Windows to Russia

Hello,

It gets better everyday…..
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The White House and the National Intelligence regard the growing financial wealth of Russia a serous threat to the national security of the United States.
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An article about the paranoid American Government…. Kommersant

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Hello,

The days of being swarmed by gypsy taxi drivers is over, (That is how it felt when I first came to Moscow!)
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The unappealing choice between overpriced taxis and overcrowded minibuses stuck in traffic should be a thing of the past, after Sheremetyevo finally became the last of Moscow’s big three airports to get a direct rail link to the city center.
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Yippy Yea! That is a beautiful train….

Kyle & Svet

“We don’t know what’s going on behind closed doors in Washington — or what Mr. Olmert heard from Mr. Bush. But saber-rattling is not a strategy. And an attack on Iran by either country would be disastrous.”

“If sanctions and incentives cannot be made to work, the voices arguing for military action will only get louder. No matter what aides may be telling Mr. Bush and Mr. Olmert — or what they may be telling each other — an attack on Iran would be a disaster.”

New York Times

RBC, 10.06.2008, Moscow 16:50:14.The average price of Gazprom’s natural gas supplies to Europe has now reached $410 per 1,000 cubic meters, the energy holding’s CEO Alexei Miller said during a meeting of the European Business Congress (EBC) in Deauville today. Miller reiterated that Gazprom had originally expected the figure to reach $400 by the end of 2008. However, the company underestimated the price growth potential, even though it had very detailed information on gas markets, the CEO noted. The gas price volatility may be attributed to the current surge in hydrocarbon prices. For instance, the oil price is expected to close in on $250 per barrel in the near future, Miller stated.

RBC, 10.06.2008, Moscow 16:24:03.Gazprom has finally determined the route of the South Stream gas pipeline, the Russian energy holding’s CEO Alexei Miller said during the 11th annual meeting of the European Business Congress in Deauville today. Miller reiterated that the holding had earlier signed agreements on the construction of the pipeline with Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia, and Greece. He added that Gazprom agreed with its partners during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 7-8 that Slovenia and Austria would also join the project. Miller stressed that the South Stream project did not compete with the Nabucco pipeline project, thanks to the rising demand for gas in Europe.

RBC, 10.06.2008, Moscow 14:39:03.Sitronics and China’s ZTE have signed an agreement on the creation of a joint venture, General Director of the Russian provider of telecommunication solutions Sergei Aslanian told RBC today. Sitronics will hold a controlling stake in the new company. Before the end of 2008, Sitronics and ZTE are poised to launch a plant in China, where the Russian company will relocate its main production. This would allow a cut in production costs by at least 20-25 percent. Aslanian pointed out that the plant had already been built.

RBC, 10.06.2008, Moscow 13:52:43.Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov believes that it is necessary to start exchange trading in aviation fuel. The price of jet fuel currently represents 70 percent of an airline ticket price, which is “very costly” for an air carrier, he told journalists. Once aviation fuel becomes an exchange-traded commodity, the problem will be solved, as there will be more than the existing 3-4 companies supplying the fuel to air carriers, the Deputy PM said.

RBC, 10.06.2008, Tbilisi 09:16:50.Georgia’s President Mikhail Saakashvili believes that the Abkhazian conflict can only be settled through a dialogue with Russia. He stressed, however, that a decision to bring troops into the region would mean switching to a dangerous stage in the conflict, and added that he hoped that Russia would change its policies, Georgia’s TV channel Rustavi 2 quoted him as saying.

RBC, 09.06.2008, Moscow 19:24:10.The management of the Russian gold producer Polyus Gold has attributed the 15-percent revenue increase in 2007 to higher gold process. Commenting on the company’s IFRS-based financial results released today, executives said that the positive dynamics were linked exclusively to the market situation, as Polyus Gold sold a total of 1.21m ounces of gold in 2007, 6,000 ounces less than a year earlier, while the price of gold rose over 30 percent that year, enabling the company to post a record annual revenue of $849.023m

June 6, 2008,
Konstantin Palace, St Petersburg

THE WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM!

EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN OF THE WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM KLAUS SCHWAB: Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, friends,

It gives me great pleasure to welcome President Dmitry Medvedev to our forum today. This is a special pleasure because I remember very well your concluding remarks at Davos a year-and-a-half ago, when you amazed everyone with your views on Russia’s future and impressed us all with your knowledge of English. Our relations with Russia go back a long way. We first arrived in St Petersburg in 1991 and our hosts then were from the St Petersburg City Hall. As far as I remember, you and Prime Minister Putin were both here when our delegation first arrived, and today we are celebrating our longstanding partnership and friendship. Thank you very much for finding the time in your schedule to meet with us this evening.

I would like to introduce your colleague, Arkady Dvorkovich, who is one of your aides and is also Russia’s Sherpa in the G8. He is playing an important part in preparations for the G8 summit and, before we begin our discussions, I would like to specially thank you and the Minister for your work and for the cooperation between the St Petersburg Economic Forum and the World Economic Forum in Davos. I would like to thank you for this. I have already received a positive first reaction to this cooperation.

Mr President, we have calculated approximately that the people here today, the senior executives of many different companies, represent more than $1 trillion between them. We would like to hear view of the current situation in Russia. I am sure that this will be a productive discussion. Once more, I would like to wish you welcome, Mr President of the Russian Federation.

PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues,

Today’s meeting during this Forum’s work is not taking place simply in order to continue tradition. Life and recent events have shown that only this kind of direct dialogue can help us discuss a number of serious issues that are equally important for business and for the authorities in our country and have an overall positive impact on the business and investment climate in Russia.

I would like to begin our discussion by naming five things that I consider important today. You can probably draw my attention to things I may have overlooked, things that you consider important for developing cooperation with Russian companies and with Russia in general.

As you know, and as I already said today, we have set ourselves the not very easy goal of setting Russia on an innovative development track and becoming one of the world’s five biggest economies by 2020. The ability to raise new long-term investment will be a determining factor in our progress towards this goal.

Last year, investment in basic capital increased by more than 21 percent (almost double the figure for 2006). We are consolidating this positive trend and laying the foundations for further economic diversification and, most importantly, for technological modernisation. That is the first point.

Second, we want to bring capital into as wide a range of economic sectors as possible. Most investment in past years has been in Russia’s mining and extraction industries and the transport sector, but now we are also seeing investment in agriculture, machine-building, real estate, timber processing and trade. We think these sectors are all just as important for Russia today as the traditional sectors of mining and extraction and transport.

At the same time, direct foreign investment accounts for a share of around 5 percent of our gross domestic product. Most direct foreign investment is in retail, construction and the commodities sector. We have taken a number of measures to change this situation. Above all, we have acted to put in place a full-fledged legal and regulatory framework defining the conditions for investment development.

This is probably the third important point to note. We have spent quite some time in Russia discussing the preparation of a special law on key strategic areas for investment. Just recently, on April 29, the Federal Law ‘On Procedures for Foreign Investment in Economic Companies of National Strategic Importance’ was passed. This law contains clear and concrete provisions, and this is what foreign investors wanted from us. It covers 42 types of business activities and clearly regulates procedures for investment in these sectors. Investors interested in purchasing a blocking or controlling stake in a company considered strategic must first get government approval. This document, which has now become law, has a lot in common with the procedures set out in a similar law in place in the United States. I specially made a comparison of the two documents and ours is more straightforward. If a particular sector is not on the list in the law then the question does not even arise and investment is carried out absolutely freely without the need for permission of any kind.

Another moment I wanted to draw to your attention, colleagues, is that we are currently drawing up a series of proposals on improving taxation conditions for foreign investors and for investors in general. We want to encourage investment in human capital, in intellect. In particular, we are looking at the possibility of introducing tax exemptions for spending on corporate education, which is very important for our country, and medical insurance – also an important new step.

We also want to introduce a special rule making it possible for businesses to co-finance employees’ mortgage loan interest payments and benefit from a tax exemption for a certain period.

We are aware of the difficulties the mortgage market in a number of big countries is facing at the moment, but we do not intend to abandon this instrument. We simply want to take into account the negative experience the developed economies have gone through lately.

Last but not necessarily least, as a lawyer I know very well that a country’s investment climate is determined not just by the laws themselves and the state of the legislative foundation in place, but by the way the laws are enforced and, above all, by the existence of an effective court system. This is a very important matter for Russia: over these last 15 years we have created a quite modern court system that is radically different to the Soviet system, but we cannot say yet that we are fully satisfied with all of its institutions. Our task is to create absolutely independent and modern courts that measure up to the level of economic development in our country. This is an extremely important objective and this is why one of my first decrees as President was about developing the court system.

We consider it very important to remove administrative barriers and fight corruption, which as you know is unfortunately a serious problem in Russia. We will therefore tackle this issue. We also need to create new opportunities for small and medium businesses.

These are the five points I think are of key importance for developing the economy and attracting investment. Now we have the chance, as I said at the start of my speech, to discuss these and any other matters you wish to raise. Thank you.

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr President. The five points that you mentioned are all things for which we are grateful, especially for what you said regarding the strategic sectors. You anticipated my question. Significant progress has been achieved in this area. For my part, I would like to give this law my firmest support. But of course, in order to be able to prepare for acquisitions or for cooperation with Russian companies, we need to know as soon as possible how predictable this law will be. Once it takes effect, what will be the procedures for resolving disputes? Is there anything more you can tell us about this or about the way the law will be implemented in practice, especially as concerns how promptly and predictably its provisions will be enforced?

DMITRY MEDVEDEV: I am very conscious of the fact that any law, even such a long-awaited law as that on the strategic sectors, cannot solve all the problems that exist today. Being a lawyer by training I always warn my colleagues against having illusions as far as the law is concerned. I remember in the early 1990s when people thought it was enough to pass a law and wake up the next day to find everything going just great, but this was not the case. You are right in that predictability and the way laws will develop and change are very important issues for any civilised legal system and legal order.

I think that we have gained a decent understanding of this issue today. Russia is a country whose legal system is based on continental law, and this brings with it both advantages and disadvantages. One of the advantages is that by passing a number of fundamental laws we have laid the system’s foundation for the future. I think that the legal protection of property rights and the guarantees of contractual obligations that our legal system offers today are completely consistent with world standards and of a similar level to what exists elsewhere in Europe.

We cannot use the precedent-based common law system to protect foreign investment because we have our own legal system, although in the case of foreign investment that comes under the jurisdiction of foreign law this possibility does exist, of course. This can create certain problems because we very often turn to the decisions of courts in countries using the precedent-based common law system. But I say again that in my view our legal system is quite well prepared and offers quite a high level of predictability. Our main task today as I see it is to ensure that the courts enforce all these legal provisions at all stages, from filing lawsuits and examination of cases in the courts to delivering verdicts and ensuring that court decisions are enforced. This is something the state will work on extremely attentively. This is a somewhat more difficult task than laying a developed legal foundation, but I have no doubt that we will achieve results. I hope that within a reasonable number of years we can fully expect that our court system will be just as effective as that of most of the world’s developed countries.

QUESTION: This morning and on earlier occasions you spoke of innovation as one of the ‘I’s that are crucial for Russia’s future social and economic development. Could you say a bit more about Russia’s information strategy as far as information and communications technology is concerned? What part do you want global companies to play in this development?

DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Thank you. I listened very attentively to what you said today. I think that global companies have without any doubt an absolutely fundamental part to play in reaching our ambitious goals of an IT and communications revolution and developing an innovation economy. No matter what the criticism levelled at the big global companies, it is nonetheless they that bear the main responsibility for advancing what we could call the new society.

Every time we switch on a computer (I usually never turn mine off), we look at the screen through different eyes and think our different thoughts (sometimes good and sometimes not so good) about the people who develop the content we see before us. But we realise full well that the new digital world would not exist without it, that without it we could not say today, as one well-known work put it, that ‘the world is flat’. And the world today is indeed flat and we are becoming more conscious of this fact with every passing day. But I think that small and medium companies can also make a contribution. I think they too are entirely capable of this and, what’s more, talented specialists often start out in small companies and go on to become leading experts and sometimes managers in global companies. This is also something we see today. But it is nevertheless the global companies that bear the main responsibility for uniting rather than dividing the digital world of the twenty-first century, and we hope very much for cooperation with these big companies and wish you success in selling your products in the Russian Federation.
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I thought it was an interesting speech…..

Kyle

comments always welcome.

Hello,

I was drinking my morning cup of coffee & thinking about the weather here. It is now June 10th and we have 50 – 60 degree F. days and almost freezing nights. In fact a few days ago they had a frost warning & the trees are now just fully leafed out.

Right now at 2:00pm it is 13 degrees C. (translate into 55.4 degrees F.)

This is strange for me being from the Midwest America, where the temperature right now is running 90 degrees F. It will get warmer here but not much. We do not have air conditioning & I have a fan for days that do get a little warm. Our car does not have air conditioning & in fact if we had it, we would never use it.

The reason I thought of this is we have a friend in America named Bill & he just sent me an e-mail that expressed how hot it was. I smiled when I read: “The temperature is 95 degrees F. here! ” Now another friend of ours Clark from “Clark’s Picks!” just let me know that in Maryland it is 100 degrees F! (It is now at 4:00pm, 56 degrees F. in Moscow!) :))

Just thought I would let you know a little more about Moscow, Russia!

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Hello,

Everyone might want to think about what the world is trying to escalate toward…..
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“If Iran continues with its programme for developing nuclear weapons, we will attack it. The sanctions are ineffective,” Mr Mofaz told Yediot Ahronot.

“Attacking Iran, in order to stop its nuclear plans, will be unavoidable,” he said.
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Iran must understand that without a diplomatic solution in the coming months, a dangerous military conflict is very likely to erupt.
Joshka Fischer
Former German FM
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Mr Fischer fears that the Middle East is drifting towards a new great confrontation in 2008.

“Iran must understand that without a diplomatic solution in the coming months, a dangerous military conflict is very likely to erupt. It is high time for serious negotiations to begin,” he said.
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None of this means an attack on Iran is coming. But it is being discussed, and that is significant.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7439431.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7440472.stm

Has any one proven that Iran is making a nuclear bomb or are we just…..

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

RBC, 06.06.2008, St. Petersburg 16:25:59.Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said during a meeting with his Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliyev in Strelna, a town outside St. Petersburg, that he planned to pay an official visit to Azerbaijan in early July, the Mayak radio station reported today. In turn, Aliyev thanked the Russian President for accepting the invitation to visit Azerbaijan.

RBC, 06.06.2008, St. Petersburg 15:50:48.Russian President Dmitry Medvedev urged his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yushchenko to make a decision on the Russian Black Sea Fleet exclusively on the basis of existing agreements with Russia and only after further consultations, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told journalists following talks between the two Presidents in Strelna today. The Minister said that the recent steps taken by Ukraine regarding the Black Sea Fleet could harm bilateral relations, the Mayak radio station reported.

RBC, 06.06.2008, Moscow 15:15:43.Nearly five hours into today’s special euro trading session for tomorrow deals, the high on deals stood at 36.95 RUB/EUR, which is RUB 0.03 higher than the official rate set by the Bank of Russia for the next day. The euro’s further appreciation against the ruble on the domestic market can be attributed to the dollar’s unremitting recession against the European currency on international exchanges. The latter is now trading at around USD 1.56, up from roughly USD 1.5590 right after midday. Consequently, the euro has climbed almost 0.03 percent against the dollar on the global market over a fairly short period.

RBC, 06.06.2008, St. Petersburg 14:58:06.Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is poised to pay an official visit to Turkmenistan in early July. During the visit, the Russian leader plans to resume talks on bilateral cooperation with his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, Medvedev was cited by the Vesti TV channel as saying during their meeting in Strelna, a town outside St. Petersburg.

RBC, 06.06.2008, Moscow 12:55:59.Russia’s Natural Resources and Ecology Minister Yury Trutnev will hold a working meeting with Germany’s Environment and Nuclear Safety Minister Sigmar Gabriel in Moscow on Tuesday, the Russian ministry’s press office reported today. During the meeting, the parties are expected to discuss cooperation on the fulfillment of the Kyoto Protocol to the Framework Convention on Climate Change. Other items on the agenda include bilateral cooperation within the coordination council for the fulfillment of the 1992 environmental protection act, the protection of the Baltic Sea region, as well as other environmental issues.

RBC, 06.06.2008, Moscow 11:55:56.After an hour and a half of today’s special dollar trading session for tomorrow deals, the weighted average exchange rate stood at 23.68 RUB/USD. The official rate for June 7 could therefore be revised RUB 0.13, or more than 0.5 percent, lower. The current developments on MICEX can be attributed to the European currency’s significant and rapid appreciation against the dollar on international exchanges. The euro is now buying nearly USD 1.5610, up from around USD 1.5435 at midday at the previous session. Consequently, the dollar has tumbled at least 1 percent against the euro on the global market since then. This resulted in consistently high commercial bank activity at the UTS, where the trade volume was just shy of USD 900m as of 11:30 a.m.

RBC, 06.06.2008, Moscow 09:55:41.Russia is ready to work with the European Union on the establishment of international consortiums for operating transit pipelines to Europe, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced on Thursday while speaking to European politicians and businessmen. Such joint operations could be performed with the participation of companies from Russia, the EU, and transit countries, the leader stressed. Medvedev cited the examples of successful cooperation between the EU and Russia in such spheres as nuclear energy, space, aircraft manufacturing, and transport engineering. The Russian President added that Russia was striving to establish clear rules of the game and create a regime that would be the most favorable for foreign entrepreneurs developing high technology operations in the country, and was expecting an equally measured approach from its partners in Europe.

Hello,

I have heard & seen it all now. The Wall Street Journal publishes an article about how to just simply give Russia 2- 3 billion dollars a year + drop the missile issue & Russia will turn their back on Iran…..
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Russia: the key to Iran’s nukes?
If the U.S. wants to stop Iran’s nuclear programme, it should strike a bargain with Russia, Senator Charles Schumer believes.

In an article published in the Wall Street Journal, the American politician outlines the incentives which, in his opinion, could convince Russia to give up its stance as Iran’s defender in the UN.

Firstly, recognising Russia’s role in the Caspian region and treating it as an equal partner there may help ensure Moscow’s acceptance of strict economic sanctions against Iran.

Secondly, Schumer claims, the U.S. should realise that Russia will suffer from breaking off trade relations with Iran. This loss would need to be compensated. The Senator estimates this would cost America ‘roughly $2 billion to $3 billion a year, about what it spends in Iraq each week’.

And last but not least, Schumer suggests that Washington sacrifice its plans for missile defence sites in Europe. The project, he says, would offer protection from a ‘hypothetical and remote’ threat, while giving Russians a very real reason for concern.

Together, these three moves would make an offer Russia would find hard to refuse, Senator Schumer believes. Economic sanctions, he adds, would cause public support for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to dwindle rapidly, and the government would be forced to heed Western demands.
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Funny (Not ha ha funny!) how the USA thinks that the world revolves around what they think & want!

Since I have traveled around the world some, I have come to find out that the USA is a tiny part of this planet. When you realize that the population of the USA is only 4.56% of the worlds population & China is 20% of the world population. (India is 17% of the worlds population.)

Makes me feel like a minority in the world……

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.

Hello,

The Caucasus Mountains was a high point of our last trip in April. I do not have very many pictures because of the hard drive incident so looks things look like we will not have very many pictures of the trip.

In the Caucasus Mountains Svet and I got to ride a ski lift to the top of the mountains near Sochi. We have one or two pictures of being at the top of the world. The one that you see at the beginning of this article is Svet playing in the snow! Svet & I had a very exciting ride to the top. We ate at a small cafe about half way up, the food was great and the hot tea was delicious. As the picture shows you we were a long way up…..
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We were in the North Caucucasus:
The North Caucasus, or Ciscaucasus, is a region in north-central Eurasia and contains the larger majority of the Greater Caucasus Mountain range, also once known as the Major Caucasus mountains. Southwestern Russia, northern Georgia and northern Azerbaijan are included as North Caucasus.

The South Caucasus, or Transcaucasus, is a region in south-central Eurasia bordered on the north by Russia, on the west by the Black Sea, on the east by the Caspian Sea, on the southwest by Turkey, and on the south by Iran. The south Caucasus includes the Caucasus Mountains and surrounding lowlands. All of Armenia, Azerbaijan (excluding the northern part of Azerbaijan, which are within North Caucasus) and Georgia (excluding northern part of Georgia which are within North Caucasus) are in South Caucasus.
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I also found this tidbit of information about the mountains: “In Greek mythology, the Caucasus or Kaukasos was one of the pillars supporting the world. Prometheus was chained there by Zeus after Prometheus had presented man with the gift of fire.

The Roman poet Ovid placed Caucasus in Scythia and depicted it as a cold and stony mountain which was the abode of personified hunger. The Greek hero Jason sailed to the west coast of the Caucasus in pursuit of the Golden Fleece, and there met the famed Medea.”
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Yes, we enjoyed the ski ride and got to see some of the
pillars holding up the world. 🙂

Kyle & Svet

comments always welcome.