Russia 101109

Basic Political Developments Russia ready to offer Indonesia submarines, fighter jets – Rosoboronexport Izvestiya/Russia Today: Russia sets on the eastward course - Tomorrow, Dmitry

Medvedev will travel to Seoul, South Korea, which will host the Group of 20 summit as well as the Russia-Korea talks.

o Pacific Fleet flagship Varyag arrives in S Korea Incheon on visit - Flagship of Russia’s Pacific Fleet - the Guards missile cruiser Varyag arrived in South Korea’s Incheon port on Tuesday. Its call at Incheon is timed to coincide with RF President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to South Korea that is to begin on November 10.

o Russia-Republic of Korea Dialogue forum opens in the capital of South Korea - The first session of the forum “Russia- Republic of Korea Dialogue” opened in the capital of South Korea on Tuesday. It was organized with the support of the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and other governmental and commercial agencies.

China, Russia vow to advance military ties - The pledge came out of a meeting between Guo Boxiong, Vice Chairman of China's Central Military Commission, and Russian Minister of Defence Anatoly Serdyukov in Beijing.

o Top military highlights ties between Chinese, Russian armies - The Russian defense minister is in China for an official visit, during which he also takes part in the 15th session of the Russian-Chinese intergovernmental commission for military-technical cooperation. Several major documents are to be signed after the session.

Russia, Japan to build wind power station on Sakhalin - Russia and Japan are working on a joint project of a wind power station on Sakhalin island to provide electricity for  the production of hydrogen, which is touted by experts as the fuel of the future.

New head of NATO's Moscow office to arrive in Russia next month - Vremya Novostei describes the official, who earlier worked in the press service of NATO headquarters in Brussels, as a person who "not only speaks good Russian and follows closely Russian-related topics, but also demonstrates impartiality and goodwill in issues of Russian-NATO relations."

Halonen to Meet with Putin, Medvedev on Tuesday - Halonen will also visit Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, during her visit. The region is home to two Finno-Ugric groups, the Mari and Udmurt peoples.

o Medvedev to discuss with Halonen security, visas, joint projects - The leaders of Russia and Finland will have to discuss a wide range of issues – from European security to detailed mutual projects.

Medvedev and Obama to discuss cooperation at APEC summit - The two crucial topics of discussion at the slated talks will be the ratification of the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and Russia’s WTO bid. 

Poland prepares for Medvedev’s visit – Komorowski - According to the Kremlin, Dmitry Medvedev will visit Poland before year ends.

Kan to tell Medvedev Russian-held isles are integral part of Japan - "I will clearly convey what we have consistently been asserting, that the Northern Territories are an integral part of our country," Kan told the House of Representatives' Budget Committee session.

Putin to discuss in Ivanovo modernisation of healthcare in Russia - Vladimir Putin will chair a meeting in Ivanovo on the programme of modernisation of healthcare in Russia’s regions. The government plans to allocate from 2011 about 460 billion roubles for the programme, which was announced several months earlier.

Senior U.S. official expresses concern over START delay - "We've had a lot of controversy about this that I think frankly is a lot of red herrings," Under Secretary of State Ellen Tauscher, who led the U.S. side during talks with Russia on the new START deal, said in a speech at the U.S. Institute for Peace.

o US delay of nuclear arms reduction treaty risks Russia ties - Republican objections to the new US-Russia START nuclear arms reduction treaty could thrust the two countries into a dangerous new era of uncertainty, a senior US official said on Monday.

Serbia, Croatia to decide by November 13 on participation in Belene nuke project - The project investors should be known before the November 13 2010 visit by Borissov's Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, as Bulgaria has not cancelled the contract signed in 2008 with Russia's Atomstroyexport to build and equip the plant.

o Russian Agents to Guard Putin in Sofia - The two premiers have chosen weekend for their talks to be able to discuss thoroughly all energy projects. This will be the second meeting between Boyko Borissov and Vladimir Putin. The two of them met for the first time on September 2009 in Gdansk, Poland… About 30 agents from the Federal Security Service of Russia arrived yesterday to Sofia.

Ya'alon to Russia: Tell Palestinians Israel is Jewish - Twenty years after renewal of diplomatic ties with Israel, vice prime minister urges Moscow to support Israel against PA, Iran. 'Canceling Iranian missile deal not enough,' he says

Dry-cargo ship sinks in Japanese port, Russian crew rescued Jailed CIA agent confirms contacts with Russia - Harold Nicolson had been

working for the CIA for 16 years until he was arrested in 1997 for selling a database of CIA workers to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).

o Imprisoned ex-CIA officer pleads guilty again - One of the highest-ranking CIA officials ever to plead guilty to espionage agreed to another guilty plea Monday, this time for having his son travel the world to collect cash from his former Russian spymasters.

Amnesty International calls on Russian govt to do more to stop attacks on journalists

o Attack on writer sets off protests - "It has changed my way of thinking," Web journalist Julia Sadovskaya, 23, said Monday, holding a placard in the freezing rain outside Petrovka 38. "Now I understand. If we don't unite, we will be very weak, and it will be very easy to suppress us all."

o Update: Russian Forbes Writer Recovering After Savage Assaulto US urges Russia to act over beating of journalist

o Medvedev Fumes as More Journalists Are Beaten Khimki attack to be investigated by top cop after claims of apathy from officers -

Konstantin Fetisov, the Khimki forest activist and opposition politician who was beaten into a coma during the holiday weekend, is not being ignored by police in the Moscow Region town.

Armenian Prime Minister Receives Russian Region Governor - Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan received November 8 a delegation led by Russian Rostov Region Governor Vasily Golubev, the government press office reported.

CIS executive secretary: Needs to give some universities of CIS countries the status of base organizations on languages and cultures

Pres signs law ratifying agmt on Customs Union's legal groundwork - The federal law ratifies the agreement on the payment of customs duties and taxes on the goods in transit, and specifies the payment procedure. The agreement was signed in St.Petersburg on May 21, 2010, to pave the way for shaping the legal basis of the Customs Union within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEc).

Amendments to the Law on the Constitutional Court have been made - In particular, the amendments make it possible for the Constitutional Court to examine some categories of cases without holding hearings.

Shuvalov appointed head of RF TV-radio broadcast commission Regular differences between the Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov and

the party "United Russia" – This might cost him his post according to circles close to him

Mironov suggested returning to the popular election of senators Meeting with Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the North Caucasus Federal

District and Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Khloponin - Dmitry Medvedev heard Alexander Khloponin’s report on carrying out the Presidential instructions regarding economic development in the North Caucasus.

In Dagestan, a wagon with the military equipment was derailed because a cow - The train was bound from Makhachkala to the side of Astrakhan. In its structure there were 48 cars

Nuclear waste to be shipped to Russia - A large pile of Germany’s nuclear waste would be shifted to Russia for storage under a plan being negotiated by Angela Merkel’s government.

Akademik Fyodorov research vessel to depart for Antarctica - As many as 108 polar explorers are embarking on the voyage to Antarctica, Lukin said. According to him, 72 scientists and specialists are members of the wintering crew and 36 - seasonal staff.

Moscow to allocate 100 billion dollars for road construction 2011 Moscow police block major contraband channel of watch deliveries. Rostov region taken out from list of gambling zone provinces. PRESS DIGEST - Russia - Nov 9

o www.kommersant.ruo Russia's tycoon Oleg Deripaska is doing all possible to keep control over

his 25 percent stake in Austria's Strabag (STRV.VI: Quote, Profile,

Research), the daily reports referring to a 370 million euro loan Deripaska will get to buy back a 17 percent stake in the construction giant.

o Russia's air carriers could raise ticket price to compensate a price hike for fuel.

o www.vedomosti.ruo Russia's government has chosen Merrill Lynch to sell a 10 percent stake in

the state-controlled VTB (VTBR.MM: Quote, Profile, Research).o Russia's second largest gas producer Novatek NVTK.MM is conducting

talks with Gazprombank on buying a 51 percent stake in a small gas company Sibneftegaz. The stake could cost up to $1 billion, the daily says.

o President and co-owner of Integrated Energy System holding, Mikhail Slobodin, who is also known as Viktor Vekselberg's person, could move to work to oil company TNK-BP TNKBPI.RTS.

o www.rg.ruo Russia's anti-monopoly watchdog is planning to check the decision of the

Federal Customs Service to impose tax duties on paper imported for printing needs. The move could lead to a 5-15 percent price rise for newspapers and magazines, the daily says.

o Russia's meat producers are protesting against a ban on sales and processing of deep-frozen poultry meat to come in force from Jan 1. 2011 and are forecasting a price hike for the meat as a result.

o www.ng.ruo Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered Moscow city and

regional authorities to undertake joint measures to solve the problem of traffic jams in the capital.

o Medvedev promised on Monday state support of journalists to protect free speech after a Kommersant correspondent was beaten into a coma at the weekend.

o The price for basic foods in Russia grew by 15,2 percent from the beginning of the year against official inflation level reported at the level of 6,8 percent, the daily says.

Russian Press at a Glance, Tuesday, November 9, 2010 o The speaker of Russia's upper house of parliament, Sergei Mironov,

opposes United Russia’s amendments to the law on election to the Federation Council. This position may cost him his position, his supporters fear. (Vedomosti, Vremya Novostei)

o New Moscow mayor fills vacancies in his office with federal bureaucrats. At least nine “feds” have been appointed to key positions in the Moscow city government in the past two weeks. (Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Vremya Novostei)

o The new chief of NATO’s Information Bureau in Moscow will arrive in Russia in December. The position has been officially vacant since the expulsion of the former bureau chief Isabelle Francois in 2009. (Vremya Novostei)

o Russia will insist on reviewing in the next two years the quota formula by which countries' participation in the International Monetary Fund is calculated. Presidential aide Arkady Dvorkovich said on Monday Russia would expect a 5-6 percent quota in the IMF. (Nezavisimaya Gazeta)

o The Russian government has agreed to sell 10 percent of its stake in the VTB bank to the U.S. TPG fund. The shares of the second largest bank in Russia will be sold through Merrill Lynch's investment subsidiary in Russia. (Kommersant)

o Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin outlines reforms of state governing at a meeting with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The reforms include 40 programs on state development with strict budget controls. (Rossiiskaya Gazeta)

o Russian banks will face stricter money-laundering regulations starting January 24. Fines will be doubled and punishment will be dealt not only to top officials but also to mid-level management. (Kommersant)

o Russia’s oil consortium Novatek eyes controlling stake in Sibneftegaz (Vedomosti)

o The construction of Vietnam's first nuclear power plant could give Russia easy access to potential nuclear energy markets in South-East Asia (Nezavisimaya Gazeta)

o Video footage of the recent attack on Kommersant reporter Oleg Kashin has been posted on the Internet. Moscow police called it “interfering with the investigation.” (Vremya Novostei) 

o Authorities in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan have set up a commission that would help former militants to adapt to peaceful life. The measure is expected to curb terrorist activities in the volatile region. (Rossiiskaya Gazeta)

Spy Flap Lets Tbilisi Make Russia Look Foolish - By Alexander Golts Article of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, ‘There Is Much Russia and

ASEAN Can Accomplish Together,” International Affairs, Issue No. 10, October 2010

Protestant Congregations Now Vastly Outnumber Orthodox Ones in Russian Far East - Protestant congregations now outnumber Russian Orthodox ones in Russia’s Far East, a development that both reflects and reinforces the distinctive regional identity and anti-Moscow sentiments of many of the people in that enormous region, according to religious specialists.

Svetlana Medvedev has been on holiday in Alfás del Pi - Svetlana and her 14 year old son Ilia left the hotel last Friday after spending eight days at the five star SHA Wellness Clinic Hotel.

National Economic Trends Ruble Slides to One-Week Low Against Dollar, Gains Versus Euro Oil Fund to Cover Budget CBR sold $4bn on FX market in October October non-CIS imports reported at 37% y/y Inflation Prompts Ignatiev to Sell 3-Month Bills: Russia Credit

Business, Energy or Environmental regulations or discussions Norilsk Nickel, Novatek, Polyus Gold, RusHydro: Russian Preview UC Rusal's IPO price topped on Hong Kong exchange TransContainer Sets IPO Pricing At $8 Per GDR TransContainer prices IPO at bottom of range-sources Mail.ru IPO Total Reaches $1 Billion After Banks Exercise Option Mail.ru takes over-allotment option, raises $1 bln Sale of 10% stake in VTB will be organized in accordance with Russian law Vnesheconombank holding road-show for new Eurobond Listing a test for Russia’s rail reform - TransContainer, Russia’s biggest rail

freight operator, will begin trading in London and Moscow this week in the maiden offering of the Kremlin’s biggest sale of state assets since the 1990s.

Stores Probed for Using English - The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service has opened investigations into a chain of fast-food restaurants, a cafe and a sportswear store, all of which face fines for using English words in their advertising banners.

GE Energy Opens Russian Technology Complex to Bring Energy Solutions Closer to Customers Throughout the Region - Grand Opening of World-Class Facility will Create Opportunities for High-Tech Jobs, Training and Service Capabilities for Innovative Russian Customers

Severstal to extend shutdown at Sparrows Point Selected Stores to Start iPad Sales This Month - Sales of Apple’s iPad will

officially begin in Russia after the November holidays, and although mobile operators will not be selling the popular tablets independently, they are already planning special Internet rates.

FAW Haima assembly plant in Russia goes into operation The Central Bank said Monday that it sold $3.2 billion and 437.6 million euros in

October, the most since January 2009. (Bloomberg) LUKoil paid back the remaining $567 million on a three-year, $1.2 billion loan

ahead of schedule and using its own funds, the oil producer said Monday, having repaid about $500 million on the loan in September. (Bloomberg)

Sberbank’s purchase of Sistema’s Detsky Mir was approved by shareholders of the children’s retail chain, the holding said Monday, and will involve 743 new shares, equivalent to 25 percent plus one share, for about 4.6 million rubles ($153,000) each. (Bloomberg)

Activity in the Oil and Gas sector (including regulatory) Rosneft Ups Output Target - Rosneft raised its target for output growth to 7

percent to 7.5 percent this year, the company said in a statement. NOVATEK acquires 51% in Sibneftegaz LUKOIL granted export duty holidays for its North Caspian fields from Dec 2010 LukOil repays loan ahead of schedule LUKOIL To Complete Odessa Refinery Repairs After the New Year PetroNeft makes new find - UK listed PetroNeft has uncovered a new oilfield

with its Arbuzovskaya-1 well in licence 61 in Russia’s Tomsk Oblast region. New Oil Field discovery at Arbuzovskaya - PetroNeft Resources plc (AIM: PTR),

the owner and operator of Licences 61 and 67, Tomsk Oblast, Russian Federation,

is pleased to announce the discovery of a new oil field at Arbuzovskaya in Licence 61.

Highlights from the 8th Annual Oil & Gas Week: Petroneft Highlights from the 8th Annual Oil & Gas Week: Urals Energy

Gazprom PRESS: Gazprom, China discuss guaranteed volumes of gas supplies Russia's confirms its interest in Lotos - State-owned Gazprom Neft, the fifth-

largest oil concern in Russia, has confirmed its interest in making a bid to purchase Poland's Lotos Group, which the Treasury wants to privatize in 2011, daily Dziennik reports quoting Russian dailies Wiedomosti and Kommiersant… Poland will likely oppose Russian influence on the Polish market, analyst says.

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Full Text Articles

Basic Political Developments

11/09 11:54   Russia ready to offer Indonesia submarines, fighter jets – Rosoboronexporthttp://www.interfax.com/

Izvestiya/Russia Today: Russia sets on the eastward course http://rt.com/Top_News/Press/eng.html

Tomorrow, Dmitry Medvedev will travel to Seoul, South Korea, which will host the Group of 20 summit as well as the Russia-Korea talks.

Then the Russian president will take part in another summit – a meeting of the APEC states – in Yokohama, Japan. And in late October, the second Russia-ASEAN summit was held in Hanoi. All these events indicate that Russia is actively pursuing policies in the Asia-Pacific region.

This year, Dmitry Medvedev has consistently made it clear that one of Russia’s main priorities in foreign policy is the Asia-Pacific region. Recall the president’s prolonged trip to the Far East in July (its highlight was the meeting in Khabarovsk, which focused on the issue of strengthening of Russia’s positions in the Asia-Pacific region), his recent speech at the Russia-ASEAN summit, as well as the head of state’s continued interest in hosting the 2012 APEC summit in Vladivostok, and many other examples. “A successful construction of a new ‘Asia-Pacific house’ meets the interests of all countries…Russia is open to such cooperation, including the creation of various alliances for the sake of economic modernization, development of the inter-civilizational dialogue, and fight against the new and continuing threats,” said Dmitry Medvedev in Hanoi.

All this is evidence that if Russia is not shifting its policy from the West to East, then it is making it clear that it finds this vector of development interesting and beneficial. Why? There are several reasons for Russia to give preference to the Asia-Pacific region.

For example, this area has been rapidly developing for more than 20 years. Even at the most acute period of global economic decline, the GDP growth rates have not fallen here lower than 3.5%. The expected GDP growth rate in the region for the year 2010 is expected to be 7% (including 9.5% in China, and more than 8% in India). For comparison, according to the estimates of the European Central Bank, this year the economy of the European states will rise by 1.6%, increasing by 1.4% in the next 12 months. Today, the region accounts for 60% of the global GDP, half of global trade, and 40% of investments, and these indicators are expected to rise.

Not only is the center of global economic development moving here, but on many issues, so is the center of political cooperation (it’s no wonder why US President Barack Obama has begun taking frequent trips to the Asia-Pacific region). Moreover, the Asia-Pacific region has enormous technological and investment potential. At the same time, it lacks in energy resources and raw materials. This condition is what gives us the chance to gain the lead in the east. Moreover, the guarantee of development of Russia’s Far East lies in international integration with the countries of the Asia-Pacific region.

During his trip across Russia’s Far East regions, Dmitry Medvedev had formulated three goals, achievement of which will radically “advance” Russia in the Asia-Pacific region. First, economic cooperation of the Far East and all of Russia with the countries of the Asia-Pacific region must reach a new level (today, the government is preparing a program to strengthen positions in the region; one of the probable trends in this cooperation is expansion of the freedom of trade agreements, of which the Asia Pacific region already has 50).

Second, Russia needs specialization on the Asia-Pacific markets, which could be high technology. But, high technology only in the spheres that are accessible to us (such as energy, for example – as was noted by Medvedev, “if it is approached correctly, and not [with the mindset of] simply transferring oil from one country to another”; and aircraft engineering and space services). The main thing should also not be forgotten – for a number of countries in the region, Russia continues to be the main supplier of hydrocarbons. And finally, third, it is necessary to strengthen Russia’s role in the alliances of the Asia-Pacific region, namely: APEC, SCO, ASEAN, and BRIC. “We are, of course, expected to be more proactive. And this requires more coordinated work of the Foreign Affairs Ministry and other line agencies,” noted Dmitry Medvedev.

Taping into the Asia-Pacific region is a fairly ambitious idea, but a realistic one – especially if one considers that our neighbors are showing great interest in mutually-beneficial cooperation with Moscow. In the sphere of energy cooperation several projects are been launched and are ongoing successfully (Sakhalin-2, the Eastern Siberia – Pacific Ocean pipeline, or ESPO, with annual production capacity of up to 80 million tons of oil,

which experts argue will not only ensure Russia’s entry to the energy market, but also gradual development of Russia’s single gas supply system in the Far East).

Recently, experts have been saying that Moscow’s current strategy should be as follows: to rely on the West, stabilize the South, and head East. The journey to the East is only beginning. Documents and agreements, which will be adopted in South Korea and Japan, will have some tangible effects on both the development of Russia’s Far East as well as the entire country.

Read the article on the newspaper's website (in Russian)

Pacific Fleet flagship Varyag arrives in S Korea Incheon on visit

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15663505

09.11.2010, 11.36

VLADIVOSTOK, November 9 (Itar-Tass) - Flagship of Russia’s Pacific Fleet - the Guards missile cruiser Varyag arrived in South Korea’s Incheon port on Tuesday. Its call at Incheon is timed to coincide with RF President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to South Korea that is to begin on November 10.

The fleet’s information support group told Itar-Tass that navy men of the Pacific Fleet will stay at the South Korean port until November 13. They will visit the monument unveiled in 2003 in honour of the 100th anniversary of the exploit of the crew of the legendary Varyag cruiser and the Koreyets gunboat. The Russian navy men will hold a series of meetings and sports events with their South Korean counterparts.

The flagship of the Pacific Fleet is named after the legendary cruiser Varyag which, together with the Koreyets gunboat, engaged in an unequal battle with the Japanese fleet on February 9, 1904 (January 27, old style). It happened on the first day of the Russian-Japanese War, near the Korean port of Chemulpo (now – Incheon). The Russian ships that did not surrender to the enemy were sunk by their crews. The perished Russian sailors were reburied in Vladivostok in the Sea Cemetery, where a modest grey granite obelisk, erected with money raised by the people money and topped with a stylised image of the Cross of St. George, is installed there over a mass grave. Many relics from the Varyag and Koreyets are currently kept at the Metropolitan Museum of Incheon.

The present Varyag got its flagship rank in 2002. It is capable of performing voyages of up to 9 thousand miles (17,500 km). It is armed with powerful multipurpose attack missile systems, antisubmarine rocket launcher, torpedo tubes and a several artillery pieces of various calibres.

The Varyag has repeatedly represented the Russian Navy in different countries. A year ago, the vessel visited to the Chinese port of Qingdao, to take part in the international marine parade dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the Chinese Navy. This year, the cruiser has visited San Francisco.

The Russian cruiser Varyag (Varangian), (ex-Chervona Ukraina), is the third ship of the Slava class of guided missile cruisers built for the Soviet Navy now serving the Russian Navy. Laid down in 1979 at 61 Kommunara Shipbuilding Plant (Shipyard 445) in Nikolayev as Chervona Ukraina (“Red Ukraine”), the ship was launched in July 1983, and commissioned October 16, 1989. Joined the Pacific Fleet in 1990 and was listed as having only a caretaker crew up to 2002.

Re-entered service in the Pacific Fleet in early 2008 after an overhaul. In 2009 the cruiser led a fleet of foreign warships participating in a parade to mark the 60th anniversary of China’s Navy.

In June 2010, the Varyag, under the command of Captain Eduard Moskalenko and with the Commander Fleet Combined Forces Rear-Admiral Vladimir L. Kasatonov embarked, made a port call to San Francisco. The visit, the first by a Russian navy surface combatant in 147 years, featured a plaque dedication ceremony to commemorate six Russian Imperial Navy sailors who died fighting a fire in San Francisco in 1863. This visit also coincided with President Medvedev visiting Silicon Valley and he once again visited the Varyag as he had in Singapore in 2009.

Russia-Republic of Korea Dialogue forum opens in the capital of South Korea

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15663431&PageNum=0

09.11.2010, 11.15

SEOUL, November 9 (Itar-Tass) - The first session of the forum “Russia- Republic of Korea Dialogue” opened in the capital of South Korea on Tuesday. It was organized with the support of the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and other governmental and commercial agencies.

An agreement to launch the forum was reached during South Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s visit to Russia in 2008. The holding of the forum is timed to the 20th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries marked this year and the upcoming summit meeting of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.

The two countries expect to make the forum a permanent channel of cooperation between Russia and South Korea. Different issues will be discussed by working groups, including Culture and Art; Politics and International Relations; Economy, Business, Ecology,

Resources; Education and Science; Youth Dialogue; Mass Media and Society. They bring together representatives of the civil, business and scientific society.

According to its organizers, the aim of the forum is to outline new forms of cooperation in conditions of the quickly changing world of the present day, basing on the results of joint projects over the past 20 years.

Two reporters, covering the situation in Russia and on the Korean peninsula, received the first prize at the opening ceremony of the forum. One of them is a reporter of one of the major South Korean newspapers, the Chosun Ilbo, and the other one is Itar-Tass correspondent in Seoul Vladimir Kutakhov.

The forum will run for three days.

China, Russia vow to advance military tieshttp://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-11/09/c_13598156.htm

2010-11-09 14:01:36

BEIJING, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- China and Russia on Tuesday vowed to further advance military ties.

The pledge came out of a meeting between Guo Boxiong, Vice Chairman of China's Central Military Commission, and Russian Minister of Defence Anatoly Serdyukov in Beijing.

Guo hailed the development of the China-Russia strategic partnership of coordination, highlighting their close high-level contact, deepening political mutual trust and cooperation on culture and energy as well as economy and trade.

The joint statement signed by Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in September had set the direction for the development of bilateral ties, Guo said.

Ties between the Chinese and Russian armed forces had developed soundly with fruitful cooperation, Guo said.

China wanted to work with Russia to actively implement the consensus reached by their state leaders, and boost military exchanges and pragmatic cooperation, Guo said.

Serdyukov said he hoped his visit would help promote the development of the relations between the Russian and Chinese armed forces.

Top military highlights ties between Chinese, Russian armies.

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15663274

09.11.2010, 10.08

BEIJING, November 9 (Itar-Tass) - China has always considered cooperation with the Russian Army as priority direction of international cooperation in the military sphere, China’s Central Military Commission chairman Guo Boxiong said on Tuesday at talks with Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov.

The Russian defense minister is in China for an official visit, during which he also takes part in the 15th session of the Russian-Chinese intergovernmental commission for military-technical cooperation. Several major documents are to be signed after the session.

“China puts much emphasis on your visit,” Guo Boxiong stressed. He said that on Tuesday Serdyukov would also meet with Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping and Defense Minister Liang Guanglie.

“We are confident that your visit will be a powerful impetus for the development of Russian-Chinese interstate and inter-army relations,” Colonel General Guo Boxiong stressed.

“We have always considered our cooperation with the Russian Army as priority direction of international cooperation in the military sphere,” he added.

Russia, Japan to build wind power station on Sakhalinhttp://english.ruvr.ru/2010/11/09/32672966.html

Nov 9, 2010 09:36 Moscow Time

Russia and Japan are working on a joint project of a wind power station on Sakhalin island to provide electricity for  the production of hydrogen, which is touted by experts as the fuel of the future.

The method of generating power from water has been devised by Japanese scientists.

The facility, to produce no harmful byproducts, is slated to go on line in 2013.

New head of NATO's Moscow office to arrive in Russia next monthhttp://en.rian.ru/russia/20101109/161258021.html

10:11 09/11/2010

The new head of the NATO Information Centre in Moscow will arrive in Russia in December, a popular Russian daily said on Tuesday.

NATO Secretary General appointed Robert Pszczel to the post last Friday.

Vremya Novostei describes the official, who earlier worked in the press service of NATO headquarters in Brussels, as a person who "not only speaks good Russian and follows closely Russian-related topics, but also demonstrates impartiality and goodwill in issues of Russian-NATO relations."

Russia's envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, said Pszczel has already received accreditation to work in Russia.

The NATO Information Centre in Moscow, inaugurated in 2001, provides information on the alliance and its relations with Russia to the Russian public.

Russia's Foreign Ministry announced the expulsion of the previous director, Canadian Embassy attache Isabelle Francois, and a second bureau official, Canadian Embassy attache Mark Opgenorth, in 2009, in retaliation for a similar step by NATO.

MOSCOW, November 9 (RIA Novosti)

Halonen to Meet with Putin, Medvedev on Tuesdayhttp://www.yle.fi/uutiset/news/2010/11/halonen_to_meet_with_putin_medvedev_on_tuesday_2125277.html

published today 06:00 AM

President Tarja Halonen is to meet with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladmir Putin on Tuesday. Halonen travelled to Russia on Monday for the state visit.

The two presidents will hold official talks at the Kremlin. Topics will include bilateral relations and issues currently on the international agenda.

Halonen is being accompanied by Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen and a business delegation.

Halonen will also visit Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, during her visit. The region is home to two Finno-Ugric groups, the Mari and Udmurt peoples.

The visit will come to an end on Thursday.

Medvedev to discuss with Halonen security, visas, joint projects

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15662962&PageNum=0

09.11.2010, 02.46

MOSCOW, November 9 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev will have negotiations with Finland’s President Tarja Halonen, who has come to Moscow on an official visit. Later on, the two leaders will continue talks together with delegations from both countries. Medvedev and Halonen will share results of the negotiations with reporters during a briefing to be organised following the talks.

The leaders of Russia and Finland will have to discuss a wide range of issues – from European security to detailed mutual projects.

“During the visit of Tarja Halonen to Russia, the presidents will exchange views on the formation of renewed architecture of European security, development of strategic partnership between Russia and the EU, including the promotion of Russia’s initiatives presented over the Russia-EU summit in Rostov-on-Don on May 31 /project on lifting the visa requiremens for Russians travelling into the EU and on simplifying visa regimens with other countries/, improvement of the innovative component of our economies, cooperation in the framework of the Partnership for Modernisation, the present state and development of European cooperation in energy and Russia’s plans of joining the WTO,” a source in Russia’s presidential administration said. “Besides, they will discuss several international topics, including the situation around Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Middle East problem settlement, the problems of the improvement of the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons regimen.”

While commenting on cooperation in the economy, the source in the Kremlin highlighted among the priorities the interaction in high technology spheres like shipbuilding, energy, pulp complex, and transport. He said that presently the Agreement on Finland’s rent of the Russian part of the Saimaa Canal and neighbouring territories and on the navigation in the canal is being ratified.

“In December Halonen and Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin are expected to take part in the opening ceremony of the rapid passenger railroad connection between St. Petersburg and Helsinki,” the source said.

The Kremlin is convinced that the tight and active trade and economic connections make the firm basis of the Russia-Finland cooperation. Over the past decade, the trade turnover has grown by over five times. The amount of direct investments from Finland in Russia’s economy has grown, too. Most of them were made in the production spheres. Despite to certain decline in the trade turnover during the crisis 2009 to the level of 13.1 billion dollars against 22.4 billion in 2008, Russia remains Finland’s major trade partner. During

the fist six months of the current years, the mutual trade turnover grew by over 20 percent.

“Russia and Finland cooperate constructively in the framework of the Russia-EU dialogue, the UN, international regional structures in the Baltic Region, North of Europe and in the Arctic,” the source said. “We continue the implementation of the project to reconstruct water supply systems in Kaliningrad, and by the end of next year a water clearing project in St. Petersburg will be finalised.”

On Monday afternoon, Dmitry Medvedev had an informal meeting with Tarja Halonen, the Kremlin’s press service said.

“The programme of Tarja Halonen’s official visit started with an informal meeting with Dmitry Medvedev,” the press service reported. “The two leaders exchanged greetings and talked briefly, and later on Russia’s president invited his Finland’s counterpart to an informal dinner.”

Over the dinner, the two presidents were accompanied by their spouses.

The state visit of Finland’s president to Russia will continue till November 11. Besides Moscow, Tarja Halonen will visit Kazan.

Medvedev and Obama to discuss cooperation at APEC summithttp://english.ruvr.ru/2010/11/09/32669575.html

Nov 9, 2010 02:38 Moscow Time

Russian and US Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Barak Obama are planning to discuss international and regional security, economy and joint business ventures in the framework of the coming APEC summit in Yokohama, Japan.

Russian presidential aid Arkady Dvorkin believes the two leaders will pay special attention to joint business projects which will be supported by further political cooperation. The two crucial topics of discussion at the slated talks will be the ratification of the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and Russia’s WTO bid. 

Poland prepares for Medvedev’s visit – Komorowski

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15662737&PageNum=0

09.11.2010, 05.20

WARSAW, November 9 (Itar-Tass) -- The office of Poland’s president and Ministry of Foreign Affairs prepare actively for the visit of Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev, Poland’s President Bronislaw Komorowski told the audience of the TVP2 channel on Monday evening.

As he said, he is going to discuss with Russia’s leader an opportunity to commemorate the victims of the Smolensk airplane crash in Russia’s territory.

“This is connected with human pain, mourning, and that is why during Medvedev’s visit I shall try to discuss how we may commemorate together this tragedy at the place where it happened,” he said adding that “it may become a symbolic move demonstrating our mutual approaches.”

Komorowski said that Poland hopes to get from the visit due in December “a clear picture of the Poland-Russia peaceful settlement.”

“We should do what has given positive results in harmonisation of the republic’s relations with Germany and France, I mean youth’s and cultural exchanges, and business connections are important, too,” he said.

According to the Kremlin, Dmitry Medvedev will visit Poland before year ends.

Kan to tell Medvedev Russian-held isles are integral part of Japanhttp://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20101109p2g00m0fp008000c.html

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Monday that he would state Japan's sovereignty over Russian-held islands off Hokkaido should he and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev hold bilateral talks on the fringes of the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit.

"I will clearly convey what we have consistently been asserting, that the Northern Territories are an integral part of our country," Kan told the House of Representatives' Budget Committee session.

The islands of Etorofu, Kunashiri and Shikotan as well as the Habomai islet group, known as the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia, were seized by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II.

The dispute over the islands, which drew renewed attention following Medvedev's visit to Kunashiri on Nov. 1, has prevented Japan and Russia from signing a postwar peace treaty.

The Japanese government was optimistic about the prospect of a Kan-Medvedev meeting on the sidelines of the APEC forum in Yokohama this week.

Kan said at the lower house panel that he believes the Russian president also wants to hold talks, while Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku said in a news conference that the possibility of such talks is "rather high."

Russia's Interfax news agency also reported that Russian presidential aide Sergei Prikhodko said Monday there are no obstacles to a meeting between Kan and Medvedev on the sidelines of the APEC summit.

It is the first time since Medvedev's visit to Kunashiri that a high-ranking Russian official has spoken about the prospect of a Japan-Russia summit.

The aide was also quoted by Interfax as saying that Russia has conveyed a positive response to Japan about holding the bilateral talks, and is ready to talk about any issue.

Following Medvedev's Kunashiri visit, the first visit to any of the disputed islands by leader of Russia or the Soviet Union, Japan recalled its envoy to Russia, Masaharu Kono, temporarily to protest it, with Tokyo saying it wanted a briefing on the reason behind the visit. Kono returned to Moscow on Sunday.

Upon his arrival in Moscow, Kono said Japan and Russia have agreed on holding talks between Kan and Medvedev on the sidelines of the APEC forum summit, and that the two sides will work on arranging the schedule.

Touching on Japan's negotiations with Russia over the disputed isles, Kan told the lower house panel that one-off talks would not produce any result and that a "strategy" needs to be fleshed out in order to regain hold of the four islands.

Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara, at the same Diet session, urged a "drastic review" of the way Japanese governments handle the territorial dispute with Moscow over the islands.

According to Maehara, Russia is boosting its investments in the islands and this is putting Japan in an "extremely difficult phase" regarding its negotiations over the islands.

"It is important to have a fundamental review of the negotiations on the Northern Territories," Maehara said, indicating Japan can no longer use economic assistance as a diplomatic card.

(Mainichi Japan) November 9, 2010

Putin to discuss in Ivanovo modernisation of healthcare in Russia

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15662962&PageNum=0

09.11.2010, 01.00

MOSCOW, November 9 (Itar-Tass) -- Vladimir Putin will chair a meeting in Ivanovo on the programme of modernisation of healthcare in Russia’s regions. The government plans to allocate from 2011 about 460 billion roubles for the programme, which was announced several months earlier.

“The main target of the regional programmes to modernise healthcare from 2011 is to improve the equipment of the medical facilities – to use modern information systems and standards of healthcare to improve the quality and accessibility of medical care for customers,” a source in the government said. “This would be a logical continuation of the government’s efforts to improve healthcare in Russia.”

“From 2011, we shall start the implementation of the programme to modernise healthcare in the regions, and the total price of it will make 460 billion roubles,” Putin said earlier. “Over two coming years we shall spend 320 billion roubles to improve medical facilities in Russia’s all regions.”

“First of all, it would be necessary to provide decent conditions for the patients so that they have all conveniences while receiving medical services,” he said.

The source in the government said that over five years of the national project called the Health, the government had invested 590 billion roubles.

“Russia’s almost every region has filed its programme for the two coming years,” a source in the Ministry of Healthcare and Social Development said. “The federal fund of obligatory medical insurance and local funds will finance the programme.”

Senior U.S. official expresses concern over START delayhttp://en.rian.ru/world/20101109/161256225.html

03:31 09/11/2010

The delay in ratification of a new strategic arms reduction treaty could hamper the progress in U.S.-Russian relations, a senior U.S. diplomat said on Monday.

The treaty has met strong Republican opposition in the Senate over concerns that it may weaken U.S. anti-missile defenses, while the proponents of the treaty insist that the most

important part of the accord is that it continues the verification and monitoring regime that expired with the end of the START 1 treaty last year.

"We've had a lot of controversy about this that I think frankly is a lot of red herrings," Under Secretary of State Ellen Tauscher, who led the U.S. side during talks with Russia on the new START deal, said in a speech at the U.S. Institute for Peace.

Tauscher said that failure to ratify the treaty before the yearend would make it difficult for the United States to effectively monitor and verify Russia's nuclear activities.

"It is difficult for us to move on to a new arms control negotiation and series of talks if we don't have the first business done by getting the new START ratified. So we have to get that done and move forward," Tauscher said.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed the new arms cuts treaty, intended to replace the START 1 agreement that expired in December 2009, on April 8 in Prague. The agreement will come into force after being ratified by both chambers of the Russian parliament and the U.S. Senate.

The Republicans won a solid majority in congressional elections last week. This means it will be more difficult for Obama to secure the ratification of the treaty after the new Congress takes office in January.

The new Russian-U.S. pact obligates both nations to cap their fielded strategic nuclear weapons to 1,550 warheads, while the number of deployed and non-deployed delivery vehicles must not exceed 800 on either side.

The Russian and U.S. presidents earlier agreed that the ratification processes should be carried out simultaneously.

WASHINGTON, November 9 (RIA Novosti)

US delay of nuclear arms reduction treaty risks Russia tieshttp://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3981656,00.html

Published: 11.08.10, 20:58 / Israel News

Republican objections to the new US-Russia START nuclear arms reduction treaty could thrust the two countries into a dangerous new era of uncertainty, a senior US official said on Monday.

Under Secretary of State Ellen Tauscher, who led the US side negotiating the new START deal, said it was important that the Senate ratify the new treaty next month or it may lose the chance to engage with Russia on a range of arms control efforts.

Republicans have voiced concerns over several provisions of the treaty and it is unclear whether they will permit ratification during a Congress session that begins on November 15. (Reuters)

Serbia, Croatia to decide by November 13 on participation in Belene nuke projecthttp://www.sofiaecho.com/2010/11/09/990158_serbia-croatia-to-decide-by-november-13-on-participation-in-belene-nuke-project

Tue, Nov 09 2010 09:40 CET

Serbia and Croatia are expected to decide by the end of the week whether to take part in the Belene nuclear power station project, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov said in Bucharest on November 8 2010, Bulgarian National Radio said.

Serbia has repeatedly declared its interest in the nuclear power plant.

Earlier in 2010, Serbia's mining and energy minister Petar Skundric confirmed Belgrade's willingness to join the project, adding that the decision will be contingent on the country's energy balance and the plant's cost.

Belgrade is examining the option of securing financial support from China if Serbia gets involved.

For more than a year, Bulgaria has been seeking a new strategic partner for the nuclear plant after German firm RWE withdrew.

Borissov and Economy Minister Traicho Traikov have highlighted the participation оf European investors as a condition for unfreezing the country's second nuke plant.

The project investors should be known before the November 13 2010 visit by Borissov's Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, as Bulgaria has not cancelled the contract signed in 2008 with Russia's Atomstroyexport to build and equip the plant.

Although no definitive agreement has been concluded yet, Bulgaria's National Electricity Company (NEK) pays regular installments to the Russian company for manufacturing the equipment, representatives of NEK told Dnevnik earlier without specifying the amount.

Bulgaria's Deputy Energy Minister Mariy Kosev said recently that NEK would pay a total of 69 million euro to Atomstroyexport for part of Belene’s equipment. The two 1000 MW reactors are said to be worth a total 600 million euro, 10 per cent of which already has been paid, with the remainder to be paid by 2012.

Russian Agents to Guard Putin in Sofiahttp://paper.standartnews.com/en/article.php?d=2010-11-09&article=34651

TUESDAY, 9 November 2010

Russia's premier will visit Sofia on Saturday at the invitation of PM Boyko Borissov. The two premiers have chosen weekend for their talks to be able to discuss thoroughly all energy projects. This will be the second meeting between Boyko Borissov and Vladimir Putin. The two of them met for the first time on September 2009 in Gdansk, Poland. Russia's premier will arrive on November 13 in the morning and will head directly to the Council of Ministers building, where will take place his meeting with PM Borissov and some members of the cabinet. Boyko Borissov and Vladimir Putin will discuss the energy policy of the two countries and the prospects of South Stream gas pipeline and Belene nuke projects. Bulgaria's Energy Minister Traycho Traykov and Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov will take part in the talks. Still there is no information about the members of the Russian delegation. It is expected Energy Minister Sergey Shmatko and Segey Kirienko - Director General of Rosatom to accompany PM Vladimir Putin.Besides the talks of the delegations, the two premiers will have a private meeting, The Standart learnt. After the meeting the leaders will have dinner as the place is kept in secret for security reasons. About 30 agents from the Federal Security Service of Russia arrived yesterday to Sofia. They are inspecting the routes and are checking the details of the agenda.

Nadya Pankova

Ya'alon to Russia: Tell Palestinians Israel is Jewishhttp://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3981630,00.html

Twenty years after renewal of diplomatic ties with Israel, vice prime minister urges Moscow to support Israel against PA, Iran. 'Canceling Iranian missile deal not enough,' he says

Aviel Magnezi

Published: 11.08.10, 20:34 / Israel NewsThe Soviet Union supported the United Nations Partition Plan in 1947, when it was clear Israel will be a Jewish nation, and Russia should do so now as well, said Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya'alon during an assembly marking the 20th anniversary of Russia's renewed diplomatic relations with Israel. "Russia can publish a statement to the Palestinians that it is true now as well," said Ya'alon, who is also the minister of strategic affairs. "Only with this understanding we can march towards the peace that Israel seeks."

Ya'alon addressed global terrorism, and mentioned one activist behind the Turkish Mavi Marmara flotilla to Gaza who is suspected of being in contact with a terrorist organization that works against Russia. "The extremist Islamic organizations want Islam to rule the world," he said.

'Russian weapons in Hezbollah hands' Ya'alon also stated that Iran leads the terrorism campaign in the Middle East. "We must cooperate in order to stop Iran's nuclear program," he said. "We thank the Russians for canceling the missile deal with Iran, but it might not be enough. We must take additional steps."

Amos Gilad, head of the Defense Ministry's Diplomatic Security Bureau, said in response that it has been clear over the past 15 years that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. "The Russians' decision to suspend the deal with Iran is dramatic, but they have reached it because they understood the danger it poses to the entire Middle East, unrelated to support of Israel," he said. Ya'alon cautioned Russia to avoid making missile deals with Syria. "Syria buys weapons from Iran, and is working towards obtaining weapons that will disrupt the balance in the area," he said.

"Unfortunately, it buys weapons from Russia as well, and has recently bought from Russia missiles that threaten Israel."

In regard to the relations between Moscow and Damascus, Gilad noted that it does not mean that Russia supports terrorism. "Russia is against terrorism, but we live in a difficult 'neighborhood,'" he said. "We have asked Moscow to not provide these missiles to Syria, but our request was denied. We expect Russia to avoid supplying weapons to Syria, weapons that might eventually make its way to Hezbollah."

Dry-cargo ship sinks in Japanese port, Russian crew rescued

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15662884

09.11.2010, 08.03

TOKYO, November 9 (Itar-Tass) - The dry-cargo ship Damanta arriving from Russia’s Sakhalin sank on Tuesday in the port of Wakkanai of Japan’s northernmost Hokkaido Island, local coast guard officers have reported.

They said water had flooded the ship and it sank slightly more than ten meters away from the berth. There was a crew of seven Russian nationals on board the ship registered in Cambodia. All of them were rescued.

The Damanta was to have delivered in Japan crabs from the Sakhalin port of Korsakov. An oil spill developed at the site of the sinking, but the port services have localized it. The Japanese authorities are looking into the incident.

Jailed CIA agent confirms contacts with Russiahttp://en.rian.ru/world/20101109/161258626.html

10:54 09/11/2010

A former CIA agent serving a 23-year prison term in the United States for spying for Russia has confessed that he has been maintaining contacts with Moscow, BBC Russia said on Tuesday.

Harold Nicolson had been working for the CIA for 16 years until he was arrested in 1997 for selling a database of CIA workers to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).

The jailed spy told BBC that while behind bars he had made attempts to connect with Russian officials through other prisoners in order to get what he called "retirement payments".

In 2006, Nicolson decided to use his son, Nathaniel, as an intermediary in talks with Russia. Nathaniel subsequently met with Russian spies six times, and received about $47,000 from them.

He was arrested before his seventh meeting, which was due to take place in the Slovak capital of Bratislava. Reports suggest he may receive an 8-year jail term.

MOSCOW, November 9 (RIA Novosti)

Imprisoned ex-CIA officer pleads guilty again

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/08/AR2010110806311.html

By Walter PincusTuesday, November 9, 2010

One of the highest-ranking CIA officials ever to plead guilty to espionage agreed to another guilty plea Monday, this time for having his son travel the world to collect cash from his former Russian spymasters.

Harold James Nicholson, a former senior agency case officer and onetime station chief in Romania, was already serving a 23-year prison sentence for providing Russia with information from 1994 to 1996, including the names of CIA operatives and trainees, in exchange for $300,000.

This time, while in federal prison in Sheridan, Ore., Nicholson passed information to his son Nathaniel, now 25, who from 2006 to 2008 talked with Russian agents around the world at meetings set up using coded e-mail messages. At those sessions, which took place in Mexico City; Lima, Peru; and Cyprus, Nathaniel passed on information he got from his father and in turn collected a total of $47,000, which the FBI described last year as a "kind of retirement 'pension' available to [Nicholson] in Russia."

Nicholson, who was divorced with three children and living parents, instructed his son on how to distribute each cash payment to members of the family.

What the jailed CIA officer did not know was that the FBI had been alerted to his activities in 2002, when a fellow inmate told a paralegal that Nicholson was trying to use him to communicate with Russian authorities. That year, Nicholson asked a cellmate being released to mail a thick manila envelope to his parents after having ripped up and flushed down the cell toilet the ribbon on which he typed the document, according to an FBI affidavit.

Eventually, the FBI received court approval to listen to Nathaniel's cellphone, intercept his e-mail, surveil his apartment in Eugene, Ore., and track his vehicle. Agents who followed him during his overseas travels and upon his return from Cyprus in December 2008 detained him long enough to photocopy his 80-page notebook and find $7,013 in cash, most of which was inside a PlayStation video game case.

The notebook contained explanations for the code he used to communicate with foreign officials as well as a question about his father's capture that might interest the Russians.

Nicholson and his son were indicted in January 2009 on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to represent a foreign government. Nathaniel pleaded guilty in August 2009 and agreed to testify against his father. Prosecutors told reporters at that time that Nathaniel, an Army veteran, might receive probation rather than a prison sentence.

Dwight C. Holton, the U.S. attorney for the District of Oregon, said in a statement Monday that Nicholson "admitted not only betraying his country - again - but also betraying his family by involving his son Nathaniel in his corrupt scheme to get more money for his past espionage activities." Prosecutors have recommended that eight years be added to Nicholson's current sentence.

When he pleaded guilty in June 1997, Nicholson said in court, "I have lost everything that was ever dear and important to me. . . . I am in so many ways so very sorry.''

November 09, 2010 11:34

Amnesty International calls on Russian govt to do more to stop attacks on journalistshttp://www.interfax.com/newsinf.asp?id=200596

LONDON. Nov 9 (Interfax) - The Russian authorities "must stop this chilling trend of journalists being attacked with impunity," said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International's Deputy Director for Europe and Central Asia, after the violent beatings of several reporters in recent days.

"Amnesty International does not know the motivation behind these attacks, but it is important that the authorities investigate the possibility that they might be linked to the victims' professional activities or expressed views," a statement signed by Dalhuisen posted on the Amnesty International website says.

"These fresh assaults should not be left to join a long list of unsolved crimes against journalists and civil society activists. They must be investigated, and those responsible brought to justice, including any people who ordered the attacks," the statement says.

Kashin was savagely beaten up early on November 6 near his home on Moscow's Pyatnitskaya street.

President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered a thorough investigation into the incident. A criminal investigation on charges of attempted murder has been launched. The attack is believed to be connected with the reporter's work. The investigation is proceeding under the supervision of the prosecutor general and interior minister.

Zhukovskiye Vesti newspaper journalist Anatoly Adamchuk was attacked by unknown assailants as he was leaving his office on Mendeleyev street in the city of Zhukovsky near Moscow at 2:00 a.m. on Monday.

"Amnesty International does not know the motivation behind these attacks," John Dalhuisen said, "but it is important that the authorities investigate the possibility that they might be linked to the victims' professional activities or expressed views."

He added: "These fresh assaults should not be left to join a long list of unsolved crimes against journalists and civil society activists. They must be investigated, and those responsible brought to justice, including any people who ordered the attacks."

ap

Attack on writer sets off protests

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/08/AR2010110806050.html

By Kathy LallyWashington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, November 9, 2010

MOSCOW - Maybe it was the viciousness of the beating, or that it was caught on the grainy videotape of a security camera in horrifying detail, or that the victim worked for a mainstream newspaper. Thirty-two Russian journalists have been murdered since 1993 and more than 30 attacked this year, but after Oleg Kashin was beaten nearly to death this weekend, something seemed to change.

President Dmitry Medvedev promptly tweeted Saturday, shortly after the beating happened, that the criminals must be found. Television news made the attack the top story, reporting it at length. And for the first time, journalists took to the picket lines, standing in silent protest outside Petrovka 38, the headquarters of the Moscow police.

"It has changed my way of thinking," Web journalist Julia Sadovskaya, 23, said Monday, holding a placard in the freezing rain outside Petrovka 38. "Now I understand. If we don't unite, we will be very weak, and it will be very easy to suppress us all."

This wasn't the only assault over the past few days. Sergei Mikhailov, the hard-driving editor of the Saratov Reporter in central Russia, was hit hard on the head Friday evening after stopping in a store to buy dumplings. He lost consciousness, and a passerby who offered aid said he saw two men running away. The news didn't reach Moscow until Monday afternoon.

Early Monday, Anatoly Adamchuk, a reporter for Zhukovsky Vesti, a newspaper southeast of Moscow, was attacked outside his office. Adamchuk, who has been covering a controversial logging project, was hit several times in the head by two men who stole a thumb drive.

The demonstrators demanded to know who ordered the attacks and who carried them out.

International organizations have vigorously protested attacks on Russian journalists, which often get little attention here or are even belittled. When investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya was murdered four years ago, President Vladimir Putin dismissively said she had little influence on public opinion. Few journalists identified with her - she was known for her criticism of the Chechen war - and they did not take to picket lines.

Kashin, a reporter for the authoritative Kommersant newspaper and a vivid personality in the blogosphere, was jumped early Saturday as he approached his apartment in central Moscow. Video widely reported as taken from a security camera shows a man holding a bouquet of flowers walking through the gate ahead of Kashin, turning on him and striking him hard with what looks like a metal rod - reportedly pulled from the bouquet.

Kashin falls as a second man, behind him, joins with blow upon blow. The first man holds the rod in both hands, raising it over his head and striking Kashin with the force of someone splitting wood. Within a minute and a half, the assailants walk through the gate, gone, as cars pass on the street. The video, shown on one TV news program and widely viewed on YouTube, has not been disputed by authorities.

Kashin remained in an induced coma Monday, suffering from two broken jaws, a fractured skull and mangled fingers, among other injuries.

He covered a range of subjects and had tangled on his blog with the governor of Pskov and controversial youth movements. He also aggressively reported on the disputed Khimki Forest highway project. Two years ago this month, similar reporting led to an attack on Mikhail Beketov, the editor of a paper in suburban Khimki, who was half-paralyzed with one leg amputated. Recently Medvedev ordered a reassessment of the highway, putting Beketov into the news even as a local official hauled him into court, silent in his wheelchair, on slander charges.

After all this, Mikhail Melnikov, an analyst at the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations, was surprised to see journalists finally protesting on the streets. About two dozen gathered Saturday, followed by more than 100 on Sunday, reinforced by a scattering of pro-democracy advocates. By Monday, there were a dozen or fewer at any one time.

"And it's very interesting that the police are not forcing them away," Melnikov said.

He suggested that a confluence of events was raising the consciousness in a nation where most journalism is servile to government and business interests. On Oct. 31, a small pro-democracy rally was permitted for the first time in years, making protesters less fearful. Medvedev's tweets emboldened reporting. And the assault on Beketov simply caused outrage.

In the West, said Andrei Richter, a journalism professor and director of Moscow's Media Law and Policy Institute, journalists are seen as part of the bulwark of democracy. "Here, there is no real public support of journalists," he said. "The public doesn't view them as watchdogs of government but as people selling stories."

Attacks against journalists are not even classified as major crimes, Richter said. Rather than attempted murder, the charge is hooliganism, which carries a much lighter sentence.

Standing in the cold, the rain matting the blue fur on her parka, Sadovskaya said what happened to Kashin has changed everything. She covers culture, never felt threatened and never empathized with those who were - until now. "He is such a talented journalist," she said. "He worked for a prestigious newspaper where everyone wants to work. He was well-paid, and he was uncompromised. Now I understand if it can happen to him, it can happen to anyone. Now I want to change things, and I'm not afraid. I am mad."

But Alexei Simonov, president of the Glasnost Defense Foundation, a media advocate here, was not ready to call this a turning point. "The turning point," he said, "will come when they close all the newspapers and start over."

Update: Russian Forbes Writer Recovering After Savage Assaulthttp://blogs.forbes.com/jeffbercovici/2010/11/08/update-russian-forbes-writer-recovering-after-savage-assault/

Jeff BercoviciMixed Media

Nov. 8 2010 - 4:03 pm

On Saturday, I wrote about a brutal attack on Oleg Kashin, a Russian journalist who was jumped outside his Moscow home and severely beaten by two unidentified assailants. Since then, a few people have asked me for news about his condition. I now have one, courtesy of Julia Ioffe, an American journalist based in Moscow. (She  introduced me to Kashin during my visit there several months ago.) From Julia’s blog:

Over the weekend, Kashin underwent a second round of surgery. Doctors say it was successful and, after removing the bone fragments in his cranial cavity, that they’ve ruled out brain damage. His broken leg has been set, as has his jaw, which was fixed in the first operation so he could breathe.

The attackers also mangled Kashin’s hands, a detail his colleagues took as a signal that whoever ordered the beatdown didn’t like what he had been writing. Indeed, the assault on Kashin is part of a recent wave of violence against journalists (although it should be noted there is as yet no proof, only a strong suspicion, that Saturday’s crime was connected with Kashin’s work).

What I didn’t realize when I posted my story was that Kashin, in addition to being a reporter for the newspaper Kommersant, is also a contributor to Forbes’s Russian edition. His stories can be found here. It’s a strange coincidence, given that one of the most famous victims of Russia’s plague of anti-journalist violence also called Forbes Russia home. That would be its founding editor, Paul Klebnikov, who was gunned down in 2004. His murder remains unsolved.

US urges Russia to act over beating of journalisthttp://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g27ERyx6-WOWRO59eH27NZqLEipg?docId=CNG.18e25ead919f653c1748be76101cbaf5.bb1

(AFP) – 9 hours ago

WASHINGTON — The United States Monday condemned a savage assault on a prominent Russian reporter and urged the authorities to punish the perpetrators as it criticized the Kremlin's record on press freedom.

"A free and independent press is central to a vibrant and well-functioning democracy," said State Department spokesman Philip Crowley.

"Journalists around the world must feel free to do their jobs without fear of intimidation or physical violence."

Crowley called for justice for Kommersant business daily journalist Oleg Kashin, placed in an induced coma after a savage beating on Saturday near his Moscow home.

"As the 2009 humanitarian rights report noted, eight journalists, many of whom reported, you know, critically on the government, were killed over the last year in Russia," Crowley said.

"With one exception, the government has failed to identify, arrest or prosecute any suspects."

A grainy 90-second webclip, which swept through the Russian Internet and even made it on state TV news, showed two assailants converge on Kashin and beat him with what appeared to be a lead pipe.

The attack has generated an unprecedented wave of solidarity between the state and opposition media.

President Dmitry Medvedev took the unusual step of responding to the assault immediately and promised to find and punish those behind it.

Two more journalists meanwhile were reported beaten on Monday: one a reporter with the Zhukovskiye Vesti suburban Moscow weekly and another the editor of the Volga region's Saratovsky Reporter.

Medvedev Fumes as More Journalists Are Beaten http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/medvedev-fumes-as-more-journalists-are-beaten/422033.html

09 November 2010By Alexandra Odynova

President Dmitry Medvedev pledged on Monday to punish those responsible for the vicious beating of Kommersant reporter Oleg Kashin even if they are senior officials — just as two more journalists reported assaults.

Police have named no suspects in the early Saturday attack on Kashin, but they promised on Monday to investigate a leak that provided the media with gruesome videos of the attack filmed by surveillance cameras.

A 90-second video released by Lifenews.ru late Sunday shows Kashin attacked near his home on Pyatnitskaya Ulitsa by two men, one of whom was holding a bouquet of flowers. [Editor's caution: The video shows the two assailants bludgeoning Kashin.]

The flowers were apparently used to hide a metal bar that one attacker used to beat Kashin after knocking him down, while the other assailant held the helpless reporter. The video gives no clear view of the assailants' faces.

Moscow police seniors are “indignant over the video's release” and have ordered to find out how the media got hold of it, a police official told Interfax.

Despite the inquiry, another video from the scene was released by Lifenews.ru on Monday showing Kashin crawling on his knees after the attack until a yardkeeper comes to his aid.

Kashin, 30, was attacked near his rented apartment in downtown Moscow. His jaw, leg and fingers were broken, and he remained hospitalized in a drug-induced coma Monday.

Kashin's wife, Yevgenia Milova, wrote on her Facebook page late Sunday that he had undergone three-hour head surgery. “Now nothing is threatening his brain,” she wrote.

She also wrote that she had been allowed to visit Kashin in the hospital along with his father, who came to Moscow from his native Kaliningrad shortly before the attack. Kashin and Milova have no children.

Kashin's father urged the authorities to quickly find the attackers.

"It's a potent challenge to the authorities. They must find them … those scumbags," Vladimir Kashin told Reuters outside the hospital.

"By doing this a 10-minute walk from the Kremlin, they are not just throwing down a challenge to the media. They are throwing down a challenge to everyone," he said.

The Investigative Committee said Monday that more than 30 people have been questioned in connection with the attack and investigators have searched Kashin's office and apartment for clues. Kommersant editor-in-chief Mikhail Mikhailin was among those questioned, Interfax said.

“Priority has been given to the version that [the attack is linked to] his professional activity as a journalist and his personal position that Kashin expressed in his blog,” investigators said in a statement Monday, without elaborating.

Kashin's supporters continued to stage one-person pickets — the only form of public protests not requiring permission from the authorities — near Moscow police headquarters on the downtown Ulitsa Petrovka. They began the picket Saturday, demanding the arrest of the assailants and organizers of the attack.

Several students from Moscow State University's journalism department hung a banner reading, “Who beat up Kashin?” out of a university building window facing the Kremlin on Monday.

The banner was swiftly removed by security guards, Interfax reported, citing a university spokesperson.

A group of students calling themselves the “Other Journalistic Department” took responsibility for the protest in a statement e-mailed to The Moscow Times. They did not identify themselves.

Medvedev criticized the attack at a meeting with journalists working for the government's Rossiiskaya Gazeta.

“Whoever contributed to the crime will be punished regardless of his position or place in society and regardless of his other merits, if there are any,” Medvedev said in an apparent reference to speculation that the attack was ordered by some of the numerous officials Kashin attacked in his publications.

A number of human rights activists linked the incident to the campaign around the Khimki forest, slated for partial destruction to make way for a government-backed highway. Kashin criticized local authorities over their handling of the issue in his recent reports.

The Khimki city administration denied involvement Monday, Interfax said.

Another Khimki forest defender, environmental activist Konstantin Fetisov, remains hospitalized in serious condition after unidentified men beat him up with baseball bats last Wednesday.

Meanwhile, more violence against journalists was reported Monday.

In the Moscow region town of Zhukovsky, a reporter with the independent local Zhukovskiye Vesti newspaper, Anatoly Adamchuk, was attacked by two unknown men late Sunday night near the newspaper's office, his colleagues said.

Adamchuk, who was hospitalized with head injuries, said the attack might be linked to his professional activity because the assailants repeated “Zhukovskiye Vesti” while beating him, his colleagues said.

Adamchuk recently wrote about the razing of a nearby forest ahead of the MAKS air show slated for next year.

In Saratov, the editor-in-chief of the local newspaper Saratovsky Reportyor, Sergei Mikhailov, was attacked by two unknown men, Interfax reported, citing local police.

The incident took place Friday, but Mikhailov only reported it Monday. He said he escaped serious injuries because the assailants were scared off by a passer-by.

Mikhailov said the attackers did not try to rob him, which could mean that the incident was linked to his professional activity.

At least 30 attacks against journalists, including eight murders, have been registered this year, according to the Glasnost Defense Foundation.

Nineteen murders of journalists in Russia remain unsolved since 2000, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

Khimki attack to be investigated by top cop after claims of apathy from officershttp://themoscownews.com/local/20101109/188186691.html?referfrommn

by Andy Potts at 09/11/2010 11:54

Konstantin Fetisov, the Khimki forest activist and opposition politician who was beaten into a coma during the holiday weekend, is not being ignored by police in the Moscow Region town.

While his allies in the battle to protect the threatened woodland to the north of the capital say the cops didn’t even attend the scene of his attack, police spokesman Yevgeny Gildeyev has hit back at the criticism.

“The investigation of the case is under the special control of the chief of police for the Moscow Region, Col. Gen. Nikolai Golovkin,” Gildeyev told Interfax on Monday evening - four days after the initial attack.

He also denied claims that a previous protest had seen Fetisov arrested and beaten by police.

However, he added that Fetisov had been taken in for questioning on Nov. 3 after organising an unauthorised rally over a landfill in the town.

 

Clubbed about the head

The day after that, Fetisov was attacked by baseball-bat wielding thugs – the first of three violent assaults on activists and journalists in the space of four days.

Fetisov’s supported complained that the police took little action, Newmsk reported, with prominent ecologist Yevgeniya Chirikova urging the public chamber to “put pressure on the police to make it carry out their work”.

On Nov. 6 journalist Oleg Kashin was left in a coma after being attacked on Pyatnitskaya Ulitsa in central Moscow.

And on Monday evening Anatoly Adamchuk, a journalist in another Moscow Region town, Zhukovsky, was beaten up.

He too had written about the destruction of woodland threatened by road building plans.

Armenian Prime Minister Receives Russian Region Governorhttp://www.arka.am/eng/economy/2010/11/09/22334.html

YEREVAN, November 9, /ARKA/. Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan received November 8 a delegation led by Russian Rostov Region Governor Vasily Golubev, the government press office reported.

It said welcoming the guests, the Prime Minister said he was sure that the present visit will give a boost Armenia-Russia interregional cooperation. The head of government further stressed that the strengthening of direct ties between Russian and Armenian regions was high on the agenda of the Armenian-Russian intergovernmental commission’s latest sitting which was held in Yekaterinburg October 23, 2010.

Pleased with the current pace of Armenia-Rostov Region cooperation, highly appreciative of the role played by Rostov Region’s Armenian community in the strengthening of traditional bonds of friendship, the parties looked at the possibility of deepening economic exchanges.

Tigran Sargsyan was also to have outlined Armenia’s economic status in the aftermath of the global financial and economic crisis and stated those key areas which in his opinion needed expanded cooperation, inclusive of agriculture, industry, education and research.

Mindful of boosting tourism, as well as developing humanitarian and cultural ties, both sides emphasized the importance of holding Rostov Region culture days in Armenia.

CIS executive secretary: Needs to give some universities of CIS countries the status of base organizations on languages and cultures

http://en.trend.az/news/society/1779570.html

09.11.2010 11:42

 

Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov. 9 /E.Tariverdiyeva/

It needs to expand the list of universities of the CIS countries with the status of base organizations on the languages and cultures, said the CIS Executive Secretary Sergei Lebedev.

Learning languages is very important for equality and cooperation, for dialogue between civilizations and cultures, Lebedev said in opening of the Sixth International Forum "Dialogue of languages and cultures of the CIS and SCO in the 21st century" in Baku Tuesday. The Forum is organized by Moscow State Linguistic University on the basis of Baku Slavic University (BSU) with the support of the CIS Interstate Fund for Humanitarian Cooperation.

Welcoming the participants of the Forum, Lebedev expressed his gratitude to the Government of Azerbaijan in holding such an important and interesting forum covering the CIS and the SCO. According to him, relying on the government support, the dialogue of cultures of the CIS countries assumes more importance. "Language skills are an important tool for interaction between the peoples, so it needs to pay attention to this issue both in Russia and other CIS countries," said Lebedev.

He said it is important to involve young representatives of the CIS countries in the dialogue of cultures. The Forum focuses on the 20th anniversary of the Commonwealth of Independent States and and takes place in the form of plenary and session meetings.

It is attended by prominent political figures, representatives of state and executive authorities, ministries and agencies, academia, parliamentarians, university rectors, leading scientists of the CIS countries.

Pres signs law ratifying agmt on Customs Union's legal groundwork

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15663442&PageNum=0

09.11.2010, 11.18

MOSCOW, November 9 (Itar-Tass) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has signed the federal law ratifying the agreement on taxes and duties within the legal groundwork of the Customs Union, approved by the lower and upper houses of the parliament on

October 22, 2010, and October 27, 2010, respectively, the Kremlin press service said on Tuesday.

The federal law ratifies the agreement on the payment of customs duties and taxes on the goods in transit, and specifies the payment procedure. The agreement was signed in St.Petersburg on May 21, 2010, to pave the way for shaping the legal basis of the Customs Union within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEc).

The agreement spells out the form and the procedure for filling in and presenting documents confirming the payment of customs duties and taxes and customs transit across the territory of the Customs Unions, the procedure for confirming the location of the goods under customs transit, the specifics of exacting customs duties and taxes, and the procedure for transferring the customs duties to the budgets of the Customs Union's member states within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Community.

Amendments to the Law on the Constitutional Court have been madehttp://eng.kremlin.ru/news/1263

Dmitry Medvedev signed the Federal Constitutional Law amending the Federal Constitutional Law On the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation.

The amendments made aim to optimise proceedings in the Constitutional Court so as to make them more effective.

In particular, the amendments make it possible for the Constitutional Court to examine some categories of cases without holding hearings.

The law also clarifies some of the other provisions of the Federal Constitutional Law On the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation. 

November 8, 2010, 10:10

Shuvalov appointed head of RF TV-radio broadcast commission

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15663500&PageNum=0

09.11.2010, 11.35

MOSCOW, November 9 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin by his decree has introduced staff changes to the Government Commission on the development of television and radio broadcasting. First Vice Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov has been included in the commission and appointed its chairman.

Deputy Prime Minister, chief of the RF government staff Vyacheslav Volodin who has recently taken this post, Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Yury Borisov, and former adviser to the RF president Leonid Reiman have been excluded from the commission.

The Commission on Radio and Television Broadcasting Development was established by the government’s decree of May 22, 2006. The Commission is a coordinating agency set up to ensure the coordinated efforts of the federal bodies of executive authority in the development of radio and television broadcasting.

The Commission has the following responsibilities: to set priorities in the attainment of the main objectives in the development of radio and television broadcasting with due regard for economic, financial and other possibilities of the state; to coordinate the efforts of the federal bodies of executive authority to preserve the common information space and facilitate the creation of radio and television programmes and the broadcasting infrastructure; to draft proposals on the improvement of legislation for the development of radio and television broadcasting; other tasks in this sphere.

09.11.2010 10:05:

Regular differences between the Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov and the party "United Russia"

http://www.echo.msk.ru/news/724967-echo.html

GOOGLE TRANSLATIONMironov spoke against the amendment to the United Russia law on forming the upper house of parliament. In his circle fear that this could cost him the Chair.

The draft law on forming the Federation Council, which the State Duma on Nov. 1 approved in three readings, the upper chamber will consider tomorrow. The newspaper Vedomosti, on the eve of celebrations of the senators signed a letter addressed to President Medvedev, which indicated that the bill eliminates the possibility of administrative interference in the procedure for commencement of the Senator of his powers. In accordance with the documents to the execution of Senators begin on the tenth day following the date of his appointment in the region. Any involvement of the upper chamber is not required, whereas now the Federation Council confirms the powers of the new members, and only then they become senators. Sergei Mironov spoke out against. Available Vedomosti was his article that he opposes the bill, and expresses the need to return to the election of senators. Surrounded by Mironov fear that this position could cost him his seat chair, and this question can be raised tomorrow.

Meanwhile, a source of "Vedomosti" in the Kremlin believes that Mironov's not going to dismiss anyone. And one of the senators, the United Russia announced that it would mean the failure of the project "Fair Russia".

Mironov suggested returning to the popular election of senatorshttp://www.grani.ru/Politics/Russia/Parliament/Sovfed/m.183378.html

GOOGLE TRANSLATION

Federation Council Chairman Sergei Mironov suggested a return to the election of senators. As Vedomosti, this speaker in an article Received edition. Now members of the Upper Chamber of the Federal Assembly shall appoint the head of the Federation and local parliaments in the region."The election of Federation Council members directly by the population of regions, perhaps the most democratic method of formation of the wards, where the senator's mandate would be the most legitimate," - says Mironov. However, for the sake of such an option would have to change the Constitution according to which the issue of forming a chamber within the competence "of the federal legislator."According to Mironov, head of the regional and local parliaments should propose an alternative list, which is put to a vote. Then the local authorities to delegate authority senator has received popular support candidates. Thus, says the chairman of the Federation Council, be able to avoid amending the Constitution, and the senators will be more legitimate.Article Mironov was a response to the State Duma adopted amendments to the law on the formation of the Federation Council. Under the new provisions, the Senate loses the right to approve new members in office - the senator begins duties for 10 days after the appointment. The initiators of the amendments were members of United Russia, according to which the old order of highly addictive procedure for entry into the position of senator.Public dissent Mironov on this issue could lead to that on Wednesday he offered to resign, a source told the publication. November 4 Mironov met with President Dmitry Medvedev, but whether it was about the situation is not yet known, the source said.09.11.2010 08:55

Meeting with Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the North Caucasus Federal District and Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Khloponinhttp://eng.kremlin.ru/news/1266

November 8, 2010, 18:00 Gorki, Moscow Region

Dmitry Medvedev heard Alexander Khloponin’s report on carrying out the Presidential instructions regarding economic development in the North Caucasus.

Alexander Khloponin reported that the Russian Government has approved the region’s development strategy until 2025 and that a concrete action plan for the implementation of

this strategy in each of the region’s republics will be approved by the end of November. A development institute has also been established with a registered capital of 500 million rubles [over $16 million] to help the republics form their investment programmes. In addition, the plan calls for the active use of public-private partnerships.

The President noted the poor progress in Daghestan’s economic development, stating that the republic’s day-to-day life needs to be filled with economic projects.

The President also emphasised the necessity of strengthening law enforcement in the North Caucasus.

November 8, 2010, 18:00Gorki, Moscow Region

In Dagestan, a wagon with the military equipment was derailed because a cow

http://www.newsru.com/russia/09nov2010/avaria.html

GOOGLE TRANSLATION

Published: 9:34Last update: 9:34On the railroad in Dagestan on Monday happened Inc.: freight train carrying military equipment, collided with a cow. As reported Tuesday, the press service of the Southern Regional Center (SRC), Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia, as a result of the incident a car was derailed."The incident occurred on the eve at 15:34 Moscow time on the stretch Temirgoe Kumtorkalinskogo district of Dagestan. Derailed freight train came down the head of transporting military equipment. The train was bound from Makhachkala to the side of Astrakhan. In its structure there were 48 cars", - reported in the SRC .In this case, the Office noted that the train delays as a result of the incident was not, according to RIA Novosti."The cause of derailment car - hit a cattle" - said the press service. According to him, to the scene around 17:00 Monday arrived repair and rehabilitation train"Already at 17:20 Moscow time the car put on the rails, and at 17:50 the train started moving," - added to the MES.

Nuclear waste to be shipped to Russiahttp://www.thelocal.de/national/20101109-31047.html

Published: 9 Nov 10 08:01 CET

A large pile of Germany’s nuclear waste would be shifted to Russia for storage under a plan being negotiated by Angela Merkel’s government.

Police and activists gear up for nuclear showdown - National (8 Nov 10)

Daily Süddeutsche Zeitung reported Tuesday that Chancellor Merkel was hoping to strike a deal this month with the Russian government for the shipment of three loads of nuclear waste.

The report came as protests raged over a shipment of nuclear waste being transported to the Gorleben dump in Lower Saxony. By about 7.30am Tuesday, police had cleared the way for the final leg of the shipment's transport after nearly three days of blockades.

Under the deal with with Russia, atomic waste from the former communist GDR nuclear research facility at Rossendorf would be shipped to the Mayak nuclear facility in the southern part of the Ural district.

Government sources told the paper that the deal was “ready to be signed.”

It involves the shipment of 18 “Castor” containers (Cask for Storage and Transport of Radioactive material) which add up to a total of 951 nuclear fuel elements. The nuclear waste has been temporarily stored a site in the Ahaus district of North Rhine-Westphalia since 2005.

It was not yet clear when the waste would actually be transported, the paper said.

The goal was “to reduce as far as possible the load of enriched uranium,” the government has said in answer to a question from the Greens.

The final storage of this waste on German soil was “not a viable option because there will be no available storage sites for radioactive nuclear elements in the near future,” it said.

Akademik Fyodorov research vessel to depart for Antarctica

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15663393&PageNum=0

09.11.2010, 10.33

ST. PETERSBURG, November 9 (Itar-Tass) - The flagship of the Russian research fleet the Akademik Fyodorov scientific-expedition vessel, on Tuesday is departing from St. Petersburg on another voyage under the programme of the 56th Russian Antarctic Expedition (RAE), Deputy Director of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) of the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Rosgidromet), RAE head Valery Lukin told Itar-Tass.

As many as 108 polar explorers are embarking on the voyage to Antarctica, Lukin said. According to him, 72 scientists and specialists are members of the wintering crew and 36 - seasonal staff. He said that the captain of the vessel is the famous polar navigator, Valery Viktorov. In late October, he led the electric ship Akademik Fyodorov to the Petersburg port from the Arctic after the 100-day expedition “Shelf-2010” to specify the outer boundaries of the Russian shelf in the Arctic Ocean, said the RAE head.

Valery Lukin stressed that “about 60 specialists who will arrive by passenger flights from St. Petersburg will join the main RAE crew in South African’s Cape Town.” The vessel also has on board the material and technical supplies for the Antarctic stations Mirny, Vostok, Progress and Novolazarevskaya, including fuel, food, consumables, spare parts, technical equipment and instruments. It also carries instruments and equipment for seasonal research at these stations and the field bases Molodezhnaya, Druzhanaya-4 and Soyuz, aircraft equipment of the Vladivostok-based Avialift enterprise, transport equipment and trailing appliances for inland sledge-tracked expeditions, building materials and equipment for the construction of a new wintering complex at the Progress station.

The cargoes delivered to Antarctica should ensure uninterrupted autonomous stay of the expedition personnel during 12 months. Specialists will conduct on the ship’s route during sailing between the Antarctic stations and field bases “incidental research to study various natural processes in the ocean, atmosphere, ionosphere and ozonosphere of our planet, as well as the hydrographic survey.”

The return of the expedition vessel Akademik Fyodorov from Antarctica to St. Petersburg is scheduled for early May 2011, the Rosgidromet’s Research Institute of noted.

The R/V Akademik Fyodorov is a scientific diesel-electric research vessel, the flagship of the Russian polar research fleet. It was built in Rauma, Finland for the Soviet Union and completed on September 8, 1987. It started operations on October 24, 1987 in the USSR. The ship was named after a Soviet polar explorer, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences Yevgeny Fyodorov, who worked on the first Soviet manned drifting ice station North Pole-1.

Akademik Fyodorov made news on August 1, 2007 when it sailed in the path of an icebreaker on the way to the North Pole as part of Russia's efforts to lay claim to the seabed beneath the North Pole. On August 2, 2007, the Akademik Fyodorov sailed with 100 scientists and researchers and two deep sea mini-submarines to the North Pole where the scientists will be dispatched to a depth of more than 13,200 feet where they will drop a metal capsule containing a Russian flag.

While the dropping of the flag is a symbolic gesture reminiscent of the United States of America’s planting of an American flag on the surface of the moon, the act will not guarantee Russian rights to extract oil and gas from the seabed. Accordingly, scientists aboard the Akademik Fyodorov are searching for evidence that a 1,240 mile underwater mountain range, the Lomonosov Ridge, which extends through the north polar region, is

actually a geologic extension of Russia, thus allowing Russia to lay claim to the region under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Denmark contends that the Lomonosov Ridge is a geologic extension of Greenland, a Danish territory, whereas Canada claims it is an extension of Ellesmere Island. The Danish and Canadian governments are expected to put forth their own scientific efforts to show that the Lomonosov Ridge is not part of Russia. Both the United States and Canada also maintain oil and gas rights within the region.

Moscow to allocate 100 billion dollars for road construction 2011

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15663344&PageNum=0

09.11.2010, 07.33

MOSCOW, November 9 (Itar-Tass) -- During 2011 Moscow will allocate 100 billion roubles for construction of roads, the municipal construction authority said referring to First Deputy Mayor Vladimir Resin.

“Our main priority nowadays is roads,” he said. ”We shall have to see what amount of money will be required for this or that object.”

“We shall spend 100 billion roubles for roads in Moscow next year,” Resin said.

According to plans, during 2011 and 2011 Moscow will organise works at 42 objects of roads and bridges. Among them there are a reconstruction of the Panfilov Prospect in the Zelenograd District, organisation of new flyovers where the Marshal Zhukov Prospect crosses the Moscow Circle Road, and others.

The programme for construction of roads, bridges and engineering infrastructures for 2011 will be expanded, and the requirements for the quality of the work will be raised. If a company fails to carry out its obligations, the city government will replace it in no time.

Moscow police block major contraband channel of watch deliveries.

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15663055&PageNum=0

09.11.2010, 09.18

MOSCOW, November 9 (Itar-Tass) - Moscow police have blocked a major contraband channel for the delivery of luxury watches, a top policeman from the transport police department of the Russian Interior Ministry told Tass on Tuesday.

According to Ilya Vitnitsky, police have received information that a batch of contraband watches would arrive in Moscow from Vietnam. He said a female Vietnamese national arriving from Hanoi in Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport had been detained with a batch of contraband goods. Rolex, Patek Philippe, Breguet, Rado and Breitling watches were intended for sale at shopping centres of Moscow and other Russian cities.

He said that the woman had already attracted police attention. This year she has repeatedly arrived in Moscow with luggage. “This time she brought four suitcases with 786 watches with wristlets and no documents,” Vitnitsky stressed.

The woman was detained, the batch was confiscated and sent for an expertise to check whether these are designer fake watches or not and assess the damage.

Rostov region taken out from list of gambling zone provinces.

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=15663299&PageNum=0

09.11.2010, 10.15

MOSCOW, November 9 (Itar-Tass) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed the bill amending Article 9 of the federal law on state regulation of gambling. The State Duma lower house of the Russian parliament approved the bill on October 22, 2010, and the Federation Council upper house passed it on October 27, 2010, the press service of the head of state said on Tuesday.

The bill takes out the Rostov region from the list of the Russian provinces that can set up gambling zones.

Also, the bill enables the government to shut down a gambling zone before the expiration of the ten-year period since its establishment.

PRESS DIGEST - Russia - Nov 9http://in.reuters.com/article/idINLDE6A802820101109

1:19pm IST

MOSCOW, Nov 9 (Reuters) - The following are some of the leading stories in Russia's newspapers on Tuesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

KOMMERSANT

www.kommersant.ru

- Russia's tycoon Oleg Deripaska is doing all possible to keep control over his 25 percent stake in Austria's Strabag (STRV.VI: Quote, Profile, Research), the daily reports referring to a 370 million euro loan Deripaska will get to buy back a 17 percent stake in the construction giant.

- Russia's air carriers could raise ticket price to compensate a price hike for fuel.

VEDOMOSTI

www.vedomosti.ru

- Russia's government has chosen Merrill Lynch to sell a 10 percent stake in the state-controlled VTB (VTBR.MM: Quote, Profile, Research).

- Russia's second largest gas producer Novatek NVTK.MM is conducting talks with Gazprombank on buying a 51 percent stake in a small gas company Sibneftegaz. The stake could cost up to $1 billion, the daily says.

- President and co-owner of Integrated Energy System holding, Mikhail Slobodin, who is also known as Viktor Vekselberg's person, could move to work to oil company TNK-BP TNKBPI.RTS.

ROSSIISKAYA GAZETA

www.rg.ru

- Russia's anti-monopoly watchdog is planning to check the decision of the Federal Customs Service to impose tax duties on paper imported for printing needs. The move could lead to a 5-15 percent price rise for newspapers and magazines, the daily says.

- Russia's meat producers are protesting against a ban on sales and processing of deep-frozen poultry meat to come in force from Jan 1. 2011 and are forecasting a price hike for the meat as a result.

NESAVISIMAYA GAZETA

www.ng.ru

- Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered Moscow city and regional authorities to undertake joint measures to solve the problem of traffic jams in the capital.

- Medvedev promised on Monday state support of journalists to protect free speech after a Kommersant correspondent was beaten into a coma at the weekend.

- The price for basic foods in Russia grew by 15,2 percent from the beginning of the year against official inflation level reported at the level of 6,8 percent, the daily says.

Russian Press at a Glance, Tuesday, November 9, 2010http://en.rian.ru/papers/20101109/161257596.html

08:39 09/11/2010

POLITICS

The speaker of Russia's upper house of parliament, Sergei Mironov, opposes United Russia’s amendments to the law on election to the Federation Council. This position may cost him his position, his supporters fear. (Vedomosti, Vremya Novostei)

New Moscow mayor fills vacancies in his office with federal bureaucrats. At least nine “feds” have been appointed to key positions in the Moscow city government in the past two weeks. (Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Vremya Novostei)

The new chief of NATO’s Information Bureau in Moscow will arrive in Russia in December. The position has been officially vacant since the expulsion of the former bureau chief Isabelle Francois in 2009. (Vremya Novostei)

BUSINESS

Russia will insist on reviewing in the next two years the quota formula by which countries' participation in the International Monetary Fund is calculated. Presidential aide Arkady Dvorkovich said on Monday Russia would expect a 5-6 percent quota in the IMF. (Nezavisimaya Gazeta)

FINANCE

The Russian government has agreed to sell 10 percent of its stake in the VTB bank to the U.S. TPG fund. The shares of the second largest bank in Russia will be sold through Merrill Lynch's investment subsidiary in Russia. (Kommersant)

Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin outlines reforms of state governing at a meeting with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The reforms include 40 programs on state development with strict budget controls. (Rossiiskaya Gazeta)

Russian banks will face stricter money-laundering regulations starting January 24. Fines will be doubled and punishment will be dealt not only to top officials but also to mid-level management. (Kommersant)

ENERGY

Russia’s oil consortium Novatek eyes controlling stake in Sibneftegaz (Vedomosti)

The construction of Vietnam's first nuclear power plant could give Russia easy access to potential nuclear energy markets in South-East Asia (Nezavisimaya Gazeta)

SOCIETY

Video footage of the recent attack on Kommersant reporter Oleg Kashin has been posted on the Internet. Moscow police called it “interfering with the investigation.” (Vremya Novostei) 

Authorities in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan have set up a commission that would help former militants to adapt to peaceful life. The measure is expected to curb terrorist activities in the volatile region. (Rossiiskaya Gazeta)

Spy Flap Lets Tbilisi Make Russia Look Foolish http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/spy-flap-lets-tbilisi-make-russia-look-foolish/422025.html

09 November 2010By Alexander Golts

For some time now, the activities of Russia’s intelligence operatives have been a source of material for jokes rather than spy novels. Their foibles have become something of a “What Not to Do” textbook for foreign counterintelligence. The FBI only recently deported 10 failed Russian spies, and now Georgian intelligence is having a turn at uncovering Russian operatives in their midst. Georgian counterintelligence announced the arrest of 13 Russian spies, including Georgian air force pilots who were accused of providing Moscow with secret information on the flight schedules, military preparedness and weapons systems of all 10 aircraft in the Georgian air force.

The Georgian Interior Ministry says the other suspected agents — businessmen, four of whom hold Russian citizenship — gathered information about Georgia’s armed forces, including the weapons it received and security measures at important installations. In a video released by Georgian intelligence, a stereotypical double agent nicknamed “Enver” vividly tells the story of how he was recruited at a meeting with senior commanders of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service. It should be noted, however, that the job titles of the Russian officers mentioned sound a bit strange. For example, one officer was identified as “the regional head of military intelligence in Sochi.” Ordinarily, intelligence units are based in military staff divisions, not territorial designations. What’s more, there are a number of nonstandard job titles in the Georgian statement.

The political motivation behind this incident is obvious. On one hand, Georgian counterintelligence has done its utmost to discredit people with ties to Russia. There are

already indications that Valery Svarchuk — president of the Motherland Union of Russian Compatriots in Georgia and the recent recipient of the Pushkin Medal awarded by the Kremlin — had been scouting recruits. On the other hand, the announcement was timed to coincide with the upcoming NATO-Russia summit in Lisbon. Tbilisi is clearly upset that relations between Moscow and NATO are improving and that Brussels labels Russia as an “aggressor” with decreasing frequency. This is the time to instigate something that will lead to an exchange of inflammatory statements between Georgia and Russia and send a message to the participants of the Lisbon summit that it would be ill-advised to place their trust in President Dmitry Medvedev, who has agreed to attend the summit. And despite the absurdity of the Georgian version of events, the story has succeeded in causing considerable damage to Russia.

This raises a question: Is the information gathered by undercover agents worth the foreign policy risks that arise if the spies are exposed? As for the Russian agents in the United States, the only mystery the FBI was never able to unravel was whether they ever obtained a single secret. It would seem that the only thing the spies obtained was an all-expenses-paid opportunity to live in the United States for several years. Even though the White House did everything possible to minimize the fallout from the failure of the Russian agents, they ended up looking like laughingstocks anyway. Singing patriotic tunes with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin later did not help.

Could it be that the Georgian spy scandal is an orchestrated attempt by Tbilisi to make Russian agents look foolish and that Tbilisi went as far as to feed the suspects with intelligence information? If so, was it worth the risk? Of what value was the information about the Georgian army, which is miniscule compared with the Russian armed forces? What is the use of knowing the flight schedules of a handful of Georgian fighter jets and helicopters? What is the mysterious strategic advantage in obtaining information on the maneuvers of each of Georgia’s three brigades?

Information on arms shipments to Georgia can be obtained through official United Nations channels. One can hardly believe that a NATO state might be secretly supplying Tbilisi with weapons in some sort of special operation.

In fact, Russian military intelligence should be concerned with only one question: Will Georgia stage a surprise attack on the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, and the Abkhaz capital, Sukhumi? But with several thousand troops deployed in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Russia has no reason to fear a surprise attack. Moscow should concentrate its efforts on creating an intelligence network within the border towns in the region, not inside Georgia’s army. After all, if military agents were to receive a sudden order, they might not be able to communicate with headquarters. And with the help of local residents, it would be fairly simple to control the major highways.

But recruiting villagers is a silly and humiliating task for someone trained to recruit military personnel and state politicians, people who are potential enemies. It is more prestigious to report the recruitment of a senior agent, even if it brings no real benefit.

Surprisingly, Russia’s top political and military leaders now view intelligence gathering — normally a straightforward and even mundane exercise — as an end in itself. A significant amount of money was spent on maintaining an intelligence network in the United States, even though it provided no useful information. But a superpower needs to have a spy network in the United States the same way it needs to have a nuclear arsenal. And if the leadership labels any country — even a tiny one like Georgia — as a potential enemy, it is necessary to conduct intensive intelligence work there, even if there is no practical need for it.

But the more intensive such work becomes, the greater the likelihood that it will be discovered and come crashing down — as happened in Georgia. That has given Tbilisi a golden opportunity to discredit Russia.

Alexander Golts is deputy editor of the online newspaper Yezhednevny Zhurnal.

Article of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, ‘There Is Much Russia and ASEAN Can Accomplish Together,” International Affairs, Issue No. 10, October 2010http://www.ln.mid.ru/brp_4.nsf/e78a48070f128a7b43256999005bcbb3/59a052e8f2fbcd30c32577d2004f7839?OpenDocument

02.11.2010

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will meet with leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) in Hanoi on October 30. Our Heads of State and Government will have the opportunity to give assessment of the state of the Russia-ASEAN partnership and map out prospects for its further development, to discuss ways of building in the Asia-Pacific region, a more perfect security and cooperation architecture. In other words, it will be a full-blown summit, a truly strategic dialogue at the highest level. And this is only natural. We are talking about major players in global and regional politics, about two powerful centers of economic growth, about significant partners for each other, who can and should accomplish much together.

The upcoming Russia-ASEAN summit is an event truly important not only because nearly five years have passed since the first Russia-ASEAN meeting at the highest level. It’s also due to the dramatic changes that have taken place in the world and the region over the past years. They have significantly changed the geopolitical landscape and give the now visible movement of Russia and ASEAN toward each other a special meaning.

Polycentric world and the Asia-Pacific Century

THE CATALYST for these changes has been the global financial and economic crisis. It gave a boost to a number of trends that could in the near future lead to significant changes in the balance of power in world politics and economy, to a profound transformation of the entire system of international relations.

In fact, this process is already underway. The essence of what is happening right before our eyes lies in the formation of a polycentric world order in which regional cooperation will take center stage. It is easy to see that the centripetal tendencies are now gaining momentum in many parts of the world. But the Asia-Pacific region in this series holds a special place.

The AP region – the crisis has highlighted this fact most clearly – is not only a leader in most economic indicators today, but also acts as the engine of global growth. Much of the credit for the world economy’s overcoming the worst phase of recession and once again showing signs of revival, belongs to the Asian countries, many of which succeeded in maintaining high economic dynamism.

Following economic interests the weight of political power is also shifting to the AP region. A powerful resource, financial, industrial and technological potential is concentrated here. At the same time it exhibits pockets of serious geopolitical controversy. In other words, that’s where the interests of major world players overlap, coincide or conflict with each other.

Many experts believe that the 21st century will be the century of Asia. Like it or not, time will tell. But the importance and potential of this area of the world, its special role in the destiny of our planet is not in doubt. Perhaps it is here in the AP region that the contours of the new world order are being laid out, a new shape of the system of global governance is emerging.

The region itself also undergoes a major metamorphosis. First of all, we witness an unprecedented growth in the mutual dependence and interrelationship of the countries in the region, and the acceleration of a multi-level economic integration there. We see the beginning of a long overdue process of reconfiguration of the Asia-Pacific regional architecture under the impact of global turmoil and the logic of intraregional development.

Asian-Pacific countries are ever more clearly aware that to ensure peace and stability in the region is only possible through joint efforts, the adoption of

measures to reinforce security on a collective, non-bloc basis. The establishment of multipolarity gives us a unique opportunity: perhaps, for the first time since the Cold War a sustainable, more balanced combination of centers of economic growth and political clout is a feasible prospect in the AP region.

Another sign of our times is that the fast developing countries – China, India, the Republic of Korea and others – are coming to the forefront of regional politics. Add ASEAN, an interstate association whose significance has continued to grow over the years. I would like to dwell at greater length now on the role of this important player in international relations and on the issues of Russian-ASEAN relations.

ASEAN as the backbone of regional order

ASEAN is a phenomenon largely unique. It originated in 1967 and initially consisted of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines. In 1984 they were joined by Brunei, and in 1995 the Association took a largely momentous decision to admit Vietnam, followed by Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia. Thus, ASEAN became a Group of Ten and today is one of the most authoritative regional organizations.

In its forty plus years, ASEAN has gained considerable experience developing collective approaches to solving the pressing problems of the region and has created a broad and well-balanced system of dialogue partnerships with leading global players, including Russia, USA, China, India, Japan, Australia, and the European Union. Today, the Association with a population of 580 million, a combined GDP of 1.5 trillion dollars, a foreign trade turnover of 1.7 trillion dollars and a developed system of free trade zones with key economic partners has, in fact, established itself as a strong pole of regional attraction.

It is the ASEAN format that allows the Southeast Asian nations to effectively defend collective interests and to conduct an equal dialogue with international partners. The Association acts as a kind of nucleus of such influential organizations as the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), and the mechanisms of ASEAN+3 (China, Republic of Korea and Japan) and the East Asia Summit (ASEAN plus China, Republic of Korea, Japan, India, Australia and New Zealand).

At this stage ASEAN is facing the task of finding a new identity in the emerging multipolar world and consolidating its role in regional integration processes amid the appearance of new centers of power in the AP region. The

entry into force of the ASEAN Charter in 2008 and the setting of the task of creating, by 2015, a highly integrated ASEAN Community have acquired great significance for ASEAN 10 in this context.

The development of the Russia-ASEAN Dialogue Partnership is one of the priorities of our policy in the AP region. It is our conscious, not subject to conjuncture fluctuations, line. Over the less than decade and a half since the establishment of the Partnership, we have traversed a long road together. But everything had begun much earlier: ties between our countries are rooted in the depths of history.

Healthy “root system” – an earnest of future growth

RUSSIAN-ASEAN RELATIONS are based on a solid historical foundation. At the final stage of the Second World War, the Soviet Union made the decisive contribution to the defeat of militarist Japan. Our common victory in the Pacific theater of operations brought the peoples of Asia the long-awaited peace and freedom. In subsequent years, Moscow provided consistent and substantial assistance to many states of the region in their struggle for national liberation and independence. Our country developed particularly close relations of friendship and mutual assistance with the countries of Indochina and with Indonesia; the strong friendly ties with Thailand were never interrupted, and relations were established and proceeded to develop successfully with Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and Brunei.

The new Russia is building ties with the countries in Southeast Asia on a qualitatively different, de-ideologized basis. Clear evidence of this was the official formalization in 1996 of Russia's status as a full Dialogue Partner of ASEAN.

We can be proud of the level of contacts attained by us over the past years. A sound regulatory and legal base has been formed for our cooperation with the Association. On the credit side, our relations have the Joint Declaration on Partnership for Peace and Security, and Prosperity and Development in the Asia-Pacific Region, the Joint Declaration on Progressive and Comprehensive Partnership, the Comprehensive Program of Action to Promote Cooperation 2005-2015, the Agreement on Economic and Development Cooperation, and other documents.

The structure of dialogue mechanisms of the Russia-ASEAN partnership is being actively expanded. Currently it includes annual Russian-ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meetings, Senior Officials Meetings on Political Affairs (at the level

of Deputy Foreign Ministers), on Economic Affairs and on Energy and joint working groups on economic, trade, scientific and technological cooperation and on countering terrorism and transnational crime. The main coordinating bodies for practical interaction are the Joint Cooperation Committee and the Joint Planning and Management Committee.

We reached a milestone in our relations with ASEAN 10 on December 13, 2005, with the first Russia-ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur. This meeting set out priority areas for our cooperation and marked the starting point for practical work on a wide range of issues.

I must admit that for a long time due to various objective and subjective reasons, Russia’s economic cooperation with ASEAN 10 was in an embryonic state and even today lags behind the development level of our political dialogue. The volume of Russia-ASEAN trade, for example, is still very modest – about $10 billion. But the situation has begun to change. This is not surprising: the potential of our collaboration is so great that it attracts more and more attention from both the ASEAN states and the business community.

A fundamentally important step in deepening the practical cooperation was the establishment of the Russia-ASEAN Dialogue Partnership Financial Fund, to which in 2007-2009 we contributed 1.75 million dollars. The amount is small, especially compared with the multimillion-dollar cooperation funds with ASEAN set up by China, Japan, India and other dialogue partners. At the same time this made it possible to embark on the realization of government-led cooperation projects. We have already carried out some joint activities in such areas as renewable energy, small and medium business, learning the Russian language, tourism and public health. Up next are project proposals in the fields of emergency response, and modern biotechnology. One of our major tasks for the near future is to move from isolated projects to a broader long-term and mutually beneficial cooperation in the areas of greatest mutual interest.

The establishment of direct contacts between Russian agencies and specialized ASEAN entities appears crucial for the expansion of our cooperation with the Association. In August this year in the Vietnamese city of Danang, the economics ministers of Russia and the countries of the Association met for the first time. They took decision to craft by the time of the next meeting in this format, a “Road Map” for Russian-ASEAN economic cooperation which would help speed up collaborative efforts in the fields of high technology, energy, space, agriculture, transportation, chemicals and metals.

Nurturing partnerships with ASEAN fits perfectly into the framework of our country’s Asia-Pacific policy, the main tasks of which are to establish favorable external conditions for Russia's modernization, develop friendly relations with the countries of the region, participate actively in regional affairs and join the integration processes there. In particular, President Dmitry Medvedev stressed this point at the July 2 meeting in Khabarovsk on the socioeconomic development of the Russian Far East and on reinforcing the position of the Russian Federation in the AP region.

Thus, the legal framework and the mechanisms of Russian-ASEAN cooperation in general are formed. So what should we strive for?

Horizons of cooperation

WHAT dividends can be obtained from mutually beneficial cooperation with ASEAN is clearly illustrated by statistics. Thus, ASEAN trade with China in 2009 amounted to 178.2 billion dollars, with Japan 159, with the Republic of Korea 74.7, with Australia 58.7, and with India 20.2 billion dollars. It is estimated that the total cost of the infrastructure projects alone that China, Japan and India plan to carry out in the ASEAN countries until 2020 could exceed $200 billion.

Russia is not going to compete in this sense with anyone. We have our own interests, as do our ASEAN partners. The most important thing here is the apparent mutual desire for cooperation, much like the huge potential that we must work together to implement.

The dynamics of global development brings energy issues to the fore of Russian-ASEAN cooperation. Held in February this year in Myanmar, the first Russian-ASEAN consultation on energy and the relevant Senior Officials’ Meeting in Vietnam in July bear witness to the interest of ASEAN 10 in our country’s capacity in this area. During these meetings, a Russia-ASEAN Work Program for Energy Cooperation 2010-2015 was prepared and endorsed. In September, Rosatom held in Hanoi a seminar on the peaceful use of nuclear energy for ASEAN experts. Up next is the launching of an energy dialogue on renewable energy and ecologically clean technologies.

We regard our country’s joining the programs aimed at reducing the development gap between the “old” and “new” ASEAN members, including development projects in the Greater Mekong Sub-region, as one of the promising areas of cooperation. The question of organizing relevant expert consultations with the Mekong River Commission is currently being explored.

The development of economic ties and the achievement of concrete results will enable us to put the conclusion of a free trade agreement with ASEAN on a practical footing. Certainly, it is a long-term task, but most countries in the region follow just this path. The incompleteness of the negotiations on Russia's accession to the WTO does not prevent us from taking the first steps in this direction: an agreement establishing an appropriate joint Russian-Vietnamese research team has been reached.

We are planning to join forces with the ASEAN partners in coping with natural cataclysms. In March this year, Singapore hosted the first Russian-ASEAN consultation on emergency response. We are convinced that Russia’s new ideas and technologies for disaster prevention and recovery will be useful for our partners, and the elaboration of a framework document on cooperation in this field will provide a legal basis for joint projects.

One key problem is the joint struggle against terrorism. In 2004, the mechanism of Russia-ASEAN Senior Officials Meetings on Transnational Crime was launched at our country’s initiative; in 2009 the Russia-ASEAN Working Group on Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime was created and the appropriate Work Plan endorsed. The establishment of direct contacts between Russian security services and law enforcement agencies and ASEAN counterterrorism centers appears promising.

We attach particular importance to the development of humanitarian ties between Russia and the countries of the Association. To do this, there is ample opportunity. Interest in Russia for Southeast Asia has always been high, as borne out by the increasing Russian tourist flows to the region every year. We know that the ASEAN partners also show a desire to become acquainted with our country more closely. In order to promote cultural exchanges and “quench” the mutual “information hunger” the ASEAN Center was opened on June 15 this year at MGIMO University in Moscow; it must play an important role in spreading knowledge about each other in Russia and the countries of the Association.

In 2011, our dialogue partnership will be 15 years old. We consider it important to celebrate this landmark date. We arranged with our ASEAN colleagues to jointly prepare a program of activities which will contribute to further rapprochement of our peoples. Among them: Russian Cultural Days in the ASEAN countries, an agreement on which has already been reached.

Like-minded associates in world and regional affairs

AMONG the key factors of successful development of Russian-ASEAN relations is the closeness or coincidence of our positions on most issues of the global and regional agenda. This creates good opportunities for interaction in world affairs.

Since 1994 we have been working closely with the Association in the framework of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which we regard as one of the pillars of the emerging regional security architecture. With constant interest I have been attending the annual ministerial meetings of the Forum. I recall with pleasure the famous ARF “skits,” which for many years served as an ornament of political life in the region, while strengthening the much needed feelings of friendship and mutual trust in politics.

Being intimately involved in integration processes, ASEAN sensitively feels the pulse of the region, including the growing need for additional measures to strengthen security. Hence, for example, the idea of establishing a new mechanism – ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meetings Plus, drawing defense chiefs or representatives from the ASEAN member states and dialogue partners. The Russian side fully supports this initiative and intends to participate actively in the first meeting in this format in Vietnam in October this year.

Both Russia and ASEAN are in favor of the establishment of a more perfect regional architecture in the AP region. We are convinced that it must be equitable and transparent, based on a polycentric system, the rule of law, and mutual consideration of the interests of all states in the region. The skeleton of the future regional architecture is already there. It is the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (Bali Treaty), to which Russia acceded in 2004, and the network established in Asia and the Pacific over recent years, of regional organizations and associations, including, of course, ASEAN. The most effective way of building a new “Asia-Pacific home” we think is the development of a network of multilateral diplomacy. In this regard, the Association sets a good example for other multilateral institutions, forging a connection with a wide range of partners.

ASEAN colleagues appreciate the role of Russia in the Asia-Pacific region, seeing in our country a factor for maintaining strategic stability and ensuring sustainable economic development. Russia comes to the region with a sincere desire to contribute to the common cause of regional peace and prosperity. Here the basic goals of Russia and ASEAN coincide.

ASEAN is well aware that not a single mechanism for regional cooperation will be complete without the participation of leading nations, including our country. The support provided by ASEAN 10 in approving Russia's bid to join the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), whose 8th summit took place in Brussels on October 4-5 this year, as well as in deciding to invite Russia to join the East Asia Summits mechanism is very indicative. For its part, Russia has supported the proposal on the participation of the current ASEAN Chair in the work of the Group of Twenty. Close cooperation in the foreign policy arena fully meets our common interests.

The second summit: on the threshold of a new stage of relations

THE ACTIVE buildup of cooperation has put on the agenda the question of holding the second meeting of leaders of Russia and the ASEAN countries. It is symbolic that the hosts of the summit will be our Vietnamese friends currently chairing the Association – true strategic partners for Russia. Hanoi is also getting ready to receive President Dmitry Medvedev on an official visit, which will be held immediately after the summit.

The main outcome document of the meeting will be a Joint Statement, reflecting the general approach of the parties to further promotion of Russian-ASEAN cooperation and to current international problems. An intergovernmental Russia-ASEAN Agreement on Cultural Cooperation will be signed. On the eve, as part of the ASEAN Business and Investment Summit, a meeting of representatives from the business communities of Russia and the Ten is scheduled to be held.

Russia views the upcoming summit as a landmark event, which is designed to give major impetus to the cooperation between governments, between representatives of the business and public circles and between scientific and cultural personalities. Without exaggeration – today we are on the threshold of a new stage of interaction.

Given the increasing dynamics of our relationship we could contemplate holding regular Russia-ASEAN leaders’ meetings. The practical implementation of this idea depends largely on how successfully the outcomes of the Hanoi Summit will be realized.

And here’s one more observation. Russia and ASEAN organically fit together as partners. We equally need peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region. Russia neither aspires to military superiority nor sets itself the task of securing its eastern borders at other states’ expense. We have no plans to establish

military bases in the AP region, and we aren’t forming any closed defense alliances with the region’s countries. We do not intend to compete with anybody in the struggle for spheres of influence. Our bid to strengthen cooperation with ASEAN, including in the area of security, is not directed against third countries.

Russia is a free, democratic country. In this case we are opposed to “ideological missionary work.” We do not impose our own worldview on anyone and we are willing to develop relations with all countries of the Association, regardless of their political system. We respect the sovereign choice, and favor a pluralism of values, a diversity of development models, and a dialogue among cultures and religions. We note with satisfaction that the principles of our foreign policy, based on the traditions of tolerance, interethnic and interfaith harmony, are in tune with ASEAN's political philosophy.

We are constructively cooperating with the states of the region through existing multilateral formats, but are also ready to put forward initiatives to create new venues, for example, for establishing close contacts between ASEAN and the SCO.

The Russia-ASEAN Dialogue Partnership is confidently gaining momentum. We intend to continue to build it up consistently. To this end, we have everything we need - political will, long-standing friendship traditions, a strong foundation of cooperation, and the mutual interest of both parties. Therefore, we look to the future of Russian-ASEAN cooperation with optimism.

Protestant Congregations Now Vastly Outnumber Orthodox Ones in Russian Far East

http://georgiandaily.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=20368&Itemid=72

November 09, 2010

Paul Goble

Staunton, November 8 – Protestant congregations now outnumber Russian Orthodox ones in Russia’s Far East, a development that both reflects and reinforces the distinctive regional identity and anti-Moscow sentiments of many of the people in that enormous region, according to religious specialists.

Today, the Trans-Baikal news agency reported that “the most ‘Protestant’ regions of the Far East are Primorsky and Khabarovsk krays.” In the former, there are 178 Protestant communities compared to 89 parishes of the Moscow-based Russian Orthodox Church (zabinfo.ru/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=71103&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0).

Among the leading denominations there are Pentecostals, Presbyterians, Evangelicals, and Seventh Day Adventists, the news service says, but there are “dozens of others” as well. Muslims, Jews, and Buddhists also lag far behind in numbers: there are six mosques, seven synagogues, and four pagodas.

The situation in Khabarovsk kray is “very similar: of the 163 religious organizations, 96 are Protestant,” twice as many as the Orthodox. Moreover, this Protestant advantage is growing: Not only are ever more Protestant groups organizing and building churches, but the Orthodox

Church, lacking funds and followers, has been shutting down parishes.

Moreover, this report suggests, although its authors do not make this point, that it is no longer the case that Protestant congregations are significantly smaller than Orthodox ones, at least in terms of attendance, activity, and contributions, something that the Moscow Patriarchate has stressed in the past.

This pattern of the rise of Protestantism and the decline of Orthodoxy holds for other parts of Siberia as well. In Krasnoyarsk, there are now 111 Protestant groups, in Irkutsk, 97, and in Sverdlovsk, 94. “The most widespread,” Zabinfo.ru continues, are charismatic churches such as the Pentecostals.

Pastor Konstantin Bendas, administrator of the Russian United Union of Evangelical Christians, says that “this phenomenon has a long history. Orthodoxy came to these territories quite late. In Siberia and the Far East, representatives of confessions not tolerated in the Russian Empire were exiled.”

Moreover, he continued, “many fled from oppression – the Molokane, the Dukhobors, the Mennonites, the Stundists and so on. In Soviet times, those religious leaders who were able to escape execution were exiled to the Far East. And in this way, the elite of Russian Protestants was concentrated precisely there.”

In a comment on this report, the editors of Religiopolis.org suggest that this trend, which they acknowledge has deep historical roots, also reflects certain contemporary realities, including the ethnic diversity of the region, immigration and outmigration, and a tradition of independent action (www.religiopolis.org/news/1373-dalnij-vostok-rossii-otkazalsja-ot-pravoslavija.html).

“The social openness” of Protestantism and its commitment to public action, Religiopolis.org argues, means that its various denominations are more attractive to the

people of Siberia and the Russian Far East than is the more inward-focused Russian Orthodox Church at least at the present time.

Zabinfo.ru asked the Moscow Patriarchate for comment, but its representatives found it “difficult” to do so. Vladimir Vigilyansky, the head of the Patriarchate’s press service, said that he “does not comment on inter-relationships with ‘sectarians and Protestants,’” a remark that says far more than he may perhaps have intended.

But the rise of Protestantism in Siberia and the Russian Far East threatens not just the Moscow Patriarchate and its pretensions to speak for all ethnic Russians who it says are Orthodox by birth. It also represents a challenge to Moscow’s political control of the region, given that Siberian regionalism and Protestant religion can and do reinforce one another.

Indeed, one of the major arguments of the Siberian nationalist movement is that Siberia, never knew serfdom and has a Protestant work ethic closer to that of the United States than to that found in European Russia. The rise of Protestant communities across the region will only reinforce that, especially if the Moscow Patriarchate remains so hostile to this development.

Svetlana Medvedev has been on holiday in Alfás del Pihttp://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_27800.shtml

larger | smallerBy h.b. - Nov 8, 2010 - 1:39 PM

There has been little media interest in the visit

The visit of Michelle Obama and her daughter to the Costa del Sol last year brought a media scrum and wall to wall coverage in the Spanish media, but the visit of the wife and son of the Russian President, Dmitri Medvedev, who have spent a few days break in a hotel in Alfás del Pi, on the Alicante coast, has gone practically unnoticed.

Svetlana and her 14 year old son Ilia left the hotel last Friday after spending eight days at the five star SHA Wellness Clinic Hotel.

It’s not the first time that Russian leaders have chosen the Costa Blanca for their holidays. In 2005 Vladimir Putin visited the Gran Bali Hotel in Benidorm, the tallest in Europe.

National Economic Trends

Ruble Slides to One-Week Low Against Dollar, Gains Versus Euro http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=avI69_EgRcrI

By Emma O’Brien

Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- The ruble dropped to its weakest in more than a week against the dollar, declining as much as 0.3 percent to 30.8899 per dollar, the least since Nov. 1. It gained for a second day versus the euro, strengthening 0.5 percent to 42.7223 per euro by 10:03 a.m. in Moscow.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Emma O’Brien at eobrien6@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 9, 2010 02:04 EST

Oil Fund to Cover Budget http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/oil-fund-to-cover-budget/422030.html

09 November 2010

The government is set to tap the Reserve Fund to cover the budget deficit in the fourth quarter, creating a “supportive environment” for liquidity and domestic bond yields, ING said Monday.

The government is likely to withdraw 700 billion rubles ($22.7 billion) to 900 billion rubles from the fund by the end of the year, according to ING’s calculations. This could bring the annual usage of the oil fund to 1.2 trillion to 1.42 trillion rubles, while reducing net domestic borrowing by as much as 400 billion rubles.

(Bloomberg)

CBR sold $4bn on FX market in October http://www.businessneweurope.eu/dispatch_text13521

Renaissance CapitalNovember 9, 2010

According to the Central Bank of Russia (CBR), international reserves were at $497.1bn in October, up from $490.1bn in September. Gold reserves increased from $31.8bn to $33.3bn, implying that the CBR has bought another 30 tonnes on the open market. FX

reserves surged from $447.6bn to $452.9bn, reflecting that the effects of revaluation outweighed the CBR's sales of foreign currency.

Indeed, the CBR reported yesterday (8 Nov) that it sold $3.2bn and EUR0.4bn in October. Furthermore, the regulator has only spent $2.1bn and EUR0.3bn on its target interventions. So-called, non-target interventions were significant, accounting for $1.2bn. As of 21 Oct, the CBR had already sold $1.8bn in October, according to Sergey Shvetsov, a CBR board member. Hence, the CBR sold around $2.2bn in the end of October, selling around $300-350bn per trading day at levels above 35.85, which is in line with our expectations.

We are surprised by the released data, as our previous assessment of the CBR's FX intervention mechanism is not consistent with the data. Accounting for only $1.2bn, the non-target interventions (or "cumulative" interventions as we call them) are below our expectations (click here to view What's ruffling the rouble?, dated 28 Oct 2010). Since the regulator moves the corridor by 5 kopecks each time the volume of non-target interventions exceeds $650mn, the floating corridor was moved once in October to 32.85-36.85. As the total volume of the CBR intervention depends on the rouble-basket exchange rate, it is not discretionary and there most likely is a threshold for the amount of daily FX interventions (we estimate it at $150mn), anything above the threshold the CBR accounts for as a non-target intervention. The released data supports our view that the rouble-basket rate and FX interventions have become less predictable as the regulator switches to the floating exchange rate.

Anton Nikitin

October non-CIS imports reported at 37% y/y http://www.businessneweurope.eu/dispatch_text13521

Alfa BankNovember 9, 2010

According to the Federal Customs Service, non-CIS imports (which account for around 80% of Russia's total imports and are therefore a good proxy for total imports) slightly decelerated to 37% y/y in October from 39% y/y in September owing to the base effect.

In nominal terms, October non-CIS imports amounted to $19.9bn, surpassing both the September level of $18.9bn and the August figure of $19.4bn, which was driven by a very strong one-off surge in pharma imports ahead of new regulations. We view the continuing m/m import growth as confirmation that the current environment is supportive of strong import growth, which is set to continue until the year-end. It will also most likely offset the positive effect of October's higher oil prices on the trade balance, suggesting that the current account will remain weak. We therefore expect that the ruble will continue to trade at around 36.2-36.3 to the basket, and the risk of continuing depreciation remains high.

Natalia Orlova

Inflation Prompts Ignatiev to Sell 3-Month Bills: Russia Credit http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aeuTluZgQ3SI

By Denis Maternovsky and Paul Abelsky

Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Russia’s central bank plans to sell shorter-maturity debt at more frequent auctions to soak up excess cash and curb inflation without raising borrowing costs.

Bank Rossii will offer three-month notes, known as Obligatsii Banka Rossii, or OBRs, every two months instead of six-month securities every quarter, it said in a Nov. 2 statement. Demand for central bank debt due in March 2011 drove the yield down 28 basis points to 3.64 percent at an Oct. 28 auction from 3.92 percent on Sept. 14.

The changes may help Bank Rossii Chairman Sergey Ignatiev combat inflation and facilitate the government’s borrowing plan without increasing its benchmark interest rate, according to Dmitry Dudkin, the head of fixed-income research at UralSib Financial Corp. in Moscow. Unlike Brazil and China, Russia is still trying to stimulate rather than cool economic growth.

“They don’t want to raise the refinancing rate for political reasons, but inflation is a threat, so they want to sterilize as much liquidity as possible with OBRs,” Dudkin said in an interview yesterday.

The annual inflation rate reached 7.5 percent in October, up from 7 percent in September, 6.1 percent in August and 5.5 percent in July because a drought affected crops.

Russian lenders almost tripled their OBR holdings this year to 806.9 billion rubles ($26.2 billion) on Oct. 1 from 283.1 billion rubles at the start of the year, central bank data show. Banks shifted funds into government and corporate debt as the country’s uneven recovery from its record economic slump last year restrained demand for bank loans from borrowers.

Planned Sales

Bank Rossii said it will sell 1.5 trillion rubles of the new securities this month. The central bank aims to sell 5 billion rubles of the old securities at a Nov. 11 auction, according to a statement yesterday on the Micex stock exchange.

Argentina also is using short-term central bank debt to rein in liquidity. Argentina’s central bank stepped up its weekly note sales this year to help remove pesos it pumps into the monetary system as it buys dollars to build reserves and maintain a weaker peso to buoy exports.

In Russia, First Deputy Central Bank Chairman Alexei Ulyukayev said on Oct. 5 that banks’ holdings of OBRs may rise to 1.6 trillion rubles by the end of the year. The total amount of outstanding central bank bonds reached about 870 billion rubles at the start of November, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said in a Nov. 3 report.

The shift toward shorter-term debt may lead the central bank to increase OBR yields to spur demand for the notes, which will amount to “modest monetary tightening,” said Pavel Pikulev, a Moscow-based fixed-income strategist in Moscow at OAO Gazprombank, the lending arm of Russia’s gas export monopoly.

Ruble Weakens

The ruble traded at 30.785 per dollar yesterday, its weakest level since Oct. 29. Non-deliverable forwards, or NDFs, which provide a guide to expectations of currency movements and interest rate differentials and allow companies to hedge, show the ruble at 30.9975 per dollar in three months.

The yield on Russia’s dollar bonds due in 2020 rose 3 basis points to 4.210 percent, the highest since Nov. 2. The price of country’s ruble notes due August 2016 was little changed, leaving the yield 2 basis points higher at 7.21 percent.

The cost of protecting Russian debt against non-payment for five years using credit-default swaps rose 3 basis points to 131 on Nov. 5, down from this year’s peak of 217, according to CMA prices. 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.

Default Swaps

Credit-default swaps for Russia, rated Baa1 by Moody’s Investors Service, its third-lowest investment grade rating, cost 10 basis points more than contracts for Turkey, which is rated four levels lower at Ba2. Russia swaps cost as much as 40 basis points less on April 20.

The extra yield investors demand to hold Russian debt rather than U.S. Treasuries was unchanged at 198 basis points, or 1.98 percentage point, according to JPMorgan EMBI+ indexes. The difference compares with 127 for debt of similarly rated Mexico and 173 for Brazil, which is rated two steps lower at Baa3 by Moody’s.

The yieldspread on Russian bonds is 35 basis points below the average for emerging markets, down from a 15-month high of 105 in February, according to JPMorgan indexes.

Higher yields on OBRs may spur demand for Russian assets as investors seek to benefit from commodity prices and Russia’s cheaper valuations compared with its peers, Pikulev at Gazprombank said in an interview yesterday.

The outcome “could be slightly higher rates on OBRs and higher overnight interbank rate volatility,” he said.

Good for OFZs?

Bank Rossii’s new bond may bolster demand for the government’s domestic bonds, known as OFZs, as investors may prefer to rotate from the low-yielding and shorter-maturity central bank notes into OFZs, VTB Group, Russia’s second biggest lender, said in a research note Nov. 3.

While demand for central bank notes and short-term OFZ bonds overlaps, “this is the money market and an alternative to short-term central bank deposits,” Deputy Finance Minister Dmitry Pankin said in a telephone interview on Nov. 3. “There wouldn’t be a significant impact.”

Russia’s central bank has sought to spur the recovery and resisted increasing borrowing costs after 14 rate cuts. It left its main interest rates unchanged for a fifth month on concern the country’s economic rebound may be losing momentum.

Bank Rossii cited “weakening” consumer demand and “risks for the stability” of the economic recovery as it opted to maintain monetary stimulus on Oct. 29 and keep its refinancing rate at a record-low 7.75 percent.

Relative Rates

The rate is lower than Brazil’s benchmark Selic overnight rate, which policy makers increased three times this year to 10.75 percent. India’s central bank raised interest rates for a sixth time this year on Nov. 2 in Asia’s fastest round of increases, boosting the repurchase rate by a quarter-point to 6.25 percent and the reverse repurchase rate by a similar margin to 5.25 percent.

The central bank’s decision to change its OBR strategy is “important” for the market allowing Bank Rossii to exert more control over banking sector and “sterilize excessive liquidity” at the time when the bond market is “overheated,” said Alexander Ovchinnikov, vice-president at global markets at Troika Dialog, Russia’s oldest investment bank.

“They are boosting their sales, but offering banks what is an analogy of a deposit only more liquid,” he added.

To contact the reporters on this story: Denis Maternovsky in Moscow at dmaternovsky@bloomberg.net; Paul Abelsky in Moscow at pabelsky@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gavin Serkin at gserkin@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 8, 2010 16:25 EST

Business, Energy or Environmental regulations or discussions

Norilsk Nickel, Novatek, Polyus Gold, RusHydro: Russian Preview http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=avyPUC6NBjdQ

By Jason Corcoran

Nov. 9 (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 gained 1.8 percent to 1,568.26 at the close in Moscow. The dollar-denominated RTS Index rose 0.9 percent to 1,628.30.

OAO GMK Norilsk Nickel: (GMKN RX) The board of Russia’s largest miner postponed a decision on swapping a controlling stake in the OAO OGK-3 power generator for a minority stake in state-owned OAO Inter RAO UES until Nov. 22 because of “technical reasons.” The board decided that it is in Norilsk’s strategic interests to maintain and develop its own metals sales network, the company said yesterday on its website. Norilsk Nickel’s shares climbed 4.6 percent to 5,866.15 rubles on the Micex Stock Exchange.

OAO Novatek: (NOTK RX) Russia’s second-largest gas producer approved the issue of Eurobonds worth up to $1.5 billion and acquired a 51 percent stake in both OOO SeverEnergia and OAO Sibneftegas, according to a regulatory statement e-mailed yesterday. Novatek’s shares rose 1.7 percent to 262.25 rubles on the Micex Stock Exchange.

OAO Polyus Gold (PLZL RX): Gold topped $1,400 an ounce, extending a rally to a record, on investor demand for an alternative to currencies. Polyus, the country’s biggest gold producer, added 2.9 percent to 1,586.84 rubles on the Micex Stock Exchange.

OAO RusHydro (HYDR RX): Russia’s biggest producer of renewable energy is due to report under International Financial Reporting Standards. RusHydro gained 1 percent to 1.59 rubles on the Micex Stock Exchange.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jason Corcoran at Jcorcoran13@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gavin Serkin at gserkin@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 8, 2010 22:00 EST

UC Rusal's IPO price topped on Hong Kong exchange

http://www.rbcnews.com/free/20101109103828.shtml

      RBC, 09.11.2010, Moscow 10:38:28.The price of UC Rusal's shares exceeded the offering price on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for the first time since their placement, the RBC Daily newspaper reported today. According to the publication, the Russian aluminum and alumina giant's shares reached $11.2 Hong Kong dollars on Monday - 3.7 percent greater than the flotation price. Experts expect the securities to continue rising. If that is the case, a number of investors who participated in UC Rusal's IPO may start selling the company's shares.

      After UC Rusal's IPO in Hong Kong in January of this year, the company's shares dropped rapidly. During the first few hours of trade, the price of shares tumbled below $9.7 Hong Kong dollars, nearly 10 percent lower than the offering price. The lowest mark hit was $6.72 Hong Kong dollars on June 18.

      Analysts attribute the share price's current increase to a significant rise in aluminum prices. Furthermore, the company's decrease of its lots from 24,000 to 6,000 shares allowed a large number of retail investors to purchase UC Rusal's shares.

NOVEMBER 9, 2010, 3:17 A.M. ET

TransContainer Sets IPO Pricing At $8 Per GDR http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20101109-703202.html

MOSCOW (Dow Jones)--Russian Railways has priced shares in an initial public offering of its cargo unit OAO TransContainer at $80 per share or $8 per GDR, TransContainer said in a statement Tuesday.

The IPO would give TransContainer an enterprise value of $1.32 billion, counting net debt of some $210 million.

TransContainer plans to sell 5 million shares on exchanges in London and Moscow on Tuesday, including 4.65 million sold by the parent company Russian Railways.

-By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, Dow Jones Newswires; +7 495 232 9197; jacob.pedersen@dowjones.com

TransContainer prices IPO at bottom of range-sourceshttp://in.reuters.com/article/idINLDE6A80EE20101109

1:22pm IST

MOSCOW, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Russian Railways unit TransContainer has priced its London Initial Public Offering (IPO) at $8.0 per GDR, the bottom of the forecast range, a source familiar with the deal told Reuters on Tuesday.

Another banking source confirmed the pricing.

State monopoly Russian Railways is floating around 35 percent of TransContainer in London and Moscow as part of a fund raising plan to invest into new infrastructure.

The sources said the Moscow-listed shares would be priced at $80 each on the MICEX exchange.

The expected range for the GDRs has been $7.9-$9.9. (Reporting by Gleb Stolyarov, Writing by John Bowker, Editing by Andrey Ostroukh)

Mail.ru IPO Total Reaches $1 Billion After Banks Exercise Option http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a30a1RyURxPk

By Brad Cook

Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Mail.ru Group Ltd., the Russian investor in Facebook Inc., said the proceeds of its initial public offering reached $1 billion after organizers of the sale exercised their over-allotment option.

Mail.ru sold banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley bought 3.3 million depositary receipts at $27.70 each, the Moscow-based company said in a statement today.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Brad Cook at bcook7@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 9, 2010 02:08 EST

Mail.ru takes over-allotment option, raises $1 blnhttp://in.reuters.com/article/idINWLA743420101109

12:49pm IST

MOSCOW, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Russian internet investment group Mail.ru MAILRq.L said on Tuesday the joint bookrunners of its recent blockbuster London IPO had exercised an over-allotment option in full, bringing the total raised to over $1 billion.

The company, which owns 2.38 percent in social networking giant Facebook, saw its newly listed shares soar 34 percent on its debut last week. [ID:nLDE6A31SA]

The bookrunners are Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan.

(Reporting by John Bowker; Editing by Andrey Ostroukh)

Sale of 10% stake in VTB will be organized in accordance with Russian law

http://www.businessneweurope.eu/dispatch_text13521

Alfa BankNovember 9, 2010

Various media sources report that the government has specified the main parameters of the sale of a 10% stake in VTB. The deal will be organized in accordance with Russian law and not UK law as previously rumored. Bank of America Merrill Lynch was named as the main organizer of the deal. According to the bank's CEO Andrey Kostin, the terms of the deal, including the price, should be finalized by the end of November this year.

A change in legislation in May this year means that the deal is now possible under Russian law, as the obligatory offering of government assets through an auction or tender offer was canceled. The government is currently allowed to sell its assets directly to investors owing to the passing of a special Act. We believe that carrying out the deal in accordance with Russian law lowers risks.

Leyla Sharifullina

Vnesheconombank holding road-show for new Eurobond http://www.cbonds.info/em/eng/news/index.phtml/params/id/474870

Vnesheconombank is holding road-show for a new Eurobond on November 8-9, according to Uralsib Capital. The issue details are not disclosed. The issue is planned as a benchmark and will be issues under Reg S and 144А rules.Issuer profile: Vnesheconombank (VEB) was founded in 1924 and is one of the oldest Russian banks well known to the world community. VEB is a specialized financial institution 100% owned by the state. VEB’s activities have been evaluated by the world’s leading rating agencies. The Bank’s short-term and long-term credit ratings are in line with Russia’s sovereign credit rating. Vnesheconombank auditor is Ernst & Young, one of the leading international auditing companies. During its multi-year activities the Bank established wide international ties and acquired a reputation of a first-class banking institution. Vnesheconombank gained unique

experience in serving intergovernmental agreements, as well as large-scale projects implemented under interstate agreements and governmental programs. Vnesheconombank’s top priority task is to promote national interests. Since last year, by implementing the Government’s decisions in the field of promoting banking sector, VEB has done its best to fulfill this task and is not developing its commercial business. Among the Bank’s top-priority lines of activities are the following: Vnesheconombank is responsible for serving government programs and projects both abroad and inside the country, and at the stage of preparing these projects and programs, experts of the Bank are engaged in examining their financial and economic feasibility, efficiency and profitability. An important line of VEB’s activities is to establish efficient governmental mechanisms to promote Russian exports. Based on the world’s practice, specifically, the experience of OECD member-states and with due regard to all WTO requirements and standards, VEB is developing mechanisms designed to help Russian export companies to gain access to the world market. Vnesheconombank owns 95% of Roseximbank – an institution charged with putting these mechanisms into effect. Vnesheconombank being the agent for the Pension Fund of Russia (PFR) is responsible for investing PFR’s funds. The Bank is doing its utmost to place these funds in the best possible way to achieve profitability targets. This January, the Bank was appointed as State-Run Managing Company in charge of trust management of citizens’ pension savings. Russian citizens did not select a private managing company to place these funds. VEB is in charge of keeping records of, servicing and repaying, the government foreign debt. The Bank is also responsible for the record-keeping of foreign financial assets. Vnesheconombank specialists participate in making arrangements for and holding negotiations with foreign creditors and debtors and act as members of intergovernmental commissions.

Outstanding issues:  2 issue(s) outstanding worth USD 3 600 000 000  2 issue(s) outstanding worth RUR 25 000 000 000

Issuer's rating:Moody's Investors Service Baa1/Stable Int. Scale (foreign curr) 23.03.2009Moody's Investors Service Baa1/Stable Int. Scale (loc. curr.) 23.03.2009Standard & Poor's BBB/Stable Int. Scale (foreign curr.) 22.12.2009Standard & Poor's BBB+/Stable Int. Scale (loc. curr.) 22.12.2009Fitch Ratings BBB/Stable Int. Scale (foreign curr.) 10.09.2010Fitch Ratings BBB/Stable Int.l Scale (local curr.) 10.09.2010

Listing a test for Russia’s rail reformhttp://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/07399a04-eac3-11df-b28d-00144feab49a.html#axzz14ldAhIPI

By Courtney Weaver in London

Published: November 8 2010 05:00 | Last updated: November 8 2010 05:00

TransContainer, Russia’s biggest rail freight operator, will begin trading in London and Moscow this week in the maiden offering of the Kremlin’s biggest sale of state assets since the 1990s.

The Russian government plans to sell up to $60bn in state assets over the next three years, including a stake in the fully state-owned Russian Railways, TransContainer’s parent company.

The deal also marks the first big offering of Russian Railways’ multibillion-dollar fundraising programme, designed to bring its Soviet-era rail infrastructure into the 21st century.

The listing is seen by Russian Railways as a referendum on its wider reforms and its ability to come back to western capital markets in the future.

“For us, TransContainer is important to test Russian Railways’ ability to create a subsidiary as an independently-run and efficient business to present to investors,” said Dmitry Novikov, chairman of TransContainer and an adviser at Russian Railways.

TransContainer is expected on Monday to price its offering at up to $480m. On Tuesday it will begin conditional trading on Moscow’s two main bourses and on the London Stock Exchange in the form of depositary receipts.

Russian Railways plans to sell 35 per cent minus two shares of the company, giving the subsidiary a valuation of up to $1.6bn.

Bankers working on the deal said TransContainer had seen strong interest from emerging market investors and infrastructure specialists looking to tap into the strong growth of Russia’s freight industry.

JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Troika Dialog are joint global coordinators and bookrunners on the offering.

But analysts warned that investors would have to balance the company’s growth potential with the drawbacks that usually come with being a minority investor in a company whose principal shareholder is controlled by the Russian state.

“Nobody knows what kind of shareholder Russian Railways will end up being. Hopefully they will end up being good corporate citizens but in past experience state companies had a mixed track record,” said Alexander Kazbegi, a transportation analyst at Renaissance Capital.

Minority investors of Transneft, the oil pipeline monopoly, for instance, have a 22 per cent equity stake in the company but no voting rights. Shareholders have also criticised the company’s historically small dividend pay-outs.

“Russian Railways, as a 100 per cent government-owned entity, is just one layer between the Russian government and TransContainer. If the Russian government decides to do something, Russian Railways, and hence TransContainer, will just be a pure conduit of their decision,” Mr Kazbegi said.

Mr Novikov acknowledged the concerns about investing in state-owned companies and the “potential conflict of [shareholders’] interest with the state” and the fear that the “state may change the rules in its favour”.

But he insisted these concerns did not apply to TransContainer as it was not a state-owned company but a subsidiary of one.

“Our interests are aligned with all other shareholders, and by law we must treat all rolling companies in a similar way,” he said. “We have no legal right to charge our subsidiaries in a different way, thus getting benefits from its operating activity.”

Stores Probed for Using English http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/stores-probed-for-using-english/422012.html

09 November 2010The Moscow Times

Stores that use English words in banners outside their establishments are facing a crackdown by antitrust authorities.

The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service has opened investigations into a chain of fast-food restaurants, a cafe and a sportswear store, all of which face fines for using English words in their advertising banners.

The companies targeted include Yaposhka-City, which owns Yaposha, a chain of Japanese fast-food restaurants; Trade Retail, owner of Bogner sportswear store; and Potential, owner of Bar BQ Cafe, the Moscow branch of the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service said in a statement Monday.

Yaposha faces punishment over a banner reading "Happy New Menu," which only had the last word — Menu — in Russian. Trade Retail's English-language banner read "Bogner New Collection," and Potential's October advertisement for Bar BQ Cafe used the English word "Halloween."

Federal law bans the use of foreign words in advertising. The companies face fines of 100,000 to 500,000 rubles ($3,250 to $16,250), a spokeswoman for the anti-monopoly service told The Moscow Times.

The service will consider punishment against Yaposhka-City on Nov. 24, Trade Retail on Nov. 25, and Potential on Nov. 29.

The companies had no immediate comment on the banners.

Many companies use English in their advertising, and the anti-monopoly service did not explain why it decided to single out these three companies and whether other companies might also face fines.

Nov. 8, 2010, 9:15 a.m. EST

GE Energy Opens Russian Technology Complex to Bring Energy Solutions Closer to Customers Throughout the Regionhttp://www.marketwatch.com/story/ge-energy-opens-russian-technology-complex-to-bring-energy-solutions-closer-to-customers-throughout-the-region-2010-11-08?reflink=MW_news_stmp

Grand Opening of World-Class Facility will Create Opportunities for High-Tech Jobs, Training and Service Capabilities for Innovative Russian Customers

MOSCOW, Nov 08, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Bringing its business closer to its customers throughout the region, GE /quotes/comstock/13*!ge/quotes/nls/ge (GE 16.71, -0.02, -0.12%) today celebrated the grand opening of its Energy Technology Center in Russia, located 180 kilometers outside of Moscow in the Kaluga Region. The new technology center will manufacture and service advanced power generation equipment throughout the region, helping customers keep their power plants running more reliably and efficiently. A report by the World Bank Group estimated that realizing its full energy efficiency potential could save Russia up to $80 billion annually.

The creation of the Kaluga Energy Technology Center supports GE's strategy to tailor many of GE Energy's products and services for the local market while growing the business' base of highly skilled engineers in the country. These activities were designed to align with Russia's technological and energy modernization goals.

The grand opening was attended by John Krenicki, GE vice chairman and president and CEO of GE Energy; Anatoly Dmitrievich Artamonov, governor of the Kaluga Region; and other key representatives from the Russian government and the U.S. Embassy.

"The opening of GE's Energy Technology Center in Kaluga is a significant example of a successful partnership between Russia and foreign business in the high-tech arena and will create additional employment opportunities in the region," said Governor

Artamonov. "We are glad to support GE Energy in its contribution to one of Russia's most important priorities--to increase energy efficiency in the power generation sector. I wish GE every success as they help Russia move towards achieving this objective."

Through the new center, GE will further expand its footprint in Russia and provide opportunities for local employment and training in high-tech engineering jobs. By the end of 2010 GE Energy plans to have approximately 300 employees in Russia--with future plans for significant expansion.

"Russia is an energy powerhouse and central to our strategy short, medium and long term," said Krenicki. "The opening of the Energy Technology Center underscores GE's commitment to invest in the future of Russia and its people. It is a key part of our strategy to support our customers in Russia with the latest technologies and services across the full spectrum of the energy landscape, including power generation, water, energy services and oil and gas. It also supports our global initiative to invest and expand our presence in promising growth regions worldwide. We are accelerating the localization of our capabilities to better compete and partner for success."

The Kaluga Technology Center follows the dedication last week of GE Energy's Oil & Gas Technology Center in Boufarik, Algeria.

GE signed the agreement to construct the technology center in March 2009 with the government of the Kaluga region, the Kaluga Region Development Corporation and the administration of Kaluga City. The finished facility has opened just 20 months later. Supporting the concepts of energy efficiency and environmental responsibility, the Energy Technology Center features fresh-filtered air systems, heat-reflecting windows and water-saving technologies.

The Energy Technology Center will offer innovative products and services that are tailored to meet the specific needs of customers in the region. Initially, the new center will offer services for GE power generation equipment that is installed in Russia and the CIS. In later phases, the facility will add manufacturing capabilities, to support GE's growing presence in the Russian energy sector. The site has room for significant expansion and may include other GE business units in the future.

The Kaluga facility is one of twelve GE Energy technology centers located around the globe. GE has been active in Russia since the 1920s and today offers a full range of products and services for the country's energy sector, from oil and gas exploration and production through power generation.

Severstal to extend shutdown at Sparrows Pointhttp://news.alibaba.com/article/detail/metalworking/100412748-1-severstal-extend-shutdown-sparrows-point.html

Published: 08 Nov 2010 23:47:40 PST

Russian steelmaker Severstal announced Thursday that hot rolled operations at its steel mill in Sparrows Point, Maryland will remain idled through March of next year.

Severstal had originally planned to reopen the mill at the start of 2011, but cited existing market conditions for the change.

The company is hopeful, however, that market conditions would improve enough next year to warrant a production increase. 

http://news.alibaba.com/article/detail/metalworking/100412748-1-severstal-extend-shutdown-sparrows-point.html

Selected Stores to Start iPad Sales This Monthhttp://www.times.spb.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=32870

By Anastasia GolitsynaVedomostiMOSCOW — Sales of Apple’s iPad will officially begin in Russia after the November holidays, and although mobile operators will not be selling the popular tablets independently, they are already planning special Internet rates.

Mobile TeleSystems and VimpelCom are preparing new rates for iPad users, spokeswomen for the two mobile operators, told Vedomosti.

The exact terms of the pricing have yet to be determined. MTS will offer an unlimited rate with payment charged from the user daily, said the company’s spokeswoman Irina Osadchaya, adding that those terms were Apple’s preference.

An Apple spokesperson declined to comment on the matter.

MTS said its iPad plan would also take into account the services most frequently used on the device — sending e-mail, browsing the web and watching videos on YouTube. The tablet uses less data than mobile devices connecting by modem, Osadchaya said.

The unlimited iPad rate will include less traffic, but it will also be less expensive than modem-based mobile Internet plans. MTS’ monthly rate for its MTS-Connect plan is 790 rubles ($26).

MegaFon is not preparing a special offer for iPad users. The company already has mobile Internet rates that are available for the microSIM cards used in Apple’s tablet, spokeswoman Tatyana Ivanova said.

Sources at mobile device retailers said the basic iPad model, with a 16-gigabyte hard drive, would cost about 19,900 rubles ($650), while the 64-GB model would cost about

37,000 rubles ($1,200). These prices would be 30 percent and 46 percent higher than those in the United States.

The 16-GB iPad will definitely cost no more than 20,000 rubles, one of Apple’s partners in Russia said.

One Apple partner said the iPad would arrive in Russia after the long weekend celebrating National Unity Day on Nov. 4.

Mikhail Tach, executive vice president of mobile electronics retailer Svyaznoi, said he heard the tablet would arrive in mid-November.

Initially, the iPad will only be sold in three stores selected by Apple — Re:Store, Bely Veter Tsifrovoi, and M.Video.

Re:Store is registered as an Apple Premium Reseller, while the other two retailers have special departments dedicated to Apple’s products.

Apple always begins sales of new products in authorized stores that have Wi-Fi connections and specially trained staff, a second partner of the U.S. technology giant said. The tablet could later be offered in additional chains, he said.

Spokespeople for MTS and VimpelCom, which operates the Beeline brand, said talks on iPad sales were under way. A source at one of the mobile operators said he hoped that the iPad would be available in his company’s stores after the New Year’s holiday.

Svyaznoi will not carry the iPad and is instead going to sell a rival tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Yevroset president Alexander Malis said the retailer was also holding talks with Apple. He said they were discussing whether the iPad would be in Yevroset stores from the first day of Russian sales or 30 days later. In any event, Yevroset will offer the iPad, Malis added.

FAW Haima assembly plant in Russia goes into operationhttp://autonews.gasgoo.com/china-news/faw-haima-assembly-plant-in-russia-goes-into-opera-101109.shtml

By Amanda Zheng  From Gasgoo.comNovember 09, 2010

Shanghai November 9 (Gasgoo.com) FAW Haima Motor Co, a Hainan island-based subsidiary of FAW, has recently put into operation its KD plant in Russia, which will initially produce the Haima 3 sedan Haima 3 hatchback models.

Nine hundred Haima cars are expected to be manufactured at the plant by the end of the year, with the first batch delivered to local dealers around November 15.

The new plant, located in Cherkessk, Russia, is reportedly a subsidiary of Derways Automobile Company, partly controlled by Russian Mercury Group. Operating two shifts, the plant can produce 100,000 vehicles per year, with nearly 2,500 employees needed in the whole manufacturing process, such as welding, painting, assembly, etc..

FAW Haima said earlier that it has completed construction of its sales network in Russian in July this year, and will open more KD plants in other countries.

Haima is the fourth Chinese brand assembled at the plant in Cherkessk, which also builds Lifan and Geely cars, as well as bodies for Great Wall vehicles, sources said.

For the Record http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/for-the-record/422032.html

09 November 2010

The Central Bank said Monday that it sold $3.2 billion and 437.6 million euros in October, the most since January 2009. (Bloomberg)

LUKoil paid back the remaining $567 million on a three-year, $1.2 billion loan ahead of schedule and using its own funds, the oil producer said Monday, having repaid about $500 million on the loan in September. (Bloomberg)

Sberbank’s purchase of Sistema’s Detsky Mir was approved by shareholders of the children’s retail chain, the holding said Monday, and will involve 743 new shares, equivalent to 25 percent plus one share, for about 4.6 million rubles ($153,000) each. (Bloomberg)

Activity in the Oil and Gas sector (including regulatory)

Rosneft Ups Output Target http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/rosneft-ups-output-target/421916.html

08 November 2010

Rosneft raised its target for output growth to 7 percent to 7.5 percent this year, the company said in a statement.

Last month Rosneft raised its 2010 growth forecast to as much as 6 percent from 4.5 percent from the previous year. Output may exceed 119 million tons this year, according to the statement released last week.

(Bloomberg)

NOVATEK acquires 51% in Sibneftegaz http://www.businessneweurope.eu/dispatch_text13521

VTB CapitalNovember 9, 2010

News: NOVATEK's Board of Directors has approved the acquisition of 51% of the shares of Sibneftegaz, with Gazprombank presumably being the seller. Sibneftegaz holds licences to develop oil and gas condensate fields within the following licence areas located in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Region: Beregovoye, Hadiryahinskoye, Pyreinoye gas condensate field and Zapadno-Zapolyarnoye gas field, with combined ABC1+C2 reserves of 395.5bcm of natural gas and 8.4mmtn of gas condensate. The price of the deal is unknown. Sibneftegaz is an upstream gas company, 51% of which belongs to Gazprombank and 49% to Itera. The company expects 2010 gas production at 12bcm.

Our View: The deal would add around 14% to NOVATEK's proved and probable reserves and 19% to the company's production. We view the deal as potentially value-additive for NOVATEK but are not making any changes to our forecasts at this stage until more details have become available. We note that unlike previous acquisitions, Sibneftegaz is already at the production phase. This implies some upside to near-term earnings, adding appeal to NOVATEK's current high P/E multiple of 21.5x.

LUKOIL granted export duty holidays for its North Caspian fields from Dec 2010 http://www.businessneweurope.eu/dispatch_text13521

Renaissance CapitalNovember 9, 2010

Event: Today (9 Nov), several newspapers reported that the Customs Union Commission has reduced export duties for LUKOIL's Korchagina and Filanovskogo fields in the North Caspian region, effective from Dec 2010. According to an unidentified representative of the commission, both fields will be subject to the same export duty rate as is applicable to Vankor ($98.8/tonne for December). The Russian government will be reviewing this duty on a monthly basis in the future.

Action: Given that these tax breaks were widely expected, we think the news is neutral for LUKOIL.

Rationale: The introduction of tax breaks comes one month earlier than originally

expected; however, the general expectation was that the field would enjoy a zero export duty, rather than just a reduced rate. The Caspian province is to be LUKOIL's only significant growth area in Russia, accounting for 13% of its total Russian crude output in 2015, on our estimates. At the same time, the expected contribution from the Yuri Korchagin field (which was launched this year and is the only producing field for LUKOIL in this area currently) is not that material, with a planned output of 22kbpd in 2011, just 1% of LUKOIL's estimated average daily production in 2011.Ildar Davletshin

LukOil repays loan ahead of schedulehttp://www.stockmarketwire.com/display/?id=4001389&sectionId=standardNews

StockMarketWire.com - Russia oil giant LukOil has repaid the remaining $567m debt under its $1.2bn three-year loan facility ahead of schedule.

The loan - raised in August 2009 - was secured by revenues from oil export contracts.

LukOil said the repayment was effected from funds generated during the three quarters of 2010 and was evidence of the group's stable financial position and a sufficient level of liquidity.

Story provided by StockMarketWire.com

09.11.2010

LUKOIL To Complete Odessa Refinery Repairs After the New Yearhttp://www.oilandgaseurasia.com/news/p/0/news/9416

LUKOIL plans to complete scheduled maintenance on its Odessa refinery just ahead of or after the New Year, LUKOIL President Vagit Alekperov said.

"We believe that after the New Year, or just before the New Year, we will complete the scheduled maintenance that we planned to do in March of next year", he said.

Alekperov noted that LUKOIL had placed all of its facilities on three-year maintenance schedules.

The work at the Odessa refinery was moved forward from the first quarter of 2011 to the fourth quarter of 2010 because of its low efficiency and stiff competition in Ukraine.

The facility has a name plate processing capacity of 2.8 million tons of oil a year.

In the first nine months of 2010, the refinery cut it processing 19 percent to 1,3 million tons, oil.ekspert reports.

Copyright 2010, Oil and Gas Information Agency. All rights reserved.

PetroNeft makes new findhttp://www.upstreamonline.com/live/article236161.ece

UK listed PetroNeft has uncovered a new oilfield with its Arbuzovskaya-1 well in licence 61 in Russia’s Tomsk Oblast region.

Upstream staff  09 November 2010 07:47 GMT

The latest discovery adds a fifth oilfield to the northern group of fields and will be included in phase two of the company’s planned development.

The well, which lies 10 kilometres east of the Lineynoye oilfield in licence 61, was spudded last month.

The upper jurassic J1, oil reservoir horizon was hit at a depth of 2566 metres. Logs indicate that the J1 interval holds 19 metres of sandstone and shale. PetroNeft said five metres of the upper most part of this interval is considered to be continuous net pay with good reservoir properties and oil saturation throughout.

The well will now be drilled to the basement, at about 2900 metres, targeting higher risk secondary objectives in the middle and lower jurassic intervals. The well should be completed by the end of November.

Arbuzovskaya is the first well of a five well exploration programme designed to potentially double the outfit’s proved plus probable reserve base within the next 12 months.

“We are delighted to commence our new exploration campaign with the discovery of a fifth oil field at licence 61,” PetroNeft chief executive Dennis Francis said today.

“This is an especially important discovery, because of the good flow rate it confirms the wider prospectivity of a number of additional structures east of the existing producing Lineynoye oilfield which can be easily tied in to the central processing facilities and pipeline at Lineynoye.”

Published: 09 November 2010 07:47 GMT  | Last updated: 09 November 2010 07:48 GMT

2010-11-09

New Oil Field discovery at Arbuzovskaya

http://europeaninvestor.com/SiteFiles/company/company.asp?GUID=07ACF324CBD19E478D9E1A8146D8C44B&PressID=38122&Customer=1&CompanyCode=ie-ptr&MenuItem=91&wtLang=English

PetroNeft Resources plc (AIM: PTR), the owner and operator of Licences 61 and 67, Tomsk Oblast, Russian Federation, is pleased to announce the discovery of a new oil field at Arbuzovskaya in Licence 61.

Highlights:

Arbuzovskaya No. 1 well discovers oil in main Upper Jurassic target Approximately five metres of net oil pay in J1 interval Open hole inflow test of 289 bopd (unstimulated) Drilling continuing with secondary targets of Middle and Lower Jurassic

Arbuzovskaya No. 1 well

The Arbuzovskaya No. 1 well at the Arbuzovskaya (formerly Varyakhskaya) prospect located 10 kilometres east of the Lineynoye oil field in Licence 61 was spudded on 10 October 2010. The Upper Jurassic J1, oil reservoir horizon was intersected at 2,566 metres measured depth. Logs indicate that the J1 interval consists of 19.0 metres of sandstone and shale. Approximately 5.0 metres of the upper most part of this interval is considered to be continuous net pay with good reservoir properties and oil saturation throughout. An open hole test was conducted over this interval and tested at a pro-rated inflow of 289 bopd unstimulated. The oil is high quality with an API gravity of 40 degrees which is consistent with other fields in the Licence area.

The well will now be drilled to basement, at approximately 2,900 metres, targeting higher risk secondary objectives in the Middle and Lower Jurassic intervals. The well should be completed by the end of November at which stage the Company will update shareholders with the final results of the well as part of the operations update due around that time. This discovery well adds a fifth oil field to the northern group of fields and will be included in Phase 2 of the development.

Arbuzovskaya is the first well of a five well exploration programme designed to potentially double the Company’s 2P reserve base within the next 12 months.

Dennis Francis, Chief Executive Officer of PetroNeft Resources plc commented:

“We are delighted to commence our new exploration campaign with the discovery of a fifth oil field at Licence 61. This is an especially important discovery, because of the good flow rate it confirms the wider prospectivity of a number of additional structures east of the existing producing Lineynoye oil field which can be easily tied in to the central processing facilities and pipeline at Lineynoye.”

For further information, contact:

Dennis Francis, CEO, PetroNeft Resources plc +1 713 988 2500

Paul Dowling, CFO, PetroNeft Resources plc +353 1 443 3720

John Frain/Brian Garrahy, Davy (NOMAD and Joint Broker) +353 1 679 6363

Charles Berkeley/Henry Fitzgerald-O’Connor, Canaccord Genuity (Joint Broker)

+44 207 0506500

Martin Jackson/Kate Lehane, Citigate Dewe Rogerson +44 207 6389571

Joe Murray/Ed Micheau, Murray Consultants +353 1 498 0300

Highlights from the 8th Annual Oil & Gas Week: Petroneft http://www.businessneweurope.eu/dispatch_text13521

Renaissance CapitalNovember 9, 2010

Petroneft presented at Renaissance Capital's 8th Annual Oil & Gas Week yesterday (8 Nov), following the company's successful raising of $43mn last month. This morning (9 Nov), the company announced a new oilfield discovery. Key points of yesterday's presentation included the following:

• The current production level is above 2kbpd, and the company plans to reach 4kbpd of production before year- end, once all wells are put into operation and flow rates reach an optimal level.

• The company now has a fully funded development programme for its existing 2P reserves base, planning to utilise two drilling rigs at Lineynoye and drill 17 development wells, as well fraccing nine existing wells during 1Q11, followed by drilling at least another 17 wells in 2012.

• Following the successful raising of new capital, Petroneft plans to more actively participate in the upcoming licensing round in the Tomsk region, as well as look at other opportunities, mostly targeting fields with 20-30mn bbls of reserves.

• The new capital will allow the company to focus on more exploration activities at both of its licences - mainly on the Sibkraevskaya and Kondrashevskaya prospects at Licence 61 (targeting 56mn bbls of 2P reserves); and at Licence 67 (Cheremshanskaya and

Ledovoye well No 1), targeting 45mn bbls of 2P reserves.

Our target price only takes into account the 2P reserves at Licence 61 and does not include all the value of exploration assets, completely disregarding any value from Licence 67. In our view, the company is on track to exceed our production target for Licence 61. We will be reviewing our target price to reflect latest developments.

Ildar Davletshin

Highlights from the 8th Annual Oil & Gas Week: Urals Energy http://www.businessneweurope.eu/dispatch_text13521

Renaissance CapitalNovember 9, 2010

Urals Energy presented at Renaissance Capital's 8th Annual Oil & Gas week in Moscow yesterday (8 Nov). The company confirmed that its key priority for 2010 has been to achieve operating efficiency at its two remaining assets, while before its strategy was focused on debt and asset restructuring. The key points of the presentation include:

• As a result of its focus on operating efficiency, Urals Energy has reduced its head-office headcount from 120 people to just 20 people, while opex and overhead expenses at Petrosakh are down 13% in 1H10 and are down 44% and 55%, respectively, at Arcticneft.

• The company's development strategy envisages effectively doubling oil output from 2.3kbpd to about 4.9kbpd by 2012 through three new sidetracks and development wells at Petrosakh, five new development wells at Arcticneft and optimisation of waterflooding and well servicing.

• The company is looking at ways to better utilise its asset base through raising its production level, by participation in a potential auction for an exploration licence on Kalguev island (near Arcticneft), and potentially acquiring upstream assets on Sakhalin Island (near the Petrosakh production facilities).

• The company is confident that it can repay a $7mn debt obligation before year-end to Petraco, given that the proceeds just from shipping crude from Arcticneft last month amounted to over $7mn. Management also thinks the loan to Taas-Yuriakh (about $36mn) could be repaid ahead of schedule, subject to Sberbank's successful sale of this asset.

We think that Urals Energy presents a very interesting turnaround opportunity, while the current share price does not fully reflect value creation from the company's recent efforts. The fundamental value of its asset base (59.6mn bbls of 2P) is clearly more than the current market cap of about $40mn, with M&A deals or more aggressive production

growth as the two most likely options to unlock this hidden value, in our view.

Ildar Davletshin

Gazprom12:05   PRESS: Gazprom, China discuss guaranteed volumes of gas supplieshttp://www.prime-tass.com/

Russia's confirms its interest in Lotoshttp://www.wbj.pl/article-51987-russias-confirms-its-interest-in-lotos.html

9th November 2010Poland will likely oppose Russian influence on the Polish market, analyst says

State-owned Gazprom Neft, the fifth-largest oil concern in Russia, has confirmed its interest in making a bid to purchase Poland's Lotos Group, which the Treasury wants to privatize in 2011, daily Dziennik reports quoting Russian dailies Wiedomosti and Kommiersant.

According to the Russian press, deputy director general of Gazprom Nieft, Anatoly Cherner, said his company is looking at Lotos' assets, finds the Polish market interesting, and is considering making a bid for shares in Lotos, but has not made an offer yet.

Dziennik pointed out that Russian oil concerns have for a long time been trying to strengthen their position on the Polish market. For example, in 2002, Łukoil displayed interest in Lotos, but then the Treasury suspended its efforts to privatize the company.

Analyst Valery Nesterov, cited by Russian daily Kommiersant said that "Poland will probably oppose Russian influence on its market."