MOSCOW, May 24 (RIA Novosti) Moscow trying to avoid "New Europe"/The end of the CIS?/Kasyanov looks West as campaign fails at home/Uranium in Kazakhstan goes international/Yukos back tax claims said "trumped up"/Wine producers backing tougher regulation
(RIA Novosti does not accept responsibility for articles in the Russian press)
Kommersant
Moscow trying to bypass New Europe in dialogue with EU - expert
The May 25 Russia-EU summit will take place in a new atmosphere, as both sides want to use the summit to smooth over tensions that have grown rapidly over the past year ahead of the July G8 summit in St. Petersburg.
Although the energy problem appears to be the most pressing, the political roots of the tensions lie elsewhere.
Russian diplomats say that the 10 new EU members, including three former Soviet republics and several former members of the Warsaw Pact, are driving a wedge between Moscow and Brussels. Russian Ambassador to the EU Vladimir Chizhov said the deterioration in relations was provoked by intrigues of these historically anti-Russian countries.
Old EU members, such as Germany, want to promote relations in the economic and other spheres with Russia, while "New Europe" - supported by the United States - is pushing the EU to cut back relations, said Alexander Rahr, a political analyst with the German Council on Foreign Policy.
Moreover, in the past two years Moscow has apparently done its best to strengthen that Eastern and anti-Russian faction in the EU, he said.
East European countries are contributing to the development of European policy, yet Moscow refuses to deal with a crisis in relations with them, Rahr said. Vladimir Putin has not visited any of the East European or Baltic countries in the five years of his presidency.
Rahr said Russia should find a way to involve New Europe and GUAM (Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova) into Russia-EU dialogue, which Moscow is currently trying to carry on without them.
Moscow thinks that Old Europe's interest in Russian gas will outweigh New Europe's lobbying. But Russia's attitude to Eastern Europe has so far only weakened its standing in former Soviet states and its position in dialogue with Europe.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
Electricity group membership sparks first step toward end of CIS
Politicians and experts in Ukraine and Moldova have suggested that the dissolution of the Commonwealth of Independent States is imminent after the Union for the Coordination of Transmission of Electricity, an association of transmission system operators in continental Europe, said it would consider the two countries' membership applications in May.
CIS power grids operate independently of the European network. In 2002, Anatoly Chubais, chief executive of utility giant Unified Energy System of Russia, said $100 million in investment could establish a joint power grid between Vladivostok and Portugal that could help generating companies and consumers reduce costs significantly. But the Ukrainian-Moldovan plan would damage the chances of the project being successful.
Chubais told the CIS Electric Power Council in St. Petersburg last week that the projects were mutually exclusive, and that Ukraine and Moldova would have to separate from Russian and Belarusian grids if their regional project were implemented. Chubais said this would cause serious problems for Russia, Belarus, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, while Armenia would be indirectly affected.
Seraphim Urekyan, leader of the parliamentary faction Our Moldova, said Ukraine and Moldova, members of GUAM (a four-member regional association with Georgia and Azerbaijan), would soon issue a political statement after their energy demarche. Urekyan said his faction had launched a signature-collection campaign in favor of Moldova's UCTE membership, as this would cause it to break with the CIS.
Ukrainian political scientist Viktor Nebozhenko said his country's intention to withdraw from the Russian power grid also implied political separation.
Both Kiev and Chisinau agreed with Moscow's integration plan when UES suggested establishing the Eurasian power grid. But some post-Soviet republics now want to receive Western rather than Russian energy guarantees after their natural gas conflicts with Moscow.
Novye Izvestia
Former PM goes West in attempt to make up for failure in Russia
Former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov, a potential presidential candidate for 2008, has made three foreign trips this month. Experts say he spotlighted energy security and human rights in Russia, which are painful issues in the West, in an attempt to make good the false start of his PR campaign at home.
Before going to Paris, Kasyanov outlined the trip agenda, which began with energy security, just like during his previous trips abroad. The former prime minister criticized the decision by Gazprom to cut gas supplies to Ukraine early this year, saying that such "energy superpower behavior" might cost Russia dearly.
Experts say there is good reason for Kasyanov to choose the issue of energy supplies, which is a sore spot for the West. He said in January, at the height of the Russian-Ukrainian gas spat, that there had been no such problems and that gas supplies to European clients had never been interrupted during his tenure as head of the Russian government.
Kasyanov probably wants to convince Russia's partners in the West that such problems would be a thing of the past if he comes to power. But he has not won the elections yet, and experts have a poor opinion of the ex-premier's rating.
"Kasyanov's rating is about 1%, a worse start than any other presidential candidate has had in the history of Russian elections," said Maxim Dianov, director of the Institute of Regional Problems. "He made a bad start in Russia and is trying to make up for it abroad."
Dianov said Kasyanov's European tour was an ordinary PR campaign that was unlikely to produce positive results.
"With such a rating, the only goal he can hope to achieve is remind people he's still alive," Dianov said.
Gazeta.ru
Russia invited to join transnational uranium holding
Kazakhstan has proposed a uranium production partnership to Russia and France. From France it is expecting investments, while promising a share in output, while from Russia it wants enrichment technologies. The project appeals to everyone, but it is not a certainty that the potential partners will agree terms.
"With Russia the arrangement is not clear: whether Russia will be offered a stake in already existing plants, or we will jointly build a new one," said Mukhtar Dzhakishev, head of Kazatomprom, the Central Asian republic's nuclear power and industrial complex. The sides are planning to make a final decision when they finally agree where to site an enrichment facility in Russia.
Most reserves of uranium in the former U.S.S.R. are concentrated in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. "We are looking for cooperation with these regions," said Yekaterina Shugayeva, a spokeswoman for Tekhsnabexport, the agency that exports the goods and services of Russia's nuclear energy agency. "But Russia is an enormous country and bringing in uranium produced abroad is problematic. Our main concern now is to find sites where uranium development is effective and production profitable."
She said cooperation is hampered by the dominant positions held by foreign companies outside Russia (the French, for example, in Kazakhstan), but former Soviet states are gradually "turning their face towards Russia."
Finam brokerage analyst Anastasia Sarapultseva believes that with primary uranium becoming increasingly scarce Russia and France will have no other alternative but to accept Kazakhstan's terms. "Russia is extremely interested in the development of deposits in Kazakhstan, which account for 17% of all the world's reserves of the metal," she said. "Besides, uranium ore from Kazakh fields is less costly to mine."
Likely obstacles to projected cooperation, she said, are the strategic status of the deposits and the high secrecy surrounding enrichment technologies. Especially since, according to Shugayeva, the Russian side is prepared to consider any form of a joint venture only on condition that the processing enterprise is located on Russian soil.
Vedomosti
Back-tax claims against Yukos were trumped up - expert
Since acquiring Yuganskneftegaz, formerly the main production unit of embattled oil company Yukos, with an attendant big burden of back taxes, state-owned oil company Rosneft has managed to reduce the company's debts by over 60%. Experts see this as proof that the claims against Yukos were illegal.
At the beginning of the year, Yuganskneftegaz owed the tax authorities $4.676 billion. Yet Rosneft engaged in a litigation practice that proved very efficient. In April 2006, the Moscow arbitration court reduced the bill presented to Yugansk to $760 million, including fines and penalties, the state-owned company announced yesterday in its financial report for 2005 to U.S. GAAP.
The tax authorities hit Yuganskneftegaz with a bill totaling over $140 billion for 1999-2003 in 2004, when it belonged to Yukos. It was accused of dodging profit tax by selling oil at reduced prices via shell structures on territories that enjoyed tax relief. The company failed to contest the claims in court. Instead, the back taxes affected its cost: ahead of a government-run fire sale to recover the arrears, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein appraised it at $10.4-18.3 billion, pointing to the risks of back taxes. The Justice Ministry explained the auction's starting price of $8.6 billion by the fact that a new owner would have to pay off its debts.
However, the new parent was in no hurry to pay off Yuganskneftegaz's back taxes. Moreover, after changing hands, the company began winning in courts. When Yukos filed similar lawsuits, it lost, said Anatoly Yushin, managing partner with AST Legal. This is obviously a lop-sided approach, he said.
The court's ruling provides yet another argument for those who consider the claims against Yukos groundless, said Denis Borisov, an analyst with Solid investment company. Vladimir Milov, president of the Institute of Energy Policies, said, "This proves once again that back-tax claims against Yukos were trumped up and the trials were biased. In these circumstances, talk about Yukos being a real tax dodger is inappropriate."
Izvestia
Russian winemakers backing Moldovan and Georgian colleagues
Russian winemakers are seriously worried about the protracted ban on drinks imports from Moldova and Georgia, and say that Russia should discriminate between suppliers to work with well-known producers and toughen up quality control.
Moldova exports up to 85% of its wines to Russia, and nearly 50% of Russia's wine producers use Moldovan feedstock. But Russian wine prices are skyrocketing because of disrupted feedstock imports.
Major Russian companies want to distance themselves from fake wine producers. Yevgeny Kalabin, general director of a large national alcohol holding, said he wanted to suggest that Russia's sanitary inspectorate draft a strategy for alcohol producers and feedstock suppliers. Kalabin said produce from traditional and well-known enterprises should not be confused with dubious alcoholic beverages sometimes sold as "real" Moldovan wines in Russia.
"Responsible producers, who cherish their reputation and care about their clients, will never sell any suspicious wines or brandy on the market. There are many such enterprises in Moldova, Russia and elsewhere, and they promptly removed all substandard wine following claims from Russia, while the factory concerned checked all remaining alcohol batches. All serious wine manufacturers are interested in strict quality control," said Kalabin.
Major Russian winemakers are ready to allow official sanitary agencies to use their technical resources, laboratories and equipment to analyze samples. They are also ready to hold additional checks and to certify their products.
