Russia 100210
Basic Political Developments
· Itar-Tass: Russian Prime Minister, Lithuanian President to discuss cooperation
· RIA: Putin to visit Finland for Baltic environment protection talks
· BarentsObserver: Putin to meet Stoltenberg in Finland
· BarentsObserver: -Open to dialog, but certainly not through media - Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov hits back on Sweden’s Carl Bildt that last week wrote an up-ed in the New York Times urging Russia to withdraw its tactical nuclear warheads from the Kola Peninsula.
· Zeenews: Putin calls Manmohan Singh to discuss upcoming India visit
· Itar-Tass: RF lauds NATO interested in RF position on NATO strategic concept
· Aysor.am: Lavrov, Albright to discuss NATO Strategic Concept
· KyivPost: Madeleine Albright: Former Soviet republics cannot be treated as Russia's 'sphere of interests'
· Interfax: Madeleine Albright: NATO does not accept idea of geographically distinct ‘sphere of interests‘ /Interview/
· MID.ru: Russian MFA Spokesman Andrei Nesterenko Response to Media Query on NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen’s Critical Remarks About the New Military Doctrine of Russia
· MID.ru: Russian MFA Spokesman Andrei Nesterenko Interview to RIA Novosti on the Upcoming Visit to Cuba by Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov
· Itar-Tass: Gazprom ready to invest in Ukraine gas transportation network - Russia’s gas monopoly Gazprom is ready to consider possible investments in Ukraine’s gas transportation network, Gazprom Deputy CEO Alexander Medvedev told a news conference on Tuesday.
· The Korea Herald: 'Korea, Russia on same page over N.K.' - South Korea and Russia are on the same page regarding North Korea's nuclear program and the United Nations sanctions on the impoverished state, said Lee Youn-ho, Seoul's newly appointed ambassador to Russia.
· Itar-Tass: N Korean-Russian accord remains basic interstate document – Korean ForMin: The agreement on friendship, neighbourliness and cooperation between North Korea and Russia continues to play a key role in the development of bilateral relations as the basic inter-state document, the Korean Central News Agency said on Tuesday, quoting a message, which was sent by North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun to his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the document.
· Reuters: China still stuck with Russia over gas price-report: China and Russia are still in protracted price negotiations for a tentative gas supply deal, the official China Daily reported on Wednesday, citing a Russian official.
· VladivostokTimes: Joint Project Implementation Fund to Be Created in Russia and Chinese People’s Republic - “U Bango offered to create the fund from both party (Chinese and Russian) to realize joint projects. The fund means financing. Also we need to create the mechanism – work structure, which will rule join project” ISHAYEV said.
· Blic: Possibility for larger export to Russia - ‘Serbian producers have larger possibilities for sale of their goods outside Moscow in the regions of Kaluga, Kursk, Krasnodarsk and Novosibirsk’, Milos Bugarin, President of Serbian Chamber of Commerce said in Moscow yesterday after meeting with Yevgeny Primakov, President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce.
· Premier.gov.ru: Prime Minister Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting on the Main Guidelines for Government Performance
· RIA: Large-scale war less possible, but threats remain - Russia's security chief - Russia's military policies are aimed at avoiding an arms race and military conflicts, but they should also correspond to real threats which the country faces, Russia's security chief Nikolai Patrushev said in an interview with the Russian government daily.
· RIA: Japanese fishermen to be arrested over shooting incident off South Kurils
· Reuters: Shuttle Endeavour docks with space station
· RIA: Endeavour shuttle docks with International Space Station
· AFP: Russia wants to charge more for rides to space: report
· Russia Today: Russian space agency to dictate terms
· Defpro: Sukhoi PAK FA: First Observations - Part 1 of a comprehensive overview on Sukhoi’s ambitious 5th generation fighter
· The Georgian Daily: Moscow Writers Mistaken in Treating North Caucasus Separately from Russia, KBR Scholar Says
· LA Times: Can Medvedev emulate Gorbachev? - The odds don't look good. The Russian president has repudiated key tenets of Putinism, but Putin is ignoring him.
· Itar-Tass: SKP chief calls for jury trial moratorium in North Caucasus
· RFE/RL: Daghestan Lawmakers To Vote On New President
· Foreign Policy: Dagestan: Russia's Most Overlooked Hot Spot - Why the coming weeks will only get more dangerous for the troubled North Caucasus Republic.
· The Moscow Times: Kadyrov Takes Mom's Advice, Drops Libel Case
· RIA: Russian football team needs homegrown coach - sport minister
· The Moscow Times: United Russia Doesn't Want Kudrin - United Russia does not want Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin as a member because of fundamental disagreements over economic policy, State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov said Tuesday.
· The Moscow Times: Nemtsov, Paper Must Pay Luzhkov
· The Moscow Times: City to Consider Opposition Council - The City Duma on Wednesday will consider in a crucial second reading a bill that would create a consultative council consisting of members of political parties that are not represented in the Duma.
· Itar-Tass: Perm court to announce verdict in 250-mln-rbls theft case
· Russia Today: Copycat weapons a threat to Russia's economic security
· Russia Profile: Et Tu, Brute? - America’s Plans to Install Interceptor Missiles in Romania and on the Black Sea, an Area of Historic Importance to Russia, Unnerve Moscow
· RFE/RL: French-Russian Warship Deal Making Waves Among NATO Allies
National Economic Trends
· Prime-Tass: CBR says Russia's trade surplus down 37.6% in 2009
· RenCap: Russia's trade balance strengthens to 2009 maximum in December
· Reuters: UPDATE 1-Russia c.banker says further rate cuts can wait
· The Moscow Times: Fund Interest Leads to January Surplus
· RenCap: Russia's January budget surplus not set to be sustained
Business, Energy or Environmental regulations or discussions
· Bloomberg: Rosneft, Gazprom, Norilsk Nickel: Russian Equity Preview
· Russia Today: Russian innovation companies would go for IPO in Russia – Chubais
· BarentsObserver: Drop in northern railway cargo
· BarentsObserver: Ports up in Murmansk, down in Arkhangelsk
· UralSib: Thermal Generation Companies: IES may merge all TGKs under its operational control
· BarentsObserver: TGK-1 boosted profits
· Alfa: Gazprom may challenge Inter RAO's position in electricity trading with Belarus and Baltic countries
· EmergingMarkets: Savings giant Sberbank creates investment banking unit
· RBC: VTB North-West posts higher net profit for 2009
· RenCap: VTB launchs matrix management system
· Dow Jones: Agco CEO: Lack Of Credit Hurting Russian Farm Production
· Alfa: UAC is restructuring its debt
· Bloomberg: Magnit January Sales Rise 25% to $511 Million on Added Stores
· The Moscow Times: VimpelCom Merger To Be Done by April
· The Moscow Times: Caution Urged for Russian Investors in U.S. Assets
· Reuters: Russia's Uralchem mulls stock market listing –sources
· The Financial: EBRD agrees to sell 15 percent stake in Swedbank’s Russian banking arm
· Barentsnova: Arkhangelsk and Murmansk lose SME investments
Activity in the Oil and Gas sector (including regulatory)
· RenCap: Russian crude production Organic decline slows
· UralSib: Tatneft: Bitumen oil output to rise
Gazprom
· Bloomberg: Citigroup, Gazprom Seal China Carbon-Trading Agreement, WSJ Says
· WSJ: Citigroup, Gazprom in Pioneering Energy-Credit Deal in China
· Reuters: Gazprom says could invest in Ukraine gas network
· Your Oil and Gas News: Gazprom announces commercial gas inflow reported in Abakan area
· Guardian: Scrap UK's wind farm plans, says Gazprom boss
· Upstreamonline: Gazprom knocks US shales
· Itar-Tass: EBRD to grant 150-mln-euro loan for developing Serbia’s gas infrastructure - Last week, the monopoly’s subsidiary, Gazprom-Germany and Srbijagaz signed an agreement on the setting up of the Banatski Dvor joint venture.
· Financial Times: European gas pipelines get green light - Gazprom, Russia’s state-owned gas company, expects to start construction of South Stream – which will deliver gas via the Black Sea and Bulgaria to Austria and Italy – in December after gaining Turkish approval in November. Separately, Nord Stream confirmed it was planning to begin construction in April of its pipeline beneath the Baltic to Germany in spite of delays to approval from Finland and a legal challenge by WWF, the environmental group.
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Basic Political Developments
Itar-Tass: Russian Prime Minister, Lithuanian President to discuss cooperation
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=14805691
10.02.2010,08.52
VILNIUS, February 10 (Itar-Tass) - Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskait· and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will discuss further cooperation between the two countries during their bilateral meeting in Helsinki on Wednesday.
Grybauskait· and Putin will attend the Baltic Sea Action summit convened on the initiative of the Finish president.
The Lithuanian side is expected to raise the issue of state border demarcation, said a spokesman for the Lithuanian president. Procedures to begin the demarcation process were completed in July 2009 at a Moscow meeting of the bilateral commission, although “no actual work has started yet”, he said. The stretch of the Lithuanian-Russian border (with Russia’s exclave Kaliningrad region) is 295 kilometres, including 255 kilometres of land border.
According to the spokesman, the Lithuanian president will also raise trade and economic issues, including equal, non-discriminatory work conditions on domestic markets of the two countries for Russian and Lithuanian businessmen. A major aspect in this context is promoting agreements in the area of standardization of requirements to the quality of goods and services. For instance, Lithuanian milk producers had hard times in 2009 when Russia temporarily banned Lithuanian imports because of antibiotics found in Lithuanian-produced milk products. Such antibiotic, however, are within the European Union standards, although prohibited in Russia. Harmonization of norms and standards will be in the interests of both Lithuania and Russia, the spokesman added.
RIA: Putin to visit Finland for Baltic environment protection talks
http://en.rian.ru/world/20100210/157828692.html
07:0410/02/2010
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will fly on Wednesday to Finland's capital, Helsinki, to take part in the Baltic Sea Action Summit (BSAS) and discuss bilateral cooperation with Finnish, Lithuanian, Danish and Norwegian top officials, the Kremlin has said.
Baltic Sea environmental issues have been in the focus of Baltic states' attention over Russia's plans to build the Nord Stream pipeline, intended to pump gas from Siberia to Europe under the Baltic Sea, bypassing East European transit countries.
The pipeline will pass through the waters of five countries, all of whom have approved the project, although one permit is still required from Finland.
Russian energy giant Gazprom has already signed long-term contracts to supply gas through Nord Stream to customers in several EU countries including Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and the United Kingdom.
"In his speech at the summit, [Putin] is expected to put the accent on measures that Russia has already taken to protect the unique ecological system of the Baltic Sea, and on ecological aspects of the Nord Stream construction," a Russian government spokesman said.
During his stay in Helsinki, Putin will meet with Finnish President Tarja Halonen and Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen. He is also expected to hold bilateral talks with Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite and his Danish and Norwegian counterparts, Lars Lokke Rasmussen and Jens Stoltenberg.
MOSCOW, February 10 (RIA Novosti)
BarentsObserver: Putin to meet Stoltenberg in Finland
http://www.barentsobserver.com/putin-to-meet-stoltenberg-in-finland.4744875-16178.html
2010-02-10
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is in Helsinki on Wednesday to talk environment with his Nordic and Baltic counterparts. Afterwards, a private meeting with Norway’s Jens Stoltenberg follows.
Finland’s President Tarja Halonen and Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen host the meeting when Vladimir Putin, Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf and the Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg comes to the Baltic Sea Action Summit in Helsinki today.
The aim of the summit is to bring together the public and private players operating in the area and for them to commit themselves to concrete measures to the benefit of the Baltic Sea, reportsHelsingin Sanomat.
Among the issues on the agenda will be Russia’s plans to build the Nord Stream pipeline, intended to bring gas from both Siberia, and later on the Barents Sea Shtokman field, to Germany and by that the European marked.
After the Summit, Vladimir Putin and Jens Stoltenberg will have a bi-lateral Norwegian–Russian meeting. The meeting this afternoon is the first of two important top meetings this year.BarentsObserver has earlier reported that President Dmitri Medvedev will visit Oslo later this spring, the first Presidential visit to Norway since 2002.
Last week, the Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre met with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow. Like at last week’s meeting between the Foreign Ministers, today’s meeting between Putin and Stoltenberg will also have the two countries cooperation in the Barents Region on the agenda.
Jens Stoltenberg told Norwegian reporters this morning that energy will be an important issue on the agenda in his meeting with Vladimir Putin. The Norwegian oil major Statoil is together with French Total partner with Gazprom in the Shtokman Development AG. Last week, Shtokman Development AG's board of directors decided to postpond the development of the huge gas field in the Barents Sea with three years, as reported byBarentsObserver.
In addition to cooperation within energy, Norway and Russia have the unresolved negotiations regarding the two countries disputed area in the Barents Sea. But, this issue is not officially said to be on the agenda at Wednesday’s meeting between the two Prime Ministers in Helsinki.
Another interesting issue in bi-literal talks between Norway and Russia is the proposed visa-free travel regime in the near-border areas including the Norwegian border town of Kirkenes and the Russian border towns of Nikel and Zapolyarny on the Kola Peninsula.
When Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg visited Moscow in May 2009, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told the press that he had noted the positive progress in cross-border cooperation between Norway and Russia in the north and that the two countries’ governments were preparing an agreement that would enhance this progress even more by making traveling across the border easier, as reported byBarentsObserver.
BarentsObserver: -Open to dialog, but certainly not through media
http://www.barentsobserver.com/-open-to-dialog-but-certainly-not-through-media.4744578-58932.html