Russian Party in Estonia Hits Back at Occupation Denial Claim

The statement comes after IRL MP Andres Herkel posted an article on his blog accusing the two men of calling for a moratorium on the discussion of the issue and paraphrasing an opinion purportedly expressed by Afanasjev that the occupation was a question of belief and not a documented fact.

Herkel has called on the Social Democratic Party, which is on the verge of a merger with the Russian Party in Estonia, to clarify its stance on the occupation issue.

In their statement, the Russian Party in Estonia leaders said that any evaluation of Estonia’s past should be undertaken in accordance with Parliament’s 2002 declaration, which states that the crimes of Germany’s Nazi regime had been condemned by international authorities, but that the similar crimes of the Soviet Union had not.

“We believe that the basis for judgment of the communist regime of the USSR could be put into force by a court ruling analogous to that which was carried out in relation to the German National Socialist regime. Evaluation of these crimes should not stem from the interpretations of various politicians, especially if they connect the communist regime to the Russian people. This cannot be a matter of opinion. [Ethnic] Russian people are not and cannot be occupiers or descendants of occupiers,” the statement said.

Tsherepanov, who is to be the Social Democratic Party’s vice chairman, said that his underlying message was that the past shouldn’t be used for political infighting.

“We can talk about tragic historical events, but they should not be used for dividing the society and pitting various nationalities against one another,” he said.

Russian space agency Roscosmos Aims to Make Sea Launch Profitable

Russian space agency Roscosmos and rocket and space-station hardware builder RSC Energia are working to restore commercial viability to the Sea Launch floating platform project, Roscosmos head Vladimir Popovkin said on Thursday.

“We are preparing a business plan together with RSC Energia to make Sea Launch profitable. We need to guarantee from three to four launches (from the platform) a year to reach that goal. We already have contracts for launches for the next two years,” Popovkin told Echo Moskvy radio.

The most recent launch was in September 2011 from the platform in the Pacific Ocean.

Sea Launch AG was formed in 1995 as a consortium of four companies from Norway, Russia, Ukraine and the United States, and managed by U.S. Boeing. It resumed operations last year after a 30-month hiatus that saw passage through U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy, change of ownership from Boeing to Energia and a move from California to Switzerland.

Sberbank re-opens Russia market

Fears that political risk would preclude Russian borrowers from accessing the bond market were dispelled this week when Sberbank priced a heavily oversubscribed dollar trade, thereby opening the door for more supply from the country.

The USD1.5bn five- and 10-year issue was the most eagerly awaited transaction from Central and Eastern Europe. As well as being the first 144a/ Reg S by a Russian borrower this year, it was also the first since development bank VEB pulled its deal in December following the outbreak of protests against parliamentary elections.

With Russia’s presidential election a little more than a month away, market players were interested to see what, if any, political risk still existed for Russian borrowers. If the Sberbank trade is any guide, the answer is zero.

The deal also shed any doubts that Russian borrowers may struggle to access the market after the finance ministry made noises last week about imposing a 20% withholding tax on Eurobonds.

The USD1.5bn, five- and 10-year dual-tranche transaction from the country’s biggest bank, whose senior unsecured debt is rated A3/BBB (Fitch), saw a good reaction from international investors, who were keen to get their hands on Russian paper after a dearth of supply over the past six months. The order book totalled more than USD4.6bn with 420 accounts participating across both tranches.

The new issue premium on a yield basis was estimated to be 8bp for the new USD1bn 4.95% 2017s based on the 4.87% level that Sberbank’s outstanding 2017s were trading at the time of the deal’s announcement. Initial guidance for the five-year was a deliberately vague low 5% area.

For the USD500m 6.25% (plus or minus 12.5bp) 2022s, the concession was about 9bp for the tight end of the range when compared with the issuer’s outstanding 2021s, which were trading at 5.90% and adding 14bp for the one-year curve extension.

Both tranches, which were priced at par, were up in the secondary market with the five-year quoted at 100.06-100.12 and the longer-tranche at 101.10 and 101.20 on Wednesday.

“This was a real test to see if appetite for Russian risk was there as we approach the election,” said William Weaver, head of CEEMEA debt capital markets at Citi, which acted as a bookrunner on the deal together with Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas and Troika Dialog (now part of Sberbank).

“However, after announcing the mandate the US roadshow was packed within a day,” he added.

TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE

As Sberbank’s debut 144a transaction it was the first time the bank had roadshowed in the US with a specific issue in mind. “The 144a documentation is a transformational change in the bank’s funding strategy,” said Nick Darrant, head of CEEMEA debt syndicate at BNP Paribas. “It increases the options at their disposal.”

There was disquiet among some investors that Sberbank’s priority was the five-year tranche rather than the 10-year – a tenor that US investors in particular prefer.

“In the meetings we had with them we expressly said we wanted to see a 10-year bond,” said one investor, who was disappointed that the shorter-dated paper was given greater emphasis.

However, he was pleased that the second longer tranche was added later. “It was good that they announced a 10-year bond and they priced it pretty attractively as well. Pricing was a lot better for the 10-year.”

Another investor added: “They tightened the five-year quite a bit but they left more juice on the 10-year, so understandably it is doing better.”

Darrant said there was natural demand from European and Asian investors for five-year debt. “That formed the core of the transaction. Once that was done and dusted Sberbank opportunistically added a longer tranche.”

He added: “Sberbank was very much in the driving seat of this transaction, whether it be the timing, the sharp revision in pricing or the size. We’d shown them a menu of options during the marketing process and gave them investor feedback. But Sberbank has the luxury to choose a la carte.”

Fabianna Del Canto, director at Barclays Capital, said the deal paves the way for other top tier Russian borrowers to access the market. “It has re-opened the market but it doesn’t mean it is open across the credit spectrum,” she said, adding she expects to see potentially more deals from the country in the next few months.

The allocation of the deal is as follows: for the five-year tranche, the regional breakdown is Europe 59%, UK 23%, US 8%, Asia 7% and others 3%. By investor type it’s asset managers 34%, banks 33%, private banks 11%, hedge funds 9%, pension funds and insurers 4% and others 9%.

For the 10-year tranche it was US accounts 47%, UK 26%, Europe 24%, Asia 2% and others 1%. Asset managers took 61%, hedge funds 15%, pension funds and insurers 10%, banks 8%, private banks 4% and others 2%. (Reporting by Sudip Roy; Editing by Helene Durand)

Russian Party in Estonia Hits Back at Occupation Denial Claim

The statement comes after IRL MP Andres Herkel posted an article on his blog accusing the two men of calling for a moratorium on the discussion of the issue and paraphrasing an opinion purportedly expressed by Afanasjev that the occupation was a question of belief and not a documented fact.

Herkel has called on the Social Democratic Party, which is on the verge of a merger with the Russian Party in Estonia, to clarify its stance on the occupation issue.

In their statement, the Russian Party in Estonia leaders said that any evaluation of Estonia’s past should be undertaken in accordance with Parliament’s 2002 declaration, which states that the crimes of Germany’s Nazi regime had been condemned by international authorities, but that the similar crimes of the Soviet Union had not.

“We believe that the basis for judgment of the communist regime of the USSR could be put into force by a court ruling analogous to that which was carried out in relation to the German National Socialist regime. Evaluation of these crimes should not stem from the interpretations of various politicians, especially if they connect the communist regime to the Russian people. This cannot be a matter of opinion. [Ethnic] Russian people are not and cannot be occupiers or descendants of occupiers,” the statement said.

Tsherepanov, who is to be the Social Democratic Party’s vice chairman, said that his underlying message was that the past shouldn’t be used for political infighting.

“We can talk about tragic historical events, but they should not be used for dividing the society and pitting various nationalities against one another,” he said.

Russia’s quest for a modern economy

We are living through a period of serious changes in the world economy. Never before has technology advanced so quickly. What we see today would have seemed like science fiction just 15 years ago.

In such circumstances, it is important to ensure stable development, to give our citizens maximum protection from the impact of global crises while renewing all aspects of our economy. For Russia, it would be inadmissible not to have an economy that can guarantee stability, sovereignty and a decent standard of living.

We need an economy with competitive industries and infrastructure, a developed service sector and an effective agricultural system – in short, an economy that harnesses modern technology. Fostering competition is key to securing demand for innovation. Only competition can encourage private business to seek enhanced technologies and innovate their products.

To restore our technological leadership, we must choose our priorities carefully. We should look at sectors such as pharmaceuticals, high-tech chemicals, composites and non-metal materials, the aviation industry, information and communication technologies and nanotechnologies.

The experiences of countries such as South Korea and China that have successfully modernized their economies show that a push from the state is necessary. We are also counting on the active participation of Russian capital in the privatization and further development of high-tech assets. At the same time, it is necessary to find buyers in global investment circles who are ready not only to invest in an individual scientific production facility, but to bring in their connections and experience on the international markets.

What is important is to get market leaders in global technology to move from the initial stage where Russia is perceived as a promising market to the second stage, where they start investing in local production facilities, and the third stage, where new processes and products would be designed in Russia.

To encourage this, we need to expand our domestic market, making it more attractive for direct investment. In recent years, we have moved from declarations of intent to real integration by creating the Customs Union with Belarus and Kazakhstan, the single economic space and the free-trade zone with CIS countries. Russia has been consistently working toward establishing a single market with its neighbours.

We must improve Russia’s business climate and its attractiveness for long-term investment. Both remain dissatisfactory. In the past few years, on the initiative of President Dmitry Medvedev, we launched a series of reforms aimed at improving the business climate. Until now, however, no significant change has occurred.

Speaking plainly, we still have system-wide corruption. The cost of doing business varies depending on your “proximity” to specific individuals within the government machinery. In these conditions, entrepreneurs quite rationally tend to find backers and strike deals with them rather than observing the law. Then, having made their deals, such businesses try to suppress competition.

Clearing the way for businesses prepared to win a competitive battle on a level playing field is our fundamental system-wide goal. And this cannot be attained through economic policy alone. We must transform the state itself, its executive and judiciary branches. We must dismantle the accusation-driven collection of law-enforcement, investigative and judiciary agencies and eliminate from our legislation all vestiges of the Soviet legal system. Economic cases must be transferred from trial courts of general jurisdiction to arbitration courts. Together with the expert community, judges and entrepreneurs, we should publicly discuss and introduce before the end of this year all the necessary initiatives to achieve this.

Economic policy must be adjusted to reduce the level of government regulation, replacing regulations with market-based mechanisms, and administrative control with liability insurance. The global crisis lent more credibility to the proponents of state-led management of the economy. But we understand that, as opposed to many other countries, the share of the state in the Russian economy and the degree of government regulation remains rather high.

We have plans to privatize a number of key assets. I should emphasize that such privatization is structural, rather than fiscal, in nature. In other words, we are selling not only to obtain additional budget revenue but, above all, to boost the competitiveness of our economy and clear the way for private initiatives. We will not ignore the market environment and sell cheap.

We should also reduce the participation of state-owned companies and banks, as well as that of natural monopolies, including Gazprom, in the capital of other economic players, and spin off their non-core businesses, including media holdings.

Maintaining and improving macroeconomic stability is a prerequisite for all these developments. It is probably one of our greatest achievements in recent years. We have come to value macroeconomic stability and use tools for maintaining it even amid extremely adverse conditions.

And we must eschew protectionist measures. We will soon join the World Trade Organization. Excessive protectionism always leads to stagnation, poor quality and high prices.

We have the key drivers for success in place. Russia now has a rapidly growing middle class prepared to invest in better medical services, better housing and higher retirement benefits. The task of the government is to make sure their money doesn’t go up in flames.

The modernized economy should grant everybody the possibility of self-fulfilment – entrepreneurs, public officials, engineers, skilled workers.

The twin-city partnerships between India and Russia are poised for expansion.  “These cities have much in common, and the administrations concerned have already established the twin-city partnership,” says Shtapkina.

Three more Russian cities, she says, are earmarked for partnerships with Indian cities. They are Yessentuki, Stavropol and Pyatigorsk. “The RCSC and the Indian Association of Friendship with Foreign Countries are trying to find out suitable Indian cities for partnership with the Russian cities. Presently, the two sides are trying to establish partnership between Pyatigorsk and Kochi,” says she.

Building upon ongoing efforts to promote cooperation between the Altai region of Russia and Kerala, Days of Pyatigorsk festival will be organised in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala, this year. The talks are also going on to connect Stavropol with Jaipur in Rajasthan. Mikhail Grymin, the mayor of Severodvinsk,  has expressed his desire to associate with an Indian city to India’s ambassador to Russia Ajai Malhotra. With this revival of the twin-city relationships, there is a lot of camaraderie waiting in the wings for India and Russia.

St. Petersburg and Mumbai

Nightfall weaves magic around the embankments of Neva River during White Nights and to Mumbai’s Marine Drive promenade. While the authorities in St. Petersburg never need to turn the city’s streetlights on, the lights along South Mumbai’s boulevard make it resemble like a pearl necklace. Besides the nightlife the cities have a mélange of creativity, radical ideas, and legacy. St. Petersburg has a network of baroque and neoclassical architectural wonders and Mumbai showcases Art Deco riches and Neo-Gothic masterpiece, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus.

Moscow and New Delhi

A view of the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow is a powerful symbol of authority in the Russian Federation. In the exhibition, not far away, the monuments of Delhi are displayed to give a glimpse of the Indian national capital and political powerhouse. The Kremlin and the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi are matched by very few other residential premises of the Heads of the State in the world in terms of their vastness and magnificence. Both the metropolitan cities encompass testaments of the past be it Kitai Gorod or Red Fort, Lenin’s or Humayun’s Tomb, and Annunciation Cathedral or Jama Masjid. A walk down Moscow’s Stary Arbat Street past souvenir stalls, performing artists, and cafés is somewhat akin to wandering the lanes of Chandni Chowk for culinary pleasures or shopping at wholesale prices. Moscow and New Delhi are steeped in history and cultural heritage. The fame of Bolshoi Theatre is in step with New Delhi’s network of performing art centers such as Kamani Auditorium, Sri Ram Centre, and the National School of Drama.

Twin-cities celebrate India-Russia connect

The cities are the soul of a nation. On the face of it, New Delhi and Moscow, Mumbai and St. Petersburg may not appear to have much in common, but go deeper and you will find striking cultural affinities. The twin-city relationships also promise to accelerate people-to-people camaraderie.

New Delhi and Moscow. Mumbai and St. Petersburg. Volgograd and Chennai. Thousands of miles apart, but linked in spirit, these twin-cities of India and Russia radiate a certain cultural affinity and emotional connect that’s hard to match. A photo exhibition held in New Delhi last year artfully illuminated hidden connections between iconic metropolises of the two great countries. Entitled “Views of Indian and Russian Twin-Cities,” the photo exhibition held at the Russian Centre of Science and Culture (RCSC) in New Delhi provided a bird’s eye view, perhaps that of a Siberian avian migrating between India and Russia and capturing cultural affinities between them.

Jointly organised by the RCSC and Forum of Indian Photographers and Artists (FIPA) (October 4-21, 2011), the exhibition was seen as a positive step towards promoting cultural exchange and fostering mutual understanding. “The exhibition is unique in the sense that it promotes people-to-people diplomacy between the two countries. Through the medium of photography the exhibition seeks to demonstrate the necessity of activating the tie-ups between the Indian and Russian twin-cities,” says Yelena S. Shtapkina, deputy director (Culture and Information), RCSC. “It’s a springboard for more such interactive events in the future, says Vimal Mehta, president of FIPA. The exhibition was aimed at “collecting diverse visions of the cities’ lifestyle and landmarks.”

Russia’s ambitious space poojects: Phobos-Grunt-2?

Space science in Russia seems to be in the doldrums: after the Phobos-Grunt failure the future of next planetary missions seems vague. A press conference called ‘Ambitious space projects’ was held at RIA Novosti press center on February 1st, just after the official conclusion of the special Commission for investigation of the Phobos-Grunt disaster was presented to head of Roscosmos Vladimir Popovkin.

The main cause of the disaster was computer failure due to heavy particle bombardment. Another probable reason stated by Popovkin was the use of integral parts that were not designed to be used in space.

However, answering the question of whether the scientific community believed that Phobos-Grunt was ready for launching, Professor Lev Zelenyi, director of the Space Research Institute, principal organization for scientific payload, said ‘No’. But the next astronomical window in 2013 would be inconvenient for interplanetary missions, and 2015 is too far away and a lot of the technology would need replacement.

The finale is well too known. Still, plans to conquer Phobos are by no means abandoned. Space projects are known to be repeated after failures. Such was the case with ESA’s Cluster 4-satellite mission in 2000, which initially (in 1996) perished due to failure of the new Ariane-5 booster, and NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander which was a reincarnation of the 1999 Mars Polar Lander. Still, the question is whether the same scenario is viable for Phobos-Grunt and to what extent the project could be duplicated.

Currently, it seems like the idea of a second Phobos mission would not become outdated at least in a decade. Martian plans of Europe and the US encompass several missions that aim at Mars itself, and although exploration of Phobos is still considered, Phobos-Grunt-2 could still be the first to fulfill the task even if it’s launched in 2018. But what would be the price?

Commenting on that, Lev Zelenyi gave an estimate of 3 billion rubles, pointing out that this figure is based on current prices. ‘It would be more than 1 billion but less than 5, as many technologies are already developed’ he said.

It might be also sensible to shrink the program of the project, leaving out some of the satellite experiments and therefore reducing the weight of the spacecraft.

Whether Phobos-Grunt-2 will be built, depends largely on lunar projects and Russian participation in European ExoMars, which is in the process of being discussed by agencies’ representatives.

In the next five years Russian planetary science will be focused on lunar exploration, with two missions, Luna-Resurs (joint mission with Indian Space Research Organization) and Luna-Glob. Both will study the polar regions of the Moon that turned out to have more surprises for scientists after the discovery of probable deposits of ice or chemically bound water in the shallow layer of lunar surface.

Current dates of launches are 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 respectively. These dates were one of the reasons why Phobos-Grunt-2 was suggested to be launched in 2018 rather than 2015 — as most likely all spacecraft would be built by the Lavochkin Association and it might be implausible to run both projects at the same time.

The story of ExoMars is more complex and still far from decided. The project includes a lander and an orbiter for studying the Martian atmosphere and geology. Having been for a long time a joint ESA-NASA project, now that the US has withdrawn from the project this mission is being revised with probable participation of Russia. An obvious advantage of participating in ExoMars is an opportunity to send scientific devices to the planet, while the main disadvantage is that this project requires money, as will Phobos-Grunt-2. ExoMars was planned for 2016–2018.

Meanwhile, the Venera-D project of a long-living lander to Venus is mostly likely to be postponed until after 2020. Truly ambitious (previous Soviet landers lasted about two hours while Venera-D was intended to exceed this limit by several times), this project is for that reason highly unlikely to be run along with Martian plans.

The Phobos-Grunt disaster was on the top of the news agenda of the Russian media for several days, after every major event of this unfortunately too short of a story. The effect could hardly have been stronger, if the spacecraft left the near-Earth orbit and began its journey to Mars. Overrated attention to failures is also among the problems of Russian space. Still, not only the media are to blame.

Public and media relations in space science, as well as educational outreach, have never been among the priorities in space policy, which led to space exploration misrepresented as a victorious quest or total failure. Brilliantly exemplifying the approach, Roscosmos erased the Phobos-Grunt section on its web site a day after its fall.

However, Russian solar and geophysical research in near-Earth space in the 1990’s and in the 21st century was mostly successful, not to mention the RadioAstron space radio observatory, that has just begun its scientific program. Still, the outcome of the missions (with some exceptions) was poorly covered online and never widely used in science popularization.

‘Educational/Public Outreach’, or E/PO, is one of the mandatory parts of a project’s budget in the US, making up around 5–7 per cent of the total price. In Russia these activities are mostly volunteer-based, although the idea of publicity is gradually spreading among chief space organizations.

If Phobos-Grunt-2 is accepted for realization, internal coverage of the project would probably be even more important after the current failure. Hopefully, though, there would be no failures of the kind in the future.

Goldman Sachs Chief Russia Trader Quits to Build New York Sauna

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s chief equity trader in Moscow, Peter Kizenko, said he quit to return to New Jersey and finish building a commercial Russian sauna.

Kizenko, who was born in New York, said he decided to return after 18 years in Moscow because of the growth of electronic trading and declining compensation in the industry.

“The fun element has been taken out of it,” the 45-year- old said in a telephone interview today. “The golf course just got harder, and Moscow is no longer like Chicago in the 1920s where anything goes. Russia is becoming more refined.”

He’s leaving the industry at a time when regulators are forcing banks to cut back their proprietary trading activities and lenders themselves are cutting pay. Goldman Sachs, which set a record for securities-firm pay in 2007, reduced compensation for the third year in a row after earnings skidded and protesters denounced Wall Street bonuses.

Kizenko joined Goldman Sachs in 2006 from UBS AG, where he was the Swiss bank’s lead trader in Moscow. Kizenko, whose parents emigrated from the former Soviet Union, said he is leaving the company today before returning to the U.S. and the banya’s opening next month.

“I am no longer the oldest trader on the Russian market,” Kizenko, said. “Now I can finish building up a Russian banya in New Jersey.” He didn’t rule out a return to the financial industry at a later date.

Banya Tradition

The banya tradition dates to the 11th century in Russia. A wooden log shed is heated by an electric or wood-burning stove to more than 80 degrees Celsius. Copious amounts of water are poured on the heat source to bring the humidity to about the same level. A visit to a banya begins with several rotations in and out of the steam room to allow the body to warm up. Naked bathers typically beat one another with birch or pine branches before plunging into cold water or rolling in snow to cool down.

There are about five to seven banyas already in the New York, area according to Kizenko, who considered opening one in London until he saw how expensive the rents are.

“There are a few in Brooklyn and Manhattan, but the aesthetics are not up to scratch,” Kizenko said by phone today. “We are going for a mixture of the contemporary and the classical of Sanduny in Moscow.” Kizenko had his banya, called Bear and Birch, made in Russia and shipped to the U.S., he said.

Built in the 19th century for nobles, the Sanduny baths near the Kremlin are Moscow’s fanciest. The poet Alexander Pushkin and the writer Leo Tolstoy are said to have bathed there. More recent visitors include the actors John Travolta, Dolph Lundgren and the billionaire Roman Abramovich.

Goldman Sachs reduced its compensation and benefits expense 21 percent to $12.2 billion in 2011 as revenue slid 26 percent. The expense for salary, bonuses and benefits, the company’s biggest cost, was enough to provide $367,057 to each of its 33,300 employees, down from $430,700 for each of its 35,700 workers at the end of 2010.

Separately, the firm said today Paolo Zannoni, chairman of Italian investment banking, will take over as chief of Russian operations from co-heads Chris Barter and Jean Raby in the third leadership change in as many years. Barter is leaving Goldman after 19 years to start his own investment firm while Raby will remain and work with investment-banking clients.

TABLE-Russian Jan oil output at a new post-Soviet high

Oil output in Russia, the world's top crude producer, rose
to a new post-Soviet high of 10.36 million barrels per day (bpd) in January and was up by 0.4
percent from 10.32 million bpd reached in December, Energy Ministry data showed.
    Exports via pipeline monopoly Transneft fell by 0.6 percent to
4.24 million bpd from 4.26 million bpd in December.
    The following oil production and export data were supplied by Russia's Energy Ministry.
Volumes are in millions of tonnes and show the monthly and year-to-date totals.
    Percentage change figures are based on daily volumes.	

                   OIL AND CONDENSATE PRODUCTION         TRANSNEFT EXPORTS
                           Pct change vs                   Pct change vs
                  Jan 12  Dec 11  Jan 11     YTD   Jan 12  Dec 11  Jan 11     YTD
 Rosneft           9.826     0.6     1.6   9.826    4.625    -8.8    -6.9   4.625
 LUKOIL            7.155     0.2    -3.3   7.155    2.147     6.0     0.1   2.147
 TNK-BP            6.196    -0.2     1.8   6.196    2.632   -10.4    12.6   2.632
 Surgutneftegaz    5.162    -0.1     0.7   5.162    2.134   -10.6    -5.2   2.134
 Gazprom Neft      2.582    -1.1     2.1   2.582    1.270    10.4     2.6   1.270
 Slavneft*         1.529    -0.8    -0.9   1.529      0.0     n/a     n/a   0.000
 Tatneft           2.226     0.0     0.1   2.226    1.214    -2.3    -2.7   1.214
 Gazprom           1.447    10.7    14.5   1.447    0.062   -12.6     n/a   0.062
 Bashneft          1.320     1.9     4.6   1.320    0.300     0.0     0.0   0.300
 Russneft          1.177    -0.1     5.9   1.177    0.402    -6.1   -12.8   0.402
 Novatek           0.368    -0.1     4.9   0.368      0.0     n/a     n/a     0.0
 Small producers   3.627    -0.4    11.3   3.627    1.012    47.1    70.5   1.012
 PSA operators     1.206     0.7   -11.6   1.206    0.125    -3.1    25.0   0.125
 TOTAL OUTPUT     43.820     0.4     1.5  43.820
 Total Russian exports through Transneft           15.927    -3.1    -0.6  15.927
  including Caspian pipeline                        0.004     n/a   -99.0   0.004
 Transit through Russia:
  from Azerbaijan                                   0.080   -48.9   -52.7   0.080
  from Kazakhstan                                   1.765    41.2    -3.9   1.765
  Belarus production                                0.139    -0.8     n/a   0.139
 TOTAL TRANSNEFT THROUGHPUT                        17.924    -0.6    -0.5  17.924
 Routes other than Transneft**                      1.853     3.8   -12.3   1.853

    NOTES:
    * Slavneft is half owned by TNK-BP Holding and Gazprom Neft  	

    ** Some companies export crude by sea tankers, filling them at ports close
to offshore oilfields, or by rail, therefore  bypassing Transneft, the Russian
crude oil pipeline monopoly.

Russia intends to help Khartoum & Juba settle disputes, envoy says

A senior Russian diplomat visiting Khartoum has offered his country’s support to enable Sudan and South Sudan to overcome their disputes.

Russia’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Mikhail Bogdanov has led a delegation to the Sudanese capital and held a series of meetings with top Sudanese officials.

Following a meeting with Sudan’s President Omer Al-Bashir on Wednesday, Bogdanov told reporters that Moscow intends to support Sudan in order to find durable solutions to all issues of contention with South Sudan.

Sudan and South Sudan have been unable to overcome an array of disputes arising from failure to fully implement the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which ended more than two decades of civil wars between the two sides and paved the way for the south’s secession in July last year.

The most notable of these disputes are to the status of the hotly contested region of Abyei and sharing of oil revenues.

The Russian diplomat, however, pointed out that his country’s offer is limited to making contacts between the two sides without going into too many details or interfering with the ongoing efforts of the African Union High Level Panel, the main facilitator of talks between the two countries.

AUHIP-moderated talks between Sudan and South Sudan on the oil dispute have been unsuccessful so far as the crisis escalated in recent weeks after the south shut down oil production in response to Khartoum’s unilateral decision to confiscate its oil.

Bogdanov said he had received briefing from Al-Bashir on the situation between Sudan and South Sudan as well as the outcome of Sudan’s participation at the 18th AU summit held in Addis Ababa.

Al-Bashir held a meeting with Kiir on the margins of the AU summit in a bid to resolve the dispute but the talks collapsed after Kiir refused to sign a proposed agreement on oil.

Separately, the Russian official held meetings with Sudan’s Foreign Minister Ali Karti as well as the presidential assistant Nafie Ali Nafie.

The Russian delegation is visiting Khartoum to participate in the meetings of the joint ministerial committee between the two countries which was formed during Karti’s visit to Moscow in December 2010.

The committee aims to advance bilateral cooperation in the fields of economy, commerce and trade.

Bogdanov said his delegation comprises representatives of more than 10 Russian companies specialized in different fields.

He explained that the committee’s meeting, which is scheduled to kick off today, will aim to link Russian entrepreneurs with their Sudanese counterparts.

Russian Crude Oil Output Climbs to Post-Soviet Record in January

Russian oil production rose 0.4 percent in January from the previous month, setting a post- Soviet record.

Output from the world’s largest oil producer climbed to 10.36 million barrels a day last month from 10.32 million barrels a day in December, according to preliminary data from the Energy Ministry’s CDU-TEK unit. That was a 1.4 percent increase from 10.21 million barrels a day in January 2011.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who will seek re-election as president in March, has called for Russia to pump more than 10 million barrels a day for at least the next decade, and lowered the tax rate on crude exports to encourage output. Oil taxes are the biggest contributor to the national budget.

Average production passed Putin’s target level in 2009 for the first time since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, reaching 10.35 million barrels a day in October last year. Soviet-era output peaked at 11.48 million barrels a day in 1987, according to BP Plc (BP/) data.

Exports rose to 5.29 million barrels a day in January, an increase of 1.2 percent from the previous month and 2.3 percent from January 2011.

Russia says will veto “unacceptable” Syria resolution

Russia said on Wednesday it would veto any U.N. resolution on Syria that it finds unacceptable, after demanding any measure rule out military intervention to halt the bloodshed touched off by protests against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule.

The political violence in Syria has killed at least 5,000 people in the past 10 months and activists say Assad’s forces have stepped up operations this week on opposition strongholds, from Damascus suburbs to the cities of Hama, Homs and the border provinces of Deraa and Idlib.

Arab and Western states urged the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to act swiftly on a resolution backing an Arab League plan calling for Assad to hand powers to his deputy and defuse the 11-month-old uprising against his family’s dynastic rule.

“If the text will be unacceptable for us we will vote against it, of course,” Russian U.N. envoy Vitaly Churkin told reporters in Moscow via a videolink from New York.

“If it is a text that we consider erroneous, that will lead to a worsening of the crisis, we will not allow it to be passed. That is unequivocal,” he said.

His remarks came hours after Russia’s envoy to the European Union, Vladimir Chizhov, said there was no chance the Western-Arab draft text could be accepted unless it expressly rejected armed intervention.

Russia and China, both veto-wielding Security Council members, have resisted a Western push for a resolution condemning the Syrian government’s crackdown on unrest.

U.N. Security Council ambassadors met in New York on Wednesday to discuss ways to overcome their disagreements on the wording of the draft resolution Morocco submitted to council members on Friday.

Western envoys said they did not expect the closed-door meeting would immediately result in a deal with Russia and predicted further negotiating sessions in the coming days.

Despite the Russian comments, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said a “window of hope” had opened. “We will work furiously in the next few days to try and get a resolution that will allow the Arab League to forge ahead in finding a solution,” he told parliament in Paris.

Russia says the West exploited fuzzy wording in a March 2011 U.N. Security Council resolution on Libya to turn a mandate to protect civilians in the North African country’s uprising into a push to remove the government, backed by NATO air strikes, that led to the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi.

Russia has also expressed concern that the draft’s threat of further measures against Syria could lead to sanctions, which it opposes.

“WHOSE SIDE?”

Western envoys in New York said the main sticking point was likely to be not military intervention, on which they said a diplomatic fix was possible, but the resolution’s support for the Arab League plan demanding that Assad give up power. That is seen by Moscow as tantamount to regime change.

The envoys said their biggest challenge would be to reword the draft so that it still endorses the plan but in a way that is weaker than the current version.

In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters, “Every member of the council has to make a decision: Whose side are you on? Are you on the side of the Syrian people? … Or are you on the side of a brutal, dictatorial regime?”

An activist group said Syrian troops killed eight people in the central city of Homs and that 15 government soldiers were killed in a clash with a defector unit. Syria’s state news agency SANA said a general, Rajeh Mahmoud, was killed along with three soldiers on the outskirts of Damascus on Wednesday.

Syrian insurgents said Assad’s forces extended a military sweep overnight to counter a rebel threat that had reached the gates of the capital, sending armor into eastern and northern suburbs that Assad’s forces took over this week. An activist group said at least 25 people had been killed in that sweep.

In Wadi Barada on the edge of the capital, four people were killed in a tank bombardment on Wednesday to flush out rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) units operating near the capital, activists said. A rebel spokesman put the death toll at 15.

SANA said troops killed 11 members of an “armed terrorist group” outside the southern city of Deraa, and that government forces discovered bomb factories and field hospitals in a raid on armed cells in Irbin and Sabqa, Damascus suburbs where insurgents had appeared recently.

It was not possible to verify the reports as Syria restricts access for independent media.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the policy of isolation and trying to remove the government risked igniting a “much bigger drama” in the Middle East.

“The people who are obsessed with removing regimes in the region, they should be really thinking about the broader picture,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

“And I’m afraid that if this vigor to change regimes persists, we are going to witness a very bad situation much, much, much broader than just Syria, Libya, Egypt or any other single country.”

Russian official says Moscow will not stop arms sales to Syria

Russia will not stop selling arms to Syria, a top defense official said Thursday, as Moscow stands by its longtime ally despite mounting international condemnation over the Syrian regime’s bloody crackdown on a 10-month-old uprising.

Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said his country is not violating any international obligations by selling weapons to Damascus.

“As of today there are no restrictions on our delivery of weapons,” he told journalists in Russia, according to the country’s state news agencies. “We must fulfill our obligations and this is what we are doing.”

Moscow has been one of Syria’s most powerful allies — along with Iran — as Syria tries to crush the revolt against President Bashar Assad. The U.N. estimates that more than 5,400 people have been killed in the government crackdown.

Moscow’s stance is motivated in part by its strategic and defense ties, including weapons sales, with Syria. But Russia also rejects what it sees as a a world order dominated by the U.S. Last month, Russia reportedly signed a $550-million deal to sell combat jets to Syria.

U.N. ambassadors this week are trying to overcome Russia’s opposition to a draft resolution at the Security Council calling for Assad to surrender power. Moscow says it would veto the draft because it believes it opens the way for eventual international military action.

Wiam Wahhab, a pro-Syrian Lebanese politician, met Tuesday with Assad in Damascus.

“I found him relaxed and sure. He is confident in the Russian position,” Wahhab told the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar in an interview published Thursday.

Wahhab said Assad told him he will end the uprising, because “the cost of chaos is much worse than the cost of decisiveness.”

As the diplomatic push continues, however, Syrian activists Thursday marked the 30-year anniversary of the Hama massacre. The three-week assault on the rebellious city of Hama leveled entire neighborhoods and killed thousands of people in one of the most notorious massacres in the modern Middle East.

The attack was carried out in 1982 when Assad’s father, Hafez, was president — and it has become a rallying cry for some Syrian protesters who want to topple the family dynasty now, once and for all.

On Thursday, many of the city’s residents were observing a general strike to mark the anniversary, said Ahmed Jimejmi, a resident. Protests were planned, he said, but security forces flooded the streets in anticipation.

Hundreds of troops and security forces were in the city, including Al-Assi square, and troops set up flying checkpoints, asking for people’s IDs.

“There is a checkpoint every 100 meters,” he said.

Activists painted two streets in Hama red to symbolize blood, and threw red dye in the waters of Hama’s famous and ancient water wheels.

Graffiti on the walls read: “Hafez died, and Hama didn’t. Bashar will die, and Hama won’t.”