MOSCOW, August 8 (RIA Novosti) New Kremlin personnel policies hit presidential hopefuls / Fight over Sakhalin leads to governor's dismissal / Russian court prolongs Yukos's receivership period / Foreign companies to build two more car plants in Russia / Moscow hotel rates highest in Europe
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
New Kremlin personnel policies hit presidential hopefuls
With six months left until the presidential election in Russia, new Kremlin personnel policies have reduced the positions of two first deputy prime ministers - Sergei Ivanov and Dmitry Medvedev - seen as the most likely successors to Vladimir Putin.
The newly-adopted amendments to government regulations give "ordinary" vice premiers and first vice premiers equal status. Along with that, the current president was given the right to give instructions to all vice premiers directly, bypassing their boss, Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov.
It looks as if the Kremlin has panicked at the thought that a "lame duck" reputation could stick to Vladimir Putin before the end of his term. "That the president now has the right to directly instruct vice premiers confirms he is still the head of executive power in Russia," said Yevgeny Yasin, research director at the Higher School of Economics.
Mikhail Delyagin, the director of a globalization studies think tank, suggested that this system is closer to the U.S. way of running the country, where the president governs the whole vertical of executive power.
It is even possible that first deputy prime ministers will now have rivals. "This was done to humiliate Ivanov and Medvedev, to show them that neither of them will become a successor to Putin after all. It will be someone else, someone we do not know yet, as the president had hinted earlier," Delyagin said. "The main thing in the work of an intelligence agent is to keep those around him in a state of uncertainty," Yasin said.
Still, putting aside the confusion the news caused in the presidential hopefuls' camp, concerns over Putin's weakening position in the run-up to the elections are hardly justified. Delyagin, for example, does not think the term "lame duck" can be applied to him at all. "Elsewhere in the world, one can be certain that the president actually steps down once his tenure is over. In Russia, he might be re-elected for a third term, or appointed to some important official post and preserve his powers de facto," the expert said. "The personality factor is most important in this country. The president has literally mopped up the political stage, leaving in sight no one capable of running the country."
Gazeta.ru
Fight over Sakhalin leads to governor's dismissal
President Putin is continuing to dismiss heads of regional administrations from office. On Tuesday, Sakhalin Governor Ivan Malakhov resigned allegedly on his own initiative and will be replaced by Alexander Khoroshavin, mayor of the Okha town, in Sakhalin.
The resignation of Governor Malakhov has been under discussion in Sakhalin since March, when he twice raised the question of no-confidence with the president. And twice the Kremlin insisted he took back the documents "for technical inaccuracy." The governor's office was due to expire this December.
There could be many reasons for the Kremlin's discontent with Malakhov. "Malakhov failed to unite the severely split regional elite," said Rostislav Turovsky, director of the Center for Regional Studies.
During his office, the United Russia party lost the regional legislature elections to the Our Motherland - Sakhalin and Kurils bloc, and then yielded the Sakhalin's State Duma mandate to Communist Svetlana Ivanova.
However, the main reason for his resignation is the scrap between energy giant Gazprom and state-run Rosneft, over the potentially important region rather than his political failures.
"Malakhov supported Gazprom as far as the division of production fields was concerned, while Rosneft considers this region of strategic importance for itself," Turovsky said.
Alexander Khoroshavin has been appointed acting governor. Rosneft has a representative office in Okha. The new governor is known for his close ties with Sergei Bogdanchikov, Rosneft CEO, with whom he worked at Okhaneftegazdobycha in the early 1980s. Later they furthered their career at the regional Communist Party committee.
"One can say that Rosneft scored a strategic victory over Gazprom in Sakhalin. Now it has advantages in its dispute over Sakhalin III and Sakhalin IV," Turovsky said.
"Moreover," the expert said, "the Sakhalin governor supervises the activities of the Sakhalin oil company, which belongs to the regional government. Now it will find itself coming under the influence of Rosneft."
Kommersant
Russian court prolongs Yukos's receivership period
The Moscow Arbitration Court has prolonged the bankruptcy process of oil company Yukos for three months, although its bankruptcy receiver, Eduard Rebgun, asked for a six-month reprieve.
The court actually granted the request of state-controlled oil company Rosneft, the main buyer of Yukos's assets, which needs the bankruptcy procedure to end before foreign courts start hearing the suits of Yukos shareholders, who are unlikely to receive anything from the bankruptcy estate.
Rebgun said the company did not have enough money even to repay its creditors.
Minority shareholders have filed and are filing suits abroad. Five Spanish funds recently filed a suit with the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, demanding that Russia repay losses they incurred from the confiscation of Yukos property.
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and Dutch courts are considering several cases in which plaintiffs claim rights to Yukos's foreign assets - Yukos Finance B. V. and the 49% stake it controls in the Slovak pipeline company Transpetrol.
Lawyers admit that such suits could create problems for the assets' buyer.
Igor Serebryakov, senior lawyer with Egorov, Puginsky, Afanasiev & Partners, said: "If the Dutch court rules that Yukos's bankruptcy in Russia was inspired to take over the property of its investors, the court's rulings will be valid in the Netherlands and the countries with which it has agreements on legal assistance."
According to the lawyer, if the Dutch court passes a ruling on Yukos's foreign assets and it comes into force before it's too late, the acquisition of these assets will become extremely risky, if not impossible.
Rosneft is considered the most probable bidder, which could explain its desire for the Yukos bankruptcy procedure to be completed before foreign courts pass their rulings.
The Dutch court will have to work hard to prove that the oil company's bankruptcy was deliberately provoked, Serebryakov said. But the decision of the Stockholm-based Arbitration Institute could carry more weight.
"Given the political will, the court may adopt a decision that will be spearheaded against Russia," he said. That decision would be valid and applied in any country where Russia owns property.
Business & Financial Markets
Foreign companies to build two more car plants in Russia
Japan's Mitsubishi and South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co. have finally decided to build plants in Russia. Analysts say they will be the last major foreign car producers to receive car manufacturer status in Russia before its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). This status gives a company the right to cuts in import duties on components brought into Russia for car production.
Russia's Economic Development and Trade Ministry is planning to sign agreements with Mitsubishi and Hyundai on car manufacture in Russia by September 15. Dmitry Levchenkov, deputy director of the ministry's investment policy department, says that this is connected with Russia's forthcoming entry to the WTO, after which it will be impossible to sign such agreements.
Neither Mitsubishi nor Hyundai have chosen sites for their plants. According to Levchenkov, Mitsubishi is leaning toward St. Petersburg, while Hyundai is considering about a dozen sites. Hyundai has confirmed that it is negotiating the construction of a plant in Russia but declined to make any comments stressing that the final decision has not been taken yet. The Rolf group, Mitsubishi's distributor in Russia, also declined to comment.
It is a logical step for Mitsubishi and Hyundai to seek the status of car manufacturers in Russia for both companies top the sales list in this country, said Ilya Frolov, an analyst with Rye, Man & Gor Securities (RMG), a brokerage company.
In contrast to Mitsubishi, Hyundai is already producing cars in Russia at the Taganrog automobile plant (TagAZ). This, however, will not hinder the company's plans to build a new plant as TagAZ has a limited capacity, said Yevgeny Bogdanov, head for engineering and transport in Russia and CIS countries at A.T. Kearney, a global consultancy firm. At present, Hyundai sells more cars in Russia than TagAZ can produce. It will take two to three years to build a new plant, while sales will continue to grow all the time, the expert said. In his opinion, both companies should build plants with an annual capacity of no less than 100,000 cars each.
Vedomosti
Moscow hotel rates highest in Europe
It appears that Moscow hotels are the most expensive in Europe in terms of average rates. Experts explain the reason as skyrocketing demand and insufficient available hotel rooms.
After researching the rates in 7,200 hotels in Europe, Deloitte Touche discovered that an average hotel room costs 263 euros per night in Moscow. London, the European financial center, ranks second to Moscow, but still lags far behind at only 185 euros per night. Athens and Barcelona are third and fourth on the most expensive hotels lists (149 euros per night), while Warsaw hotels are available at 91 euros.
Experts are convinced that the high prices in Moscow are the result of an acute shortage in the availability of international-class rooms. "It often happens that no rooms are available in Moscow at all," says Vladimir Ilyichev, director for regional development at Accor Group. "It almost never happens in London."
According to him, more foreigners come to Moscow on business every year, while the number of suitable hotels decreases, not increases. "The recent demolition of the Hotel Rossiya was quite a blow, cutting the number of available rooms by 3,000 in one stroke. Of course, it wasn't a four- or five-star hotel, but it had the call," Ilyichev said.
According to the Federal Frontier Service information, 2.4 million tourists visited Russia in 2006, compared to 2.3 million in 2005.
The hotel shortage is also due to the fact that developers prefer building office centers, not hotels, according to Marina Smirnova, associate director of Colliers International's valuation and consulting department.
"A hotel's renumeration period is much longer than that of an office complex," echoes Natalia Alekhina, a corporate finance manager for the CIS at Deloitte.
Smirnova believes that restrictions on erecting office buildings in Moscow's historic center imposed by the city administration late last year could help remedy the situation.
Ilyichev, who basically agreed with her, said there would be no improvement in the situation for about another four or five years. "Agreement, project design and planning permission take around two years, then the actual construction takes as long," he said.
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