MOSCOW, April 25 (RIA Novosti) Russian Railways wants to run a line in Saudi Arabia/Turkey seeks to control Russian oil/Russia set to expand its nuclear power industry/Israel will not export weapons to Georgia/PwC goes to court to challenge search and document seizure
Vedomosti
Russian Railways wants to run a line in Saudi Arabia
Russian Railways, or RZD, Russia's state-owned railroad monopoly, has not given up on its plans to begin operating in Saudi Arabia, the only country on the Arabian Peninsula with a rail network.
After losing the tender to build a section of the North-South line, the company has decided to bid for the right to run it.
The tender to select suppliers of traffic control equipment and rolling stock and to choose a management company for the road under construction will be announced in a month's time, when the commission concerned shortlists the participants.
A branch 2,400 kilometers (1,492 miles) long will go into operation in 2012. A contract with the operator will be concluded for five years.
The North-South project was launched in 2005 to exploit phosphate and bauxite deposits in the north and reduce the economy's dependence on oil exports.
Anatoly Volodin, CEO of the RZD Trading House (set up last March to promote the company on international markets) said that the monopoly sent a "letter of interest" to Saudi Arabia April 14.
RZD wants to take part in two tenders: one to run the line and the other to equip it, he said.
"It is not a business plan, but a demonstration of the company's possibilities," he added.
It is not the monopoly's first attempt to work in Saudi Arabia. Last year, the company participated in a tender to build a section of the North-South line but lost, the RZD top manager said. Now the monopoly has another chance, he said.
If RZD wins, it will choose a partner from among local companies, said the CEO without citing any names.
RZD is one of the world's largest transport companies and specializes in freight carriage, said Sergei Guriyev, rector of the Russian School of Economics.
That is its competitive edge, because North-South is being built above all to transport cargo.
However, Yevgeny Satanovsky, president of the Institute of the Middle East, did not share the manager's optimism.
He said that to win a tender required close contacts with influential members of the royal family and prestigious local partners to sponsor the project.
In addition, not a single country in the East has ever had or will ever have independent management companies, he said.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
Turkey seeks to control Russian oil
Ankara has made yet another attempt to gain control of Russian and Kazakh oil passing through the busy Bosporus Strait and the Dardanelles.
The two-year Samsun-Ceyhan Pipeline Project (SCP) was launched Tuesday.
The project to lay a pipeline with a capacity of 50 million metric tons connecting Turkey's Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts will jeopardize Russia's plans to lessen its transit dependence on Turkey by re-channeling Russian and Kazakh oil through another new pipeline, Burgas-Alexandroupolis.
The latter project is to be launched in 2008.
Turkey's plenipotentiary ambassador to Russia said last week that Ankara's energy strategy included "all measures aimed at becoming a fuel-transit hub" because his country was located on the Asia-Europe crossroads.
The Burgas-Alexandroupolis project looks better according to Russian experts: the pipeline will be much shorter than in SCP (280 kilometers compared to 550 kilometers, or 175 miles and 350 miles) and its construction cheaper ($1 billion against $1.5 billion).
On the other hand, work will only begin in late 2008 and will take two or three years, whereas the Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline will begin operating by the summer of 2009, according to the Turkish-Italian consortium (Calik Energy and ENI).
Greek Minister for Development Dimitris Sioufas said in parliament a few days ago that the Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline would not begin operating before late 2010 or early 2011. The time frame seriously affects the project's competitiveness.
Kazakhstan will benefit the most from both projects, because Astana is interested in diversifying its oil traffic regardless of the specific routes.
According to Georgy Fast, an investment expert with the Russian engineering company 2K, Kazakhstan can count on the increased capacity of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium in any case, or it can join the trans-Balkan project along with U.S. Chevron.
Gazeta
Russia set to expand its nuclear power industry
On Tuesday, Sergei Kiriyenko, director of the Federal Agency for Nuclear Power, said Moscow would construct fewer nuclear power plants worldwide from now on.
That sensational statement was probably aimed at pleasing Washington, which has opposed construction of the Bushehr NPP in southern Iran from the very outset.
Or perhaps Moscow has decided that it cannot simultaneously implement numerous ambitious projects both in Russia and elsewhere.
Foreign contracts have propped up the national nuclear power industry in the past. But the abundance of petrodollars is now prompting Moscow to focus on domestic development.
Kiriyenko said the agency is negotiating possible foreign tenders less actively because the national nuclear power industry program has now become a top priority.
Russia, the world's largest exporter of nuclear technologies, is currently building five reactors in Iran, China and India. Moreover, it was recently awarded a contract to build two reactors at the Belene NPP in Bulgaria.
In addition to budgetary funding, foreign contracts facilitate construction of Russian NPPs, because it takes $1.5-$2.5 billion to complete one reactor on the global market.
But it is common knowledge that Iran has not been making regular payments for the Bushehr project.
Kiriyenko said the agency, which was quite eager to fulfill foreign contracts 18 months or even a year ago, now chooses them more carefully.
"That means we will no longer rush to implement any project, including those in Iran," Viktor Opekunov, chairman of the subcommittee on atomic energy of the State Duma, said.
The Federal Agency for Nuclear Power would from now on bid in international tenders only if it has the resources to carry out the project.
The 10 operational Russian NPPs have 31 reactors generating 16% of the country's electricity, and they will account for 25% by 2030.
The agency said 10 nuclear reactors would be commissioned by 2015, and another 10 would be under construction by that time.
"A number of construction sites will be set up all over Russia. But we must also keep in mind that only three reactors were built in the last 15 years," Opekunov said.
Novye Izvestia
Israel will not export weapons to Georgia
Arms export is a top issue in Israel these days.
First, the United States urged it not to sell weapons to China and India.
Next, Israel tried to convince Washington to limit arms exports to Arab countries.
And finally, Israel has decided not to sell weapons to "a former Soviet republic," referring to Georgia.
Fearing that the sale could worsen its relations with Russia, Israel canceled an arms export deal with a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
The official statements of the Israeli government do not mention the state in question, but local analysts are convinced it is Georgia.
Roni Milo, the former mayor of Tel Aviv-Jaffa who is doing business with Georgia and is an adviser to Georgia's defense minister, acted as the intermediary in the deal.
However, a source in Israel's defense ministry told Novye Izvestia that Russia's political weight is much greater than the aggregate weight of all other former Soviet republics.
He said: "The republic, which has not been named in any publication, may complain about Israel's decision to its overseas friend, but the Americans are unlikely to force Israel to conclude a deal from which they would not benefit."
Local experts said that Israel, which has been working hard to prevent Russian arms deliveries to Syria, decided not to irk Moscow this time, in order to "protect its state interests."
The Israeli government has been wary of such deals after the scandal involving an attempt to sell Israeli-made weapons to India and China, which the Americans blocked.
In particular, it stopped the sale of the missile defense system Hetz (Arrow) to Turkey at Washington's request.
Kommersant
PwC goes to court to challenge search and document seizure
PricewaterhouseCoopers Audit has appealed to the Moscow Arbitration Court against the search and document seizure carried out by the Interior Ministry's investigating committee without a court order.
If the complaint is granted, the documents seized may not be used as evidence against the company. That could help PwC rescind the rulings on tax claims and on the Yukos audit.
The search and seizure operation was carried out March 9 both by the investigating committee and the Prosecutor General's Office.
Prosecutors were looking for Yukos-related documents not formally connected with PwC, and had a court order.
PwC is not filing against the Prosecutor General's Office. But it thinks that investigators "seized documents and electronic files whose information goes beyond PwC tax payments for 2002 and contains auditing secrets."
PwC has asked the court to help recover the seized documents. The investigating committee did not comment Tuesday.
Experts said PwC could well be successful.
"No search or other investigative actions may be conducted in audit companies without a court ruling," said lawyer Yuly Tai of the Bartolius legal bureau.
In his view, PwC can not only have the search and seizure recognized as unlawful, but can also deny the investigators the possibility of using the seized documents as evidence.
For PwC it is important to challenge the investigators' moves not only because of criminal proceedings, but also because of continued hearings in arbitration courts.
After paying 290 million rubles ($11.25 million) in tax claims, PwC February 16 applied to the Superior Arbitration Court for a review.
The question of handing over the case to its presidium has not yet been decided, although the law sets a month's deadline.
The Court explains the delay by the complexity of the case, which runs into 18 casebooks. Also, before April 27, PwC intends to appeal against the Moscow Arbitration Court decision that its Yukos audit was illegal.
On April 19, the Finance Ministry, despite the court ruling, extended the company's Russian auditing license for another five years.
RIA Novosti is not responsible for the content of outside sources.
