Year: 2008

Junior and Karlson (Part 1)

MOSCOW, June 1 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s oil export duty will rise to a record $398.1 per metric ton from June 1, 2008, in line with global market trends.

“The average [crude] price was $102.8 per barrel for the March-April monitoring period, which puts the maximum duty rate at $398.1 per metric ton. Therefore we will reach a record export duty on Russian oil that will be fixed at $398.1 per metric ton from June 1,” Alexander Sakovich, deputy head of the customs payment department at Russia’s Finance Ministry earlier said.

He said export duties on light oil products would rise to $280.5 per metric ton from June 1, 2008, from the current $241.4 per metric ton, and duty on heavy petroleum products would grow to $151.1 per metric ton from $130.1.

The Russian government adjusts export duty on crude and petroleum products every two months, depending on changes in the Urals blend price on world markets.

The average price of Russia’s benchmark Urals crude blend was $93.36 per barrel in the first quarter of 2008, up $39.12, year-on-year. The Urals average price in March 2008 was $99.78 per barrel, compared to $58.86 per barrel in the same month last year.

On March 24, Russia’s economics ministry raised its 2008 forecast for the annual average price of Urals by 16% to $86 per barrel.

Kyle & Svet

Hello,

I was drinking my morning cup of coffee & came across this tidbit of information. This is an interesting way to get more troops into an area. Railroad Troops….(Railway Troops — a specifically Russian institution that handles many aspects of civilian transport.)
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MOSCOW, May 31 (RIA Novosti) – Units of Russia’s Railroad Troops have started rebuilding railroad infrastructure on the territory of Georgia’s breakaway region of Abkhazia under a presidential decree on humanitarian aid to the self-proclaimed republic, the Defense Ministry said on Saturday.

“In accordance with the Russian president’s decree on humanitarian aid to Abkhazia and a request by the Abkhazian authorities, units from the Russian Railroad Troops and special non-military equipment have been dispatched to rebuild railroads and infrastructure [in Abkhazia],” the ministry said in a statement.
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I wonder are these troops considered non combat troops? I guess I have to research the Russian Railway Troops!

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

PS: After reading about them I would have to say that they are combat trained, but they perform mainly construction work on transportation systems! The catch is that they can be quickly brought into battle because they are kept at a high level of alertness & training. 🙂

Hello,

NATO said: “Georgia will stop sending unmanned planes above its breakaway republic Abkhazia. The decision was made after a meeting of the UN Security Council called at Georgia’s request. However, Georgia says it will start using the drones again if it thinks it’s necessary.”

Looks like NATO was also being pushed to investigate the drone situation again. That is good, what NATO said was a fabricated report of a one sided story…..

The search for an opening to the crisis has taken place behind closed doors this time. For the second time in as many months the UN Security Council discussed simmering tensions in Georgia’s breakaway republic of Abkhazia, and as before, Abkhazian officials were left out. However, the country’s Foreign Minister, Sergey Shamba, said that even if they hadn’t been, it wouldn’t have changed much.

“Even if we’d been invited, I don’t think the council would have treated what we’d have said objectively and impartially, because it only recognises Georgia’s right of territorial integrity and ignores Abkhazia’s right to self-determination,” he said.

He added that then at least the members would have heard both sides.

If there were any hopes for healing ties between Georgia and Russia, they were destroyed last month when a missile from an unidentified fighter jet hit Georgia’s spy plane over Abkhazia. While officials in the breakaway region immediately claimed responsibility for the incident, Tbilisi still insists it was all Russia’s doing.
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This is a comment that a reader left:
I’m not sure what you’re trying to get at. Are you insinuating that the only reason Abkhazia and Georgia cannot resolve their differences is because Abkhazia doesn’t want to see Georgia get into NATO?

I would agree with the fact that the entire world, media, and governments seem to conveniently always focus on Georgia’s demands rather than WHY Abkhazia doesn’t want anything to do with them. It’s hypocritical at this point.

Abkhazia has a valid claim and Georgia needs to understand that its oppressive ways are no longer tolerated or acceptable to Abkhazians. They should really just give it up and stop harassing their neighbors and focus on their own turmoil within their borders. It seems that they have their hands full as we speak.
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My reader was correct, Abkhazia has a valid claim! Georgia needs to solve their own issues at their capital of Tbilisi first.

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Hello,

I was drinking my morning cup of coffee & wondering why NATO ignores Abkhazia?
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The President of the Georgian breakaway republic of Abkhazia, Sergey Bagapsh, says the conflict zone on the border with Georgia can only be patrolled by Russian peacekeepers.

The statement comes in response to repeated Georgian demands for the withdrawal of Russian troops. Tbilisi says Moscow is no longer neutral in the dispute over the sovereignty of the region.

“The replacement of Russian and CIS peacekeepers in the conflict zone is out of the question, as they have been performing their duties with honour and dignity for years,” Bagapsh said.

“As far as NATO coming to Georgia – it would lead to a deterioration in the situation in both the Northern and Southern Caucasus as well as in the whole region,” he added
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I guess that answers that!

Abkhazia would not be very happy……

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

RBC, 30.05.2008, Moscow 14:35:42.Russia’s trade surplus grew 1.7 times to $67.5bn in January-April 2008 compared to the same months a year earlier, the Economy Ministry stated today in a monitoring report on the economic situation in the country in January-April. Russia’s foreign trade jumped 49 percent to $236.1bn and exports rose 1.5 times to $151.8bn. Countries outside the CIS accounted for 85.5 percent of Russia’s exports (up from 84.7 percent), while the CIS’s share decreased from 15.3 percent to 14.5 percent. Russia’s imports climbed 41.7 percent to $84.3bn. The share of countries outside the CIS in Russia’s imports edged up from 84.7 percent to 86.5 percent, while the CIS’s share shrank from 15.3 percent to 13.5 percent.

RBC, 30.05.2008, Moscow 14:23:27.According to the Economy Ministry’s preliminary estimates, inflation is expected to reach 7.4-7.5 percent in January-May, the ministry’s monitoring report on the economic situation in the country states. The ministry forecasts inflation to exceed 1 percent in May.

RBC, 30.05.2008, Moscow 13:34:19.Trading in RAO UES shares will be suspended on the RTS Stock Exchange’s Classic Market starting June 2, 2008, the exchange said in a statement. Trading in RAO UES’s common and preferred shares on the T+0 market will be halted from June 7, 2008. Trading will be suspended in accordance with the RTS’s action plan, which was put into force in connection with RAO UES’s restructuring as approved by the RTS’s Board of Directors on May 7, 2008.

RBC, 30.05.2008, Moscow 13:16:18.Head of Interros and one of the main shareholders of Norilsk Nickel Vladimir Potanin has recommended the managers of the Russian mining and metallurgical company to launch a new round of talks with UC RUSAL on the divestment of energy assets into an independent company, the Russian businessman told journalists today.

RBC, 30.05.2008, Moscow 12:57:15.Russia’s investment in projects for the construction of roads, ports and airports until 2020 may amount to $1 trillion, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov told a conference today. He stressed that Russia’s innovative development would be impossible if the country failed to use the current favorable situation on the global energy market to boost its competitiveness and implement large investment projects.

RBC, 30.05.2008, Moscow 12:25:53.Russia’s social and economic development strategy until 2020 is aimed at maintaining the country’s average annual GDP growth at 6.5 percent, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov told a conference “Corporate Governance and Globalization of the World Economy” today. He said that it was a conservative but a realistic forecast, adding that the strategy provided for innovative development. The government plans to draft and approve the document before the end of the summer of 2008.

RBC, 30.05.2008, Moscow 11:57:23.An hour and a half into today’s special dollar trading session for tomorrow deals, the weighted average exchange rate stood at 23.74 RUB/USD. Therefore, the official rate for May 31 – June 2 could be revised RUB 0.07 higher. Given that the dollar gained RUB 0.12 over the previous two sessions, the US currency climbed a total of RUB 0.19, or 0.8 percent, against the ruble in three days. The current developments on MICEX can be linked to the euro’s considerable decline against the dollar on international exchanges. The European currency is now trading at around USD 1.5480, down some 0.7 percent from roughly USD 1.5590 at midday on Thursday. As a result, commercial bank activity has been high at the UTS, where the trade volume topped USD 1.463bn. Meanwhile, the average deal size exceeded USD 5.2m.

RBC, 30.05.2008, Moscow 10:55:02.Russia’s government has drafted a set of anti-raid bills, Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov told a conference dedicated to corporate governance and globalization of the world economy today. The bill will be committed to the State Duma in the near future, he added.

RBC, 30.05.2008, Chisinau 09:31:01.Russia is not ready to recognize Transnistria’s independence, as the conflict can only be resolved by mutual consent of Chisinau and Tiraspol, head of the State Duma committee on the CIS affairs and relations with Russians living abroad Alexei Ostrovsky told Transnistria’s President Igor Smirnov. At the meeting, the two parties handled social and economic cooperation between Transnistria and Russia as well as ways to settle the conflict with Moldova. Ostrovsky said that although Russia was aware that 96 percent of the population of Transnistria had voted in favor of sovereignty and independence, other countries, the US and EU included, were not yet inclined to recognize it as an independent country. He noted that Moscow was very concerned about Transnistria’s unresolved status and the conditions the people have been forced to live in there.

Jan Bednar on the right!

Hello,

I was drinking my morning cup of coffee & reading an article about the:

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The hunger strikes in the Czech Republic, that the government is acting undemocratically in refusing to consult the public on the issue, even though the latest opinion polls show that 65 per cent of Czechs are against the radar base.

Jan Bednar from the ‘No to the Base’ campaign group has lost 10 kilograms in weight in just over two weeks. His liver is failing and jaundice is setting in, so doctors are urging him to end his hunger strike. But he’s refusing. He may look weak, but his will is strong.

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Seems that there are some issues that America has caused in the Czech Government structure. Wonder how much money the Czech Government was bribed with by the USA to put in a Radar Base?

Poland, I think is holding out for much more money than Czech did!

I think that this is called buying your friends, so do not miss a payment…… 🙂

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Arnold Meri

Hello,

Estonia has put an 88 year old veteran of the WWII. Moscow is having some real issues over this………
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Arnold Meri is being tried in Estonia for genocide during WW2. But in Russia the 88-year-old veteran is considered a hero, and streets and schools are named after him.

Arnold Meri is an Estonian national who was awarded the highest state medal during the war. Estonia accuses him of taking part in the deportation of hundreds of his countrymen to Siberia after the war. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life behind bars.

A village in Russia’s Pskov region is naming a school after the veteran. It educated the regiment under Meri’s command in 1941. Back then, Meri organised the region’s defences against the invading Nazis. He was wounded several times in action.

And the city of Gorno-Altaisk in Southern Urals is giving Meri’s name to a street. He lived there after he was stripped of all honours in 1952. Meri says he was accused for his criticism of the very deportation he is now being tried for in Estonia.
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What do you think? Was he a barbaric criminal that needs to be put away for life? Or is he a war hero of a brutal war that changed the history of the world forever?

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

MIG-35 NATO Name Falcrum F

Hello,

I think that this is a good example of what Russia is up to in the world scene! I doubt that press will give this much time on the air because it says good things about Russia and her MiG jets.
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The upgraded MiGs have also been completely overhauled, enabling them to stay in service until the early 2030s. During this time they may undergo several more refits and may be provided with more advanced equipment to keep them in proper fighting condition.

The success of the Slovakian contract shows that Russia’s defense industry can stand its own against the West in its home field – aircraft for NATO’s air forces. And not only in aircraft – Greece’s purchase of Russian ships and air defense systems is another fine example. Hopefully, contracts, both filled and to be filled, are only a beginning, the beginning of the Russian defense industry’s comeback to the European market. (Link)
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But I will give it time on the air because I think it is important. The NATO MiG is a crucial part of many air forces in the European Region.

Just something else that you may not have known about Russia…..

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Hello,

Looks like Spring is not as much fun in Mongolia…….
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MOSCOW, May 28 (RIA Novosti) – At least 21 people are reported dead and 100 are missing after snowstorms battered Mongolia over the past two days, the Xinhua news agency cited the country’s emergencies officials as saying Wednesday.

Seven provinces in west and central Mongolia were hit hardest, with wind speeds reported at up to 40 meters per second. Buildings and power transmission lines have also been damaged.

Over 300 rescuers and more than 70 vehicles are involved in search and rescue operations.

Snowstorms are common in Mongolia during spring.

Update: 5-30-2008
Mongolia will observe a nationwide day of mourning on Saturday for 46 people killed in heavy snow and sandstorms that have battered the country this week, China’s Xinhua news agency reported on Friday.

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How would you like to live in Mongolia and have a blizzard for Spring welcome?

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.