MOSCOW, July 23 (RIA Novosti) Balkans: Russia stages a comeback / The West builds new Berlin Wall / Investment boom in Russia continues / Europe does not need U.S. missile shield
Vremya Novostei
Balkans: Russia stages a comeback
Despite open backing from the United States and the European Union, the supporters of Kosovo's independence have failed to force the UN Security Council to pass the necessary resolution. Under threat of an inevitable Russian veto, the issue of independence for Kosovo was not put to the vote.
"It all happened as Russia insisted. From the very beginning Russia has been opposed to any Security Council resolutions on independence for Kosovo without Belgrade's agreement," said Vitaly Churkin, Russia's permanent ambassador to the United Nations, commenting on the results of the Kosovo debate that began at the Security Council in mid-March.
Moscow's active and even aggressive diplomacy in the Security Council has enabled it to return to the Balkans, leaving behind 15 years of compromises and hesitations on the former Yugoslavia.
Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, France's permanent delegate to the UN, made a statement on behalf of the sponsors of the resolution, mentioning their desire to fit a new round of negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina into 120 days.
The Russian Foreign Ministry disagreed: "New rounds of negotiations should not be limited in time," and insisted that "only a Security Council verdict can be legitimate."
The ministry warned that "attempts to bypass the UN on Kosovo will violate all international agreements on Kosovo, destabilize the Balkans, and stir up separatists around the world."
Slobodan Samardzic, the minister for Kosovo and Metohia in the Serbian government, said in an interview with the newspaper that the decision not to vote on the resolution meant that the "Ahtisaari plan" was utterly and finally dropped. The fact that consultations on Kosovo's status are being moved from the Security Council to the Contact Group does not belittle the UN's role, the minister said.
Agim Ceku, the Kosovo head of government, said that "what now remains is bilateral, or better still, coordinated recognition of Kosovo's independence with the participation of our international partners."
Andrei Shemyakin, deputy director of the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in an interview with a Vremya Novostei correspondent, said: "The Security Council's refusal to vote on the new resolution does not change anything, because the Albanians will not negotiate with the Serbs in principle. The West has already promised them independence."
Izvestia
The West builds new Berlin Wall
Germany and France are rapidly setting up legislative obstacles to prevent the advance of major Russian companies into Europe.
German utility RWE AG and France's Gaz de France plan to invest billions of euros in the construction of a pipeline bypassing Russia, although they do not have enough gas for it, and the imposition of limits on investors contradicts market principles.
Europeans cannot bear to think about the $2.5 trillion that Russian and Chinese investors allegedly have at their disposal. They decided to fight their fear in two ways.
First, they are putting up a wall of complicated laws to protect them from Russian investors. Second, they intend to build gas pipelines from Central Asia directly to Europe, bypassing Russia, even though this may be inexpedient economically.
The European Commission has approved a report on the danger of Russian investors, which gave the green light to the construction of a new Berlin Wall. It has become fashionable to speak about the Communist East Germany now, and Chancellor Angela Merkel apparently succumbed to the temptation.
This is a very strange tendency. Liberal economists in the European Commission, who have always advocated a free movement of capital, have revised their principles. Even Charlie McCreevy, commissioner in charge of the internal market and services, agrees with Merkel when she cautions against Russian investors.
Major Russian oil and gas companies have been trying to gain control over European distribution grids in the past few years.
Economists say that in a few years Russia will surge ahead of all European countries in terms of industrial production, which apparently frightens European politicians. But the worst thing is that European politicians and businessmen are building the new Berlin Wall not only in Berlin, Paris and Brussels, but also in London and Warsaw.
Europe is trying not just to build bypass pipelines, but also to pursue a policy without due regard for Russia, which is a severe mistake.
Kommersant
Investment boom in Russia continues
Capital investment growth set another record in June 2007, according to figures released by state statistics service Rosstat. In June 2007, growth was 27.2% higher than a year ago in real terms, and 1.58 times more in nominal terms. Due to the strengthening of the ruble and the weakening of the U.S. dollar, investments in dollars are growing even faster.
Economists who discussed the Rosstat report with the paper are surprised at the positive data for June and the first half of the year. Yaroslav Lisovolik of Deutsche UFG thinks they are actually higher than in China.
No wonder the analysts are surprised: there have been no such rates or absolute volumes in Russia's recent history. This is not an accidental statistical spike, economists say. Just a year ago, the rates were half as high. In the first half of 2007, investments rose 22.3% year-on-year, while a year ago the figure was only 11%.
The result is much better not only than conservative estimates from the Economic Development and Trade Ministry but also the forecasts of independent sources. The ministry predicted a slight slowing in investment rates, compared with last year: from 13.7% to 12.8% in 2007, to 10%-11.9% in 2008, and down to 7.9%-10.5% in 2009. Investment bank forecasts were higher, but no one expected more than 20%.
Lisovolik explained that investments are growing from all sources: both companies' own capital, and loans. He said foreign direct investment was also growing: in the first quarter of 2007, according to Rosstat, this totaled $24.6 billion, nearly three times as much as a year ago.
"The state and state-owned companies are mainly behind investment growth," Yuliya Tseplyaeva from Merril Lynch said. "And this growth will continue." However, the budget in Russia accounts only for 20% of all investments in basic capital (just under 4% of GDP), while institutional investors are not yet fully in place.
Other noticeable sources are foreign capital inflow ($67 billion in the first half of 2007) and Russian bank loans for the economy. The Central Bank reported that by June 2007 they had reached 6.9 trillion rubles ($271.55 billion). Analysts are also saying economic development owes much of its growth to increased domestic effective demand.
Moskovskiye Novosti
Europe does not need U.S. missile shield
What is the main reason behind the United States' decision to deploy its anti-ballistic missile system in Europe? It is not the hypothetical fear of Iran's missiles, academician Yevgeny Primakov told the popular newspaper Moskovskiye Novosti.
He writes that Iran does not currently have missiles capable of reaching Eastern Europe, let alone Western Europe, and will not have them in the next decade.
Many people believe that the U.S. missile shield in Eastern Europe will be targeted against Russia. But American experts should know that Russia will do its best to neutralize this new threat on its border, Primakov writes.
The Kremlin has announced that it will target its missiles at the U.S. missile defense elements in Poland and the Czech Republic, and is developing missiles capable of penetrating that system.
Primakov writes that the deployment of the missile defense system in Eastern Europe was initiated because of political, rather than military, problems in American-European relations. According to him, Washington imposed a "bloc discipline" on its European allies during the Cold War, when the United States and the Soviet Union formed groups of allied states.
But the Cold War ended, the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991, and the West European allies of the U.S. no longer needed its nuclear umbrella, the scientist writes. A fundamentally new situation developed, where Western Europe had the right and room for maneuver to protect its national interests, which did not always coincide with American ones, notably in the economy.
That new independence soon spread to politics. The European Union, in particular Germany and France, did not support the U.S. operation in Iraq, and a divide appeared over other international problems, such as the policy toward Iran.
According to Primakov, in that situation the United States needed to expand its sphere of influence in Europe by enlarging NATO, because East European countries wishing to join the bloc were much more pliant than the old members. Another proclaimed goal of Washington was to "protect" Europe.
Primakov writes that no one needs protection from Russia now, and that this is not a convincing reason for the deployment of an anti-Russian missile shield in Europe.
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