Gazeta
Finance Minister Refuses to Join "Party of Power"
The country's main financier and one of the most influential ministers of "the Putin conscription" refused to join United Russia yesterday. He bluntly denied a statement made by Valery Bogomolov, secretary of the party's general council, who claimed that Mr. Kudrin's application for the party membership was allegedly in his safe. According to Gazeta, this story has a serious background: by adopting amendments to the law "On the Russian Government" that allow top officials to assume leading posts in political parties, United Russia is obviously trying to win over cabinet ministers.
"Kudrin's application is in my safe," Bogomolov said at a presidium session of the United Russia faction. "Although it has not been worded quite correctly, we will consider it as soon as the inaccuracy is amended." Less than an hour later, Mr. Kudrin categorically refuted Mr. Bogomolov's words. According to the minister, he is not going to join United Russia, as it has not yet become a genuine and full-fledged party. "I think United Russia still has to win the trust of citizens," said the minister.
Meanwhile, in his interview with Gazeta, Mr. Bogomolov said that Mr. Kudrin's application did exist but it was written "as a joke". According to him, at a recent Duma session of the United Russia faction, the minister said he could "well be considered a United Russia member," and immediately wrote a humorous application to join the party. When Gazeta asked Mr. Bogomolov to produce the minister's ironic masterpiece, the former jokingly said, he had eaten the application.
According to Alexei Makarkin, deputy director general of the Center for Political Technologies, "one should not expect any mass admission of ministers to United Russia." "First, it will be joined by those who do not feel safe in their current posts," the expert said. Mr. Kudrin is not someone who needs support from United Russia.
Vremya Novostei
Russians Do Not Trust Justice Bodies
Sixty-seven percent of the population believes that the majority of Russian judges take bribes, and only 12% disagree with them. These are the results of a survey that the Public Opinion Foundation conducted recently, Vremya Novostei reports.
On the whole, 46% of the respondents negatively assessed the work of Russian courts and judges, while about half as many of those asked, 26%, were positive about their work. Forty-seven percent of Russians believe sentences to be unjust and only 24% believe unjust verdicts to be a rarity. These figures, however, show that Russians' attitude to the justice system has improved over the past years. In 2001, 58% of respondents believed sentences were unjust. However, this year, 62% of citizens believe that judges were not merely guided by law in their decisions, but by "other circumstances" as well.
Thirty-nine percent of the respondents are ready to go to court to solve conflicts, and slightly more, 44%, prefer to avoid any contact with the court system if possible.
At the same time, judicial system representatives believe that despite the results of the poll pointing to a general distrust of judges, the number of civil claims is steadily increasing. "In eight years, this indicator has gone up from one to six million a year," said Yuri Sidorenko, head of the Russian Council of Judges.
According to the survey, the opinions on the court branch's independence have nearly split by half. Forty percent advocated its further independence, while 38% spoke in favor of more control from the top officials.
Two thousand people took part in the survey.
Vedomosti
Yuganskneftegaz Bidders to be Asked for Unprecedented Deposit
Bailiffs want to set an $800 million deposit for bidders seeking to acquire the main production unit of Yukos. Until now a much smaller sum has been required from bidders for oil assets. Vedomosti reminds its readers that the up-front sums for a 7.6% stake in LUKoil (starting price $1.928 billion) and a 74.95% stake in Slavneft (starting price $1.7 billion) were 430 million rubles each ($1 equals 29.11 rubles).
Officials believe that only a large deposit can provide guarantees against the auction going awry. "We want people who want to purchase Yuganskneftegaz at the auction, and not people who want to derail the sale," says a Justice Ministry source familiar with the documents on Yugansk submitted by bailiffs to the Russian Federal Property Fund (RFFI). "Otherwise some bidders may push the price too high and then refuse to buy, disrupting the auction." The official noted that the deposit would not be returned in this case, and "no one will risk losing $800 million."
The RFFI failed to name any specific example of an auction being scuttled by the winner refusing to pay, but said such things did happen. "So, a high up-front sum is a good idea to protect the state's interests," said a fund spokesman.
Zenit Bank analyst Sergei Suverov notes that the structures most interested in wrecking the auction are from Group Menatep, which as Yukos' core owner does not want to lose its main asset.
Steven Dashevsky, from the Aton investment company, noted that the $800 million deposit meant that only major Russian and Western companies could take part in the auction. However, none has yet acknowledged an interest in the asset.
Vremya Novostei
Rosoboronexport To Sell World War Weapons
Many people collect vintage arms in Western Europe.
Weapons of the Russian and Soviet armies, following two world wars and the early post-war years, are in such a poor condition that they need to be scrapped, but this requires hefty sums. So in every respect the state only stands to gain if it sells them.
Russia's main arms dealer - Rosoboronexport - is going to start a "conveyor-belt" system to sell these items, but the promotion of weapons of this class on the world market calls for export order documents, says the newspaper Vremya Novostei.
Under international law, such products are not classified as military hardware, but Russian legislation still classes the above-listed categories of arms as military-purpose products, despite their age.
So, in order to do business in this new sphere, it is necessary to bring Russian laws into line with norms of international law as soon as possible. The optimum solution, believe military-technical cooperation experts, would be for the Russian president to issue a special edict or to have a federal law adopted. Now Rosoboronexport specialists, with their opposite numbers from the Defense Ministry, are making an inventory of the arsenals and getting the armaments and military hardware ready for export.
Since Soviet times, Russian military stores have kept legendary T-34 tanks - the best tanks of the Second World War - ZiS-3 76-mm guns, the famed Maxim machine guns of the 1910, 1932 and 1942 models, and PPSh (Shpagin) machine pistols. Unique pieces of armory date from two periods: 1891-1910 and 1930-1944.
The deliveries and expected earnings are so far a commercial secret. However, it is known that the famous Mosin rifle, better known as the .375 rifle, can go for as much as any modern small arm on the world market.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
Deputy Transport Minister on Russian Aircraft Industry's Problems
Russia has been granted a three-year reprieve from fines for its companies flying old aircraft in the European Union. However, the country is not immune from such fines in the future. In a Nezavisimaya Gazeta interview, Deputy Transport Minister Sergei Aristov said the nation's aircraft industry was highly unlikely to fulfil ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) requirements before the end of the year.
According to him, EU demands to the effect that Russia upgrade its aircraft engines are quite justified. However,no well-substantiated evidence of their negative environmental impact has been produced. "The environmental issue is being used to oust rival companies from the European market," Mr. Aristov noted.
Russian airlines are trying to buy Western planes, while the Russian aircraft industry wants to sell its products elsewhere, Mr. Aristov noted. "Obviously, just like any other country, we should guarantee the nation's priority in this field if we want to remain a global air power," Mr. Aristov stressed. However, Russia has curtailed aircraft production at this stage. "We clearly can't compete with major international aircraft companies, including European ones," the deputy minister noted. He added that the main measures to protect the aviation industry should be state support for producers. In his opinion, leasing plans and state guarantees, rather than financial programs alone, could be applied. However, anti-trust laws and norms mean that principles of economic competition and the market will not be endangered.
