Kommersant
Putin Visits Late Chechen President's Grave
In the run-up to the Chechen presidential elections on August 29, the Kremlin has made a most powerful election move, Kommersant writes. On Sunday morning, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the grave of the republic's late president Akhmad Kadyrov in the Chechen village of Tsentoroi. He returned to his summer residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi with Chechnya's first deputy prime minister, Ramzan Kadyrov, and election campaign frontrunner and Chechnya's interior minister, Alu Alkhanov.
The Kremlin had done a great deal to support Mr Alkhanov even prior to yesterday's visit, the newspaper points out: he has frequently been received by Putin, invited to the Federation Council, and the public council to control restoration of Chechnya, which has almost replaced the official government, was created for him.
However, the decision to leave oil revenues in Chechnya was perhaps the federal centre's most tangible contribution to Mr Alkhanov's campaign. "It will be an additional incentive for Chechens. Many new jobs will appear, as they will protect theirs with double zest," a source in the Kremlin told with satisfaction Kommersant.
Oil in Chechnya is produced and sold by Grozneftegas. The state-owned oil company Rosneft owns 51% of the shares and the Chechen administration the remaining 49%. In 2003, the company produced 1.779 million tonnes of oil, while the expected output in 2004 is 1.96 million tonnes.
Vedomosti
Georgia To Use Political Means Against South Ossetian Separatists
After withdrawing some of its troops from the conflict zone, Georgia is now promising to fight against South Ossetia's independence by political methods and hopes for support from the international community, Vedomosti writes. Experts, however, believe that the lull is temporary and a new escalation of violence is quite possible.
Konstantin Zatulin, member of the Russian State Duma international committee, does not believe that the lull means the beginning of peace settlement. "Saakashvili will work to have international troops brought there that would 'enforce peace'", he argues.
Alexei Makarkin, deputy general director of the Russian Political Technologies Centre believes that by seizing heights around and firing on Tskhinvali (the capital of the breakaway republic), Georgia was "demonstrating its capabilities". By ceding the heights to peacekeepers and withdrawing some of the troops afterwards, Saakashvili also showed the West his "negotiating capability", the expert believes. "Saakashvili will stick to the tactics of gradual strangling South Ossetia, using Georgian villages as a foothold," he maintains.
Vremya Novostei
Sakhalin gas on its way to the US
The gas of the Sakhalin-2 project is highly likely to go to the United States. According to a manager of an anonymous corporation, the talks on signing a contract for liquefied gas deliveries by the Sakhalin Energy to the western coast of Mexico and the United States are at a very advanced stage, VN reports.
A joint venture of Royal Dutch/Shell, the main participant in the consortium to develop Sakhalin-2, and America's Sempra Energy is the most likely buyer of liquefied gas in the United States. Last December, they announced that they had concluded an agreement to build a liquefied gas terminal on the Pacific coast of Mexico. The project is $600 million worth. Half of the gas will be sent to western Mexico and the other half - to the south-western US states.
Sakhalin Energy's commercial director, Andy Calitz, has noted that liquefied gas supplies from Sakhalin to the Mexican coast should be profitable and will only take 12 days as compared to the 20 days of shipment from Australia or 27 days from Qatar. "This is also a political decision," he stressed hinting at America's willingness to become a Russian gas importer as partof the portfolio diversification.
Rossiiskaya Gazeta
August 22 - Day of the Russian Flag
August 22 is Day of the Russian National Flag. What is the history of the Russian flag and how should this day be marked? RG asked chairman of the heraldic council affiliated to the Russian president and Russia's state King of Arms, Georgy Vilinbakhov.
The combination of colours on the Russian flag (white, blue and red), he says, is the most elegant and widespread in the heraldry. The correct use of the national flag is an element of culture. Mr Vilinbakhov is against using the term "tricolour" in relation to the Russian flag, as it is mostly used to describe the French flag. He prefers the term "a three-coloured flag".
Tsar Peter the Great made the three-coloured flag into significant. Since then, the whole world has seen it as a symbol of Russia. According to Mr Vilinbakhov, official documents on the national flag contain no interpretation of this combination of colours, and there cannot be any. Explanations can only be found in folk legends and historical anecdotes. Hence, according to one version, the Russian flag is a scheme for identifying the opposing forces in the Civil War: the White forces on the one side, the Red forces on the other, and the Volga in between.
When asked how August 22 should be marked, the King of Arms found it difficult to answer. "I don't even know how such days are marked in other countries, for example in Sweden. Perhaps, they simply hang them out everywhere, and that's it."
