment of ‘a joint command’ with the participation of servicemen. “That could become a concrete example of Russia-NATO cooperation,” particularly valuable in view of the NATO summit in the Czech Republic planned for next May, Ivanov said.

He dwelt on the jubilee meeting of the working group for the suppression of narcotic drugs, which operated under the Russia-U.S. Presidential Commission. The meeting summed up results of the joint work and made plans for three main areas, i.e. operative

contacts, lowering of the demand for narcotic drugs, including treatment and social rehabilitation of drug addicts, and prevention of drug money laundering.

Ivanov said that Russia was generally satisfied with the current level of cooperation with the U.S. and particularly valued the interaction between drug control professionals.

Visa regime simplifiedhttp://rt.com/politics/press/rossijskaya-gazeta/visa-regime-russia-us/en/

Published: 21 November, 2011, 09:02Edited: 21 November, 2011, 09:04

Oleg Kiryanov

Russia and the United States have signed an agreement significantly simplifying the visa regime by allowing citizens of the two states to obtain three-year multiple-entry visas. 

Politicians had plenty of epithets to highlight all of the advantages of this decision, but experts warn that it will take time before people will feel the simplification of formalities.  

The agreement was signed during the East Asia Summit in Bali. Russia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton exchanged notes on the simplification of the visa regime. Under the new rules, tourists and businessmen of the two countries will be able to obtain three-year multiple-entry visas, and government officials one-year multiple-entry visas.

Meanwhile, there is a condition restricting each visit to a maximum period of stay of no more than six months. As far as technical details go, the agreements apply to visa issuance conditions for short-term official visits, as well as conditions for Russia’s issuance of business, private, humanitarian, and tourist visas and the US B1 and B2 visas.

However, these notes have not yet come into force – when this will happen remains unknown. The Russian law does not allow the issuance of three-year multiple-entry visas; therefore, the agreement must pass the ratification procedure in the Federal Assembly. After that, the parties must again exchange notes. However, Russia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov assured that “agreeing on some technical details is all that remains to be done” and the final agreement will be signed before the end of this year.   

State Duma officials have also promised to do everything possible to make sure the simplified rules pass the ratification procedure and come into force as soon as possible. “This is a very important agreement for the development of the US-Russia relations,” said First Deputy Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Leonid Slutsky, adding that the deputies will be able to approve the agreement as part of the “expedited procedure”.

It is noteworthy that the United States has described the agreements in a very positive light. “This agreement will facilitate travel between our two countries and establish stronger ties between our people,” reads an official press release, issued by the State Department. Moreover, it emphasizes that the new rules “benefit the largest segments of our traveling Americans and Russians”, among other reasons, by reducing the number of required documentation.

However, there are a number of problems. First, the agreement may take a long time to come into effect – willingly or unwillingly, this process may be delayed by both Russia and the United States. According to MP Leonid Kalashnikov, it is not a guarantee that our elected officials will be able to approve the document within the current Assembly session, which ends in December. Moreover, in addition to ratification, certain by-laws need to be signed. Therefore, according to the deputy, the simplified rules will not come into effect “starting 2012”. Dmitry Abzalov, an expert with the Center for Political Conjuncture, also indicates that there is no real opportunity for US President Barack Obama to see these agreements pass in Congress.  

Lawyers, who have grown accustomed to reading into every line of a document, also note that the agreement includes some hidden exceptions. For example, the new visas will be issued “as a rule” and “subject to the parties’ principles of reciprocity”. In other words, there is a chance a “convenient” visa will not be granted. A claim could also be made that “because your government is not giving our citizens these visas, then based on ‘principles of reciprocity’, neither will we.”

Generally, the new agreements will facilitate the visa regime. Russia’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Ryabkov, has outlined “a strategic visa objective”: “The exchange of notes will be the first step on the path toward the main goal – introduction of visa-free travel for up to 90 days.” The US tour agencies also had positive feedback of the agreement, hoping that now they will see more Russian tourists, who “are notorious for their willingness to spend large sums of money on travel.” The US Department of Commerce predicts that, by the end of 2011, the number of Russian travelers to the US will exceed 208,000 people, which is 19 per cent more than in the previous year. In 2010, Russian citizens were in 33rd place among the number of foreigners entering the US.

FBI and Homeland Security launch probe as foreign cyber attackers target U.S. water supply

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 11:20 AM on 20th November 2011

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2063444/Cyber-attack-US-water-supply-traced-Russia-FBI-Homeland-Security-launch-probe.html#ixzz1eKAdQ7xJ

A pump was damaged after hackers from Russia got into a water plant control system in Illinois last week.

It is thought to be the first foreign cyber attack damaging a major computer system in the U.S.

A water district employee in Illinois first noticed problems with the water pump control system on November 8.

After an investigation it was determined the system had been hacked into from a computer in Russia, the Washington Post reports.

An Illinois state fusion centre report on the attack said it is not known how many other systems might be affected.

The Department of Homeland Security confirmed that a water plant in Springfield, Illinois, had been damaged.

However spokesman Peter Boogaard said officials had yet to confirm that the pump failure was the result of a cyber-attack.

He said: 'DHS and the FBI are gathering facts surrounding the report of a water pump failure in Springfield, Illinois.

'At this time there is no credible corroborated data that indicates a risk to critical infrastructure entities or a threat to public safety.'

A report from the Illinois terrorism and intelligence center said there had been problems with the system in Springfield for two to three months.

The system 'would power on and off, resulting in the burnout of a water pump,' the report said.

It added that cyber attackers broke into a software company’s database and got hold of user names and passwords of various control systems that run water plant computer equipment.

The method used, hacking a security company to gain entry to another company, was employed earlier this year by cyber attackers in China.

They stole data from RSA, a division of EMC that provides secure remote computer access to government agencies.

They then went on to get into the computer systems of companies, including Lockheed Martin.

Security experts say the attacks show just how vulnerable companies and utilities are.

Gen. Keith Alexander, head of U.S. Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency, said: 'RSA is the gold standard. If they got hacked, where does that leave the rest?'

Mr Alexander is among senior U.S. officials who have warned of the danger of cyber attacks on critical infrastructure.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2063444/Cyber-attack-US-water-supply-traced-Russia-FBI-Homeland-Security-launch-probe.html#ixzz1eKAnh5Gg

04:04 21/11/2011ALL NEWS

Brussels hosts Fifth European Russian Forum

http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/276896.html

BRUSSELS, November 21 (Itar-Tass) — The Fifth European Russian Forum will be held on Monday at the European Parliament with participation of representatives from Russian and European public organizations, politicians, parliamentarians and reporters. It will discuss the place of the European Union and Russia in a new geopolitical structure of the world.

“We have a small anniversary today and we expect that our discussions will contribute to a better mutual understanding between Russia and the European Union, and to a better

understanding of our place and role in the present-day world,” European MP Tatyana Zhdanok told Tass.

According to her, “recommendations for an upcoming in December Russia-EU summit” will be prepared on the results of the forum.

Apart from a general plenary session, the forum will work in sections, where two main issues will be discussed – contribution of the youth to the development of public diplomacy at the level of relations between Russia and the EU and a danger of the strengthening right-wing extremism and neo-fascist movements in Europe.

The forum is held yearly starting from October 2007. It was designed as a platform for the development of non-governmental mechanisms of an EU-Russia political dialogue.

The aim of the forum is to boost Russian-European integration processes in the humanitarian sphere, promote a positive image of Russia and Russians in Europe, establish and strengthen personal contacts among politicians, economists, business people, non-governmental organizations, clergymen and cultural activists of Russia and EU countries.

Taking part in discussions, in particular, will be Alexander Chepurin, Director of the Department for Relations with Compatriots Living Abroad at the Russian Foreign Ministry; Russia’s Ambassador to the EU Vladimir Chizhov; Deputy Director of the Russkiy Mir Foundation Vassily Istratov; head of the International Council of Russian Compatriots, Count Peter Sheremetev; Archbishop Simon of Belgium and the Netherlands and chairman of the Congress of Jewish Religious Organizations and Associations in Russia Zinovy Kogan.

RT News line, November 21

Russia, Poland ‘closer’ to decision on rehabilitation of Katyn Massacre victims

http://rt.com/news/line/2011-11-21/#id22295

Russian judicial experts have prepared a package of amendments to the legislation to solve the problem of the rehabilitation of Polish citizens executed by the Soviet security police, NKVD, in Katyn in April-May 1940. The two countries are closer to the solution as the political decision had already been made, Interfax reports, citing its source. The current Russian legislation does not make it possible to reconsider earlier judicial decisions in the case, the source said. But he said other options for the rehabilitation are possible that are not connected with the need for a new investigation.

05:32 21/11/2011ALL NEWS

Commerce chamber head hails pace of RF-Macedonia cooperation

http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/276912.html

SKOPJE, November 21 (Itar-Tass) — Russian-Macedonian trade turnover exceeded 600 million dollars in January-October reaching its pre-crisis level, Director of the Macedonian-Russian Chamber of Commerce Deyan Beshliev told Tass on Sunday.

He particularly marked the fact that “supplies of Macedonian agricultural products to Russia have sizably increased”. “Our task is to avoid sizable trade imbalance in Russia’s favor, trying to balance supplies of Russian energy resources to Macedonia and exports of our goods,” Beshliev said.

According to him, Macedonia “has reached certain progress in improving the investment climate in the country”. He said “the program to attract foreign investments developed by the Macedonian government yields more and more favorable results every day, which increases the presence of foreign capital in the economy of the Republic of Macedonia”.

“I would like to encourage potential Russian investors. We have a positive experience of Russian-Macedonian cooperation, which has already brought good dividends, in the sphere of tourism, winemaking and in the energy sector,” he stressed.

According to the director of the chamber of commerce, “the key role in the development of bilateral cooperation belongs to the Russian-Macedonian intergovernmental commission for trade, economic and scientific cooperation”.

“It is owing to its chairmen – Russian Minister of Regional Development Maxim Travnikov and Macedonian Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Zoran Stavreski, that all necessary conditions have been created for expanding business contacts between economic entities of the two countries,” he stated.

“I am confident that if the commission continues to function efficiently, this will have a positive effect on the development of our trade relations,” the specialist stressed.

02:27 21/11/2011ALL NEWS

Kazakh, RF FMs to discuss Caspian issue, energy and space ties

http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/276873.html

ASTANA, November 21 (Itar-Tass) — Kazakh Foreign Minister Yerzhan Kazykhanov arrives in Moscow for his first official visit after the appointment. He will meet with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to discuss a wide range of issues.

The sides “plan to discuss the current state and prospects for Kazakh-Russian cooperation in political, trade-economic and cultural-humanitarian issues, as well as to exchange opinions on a wide range of issues on the international agenda,” Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesman Altai Abibullayev said.

Special attention will be paid to “practical steps towards strengthening interaction between Kazakhstan and Russia within the framework of inter-regional and border cooperation, in the fuel and energy sector, and in space” as well as “an efficient implementation of the plan of action for 2011-2012 approved in the joint statement by the heads of state of December 2010,” the spokesman said.

In addition, “the foreign ministers of the two countries will discuss cooperation within the CIS, the EurAsEC, the CSTO, the SCO and the U.N., ways to ensure security and stability in Central Asia, as well as will exchange opinions on the Caspian issue,” the spokesman added.

After the talks, the two foreign ministers are expected to sign a plan of action on cooperation between the foreign ministries of Kazakhstan and Russia for 2012.

Lukashenko: Eurasian Union could be formed before end of 2013Today at 09:30 | Interfax-Ukraine MINSK - The goal of forming a Eurasian union could be attained before the end of 2013, said Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

"It has taken us 18 months to lay the groundwork. Well, let us finish the job by the end of 2013. Both Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev have been saying all along: 'We can do this.' So, we will probably find ourselves closer to reaching this goal," Lukashenko said in an interview with the Vesti on Saturday program.

A faster transition from the Common Economic Space to the Eurasian Union, earlier than 2015, was discussed over a working dinner with the Russian and Kazakh presidents in Moscow on Nov. 18 , he said.

"The essence of the current moment is that we have started moving. The inertia of the movement will not allow us to turn back. What matters now is that we are moving towards greater unification and a stronger unity," he also said.

The Eurasian Union will be a union of sovereign states, Lukashenko noted. "As we see it today, it will be a union of sovereign states with supra-national governing bodies. We

will delegate some 175 functions to the Commission alone," the Belarusian president said.

Read more: http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/117306/#ixzz1eK8TV3Gj

Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan become first contenders for membership in the Eurasian Economic Union http://eng.24.kg/cis/2011/11/21/21610.html

21/11-2011 07:38, Bishkek – 24.kg news agency , by Julia MAZYKINA Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have become first contenders for membership in the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). The Russian mass media quoted the Russian Minister of Industry and Commerce Viktor Khristenko as saying.

He emphasized that these countries together with Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia are already members of the Eurasian economic community therefore their further integration in the EEU looks quite logical. “Those who advanced at higher level are not going to leave their partners,” Viktor Khristenko resumed.

Yesterday, presidents Dmitry Medvedev (Russia), Alexander Lukashenko (Belarus) and Nursultan Nazarbaev (Kazakhstan) signed a declaration on Eurasian economic integration during negotiations that became some kind of “communications map” on future creation of the Eurasian Economic Union. The Eurasian Economic Commission headed by Viktor Khristenko will guide the EEU creation.

URL: http://eng.24.kg/cis/2011/11/21/21610.html

Visit of the Holiest Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill to Kyrgyzstan postponedhttp://eng.24.kg/community/2011/11/21/21613.html

21/11-2011 08:30, Bishkek – 24.kg news agency

Visit of the Holiest Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill to Kyrgyzstan is postponed. This was reported to 24.kg news agency by the steering committee on meeting the Patriarch Kirill with flock in Kyrgyzstan.

Recall, the visit of the priest to Bishkek was scheduled for November 25. However, according to the steering committee it is postponed at a later date.

“Orthodox Christians of Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia waited edgily for the visit of the Holiest Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Kirill on November 25 in order to celebrate 140th anniversary of Bishkek and Central Asian Orthodox Eparchy. However, the portal russkg.ru quoted the Moscow Patriarch's office as saying on November 20 that the vladiko Kirill postpones his official visit tentatively until December 2, 2011 because he feels unwell,” reads the message.

As noted, yesterday the Patriarch Kirill suddenly felt unwell during the ceremonial service at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour devoted to 65th anniversary of the primate. It was expected that the Patriarch would deliver a speech of gratitude to believers and the clergy however he didn’t appeared at the cathedra. Some time later, he attended the reception on the occasion of his jubilee, said the Spokesman for the Patriarch's office, archpriest Vladimir Vigilyanski. Ill health of the Holiest was caused by strong overstrain due to extremely compressed work schedule.

Yesterday the Kyrgyz Prime Minister Almazabek Atambayev congratulated the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia with the jubilee.

URL: http://eng.24.kg/community/2011/11/21/21613.html

21 November 2011, 10:31

Patriarch Kirill feels good; his health not in danger – spokespersonhttp://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=8897

Moscow, November 21, Interfax - The press office for the Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has dismissed a number of media reports about his indisposition.

"The Patriarch's press office expresses its bewilderment over the frenzy created around the health of his Holiness the Patriarch. Contrary to the allegations by various information resources, nothing is threatening his health," deputy head of the patriarchal press office deacon Alexander Volkov told Interfax-Religion.

On Sunday, the day of his 65th birthday anniversary, "due to the fatigue caused by an extremely tight schedule today and the huge amount of people willing to congratulate his Holiness the Patriarch," he decided to give his reply not after the religious service and the greetings addressed to him at the Cathedral, but at a reception ceremony, the deacon said.

It was reported that on Sunday Patriarch Kirill celebrated a liturgy at the Christ the Savior Cathedral along with the leaders of the Georgian, Polish Orthodox Churches and the Churches of the Czech Lands and Slovakia. Upon completion of the service the Patriarch

received congratulations, in particular, from Catholicos Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II. However, no traditional reply followed from Patriarch Kirill, which led a number of media outlets to conclude that he might have fallen ill.

Patriarch Kirill did address all the attendees during a reception at the Patriarchal Chambers at the Christ the Savior Cathedral, which was held after the religious service, Father Alexander said.

Throughout the day, the Patriarch has been receiving congratulations and met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his wife Svetlana, and the heads and representatives of manorial Orthodox Churches, the deacon said.

"All this suggests that the Patriarch is in a normal working state. The program of festivities is expected to continue tomorrow and will include various events at the Moscow Kremlin and multilateral talks between the Holy Patriarch Kirill and heads and representatives of the manorial Orthodox Churches," Father Alexander added.

Turkmenistan rejects Russian doubts over gas reserveshttp://in.reuters.com/article/2011/11/21/gas-turkmenistan-russi-idINL5E7ML04Y20111121

2:13pm IST

* Turkmenistan tells Russia it will diversify gas exports

* Says "clumsy" Gazprom remarks "utterly tactless"

* Strongman Turkmen leader renames South Iolotan structure

* Turkmen "renaissance" hinges on new gas export routes

By Marat Gurt

ASHGABAT, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Turkmenistan has issued an angry response to Russian scepticism over the size of its natural gas reserves and reinforced its ambition to find new energy markets in Asia and Europe that will cut its dependence on the Kremlin.

BP data ranks natural gas reserves in Turkmenistan, a Central Asian nation of 5.4 million, as the world's fourth-largest. The country is seeking alternative export routes to meet its goal of more than tripling natural gas output by 2030.

Auditor Gaffney, Cline & Associates has ranked the South Iolotan natural gas field as the world's second-largest after South Pars in Iran, saying last month it could contain between 13.1 trillion and 21.2 trillion cubic metres.

The auditor also said the Minara and Yashlar deposits, previously thought to be separate fields, were actually part of the same giant structure, whose combined reserves could now total a maximum of 26.2 trillion cubic metres.

But Alexander Medvedev, deputy chief executive of Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom, called these estimates into question, saying that seismic studies conducted in Soviet days pointed to much smaller reserves.

"I believe that there are no grounds ... and no reason to make such statements that there is such a natural deposit with reserves of this scale," Medvedev said in an interview with Russia's Vesti-24 channel broadcast late on Friday.

Ashgabat, at odds with Moscow over its plans to export gas to Europe, issued a strongly worded statement at the weekend, expressing "bewilderment over the biased assessment by a professional" and calling Gazprom's remarks "utterly tactless".

Turkmenistan's Foreign Ministry said in the statement that it viewed Medvedev's remarks as "yet another clumsy attempt to distort the real situation regarding Turkmenistan's resource potential, in particular its gas reserves".

"Turkmenistan will continue energy cooperation with all interested parties, based on mutual respect, equal partnership and the diversification of routes to supply its energy resources to world markets," the ministry said.

"NEW RENAISSANCE"

Turkmenistan President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov simultaneously issued a decree ordering that the entire South Iolotan structure be called "Galkynys" from now on.

"Galkynys" is the Turkmen word for "Renaissance" and has become the buzzword for Berdymukhamedov's reign, officially referred to as "The Epoch of New Renaissance and Great Transformations" in the desert nation .

Turkmenistan, one of the least developed Soviet republics when the Soviet Union collapsed two decades ago, is now among the world's fastest-growing economies and is pinning hopes of future prosperity on its huge hydrocarbon reserves.

It has expanded gas exports to next-door Iran and launched a pipeline to China. It has also won strong support from the European Union and the United States for plans to supply gas to a trans-Caspian pipeline that will run to Europe via Azerbaijan.

Baymurad Hojamuhamedov, the deputy prime minister with responsibility for the energy sector, told an energy conference last week that Turkmenistan's total hydrocarbon reserves as of Oct. 1, 2011, stood at 71.21 billion tonnes, versus 45.44 billion tonnes as of Jan. 1, 2006.

He said the new reserves included 53.01 billion tonnes of onshore resources and 18.20 billion tonnes offshore. The country's total proved reserves of natural gas were 25.2 tcm as of Oct. 1, he said.

Turkmenistan's annual natural gas output is estimated to have averaged around 70 billion cubic metres in the 20 years of independence from the Soviet Union. Turkmenistan aims to produce 230 bcm of the fuel annually by 2030. (Writing by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Alison Birrane)

01:26 21/11/2011ALL NEWS

RF 1st deputy prime minister, Vietnam leaders to discuss ties

http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/276859.html

HANOI, November 21 (Itar-Tass) — Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov will meet on Monday with Vietnamese leadership to discuss the development of Russian-Vietnamese ties in economy, trade, investments and the energy sector.

Shuvalov, who heads the Russian side of the bilateral intergovernmental commission for trade, economic and scientific cooperation, will hold negotiations with the Vietnamese head of the commission, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai.

He is also scheduled to meet with Prime Minister of Vietnam Nguyen Tan Dung, President Truong Tan Sang and Secretary-General of the Vietnamese Communist Party’s Central Committee, Nguyen Phu Trong.

Talks of the two co-chairmen will focus on prospects to boost the amounts of bilateral trade and economic ties as well as cooperation in the sphere of high technologies, including the construction with Russia’s participation of the first nuclear power plant in Vietnam.

Atomic energy is one of the most promising directions in relations between the two countries. A memorandum of understanding between Russia’s Rosatom state corporation and Vietnam’s EVN corporation on cooperation within the framework of the project to build a nuclear power plant in Vietnam was signed in December 2009.

In October 2010 the sides signed an intergovernmental agreement on the construction of a nuclear power plant in Vietnam. Rosatom’s Director General Sergei Kiriyenko accompanies the first deputy prime minister in his current trip to Vietnam.

Apart from the energy sector, the two co-chairmen of the intergovernmental commission will discuss cooperation in the sphere of finance, telecommunications, science, education and personnel training.

The Russian delegation includes Deputy Minister of Economic Development Andrei Slepnyov, Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak, Deputy Minister of Communications Oleg Dukhovnitsky and Deputy Minister of Education and Science Igor Remorenko.

Major engineering company sues Vietnamese assembly corporation for $43 mlnhttp://en.infosud.ru/judicial_news/20111121/257535947.html

10:43 21/11/2011

ST. PETERSBURG, November 21 - RAPSI. A major Russiam engineering company has filed a $43.28 million lawsuit against a Vietnamese equipment assembly corporation, the Moscow Commercial Court reported.

Power Machines is the St. Petersburg-based leading Russian producer and supplier of integrated solutions for the power-plant industry, including engineering, production, supply, assembly, service and equipment upgrades for thermal, nuclear, hydraulic and gas-turbine power plants.

The Power Machines seeks to recover a debt for a contract signed in 2003. The Moscow Commercial Court has sided with Power Machines' petition for an interim relief in the lawsuit against the Vietnamese corporation. The court prohibited VTB Bank on November 16 to effect a guarantee payment under the guarantee issued by the bank inAugust 2003 to secure Power Machines' liabilities to the Vietnamese corporation.

The Court of Hanoi is now hearing the Power Machines' lawsuit against the Vietnamese corporation to terminate the equipment supply contract. The Russian company also claims $43.28 million in compensation. The Power Machines unilaterally suspended the contract last July.

01:59 21/11/2011ALL NEWS

RF, Canada scientists, politicians to discuss Arctic development

http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/276870.html

KRASNOYARSK, November 21 (Itar-Tass) — The International Conference on Siberian North and Arctic: Global Challenges of the 21st Century opens on Monday in Krasnoyarsk.

Heavyweight delegations of scientists from major Russian institutions, representatives of the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Regional Development, representatives of the office of the Russian president’s envoy to the Siberian Federal District as well as renowned experts from Canada will take part, sources from the press service of the Krasnoyarsk region’s government told Itar-Tass.

According to the president’s envoy to the region, Viktor Tolokonsky,” the importance of a huge economic potential of the Russian north and the Arctic Region seriously grows in present-day conditions with due regard for new geopolitical realities”.

“Integration ties of Russian northern regions, based on principles of stable and efficient socially-oriented development must be strengthened in the near future,” he stressed. The foreign experience in the development of the North and the Arctic Region and search for new directions of international cooperation are of major importance,” he stressed. This is what the international conference is aimed at, he said.

The conference is expected to study new models of subsurface management, cooperation of the authorities and business in the development of northern resources, the corporative social responsibility of business in the North, as well as “the northern dimension” of social policy.

“Participants will be able to get acquainted with works of Krasnoyarsk scientists, who seriously look into pressing problems of northern territories in terms of the strategy of social and economic development of the region,” the sources from the press service said.

“Krasnoyarsk reports will also concern the monitoring of climate and ecological conditions in the north of Siberia, the life of native minorities of the North,” the source added.

Medvedev ratifies customs coop documents with Abkhazia, S Ossetiahttp://www.prime-tass.com/news/_Medvedev_ratifies_customs_coop_documents_with_Abkhazia_S_Ossetia/0/%7B98540155-9106-4B59-8C04-593B00FA95EB%7D.uif

MOSCOW, Nov 21 (PRIME) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has ratified agreements on cooperation and mutual assistance in the customs field with Georgia’s breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the Kremlin’s press service said on November 20, RIA Novosti reported.

The agreements were approved by the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, on November 2 and by the Federation Council, the parliament’s upper house, on November 9.

Moreover, the agreements are aimed at strengthening the cooperation between parties in the customs field and activities against smuggling, as well as facilitating passenger and cargo traffic between Russia and the breakaway republics, among others.

In August 2008, Russia and Georgia engaged in a brief armed conflict over the status of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Both countries accused each other of being the aggressor. Russia officially recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia’s independence on August 26, 2008.

End

21.11.2011 12:27

RT News line, November 21

Tajik court to consider appeal of Russian pilots on November 22http://rt.com/news/line/2011-11-21/#id22307

The appellate court in the Khatlon Region of Tajikistan will consider the appeal submitted by the lawyers of convicted pilots from a Russian airline on November 22. Russian citizen Vladimir Sadovnichy and Estonian citizen Aleksey Rudenko were sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in a tough security penitentiary by the Kurgan-Tyube district court on November 8, finding them guilty of smuggling, illegal crossing border and violation of piloting rules on March 12. Two An-72 planes were confiscated. Following the trial, the Russian Federal Migration Service started to deport Tajik migrants who committed violations while working in Russia.

10:27 21/11/2011ALL NEWS

Tajik court takes for consideration complaints of Rolkan pilots

http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/277059.html

DUSHANBE, November 21 (Itar-Tass) — The court of the Khatlon region of Tajikistan on Monday accepted for consideration cassation appeals filed by the defence lawyers and

pilots – Russia’s Vladimir Sadovnichy and Estonian citizen Alexei Rudenko, convicted pilots’ lawyer Gulyam Boboyev told Itar-Tass by telephone.

“The court has notified me in writing about accepting the documents, so far not specifying the date of the meeting of the appeal commission. Let’s wait and hope for a favourable outcome,” the lawyer stressed. According to him, the defendants feel good and have no health complaints.

The pilots of the Rolkan airline Vladimir Sadovnichy and Alexei Rudenko were sentenced by the court of Kurgan-Tube to 8.5 years in a tight regime penal colony on charges of illegal border crossing and smuggling. The pilots of two aircraft had been arrested in Tajikistan in March. They have pleaded not guilty.

Earlier, Chairman of the State Duma’s foreign policy committee Konstantin Kosachev asked his counterparts in the parliament of Tajikistan to take under parliamentary supervision the case of the two pilots working for a Russian airline.

Kosachev said he had sent a letter to Olim Salimzoda, the chairman of international affairs committee at Tajikistan’s Majlis, in which he had voiced concern over the sentence to the pilots -- the Russian citizen Vladimir Sadovnichy and the Estonian citizen Alexei Rudenko.

He asked Salimzoda to take the pilots’ case under parliamentary control and expressed the hope that “an allied relationship, partnership and mutual respect will help our two countries eliminate the aftermath of this incident and attain an early return home of Vladimir Sadovnichy and his colleague.”

The pilots working for the airline Rolkan were arrested March 12, 2011, after a forced landing in the airport of the city of Kurgan Tube.

A Tajikistani court sentenced them to 10.5 years in a high security prison but after an amnesty signed by President Emomali Rakhmon the term was slashed by two years.

Sadovnichy and Rudenko were found guilty of all the three offenses the Tajikistani law enforcement agencies had charged them with initially – an encroachment on the regulations for international flights, an unauthorized border crossing, and contraband.

The Tajikistani government has also confiscated the two Antonov-72 (NATO reporting name Coaler) transport aircraft Sadovnichy and Rudenko had been flying.

Russia threatens Tajikistan with import sanctionshttp://en.rian.ru/russia/20111121/168894433.html

13:00 21/11/2011

MOSCOW, November 21 (RIA Novosti)

Russia threatened on Monday to slap sanctions on vegetable imports from Tajikistan, a move that comes shortly after the jailing of a Russian pilot in the Central Asian republic.

Russian pilot Vladimir Sadovnichy and his Estonian co-pilot were sentenced to eight and a half years in prison in Tajikistan for smuggling and border violations on November 8. Moscow said the charges were "politically motivated.”

Russia's Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Monitoring, Rosselkhoznadzor, said it may impose temporary restrictions on vegetable imports from Tajikistan in connection with what it called "violations" of hygiene regulations.

In a much publicized move, Russia has also deported at least 300 Tajik migrant workers following the jailing. President Dmitry Medvedev said then the expulsion of the Tajik migrant workers had nothing to do with the pilot case. He also said that illegal migrants would be deported regularly from now on.

Draft Law Might Add to Foreigners' Taxes 21 November 2011By Khristina Narizhnaya

On top of paying relocation fees and higher salaries, companies could face paying insurance fees for foreign workers starting next year.

A bill that has passed its first reading in the State Duma proposes to lower the insurance fee from 34 to 30 percent, but add a 10 percent fee for those who earn more than 512,000 rubles ($16,600) per year. Now it is up for a second reading, amended to require companies to pay insurance fees for long-term foreign workers, who are currently exempt from them.

Companies pay a 34 percent insurance fee for Russian employees. The fee goes to a medical services fund, social insurance — to create social infrastructure, such as kindergartens and schools — and the pension fund, which could face a deficit of up to 1.75 trillion rubles next year.

The insurance fees' predecessor, the unified social tax, required companies to pay taxes on all employees, regardless of nationality. When the insurance fees system replaced the unified social tax at the start of this year, foreign workers were exempt.

The insurance fees system puts Russians at a disadvantage, since it is cheaper for companies to hire foreigners, Ildar Gabdrakhmanov, deputy chair of the Duma labor and social policy committee, told Vedomosti last week.

While companies do not currently pay insurance fees for foreign workers, hiring foreigners is never cheap, said Lyudmila Shiryayeva, Ernst & Young human capital executive director. Foreign specialists are usually top-level management with very high salaries. The company must also pay for visas and relocation fees.

The amendments are an unexpected development for companies since they were only made public last week, Shiryayeva said. If the bill becomes law, companies will have to scramble to adjust their 2012 budgets.

"The investment and business image of Russia will suffer," Shiryayeva said.

Temporary foreign workers rarely see any returns from the funds, Shiryayeva said. Foreigners usually do not use the dilapidated government-funded medical facilities, since companies pay for their medical insurance. They also do not receive pensions.

Requiring fees for foreign workers is logical, said Yevgeny Nadorshin, National Bank Trust chief economist.

If foreigners stay here for an extended period of time, they end up using at least some aspect of the social infrastructure, such as kindergartens for their children.

Charging insurance fees for guest workers will make the Russian specialist equal with the foreigner.

"It will level out the playing field," Nadorshin said. "Why do companies need to go out of their way to hire a foreigner when there are enough qualified workers here?"

The amendments will not affect unskilled labor, Nadorshin said. Hiring unskilled laborers from China and the former CIS and paying the fees is cheaper than hiring Russians.

Many unskilled laborers work illegally and are not likely to be affected by changes in the law.

Read more: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/draft-law-might-add-to-foreigners-taxes/448209.html#ixzz1eK7ABGkk The Moscow Times

Chechen militant threatens Turkey after killingshttp://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=chechen-militant-threatens-turkey-after-killings-2011-11-21

Font Size: Larger|SmallerMonday, November 21, 2011MOSCOW - Agence France-Presse

The Chechen militant blamed for deadly attacks in Moscow has threatened Turkey with retaliation after the killings of a number of Caucasus militants on Turkish soil.

Doku Umarov, who has survived numerous attempts on his life by Russia, said the militants were killed by Russian agents whose activities had been deliberately tolerated by the Turkish secret services.

In September, three Caucasus men were shot outside a mosque in Istanbul. Russian investigators later said two of them were Chechens and suspects in the deadly bombing of a Moscow airport this year.

"If you do not take measures then with the help of Allah we will take the necessary measures, there can be no doubt of that!" said Umarov, addressing the Turkish people and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"If we take measures in response, then Russia will never plan a murder of even one more person from the Caucasus on your soil," he added in the video posted late Sunday on the Kavkaz Center website which serves as a mouthpiece of the Caucasus militants.

Umarov, dressed in camouflage clothing and sitting next to a fellow militant, indicated in the video that Russian secret agents had entered Turkey disguised as tourists or with the help of Turkish construction companies.

He said their weapons were delivered into the country in Russian diplomatic bags.

Umarov, who leads the Caucasus Emirate group that wants to set up a breakaway Islamic state in the Russian Caucasus, claimed responsibility for the Moscow airport bombing that killed 37 people in January and a 2010 twin suicide bombing that killed 40 on the Moscow metro.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Appeal of Emir Dokku Abu Usman to people and government of Turkeyhttp://www.kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2011/11/20/15402.shtml

Publication time: 20 November 2011, 17:33

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful!

Peace and blessings of Allah be upon you!

I want to appeal to the people of Turkey, to my brothers, to the Muslims of Turkey, to security services of Turkey, to officials, to President Gul and Prime Minister Recep Erdogan.

 

I am appealing to you about recent sad events took place on your territory. We must not forget that we are members of one Ummah, that we are the brothers in faith and have always supported each other, because we all worship one God - Allah.

I repeat that I am appealing to you today about the events that occurred in your country. As you know, some of our brothers, because of injuries or health issues, or because of family circumstances stayed on your territory. We know that you gave them shelter and hospitality.

Those brothers of us were not on your territory because of "good life". The wicked (disbelievers), and the servants of the wicked (Kadyrov's apostates - KC) of our people kill them today on your soil already.

 

We know that they are being killed because of the connivance of your current bosses, your intelligence. Why? Because these killers calmly cross the border into Turkey under the cover of tourists (and tourist business for you is a must). So fear Allah, as we must all appear before Allah!

Allah will not give you pardon if you justify your connivance in killings of your Muslim brothers in your land with an argument that tourism business presumably increases your cash.

These killers also penetrate to your own land under the cover of your construction companies, which are now erecting skyscrapers and built stadiums for those slaves.

 

You close your eyes on it because these construction companies increase your budget. So fear Allah, it's not an excuse for you, and not an argument before Allah.

Weapons to kill your Muslim brothers are brought to Turkey under the guise of diplomatic baggage (from Russia).

You would say that diplomacy, it is politics, but Allah will not accept this argument from you too, because today they (Kadyrov's apostates - KC) are killing Muslims.

 

These slaves, who sold themselves to the infidels, they know neither hospitality nor honor. Honor is not given to the slave! You are to fight for honor against the enemies who encroach on it, and the slaves are not capable to do that, because they have no honor and know no hospitality. And you open the gates of your state, you let them roam freely in your country and kill those Muslims whom you are obliged to protect, according to Islam.

So fear Allah! Do not forget that. I appeal to the whole people of Turkey, the Turkish government and remind you that no one has yet managed to escape death. Every man will appear before Allah and everybody will taste death, which completely closes the diary of our life.

What we are going to present before Allah is to be done sincerely and for Allah's sake, but on you lays today the responsibility to protect your brothers.

 

If you allow those wicked and their killer slaves to roam freely in your country, and allow them to kill your brothers, then you are responsible before the Almighty in this life and the life to come, the eternal life.

We must not forget that the ideological politics of Russia has been always based on the plans to capture Istanbul, since they consider Istanbul the cradle of their religion.

I think that the Russians have actually captured Istanbul from you, because these killers feel so freely today on its territory. Their impunity means that they have achieved their goals.

 

So I once again appeal to you and encourage you that you take measures that these wicked are no longer capable to encroach on the lives of your fellow Muslims from the Caucasus.

If you are unable to take such measures, then, Insha'Allah, with Allah's help we will take necessary measures ourselves, there can be no doubt about it! If we take a retaliatory action, then Russia will never think to kill even a single Caucasian on your territory.

We ask you, for the sake of Allah, do not allow this lawlessness happen on you territory. For Allah's sake, because we are all to appear before Allah and only what we have done for the sake of Allah will be accepted from us on the Day of Judgment.

 

We love you for Allah's sake and for the sake of Allah we urge you that you also love us for the sake of Allah, and protect your brethren on your territory. You must do that in accordance with Islam, because your territory is free for Islam, and the people who need your protection should be taken under protection on your territory.

Beside me stays my deputy Khamzat, the infidels are spreading rumors that he was the one killed in Turkey. The Muslims killed in Turkey were there for health reasons, and if the health of the Mujahideen health allowed it, none of them would have been there today, because every believer in Allah who obeys to His command, feels healthy in his body and has healthy spirit, is in the Jihad here, Insha'Allah.

This is the true grace of Allah, which the Almighty has given us!

Peace and blessings of Allah be upon you!

RT News line, November 21

Russia’s Chechen Republic sees 131 militants eliminated in 9 monthshttp://rt.com/news/line/2011-11-21/#id22305

Russian police say 131 militants have been killed during operations in the North Caucasus Chechen Republic since the beginning of 2011. More than 60 participants of illegal armed groups and 82 their accomplices have been detained during the same period, the press service of the Interior Ministry’s North Caucasus department said on Monday. Police also seized 533 illegal firearms.

12:51 21/11/2011ALL NEWS

Over 100 kg of explosives seized in Chechnya

http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/277198.html

MOSCOW, November 21 (Itar-Tass) —— Police have seized almost 83 kilograms of TNT and more than 35 kilograms of hexogen kept near the house of the father of a destroyed militant, ITAR-TASS learnt by telephone at the law enforcement bodies of the republic.

“Police officers of the regional department of the Interior Ministry have found and confiscated 82.8 kilograms of TNT AND 35.8 kilograms of hexogen near the house of a jobless man, 52, in Rechnaya Street in the regional centre of Vedeno. The explosives belonged to his son - - a militant who was destroyed during a special operation on December 30, 2010,” a law enforcer said.

Investigation is underway.

November 21, 2011 13:19

Manhunt for militants resumes in Chechen highlandshttp://www.interfax.com/newsinf.asp?id=288786

GROZNY. Nov 21 (Interfax) - The search for militants resumed in the highland Shatoi district of Chechnya on Monday morning, Chechen head Ramzan Kadyrov told reporters.

"The police and the Russian Interior Ministry Forces resumed the operation at dawn. They are chasing up to ten militants," he said.

The militant group is led by Zaurbek Avdorkhanov, he added.

"The operation is being held under extremely difficult conditions. Two militants were killed in a clash yesterday. One of them was identified as Ilyas Khizriyev, a resident of Kurchaloi," Kadyrov said.

"The Avdorkhanov group broke into a home in Vysokogornoye and demanded money at the threat of violence. The militants learned that the woman had no other source of income but her pension. They battered and tied up the woman and stole two bags of flour and a piece of dried meat. The woman called the police. The militants were offered the option to surrender but they opened fire. Two militants were killed in the gunfire exchange. Three officers were injured lightly," Acting Chechen Interior Minister Col. Apti Alavdinov said.

A Kalashnikov submachine gun and a spent Mukha grenade launcher tube were found on the clash scene, he said.

te jv

(Our editorial staff can be reached at eng.editors@interfax.ru)

06:45 21/11/2011ALL NEWS

Counter-terrorist operation regime imposed in Nalchik

http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/276937.html

NALCHIK, November 21 (Itar-Tass) — The counter-terrorist operation regime has been imposed in several neighborhoods of Nalchik as well as in the settlements of Adiyukh and Nartan in Russia’s republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, a source from republic’s operation headquarters have told Tass.

The source said the regime “is imposed to prevent terrorist actions, to ensure the safety of citizens and organization” and to find and detain hiding gunmen.

Police block group of militants in Kabardino-Balkaria http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/11/21/60744294.html

Nov 21, 2011 11:30 Moscow Time

Police have blocked a group of militants in a private house in the Russian North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, media reports said on Monday.

They quoted the republic’s head Arsen Kanokov as saying that the militants opened fire in response to law enforcers’ proposal to surrender.

Kanakov did not rule out a military operation against the militants if the shoot-out showed no signs of abating.

(TASS)                                                        

Last chance to send Russian Mars moon probe expires Mondayhttp://en.rian.ru/science/20111121/168876438.html

01:26 21/11/2011

MOSCOW, November 21 (RIA Novosti)

The launch window to send Russia's Phobos-Grunt unmanned spacecraft to a Mars moon will close on Monday, an airspace source told RIA Novosti.

"The spacecraft has already unfolded its solar panels and is in the so-called "barbeque mode," the source said, speaking about the passive thermal control mode during which the spacecraft rotates slowly around its roll axis to prevent one side from continuous solar exposure and overheating.

"So, the ballistic window for Phobos-Grunt's flight to Mars is limited by November 21," he said.

The Mars probe was launched from the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan on Wednesday. The Zenit booster put the spacecraft into an initial elliptical based orbit, but the main propulsion unit failed to put it on course for the Red Planet.

The craft, designed to bring back rock and soil samples from the Martian moon Phobos, is currently moving along a so-called support orbit. All attempts to establish contact with the spacecraft have failed so far.

The head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Vladimir Popovkin, dismissed media reports about possible reentry risk, saying Phobos-Grunt contains 7.5 metric tons highly toxic hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide in its aluminum tanks, which are very likely to explode and destroy the probe upon re-entry.

An anonymous airspace source said some parts of the spacecraft may fall on earth, but they pose no danger.

The Russian space agency expects the possible reentry to take place no earlier than January and hopes to establish contact with the spacecraft until then. A Russian rocket ballistic expert named the United States, China, Africa, Middle East, some European States, Australia, Japan and in Russian Far East or North Caucasus as possible sites where the spacecraft fragments may fall.

Igor Lisov, editor of the industry magazine Cosmonautics News, said if contact with the spacecraft is established after the launch window's closure, it could still be sent to the Moon or even to an asteroid.

However, he said there were almost zero chances to revive the station.

According to Popovkin, the potential loss of the Mars probe would not affect the pace of Russia's space exploration. He said that Only 30 percent of Soviet-Russian launches to Mars were successful, the Americans have had 50 percent success, while all attempts by Japan and Europe have failed so far.

According to NASA, though, Russia has failed all 17 attempts to study the Red Planet since 1960. The most recent failure occurred in 1996, when Russia lost its Mars-96 orbiter during the launch.

04:54 21/11/2011Top News

Owner of SKorean trawler asks Chukotka authorities for help

http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c32/276907.html

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, November 21 (Itar-Tass) — The South Korean Keuk Dong Fisheries, Co., Ltd, which owns the refrigerating trawler Oriental Angel that caught fire in the Bering Sea near the shores of the Chukotka peninsula, has asked the Chukotka authorities to help in rescuing the ship, the Chukotka government reports on Monday.

According to the press centre of the Chukotka Autonomous Area, the ship ran aground in the Anadyr Gulf. There is about 1,100 tons of fuel on board the trawler. By an agreement with Sakhalin rescuers, the universal rescue vessel Rubin will be sent to the ship in distress to pump the fuel out. It will approach the site in approximately eight days.

Representatives of the Chukotka administration, emergencies ministry specialists, border guards and specialists from Rosprirodnadzor (Federal Service for Supervision of Nature Resources) will fly on Monday to the site to assess the situation.

According to rescuers, a fire broke out in the ship's flour hold at 11:30, Moscow time, on November 16 and then the fire spread over to the fish processing shop. The crew sought to put out the blaze on their own but failed.

The chief mate died during attempts to put out the fire, and there were no reports about other casualties.

Nine hours later, at 04:40, Kamchatka time, on Thursday, the stricken ship cast anchor 14 miles off the shore in the Anadyr Gulf. The 89-member crew consisting of the nationals of South Korea, Indonesia, China, and Burma -- as well as a Russian inspector of the State Maritime Inspectorate, who was in line of duty on board the ship, abandoned the burning trawler on rescue rafts.

They were taken on board by five ships that happened to be nearby, including those under South Korean flag. The company owing the trawler was informed that seamen could be evacuated to the settlement of Provideniya, where the border and customs posts are situated. People can be temporarily accommodated there before being sent home, sources from the Kamchatka marine rescue sub-centre said on Monday.

The South Korean Consulate General in Vladivostok was informed about the incident with the Oriental Angel.

Medvedev, Putin to address nation after Dec. 4 electionshttp://en.rian.ru/russia/20111121/168890934.html

11:53 21/11/2011

MOSCOW, November 21 (RIA Novosti)

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will make his annual state-of-the-nation address to parliament after the December 4 parliamentary election, State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov said on Monday.

Medvedev has traditionally delivered his address in October.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will hold a live TV “phone-in” with the nation, also after the elections, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

“The phone-in will take place after the [parliamentary] elections, but before the New Year,” Peskov said,

Putin is due to be officially nominated for president by the ruling United Russia party at its convention on November 27.

In mid-September, Putin indicated that Medvedev’s chances of becoming prime minister in the new government would depend on the party’s showing in the parliamentary elections.

November 21, 2011 12:35

Medvedev to present state-of-the-nation address to new State Duma - Gryzlov (Part 3)http://www.interfax.com/newsinf.asp?id=288764

MOSCOW. Nov 21 (Interfax) - President Dmitry Medvedev will present a state-of-the-nation address to the Federation Council and the new State Duma, State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov said.

"The fifth State Duma will not hear the president's address. The sixth State Duma will," he said in response to an Interfax question whether the date of the presidential address had been set.

Gryzlov said that the question about the address date should not be asked to him.

The State Duma did not rule out earlier that the presidential address would be delivered before the parliamentary election, on November 23. The presumptions appeared to be erroneous. The Kremlin has not said when President Medvedev will present his last address to the parliament.

The president's state-of-the-nation address has never been presented so late, several days before the New Year, in the history of modern Russia.

The latest date up till now was November 30, 2010.

The two previous presidents, Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, presented their addresses in spring.

Medvedev delayed the address until fall and dedicated the first half of the year to the budget message to the parliament and the government.

te jv

(Our editorial staff can be reached at eng.editors@interfax.ru)

21 November 2011, 10:04

Medvedev urges "tough" action against attempts to fan ethnic, religious strifehttp://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=8894

Ufa, Russia, November 21, Interfax - President Dmitry Medvedev has called for crackdowns on all attempts to fan ethnic and religious strife in Russia.

"All attempts to sow ethnic or religious hostility must be given a fitting and tough response, no matter where this happens, in the center of the country, in the Caucasus, or in the Far East," Medvedev said during a meeting in Ufa with Muslim clerics. "There must be no regions where this part of Russian legislation does not apply."

"Our country is now on the threshold of major political events," the president said.

"That is an element of democracy, but we must not forget the main point, that we are a multiethnic and multireligious state but, at the same time, we must see ourselves as citizens of the same state. We cannot do this the way it was done in the Soviet period. But

it is very important now that we shouldn't lose those special methods of coexistence that have taken millennia to be shaped," he said.

Meeting with Muslim clergyhttp://eng.kremlin.ru/news/3095

November 19, 2011, 16:00 Ufa

Measures to prevent the spread of radical and extremist ideology, the elimination of religious illiteracy, as well as issues topical for Muslim communities were discussed.

Before the meeting Dmitry Medvedev visited First Cathedral Mosque of Ufa.

* * *

PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Good afternoon,

It’s as if we never even parted, seeing as it was only not so long ago that we last met. It is good that we have such opportunities to meet quite often on this kind of regular basis. I wish a warm welcome to all of the muftis here today.

Friends and colleagues, not so much time has passed by since we met in Nalchik in July. These meetings are useful for both sides, for you, and for me too, because they help us to set our society’s course, taking into account the complex nature of our large ethnically and religiously diverse country. These meetings help us to work out the most appropriate ways of addressing the Muslim community’s problems. We discussed these things in Nalchik, and we will talk today, too, about what has been accomplished so far and what we want for the future.  

I want to take this opportunity to thank you for the active civic position you take and the part you play in the moral and spiritual education of our people, and especially our young people. The future is in their hands after all, and in the case of Muslim youth, it is you, your values and your words, that serve as their guide and example. You have undoubted authority in their eyes, and this is very important for the interests of our country as a whole.  

The Muslim community is developing quite actively now, as, indeed, is our civil society in general. According to my information, at the start of the 1990s, there were only around 90 mosques in the whole of Russia (correct me if I’m wrong), but that seems plausible in the circumstances of the time. As for Muslim educational institutions, there were none at all. Today, there are around 7,000 mosques and prayer houses, and 96 Muslim educational institutions have been registered, including 7 universities. The difference is obvious and visible.

Over the last four years alone (according to information from religious organisations), 320 mosques were built around the country. This is taking place in every part of Russia, in the central regions and further afield. For obvious reasons, construction of mosques is proceeding actively in Bashkortostan, Chechnya, Daghestan, Tatarstan, and in the other Caucasus republics. Work on building large Islamic religious and educational centres is underway in Kabardino-Balkaria and Ingushetia.  

You had some particular requests to make of me. I have specifically examined these matters. This year, we concluded a separate agreement with Saudi Arabia and can now send another 2,000 pilgrims to make the Hajj. In total, 22,500 people from Russia visited Mecca this year. This is a big figure, bigger even than the numbers from some countries where Muslims make up the majority of the population. I think this is a positive thing.  

Let me say that I think the state authorities and the country’s leadership must have it clear in their heads that only clergy preaching the Islam traditional for our country can create the ideological barrage against radicalism and extremism. Ignorance of the basic foundations of religious culture leave young people exposed to all kinds of radical and extremist currents.  

Ignorance is a dangerous thing in general, but religious ignorance is doubly dangerous because it often leads to problems not just in the head, but later also to problems in people’s acts. We have consistently and unswervingly fought these dangers and will continue to do so. There are results, but there also big difficulties. Unfortunately, the criminal groups that use religious slogans to further their criminal aims are still active.

We see this reflected in events in the North Caucasus, where several influential religious figures who steadfastly opposed the spread of extremist ideology, have been killed over recent months. They died for their people and, we should recognise, for their faith. This yet again underscores the importance of your mission as spiritual leaders who can help to separate true faith from attempts to manipulate people’s religious feelings.

We will continue to support the development of our country’s diversity, and we see Islamic education as a part of this diversity. We are carrying out a programme in this area and have put in place the conditions for qualified training of specialists, which was not the case during the 1990s, or during the Soviet period, when such training was not possible at all. Ensuring a higher quality of training for specialists in Islamic history and culture, and fully integrating Islamic educational establishments into the Russian education system are certainly important tasks.

For the first time in our country’s history we have approved a state standard for higher professional education in Islamic theology. I think this is an important step. This makes it possible for state universities to have faculties training Islamic clerics. We have a programme for training such specialists and this work will continue.

We have earmarked money for this work. This year’s budget and the 2012-2013 budgets allocate substantial funds – almost one billion rubles – for these purposes. We need to

decide now how to spend this money as rationally as possible. I hope you will have some good proposals to make on this matter today. Proposals so far include developing academic methodological support, training programmes carried out by distance learning, and a number of other areas that could be developed.  

Our country is on the eve of big political events right now, which are a part of democracy, and at this time it is important to remember that we are a country of great ethnic and religious diversity, but we must also feel an identity as a unified nation and citizens of a great country. How to combine these things is probably the most difficult task. Obviously we cannot take the same road that was taken during the Soviet period, although I met recently with senior citizens from various republics, from Daghestan and a number of others, and we discussed the particular ethnicity-related problems. 

It is essential today that we do not lose the traditions of living together that we formed over the centuries. Any attempts to sow ethnic and religious hatred must meet with a firm and appropriate response, no matter where in our country they manifest themselves, in the central regions, in the Caucasus, or in the Far East. There must be no regions exempt from our laws in this area. We realise that these kinds of problems exist on all sides, and we must respond to them in appropriate fashion.  

On the subject of where we go from here, the foundations are laid during childhood, during the school years. I think that the school course we have introduced on the basics of religious culture and secular ethics, tied to the specific conditions of each particular part of the country, could produce good results. The course is already running in 21 regions now, and we plan in principle to extend it to the rest of the country, giving parents, and the students themselves, the chance to decide which course they wish to attend.

Russian Central Elections Commission opens hotline http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/11/21/60737142.html

Nov 21, 2011 09:52 Moscow Time

The Central Elections Commission has opened a hotline ahead of the December 4 parliamentary elections in Russia, its chief Vladimir Churov said on Monday.

Anyone can call the 8 (495) 606-79-57 hotline between 9:00 a.m. and 18:00 p.m. Moscow time and ask questions related to the forthcoming elections, Churov said.

He touted interaction between the polls’ organizers and the electorate as something that helps boost people’s trust in the results of the voting.

(TASS)

Suing for the right not to votehttp://rbth.ru/articles/2011/11/18/elections_siberian_style_suing_for_the_right_not_to_vote_13767.html

November 20, 2011Sergei Teplyakov

The Siberian electoral battle is as tough as well as cold. According to the polls, the pro-government United Russia party is in the lead, however the opposition is not giving up.

United Russia candidates in Barnaul, the capital of the Altai Territory, have put up posters that are more suitable for opposition candidates. In one of them, a stately matron asks: “Who doesn’t know our countryside is choking?”

 

The poster does not elaborate on what it is exactly that is choking the Russian countryside. There are a wide range of options, including meager pay, unemployment and environmental pollution. But this kind of campaigning has provoked a storm of emotions among the people who pointed out that United Russia, after 10 years of running the country, should be asking these questions of itself. The posters were changed after these ideas were expressed on the Internet. Now United Russia’s campaign slogan reads “more state support.” Vladimir Nebalzin, who lives in Barnaul, considers this to be a way of bribing voters and has filed a complaint with the regional electoral committee.

 

“The slogan is a patent violation of the law on State Duma elections, which says that pecuniary benefits cannot be promised to electors, yet this is exactly what is happening here,” Nebalzin said. “I have written to the electoral commission, but they said they could see no violations there. I wrote a complaint to the regional Prosecutor’s Office, but I didn’t get a timely reply. Now I have filed with the Prosecutor General’s Office and I am preparing to file a lawsuit.”

 

Nebalzin filed these complaints as an ordinary voter. He is the co-chairman of the Altai branch of the People’s Freedom Party, but the party is unregistered. He is only one of many Siberians who have very few warm words to say about the “party of power.”

 

“I will vote for the Communists,” said Yelena, also from Barnaul, who declined to give her last name. “In my opinion, it is the party least affiliated with government. Obviously they are all ‘pocket parties’ but I don’t hear as many ugly stories about the Communists as about the others.”

 

Yelena is a young woman with a good job in a modern firm. She is the kind of person the pro-business, liberal party Right Cause should appeal to, but since expelling it’s best-known member, billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, Right Cause has again sunk into a political coma.

 

“It’s hard to understand who is in the party, what they are up to and whose side they are on,” said Yelena. “What do we Siberians stand to gain if Russia, as they argue, joins the European Union? I have been voting for the Communists for several years now.”

 

“I might vote for Yabloko, their intellectual and reasonable approach appeals to me. But they are unelectable,” said Sergei, a poet at heart who ekes out a meager living, making 6,800 rubles ($220) a month. So I will choose between the Communists and the Liberal Democratic Party, especially since its leader, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, has come up with a meaningful program for the first time in many years.”

 

Many Siberians say they will not vote for parties whose seats in the Duma are, according to opinion polls, guaranteed. These are United Russia, the KPRF, the LDPR and Just Russia. Since the “against all candidates” box, another popular option, has been deleted from the ballots, pensioner Valentin Khanovich thought the best thing under the circumstances would be to waive his right to vote and ask the electoral commission to strike his name from the roll of voters. The electoral commission refused to do this and the trial court upheld its decision.

 

“I am preparing to file a suit with the regional court,” said Khanovich. “If that fails, I’ll go to [the European Court of Human Rights] Strasbourg.”

 

While growing protest is not uncommon, a growing desire to give vent to such sentiments is something new,” said Sergei Andreyev, of the voter’s rights group Golos.

 

For their part, the electoral commissions are sparing no effort or money to make the elections look proper. They have printed election ballots in Braille for the blind; in the Irkutsk Region, early voting will be organized for people living in remote places, using helicopters, snowmobiles and boats; and in Khakassia, the ballot sheets will be in two languages, Russian and Khakassian, although few people can speak, let alone read Khakassian. They are leaving nothing to chance.

10:50 21/11/2011ALL NEWS

Passenger Boeign-737 makes emergency landing in Yekaterinburg

http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/277082.html

MOSCOW, November 21 (Itar-Tass) —— A passenger Boeing-737 en route from Nadym to Moscow made an emergency landing at the airport of the city of Yekaterinburg, Middle Urals, on Monday, a spokesman for the local emergencies administration told Itar-Tass.

According to the spokesman, at 08:55 a.m. Moscow time, the plane’s pilots informed air traffic controllers about emergency landing. The Boeing landed safely at 09:46 a.m. Moscow time. There were 99 passengers and eight crew members onboard the plane. No one was hurt.

An investigation is underway.

Russian Press at a Glance, Monday, November 21, 2011http://en.ria.ru/russia/20111121/168889480.html

10:28 21/11/2011

A brief look at what is in the Russian papers today

 

POLITICS

 

After a four-month delay, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton finalized a much-touted U.S.-Russian visa facilitation agreement over the weekend. The document is to be ratified by the State Duma before it can go into effect

(The Moscow Times, Kommersant, Rossiiskaya Gazeta)

 

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met with Islamic religious leaders in Ufa, the capital of Russia’s Volga Republic of Tatarstan. He called on them to assist in teaching migrant workers to observe Russian laws and traditions

(Kommersant, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Moskovskie Novosti)

 

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev postponed his annual state-of-the-nation address. The event, initially scheduled to take place on November 23, was postponed until late December, and its exact date is still unknown

(Kommersant)

 

Russian Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov asked Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika to guarantee the legitimacy of the forthcoming State Duma elections, saying that the ruling United Russia party resorts to administrative pressure and bribery of voters, blackens the opposition and creates unequal terms for campaigning. United Russia dismissed the accusations as “hysteria”

(Kommersant)

 

Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) voted that that the son of the late Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam, who was arrested on Saturday, will be brought to trial in Libya but not transferred to the International Criminal Court. Saif al-Islam was widely seen as his father’s number one successor and, after his death, he pledged to avenge his father’s death

(Kommersant, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Moskovskie Novosti)

 

The UN General Assembly approved a resolution condemning attacks on diplomats, which was de-facto anti-Iranian. No Islamic state voted against the resolution, dealing a serious blow to Iran’s ambitions of becoming a spiritual and political leader of the Islamic world

(Kommersant, Moskovskie Novosti)

 

ECONOMY

 

The Russian State Duma approved in the second reading the Russian federal budget for 2012-2014

(Kommersant, Rossiiskaya Gazeta)

 

Russia and its customs union partners, Belarus and Kazakhstan, signed a declaration seeking to reinstate even more of the bonds - possibly even a common currency - that snapped with the Soviet collapse.

(The Moscow Times, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Rossiiskaya Gazeta)

 

Russian net capital outflow stood at $64 billion in January-October, and is likely to exceed this year’s forecast of $70 billion

(Kommersant, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Vedomosti)

 

OIL & GAS

 

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met with his French counterpart Francois Fillon. The two premiers signed a final document in which Moscow requested Paris to support its South Stream gas pipeline project and France urged Russia to grant tax breaks for the Shtokman natural gas project(The Moscow Times, Kommersant, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Rossiiskaya Gazeta)

 

VEHICLES & ENGINEERING

 

Russian Railways is seeking to enter into new projects in the Middle East, despite the losses it has faced in restive Libya, said Vladimir Yakunin, chief executive of the state-run monopoly.

(The Moscow Times)

 

SOCIETY

 

Aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska gave a helping hand to fellow billionaire Roman Abramovich in a London court battle involving three of Russia's best-known businessmen.

(The Moscow Times, Kommersant)

 

A former Kremlin adviser who is now the Volgograd region's deputy governor has confirmed that local officials asked priests to campaign for the ruling party from the pulpit.

(The Moscow Times)

 

Friday's premiere of Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty, the first ballet on the renovated stage of Moscow's Bolshoi Theater choreographed by Yuri Grigorovich, was a success

(Kommersant, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Rossiiskaya Gazeta)

 

SPORT

 

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that he had encouraged Russia's biggest oil firm Rosneft to take over the country's legendary ice hockey club CSKA, in a move likely to please sports fans ahead of the election.

(The Moscow Times, Rossiiskaya Gazeta)

 

For more details on all the news in Russia today, visit our website at www.en.rian.ru

Customs Union Forming Closer Ties http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/customs-union-forming-closer-ties/448179.html

20 November 2011By Anatoly Medetsky

Russia and its customs union partners, Belarus and Kazakhstan, on Friday signed a declaration seeking to reinstate even more of the bonds — possibly even a common currency — that snapped with the Soviet collapse.

In a separate agreement, President Dmitry Medvedev and his counterparts from Kazakhstan and Belarus created an agency that will run the integration effort by regulating the economies and trade of the three states.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev rejected the idea that the decision for the former Soviet republics to come closer together looks like a return to their Communist past. If and when created, the new, capitalist union will have none of the ideology or full state control over the economy that its would-be members ended 20 years ago, he said.

"How can one speak about the reincarnation of the U.S.S.R.?" he told a news conference after the signing ceremony. "These are some incomprehensible phantom fears of our opponents or simply enemies who do not want to have this integration."

In the Declaration of Eurasian Economic Integration, the three customs union members reconfirmed the transition to a Common Economic Space as of Jan. 1 — resulting in a free flow of capital, services and work force within its boundaries. It will conform to the rules and principles of the World Trade Organization, which Russia is almost certain to join next year.

Ultimately, the members pledge to upgrade the group to a Eurasian economic union that will have more unified rules for their economies, trade, currency and foreign migration policies — and possibly introduce a single currency.

The declaration stated that the signatories would seek to create the union by 2015.

"We won't make a fuss or waste our efforts," Medvedev said at the news conference. "But if opportunities arise, we will move faster."

Nazarbayev proposed that the three countries should replace the dollar with their own currencies in their mutual trade, and eventually come to a common currency.

Russian Industry and Trade Minister Viktor Khristenko, who will likely play a leading role in the integration, said Friday that the presidents hadn't yet put the single-currency issue on the table.

Khristenko is the top candidate to lead the executive board of the Eurasian Economic Commission, the agency that — under the other agreement the presidents signed Friday — will oversee the operation of the Common Economic Space and any further amalgamation of the countries, all three presidents said.

"You can say we have appointed him," Lukashenko said.

Medvedev expressed his consideration for the legislative branches in the member countries, saying the commission agreement first needs to gain their endorsement.

Khristenko would have to leave his ministerial post to serve as chairman of the executive board. The chairman's term lasts four years. A member country delegates three people to the board that will start work Jan. 1 and for now sit in Moscow.

The commission will have a upper tier, called the council, which will consist of deputy prime ministers of member countries and the chairman of the executive board. It is expected that First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov will represent Russia on the council.

The ultimate ruling body for the Common Economic Space will be the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, which will consist of heads of states and cabinets.

Structure of the Eurasian UnionBodyMembers Supreme CouncilHeads of states and cabinets Eurasian Economic Commission: CouncilOne deputy prime minister to represent each member country + chairman of the Executive Board Executive Board Three people to represent each member country; Khristenko a likely candidate to be chairman.

Read more: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/customs-union-forming-closer-ties/448179.html#ixzz1eJzi8aOY The Moscow Times

The Logic of Putin's Third Term 21 November 2011By Richard Lourie

The smart money says that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will be president from 2012 to 2024. He will be 72 in 2024 and probably will not be up for “castling” with some amiable stooge until he is 78 and eligible to be president yet again.

During his first six-year term, from 2012 to 2018, Putin will go from age 60 to 66. At his peak, vigorous and experienced, he will be aware that this is the time for him to make his mark.

It is true, of course, that some leaders turn in remarkable performances at an even later age. Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was in his mid-60s when World War II started, but he was invigorated by that challenge in a way that peacetime never could have done.

Ronald Reagan was 70 when first elected U.S. president in 1980, but he was new to the job. When Putin is 70, he will already be into his fourth term. That does not mean he will have lost his appetite for retaining power, but the chances of Putin striking out on any new, bold course in his fourth and probably last term are slight at best. His upcoming 2012-18 term will be the one that matters most.

When Putin first became president, he inherited a country weakened by 10 years of chaos and crises that were not in the least of his making. In this respect, Putin to some degree resembles U.S. President Barack Obama of early 2009. But the Russia that Putin inherited from Boris Yeltsin in 2000 and the Russia he passed on to President Dmitry Medvedev in 2008 were two very different places. It is the difference between poverty and prosperity, chaos and stability.

There is considerable disagreement over how important a role Putin actually played in that transformation. For example, the man Obama has nominated to be the next U.S. ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, currently special assistant to Obama for national security, takes a dubious view of Putin’s role. Recall his 2008 Foreign Affairs comment, “The Myth of the Authoritarian Model: How Putin’s Crackdown Holds Russia Back.”

But what counts now is the difference between the Russia Putin received from Yeltsin and the one he is receiving back from Medvedev. Putin will begin his third presidential term from a position of strength, stability and prosperity. Russia has no outstanding

important conflicts. Even the Russia-Georgia war in 2008 did not lead to Georgia’s blocking Russia’s entrance into the World Trade Organization. Russia has begun to attract considerable foreign investment again — for example, ExxonMobil, Coca-Cola and Disney.

Although a few attractive figures exist among the opposition, such as the gadfly blogger Alexei Navalny and the imprisoned former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky, there is really no one on the political horizon who could pose the slightest real threat to Putin in a free and fair election in March. And the price of oil remains high.

Thus, all conditions are favorable for Putin to do something of real significance in his third term. He must choose between being a long-term leader of no enduring positive significance and a genuine statesmen who peered into the future, saw the dangers facing his country and steered a true and beneficial course. Russia needs major reforms in politics, the judiciary and media, and the economy must be diversified.

Putin has the power, authority and opportunity to carry out these reforms, but will he do it? Ask the smart money.

Richard Lourie is the author of “The Autobiography of Joseph Stalin” and “Sakharov: A Biography.”

Read more: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/the-logic-of-putins-third-term/448204.html#ixzz1eK7hta9w The Moscow Times

Kurdish Cameraman: Vladimir Putin Is ‘A Simple Man’http://www.rudaw.net/english/world/4161.html

21/11/2011 04:08:00 By KENDAL FIRAT

RUDAW, Germany -- Ilhan Coskun, a 22-year-old Kurdish resident of Germany, is part of a German television team recently given exclusive access to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Coskun is a cameraman with ARD German TV and a member of a three-member production team that is creating a 75-minute documentary film on Putin’s life.

Though Putin has been reluctant to provide the media with access to his life in the past, Russia’s enigmatic former president accepted ARD’s request to shadow him for nearly three weeks.

Prior to heading for Russia to meet Putin, Coskun said, “I was happy and that’s it. I didn’t feel anything else. We flew from Germany to Moscow and when we boarded the plane I knew we would be meeting one of the most powerful figures in the world. All you think of is what to do when you first meet him.”

After Coskun’s team landed in Moscow airport, a government official escorted them to Beijing to start filming Putin’s two-day trip to China.

On the way back from China, the Russian delegation stopped in St Petersburg for a meeting with leaders of the former Soviet republics. 

“We attended many ceremonies with Vladimir Putin,” Coskun said. “We rode with him in his personal car. We ate and drank together. He is a simple man you don’t feel like you’re with one of the most powerful men in the world. He tells stories and jokes. He talks about his meetings with the international leaders.”    

Coskun and his team took a helicopter ride with Putin to his residence between Moscow and St Petersburg, in the middle of woods and under tight security.

During his trip to Russia, Coskun got to play pool with the prime minister.

“One evening after dinner, Putin asked who wanted to play pool with him,” Coskun said. “I immediately said, ‘I’m a great player.’ I didn’t do too badly, but the pool was different from what we have in Germany. The balls were plain, white and heavier. Putin played very well and he beat me.”  

Coskun’s family left the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, Turkey when he was a toddler in 1992 and settled in Oldenburg in northern Germany. Coskun is from a Yazidi family and is the youngest of his siblings. He worked in restaurants and hotels as a child.

A German journalist inspired Coskun to study media. After graduating from college, Coskun freelanced for a film production company in Bremen City in northern Germany.

“The company I currently work for asked me if I want to be part of making a documentary film in Russia. I didn’t know what the documentary film was about. I immediately agreed to do the project and that’s how I got involved,” he said.

Over the past several years Coskun has worked with a number of TV stations including Sky TV, Bremen Radio, RTL TV, Sat7a and NDR.

Recently, Coskun was informed that he’ll be heading back to Moscow. Putin has invited them again to finish the documentary.

“We can’t film and be with Putin whenever we want. Whenever Putin wants, he’ll invite us,” he said. 

21 November 2011 - 08H38  

Crowd boos and whistles Putin speech at fight http://www.france24.com/en/20111121-crowd-boos-whistles-putin-speech-fight

AFP - Opponents of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Monday hailed an unprecedented show of public protest after the Russian strongman was loudly booed by the crowd at a no-holds-barred fight night.

Putin faced whistles and boos on live television as he congratulated a Russian champion in the fighting -- a sport in which the tough guy premier has always shown great interest -- after his victory over an American.

He climbed into the ring on Sunday evening after the blood-spattered bout between Russian heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko and Jeff Monson, but the start of his speech was drowned out by boos and whistles.

Viewers uploaded the television footage to YouTube, where it had been viewed more than 500,000 times on Monday morning.

Putin hugs Emelianenko and launches into a speech, but appears to pause as the crowd greets his opening line with whistles and low-pitched booing. It only breaks into cheers as he praises Emelianenko as a "real Russian hero".

The speech was a rare public relations failure for the premier, whose television appearances are usually tightly stage-managed, although opinions varied on Monday as to whether the boos were specifically directed at Putin.

Blogger Alexei Navalny, famed for exposing corruption, posted the video on his site and wrote that it was "the end of an era".

"Up till now there have never been any displays of dislike of Putin at any public event," wrote the Gazeta.ru news website.

But the director of the Olimpiisky stadium which hosted the fight, Mikhail Moskalyov, told Lenta.ru news website that the audience was reacting as the American fighter left the ring.

Putin's speech at the match would appear to fit in with his strongman image and passion for judo, in which he has a black belt. But he rarely speaks impromptu to untried audiences.

Emelianenko competes in the brutal Russian sport called mixed martial arts, which allows blows with legs and hands. It is also known in the country, somewhat appropriately, as "fight without rules."

Monson finished the match limping and covered in blood after a blow to his face. The sport, a mixture of boxing, wrestling and kick boxing, is known in the West largely as ultimate fighting or no-holds-barred fighting.

How a Banana Tycoon Lured Bolshoi Stars to His Theaterhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/arts/dance/vladimir-kekhman-lures-osipova-and-vasiliev-from-bolshoi.html?_r=1

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

Published: November 20, 2011

MOSCOW — He is often called Banana King. But Vladimir Kekhman — the fruit magnate who stunned the dance world last week by enticing two of the biggest stars in ballet to quit the eminent Bolshoi and join his far lesser-known Mikhailovsky Theater in St. Petersburg — considers this title an understatement. “I was sort of the Emperor of the Banana,” he said.

Similarly understated, Mr. Kekhman said, were reports that he has spent $20 million of his personal fortune upgrading the state-owned Mikhailovsky and restoring some of its pre-revolutionary architectural splendor since he was named the theater’s general director four years ago. “I have donated $40 million, not $20 million,” he said.

But what will no longer be underestimated by anyone are Mr. Kekhman’s ambitions to catapult the Mikhailovsky onto the A-list of world stages for ballet.

Last Monday, at the start of a week that the just-reopened Bolshoi hoped to focus on its premiere of a production of “The Sleeping Beauty,” two huge stars, Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev, announced their resignations. Such a move — to leave one of the grandest stages in dance, especially for a lesser-known Russian house rather than for a big-name company in the West — is virtually unheard of in the ballet world.

And it was a remarkable feat for the Banana King, whose only artistic credentials before becoming general director of the Mikhailovsky were owning a jazz club that he opened in St. Petersburg (because, he said, he had nowhere to listen to his favorite music) and playing clarinet as a child in his native Samara, about 700 miles southeast of Moscow, where, he recalls, an uncle was known as the best piano tuner in town.

His brazen raid created an uproar among Russian’s cultural class. “Premier dancers of such rank have never left the Bolshoi,” wrote Tatiana Kuznetsova, the ballet critic of the

daily Kommersant. “Yes, they could run abroad. But that happened in Soviet times. In modern Russia, the artists only come to the Bolshoi.”

Not anymore.

Last year Mr. Kekhman recruited the contemporary Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato to be artistic director of the Mikhailovsky Ballet, itself a bold move that showed a desire to test boundaries given the revered status of classical dance in Russia.

And Mr. Kekhman, at age 43, recently gave up all of his day-to-day responsibilities as a major owner of Russia’s biggest fruit company to focus on the Mikhailovsky. “I have a new profession right now,” he said. “And this profession has brought a new life to me.”

Mr. Kekhman’s new life also represents a new — and, detractors say, potentially worrisome — role for wealthy arts patrons in Russia, where post-Soviet business titans are maturing and reaching for new cultural prominence.

Unlike the superrich Russians who have been buying professional sports teams or sponsoring galleries or exhibitions, Mr. Kekhman has used his wealth and political connections to shake up two of the nation’s most venerable cultural landmarks. He was appointed general director of the Mikhailovsky at his request in 2007. There are now suggestions that his eventual goal could be control of the Bolshoi.

News of the defection of Ms. Osipova and Mr. Vasiliev had not yet sunk in when Mr. Kekhman publicly predicted that he would soon lure away David Hallberg, who just this fall became the first American dancer to enlist permanently with the Bolshoi. Mr. Hallberg had said part of his motivation for moving was to dance with Ms. Osipova.

Ms. Osipova and Mr. Vasiliev, who are a couple, have left themselves open to charges of selling out, quite literally — curtailing the artistic trajectory of their careers for financial reasons.

Mr. Kekhman said their deal included not just higher pay for each performance but also a spacious apartment in Moscow, which the dancers said would remain their hometown. “I always offer a market price,” he said.

Flashing his business-world toughness, Mr. Kekhman said the dancers would be able to live in the apartment right away but would become owners only when they completed a five-year contract with the Mikhailovsky.

The dancers’ agent, Sergei Danilian, who also represents Mr. Duato, the Spanish choreographer, acknowledged that they would be paid more than at the Bolshoi. And he said he wished Mr. Kekhman had not discussed the apartment deal publicly, but added that Mr. Kekhman had always displayed a singular style not long on discretion.

That style was on display when Mr. Danilian first met Mr. Kekhman at Lincoln Center four years ago. His impression then, Mr. Danilian said, was of an obviously wealthy man, very much in his own world, who knew little about the arts even as he mixed with stars and tried to attract interest in the Mikhailovsky.

But Mr. Danilian said Mr. Kekhman set about educating himself, attending performances and meeting with artists and managers worldwide.

“Mr. Kekhman can buy another yacht or another villa in the South of France, but he decided to help a theater in his own city,” Mr. Danilian said. “He decided to spend his money for the performing arts. This is really something new.”

New, perhaps, but not universally admired. Detractors say he is causing havoc in the arts world, and potentially wrecking careers.

There is no question that the dancers’ departure has stung the Bolshoi’s leaders. It may hurt all the more because Ms. Osipova and Mr. Vasiliev were generally regarded as the performers who perhaps most epitomized the Bolshoi’s brand of ballet — larger-than-life dancers capable of sky-high jumps and space-devouring sweep and willing to sacrifice academic perfection to electrify their audience.

The Bolshoi’s general director, Anatoly Iskanov, has described the departure as an “attack.” In interviews, the dancers have said the decision was an artistic one and that they craved more freedom.

Mr. Duato, the choreographer, said they would get it. “I am keen to help Natalia and Ivan to express the new side of their artistry, something apart from the core repertoire they have been performing,” he wrote in an e-mail. “Russian dancers are the best in the world and it is a shame they had been respected only for the classics so far.”

Mr. Kekhman said he first approached Ms. Osipova and Mr. Vasiliev about a year and a half ago and that he was more confident about his chances to win over Mr. Vasiliev.

“It was pretty obvious Ivan, who was stuck in his heroic roles, needed to go somewhere else,” Mr. Kekhman said. But he added that the Bolshoi had driven Ms. Osipova away, by focusing on other ballerinas and not setting its calendar effectively, making it difficult for her to plan international appearances. As an example, he noted that Ms. Osipova was not scheduled to perform in “The Sleeping Beauty,” which had its premiere on Friday.

That Mr. Kekhman, a titan of a rough-and-tumble business, is in a position to comment on the world’s top ballet dancers is remarkable. He had made millions importing and warehousing fruit. (One banana shipment from Ecuador shared a container with a large quantity of cocaine, but his company said it owned only the fruit, not the entire container, and no charges were filed.)

He was appointed general director of the Mikhailovsky in 2007 by the governor of St. Petersburg, Valentina I. Matviyenko, who is now chairwoman of the Federation Council, the upper chamber of the Russian Parliament.

Knowing little about the theater business, he enrolled in a management course at the St. Petersburg State Theater Arts Academy and almost immediately came into conflict with artists at the Mikhailovsky. The opera company even wrote an open letter to President Dmitry A. Medvedev complaining about his management.

One conductor said Mr. Kekhman ordered him during an intermission of “Swan Lake” to make changes because he thought the swans were too slow and mournful. The conductor said he replied: “You must not interfere. You are a dilettante.”

Elena Obraztsova, an opera star, quit her job as artistic director at the Mikhailovsky because of disagreements with Mr. Kekhman in his early years, but has remained as an adviser. In an interview, she said that she had come to admire him for revitalizing the theater, architecturally and programmatically.

“He was like a child with a new toy,” she said of his early days. “He did a lot of silly things like giving advice to musicians or a conductor. But I should say that he grew tremendously since then.”

“Thanks to his efforts,” she added, “the theater put on a new spirit.”

Nikolay Khalip contributed reporting from Moscow, and Daniel J. Wakin and Alastair Macaulay contributed from New York.

11/19/2011 @ 9:46PM |1,203 views

Russia's Medvedev "Only World Leader" Who Understands Internet, Says Wikipedia Founderhttp://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2011/11/19/russias-medvedev-only-world-leader-who-understands-internet-says-wikipedia-founder/

Al Gore might have invented the internet, but Russian president Dmitry Medvedev is the political leader who understands it like no other. That’s what Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales told a gathering of Russian reporters in Moscow earlier this week following the E-G8 meeting in France this month.

At the E-G8 meeting, the E meaning electronic, French president Nicolas Sarkozy called on internet CEOs to give some advice on the future of the web. “Unfortunately, Sarkozy’s view on the internet is that it must be controlled and regulated. And at the G8 meeting, President Medvedev was the only leader to say something sensible whatsoever.

So I think the headline of the story should be that Jimmy Wales says that President Medvedev is the only world leader who actually understands the internet,” Wales said.

Medvedev recognizes the ongoing fight against piracy and protection of copyright laws, but says that many people also have an interest in sharing information freely.

“China is continuing to censor the internet and we are seeing some countries in the G8 moving to regulate the internet. We have to remain vigilant,” Wales said.

National Economic Trends

Sberbank CEO: Privatization of state-owned assets put on ice

http://www.rbcnews.com/free/20111121125849.shtml

      RBC, 21.11.2011, Moscow 12:58:49.In a letter to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin argues that the minimal share price for state-owned companies that are about to be privatized, including Russia's largest lenders Sberbank and VTB, as well as oil major Rosneft, should be at least equal to their IPO offering price, the Russian media reported today.

      Since going public, these companies have seen their shares fall sharply amid the economic downturn.

      Reacting to these reports, Sberbank's CEO and former Economic Development Minister German Gref said that focusing on the IPO offering price would delay the privatization for many years. "It could mean that the assets won't be privatized for many years from now, since, in my opinion, we are about to enter a long period of financial turmoil," he explained.

Deputy PM Igor Sechin has proposed not selling shares below the previous privatisation sale price

http://www.bne.eu/dispatch_text17913

VTB Capital

November 21, 2011

- agrees with earlier indications from Sberbank CEO German Gref that sales would happen at a higher price - postpones the stock overhang risk for Rosneft,

Sberbank, VTB, NCSP News: Vedomosti is citing a letter by Deputy PM Igor Sechin which suggests that further privatisation of the publicly traded state-controlled state companies that are being considered for privatisation in 2011-13 (which includes Rosneft, Sberbank, VTB, NCSP) would be at a price no lower than the previous privatization placements. According to the paper, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin forwarded the letter to agencies in charge of privatisation with a note to "take this into account."

Our View: Sechin's proposal is in line with the understanding that the state is not keen to execute the privatisation program at current prices. It is, however, unlikely that the formal rule proposed by Sechin would be included in the privatisation programe (if it was a possibility, the privatization of VTB or NCSP would be pushed back significantly as their prices are more than 50% below the original IPO levels). Nevertheless, it acts as an additional material signal that the stock supply from the privatisation is not yet imminent.

Russian Hopes of WTO Debt-Grade Boost Dashed by Rating Companieshttp://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-11-20/russian-hopes-of-wto-debt-grade-boost-dashed-by-rating-companies.html

November 20, 2011, 11:01 PM EST

By Henry Meyer and Alena Chechel

Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Russia’s prospects for a higher debt grade after entering the World Trade Organization may not materialize because of the country’s investment climate and institutional weaknesses, rating companies said.

Standard & Poor’s, whose BBB rating has a stable outlook, doesn’t anticipate “any immediate impact from WTO accession,” said Kai Stukenbrock, director of sovereign ratings in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Russia must tackle “institutional weaknesses” such as the rule of law and corruption to reap the full benefits from WTO entry, according to Dietmar Hornung, a senior credit analyst at Moody’s Investors Service

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who plans to return to the Kremlin next May, has yet to take significant measures to diversify the economy by improving the rule of law and reducing the role of state monopolies, Moody’s and S&P said. None of the three main

rating agencies have upgraded Russia’s debt score since the 2008-2009 global financial crisis.

“The agencies kept Russia on hold due to uncertainty regarding the pre-election fiscal policy and high concentration of GDP in the oil sector,” Barbara Nestor, an emerging-markets strategist at Commerzbank AG in London, said in an e-mail on Nov. 18. “WTO entry is very likely to be a relevant credit- positive factor. It’s a structural benchmark.”

The world’s biggest energy exporter is set to receive the final approval to join the WTO next month after 18 years of negotiations. Fitch Ratings, which has a positive outlook on Russia’s BBB rating, says an upgrade may happen within two years, providing there isn’t a large drop in the price of oil.

Joining the Geneva-based body that sets global trade rules should drive bigger investment inflows, trade and higher competition in Russia, Fitch analyst Charles Seville said.

Rating ‘Outrage’

The government is counting on an upgrade in its credit rating as membership in the trade arbiter improves market access and lures foreign investment to reduce its reliance on energy exports, Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak said in a Nov. 15 phone interview.

Putin on July 11 said Russia’s debt grade is an “outrage” that lifts corporate borrowing costs and increases risks. The nation’s rating was last raised by New York-based Moody’s in 2008 to Baa1, the third-lowest investment grade, one level above Brazil and four below China. S&P on Aug. 31 affirmed Russia’s BBB rating, the third-lowest investment-grade rate, on par with Bulgaria, Bahrain and Peru.

Brazil’s credit rating was raised one level to BBB on Nov. 17 at S&P, matching a move by Moody’s earlier this year. China was upgraded to AA- at S&P in December.

‘Additional Argument’

“Russia’s entry into the WTO should be an additional argument for the rating agencies to consider upgrading our credit rating,” Storchak said. “It should be a signal for them that our country is moving to develop its economic potential, diversify the economy and increase its investment attractiveness.”

The cost of protecting Russian debt against non-payment for five years using credit-default swaps rose one basis point to 250 basis points on Nov. 18, up from 187 on Oct. 27, according to data provider CMA, which is owned by CME Group Inc. and compiles prices quoted by dealers in the privately negotiated market.

The contracts pay the buyer face value in exchange for the underlying securities or the cash equivalent should a government or company fail to adhere to its debt agreements.

‘Clearly Underrated’

Russia is “clearly underrated” because its state debt as a percentage of gross domestic product is below most developed and emerging economies, the Finance Ministry said in August. economies, the Finance Ministry said. Its debt-to-GDP of 9.3 percent compares with 42.7 percent for similarly rated Mexico, according to the ministry.

“With strong budget execution this year,” for example “a full-year budget that is careful with the oil windfall despite the elections, and the prospect of lower reliance on the oil sector in the future, the chances of Russia’s upgrade would improve,” according to Nestor at Commerzbank.

The next parliamentary election is scheduled for December, three months before a presidential vote. Putin, who plans to swap jobs with his successor, President Dmitry Medvedev next year, made WTO membership a priority during his first presidential term in 2000.

Energy sales account for 17 percent of Russia’s GDP and as much as 40 percent of government revenue, compared with the share of less than 10 percent for commodities in Brazilian GDP, government data show.

‘Not Much Improvement’

S&P hasn’t raised Russia’s ranking since September 2006, when it awarded it a BBB+ rating, its third-lowest investment- grade rate. The company downgraded Russia one level to BBB on December 2008.

“WTO is a positive piece of news but we don’t see much improvement in general in terms of economic diversification,” Hornung at Moody’s said. “The risks are balanced, as indicated by the stable outlook.”

Capital flight in Russia, ranked the world’s most corrupt major economy in Transparency International’s 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index, may reach $70 billion this year, compared with a previous forecast for $36 billion of outflows, the central bank estimates.

Barring Oil Slump

“Barring a big oil price fall, it’s unlikely the rating will move down and it may move up if they get through the next year without a mishap,” Seville said in e-mailed comments. “The WTO membership would be reflected in the rating in as much as it drives bigger investment inflows, greater trade and stimulates more efficiency, productivity gains and so on.”

Russia’s membership in the WTO will lower tariffs, improve international access to Russia’s services markets and attach the Russian government to a system of rules, according to the U.S. government.

With oil and gas, which account for more than half of Russian shipments overseas and are not subject to import restrictions in other countries, metals and chemical producers will gain as levies to sell their products abroad decline, the World Bank said in a report last year.

Russian consumers also stand to benefit as import barriers are reduced, a step that will spur the flow of goods into the country, weakening the ruble and further helping exporters, the World Bank said.

Improved market access and gains for exporters may bolster Putin’s plan to achieve faster growth of 6 percent to 7 percent annually. Joining the WTO may boost Russia’s $1.5 trillion economy by more than 3 percent in the medium term, according to the World Bank. GDP expanded 4 percent in 2010 after a record 7.8 percent contraction the previous year.

--With assistance from Denis Maternovsky in Moscow. Editors: Paul Abelsky, Balazs Penz

To contact the reporters on this story: Henry Meyer in Moscow at hmeyer4@bloomberg.net; Alena Chechel in Moscow at achechel@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net

Finance ministry projects small 2011 budget surplus

http://www.rbcnews.com/free/20111121130258.shtml

      RBC, 21.11.2011, Moscow 13:02:58.Russia's federal budget surplus is expected to be in the range of 0.3% - 0.4% of GDP in 2011, acting Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told reporters.

      All of the government's additional oil and gas revenue this year will be used to cut domestic borrowings in 2012, he noted, adding: "We have reached the upper limit of domestic borrowings". Net foreign borrowings are expected to be negative as of year-end 2011.

      The minister went on to say that higher budget spending plans should be reviewed.

Finance Ministry opposes tax hikes

http://www.rbcnews.com/free/20111121112401.shtml

      RBC, 21.11.2011, Moscow 11:24:01.Russia's Finance Ministry opposes tax increases within the next five or six years, acting Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said at the international conference "Thinking of taxes in a new way" in Moscow.

      "I think tax policy shouldn't undergo substantial changes in the short run. We should take another look at it and leave it alone for the next five or six years and keep the current rules as they are," he said, adding that to date the government has not decided to raise the tax burden.

      Should the government take on additional expenses, they should be financed from the current budget, Siluanov went on to say, confirming plans to reach a zero deficit by 2015.

Kremlin pledges lower taxes

http://www.rbcnews.com/free/20111121121431.shtml

      RBC, 21.11.2011, Moscow 12:14:31.Over the next three years the Russian government could lower nominal tax rates, presidential aide Arkady Dvorkovich said at the international conference "Thinking of taxes in a new way" in Moscow.

      More importantly, decentralization would generate additional tax income for regions and municipalities, which currently fail to meet their obligations without federal budget subsidies, Dvorkovich noted, reaffirming his commitment not to seek tax hikes in the near future.

      The actual tax burden stands at 40% in Russia, he went on to say, adding that Russia's economy would have shown a higher growth rate of 5% instead of the current 4% in 2011, and tax revenue would have been higher, if the government had not hiked taxes in 2010.

13:04 21/11/2011Top News

RF Finance Ministry not to increase taxes in coming 3 earsу

http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c32/277230.html

MOSCOW, November 21 (Itar-Tass) —— The Russian Finance Ministry doesn’t plan to increase taxes in the coming three years, Russian Acting Finance Minister Anton Silauanov said at the international scientific-practical conference “Taxation - - modern view” on Monday.

According to him, the budget is balanced, and only the redistribution of its revenue items is possible.

November 21, 2011 10:26

Tax rates might be lowered in next 3 yrs – Dvorkovichhttp://www.interfax.com/newsinf.asp?id=288707

MOSCOW. Nov 21 (Interfax) - Presidential Advisor Arkady Dvorkovich believes that tax rates in Russia could be reduced in the next three years.

"I believe that nominal tax rates might go down in the next three years," Dvorkovich said while speaking at the international conference "Thinking of Taxes in a New Way".

Ih

(Our editorial staff can be reached at eng.editors@interfax.ru)

November 21, 2011 11:48

Tax burden in Russia is not low, comes to around 40% - Dvorkovichhttp://www.interfax.com/newsinf.asp?id=288742

MOSCOW. Nov 21 (Interfax) - Russian Presidential Advisor Arkady Dvorkovich does not think the tax burden in Russia in low.

"We have tax rates. The tax burden isn't low," he said while speaking at a conference in Moscow organized by Russia's Federal Tax Service.

"I disagree with the figures that have been cited [by Acting Finance Minister Anton Siluanov]. Firstly, 31%-32% we might call contributions, customs duties, other payments, everything that companies and citizens pay into the budget. All of this, essentially, is the tax burden, especially when you bear in mind that insurance payments here are not entirely for insurance. The real tax burden here is close to 40%. And 40% isn't a low figure," Dvorkovich said.

Ih

(Our editorial staff can be reached at eng.editors@interfax.ru)

07:56 21/11/2011ALL NEWS

Russian companies’ tax debts down by 8% as of January 1

http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/276950.html

MOSCOW, November 21 (Itar-Tass) — Russian enterprises’ tax debts in general reduced by 103 billion roubles or by 8 percent from the beginning of the year and as of October 1 totalled 1.173 trillion roubles, the head of the federal tax service, Mikhail Mishustin, said in an interview with the Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily published on Monday.

“At the same time back in 2004 the debt-to-GDP ratio totaled 14 percent, in 2010 – only 2.8 percent,” he said.

Mishustin underlined that by this indicator Russia reached the level of industrialized countries.

“All this is the result of effective tax administration measures,” he said.

“A stable trend registering high rates of tax contributions (to the federal budget, in January-September they grew by 1.4 times) allows us to forecast the fulfillment of the increased budget,” he said.

“Over the past ten months it had been fulfilled by 84 percent. Thus, we’ve been performing the task of reaching the deficit-free budget this year,” Mishustin said.

CBR announces $64bn capital outflow for 10M11http://www.bne.eu/dispatch_text17913

AlfaNovember 21, 2011

CBR Chairman Sergey Ignatiev indicated on Friday that capital outflow reached $13bn in October after the upwardly revised $14bn in September. This puts 10M11 outflow at $64bn and suggests that the CBR's $74bn full-year guidance is no longer realistic.

As we expected $6-7bn in capital outflow in October, we take the $13bn capital outflow estimate as very negative news. We are particularly surprised by the fact that October's

capital outflow is virtually the same as the $14bn reported in September (which was revised up from the previous estimate of $13bn), which has several implications.

First, this suggests that the improvement in global market sentiment seen in October failed to provide even the most minor support to the capital account, contrary to our expectations. This further indicates a much larger contribution from the banking sector to capital outflow than in previous months, as Ignatiev indicated that banks posted a $12bn increase in foreign assets in October vs. a $4bn increase in September.

Secondly, the $13bn capital outflow suggests that the 5% ruble appreciation to the basket and 7% to the US dollar in October did not reflect an increased market preference for the ruble, but rather was the result of CBR interventions.

Third, the fact that the CBR was not intervening in the foreign exchange market in the second half of October suggests that the capital outflow reflected flight from the ruble by large corporations, which probably satisfied their demand for foreign currency through direct (off-market) purchases from the CBR.

Finally, it appears that the capital outflow intensified at the very end of October, which raises concerns regarding November's capital account. Recently, the foreign exchange market has experienced an increase in speculative outflows from the ruble, which leads us to believe that November capital outflow will likely be close to the October figure. It thus seems that full-year capital outflow expectations should now be moved to the $80-90bn range, 5.3% of GDP rather than our previous 4% of GDP estimate.

Capital flees from Russian investment climatehttp://rt.com/politics/press/nezavisimaya/capital-investment-climate-russia/en/

Published: 21 November, 2011, 08:56Edited: 21 November, 2011, 08:58

Mikhail Sergeev

Scholars are calling for economic amnesty, while the head of state promises to strengthen the promotion of domestic achievements  

The head of the Central Bank, the Russian president, and economic scholars all have a different assessment of Russia’s business climate. On Saturday, Dmitry Medvedev announced that the country is becoming increasingly more attractive to investors and, in order to speed up this process, it is necessary to increase spending on promotion of

Russia’s economic achievements. Investors, however, are apparently failing to notice these improvements and continue to withdraw capital from the country. 

According to the Central Bank Chairman, Sergey Ignatyev, the outflow of capital, which is likely to exceed US$70 billion by the end of this year, is directly linked to the poor investment climate. Developers of Strategy-2020 are proposing some concrete measures: economic amnesty, correspondence auditing of spending and revenues of officials’ families, as well as the creation of business incentives within the system of governance.

During Saturday’s meeting with the press at the Volga Federal District, Dmitry Medvedev spoke about certain improvements in the country’s investment climate. “When we first began to address [the investment climate – Nezavisimaya Gazeta], most of the investment-related decisions took months to make, and in the capital – years. It’s unbelievable! Today, this time has been reduced multifold. I’ve looked at the statistics, and saw that this time period has been reduced in practically all of the regions. The one-stop shop system is also in place. So it would be unfair to say that ‘you are making decisions, but things are getting worse and worse,’ as I sometimes hear. It’s not getting worse, but better – though the investment climate is still far from optimal and, I emphasize this once again, it is much worse than the overall state of the economy,” the Russian president told journalists.       

Whether or not the time it takes for the government to agree on investment projects has been reduced is a question of statistics, which are used by the president. Nevertheless, Dmitry Medvedev has promised to strengthen the promotion of Russia’s economic advantages.

In the meantime, the general assessment of the investment climate on the part of enterprises does not seem to be improving. In particular, this is demonstrated by the continuing outflow of capital from the country. According to Central Bank statistics, net outflow over the last 10 months has amounted to $64 billion. In October, the country lost $13 billion, and September, $14 billion. In November, the scale of capital flight has reduced slightly.

As predicted by the Central Bank, the 2011 net capital outflow will equal $70 billion. “I am also very concerned by this. The acceleration of capital outflow over the last two months can be explained, because global financial problems have resulted in the outflow of capital not only from Russia, but many other countries as well. And some currencies have devalued even more than the ruble. Nevertheless, even if the two-month episode never happened, the outflow of capital would remain,” Central Bank Chairman, Sergey Ignatyev, said Friday at the State Duma.

“The only solution to the problem is improvement of the investment climate, making it better for investors to be here than abroad. Unfortunately, that is not the case, as capital is leaving Russia,” says the head of the Central Bank.

Sergey Ignatyev did not propose any specific measures to improve the investment climate. A list of such measures, however, is being offered by the developers of Strategy-2020, who, at the request of Vladimir Putin, have been working on a new version of this document. One of the first measures to improve the investment climate should be economic amnesty. The need to grant amnesty to those convicted of economic crimes was expressed by the director of the Institute for Industrial and Market Studies, Andrey Yakovlev, who heads one of the expert groups. Whether or not Prime Minister Vladimir Putin decides to follow the advice of economic scientists and include the defendants in the Yukos case in the list of those, eligible for amnesty is anyone’s guess.

Nevertheless, economic amnesty has been published on the official Strategy-2020 website as an important element of improving the investment climate.

Moreover, in the draft Strategy it is suggested to introduce correspondence auditing of the profits and spending of the officials’ families, as well as the procedure for declaring a conflict of interests. (After the publication of these proposals, President Medvedev spoke critically in regard to financial examinations of officials’ spending). However, authors of the Strategy acknowledge that, under the current system of governance, making any improvements is impossible: “The current system of governance lacks business incentives, which predetermines the unfavorable investment climate”.      

In order to create business incentives on the level of regional and local authorities, it is being suggested to look at the rise of capital inflow as a way to assess the officials’ work. Moreover, it is necessary to focus on monitoring results rather than the ongoing operations, suggests Yakovlev. (The economist did not specify as to whether or not the same approach should be used in assessing the work of the Federal Center). “We have a limited number of capable officials,” says Yakovlev. That is why “we need to focus the efforts of the adequate portion of the state apparatus on removal of barriers to economic growth.”

Business, Energy or Environmental regulations or discussions

Integra, Evraz, Mobile TeleSystems: Russian Equities Previewhttp://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-11-20/integra-evraz-mobile-telesystems-russian-equities-preview.html

November 20, 2011, 10:22 PM ESTBy Stephen Bierman

Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- The following companies may be active in Russian trading. Stock symbols are in parentheses and share prices are from the previous close of trading in Moscow.

The 30-stock Micex Index fell 1 percent to 1,460.56. The dollar-denominated RTS Index dropped 1.11 percent to 1,495.87.

Integra Group (INTE LI): Minority shareholders in the Integra Group are seeking to stop a merger between a unit of the oil field services provider and a seismic unit of Geotech Oil Services Holding. The Moscow-based company fell 2.14 percent to $2.329 in London.

Evraz Plc. (EVRZ LI): Russian Railways plans to sign a contract for the supply of rails with the Russian steelmaker for as many as five years, RIA Novosti reported, citing Vladimir Yakunin, Evraz’s chief executive officer. Evraz fell 1.08 percent to $16.42 in London.

OAO Mobile TeleSystems (MTSI RX): Russia’s largest mobile phone provider will report third-quarter results at a yet to be determined time. The Moscow-based company fell 0.62 percent to 186.99 rubles.

--Editors: Sharon Lindores, Dylan Griffiths

To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Bierman in Moscow at sbierman1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dick Schumacher at dschumacher@bloomberg.net

12:46 21/11/2011ALL NEWS

Introduction of patent system in Russia postponed

http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/277189.html

MOSCOW, November 21 (Itar-Tass) —— It is too early to introduce a patent system in Russia, Russian Minister of Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina said on Monday.

“So far we cannot introduce a system of patents because it cannot completely substitute for the unified imputed tax applicable to small businesses,” she said at an international workshop on taxation problems.

She stressed that the situation in certain business sectors must not deteriorate.

“We shall get back to discuss the issue of the patent system in the first half of 2012 to take decisions on small business taxation,” she said.

MICEX, RTS looking to sell derivatives to U.S. investors

http://www.rbcnews.com/free/20111121105951.shtml

      RBC, 21.11.2011, Moscow 10:59:51.Russia's MICEX and RTS stock exchanges, which are about to merge, intend to seek permission from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to sell derivatives on the MICEX and RTS stock indexes and to offer them to U.S. investors, RBC Daily reports.

      The MICEX-RTS united stock exchange expects to get the necessary approvals by the end of 2012, which would eventually permit U.S. residents to make deals with all financial instruments traded on the stock exchange.

      Russia's Federal Financial Markets Service supported the move, saying that "it will help draw new investors into the Russian stock market."

November 21, 2011 13:08

Russia's Novolipetsk Steel, Evraz eye 29% stake in Vietnam Steelhttp://www.interfax.com/newsinf.asp?id=288775

MOSCOW. Nov 21 (Interfax) - Russian steelmakers Evraz plc and Novolipetsk Steel (RTS: NLMK) are interested in buying a stake in Vietnam Steel Corporation, Vietnam's Investment and Trade Center said in a statement on its website, citing news agency VNS.

Vietnam Steel is planning a restructuring and intends to sell a 5.76% stake in the state company to the market and a 29% stake to a foreign investor.

Vietnam Steel's chief executive, Le Phu Hung was reported as saying in the statement that the company would only select a strategic partner in the fourth quarter of next year, but has already received statements of interest from Evraz plc and Novolipetsk Steel.

He said 29% is the maximum stake that can be sold to a foreign investor under the country's legislation.

In May of this year, Hung said his company was more interested in a partnership with Japanese companies due to a similarity in mind set. Vietnam Steel was supposed to hold negotiations in October with leading Japanese steelmakers Nipon Steel, JSE, Tokyo Steel, Kobe Steel, Mitsubishi and Marubeni-Itochu.

The company had planned to hold an IPO in the summer of 2011, but is now talking about the fourth quarter of 2012.

Vietnam Steel has plans to invest $1.8 billion in 16 steel projects.

Vp

(Our editorial staff can be reached at eng.editors@interfax.ru)

EuroChem buys back $1bn worth of shares

http://www.rbcnews.com/free/20111121110914.shtml

      RBC, 21.11.2011, Moscow 11:09:14.EuroChem Mineral and Chemical Company has bought back 9.04% of its own shares for a total of RUB 29.67bn (approx. USD 960m) from its parent company EuroChem Group since 2011, RBC Daily reported. EuroChem owned 9.14% of its own shares as of September 30, 2011, including 68,000 quasi-treasury shares, which it held by 2011.

      Based on the price of the last two transactions as part of the buyback, the holding estimated its own value at $12.3bn, which is very high on the current volatile market, according to Raffeisenbank analyst Konstantin Yuminov.

      It is unclear how EuroChem Group will spend the buyback proceeds. The funds are likely to be assigned to the company's beneficial shareholders. Andrey Melnichenko indirectly owns 92.2% of EuroChem Group, while EuroChem CEO Dmitry Strezhenev owns 7.8%.

November 21, 2011 09:37

RusHydro announces plans for Far Easthttp://www.interfax.com/newsinf.asp?id=288694

MOSCOW. Nov 21 (Interfax) - Russian hydro power company RusHydro (RTS: HYDR) will replace inefficient RAO Energy Systems Vostok (ES Vostok) power stations with its own hydro power stations, establish direct contracts with consumers in the Far East and attract investors for new construction, RusHydro said in a press release.

RusHydro obtained the controlling stake (69.316%) in the Far Eastern energy holding company two weeks ago through an additional share issue (the government contributed 52.68%) and had not yet announced its plans for the region.

"The RusHydro strategy to develop Far Eastern energy provision will include replacement of economically inefficient capacity by synchronizing management of hydro power and combined heat and power plants in the Far Eastern Federal District, direct contracts with consumers for existing capacity and fore potential capacity, realizing the potential for cross-border export of electricity and implementation of investment projects applying public-private partnerships and project funding," the RusHydro release says.

RusHydro also plans to upgrade ES Vostok capacity and has already found a foreign partner for this. RusHydro on November 18 signed an agreement with Alstom Grid. Alstom Grid will participate in the reconstruction of heat and power plants as RusHydro specializes in hydro power plants.

It was reported earlier that RusHydro also plans to optimize ES Vostok finances. The EBRD said it was ready to allocate 8 billion rubles to RusHydro to restructure the Far Eastern holding company's debt (the total amount required according to the bank is 20 billion rubles). A RAO ES Vostok consolidated report to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) shows that short-term liabilities at the start of 2011 totaled 45.46 billion, including 23.54 billion rubles on loans. Long-term debt totaled 30.87 billion rubles.

A direct strategy for ES Vostok is still being developed, RusHydro told Interfax. The document will be approved at the beginning of 2012.

The power stations within the ES Vostok holding company have capacity of 8,785 megawatts. The companies produced 27.56 billion kilowatt hours of electricity and 30.21 million gigacalories of thermal energy in 2010.

RusHydro has hydro power plants in the Far East (Bureyskaya, Zeyskaya and Kolymskaya) and geothermal plants (Mutnovskaya, Verkhnee-Mutnovskaya and Pauzhetskaya) with total capacity of almost 4.5 gigawatts. It is building new hydro power plants - Ust-Srednekanskaya and Nizhnee-Bureyskaya with capacity of 570 megawatts and 320 megawatts, respectively. RusHydro capacity in the Far East could also expand through other assets, such as Svetlinskaya HPP, which belongs to Alrosa.

Me

Alstom extends partnership with RusHydro to thermal power generation and creates joint venture with KER to address the Russian HVDC markethttp://www.yourrenewablenews.com/alstom+extends+partnership+with+rushydro+to+thermal+power+generation+and+creates+joint+venture+with+ker+to+address+the+russian+hvdc+market_71119.html

Monday, Nov 21, 2011

Following its long-term strategy to establish a strong presence in Russia, Alstom signed two agreements related to the Russian power generation and power transmission sectors. The agreements were signed during the Franco-Russian intergovernmental seminar which was held in the presence of Vladimir Putin, Russian Prime Minister, Francois Fillon, French Prime Minister, Evgeny Dod, Chairman of RusHydro, Igor Lukashenko, President of KER group, Grégoire Poux-Guillaume, President of Alstom Grid and Philippe Pegorier, President of Alstom Russia.

Alstom and RusHydro, Russia’s largest hydropower generation company, are extending their partnership to thermal power generation. The signed agreement covers the modernisation and repowering of power equipment installed on the generation assets of ‘RAO Energy System of East’, a holding company owned by RusHydro. RAO Energy System of East manages the power generation companies in the Far East Russian Federation with a total installed capacity of around 9,000 MW. The two companies will also join their forces for the construction of new generation facilities. The cooperation also extends to the joint development and implementation of upgraded and innovative technologies for coal preparation and burning at RAO Energy System of East’s power plants.

The document follows the Strategic Cooperation Agreement signed between Alstom and RusHydro on 9 December 2010, which drew the outline of their cooperation in order to benefit from the booming Russian hydropower industry. The initial Strategic Cooperation Agreement covered four key directions of cooperation: reconstruction and modernization of the Kubanski cascade hydropower complex in Southern Russia; cooperation for the development of hydropower activities; cooperation in areas of R&D and investment; and local manufacturing of hydropower equipment in the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia.

The second document signed between Alstom Grid and Russia’s KER Ltd, a contractor in the field of electrical engineering, is the final agreement to form a joint venture (JV) for engineering and project execution of High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) projects for the Russian market. The joint company will be 50% held by Alstom and 50% by KER. The objective is the localization of expertise in Russia by creating a direct current Engineering Centre in Saint Petersburg, beginning operations in January 2012. The first step for the Alstom-KER Direct Current (DC) cooperation will be to play a major role in the supply and development of HVDC projects such as Vyborg-LAES, linking Russia and Finland. HVDC technology will support the modernisation of the Russian electricity sector by adding long distance transmission interconnections that increase the grid stability, reliability and efficiency.

In October 2010, Alstom Grid and FSK signed an agreement to establish a framework for implementing Smart Grid technologies in the Russian electrical grid.

Philippe Pegorier, Country President of Alstom Russia, declared: “In the last few years, Russia has turned out to be a strategic market for Alstom. The extension of our cooperation with RusHydro to thermal power generation demonstrates that both companies deeply appreciate their existing partnership and are willing to enrich each other further with their respective expertise to help Russian infrastructure development and to provide innovative technologies. By localizing our HVDC expertise we are more proactive in bringing to our customers the advanced solutions to build a strong and reliable electrical grid.”

Present in Russia for over 35 years, Alstom has chosen to implement a localization strategy in order to support Russia's infrastructure development in the most efficient way. The group has already created several JV’s with leading Russian companies such Transmashholding, Rosatom, RusHydro, Rusal and Inter RAO. For some other ongoing cooperation projects, like partnerships with Renova Group and Soyuz Corporation, the creation of JV’s is underway.

Source: Alstom

Russia's Acron, Norway's Yara end disputehttp://in.reuters.com/article/2011/11/21/idINL5E7ML0EH20111121

1:34pm IST

Nov 21 (Reuters) - Russian fertiliser maker Acron said on Monday it has reached a settlement with Norway's Yara under which a subsidiary of the Russian firm will raise its Acron stake by 3.7 percent to 12.4 percent.

Under the terms of the agreement, Acron's Granit subsidiary will grant its 51 percent stake in the Nordic Rus holding it operates with Yara in exchange for the stake.

Acron's Granit will also raise its stake in a separate entity, Dorogobuzh, to 24.3 percent to 12.5 percent as part of the deal. Dorogobuzh is one of Acron's production facilities in Russia's Smolensk region.

"Acron did not announce the buyer of the (Nordic Rus) stake, we don't know who bought it," Renaissance Capital's Mikhail Safin said.

The analyst said the 3.7 percent Acron stake Granit acquired is worth about $78 million.

The two companies have been in a long-running dispute over the Nordic Rus Holding, but Acron said that as a result of the agreement Stockholm arbitration proceedings on the matter have been terminated.

"Both sides are satisfied that, after several years of arbitration proceedings, we have managed to achieve the necessary level of mutual understanding to find a compromise and settle the Nordic Rus Holding dispute," Acron Chairman Alexander Popov said in a statement.

Nordic Rus Holding was founded in 1997 by Acron and Norsk Hydro, with the Norwegian firm holding a 49 percent stake.

Norsk Hydro then spun off its fertiliser operations to form Yara in 2004. (Reporting By Alfred Kueppers; editing by Megan Davies)

Ericsson getting Russia mobilehttp://rt.com/business/news/ericsson-ready-russia-mobile-797/

Published: 21 November, 2011, 12:01Edited: 21 November, 2011, 12:01

Ericsson of Sweden has been one of the biggest contributors to the growth of mobile telecoms in Russia. The company maybe best known for its handsets, but makes most of its money from mobile phone infrastructure.

As a member of the Skolkovo innovation hub, Ericsson has confirmed it's going to invest billions of roubles in R&D in Russia, despite it's recent lackluster financial performance.

President and CEO Hans Westberg says Russia is one of the most attractive markets with broad opportunities for the company. He sees mobile technology as being in the forefront of the modernisation of Russia particularly in education and healthcare.

ARMENIA TO INCREASE ROUGH SUPPLY FROM ALROSA IN 2012 21 November 2011 http://www.diamondintelligence.com/magazine/magazine.aspx?id=10025

Diamond cutters in Armenia plan to buy US$50 million worth of rough diamonds from Alrosa in 2012, compared to an anticipated US$40 million worth this year, reports Interfax, citing Armenian Economics Minister Tigran Davtian. As of November 1, the Russian diamond conglomerate has delivered US$39.16 million worth of diamonds to Armenia, according to the news source.

Davtian says that an agreement was reached with Alrosa this year to increase diamond supplies to Armenian cutters, the value of which in 2010 amounted to US$25 million. The number of Armenian diamond-cutting companies receiving Alrosa rough was also expanded in the agreement, from one or two at the beginning of 2011 to six or seven at present, reports Interfax, adding that the number of such firms will expand to 10 by the end of this year.

Russian rough diamonds make up more than half of Armenia's rough diamond imports. Davtian says that diversifying rough supply sources for Armenian cutting factories is a priority for the country's leadership.

Armenian polished diamond exports fell 24.7 percent to 217,000 carats in the first half of 2011, compared to 288,000 carats a year earlier, Interfax reports citing the Customs Service. The customs value of polished diamond exports dropped to US$45.75 million from US$50.38 million.

SRDSIL to Sell Alrosa Rough Diamonds Worth $5.2 Million in December http://www.israelidiamond.co.il/english/News.aspx?boneId=918&objid=10200

21.11.11, 09:47 / World The Surat Rough Diamond Sourcing India Limited (SRDSIL) consortium will be holding its first sale of rough diamonds the second week in December, the Times of India reports.

 The diamonds up for sale are valued at $5.2 million and are directly sourced from Russia’s Alrosa, with which SRDSIL has signed a long-term supply contract. SRDSIL Chairman Ashit Mehta told the Times that the agreement called for Alrosa to provide the consortium with a guaranteed $5.2 million worth of diamonds every month.

 Mehta explained that the diamonds would be sold through multiple channels, including tender and direct sale.

 

After the December sale, SRDSIL plans to visit Zimbabwe to negotiate a deal for rough diamonds from Marange. Zimbabwe recently received approval from the Kimberley Process to export its Marange diamonds.

Doing business in Russiahttp://rbth.ru/articles/2011/11/20/doing_business_in_russia_13770.html

November 20, 2011Pavel KoshkinBernard Sucher, a member of the Board of Directors at Aton Group, talked to RBTH about the challenges and the benefits of working in finances in Russia.

Entrepreneur and banker Bernard Sucher is very familiar with the Russian business environment. In 1983, Sucher graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Russian and Soviet Studies. Since then, he has worked in the Russian operations of many prominent banks, including Bank of American-Merrill Lynch, Trioka Dialog, Alfa Capital and Goldman Sachs. Today, as a member of the Board of Directors at Aton Group, he works on strategy for Russia’s last significant independent investment bank, focusing on client acquisition, new business development, corporate culture and mentoring. He recently spoke to Russia Beyond the Headlines’ Pavel Koshkin about his career and the experience of doing business in Russia. 

 

Russia Beyond the Headlines: You studied Business Administration and focused on Russia and Soviet Studies. Why did you choose this field?

B.S.: It goes back to 1978. The Soviet Union and the U.S. were hotly engaged in the Cold War and I wanted to know my enemy. Now, thankfully, it’s totally different. Modern Russia and Moscow, particularly, have significantly changed since that time. To me, it’s a kind of miracle. The world has become flat and one of the happy consequences is that there are many opportunities to do good work in Russia.

RBTH: You have rich business experience in Russia. What difficulties did you face in the beginning of your business career in Russia?

Bernard Sucher: I can speak about Moscow in the early 90’s, specifically, about trying to start businesses within the Garden Ring. What were the obstacles? For starters, everything was new, untested, untried. If there were a hundred factors to consider in a given situation, maybe five of them could be estimated with any confidence. Whether it concerned politics, or business or society – anything – you couldn’t escape a profound feeling of

uncertainty. These days, people label that “chaos,” but it was more like every couple of days, something really wacky happened somewhere. That just reminded you that whatever you were putting at risk, all of it really could be lost. And I am not just talking about money. As a result, everyone’s planning horizon was shortened to months, even days. That might be a great thing if you are on a first date, but try building a business with contractors and employees who won’t trust you for anything for even a week! For all these challenges, there was an overwhelming, compensating reality – if you could get your business started, you had little or no competition at all. Can you imagine such a thing as opening a restaurant in a city of more than 10 million people, and knowing that you had not more than six real competitors?! When you see that picture for what it is, man, you take the risks!

RBTH: It’s no secret that despite some American companies collaborating with Russian partners, Russia hasn’t had a favorable investment climate. To what extent will Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization contribute to creating favorable investment conditions for foreign organizations?

B.S.: Definitely Russia’s membership in the WTO will contribute to building a more favorable investment climate. I don’t want to overstate the immediate impact, but if nothing else, Russia’s WTO accession “normalizes” its economic relations with the rest of the world. Just consider how odd the status quo has been -- the planet’s largest territory, with a GDP of nearly $2 trillion, has been operating outside a global trading system which has been embraced by over 150 states. That we are putting this weirdness behind us is a powerful signal to people that Russia is willing to live by the same rules as everyone else. Moreover, since the rule of law and institutions generally in Russia are so weak, the fact that Russia will now be bound to external standards and dispute resolution mechanisms is potentially a huge step forward for governance within the country.

RBTH: Basically, you deal with bank activity and know a lot about the Russian banking system. What major problems Russian banks are faced with from your point of view?

B.S.: You know, almost everyone emphasizes the positive in Russia’s banking picture. Admittedly, given the grotesque failures of leading banks in America and Europe, this is understandable. However, I still find myself wondering about recent episodes that cost Russian taxpayers astonishing amounts of money, and for which there not only seem to be no answers offered, but no questions asked. Why exactly did the state feel it necessary to save KIT? How was the money lost and who specifically benefited from the bailout? You can ask the same questions of Svyaz or Globex. Maybe some of my peers in the industry know the answers, but in these multi-billion questions, I’ll confess my ignorance. And while one might dismiss these examples from 2008 as ancient history, the Bank of Moscow saga is bigger than any of them, and it is a current event. Anyone with a nose and vocal chords should candidly tell you, “Something stinks.”

Activity in the Oil and Gas sector (including regulatory)

TNK-BP to sink up to $800m in domestic and foreign E&P

http://www.rbcnews.com/free/20111121132744.shtml

      RBC, 21.11.2011, Hanoi 13:27:44.British-Russian oil major TNK-BP intends to channel some $700m-$800m into exploration and production (E&P) in Russia and the overseas markets over the next five years, the company's Vice President Chris Einchcomb told reporters in Hanoi, Vietnam.

      TNK-BP's Vietnamese subsidiary intends to kick off natural gas extraction from the Lan Do shelf gas field in October 2012, TNK Vietnam's General Director Hugh Mackintosh said, adding that the company expected annual output to reach 2bcm of gas.

      The oil major will also apply for other Vietnam-based shelf projects in December 2011, Mackintosh went on to say.

11/21 12:51   TNK-BP TO CLOSE DEAL ON BRAZILIAN PROJECT IN NEXT 3 MTHS - TOP MANAGERhttp://www.interfax.com/

UPDATE 1-TNK-BP seeks to bid for more Vietnam oil/gas blockshttp://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFL4E7ML1DD20111121

Mon Nov 21, 2011 8:33am GMT

HANOI Nov 21 (Reuters) - TNK Vietnam, a subsidiary of Russia's No.3 oil producer TNK-BP, will bid for blocks in state oil and gas group Petrovietnam's licensing round offshore the Southeast Asian country after acquiring BP Plc's assets, it said on Monday.

The firm will also drill two sub-sea wells in Lan Do field next month and plans to bring the first gas on stream in the fourth quarter next year for an annual capacity of 2 billion cubic metres, it said in a statement after the opening of TNK Vietnam's office.

"TNK-BP is here for the long term. As we focus on integrating these assets into the TNK-BP portfolio, we are also seeking new opportunities to deepen our presence in the country," said Chris Einchcomb, Vice President of International Projects and Upstream of TNK-BP.

In August, state oil and gas group Petrovietnam launched the 2011 licensing round for nine offshore oil and gas blocks, including blocks 43, 03, 10/11, 41, 11-2/11, 05-3/11, 50, 22/03 and 12/11 in Nam Con Son, Phu Quoc and Malay-Thochu basins.

The licensing round, which lasts between Aug. 1 and Jan. 5, 2012, is the Hanoi-based group's first since 2007 and the most in recent years. Bids will close on Dec. 9 and winners will be announced in January.

A senior Petrovietnam official said last month that Russian oil and gas firms are expanding their presence in Vietnam with three operating firms -- Gazprom, Zarubezhneft and LUKOIL -- while TNK-BP was in the process of taking over assets newly acquired from its shareholder BP Plc.

Russia's second largest oil producer LUKOIL has also said it is participating in the biddings for exploration in more oil and gas blocks off Vietnam after acquiring 50 percent of the Hanoi Trough 02 block offshore the northern city of Haiphong from Quad Energy.

An industry source confirmed LUKOIL has taken steps to participate in the bidding, but said the Russian firm has yet to send an official bid.

NOVEMBER 18, 2011, 4:55 A.M. ET

Lukoil CEO: Production At Iraq's West Qurna-2 To Begin In 2013 http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20111118-703000.html

MOSCOW (Dow Jones)--OAO Lukoil (LKOH.RS) chief executive Vagit Alekperov said Friday that production at Iraq's West Qurna-2 project will begin in 2013.

Lukoil, like other producers, has faced problems obtaining government approval for contractors at its oil projects.

"The Iraqi oil minister has confirmed us that in December all issues regarding to approval of our tender proposals will be concluded," Alekperov told journalists at a Moscow conference.

Contractors have been picked for crude oil processing facilities, power station, export pipeline and storage tanks. The contractors have been approved by Iraq's South Oil Co. but are now pending approval from the oil ministry, Alekperov said.

Alekperov also said Lukoil will stabilize falling West Siberian oil output by the end of the year.

-By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, Dow Jones Newswires; +7 495 232-9192, jacob.pedersen@dowjones.com

LUKOIL seeks to explore oil/gas with Petrovietnamhttp://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFL3E7MI0LA20111118

Fri Nov 18, 2011 5:16am GMT

HANOI Nov 18 (Reuters) - Russia's No.2 crude oil producer LUKOIL said it would partner with Vietnam's Petrovietnam in exploring oil and gas at home and abroad, the fourth Russian firm to invest in the Southeast Asian nation's oil and gas industry.

The Russian firm signed a memorandum of understanding with Vietnam's state oil and gas group in Moscow on Thursday, according to a Russian-language statement sent to Reuters on Friday.

"The pact noted that LUKOIL and Petrovietnam are interested in cooperating in exploration, development and production of hydrocarbons in Vietnam, Russia and third countries," the statement said.

The Russian group and Petrovietnam would share information on potential exploration blocks and exchange results, the statement said.

LUKOIL has said it was seeking to bid for more offshore blocks in Vietnam after acquiring 50 percent of the Hanoi Trough 02 block offshore the northern city of Haiphong from Quad Energy in April.

Three Russian firms are already operating in Vietnam: Gazprom, Zarubezhneft and LUKOIL, while TNK-BP was in the process of taking over assets newly acquired from its shareholder BP Plc.

TNK-BP has also said its subsidiary, TNK Vietnam, had been licensed to operate offshore gas block 06.1, part of the Nam Con Son Integrated Gas to Power Project, and would officially open its office in the country next week.

Tensions Increasing Over Caspian Energy Richeshttp://oilprice.com/Geo-Politics/International/Tensions-Increasing-Over-Caspian-Energy-Riches.html

Written by John Daly    Thursday, 17 November 2011 23:17

On 16 November in Astrakhan Lukoil president, Vagit Alekperov told journalists that his company will spend over $16 billion over the next decade to develop the country’s Caspian offshore Korchagin and Filanovskii oil and natural gas fields in the Caspian, at the signing of a cooperation agreement with the Astrakhan Region.

An equitable division of the Caspian’s offshore resources have bedeviled the region since the December 1991 implosion of the USSR, putting the Soviet Union’s previous cozy arrangements with the Shah’s Iran “into the dustbin of history,” to quote Leon Trotsky.

Before the collapse of the USSR, the Soviet Union and Iran effectively divided the inland sea amongst themselves, according to the terms of the 1940 Soviet-Iranian treaty, which replaced the 1921 Treaty of Friendship between the two countries, which awarded each signatory an "exclusive right of fishing in its coastal waters up to a limit of 10 nautical miles." The treaty further declared that the "parties hold the Caspian to belong to Iran and to the Soviet Union."

Since 1991 three new nations have arisen in the Caspian basin to contest this bilateral arrangement – Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. For the past two decades the five nations have wrangled about how to divide the Caspian offshore waters, and little has been achieved.

Amidst the disagreements Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan have tentatively moved cautiously to develop their offshore reserves in sectors that they believe would be indisputably within their future assignations under an eventual five-state agreement.

Even within these cautious offshore margins, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have increased their output in the last 15 years by 70 percent.

But at issue are the diametrically opposed positions of Iran and the Russian Federation about how to develop an international Caspian consensus beyond the now moribund 1921 and 1940 treaties. Iran insists that all Caspian nations should receive an equitable 20 percent of the Caspian, while the Russia Federation has consistently maintained that the

five Caspian riverine nations should receive their portion based on the length of their coastline. Under the Russian formula, Iran’s sector would consist of 12 percent to 14 percent of the Caspian’s waters and seabed.

The stakes are high – in 2009 the U.S. government’s Energy Information Administration estimated that the Caspian could contain as much as 250 billion barrels of recoverable oil along with an additional 200 billion barrels of potential reserves, in addition to up to 9.2 trillion cubic meters of recoverable natural gas.

Accordingly, all five Caspian nations have been delicately developing their offshore Caspian reserves in areas that will undoubtedly remain theirs whatever eventual agreement is hammered out between Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation and Turkmenistan. The Russian Federation and Iran are the last two nations to move “offshore.”

Alekperov said, "Five hundred billion rubles ($16 billion) will be invested in development. This huge amount will provide an opportunity for sustainable development in the region."

Astrakhan Region Governor Aleksandr Zhilkin waxed lyrical on the importance of the agreement for the long-term development of Astrakhan’s shipbuilding industry, situated on the lower Volga, the Russian Federation’s major river emptying into the Caspian. Zhilkin commented, "All shipyards in Astrakhan Region will have work for the next ten years. Vagit Yusufovich (Alekperov) mentioned that Lukoil is investing more than 500 billion rubles ($16 billion) over the decade.

Zhilkin’s remarks to reporters are hardly an idle boast, as he stated that Lukoil had paid more than $16.1 million in taxes last year to Astrakhan’s regional budget.

So, the Russian Federation, like its four Caspian neighbors, is now beginning to tiptoe into its offshore waters, all the while insisting that its vision of divvying the inland sea prevails.

The last two decades have seen an apparent pragmatism slowly evolve over the Caspian offshore resources, first in Baku, followed by Astana, Ashgabat and more recently and reluctantly, Tehran and Moscow. While the issue of a final disposition of the Caspian’s offshore waters remains significant if for no other reason than the various proposed undersea pipelines such as Turkmenistan-Baku, which could be an influential element in the European Union’s projected $15 billion Nabucco natural gas pipeline reverie, all five nations seem to be moving cautiously towards planting their offshore flags in areas unlikely to arouse their neighbors.

It will be interesting to see if they meet in the middle.

By. John C. K. Daly of Oilprice.com

Gas and geopolitics: Prospects for Russiahttp://www.thefrontierpost.com/?p=82601

Posted on November 21, 2011

Sameer Jafri

Energy has always been at the centre stage of constantly changing geopolitical contours of the world. Since the energy resources i.e. the fossil fuels are highly unevenly distributed across the globe, the competition for control over them eats up much of energy and hungry major economies’ time and money. With global energy demand increasing sharply and reserves being limited, this competition has only become intense with time and is bound to reach unprecedented levels in future.Although petroleum is the primary fuel all over the world, natural gas is increasingly being preferred since it is abundant, cheaper, cleaner and more efficient fuel. These qualities vis-à-vis other fossil fuels have made natural gas a much more attractive energy source. Russia possesses the world’s largest proven gas reserves. It is also the largest producer and exporter of natural gas. Since Europe is short of hydrocarbons, it relies on Russia for much of its natural gas requirements.Russian gas constitutes more than a quarter of natural gas consumed by the European Union. This makes Europe the largest customer of Russian gas. This monopolistic status provides Russia a certain degree of leverage to exercise its influence over Europe. Besides, Russia’s bilateral ties with transit nations like Ukraine and Baltic states also play a determining factor in the continuity of gas supplies to Europe. Russia-Ukraine gas dispute in early 2009 very well exposed the vulnerability of Europe to resultant disruptions.Nord Stream, the first leg of which has been commissioned recently, is however expected to partly allay the European fears of cutoff since it will deliver gas directly from Vyborg, Russia to Greifswald, Germany via underneath the Baltic Sea, thus bypassing transit nations and hence evading potential diplomatic attrition. Moreover, the savings from transit fee will add to economies of scale for both sides. While the EU has a reason for contentment owing to assured gas supplies from Nord Stream; for Russia it will not only bring additional revenue, but also take away bargaining chip from its neighbours who time and again threaten it to disrupt supplies, thus allowing Russia to freely call the shots in the region.Even though the West is backing the proposed Nabucco gas Pipeline, connecting Turkey to Austria, in an effort to reduce European dependence on Russian gas; serious doubts remain on its political feasibility and economic viability, owing to its diverse gas sources such as Iraq, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, which are fragile regions. Moreover, the pipeline is planned to pass through restive areas of the South Caucasus and Eastern Turkey. Therefore, security is a major hurdle circumscribing the prospects of this project. To further undermine Nabucco’s prospects, Russia, along with Italy, has launched a rival South Stream pipeline project. It will transport Russian natural gas via the Black Sea to Bulgaria and further to Greece, Italy and Austria. The

project being executed jointly by Russian giant Gazprom and Italy’s Eni is expected to go on full stream by 2015, much before the proposed commissioning of Nabucco in 2017. Even if completed in time, Nabucco will be able to feed only limited number of European countries. Hence, both Nord Stream and South Stream combined are bound to make Russia the undisputed energy feeder to Europe, making it capable of enjoying an unprecedented influence over the continent at a time when all of its major economies are reeling under serious debt crises. To quote the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev during the launch of Nord Stream, “It marks a significant step in relations between Russia, the EU, Germany and a number of other countries which participated in the project. In the long run, it will bolster security in Europe, including in the energy sector, particularly amid the current economic difficulties.” But this ecstasy need not overwhelm the Kremlin. It will be wise for Russia to utilise its ties with Europe to expedite modernisation and diversification of its energy-driven economy.Expanding the scope of its energy diplomacy of late, Russia has tried to diversify its gas exports by finding new customers. In this attempt, a pipeline has already been laid to China. Another project, Altai gas pipeline, is on cards. In addition to this, Russia has proposed to lay a pipeline to feed Koreas, in an effort to reduce tensions on the Korean peninsula and give a boost to impoverished North Korean economy. Plans are also underway to take supplies to maritime neighbour Japan as well as to South-East Asia. The Eastern Siberia – Pacific Ocean oil pipeline is already pumping Russian crude to Japan, China and Korea. Since Asian economies’ appetite for energy is huge, this diversification of supplies to Asia-Pacific will ensure guaranteed demand for Russian gas. It will also enable Moscow to have a greater say in the affairs of the region, which is certainly the most important geopolitical hotspot at present. It’s an opportune moment for Russia whereby, by wisely and judiciously making use of its geography, it can establish itself as a strong pole in the emerging global order. sameer.jf@gmail.com

Gazprom

Gazprom Neft Increases Omsk Refinery Investment, Oil Daily Sayshttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-21/gazprom-neft-increases-omsk-refinery-investment-oil-daily-says.html#

QBy Jacob Adelman - Nov 21, 2011 3:01 AM GMT+0100

Gazprom Neft JSC (SIBN) will spend 115.3 billion rubles ($3.7 billion) from 2012 to 2020 to upgrade its Omsk facility to comply with new tax laws, the International Oil Daily reported today, citing a refinery official.

Refiners will be forced to improve fuel quality and expand output range under the tax changes, the paper said. An increased portion of Gazprom’s investment will go to a new gasoline hydrocracker to be brought online in January 2012 and a new gasoil hydrocracker four months later, Omsk general director Oleg Belyavsky said last week, according to the newsletter.

The gasoline unit will be able to produce 1.2 million metric tons a year, and the gasoil unit will produce as much as 3 million tons a year, the newsletter reported. The refinery, which now has capacity of 286,200 barrels a day, plans to stop producing Euro-3 grade fuels in 2013 to boost Euro-4 and Euro-5 fuel output, it said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jacob Adelman in Tokyo at jadelman1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alexander Kwiatkowski at akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.net

18.11.2011

Russian Gazprom, KazMunaiGaz plan to develop Caspian gas fieldshttp://www.oilandgaseurasia.com/news/p/0/news/13575

Russian and Kazakh gas companies Gazprom and KazMunaiGaz are eyeing opportunities for joint development of gas fields - Imashevskoye and Tsentralnoye - in the Caspian Sea, according to a statement issued by the Russian gas giant after talks between the two companies' CEOs Alexei Miller and Bolat Akchulakov. It is reported by ITAR-TAS The agreement on joint geological survey and exploration of the Imashevsky gas condensate field was signed by Russia and Kazakhstan back in September 2010.

In April 2011 the joint venture KazRosGaz was named the field's operator. The field with the estimated reserves of 100 billion cubic meters is located in the transborder zone of the two countries.

The Tsentralnoye field is developed by the joint venture of LUKOIL and Gazprom - TsentrKaspneftegaz. The production sharing agreement should be prepared before the end of 2012. After the field's commercial launch KazMunaiGaz will join the project with a 50 percent stake.

Moreover, the meeting focused on energy cooperation.Miller pointed to the growth trend of Kazakhstan's domestic consumption of gas."This is a good economic growth indicator. Russian gas exports to Kazakhstan will grow by 10 percent in 2011 as against the

previous year.Gazprom and KazMunaiGaz have been successfully and mutually advantageously cooperating in all areas of the gas business - exploration, shipment, refinery and delivery," he said."Our constructive cooperation will only strengthen," Miller said.

Gazprombank Namibia Talks 21 November 2011

Gazprombank is in negotiations to buy a 54 percent stake in Namibia's Kudu gas project, Isak Katali, the southern African country's mines minister, told Namibian state radio.

Gazprombank will decide by the middle of December on the proposals, Katali said.

The sides are divided on the currency used to sell the gas, with regional customers seeking to buy using South African rand and investors planning to sell in dollars, he said, adding that Namibia is ready to shelve development should talks fail. The proposals include an 800-

megawatt gas-fired power station at Oranjemund to be managed by state-run Nampower. Kudu has 1.8 trillion cubic meters of proven reserves.

(Bloomberg)

Read more: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/gazprombank-namibia-talks/448213.html#ixzz1eK8EBMaF The Moscow Times

Banatski Dvor gas storage to open Mondayhttp://www.emg.rs/en/news/serbia/169116.html

21. November 2011. | 07:40

Source: Tanjug

Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee Alexey Miller will open the Banatski Dvor underground gas storage and a new control room in the Pancevo Oil Refinery on Monday in the presence of Serbian President Boris Tadic.

Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee Alexey Miller will open the Banatski Dvor underground gas storage and a new control room in the Pancevo Oil Refinery on Monday in the presence of Serbian President Boris Tadic.

The opening of the gas storage in northeast Serbia will also be attended by Director General of Srbijagas Dusan Bajatovic, while the Serbian president is scheduled to meet with Gazprom managers. The Banatski Dvor underground storage working gas capacity stands at 450 million cubic meters, while its maximum daily send-out capacity is 5 million cubic meters of gas.

The facility was put in commercial operation on October 1, and as a joint venture of Gazprom and Srbijagas it is important both for energy supply in Serbia and delivery of natural gas from Russia, considering the South Stream Gas Pipeline.

The cooperation between Gazprom and Srbijagas in construction of the Banatski Dvor is realized based on the agreement on cooperation between the oil and gas industries of Serbia and Russia signed on January 25, 2008.

The agreement on the Banatski Dvor joint venture between Gazprom Export, Gazprom Germania Gmbh and Srbijagas was signed in October 2009.

The Banatski Dvor joint venture, 51 percent of which is held by Gazprom and 49 percent by Srbijagas, is responsible for construction and operation of the underground storage, which was registered in February 2010. Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS), Serbia's state-owned oil company, announced that Tadic will attend Monday the opening of a new control room within the hydrocracking and hydrotreating sector in the Pancevo Oil Refinery, 15 kilometers northeast from Belgrade.

The modernization of the Pancevo refinery, amounting to about EUR 500 million, was launched in June 2009 and is to be completed by the end of 2012.

The hydrocracking and hydrotreating complex is the largest facility built as part of the refinery's modernization program and it is also part of the contract on sale of 51 percent of NIS shares, signed between the Serbian government and Gazprom Neft. The construction of the hydrocracking and hydrotreating complex will be supported with EUR 396 million.

The complex will increase the volume of treatment in the Pancevo refinery to 4.8 million tons of oil annually, which would meet the needs of the Serbian market and enable export to other Balkan countries.

Turkmenistan accuses "Gazprom" of distorting country's gas reserveshttp://vestnikkavkaza.net/news/economy/fuel/20091.html

Turkmen Foreign Ministry claimes that the Russian JSC "Gazprom" distorts data on Turkmenistan's natural resource potential, Trend reports.

"TV channel "Rossia" broadcasted an interview with the Deputy Chairman of JSC

"Gazprom" Alexander Medvedev, who actually questioned official reports on natural gas reserves in Turkmenistan," Turkmen Embassy in Azerbaijan said.

Turkmen Foreign Ministry said that such statement made by "Gazprom" representative is "extremely wrong and disrespectful towards partners of cooperation in the energy sector." "The fact that such a biased assessment is voiced by a professional causes particular confusion," the report says.

In this regard, the Turkmen side stresses that the representatives of the international company "Gaffney, Cline & Associates" (UK) presented the results of the second phase of independent audit of reserves of Turkmenistan's major gas fields - South Yoloten-Osman, Minara, Yashlar in Ashgabat on Oct. 11, 2011. According to this report, geological reserves of zone of the above-mentioned gas fields are confirmed at the maximum volume of 26,200 trillion cubic meters of gas, which makes it second in the world.

Gazprom to Sign Gas Accord With Belarus Nov. 25, Interfax Sayshttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-21/gazprom-to-sign-gas-accord-with-belarus-nov-25-interfax-says.html#

QBy Anna Shiryaevskaya - Nov 21, 2011 8:42 AM GMT+0100

OAO Gazprom plans to sign a gas agreement with Belarus on Nov. 25, Interfax said, citing Valery Golubev, deputy chief executive officer of the Russian gas producer and exporter.

The agreement will cover supplies to Belarus starting next year and Gazprom’s purchase of 50 percent of Beltransgaz, the country’s gas pipeline network, the news service reported from Gatchina in Russia’s Leningrad region. Gazprom already owns half of Beltransgaz.

Gazprom’s press service declined to comment when called by Bloomberg News.

To contact the reporter on this story: Anna Shiryaevskaya in Moscow at ashiryaevska@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Torrey Clark at tclark8@bloomberg.net

Gazprom is looking for new support for South Streamhttp://www.bne.eu/dispatch_text17913

VTB CapitalNovember 21, 2011

- neutral at this stage News: According to Kommersant, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has agreed to support any Russian projects for exporting gas to Europe, mainly by supporting South Stream and assigning Trans European Network status for the pipeline. The promise was made during a session dedicated to Russian- French cooperation. In exchange for the support, France was promised new contracts in the transportation and utility sectors. The media was also speculating that on Friday Turkey and Azerbaijan announced that they are ready to construct a pipeline for Azerbaijani gas transportation through Turkey directly to Europe, thus bypassing Russia. The pipeline capacity is estimated at 16- 17bcm per year.

Our View: Although government support for Gazprom's projects is positive sentiment-wise, we do not expect any implication for the stock before any sizable effect from the lobbying for South Stream would be seen. With regards to the Azerbaijan-Turkey pipeline, we believe that at this stage it is more about putting additional political pressure on Gazprom rather than on any real plans for pipeline construction, which would be negative sentiment wise in any case. Gazprom, ord.

Gazprom to make increased MET payments starting in 2012 http://www.bne.eu/dispatch_text17913

VTB CapitalNovember 21, 2011

- well expected and neutral for the stock News: According to Interfax, the State Duma has adopted a new revision of the tax code implying an increase in the mineral extraction tax (MET) rate scheduled for 2012. As the situation currently stands, the MET rate would almost double to USD 16/mcm (RUB 509/mcm) for Gazprom (and all companies in which it has a share of more than 50%), while for independent gas producers it would be USD 8/mcm (RUB 251/mcm).

Our View: We believe that the new tax regime is negative for Gazprom as it implies USD 4-5bn of additional tax payments per year. According to our numbers, that would result in a 6% decrease in EBITDA. However, as the government announced the changes in taxation several months ago, they are already accounted for in the estimates. We do not expect the stocks to react.