RT News line, September 29 Georgia says yes to US missile defense but no to Russia in WTO

Azerbaijan exports to Russia much more energy than it receives

Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 28 / Trend , E.Ismayilov /

Russia’s Trade Representative in Azerbaijan Yuri Shedrin stated that Azerbaijan supplied to Russia electricity in the amount of 342.9 million kilowatt-hours worth $21.8 million in seven months of 2011.

During this period, Russia delivered to Azerbaijan electricity in the amount of 2.5 million kilowatt-hours worth $0.2 million, he told journalists today.

An agreement on the parallel operation of power system of Azerbaijan and Russia is at the consultation stage, Shedrin said.

The sides are also in talks on the issue of pumping oil through the Baku-Novorossiysk

Baku hosted in early September a meeting of the working group on amendments to an agreement on the Azerbaijani oil transportation through Russia, dated Jan.18, 1996.
Shedrin said the working groups of each party agree on the volume of transportation, tariffs, as well as the quality of oil.

The bilateral Russian-Azerbaijani inter-governmental agreement on the transit of Azerbaijani oil via the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline was signed in 1996. It provides for transportation of 5 million tons of oil a year at the rate of $15.67 per one ton of transited oil.

SOCAR transships its own oil, as well as oil of joint ventures and operating companies operating in Azerbaijan's onshore fields, through Novorossiysk.

Until late 2007, AIOC was the operator of Baku-Novorossiysk. The structure then transferred these functions to SOCAR.

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Pro-Russian Activists Quarrel In Ukraine's Crimea

September 28, 2011

SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine -- Pro-Russian activists in Ukraine's Crimean peninsula have accused a moderate pro-Moscow group of betraying the "Russian movement" in Crimea, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reports.

The activists held what they called a "people's tribunal" for several hours on September 28 in the Crimean capital, Simferopol, where they read a list of "sins" committed by Russian Community of Crimea leader Serhiy Tsekov and his colleagues, saying that they had betrayed voters.

At the end of the gathering the activists announced a "verdict" of "eternal shame."

Tsekov, who is also a deputy in the Crimean parliament, did not comment on the accusations. His nongovernmental organization quoted an earlier decision by the Coordination Council of Russian Compatriots, which forbids groups from encouraging a split in the pro-Russian movement in Crimea.

Local observers note that the Russian Community of Crimea has close links to the Russian consulate office in Crimea.

Analysts say tensions have been created because of plans by Moscow to increase its financing of pro-Russian groups abroad.

Crimean analyst Mykola Semena told RFE/RL that the "Russian pre-election campaigns are being transferred to Ukraine."

About 60 percent of Crimea's 2 million people are ethnic Russians and Russian is the dominant language on the peninsula, which has greater autonomy than other Ukrainian regions.

Crimea was transferred from the Russian Soviet republic to the Ukrainian Soviet republic in 1954.

Read more in Ukrainian here

08:33 29/09/2011ALL NEWS

MOSCOW, September 29 (Itar-Tass) — Cooperation between Russia's regions and the European Union (EU) in promoting the establishment of an electronic government of Russia has entered the finishing straight.

The implementation of a project on the theme of "The State for Citizens", encompassing the territory stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean, has continued for two years. The EU allocated two million euros for carrying out the project which is to be introduced to the public at-large and the Russian establishment at the EU representative office here on Thursday.

European diplomats say the project is intended to promote not only a more active interaction between Russian regions but also stable contacts with partners in EU countries. Summing up the preliminary results of the work done, an EU Office staff member said that about 3,000 public employees from 53 regions of Russian had undergone training. In all, 25,000 people took part in the development of new electronic services.

This is not the first project being implemented by the EU in partnership with the Russian Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media. In the period from 2004 to 2009, similar programmes were alternately introduced in Arkhangelsk, Kaliningrad, Novgorod, Petrozavodsk, and St Petersburg.

This time the project has covered the entire territory of Russia, European diplomats emphasize.

RT News line, September 29