MOSCOW, June 14 (RIA Novosti) Moscow - a capital city/ Kazakhstan to revise space projects with Russia/ Prospects for the Turkmen shelf/Chavez expanding cooperation with Moscow
Vedomosti
Moscow - a capital city
Financial prosperity is not synonymous to economic leadership these days. Moscow ranks 50th and last on the MasterCard Worldwide index of global trade hubs with a mere 39.8 out of 100 points.
Moscow is often outmatched by its competitors in a number of economic ratings, except perhaps in terms of skyrocketing prices and some financial indicators.
Moscow is flooded with cash. It accounts for one fifth of Russia's GDP. The 7% of Russia's population living in Moscow earn 20% of the overall income of all Russians, according to the recent UNDP Report "Russia's Regions: Goals, Challenges, and Achievements."
Hay Group, international consultants, estimate that Moscow ranks third after Istanbul and Bombay in terms of salaries of top managers and their purchasing power.
Cash comes and goes easily in Moscow, which topped the list of cities with high costs of living in 2006 according to Mercer HR Consulting.
Another rating produced by The Economist Group put Moscow at 26th place in 2007 (and 1st place outside the EU) for its high prices.
In May 2007, Knight Frank and Citi Private Bank rated Moscow 12th in terms of prices for elite real estate, with London in first place.
However, money is unable to improve Moscow. In 2006, the Russian capital was ranked at the bottom in good manners by Reader's Digest.
In January 2007, it was 48th out of 60 of the most attractive destinations for foreign visitors by the Global Market Insite research company.
It was 52nd on the list of attractive business environments, and 54th in terms of infrastructure development.
In April 2007, Mercer HR Consulting placed Moscow 171st out of 215 cities suitable to live in.
Yet, officials and businessmen are full of optimism. Last year Moscow was placed 10th on the Standard & Poor's top ten economic centers for state finances. S&P pointed to Moscow's strong areas - its role as Russia's economic and financial hub and a higher per capita GDP than the country's average.
Still, money is unable to buy Moscow a high rating on the lists of most comfortable, convenient, and attractive cities in the world.
Moscow may soon turn into a global capital, just like Russia could become a key player in any sphere. But wonderful prospects will only emerge when we start believing in people instead of worshiping cash. Human potential should not lag behind the monetary one.
Izvestia
Kazakhstan to revise space projects with Russia
Kazakhstan intends to revise its agreements with Russia over launch procedures for Proton boosters from the Baikonur space center, said Talgat Musabayev, head of Kazakhstan's Aerospace Agency.
He said the use of heptyl fuel in the boosters damaged the environment, and Kazakhstan would only allow the launch of a Proton-M on July 7 as an exception.
Musabayev also said that work on the Ishim aerospace rocket system had been stopped because the project was not commercially viable. Kazakhstan's main Russian partner in the project was the Moscow-based Heat Technology Institute, according to an agreement signed with the government of Kazakhstan in November 2005.
The Ishim complex was designed to launch small civilian spacecraft from a MiG-31 Foxhound plane, which can lift a small rocket with a satellite to a requisite altitude. After parting from the carrier, the rocket uses its own engine to lift off to a higher altitude in order to orbit a relatively small spacecraft.
Kazakhstan decided to start a space business in late 2005. By that time, it had launched its first national communications satellite and planned to set up a launch site for new-generation boosters. Its interest in space projects is a way to lessen the republic's dependence on oil export revenues.
Kazakhstan and Russia have a $220 million project stipulating the creation of the Baiterek system in Baikonur using Russian success in the production of the new-generation Angara rocket. Financed by the Kazakh authorities, Baiterek will be used to launch light-, medium- and heavy-class rockets. The Kazakh authorities hope that the system's commissioning in 2008 will enable them to regularly orbit satellites.
Vremya Novostei
Prospects for the Turkmen shelf
President Vladimir Putin's visit to Turkmenistan in May paved the way for Russian oil companies to the Central Asian country's Caspian shelf. LUKoil president Vagit Alekperov made an official visit to Ashgabat last weekend, and TNK-BP president and CEO Robert Dudley and its executive director German Khan followed yesterday. President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov of Turkmenistan personally held negotiations with them.
Oil reserves in the Turkmen part of the shelf are estimated by some sources at 11 billion tons, plus 5.5 trillion cubic meters of gas, but are virtually undeveloped. The country's former president, Saparmurat Niyazov, unwillingly allowed overseas companies to explore and develop the shelf, while the Turkmenneft state concern lacked both technology and investment.
Until 2006, the only oil producer in that country was British-Arab Dragon Oil, which was working the Cheleken deposit on SPA terms. Last year it produced about 3 million tons. A year ago Malaysia's Petronas started producing oil. Maersk of Denmark and Germany's Wintershall are conducting geological exploration. Russian companies have a hand in one geological investigation project, called Zarit. But difficulties involved in marking out sea borders with neighboring Iran have stalled the project.
Since the former Turkmen leader died the situation has changed. Berdymukhammedov's government is now encouraging foreign companies to apply. In the spring it issued invitations to Chevron, Russia's Sistema AFK, and several Italian companies.
LUKoil has long had a presence on the Caspian shelf in Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. Two years ago it tried to buy out some of Dragon Oil shares, but the Turkmen government opposed the deal, and LUKoil had to back down. With policy change the company has stepped up its profile. Following current negotiations, according to the press service of the Turkmen head of state, LUKoil can now join in the geological prospecting of three promising hydrocarbon fields on the shelf. The next visit by LUKoil top executives to Ashgabat is planned in a month's time, the company's press service told the paper.
TNK-BP merely told the paper that the first visit by the company's top management "was a getting to know visit."
"The Turkmen shelf, or rather its northern section, was explored and drilled back in Soviet-era times," an expert told the paper. "Seismic investigations show the south of the Turkmen shelf near the Iranian border has some promising sites. But they are likely to be less abundant than in Azerbaijan and occur at greater depths."
Kommersant
Chavez expanding cooperation with Moscow
Moscow and Caracas are completing talks on the sale of five to nine submarines to Venezuela. This issue could be settled during Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez' June 29 visit to Russia and just before Vladimir Putin's upcoming U.S. visit.
But the submarine contract could become another sensitive area in Russian-U.S. relations.
Sources in the shipbuilding industry said Caracas had requested nine diesel-electric submarines, namely, five of the Project 636 and four of the Project 677E Amur. The Russian Navy is to adopt the latter in 2007.
A source at Russia's state-owned arms exporter Rosoboronexport said Moscow and Caracas had negotiated the submarine contract, and that Venezuela had initially wanted to buy Amur-class submarines but was also persuaded to acquire several Mk 636s.
In 2004-2006, Russia sold eight submarines of the Project 636 worth $1.8 billion to China, and two similar submarines are now under construction for Algeria.
In 2005-2007, Venezuela bought 24 Sukhoi Su-30MK2V Flanker long-range fighters, Tor-M1 surface-to-air missile systems, 35 Mi-type helicopters, and 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles.
From 2006 till early 2007, Venezuela became Moscow's second most important customer after Algeria, which signed arms-purchase contracts worth $7.5 billion last year.
In late December 2006, Vice Admiral Armando Laguna, Commander of the Venezuelan Navy, said his country planned to buy nine diesel-electric submarines for protecting oil fields on the continental shelf.
A subsequent tender involved Germany, which proposed 212/214 submarines, France and Spain with the Scorpene submarine, and Russia. The Venezuelan media said Russia advertised its Amur-class submarine.
Venezuela is to upgrade two previously purchased German submarines, whose service life will be extended by 10-12 years. Even if Caracas buys only five Russian submarines, it would have the largest submarine fleet in Latin America after Peru, Brazil, and Chile with six, five and four submarines each.
In March, Alberto Muller Rojas, adviser to the president of Venezuela, said Hugo Chavez was overhauling the navy in order to counter a possible U.S. blockade of national oil fields and to prevent direct military confrontation with Washington.
Konstantin Makiyenko, deputy director at the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, said there was no indication of a possible U.S.-Venezuelan conflict today, but that if Caracas feared a possible military confrontation with Washington, then Su-30 fighters and enough submarines were the best way to ease tensions.
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