MOSCOW, October 13 (RIA Novosti) Russians equate wealthy people with Yeltsin-era oligarchs / Russia facing energy crisis / South Korea willing to join Sakhalin 3 / Stopani Group to sell its stake in Russia's largest chrome concentrate producer / There is no need for the Kyoto Protocol - scientists
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Vedomosti
Russians equate wealthy people with Yeltsin-era oligarchs
Russians, who know nothing about the new Putin-era business elite, do not list the CEOs of energy giant Gazprom, the oil company Rosneft, arms exporter Rosoboronexport, Vnesheconombank and Vneshtorgbank and other state-owned majors among tycoons.
Experts said state capitalists are keeping a low profile, and people remember only those who were known in the 1990s.
On October 7-8, the influential polling agency the All-Russia Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTSIOM) asked 1,600 respondents in 46 regions about their attitudes toward the wealthiest Russians. Tycoon Roman Abramovich, who owns the English football club Chelsea, was named by 37% of those polled, 24% named political emigre Boris Berezovsky, and another 20% said they knew Anatoly Chubais, CEO of utility giant RAO UES of Russia.
Disgraced Yukos oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is currently serving an eight-year prison term, and Vladimir Gusinsky, who is wanted by Russian police, were named by 11% and 5%, respectively.
VTSIOM general director Valery Fyodorov said ordinary Russians still equate wealthy people with the business tycoons of the 1990s. Only 63% of Russians know such a huge company as Gazprom, and even fewer have heard of its board chairman, Alexei Miller, he said.
"The media does not mention Putin-era tycoons very often, and Russian citizens do not read the Forbes list," Alexei Grazhdankin, deputy director at the research agency Levada Center, told the paper.
The CEOs of state-run corporations are not superstars and do not require PR services. People should know about such companies and their achievements, rather than about managers employed by the state, a Kremlin source said.
There is a link between the popularity of Russian tycoons and their reputations. In all, 77% of respondents said they consider Chubais dishonest, 71%, 66% and 64% said the same about Berezovsky, Khodorkovsky and Abramovich, respectively. "Russians are traditionally convinced that it is impossible to earn a fortune honestly," said Fyodorov.
In Russia, there is no feedback between civil society and business tycoons, said Yelena Shestopal, head of the political psychology chair at the Moscow State University's psychology department. "Russian elites are becoming less transparent, because officials, who dislike publicity, are entering business and politics," she told the paper.
The authorities can easily manipulate public opinion through the media, because Russians often prefer myths, said Boris Makarenko, deputy general director at the Center of Political Technologies.
Gazeta.ru
Russia facing energy crisis
In a bid to avoid a winter energy crisis, the national power grid Unified Energy Systems (UES) of Russia has capped electricity exports, at the same time increasing its purchases abroad. However, the desired result is unlikely to be achieved - imported power cannot reach the main problem areas.
According to UES head Anatoly Chubais, the energy holding has had to review its export-import strategy so that Russia can buy more than it sells. Although he promised that all agreements on export deliveries would be honored, "the obvious priority will be the domestic market".
Currently, Russia imports electric power from Kazakhstan, Lithuania and Kyrgyzstan, selling it mainly to Finland. Last year UES imported half as much electricity as it exported - 10.14 billion kW/hours against 22 billion kW/hours.
Experts have little faith in the possibility of seriously improving the energy situation by imports from abroad. "In the case of the Moldovan thermal power plant, it is possible to increase supplies, but first it is necessary to solve the problem of transit across Ukraine," said Natalia Porokhova, head of electric power studies at the Institute of Natural Monopolies Research (IPEM).
Generating capacities are available in Moldova, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, but all these sources cannot meet the shortfall in the main problem regions - Moscow and St. Petersburg - the IPEM analyst believes, because imports are possible only to the unified grid system of southern Russia.
Financial analysts agree the outlook is not good for a shift to power purchases from abroad, and tread gingerly on the prospects of boosting the UES investment program.
Finam analyst Semyon Berg said the companies could build up their financial resources by speeding up the liberalization of the electricity market. He fears, however, the generating companies may post poor financial year-end results.
"The upcoming winter may pose problems for generating companies whose fuel balance is heavily gas-biased, and such companies make up the overwhelming majority," said the analyst.
Kommersant
South Korea willing to join Sakhalin 3
South Korean Finance Minister Kwon O-kyu said his country would like to join the Sakhalin 3 project.
State-controlled oil company Rosneft and China's Sinopec are working in the only area so far allowed for development under the project. Branch experts said South Korea is unlikely to be allowed to join the Russian-Chinese alliance, but that it can hope to get a license for an undistributed area.
The Russian Technical Supervision Agency, which held talks with the South Korean foreign minister, did not say which form of South Korean involvement was discussed. The agency's head, Konstantin Pulikovsky, also chairs the Russian-Korean commission on economic, research and technical cooperation.
Sakhalin 3 includes four blocks: the East Odoptu, Ayashskoye, Veninskoye and South Kirinskoye, whose total reserves are estimated at 620 million tons of oil and 767 billion cubic meters of natural gas. So far, only one license has been issued, for the Veninskoye block (168 million tons of oil and 258 billion cubic meters of natural gas). Rosneft holds 49.8%, while Sakhalin Oil Company (controlled by the regional administration) and China's Sinopec each hold 25.1%.
Before Sinopec joined the project in 2005, Rosneft signed a memorandum of understanding on the joint development of Veninskoye with Korea National Oil Corporation in 2004. It later changed partners without explaining why. The South Koreans are also cooperating with Rosneft in the exploration of the West Kamchatka shelf.
An informed source said the Sakhalin Oil Company would like to sell its share in Sakhalin 3, but that the regional administration denied the intention.
Analysts say the South Koreans are unlikely to be allowed to join the development of the Veninskoye block. "It would be strange to balance Chinese with Koreans," said Dmitry Tsaregorodtsev, an analyst with FIM Securities. "Trilateral structures have proved unviable in the past."
The undistributed blocks of Sakhalin 3 will not be auctioned soon. Moreover, their reserves have been graded strategic, and therefore foreigners may hope to get no more than 49% in the project.
Rosneft made public its interest in the undistributed blocks, and India's ONGC hopes to form a consortium with it. LUKoil had also declared its intention to bid for the blocks jointly with Gazprom.
Biznes
Stopani Group to sell its stake in Russia's largest chrome concentrate producer
Russian Chrome 1915, which produces chrome oxide and chromates for steel and chemical plants, is to become fully Russian-owned. Russian Special Alloys, which owns half of Russian Chrome, is negotiating the acquisition of the remaining 50% from the Italian Stopani Group.
Sergei Gilvarg, general director of Special Alloys, said the transaction would be completed by the end of 2006.
Igor Nuzhdin, an analyst with the Solid brokerage, has valuated Russian Chrome at $35 million, and says it is worth the money because the ferroalloys market is expected to progress at 5-6% annually.
"The new owner will create a major producer of ferroalloys that will control a substantial part of the market," said Dmitry Parfenov, an analyst with the Prospekt brokerage.
Sergei Generalov, his colleague from the VIKA brokerage, said Special Alloys needs the asset to increase its share of the global chrome market from 25% to 31%. "This will allow it to become the main strategic supplier of chrome and ferroalloys to major producers," he said.
Gilvarg said Special Alloys has come to terms on the acquisition of a 100% stake in the Tara Mining Company, based in Omsk, 2,500km (1,600 miles) east of Moscow. The objective is to supply the Klyuchevsky Ferroalloys Plant with raw materials for ferrotitanium for at least 200 years, and to stop buying the concentrate in Ukraine.
Dmitry Baranov, chief analyst with Prado Banker & Consultant, said the new company would supply additives to ferrous and non-ferrous producers and the chemical market. "In this case, Special Alloys will cost $75-85 million," he said.
Analysts may soon have to revaluate Special Alloys, because Gilvarg said it might conduct an IPO. It is discussing the holding's development strategy with major consulting companies, including PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte & Touche.
Novye Izvestia
There is no need for the Kyoto Protocol - scientists
Despite the publication of sensational photographs of shrinking ice fields in the Artic Ocean as evidence of global warming, astronomers in St. Petersburg claim the planet will see a cooler period in the next few decades.
Khabibulla Abdusamatov, head of space research at the Academic Pulkovo Observatory, reiterated his warning of an imminent recurrence of the so-called minor Ice Age, similar to the one that was registered in the 17th century.
In the 17th century, temperatures dropped in Europe, North America and Greenland, the Thames and Dutch canals froze in winter, and people fled from Greenland because of unbearable cold.
Abdusamatov and his colleagues made the shocking conclusion on the basis of data about 11-year and 100-year fluctuations in solar activity. They said that sun emissions increased in the 20th century and have now reached their peak, implying that this period should be followed by a decline in solar activity. Therefore, the mean annual temperature should drop in 2012, with an even colder period setting in between 2055 and 2060.
The calculations of the Pulkovo astronomers will be checked by the new equipment that is to be installed at the International Space Station in 2007. But the scientists said there is no need for the Kyoto Protocol, which is aimed at reducing the greenhouse effect and preventing global warming, because global temperatures will drop anyway. The good news is that Arctic ice will not melt.
