Russia 091204 Basic Political Developments

Reuters: Ukraine says pays Nov Russian gas bill on time

KIEV, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Ukrainian state energy firm Naftogaz said on Friday it had paid on time and in full its bill for Russian gas imports in November.

"We have paid in full," Naftogaz spokesman Valentyn Zemlyansky told Reuters.

The bill totalled $770 million, the finance ministry said earlier this week. (Reporting by Pavel Polityk; writing by Sabina Zawadzki) ((Kiev bureau; tel: +380 44 244 9150; RM: sabina.zawadzki.reuters.com@reuters.net))

Gazeta.kz: Ukraine may join Customs Union

Ukraine may join the Customs Union. The President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, informed today at the meeting with the plenipotentiary of the President of Russia in Privolzhsky Federal District, Grigory Rapota, Kazakhstan Today agency reports citing BELTA agency.

A. Lukashenko said that having signed the contract on creation of the Customs Union, Belarus insisted that creation of the uniform economic space would not be delayed. "We see how Russia limits trade with Belarus - through banks, health officials, and others, but it will be impossible to do in the uniform economic space."

"We could create the uniform economic space in 2010, but, I think, it would be too much work. Therefore, I believe that we will agree that we will create the uniform economic space within one and a half years in Almaty on December 18," A. Lukashenko noted.

bne
December 4, 2009

An Armenian-Russian joint venture is to be set up to build a new power-generating unit for Armenia’s new nuclear power plant.

The joint venture will be owned on a parity basis by the Armenian government and Russia’s Atomstroyexport. Each will contribute 30 million dram (around $77,000) to its charter capital, Interfax reports.

Armenian Diaspora: Armenia Picks Russian Technology For New Nuclear Plant

Friday, 04 December 2009 14:10

/Azatutyun.am/ Hovannes Shoghikian - Armenia’s government unveiled on Thursday plans to create a Russian-Armenian joint venture tasked with building a nuclear power station in place of the aging Soviet-era facility at Metsamor by 2017.

Ministers also approved the overall design and main technical parameters of the plant’s reactor to be purchased from Russia. With a projected capacity of just over 1,000 megawatts, it would be more than twice as powerful as Metsamor’s sole operating reactor which generates roughly 40 percent of the country’s electricity.

“We are making a political decision today,” Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian said during a cabinet meeting. “We are agreeing to set up a joint venture with our Russian partners with a 50/50 ratio.

This fits into the strategy of building a new nuclear plant which we approved at a [recent] meeting of the National Security Council.”

In accordance with the decision, the joint venture will be set up by the Armenian government and a state-run Russian company, Atmostroyexport. The new plant is to have a Russian AES-92 pressurized light-water reactor with what Energy and Natural Resources Minister Armen Movsisian described as a “European safety certificate.”

Movsisian told fellow cabinet members that the decision is based on the recommendations of WorleyParsons, an Australian engineering company that was chosen by the government in May to manage its extremely ambitious nuclear project.

AES-92 is a new generation of the Soviet-era VVER reactors that has been licensed by regulatory authorities in Russia and declared to meet safety requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The government instructed Movsisian’s ministry to start preparations for supply contracts with Russian nuclear energy companies.

Vahram Petrosian, director of a Yerevan-based research institute specializing in atomic energy, welcomed the choice of the reactor, saying that Russian nuclear facilities are “among the best in the world” not least because of the quality of their metal casings. “It is well known in the world that Russian metal is good metal,” he told RFE/RL.

Petrosian noted at the same time that the government should purchase and install other, “auxiliary” segments of the new plant from Western manufacturers. “In my view -- and I think this is what is going to be done -- it would be right for some of those auxiliary systems to be American-made,” he said.

“A lot also depends on measurement and control devices,” added the nuclear scientist. “It is important to make the right choice of device operators. They can, for example, be obtained from France.”

The government has still not answered the key lingering question of who will finance the planned work on Metsamor’s replacement. The total cost of the project is estimated at a whopping $5 billion, a sum twice higher than Armenia’s state budget for this year. The initial authorized capital of the Russian-Armenian venture will stand at a symbolic 60 million drams ($156,000).

Movsisian has repeatedly stated that Yerevan will succeed in finding foreign investors interested in the project. He said in May that the construction work will start by the beginning of 2011.

“The process of constructing the atomic plant is going smoothly,” Prime Minister Sarkisian insisted on Thursday.

FT.com: ‘Good tsar’ Putin revels in TV role

By Charles Clover in Moscow

Published: December 3 2009 19:48 | Last updated: December 3 2009 19:48

Vladimir Putin, Russia’s prime minister, offered his opinion on everything from the legacy of Joseph Stalin to how to pronounce the word yoghurt on Thursday in a four-hour call-in show that has become one of the annual staples of the Russian political scene. In a bravura performance, Mr Putin reinforced his stature as Russia’s hegemonic political figure at a time when he appears to be facing criticism from his friend and protégé, Dmitry Medvedev, president, who casts himself as a comparative liberal.

Mr Putin made it clear on Thursday that he had no intention of leaving the political scene. “Don’t hold your breath,” he said in response to a caller asking this question.

The call-in show, which Mr Putin does once a year, reinforces his status as a man of the people, a “good tsar” in the words of one Moscow political expert, capable of resolving every issue, no matter how small. Callers phone in from across Russia’s 11 time zones, and no request is deemed too insignificant, especially if it plays well with pollsters.

He offered to help one caller find a job, gave advice on the minutiae of a pension application to another, in addition to discussing Iran’s nuclear capability, international terrorism and Russia’s economic prospects.

Mr Putin clearly pitched his answers at a particular demographic – the so-called “Putin Majority”, which sociologists identify as Russia’s lower and middle income voters who watch four hours or more of television each day. Playing to this audience, Mr Putin singled out the wealthy for criticism following a scandal last month in Switzerland, when Russian youths crashed two expensive sports cars near Lake Geneva, injuring a 70-year-old pensioner.

“In the Soviet times, some of our rich showed off their wealth by having gold teeth put in, preferably at the front.

“The Lamborghinis and other pricey knickknacks – they are simply today’s gold teeth which are shown off to everybody,” he said.

He was also asked about a controversial change to Russian pronunciation. “Do you drink yoghurt [accented first syllable] or yoghurt [accent on second]?” asked the caller. “Neither one, I drink Kefir,” said Mr Putin, scoffing at foreign fermented milk drinks in favour of native Russian fare.

Mr Putin’s knack for people politics, performing on TV in particular, is without doubt unique among his Soviet-era peers. Despite his background in the KGB, he has made the transition to television personality seem effortless. “He has the rating of a pop star or a sports hero,” said Gleb Pavlovsky, a top political consultant, in an interview earlier this year.

His popularity rating hovers between 55 per cent and 70 per cent, dented slightly in recent weeks by the economic crisis. Mr Medvedev trails by six to 10 points.

On the controversial topic of Stalin, the former Soviet dictator who sent millions to their deaths in the infamous Gulags, Mr Putin said: “It is impossible to make a general judgment. It is evident that, from 1924 to 1953, the country that Stalin ruled changed from an agrarian to an industrial society.”

However, he added: “The positives that undoubtedly existed were achieved at an unacceptable price. Repressions did take place. This is a fact. Millions of our fellow citizens suffered.”

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