MOSCOW, April 12 (RIA Novosti) Russia to ban U.S. poultry imports if not admitted to WTO/Russia to help Egypt increase oil and gas production/Russia, India to sign $1.6 billion fighter production contract /AvtoVAZ endorses Magna's concept/ISS is a mistake we fear to acknowledge - cosmonaut
Grechko
Rossiiskaya Gazeta
Russia to ban U.S. poultry imports if not admitted to WTO
Russia is determined to protect its domestic market, despite the potential macroeconomic consequences.
That and similar sensational statements were made yesterday at the third International Veterinary Congress on Poultry Breeding in Moscow.
Experts link the unexpected political tone of the industry event to the refusal of the U.S. Congress to abolish the notorious Jackson-Vanik amendment, which jeopardizes Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The first speeches by Russian officials shocked the audience, which had come for a business meeting, but found itself at a political rally.
Deputy Agriculture Minister Sergei Mitin spoke of "victory over the world's most developed economy," i.e. the U.S. "We have ousted them from the market," he said.
Yevgeny Nepoklonov, deputy head of the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Control, went as far as predicting that Russia would soon start exporting chicken.
What prompted Russian officials to rattle their poultry, so to speak?
Sources in the Agriculture Ministry made it clear that it was the refusal by the U.S. Congress to abolish the Jackson-Vanik amendment.
It is not directly related to chicken, as it mostly prohibits importing high-tech goods to Russia, but it is connected to Russia's membership in the WTO.
If it remains in place, Congress may also refuse to ratify the Russian-American protocol on its WTO entry.
Last autumn, Russia threatened to ban U.S. chicken imports unless the protocol was signed.
Now the story seems to be repeating itself - America is again being threatened with poultry at a time when the protocol is becoming an empty document.
Gazeta.ru
Russia to help Egypt increase oil and gas production
Russian energy giant Gazprom will gain experience working with liquefied natural gas (LNG) and at the same time help Egypt enter European markets.
However, the main goal of the two countries' gas cooperation is different - Egypt can help Russia set up a gas OPEC.
Following negotiations between Russia's Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko and Egypt's Petroleum Minister Sameh Fahmi, the sides signed three memorandums on mutual understanding.
The two countries will develop cooperation in the raw materials sector, primarily in prospecting for oil and gas and for gold-bearing ores.
In addition, the memorandums provide for the joint work of Russian and Egyptian specialists in oil production and processing.
Russia also plans to assist Egypt in developing modern gas processing systems, to supply its own gas equipment to that country and help transport Egyptian gas to end consumers.
Obviously, Europe will be the main end consumer, but not in the near future - Egypt must build up its gas production first.
"At present, Egypt does not produce much gas," said Andrei Gromadin, an analyst with the MDM Bank, a universal privately owned Russian bank.
"However, when Egypt begins large-scale commercial gas production, its gas will most probably go to European countries. It makes no sense to sell it in the Middle East, which has enough of its own gas," Gromadin said.
The sector's experts believe that Gazprom is even more interested in accumulating new experience than Egypt is interested in Gazprom's experience.
"The LNG market is actively developing now," said Konstantin Batunin, an analyst with Alfa Bank, Russia's largest private banking group. "Gazprom may get the most valuable experience, because the LNG market is a new market for it."
Batunin also said that in view of the sensational gas summit in Doha (Qatar), which discussed the possibility of establishing a gas OPEC, it became obvious that Russian-Egyptian cooperation would lead to the joint coordination of gas supplies and market distribution.
"However, that is a long-term prospect," the analyst said.
Kommersant
Russia, India to sign $1.6 billion fighter production contract
Rosoboronexport, the main national state arms exporter, and India have signed a $504 million contract for the sale of 18 Sukhoi Su-30MKI Flanker fighters to New Delhi in exchange for 18 used Su-30K warplanes.
The deal will make it possible to sign another $1.6 billion contract to supply 40 Su-30MKI fighter kits to Indian aircraft plants in 2008-2010.
However, Rosoboronexport may have trouble reselling the Su-30Ks, which were supplied between 1997 and 1999. Each of them, priced at $12 million, has logged 1,500 hours of flight time and must be overhauled.
Russian aircraft manufacturer NPK Irkut can supply all 18 new Su-30MKI planes, worth $40 million each, by late 2007.
NPK Irkut and Rosoboronexport officials declined to say where the planes would go. Independent experts said the fighters would be sold to poor countries in Africa, the Middle East or South East Asia.
"These inexpensive planes could be offered to many poor countries, particularly in the Horn of Africa [Ethiopia and Eritrea] and the Arabian Peninsula, where armed conflicts seem likely," said Konstantin Makiyenko, deputy director with the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies.
According to Makiyenko, direct supplies are possible because Moscow and Minsk stopped arms re-export talks in early 2007.
Vedomosti
AvtoVAZ endorses Magna's concept
AvtoVAZ, Russia's largest carmaker, will continue cooperating with Canadian Magna. The Russian plant's management has endorsed the concept drawings offered by its partner, and they now have to find ways to reduce the cost of the project.
Late last month, Magna completed work on the concept of a C-class car for AvtoVAZ. Sources at the plant's management said that it failed to fit the required price range of $10,000-$12,000, but that AvtoVAZ was willing to work further.
Now, the partners have to decide where the car will be assembled and what parts will be used.
If the choice is right, it can get cheaper. A source said that the next step would be the signing of a contract for the development of a platform and for either construction of a plant or the modernization of existing facilities.
Magna has about two months to choose its preferred option.
The car will be cheap if the partners give up the idea of building a new plant from scratch, the source said.
The construction of a plant producing 450,000 cars a year will cost about 1.5 billion euros - the first unit with a capacity of 220,000 cars will require 740-895 million euros, and the second one 675-810 million euros.
Another way to save is to reduce spending on car parts. That means that the project will refuse the services of many traditional Russian suppliers.
Only suppliers able to design parts on their own will be involved, the source said. Foreign suppliers will have to provide a business plan for starting production in Russia. One of them will be Magna itself, as it manufactures a whole range of car parts.
Other potential partners that are already in talks with AvtoVAZ are Bosch (electronics), Siemens (instrument boards), ZF (steering gears and transmissions), Lear (seats), Automotive Lighting (lights) and Delphy (electronics).
Yet it will be very difficult to fit within the $10,000-$12,000 range without mass localization of production, warned Yelena Sakhnova, an analyst with Deutsche UFG.
Magna, whose interest in the project is to supply its own car parts, will not want it. It believes it natural to place orders with existing facilities.
If the construction of a new plant is launched, the price goal will be completely unattainable, Sakhnova said.
Novye Izvestia
ISS is a mistake we fear to acknowledge - cosmonaut Grechko
"Manned orbital stations lead nowhere, I wrote in my report back in 1978, after a flight that set an endurance record," Soviet pilot-cosmonaut Georgy Grechko has told the newspaper.
"I said that human crews on the stations did not always combine happily with automated instruments. There are plenty of situations where a human being is a nuisance to automatic devices, rather than a help. I argued that stations should be visited only when their equipment needed repairs or replacement.
"Twelve or so years after I wrote that, the United States launched its automatic Hubble telescope into orbit. Since then, astronauts have mended it three times, and are now thinking of doing it a fourth time. The Hubble has made dozens of times more discoveries than all the orbiting stations taken together, complete with their crews and supply craft.
"Experience has shown that I was right 30 years ago. But we are all still sitting snugly on the International Space Station (ISS), in effect keeping it merely alive. For it to bring a profit, it must have a standing crew of six, while the actual number is mostly two. And they have no time for science. My colleague Sergei Krikalyov told me that when he was on board the station he could do science only on Sundays.
"A six-member complement on board the ISS is so far out of the question because no rescue ship that size exists in case something happens. Our Soyuz is a fine craft, but it no longer matches up to new tasks. Even following several upgrades, it is morally outdated.
"The Americans have money both for winding up the ISS program and for launching an interplanetary travel project. But when our state wants to make money on space tourists, you don't know whether to laugh or cry.
"Russian pioneering space scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky said that space would bring us mountains of bread and a heap of might. But tourists bring neither. And I am not sure that the $20 million paid by the present tourist will all go to benefit space studies.
"As President Boris Yeltsin said in his day, commenting on a $5 billion IMF credit: 'The devil knows where it has gone'."
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