MOSCOW, November 2 (RIA Novosti) Russia may reconsider its stance on Kosovo / Putin shocks the West out of its slumber / Party of power plans to give way to its ideological rivals in next Duma / Russia to push up uranium price for Canada / First stage of ESPO pipeline will not be ready on time
Vremya Novostei
Russia may reconsider its stance on Kosovo
Moscow is analyzing plans for solving the problems relating to Kosovo that had previously seemed unacceptable.
A source in the Kremlin administration said Russia "likes the idea of Kosovo as a UN-administered territory." This would rule out undue haste in considering its status, ease Serbian-Albanian tensions, and give the international community time to address the province's acute problems relating to international investment.
The United States has also changed its stance on Kosovo. According to Kosovars, Washington is considering freezing Kosovo's current status until 2020.
"The United States is choosing between two options: it may either join other countries in recognizing Kosovo's independence, or put the idea away for several years, so as not to aggravate tensions in the region, but use the respite to strengthen the economy of Kosovo," the source said.
The U.S. administration is coming to see that the freeze would allow Kosovo to receive multibillion-dollar investment. The State Department plans to hold an internationally recognized referendum on the province's status in 2020.
German diplomat Wolfgang Ischinger, the EU representative at Kosovo talks, reportedly intends to propose new ideas at the November 5 meeting of the "troika" of intermediaries - Russia, the United States and the European Union.
He points to the example of coexistence of the two German states within de facto borders, adding that the treaty they signed in 1972 allowed them to receive seats in the UN.
By November 10, the troika is to report on the results of its efforts to the UN Secretary General. Nobody knows what would happen the next day. The Kosovo poker game is not over, as all the players still hold their cards.
Gazeta.ru
Putin shocks the West out of its slumber
The appointment of Dmitry Rogozin as Russia's representative at NATO has again demonstrated Vladimir Putin's ability to take seemingly shocking personnel decisions that turn out to be logical, a Russian political analyst writes.
According to Fyodor Lukyanov, chief editor of Russia in Global Affairs, a quarterly journal examining Russia's foreign relations and its stance on international issues, Rogozin, unlike the majority of his nationalist comrades, can fit in with any Western European parliament.
There are quite a few respectable populist xenophobes there, who are good public speakers and can balance at the edge of a political fall, Lukyanov writes. As immigration problems grow and economic development slows down in Europe, the demand for such politicians will grow.
The appointment of Rogozin is a logical part of Russia's foreign policy, and is fully in the spirit of "sovereign democracy," the analyst writes.
It indicates that the actions and reputation of Russian officials and politicians is a domestic affair for Russia. It also means that foreign partners will have to deal with whoever the Kremlin appoints. The other signal sent out by the appointment is that foreign partners' reaction does not interest the Kremlin.
Lukyanov writes that Putin has developed a clear-cut foreign policy style at the end of his second term. His speech is well moderated and yet expressive, and is full of metaphors. Putin's manner of speaking greatly differs from the flowery style of the modern "fathers of nations" in the East and the West.
He often sounds sarcastic, with sharp statements only slightly moderated by his black humor. This does not make him sound softer, though, which apparently suits the speaker. The appointment of Rogozin to NATO is a bureaucratic expression of this attitude, according to Lukyanov.
The style of the Russian president reflects his view of international relations. As Putin sees it, the West, which is convinced of its moral and intellectual superiority, cannot accept proposals made in a constructive and polite manner.
In any case, until the Kremlin changed its behavior in recent few months, Europe disregarded the issues Russia had been advocating for years. No matter what the West may say about Putin's recent moves, he has certainly shocked it out of its self-satisfied slumber, the analyst concludes.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
Party of power plans to give way to its ideological rivals in next Duma
Some members of the future constitutional majority in the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, and their stewards in the presidential administration, are greatly concerned over the possible negative consequences of United Russia's parliamentary monopoly.
The party's "wings," crudely clipped off in 2005, will be replaced with "currents" to keep United Russia from decaying through lack of real opposition.
An influential source in the party said the plan provided for United Russia functioning in a one-and-a-half party Duma, which in addition to the "party of power" will have room only for one or two smaller structures.
The other day, Vladislav Surkov, deputy head of the Presidential Executive Office in charge of domestic policy, publicly stated that the concepts of single-ideology parties in Russia were hopelessly outdated and that it was time for ideologically synthesized political structures.
This time the party will be divided into four parts, which are provisionally called "liberal-conservative" (Vladimir Pligin and Pavel Krasheninnikov), "social" (Andrei Isayev), "Christian-conservative" (Dmitry Savelyev) and renewalist or "Stolypinite," (today represented by parliamentary candidate Ivan Demidov).
In October, United Russia lawmakers voted for an amendment to regulations on groups within parliamentary parties: a party having more than 100 members can be divided into groups. The dividing principle will perhaps now be ideological: "Otherwise such a huge formation will be impossible to control," the source stressed.
Besides, "you cannot do without opposition, because rot sets in," the source added.
Yevgeny Minchenko, director of the International Institute of Political Expertise, is skeptical about the idea of party differentiation: "As soon as groups and factions begin forming in the parties, even if the process is a formal one and approved from above, and it is an organizational or a political division, the contradictions only deepen. And this could lead to a split."
In the expert's view, this concept resembles the East German model, so liked by Vladimir Putin: although there seem to be several slightly differing parties, all of them act under the wise leadership of one main party.
Kommersant
Russia to push up uranium price for Canada
Russian nuclear fuel exporter Tekhsnabexport wants to raise prices for one of its largest customers, Canadian Cameco Corporation.
Analysts said the Russian company will have its way: prices for uranium supplied to Cameco under the Russian-American inter-governmental HEU-LEU agreement were first and last raised in 2001, but since then the cost of difficult-to-obtain uranium has shot up many times over.
The HEU-LEU agreement, signed in February 1993, provides for the processing of highly enriched uranium extracted from Russian nuclear weapons into low-enriched uranium for use as a nuclear plant fuel.
In 2006, Tekhsnabexport exported goods and services worth $2 billion, with $730 million under the HEU-LEU scheme. According to Cameco, the first contract to purchase uranium from Tekhsnabexport was concluded in 1999, and updated in 2001 and 2004.
Aside from Cameco, Tekhsnabexport also sells uranium to Areva and Nukem, but the bulk of deliveries go to the Canadian corporation. Under the agreement Cameco buys 7 million pounds of uranium annually.
Cameco has promised to make up its mind after it has discussed the offer with its partners - Areva and Nukem. A press release by the Canadian company, however, says all the parties are ready and willing to carry on cooperation.
Troika Dialog analyst Mikhail Stiskin said that the Canadians would accept Tekhsnabexport's terms. "It looks increasingly likely that the sale price will be raised a bit. Higher prices are unprofitable for Cameco, but in view of its future partnership with Rosatom [Russia's Federal Nuclear Power Agency], it is likely to agree," the analyst said.
"When the agreement was signed, the energy crisis was nowhere in sight, nor uranium shortages," said Dmitry Terekhov, an analyst with Antanta Capital.
"Now uranium is at a premium on the world market, and the supplier can dictate terms. One pretext could be the fact that prices have not been reviewed for a long time, while the market has ballooned."
Terekhov said the demand for uranium was growing "by leaps and bounds" and the trend seemed to be set.
Vedomosti
First stage of ESPO pipeline will not be ready on time
On November 1, it became known that the commissioning of the first stage of the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline would be delayed. Construction will continue for another three or four months, according to Nikolai Tokarev, Transneft's new president, who replaced Semyon Vainshtok at the post a month ago.
Despite the strict certification of contractors invited to implement the project, some of them have failed to meet their commitments to Transneft, Tokarev said. Transneft refused to give any other comment.
Such statements were to be expected after the pipeline route was prolonged, said Valery Nesterov, an analyst with the Troika Dialog brokerage and investment company. Delayed construction will hit Rosneft the hardest, as it planned to supply 1.8 million metric tons of oil from the Vankorskoye field to China via the ESPO as early as 2008 (in 2009, 9.8 million metric tons).
At the best, it will direct that oil to the west, otherwise it will have to delay the launch of production until the commissioning of the pipeline, Nesterov said. "We will look into this situation," a Rosneft spokesman said.
The industry and energy ministry says it is ready to discuss the new time schedule if Transneft presents strong arguments. So far, the company has not asked the ministry to change the schedule, the ministry's spokesman said.
The time schedule was endorsed by an order from Viktor Khristenko, the industry and energy minister, in December 25. Construction began in April 2006. Under the document, the ESPO's first stage, a 2,757 km pipeline from Taishet in the Irkutsk Region (Siberia) to Skovorodino in the Amur Region (Russia's Far East) must be commissioned in late 2008. Construction costs are estimated at $12 billion.
The main contractor for the project is Krasnodarstroytransgaz, a subsidiary of Stroytransgaz, a leading construction company for the oil and gas sector.
In September, the company encountered some problems with the China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau (CPP), a subcontractor. The contract was canceled unilaterally because of a schedule breakdown. However, CPP protested against this decision. They explained then that the company could not do anything about it: there were some problems related to customs clearance of equipment and quotas for the invitation of 1,750 Chinese specialists to Russia.
Later the contract was renewed and Transneft reported that all violations had been rectified.
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