MOSCOW, June 27 (RIA Novosti) Promising pre-election group set up in Moscow/Russian scientists bolster Moscow's claims to new Arctic shelf sector/Norway wants to save Europe from energy dependence on Russia/Presidential aide proposes a new state monopoly/Rosneft becomes second-largest player on Russian retail petrochemicals market
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
Promising pre-election group set up in Moscow
The Russkiy Mir (Russian World) National Foundation set up by President Vladimir Putin now has a leader and a board of trustees.
The new organization's head is Vyacheslav Nikonov, head of the Moscow-based think tank Polity, known for his affiliation with the Kremlin. The board is chaired by Lyudmila Verbitskaya, rector of St. Petersburg University and a close friend of Mrs. Putin.
Experts guess that the new organization may have a role in the upcoming election campaigns.
A source close to one of the Russkiy Mir board members said the foundation would start off with capital of 130-150 million rubles ($5-$6 million).
Large private donations will follow as well, judging by the names of those on the foundation management board and board of trustees.
The source said he meant the high rank and important positions of a number of Russkiy Mir leaders and their affiliation with the president.
As of now, the new foundation is likely to operate through the office network of Roszarubezhtsentr (Russian Center for International Scientific and Cultural Cooperation), a federal agency that works under the direction of the Foreign Ministry.
The center has 36 branches in different countries outside Russia, and contacts in Russian emigre communities and among foreign lovers of Russian culture.
Nikonov, however, strongly denied any link between the establishment of the foundation and the upcoming elections.
On the other hand, sources at pro-Kremlin United Russia party doubted that Russkiy Mir is a purely humanitarian group, adding that Nikonov had a specific reputation for engaging in election campaigns and developing political technologies.
Nikonov's appointment is evidence of the foundation's future role as yet another political tool of the powers-that-be, the source said.
Alexander Kynev, director of regional programs at the Foundation for Information Policy Development, said making the new pro-Kremlin group an election tool did not appear unrealistic.
"This voter group's electoral weight is small, but it can be effectively manipulated," he said. "None of the pre-election groups has taken the trouble to target voters outside Russia, so it is not easy to monitor effective voter turnout abroad."
Komsomolskaya Pravda
Russian scientists bolster Moscow's claims to new Arctic shelf sector
An expedition organized by the All-Russia Research Institute for Geology and Mineral Resources (Okeangeologia) recently used deep-sounding methods to establish that the underwater Lomonosov Range was a natural extension of Russian territory.
The discovery will provide Moscow with additional arguments in its disputes with Denmark, which believes the Lomonosov Range is an extension of Greenland, and Canada, which says it stretches from the North American continent.
Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, national borders are demarcated along 12-mile territorial zones, and economic zones where natural resources are produced can stretch up to 200 miles into the open sea.
However, Russia has to prove that the Lomonosov Range is part of its continental shelf.
By 2009, Moscow will submit Okeangeologia findings as evidence of the fact that it has the right to own the Lomonosov Range, which contains an estimated 10 billion metric tons of crude oil and natural gas worth over $1 trillion.
Yury Deryabin, head of the North European Department at Russia's Institute of Europe, said Moscow had a good chance of dividing the Arctic shelf, but the main struggle was only beginning.
"Suffice it to recall the long and unsuccessful talks on the Barents Sea shelf and its Shtokman gas condensate deposit, which prove that such territorial disputes are quite difficult," Deryabin told the paper.
Dmitry Oreshkin, a leading research associate at the Geography Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said the legal regime for developing this territory was unclear and geological issues were unimportant.
Under Josef Stalin, the Soviet Union claimed the right to own a vast Arctic sector that included the North Pole and stretched from the Kola Peninsula in the west to the Bering Strait in the Far East.
Oreshkin said Moscow had presented the international community with a fait accompli and littoral Caspian states were still unable to divide the seabed.
Russia is not very happy about the internationally accepted 200-mile economic zone concept, because the oil and gas shelf may stretch even further.
Oreshkin said Moscow, which must do everything possible to hold onto its drilling rights, would be pressured, but it must bargain and demand exclusive rights in this situation and, if necessary, use force to support its claims.
Novye Izvestia
Norway wants to save Europe from energy dependence on Russia
Russia's bid to create new gas pipeline systems is causing concern in EU countries.
Norway, which is planning to increase natural gas supplies to those countries by 55% by the middle of the next decade, may save Europe from its energy dependence on Russia. Experts say that competition can only benefit Russia.
Odd Roger Enoksen, Norway's minister of petroleum and energy, said yesterday that Norway was planning to increase gas supplies to EU countries as of the end of the year.
That will happen after the commissioning of new deposits, such as the Ormen Lange deposit in the North Sea and the Snoehvit deposit in the Barents Sea.
In the opinion of Western experts, such developments cannot but worry Russian gas magnates.
However, polled Russian experts think a growth in Norwegian gas supplies will not radically change the situation on the gas market.
Dmitry Sorokin, first deputy director of the Economics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that Scandinavian supplies could not pose a threat to Russian gas exports.
"Gas requirements are growing every year in Europe and the world. Therefore, Norway's emergence on the European market will not be a problem for us. Its supplies will only supplement ours," the expert explained.
The data of international statistics, whereby global gas requirements rose by 2.5% in 2006, confirm his forecast. Where there's demand, there's supply.
Russia responded to the growth in global gas requirements by increasing its gas exports. Over the first five months of this year they reached 59.86 billion cubic meters, 18% up from the respective last year indicator.
However, Sorokin believes Norway will also have a niche in the European market.
Igor Belyakov from the Economic Expert Group is of the same opinion. He said that the appearance of a new player on the gas market would inevitably increase competition.
However, he is convinced that will only benefit the Russian oil and gas sector.
"The need to increase investment in gas production and processing is long overdue. The sector needs improvement in its research and technical spheres. Therefore, competition can only put Russia on a right track," Belyakov said.
Kommersant
Presidential aide proposes a new state monopoly
In a letter to Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, presidential aide Viktor Ivanov has suggested prompt measures to support the country's machine tool industry. As one of the steps, he proposed a state monopoly on the "import and export of machine tools."
The aide, who oversees the Kremlin's personnel policy, does not often sign memorandums on economic matters. The only exceptions are documents dealing with Aeroflot and the air defense concern Almaz-Antei, whose boards he heads.
That was perhaps why Fradkov was not slow in responding. The prime minister gave his departments until July 10 to submit their opinions on Ivanov's proposal.
Currently, there are 300 individual machine tool enterprises operating in Russia. Their products, manufactured with outdated technologies, are not in demand in Russian industry, said Stankoimport general director Sagadat Khabirov.
In 1990, Russia ranked third in the world in terms of output of machine tools. Now it is in 22nd place.
The country's share of the world market is about 0.3%. Khabirov estimates the machine tool market at $1-$1.5 billion a year, with new Russian machine tool sales being no more than 1%.
Non-state-owned companies took a dim view of the presidential aide's initiative.
"It will be an unnecessary filler because I do not believe in the government's capabilities," said Alexander Rubtsov, Komtekh general director.
Russkiye Mashiny said they bought equipment for their plants at open tenders and "the existing system suits the company." They would not comment on Russia's one single machine tool importer, saying they did not "understand at all how such a scheme can function in principle."
VNII Metmash (Institute of Metallurgical Machine Building) gave its conditional support to the state holding idea.
"But everything will depend on the management structure and the kinds of funds involved - whether private, public or mixed," a high-placed executive in the company said.
Vedomosti
Rosneft becomes second-largest player on Russian retail petrochemicals market
How can you earn 350% in annual interest? The owners of the previously unknown company Unitex, believed to be affiliated with Russia's largest independent natural gas producer, Novatek, know the answer.
Unitex bought Yukos's filling station network for 12.5 billion rubles (about $484 million) at an auction three weeks ago.
Now it has agreed to sell it for 16.3 billion rubles ($630 million) to the state-controlled oil company Rosneft.
Nobody knows who will get the margin of 3.8 billion rubles ($147.4 million), as the ownership structure of Unitex has not been revealed by either the company or the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service.
Steven Dashevsky, chief analyst with the Aton investment group, said: "No other market instrument can bring so much profit."
Rosneft, which became Russia's largest oil company after buying Yukos's assets, did not take part in the May 10 auction, allegedly because it did not have time to analyze the lot.
However, its managers announced their interest in the assets immediately after Unitex was proclaimed the auction winner.
Nikolai Manvelov, a spokesman of the state-controlled company, said Rosneft had spent a month studying the assets and was now ready to buy them.
"This is a very strange deal for a public company," Dashevsky said. "I cannot understand what prevented Rosneft from participating in the auction."
Rosneft did not lose out on the deal. According to Andrei Fyodorov, an analyst with Alfa Bank, it bought the filling station network at a 25% discount, even assuming that the oil depots cost nothing.
Now, Rosneft has Russia's second-largest network of 1,560 filling stations. LUKoil, the country's largest privately owned oil company, has 1,658.
Valery Nesterov, an analyst with Troika Dialog, said Rosneft could possibly be the leader on the retail petrochemicals market, as "LUKoil's network also includes oil depots and franchised filling stations. So it is difficult to say exactly how many filling stations it really owns."
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