MOSCOW, June 28 (RIA Novosti) Why Russia objects to Blair's new job / Putin fine-tunes his image ahead of meeting with Bush / Aeroflot steps back from buying Alitalia / Yukos starts debt repayment, but shareholders will get nothing / Government refuses to lift import duty on mobile phones
Izvestia
Why Russia objects to Blair's new job
Wednesday saw a lot of bargaining over a new post for Tony Blair, who resigned as British prime minister. He finally got the job of special envoy to the Middle East Quartet, the four powers involved in mediating the peace process.
Tony Blair's appointment was delayed because of Russia's objections.
So why did Russia find the authoritative, energetic and internationally known politician unsuitable for the position of an international arbiter in one of the world's most turbulent regions? Or did Moscow delay its approval deliberately in a bid to remind him of his political blunders and negotiate certain concessions from other members of the Quartet? Below are a few possible reasons behind Moscow's behavior.
Tony Blair has been almost a personal friend of Vladimir Putin in the past few years. He was always politically correct with regard to Russia. And it was not until the day when he set off for Heiligendamm to attend the G8 summit that he ventured harsh criticism of Russia. Blair suggested that European businessmen could opt to reduce their presence in Russia because of its foreign and domestic policies.
It looks like Moscow cannot forgive Blair for his decision to support the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Even the British media dubbed him Bush's "poodle," an offensive nickname which he owed to his policy of floating unquestioningly in George Bush's wake. It could be concluded that he would act along the same lines in the Middle East.
Russia does not approve of the international isolation of the Palestinian Hamas movement, promoted by the U.S. and Israel, the two key lobbyists for Blair's appointment. Moscow insists on smoothing down the internal conflict between the Fatah and Hamas factions instead of fuelling it by backing one of the sides.
The delay in Blair's appointment could also have been a repercussion of the Litvinenko case and the British government's protection of a group of individuals charged with grave crimes in Russia and sheltered in London. Moscow's long-standing efforts to negotiate the extradition of Berezovsky, Zakayev and a dozen Yukos associates has been to no avail so far.
Vedomosti
Putin fine-tunes his image ahead of meeting with Bush
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrived in Russia Thursday to meet with President Vladimir Putin ahead of the Russian leader's visit to the United States for a meeting with President George W. Bush.
It is a good opportunity to analyze Russia's image in its relations with so-called "rogue countries." Putin looks like a pure democrat compared to the authoritarian rulers of Venezuela, North Korea, Syria, Cuba, and other Washington opponents.
Compared to the anti-Americanism of Hugo Chavez, Putin's anti-American speeches, notably the one at the Munich security conference in February of this year, sound more like statements of political independence and common sense.
Russia's state capitalism is white and fluffy compared to the harshly socialist policies proclaimed by Chavez.
State regulation of food prices has provoked food shortages in Venezuela and encouraged the government to pass a bill on the temporary nationalization of private food stores and warehouses last February.
U.S. ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, which quickly saw the difference between Venezuela and Russia, the other day refused to work in Venezuela.
They rejected the new rules of the game, according to which all foreign oil companies were to turn over to the national oil company, PDVSA, at least 60% in their Venezuelan projects by May 1, 2007.
A conflict is brewing between ExxonMobil and Gazprom over the Sakhalin I project off Russia's Pacific Coast.
Exxon has agreed with China on gas supplies, whereas Gazprom is using its administrative resources to get the right to buy up all of the project's gas.
However, Exxon can do better in Sakhalin than Shell and TNK-BP did (they had to agree to sell a stake to the Russian gas monopoly in Sakhalin II and the Kovykta gas project in Eastern Siberia).
As for Sakhalin I, state-controlled oil company Rosneft is involved in it, and a recent environmental inspection has not exposed major violations under the project.
Chavez's visit ahead of Putin's meeting with Bush will allow the Russian president to fine-tune his image.
On the one hand, the Kremlin will once again demonstrate an independent foreign policy, so as to keep the U.S. on its toes.
On the other hand, Putin has already taken steps to show the world that he is not as "passionately revolutionary" as Chavez.
The majority of parliament's lower house, the Duma, have voted against allowing the Venezuelan president to address its plenary meeting, because that would likely irritate the United States.
Kommersant
Aeroflot steps back from buying Alitalia
Aeroflot has officially cancelled its bid to buy state-owned Italian air carrier Alitalia. The company said its decision was due to changed tender conditions and overwhelming difficulties in obtaining information on the real state of affairs in Alitalia.
Both industry experts and sources in Aeroflot are sure the deal was cancelled primarily for political reasons.
"The data we received was simply not enough for a business plan," said a source on Aeroflot's board of directors. He gave an assurance that the company approached the deal "with all seriousness."
According to Lev Koshlyakov, Aeroflot's deputy general director for public relations, operating and financial risks proved too high: "harsh financial sanctions" awaited the buyer if it failed in its business plan, the tender stipulated.
The first time Aeroflot's criticisms were made public was after Vladimir Putin visited Rome. The press began actively debating the political undercurrents behind possible deals between Russian and Italian companies, including a country-to-country swap of assets. Soon afterwards, Italy's Eni acquired stakes in Russia's Arktikgaz and Urengoil. It was assumed that Aeroflot might get preferential treatment when buying Alitalia. But Yukos's gas assets, Eni's partnership with Gazprom, and a 30% stake in OGK-5 purchased by Italy's Enel, proved too little.
Agvan Mikaelyan, deputy head of the FinExpertiza audit consultancy, said the political factor played the key role in derailing the deal. "Clearly European countries are opposed to having our [Russian] companies on their markets," the expert said.
One of the highly-placed executives in the Transport Ministry even suggested the deal had been "a PR exercise" from the start. "It is hard to imagine a Russian company without business experience in other countries looking to buy a European air carrier with a fleet twice as large as its own," said the source (Aeroflot has an inventory of 88 aircraft, compared to Alitalia's 179).
But industry experts disagreed. "Neither [general director Valery] Okulov nor Koshlyakov could have thought up or made such a poor and ineffective PR move," said Boris Rybak, head of the Infomost consultancy.
Gazeta.ru
Yukos starts debt repayment, but shareholders will get nothing
Eduard Rebgun, the court-appointed receiver for bankrupt oil giant Yukos, announced the start of debt repayments worth 709.5 million rubles ($27.51 million) to third-level creditors, the largest plaintiff category.
Asset sales have already netted Rebgun an impressive sum, exceeding Yukos's debts by over 100 billion rubles ($42.65 billion).
Although Yukos shareholders could also receive compensation, experts said Russian authorities would try to prevent that happening. For instance, corporate transport assets (the so-called Lot No. 16) and foreign assets have not been auctioned off yet.
Moreover, Yukos managers must pay taxes on all deals closed during the bankruptcy procedure and examine contentious creditor claims worth over $8 billion.
Experts said Group Menatep, Yukos's majority shareholder, would get nothing if the new demands were included in the register.
Natalia Yanakayeva, an analyst with the CenterInvest investment group, said the money would all be spent on Yukos debts if the new claims were recognized.
Analysts said Yukos was facing new claims because Russian authorities did not want Group Menatep to receive anything from the embattled company.
A market expert said the authorities and Yukos had been fighting a real corporate war from the very beginning, and that Group Menatep and minority shareholders would receive no compensation.
An anonymous brokerage expert said the Yukos case had always been a political, rather than economic, affair, and that the government was trying to destroy the company so that it would never rise again. The situation could change and some corporate units could survive if the Yukos case were settled after the 2008 presidential elections.
"But that seems unlikely because the next president will be a protege of Vladimir Putin and will continue his policies," the expert told the paper.
Kommersant
Government refuses to lift import duty on mobile phones
Russia's interdepartmental committee on protection measures in foreign trade yesterday refused to lift the 5% import duty on mobile phones. Instead, it decided to cut to zero import duties on some mobile phone components for nine months.
The decision was made after the St. Petersburg-based ZAO Elcoteq, a partner of Sony Ericsson and Nokia, promised to produce up to 4 million mobile phones for the domestic market annually.
Market players are skeptical.
Euroset, Russia's largest mobile handset retailer, was the main lobbyist for the lifting of the duty. According to it, that would make telephones cheaper and help fight gray imports.
Management consultancy J'son & Partners said the mobile phone market in Russia amounted to some 30 million units annually. It evaluated it at $1.4 billion in the first quarter of 2007, and gray imports at $140-$210 million (10%-15%).
ZAO Elcoteq is one of the world's top 10 producers of electronic goods under contract.
Market players and experts are critical of ZAO Elcoteq's plans.
Vladimir Plyako, director general of Tsifrograd, a mobile handset retail chain in Russia, said: "Four million mobile phones annually is slightly more than nothing. This will not influence domestic prices at all."
Yevgeny Chichvarkin, a co-owner of Euroset, said: "They will not fulfill their promise. Labor costs too much in Russia compared to Asian countries."
Sergei Savin from J'son & Partners shares that view. He said the withdrawal of the 5% import duty would not give Elcoteq the advantages needed to enable it to compete with Asian companies.
"Assembling that many mobile phones in Russia is a fantasy," he said.
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