MOSCOW, October 17 (RIA Novosti) Human rights champion leaves Presidential Council/A Putin joins the Party of Life/Government favors unbiased approach to environmental claims/India to buy 80 Russian helicopters worth $660 million/Russian scientist warns of another Chernobyl-scale disaster
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Kommersant
Human rights champion leaves presidential council
Oleg Orlov, chairman of the Memorial human rights center, said he was leaving the Presidential Council for the promotion of civil society institutions and human rights. He made the decision after President Vladimir Putin publicly expressed his attitude to the murder of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya.
"It appears that the president and I differ not only in assessing Politkovskaya's work, but also in what is good for Russia," Orlov told the Russian business daily Kommersant. "The authorities were expected to express their condolences, to promise to punish the killers, and to recognize the courageous journalist's services to society and the authorities. But they did nothing of the kind. In this situation, I consider my work on the Presidential Council senseless."
Orlov has been working on the Council since 2002, and has been supervising the human rights situation in Chechnya in the past few years.
Ella Pamfilova, head of the Council, was shocked by the resignation of "a good man and human rights activist." "He will now have fewer opportunities to influence human rights issues," she said.
Pamfilova said it was "a sad misunderstanding," because Orlov misinterpreted Putin's words. "The president spoke about damage done to the authorities, while Orlov thought he was talking about harm to the country," Pamfilova said.
Orlov's colleagues on the Council share his view of the president's words. "I was outraged," said Svetlana Gannushkina, head of the Civil Assistance committee and a member of the Memorial center. "How could he compare a courageous journalistic stance with a horrible crime? This is the only interpretation for Putin's words about the negligible effect of Politkovskaya's work."
However, Gannushkina said she would remain on the Council because working there is not the same as "serving the president." "I am serving society and the people, and consider the presidency a function. If I succeed in improving this function, even if a little bit, I will consider my work in the Council useful," she said.
Vedomosti
A Putin joins the Party of Life
Igor Putin, a cousin of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has announced his decision to quit United Russia and join the Russian Party of Life. He will be recruiting supporters for the party and, perhaps, top its electoral list in the Samara regional Duma elections next March.
Igor Putin said he did not discuss his decision with his cousin. He complained that the Kremlin administration has asked him not to disturb his relative too often. "The president is very busy now, and we make only occasional phone calls to each other, " he said.
In the Samara branch of United Russia, Igor did not hold any leading posts, but his departure baffled many in the party. Samara Governor Konstantin Titov, a United Russia member, was upset, according to Igor. "He phoned me at 8.00 in the morning and said my leaving the party was an insult to him."
Igor Putin, who is 53, comes from Leningrad. In 1974, he graduated from the Ryazan Higher Command Automobile School, qualifying as an automotive maintenance and repair engineer, and in 2000, the Volga-Vyatka Academy of Civil Service. He is a lieutenant colonel in the reserves. Since 2005, he has headed the board of directors of the Samara Reservoir Factory, which is part of Volgaburmash, a major producer of drilling bits.
"Putin has long been a pet project of Andrei Ishchuk, a senator from the Samara Region and owner of Volgaburmash," said Rostislav Turovsky from the Regional Studies Agency. "The decision to join the Party of Life was not Putin's own."
Igor Putin's weight as a politician, even a regional one, is close to zero, said Yevgeny Molevich, a professor of sociology at Samara State University -- the entire biography of the president's cousin shows that he is far removed from politics, and his joining the Party of Life is no more than name speculation ahead of a second round in the Samara mayoral elections.
Political consultant Mikhail Vinogradov described the idea of hyping up the president's cousin as an attempt to break voters' deep-rooted identification of Vladimir Putin with United Russia.
Gazeta.ru
Government favors unbiased approach to environmental claims
LUKoil may be charged with illegal business practices, as the Natural Resources Ministry has invited tax officers to its expert examination, and the Federal Service for the Oversight of Natural Resources has started to revoke a number of licences from Russia's largest oil producer. Experts say the government is trying to solve two problems at once - to show that its environmental claims are not biased, and to give state-owned oil companies new licences.
"LUKoil holds many licences [398], and we want to see where development has stalled, which can be done by checking its mineral extraction tax payments," said Rinat Gizattulin, spokesman for the Natural Resources Ministry. "In addition, we should see if LUKoil's oil output corresponds to the taxes the company is paying."
LUKoil gave a reserved comment: "Let them look."
Following the affair with the bankrupt oil company Yukos, any complaint against a large private oil company makes the market highly nervous. However, many people believe a repetition of such repressive measures against a company loyal to the government is unlikely. Dmitry Mangilev, an analyst with the Prospekt brokerage, believes this means the government is not bent on repeating the Yukos scenario: "Rather, the government is reinforcing its control over users of mineral resources. No wonder, they have started with LUKoil, the largest user."
Analyst Natalia Yanakayeva from the CenterInvest investment group agrees: "LUKoil has always positioned itself as a pro-Kremlin company that executes all government decisions without questioning them."
Yanakayeva said the government is showing off for its Western business partners. "The government wants to show that it is fighting for its mineral resources and for its environmental security against both foreign investors and its own largest companies."
Russia's other largest oil companies may be taking an interest in LUKoil's licences. "The Natural Resources Ministry may be acting on behalf of such state-owned companies as Rosneft and Gazpromneft, which are likely to eye LUKoil's licensed areas," said Alexander Paramonov from the AK BARS Finance brokerage. "State-controlled companies are proactively expanding now."
Gazeta
India to buy 80 Russian helicopters worth $660 million
On Monday, Air Chief Marshal Shashindra Pal Tyagi, head of the Indian Air Force, announced plans to buy 80 Mi-17-1V helicopters in the following two years.
Marshal Tyagi said all formalities will be settled by late 2006, and all helicopters shipped to India in 2008.
Russian analysts and experts reacted optimistically to the deal, but said Marshal Tyagi's statements should be taken with a grain of salt.
The main state arms exporter Rosoboronexport, which is handling this and other similar deals, declined to comment. Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, said Marshal Tyagi first mentioned the deal in May. However, India did not make any specific offers at that time.
The Indians are in no hurry to strike a deal, which makes experts cautious. A well-informed source in the military helicopter industry said it is very hard to cooperate with India. "The Indians talk a lot, but they do very little - India is a difficult client," he told the paper.
He said New Delhi first wanted to buy more helicopters, but subsequently opted for 80 and brought the price down.
In 2000, India bought 40 Mi-17 helicopters worth $170 million under the last major contract.
Marshal Tyagi said the revamped Mi-17-1V version has won a reputation for its performance in the high-altitude Himalayas, and was being called on to replace the Mi-8.
Experts said the entire deal would be worth about $662 million.
The Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies said Russian-Indian military cooperation accounted for less than 7% of Russia's arms exports of $6.12 billion last year.
The most expensive deals included the sale of the 877-EKM Sindugosh diesel-powered submarine, worth $80 million, the supply of 10 engine kits for Su-30MKI Flanker fighters, worth $300 million, as well as the sale of 273 Shtil-1, Club and Uran anti-ship missiles costing about $300 million.
Novye Izvestia
Russian scientist warns of another Chernobyl-scale disaster
Nuclear reactors have been shut down twice in the past few days in Dimitrovgrad, a major nuclear research center and the second-largest city in the Ulyanovsk Region on the Volga. Experts say a repetition of the incidents could rapidly turn into a major disaster.
The region spent the weekend in a state of panic over rumors of a radiation leak as a result of an accident at the local reactor. Four reactors of the six installed at the Research Institute of Nuclear Reactors were shut down Friday because suppliers stopped gas deliveries to the thermal power plant that ensure the autonomous operation of the reactors.
It turned out that nuclear physicists owe gas suppliers 15 million rubles ($556,174). In the past, suppliers reduced gas deliveries, but this time they stopped them altogether.
Spokesmen of the research institute say such drastic measures can have serious consequences. Thankfully, the automatic safety system worked perfectly, but Alexander Baryshev, executive director of the nuclear center, said a repetition could provoke a nuclear disaster.
Another member of the center said on condition of anonymity: "A Chernobyl-scale disaster is probable."
Institute officials said suppliers have no right to stop gas deliveries, because the nuclear center is a strategic facility.
Mikhail Piskunov, head of the public Center for Assisting Civil Initiatives in Dimitrovgrad, said the physicists overreacted. "Everyone is scared of another nuclear disaster, and the institute's management can exploit that fear to attract public attention to its debts, and shame suppliers," he said. "But it would be better environmentally if the reactors were shut down, because an idle reactor does not pollute."
