Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan starts out for Moscow

Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan starts out for Moscow

Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan Almazbek Atambaev has started out for Moscow today, they in the Government informed 24.kg news agency.

However, the aim of Atambayev’s unscheduled visit to the Russian capital is unknown yet.

Supposedly, the head of the Kyrgyz Government will meet with his counterpart Vladimir Putin. Probably, they will speak about POL export to Kyrgyzstan: as it is known the republic experiences sharp shortage of AI-92 and AI-95 fuel for the past few days.

Politologists assume Atambayev’s visit to Moscow correlates with the start of the presidential race. It is obvious for everyone that the Prime Minister will run for the presidency. It is not ruled out that the favorite of the forthcoming race want to enlist Kremlin’s support.

23:10 19/07/2011ALL NEWS

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MOSCOW, July 19 (Itar-Tass) —— Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin will pay a working visit to Kyrgyzstan on July 22 to meet with Kyrgyz President Rosa Otunbayeva, a source at the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

“A working visit of State Secretary – Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin to the Republic of Kyrgyzstan is due on July 22 for political consultations with Foreign Minister Ruslan Kazakbayev. Grigory Karasin will also meet with Kyrgyz President Rosa Otunbayeva,” the source said.

11:58 20/07/2011ALL NEWS

RF-South Ossetia commission discusses investment program.

http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/189050.html

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TSKHINVAL, July 20 (Itar-Tass) — The Russian-South Ossetian intergovernmental commission discussed late on Tuesday the implementation of the investment program of assistance to social and economic development of South Ossetia for 2011.

South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity and Russian Minister for Regional Development Viktor Basargin took part in its session in Tskhinval. The Russian minister stressed that South Ossetia enters the period of post-war development and “its independence from Georgia in supplies of electricity and natural gas has been practically ensured”.

“For the first time in the past 40 years, repairs of underground communications began, and street lighting has been on in the streets and squares of Tskhinval for already more than a year. At the moment, post-war emergency restoration of the economy and social sphere in the republic has been practically completed, and the stage of transition to onward development begins. Mechanisms of restoration needed in a critical post-war situation are becoming a thing of the past,” he said.

Some changes were introduced in the Investment Program, and the sides also considered issues of preferences in bilateral trade, among other issues.

Russia plans to channel in South Ossetia 6.81 billion roubles this year for the implementation of the Investment Program. The republic received the first tranche of 1.45 billion roubles on June 2.

The next session of the commission is scheduled for the beginning of October. It will he held in Moscow.

02:32 20/07/2011ALL NEWS

Lavrov to leave for Indonesia Wed to attend ministerial meetings.

http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/188844.html

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MOSCOW, July 20 (Itar-Tass) — Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov leaves here for Indonesia on Wednesday to take part in minsiterial meetings within the scope of Russia-ASEAN and East Asia summits (EAS) machinery, due to be held on Bali Island from July 21 to 22.

Main attention will be devoted to problems concerning non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, including a nuclear-free zone in Southeast Asia, as well as counteraction to international terrorism, the nuclear problem on the Korean Peninsula, and the situation in the Middle East and North Africa.

Analysts point out that, apart from the political component, an economic dialogue is also developing actively between Russia and ASEAN countries which view the RF as one o key players in Southeast Asia. In 2010, RF-ASEAN trade turnover ran at $10,500 million, growing by 60 percent since 2006.

A Russian Foreign Ministry official recalled that this year will see the15th jubilee of cooperation between Russia and ASEAN. "As a result of the minsiterial meeting, the sides are to adopt a Joint Statement of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs on the occasion of the15th jubilee of dialogue partnership. The Statement is to map out additional joint steps towards further interaction, including that in the interests of refinement of the architecture of security and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific Region (APR)," the Ministry official pointed out.

Within the scope of an EAS ministerial meeting, the sides will discuss matters aimed at preparing the 6th summit of EAS which is to be held on Bali Island from November 17 to 19 within the framework of ASEAN annual top-level arrangements.

"Those present at the minsiterial meeting are also to analyze joint programmes for energy, finances, education, health care,t he prevention of emergencies, and elimination of their aftermath," the Russian Ministry official said.

The EAS machinery, which was brought into being in 2005 on the initiative of ASEAN and aimed at strengthening peace, stability, and economic prosperity in the APR, now brings together ten ASEAN countries, as well as Australia, India, China, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, the United States, and Japan. Russia officially joined this forum (together with the US) in October 2010.

"Russia views EAS as an important factor in the fashioning of an all-embracing, balanced, and open architecture in the APR, commensurate with the present-day challenges to security," the Russian Foreign Ministry official pointed out.

Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2011/Jul-20/Mediator-Russia-hosts-top-Kadhafi-diplomat.ashx#ixzz1ScyaBqK7

MOSCOW: Russia Wednesday was to host Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s foreign minister in Moscow as it presses ahead with mediation efforts to end the conflict between his regime and rebel forces.

Foreign Minister Abdelati al-Obeidi will be the highest-ranking Gadhafi official to visit Moscow since the conflict with the rebels erupted and is expected to hold talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

His visit was revealed in a statement by a Russian Foreign Ministry official to state news agencies a day earlier but formal details of the meetings have yet to be announced.

Russia backed the U.N. resolution that opened the way for Western military airstrikes against Gadhafi targets but has since expressed fury with the duration of the campaign and accused the West of taking sides in a civil war.

Along with the African Union, Moscow has positioned itself as a potential mediator in the crisis and President Dmitry Medvedev’s envoy has held talks in both Tripoli and the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

“We will continue to search for a compromise,” Medvedev said Tuesday while on a visit to Germany. “In my opinion it is reachable.”

Medvedev has strongly backed Western calls for Gadhafi to quit but Russia has also denied speculation it could be ready to offer the Libyan leader sanctuary.

Meanwhile, the pro-Gadhafi Libyan ambassador to Moscow rejected the idea that Wednesday’s meetings could be aimed at finding a formula for Gadhafi to quit power.

“The political future of our country is an internal matter of Libya,” Amir al-Garib told the Moskovskie Novosti newspaper in an interview. “Not one foreign state has the right to interfere in our affairs.”

“I assure you that the leader of the Libyan revolution Moammar Gadhafi has no intention of leaving the state and will not discuss any proposals about this.”

He said that the main aim of al-Obeidi’s visit to Moscow was “finding peace.”

Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2011/Jul-20/Mediator-Russia-hosts-top-Kadhafi-diplomat.ashx#ixzz1ScygVWuw

01:24 20/07/2011ALL NEWS

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MOSCOW, July 20 (Itar-Tass) — Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov meets with his Libyan counterpart Abdul Ati al-Obeidi here on Wednesday.

"Lavrov's meeting with the Secretary of the General People's Committee for Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation will be held at the request of the Libyan side," an official at the Russian Foreign Ministry has told Itar-Tass. "The meeting will be held within the framework of Russia’s assistance to the efforts being made by the African Union and the United Nations with a view to putting an end to the bloodshed in Libya and to reaching a political settlement (of the situation) there."

On Tuesday, Sergei Lavrov once again reaffirmed that Russia disagrees that the Transitional National Council is recognized as the only legitimate representative of the Libyan people. Moscow regards the Council as one of the parties to talks. The Minister also emphasized, "Russia maintains contacts with Tripoli and Benghazi", urging them to "take a constructive position, (manifesting) responsibility, and sit down at the negotiating table on the basis of mediatory proposals put forward by the African Union and the UN".

CDA MPs question RWE Gazprom deal

Christian Democrat MPs have asked economic affairs minister Maxime Verhagen to explain the implications of a possible deal between RWE and Gazprom, which could give the Russian state firm partial control of six Dutch power stations.

They want to know if the deal means Gazprom could eventually end up controlling the power stations which are owned by Essent, now part of RWE. They also want to know if Dutch law gives sufficient protection against any eventual Russian state intervention.

RWE and Gazprom are setting up a joint venture which will include power plants in the Benelux, Germany and Britain.

The two companies hope the deal will be finalised in the next three months.

RWE has emphasised it is a purely financial deal and that it will remain responsible for the operational side. 'Our power stations will continue to be managed by Essent staff,' Essent's CEO Peter Terium told the FD.

12:14 20/07/2011ALL NEWS

Chinese shipbuilders build 75,000-t ship for FESCO.

http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/189067.html

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VLADIVOSTOK, July 20 (Itar-Tass) — Chinese shipbuilders from the city of Zhangjiagang have built for the Far Eastern Shipping Company (FESCO) a motor ship with a deadweight of 57,000 tonnes that was named FESCO Saratov. It is a bulk freighter. The Saratov’s acceptance by Russian specialists was held at Qingshan Shipyard on Wednesday, the shipyard’s press office reported.

FESCO Saratov is the first of four bulk carriers that the Far Eastern Shipping Company is building at Qingshan Shipyard.

It is planned that by the end of this year and early next in the FESCO will accept three more bulk carriers, increasing its fleet to 52 vessels with the total deadweight of more than 1 million tonnes.

Over FESCO’s more than 130-year history, it will be the 910th vessel owned by the company, and a second vessel with the name Saratov. The first Saratov steamship was built in 1891 in Newcastle (UK) and worked on a regular line between Odessa and Vladivostok.

The modern bulk carrier FESCO Saratov has a length of almost 190 metres, a draft of 12.8 metres, the volume of the vessel’s five holds is 71,500 cubic metres. The new bulk carrier will be equipped with four electric hydraulic cranes with the capacity of 30 tonnes each.

After the acceptance ceremony the ship will immediately go to work, in several days the FESCO Saratov vessel is expected in Japan for loading limestone with the destination to Hong Kong.

FESCO is a Russian company, founded in the 19th century in Vladivostok that operates a fleet of sea vessels, trucks, and railroad vehicles, and associated intermodal ports. FESCO has quite a number of international services in the Pacific Ocean, including services to and from teh People’s Republic of China, Republic of China (Taiwan), Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Korean Republic, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, India as well as Canada and the Continental United States. FESCO Transport Group has also services within the CIS and the Eastern Europe by rail service. FESCO’s fleet of sea vessels includes five large icebreakers, three ro-ro vessels, twenty-seven container vessels, six ice-breaking cargo vessels, twelve bulk-carriers, eleven timber-ships, and four supplier vessels.

FESCO PLC - base company of FESCO Transportation Group - is Russia's 3rd largest ship-owning company and the largest non-oil cargo carrier. FESCO fleet operates in almost every part of the World Ocean. Today FESCO's container lines link ports of the USA (both East and West coasts), Canada, South-East Asia, Korea, Japan, China, Vietnam and North-West Europe (Baltic countries, Poland, Germany, Finland, etc.) with each other and with European and Far Eastern ports of Russia.

FESCO is one of the main carriers in the Far East basin of the Pacific. Its fleet can provide cargo transportation in ports with limited navigation period, including cargo operations over a beach. In 2006 FESCO's fleet made 60 percent of coastal and 40 percent of international container shipping in the Far East.

FESCO is the biggest operator of Russia’s icebreaking fleet. Strengthened ice-class vessels and icebreakers not only carry cargoes, but also provide ice escorting to other vessels in remote areas of the Arctic and Antarctic. All of the company's vessels fully meet the international standards of safety and quality. In accordance with the requirements of the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code (ISPS Code), each vessel is equipped with an automatic identification system.

Today FESCO Transportation Group is the largest integrated private company, providing wide range of transportation services and logistical solutions. It combines advantages of own maritime rail and motor transportation, stevedore service in own port's terminals in the biggest ports of Russia and CIS countries, as well as wide net of representatives all over the world. The Group’s business assets include various types of modern, fast and safe vessels, own park of diversified rolling stock, own main-line and diesel-locomotive shunters, freightliners, container equipment, water surface and on-land terminal complexes.

08:45 20/07/2011ALL NEWS

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BEIJING, July 20 (Itar-Tass) —— China opened officially its part of the Bolshoi Ussuriisky Island on the Amur River for tourist trips. The first group of 150 tourists from China arrived on the island on Wednesday morning, the Xinhua news agency reported. The island was divided between Russia and China after the complete border demarcation between the countries under the treaty in 2008.

On Tuesday, the authorities in the north-eastern Chinese border province Heilongjiang announced that they had launched a border checkpoint, at which all visitors to the island are to pass a special security check-up. Chinese citizens need a special permit, which is issued by the border service in the Fuyuan Province, to visit the island.

On October 14, 2008, Russia and China have completed the border demarcation on the Bolshoi Ussuriisky and Tarabarov islands near Khabarovsk. Under the intergovernmental agreement the Tarabarov Island became China’s Yinlong Dao and Bolshoi Ussuriisky was divided into two parts. Its western part, which was passed to China, is called Heixiazi now. Its eastern part belongs to Russia.

Currently China is creating actively the tourist infrastructure of its part of the island. China is considering various variants for the use of this territory. China is planning to build a 35-kilometer-long ring road and to create a free trade zone and to build an airport. Meanwhile, the Heilongjiang authorities noted that the environmental protection will be prioritized in the development of a tourist zone.

22:17 19/07/2011ALL NEWS

Putin to chair meeting of govt commission for control over foreign investments.

http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/188789.html

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MOSCOW, July 19 (Itar-Tass) —— Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will chair a meeting of the Governmental Commission for Control over Foreign Investments in Russia on Wednesday, July 20.

The commission will consider 13 applications lodged by foreign investments from Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Cyprus and the United States in the areas of petrochemistry, transport infrastructure, mineral development, telecommunications and manufacturing of specialized equipment, the government press service said on Tuesday.

The prospective deals include the acquisition of stakes in the Nizhny Novgorod and Novosibirsk airports, the Vanino commercial seaport, the Mikheyevsky mining and ore dressing plant and a number of telecom companies.

The commission will consider the application of the French Total company for acquiring assets in the Yamal SPG public joint stock company. Total ranks one of the world’s four leaders in the production of gas and oil. It is prospecting and developing the Yuzhno-Tambeikoye gas condensate field in Russia on the Yamal Peninsula with the appraised reserves of 1.3 trillion cubic meters of gas. The prospective project will involve one of the world’s leaders not only in the development of a promising but complex gas province but also in the construction of Russia’s second liquefied natural gas plant. LNG is a product with the substantial potential on foreign markets.

The commission controls foreign investments in economic entities of strategic importance for national defense and security. Russian strategic plants are of big interest for foreign investors. The Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service is considering 219 applications for the acquisition of such assets.

The Federal Antimonopoly Service will inform the commission about measures taken to lower administrative barriers, to improve the investment climate and to draw investments in the Russian economy.

00:36 20/07/2011ALL NEWS

RF govt panel to consider 13 applications from foreign investors.

http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/188821.html

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MOSCOW, July 20 (Itar-Tass) — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will chair a regular meeting of the Governmental Commission for Control over Foreign Investments in the Russian Federation on Wednesday.

The Commission is to consider 13 applications filed by foreign investors from Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Cyprus, and the United States on deals in the areas of petrochemistry, transport infrastructure, mineral development, telecommunications and manufacturing of specialized equipment, the government press service announced.

The prospective deals include the acquisition of stakes in the Nizhny Novgorod and Novosibirsk airports, the Vanino commercial seaport, the Mikheyevsky mining and ore dressing plant and a number of telecomm companies.

The Commission will also consider, in particular, the application of the French Total company for acquiring assets in the Yamal SPG (LNG) public joint stock company. Total ranks one of the world’s four leaders in the production of gas and oil. It is prospecting and developing the Yuzhno-Tambeiskoye gas condensate field in Russia on the Yamal Peninsula with the prospected reserves of 1.3 trillion cubic meters of gas. The prospective project will involve one of the world’s leaders not only in the development of a promising but complex gas province but also in the construction of Russia’s second liquefied natural gas plant. LNG is a product with the substantial potential on foreign markets.

The purpose of the Commission is to exercise control over foreign capital investments in economic entities that are of strategic importance in ensuring the defence and security of the country. Russian strategic enterprises are of great interest to foreign investors. Two hundred and nineteen applications on deals concerning the assets of such enterprises are currently under consideration at FAS (Russian acronym for Federal Antimonopoly Service).

During Wednesday's session, FAS will brief Commission members on measures aimed at relaxing administrative barriers, at improving the investment climate and at attracting investments in the Russian economy.

RT News line, July 20