MOSCOW, April 23 (RIA Novosti) Washington not interested in Moscow as equal partner/ Turkmenistan rejects Washington's stick and carrot policy/ Western experts to manage LUKoil foreign refineries/ Alrosa to pay shareholders only 14% of net profits/ Coca-Cola in St. Petersburg goes on strike
Vedomosti
Washington not interested in Moscow as equal partner
Russia remains unimpressed by Washington's missile defense cooperation proposals, which will be delivered to Moscow by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates. What Russia wants is a new strategic arms reduction agreement - a topic Washington is carefully avoiding.
Gates is to arrive in Moscow Monday to explain to President Vladimir Putin, First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov and other Russian officials the reasons why the United States needs to deploy its missile defense bases in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Shortly before Gates' visit to Moscow, The New York Times, citing sources in the U.S. government and the Pentagon, reported that the defense secretary planned to offer Moscow the opportunity to inspect its bases in Poland and the Czech Republic. It will also offer, in the long run, to embark on a broader exchange of military technologies and intelligence on shared threats, and even to integrate the two nations' missile defense shields to counter those threats.
However, Ivanov said in Yekaterinburg last Friday that U.S.-Russian strategic missile defense cooperation was not being discussed. He also underlined Russia's lack of understanding as to why U.S. anti-missile components and tracking radars have to be placed in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Such cooperation plans are unrealistic, echoed former Deputy Defense Minister Andrei Kokoshin, a member of the Russian parliament's lower house. The Russian side, as President Putin said in Munich, is interested instead in renewing discussions on reducing strategic offensive arms, Kokoshin added.
START-1, the only strategic reductions agreement containing verification mechanisms, expires in 2009, but the United States is not showing any interest in discussing a replacement, according to Yevgeny Myasnikov, an expert with a Russian think tank on disarmament problems.
Russia, on the contrary, badly needs strategic reduction talks, partly because its strategic forces are behind those of the United States and also because arms control is the only international issue on which Moscow can position itself as an equal partner of Washington, according to Mikhail Barabanov, an expert with another Moscow-based think tank. The expansion in the U.S. missile shield to Eastern Europe, even though not posing a direct military threat to Moscow, shows Washington's reluctance to consider Russia's interests, the expert concluded.
Gazeta.ru, Nezavisimaya Gazeta
Turkmenistan rejects Washington's stick and carrot policy
Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov is coming to Moscow on his first official visit to Russia and second foreign visit as president of Turkmenistan. The visit will underline the pro-Russian leanings of Turkmenistan's foreign policy, said a Russian analyst.
The Turkmen and Russian leaders will most likely discuss bilateral energy cooperation. The Russian authorities' interest in the Turkmen leader was boosted by U.S. activity in the Central Asian republic.
In March, Steven Mann, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs, visited Ashgabat to discuss the revival of the TransCaspian gas pipeline bypassing Russia.
In mid-April, Matthew Bryza, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, said the United States would open a new page in relations with Turkmenistan.
It appears, however, that this "carrot" is not enough to make Turkmenistan intensify its energy cooperation with Azerbaijan. As for the "stick" in the form of Washington officials predicting that the Taliban could possibly intensify their activities on the Afghan-Turkmen border, it can only lead to Ashgabat's allergic reaction to the idea of diluting Europe's energy dependence on Russia.
Arkady Dubnov, an expert on Central Asia, said the Turkmen leader's visit to Moscow was more than simply a courtesy visit. "Moscow-Ashgabat relations are entering a new stage, and Moscow was bound to respond to the clearly pro-Russian tendency in the policy of Berdymukhammedov," he said.
"Russian-Turkmen relations are apparently becoming commercial. It will be interesting to see how these improved relations will influence the humanitarian policies of the new Turkmen leader. He has made big promises, in particular including introducing the Russian language into the education program and releasing political prisoners. Time will show," Dubnov said.
According to the expert, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush for Ashgabat, for whom Moscow remains a real partner that pays on its contracts."
Kommersant
Western experts to manage LUKoil foreign refineries
Russia's largest oil company LUKoil is preparing to overhaul the management system for its foreign refineries and plans to utilize the experience of Houston-based international energy company ConocoPhillips, its strategic partner.
Analysts said LUKoil could establish a new team comprising Western managers working in Europe.
On Friday, LUKoil CEO Vagit Alekperov announced an imminent personnel reshuffle. The corporate press service said the downstream sector (Refining & Marketing) is to be overhauled and strengthened due to the purchase of new foreign assets, including 376 Jet gas stations from ConocoPhillips.
Alexander Vasilenko, head of LUKoil's public relations department, said corporate representatives had traveled abroad to assess the situation.
LUKoil also owns gas stations and petroleum facilities in 20 countries, as well as three refineries, one in Burgas, Bulgaria, Petrotel-LUKoil in Romania and the Odessa refinery in Ukraine, with a total capacity of 16.7 million tons of oil.
Top LUKoil managers are now responsible for refining and marketing.
"ConocoPhillips refineries all over the world handle far more oil than LUKoil," said Alfa Bank analyst Andrei Fyodorov. He said the company plans to expand refining operations and to hire more Western experts for this purpose.
Although LUKoil officials declined to say whether foreigners would replace Russian top managers, this process has already begun. On April 5, Thomas Mueller, an employee at ConocoPhillips since 1977, was appointed head of LUKoil's main oil-refining department.
Mueller, who had been an adviser to Vagit Alekperov since 2005, now oversees corporate refineries, the LUKoil press service said.
Vedomosti
Alrosa to pay shareholders only 14% of net profits
Alrosa will pay out only 2.24 billion rubles ($87.09 million) in dividends for 2006. This is just 14% of its net profits. The company is unable to pay more, because it needs to invest heavily in the deep mining of diamonds. Officials did not dispute the decision.
Alrosa is the world's second largest diamond mining company, with 37% of its shares owned by the Federal Agency for the Management of Federal Property; 32% the government of Yakutia; 8% Yakutia regions, and about 10% by Vneshtorgbank. In 2006, the company's net profits totaled 15.558 billion rubles ($604.9 million), with $2.8 billion in revenues.
Alrosa shareholders will receive 2.24 billion rubles ($87.09 million) in dividends for 2006. Last year, the company paid them 1.962 billion rubles ($76.28 million). A shareholders' meeting scheduled for June 23 is to approve the final amount of bonus payments proposed by the company's supervisory board on Friday.
Alrosa has never been over generous with its shareholders. It paid 6.6% of its net profits for 2001; 10.8% for 2002; 12.4% for 2003; 12.9% for 2004; and 13% for 2005.
The company has no use for high bonus payments. It is currently converting from an opencast system to deep mining, which is more expensive, said a source close to Alrosa. An official from the Federal Agency for the Management of Federal Property said they recommend that state-owned companies set aside 25% of profits for bonus payments. "But each decision is on an individual basis," he said.
Denis Nushtayev from IFK Metropol also does not see why Alrosa should pay high bonuses, considering its investment program. "Mineral mining companies need to siphon away large sums to maintain production," the expert said. "The federal agency's wishes are more recommendations than requirements."
Nushtayev said that Transneft always uses this method. He added that Alrosa's payments are smaller and unlikely to make its shareholders rich. Besides, the company's second largest majority shareholder is the Republic of Yakutia, which receives most of its profits by way of tax receipts from Alrosa's performance, rather than from dividends, the expert said.
Gazeta
Coca-Cola in St. Petersburg goes on strike
A series of strikes and pickets are being held at enterprises owned by major foreign companies in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region. Following the example set by the Ford assembly plant in Vsevolozhsk and the Heineken brewery in St. Petersburg, the staff at St. Petersburg's Coca-Cola has gone on strike for higher wages and economic guarantees.
Why are strikes being held at Russian subsidiaries of foreign companies? Trade union leaders said one of the reasons was staff development and training in the parent company located outside Russia.
Strikes at Russian enterprises owned by Russians are less frequent and smaller in scale.
Yury Milovidov, executive director of the Center for Assistance to Trade Unions and Civil Initiatives, said workers observe during their training abroad "that they assemble cars that cost as much in Russia as on foreign markets, yet their salaries are ten times smaller than those of their European or U.S. colleagues."
Strikes become a real threat when workers who have acquired Western experience start protesting against the purely Russian attitude of their management. "Strikes become inevitable when the director says the workers have never had their own opinion and should forget about their rights," Milovidov said.
Alexander Shokhin, president of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, said: "Workers at multinational corporations located in Russia know that their colleagues abroad have better working conditions and social packages. They want to move up to their level in a common labor market, which we do not have yet for a variety of reasons, including labor efficiency."
At the same time, Shokhin, who is sometimes described as the head of "the trade union of oligarchs," has recommended the trade unions "to moderate their actions and carefully analyze the potential consequences."
He said: "In fact, multinational corporations locate their plants in those countries where they can save on outlays. If workers there start fighting for the average corporate wage and social privileges generally provided at the said corporation, the plants will be moved to other countries, for example Africa."
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