MOSCOW, August 2 (RIA Novosti) Russia will save Europe from missile attack/United States may develop a disarming nuclear strike capability against Russia/Belarus may stop Russian gas transit to Europe/Alrosa whips up investors' interest ahead of IPO/Yukos bankruptcy administrator could not make it to Transpetrol board
Gazeta
Russia will save Europe from missile attack
Russia has made one more proposal on cooperation with the West. Alexander Zelin, commander-in-chief of the Russian Air Force, said Wednesday that Russia could contribute to the establishment of a common European ballistic missile defense system, which is to be based on the American anti-missiles in Poland and a new-generation radar in the Czech Republic.
Zelin said that Russia could contribute its S-400 Triumph long-range air defense systems. The only elements of an ABM system Russia cannot offer are strategic extraterrestrial anti-missiles, because it has none.
The S-400 has only one drawback - an obsolete Elbrus-type computer. In all other respects, it is by far superior to the U.S. Patriot system, as it has an effective range of 400 kilometers (249 miles), an effective altitude of 30 kilometers (19 miles), and a target area of 500 square kilometers (193 square miles).
The Patriot was designed to fight off air targets that evade upper-echelon ABM defenses, while the S-400 is an independent system.
Colonel Igor Korotchenko, a member of the public council at the Russian Defense Ministry, said: "Zelin's words fit the logic of [President Vladimir] Putin's proposals to [President George W.] Bush. If the S-400 is added to the European non-strategic ABM system, it will guarantee the protection of a whole continent."
However, the Triumph is unlikely to interest the West, despite its advantages, just as the Gabala radar did not.
To begin with, mutual distrust has not dissipated, especially among the military. Russia and the West still cannot agree on the issue of the European ABM system, which Moscow views as a squandering of funds.
"Americans want to down intercontinental ballistic missiles with a laser, while we are not even doing research in this sphere, because an echeloned ABM system cannot be established in the next 50-100 years," Korotchenko said.
Kommersant
United States may develop a disarming nuclear strike capability against Russia
The United States military leadership has for the first time officially announced it does not want to extend the START-I treaty.
The head of the U.S. Strategic Command, General James Cartwright, claimed that the decision made possible strikes in the war against global terrorism easier.
Russia fears that the U.S. may have the potential to launch a crippling nuclear strike and, with a missile defense system now being built in Europe, avoid a counterstrike.
Cartwright said that several proposals for a global strike at so-called "rogue nations" suspected of developing weapons of mass destruction are currently being considered.
A number of American experts have suggested using sea-launched Trident ballistic missiles installed on submarines and equipped with non-nuclear warheads. But there is the rub -- Trident missiles are strategic and fall under the START-I treaty.
"Every military leader wants to increase the financing of his branch, for which they frequently exaggerate threats, including that of terrorism," said Vladimir Yevseyev, senior researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of World Economics and International Relations.
"But the problem with rejecting START-I and building up delivery power is that those vehicles can be used as pinpoint weapons to strike at Russian strategic targets - launching silos and underground command posts," he said.
The main danger posed by the American repudiation of START-I "for the sake of the counterterrorism fight," however, lies elsewhere, Russia thinks.
"Converting elements of a strategic nuclear force into non-nuclear counterterrorism weapons does not preclude their reconversion," Yevseyev said. "By creating a counterterrorism force, the U.S. will build up a reverse potential that could be quickly converted into a strategic nuclear force."
That, in the expert's view, is a serious threat to Russia's security, since the number of warheads in Russia is being reduced.
Although the treaty on strategic offensive reductions allows up to 2,200 warheads for each side, their real number in the Russian Army remains 1,500.
According to the expert, that means the U.S. will have the potential for a disarming nuclear strike, and with the missile defense system now being developed it will have the ability to make itself safe from a counterstrike.
Gazeta
Belarus may stop Russian gas transit to Europe
The gas conflict between Russia and Belarus, which seemed to have played itself out earlier this year, has heated up again.
Belarus has not been paying its gas bill, and Russia has cut gas deliveries to that country in response. Experts have said that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has begun a new game, hoping that Russia will not dare worsen relations with Belarus before the presidential election.
Considering the experience of Russian-Belarusian relations in the oil and gas sphere, Lukashenko may well shut off the Belarusian transit pipe for Russian gas.
In the first half of the year, Belarus paid 55% of the market price for Russian gas. Since July 1, it was supposed to have begun paying for it in full, and to have paid off its back debt by July 23.
However, Belarus has not done so. "Delayed payments for January-June 2007 amounted to $456.16 million," Russian energy giant Gazprom reported.
Judging by all signs, the Russian gas monopoly expects Belarus will begin siphoning off gas from the transit pipeline.
Gazprom has warned Europe that anything can be expected from Lukashenko, including the shutoff of gas transit pipelines, said a market expert.
Nevertheless, Russian experts believe that Belarus will get the required gas amount anyway.
"Although Gazprom is trying to partially limit its transit supplies via Ukraine and Belarus because of constant conflicts with those countries, the gas monopoly is still interested in the Belarusian transit pipe, which allows it to supply gas to Europe," said Alexander Razuvayev, head of the marketing analysis department of Sobinbank, a commercial bank servicing corporate clients in various sectors of the Russian economy.
In the opinion of political commentators, Lukashenko has straddled the fence and is marking time.
"The Belarusian president hopes to drag the conflict into the 2008 Russian election campaign," said Alexei Makarkin, deputy general director of the Center for Political Technologies (CPT), the Russian oldest think-tank.
However, he is convinced that Lukashenko is deluding himself: "He acts as if we were living in the 1990s. At that time, the authorities wanted to sustain the image of Russia as a 'restorer of the USSR' and get rid of its image of the 'Empire's destroyer.' That is why Russia played footsie with CIS countries, including Belarus. Now the situation has changed and Lukashenko is strongly at fault," Makarkin said.
Business & Financial Markets
Alrosa whips up investors' interest ahead of IPO
Russia's diamond producer Alrosa announced that it has discovered a new field with reserves estimated at $3.5 billion in Yakutia, in Eastern Siberia.
The new diamond field will bring the company an additional $140 billion in annual revenues, experts said. The news will further boost investors' interest in Alrosa shares ahead of the company's possible IPO.
The Federal Agency for Subsoil Use has issued Alrosa a certificate attesting that the company is the discoverer of the Verkhneye-Munskoye diamond field in the Oleneksky ulus, in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).
The field lies in the area of three kimberlite pipes, which are in close proximity to each other, and is located 130 kilometers (70 miles) from the Udachninsky mining factory, which belongs to Alrosa, a spokesman of the company said.
With annual production volumes of 1.2-2 million tones of ore, the field can be exploited for at least 25 years, as its reserves amount to 30-50 million tons of ore, and discovered reserves are estimated at $3.5 billion.
The field requires financial outlays, but the company would not give any specific figures.
In 2006, Alrosa allocated $106 million for exploration.
The convenient location of the field would help reduce the company's investment in its development, analysts said.
The discovery of the field will not significantly influence the company's financial results, experts believe.
"The estimated results equal the annual profit," said Igor Nuzhdin, an analyst with the Zenit bank. Taking into consideration the time during which the field will be developed, the company's annual earnings could grow only by $140 million."
Alrosa is whipping up the investors' interest ahead of promised IPO, experts said. They prove it by the fact that the new field, which is located near the company's mining factory, was not discovered before Alrosa announced it would hold an IPO.
Market experts said the events would develop as soon as the consolidation of the company was complete.
"Alrosa may lose its presence on the market, and it is not ruled out that to avoid that situation, it will join a major holding," said Kirill Chuiko, an analyst with the Uralsib financial company. If an IPO is held, Alrosa's free float will amount to no more than 15%.
Vedomosti
Yukos bankruptcy administrator could not make it to Transpetrol board
No representatives of Yukos bankruptcy receiver Eduard Rebgun have been able to join the board of directors of Slovakia's Transpetrol.
The republic's government - the company's main shareholder - decided to wait for a court ruling to see if Rebgun might administer the stock of the pipeline company.
The item about electing a new board had been removed from the agenda of the shareholders' meeting held July 31, said Nikolai Lashkevich, spokesman for the bankruptcy administrator.
He said the receiver's representative was running for board membership. "It was the Slovak government's initiative, and we did not object," he said. "This will be a matter to consider for the new owner of Yukos Finance, which will be put up for sale [as part of the bankruptcy procedure] August 15."
Branislav Zvara, a representative of Slovakia's Economics Ministry, explained that the government had decided against changing Transpetrol's governing bodies until October 31 - the time the Amsterdam court would determine who may administer the company's stock - the past or present management of Yukos Finance.
Last May, the appellate court in Amsterdam recognized Rebgun as Yukos's legitimate representative in Yukos Finance, but he may not yet administer Transpetrol shares.
The point is that the former Yukos Finance management deposited the company's stock certificate with TMF, which refuses to issue the document to Rebgun, who filed a court protest.
Anatoly Yushin, AST managing partner, does not believe that Rebgun's failure to make it to the board will influence the sale of Yukos Finance, since no endorsement of the deal is required from the Slovak company.
Lashkevich said that Sergei Shmelkov, Yukos Finance's new director, had attended the July 31 Transpetrol meeting.
Last year, Rebgun appointed him to succeed the dismissed former Yukos managers who represented GML interests. The latter also wanted to participate, but Transpetrol refused to register them.
The Transpetrol pipelines have a length of 1,032 kilometers and a throughput capacity of 21 million metric tons a year. The company also owns a section of the Druzhba pipeline (512 kilometers).
Last year, Transpetrol pumped 1.14 million metric tons of oil. Its earnings were $64.7 million, and net profits $25.2 million. The Slovak government owns a 51% stake in the company, and Yukos, via Yukos Finance B.V., 49%.
RIA Novosti is not responsible for the content of outside sources.
