MOSCOW, February 24 (RIA Novosti)
Georgia tries to join NATO via Afghanistan / Russia floats ambitious project to replace Energy Charter / Disney not allowed to buy Russian television channels / Rosneft largest 2014 Olympics sponsor among oil companies /
RBC Daily
Georgia tries to join NATO via Afghanistan
Having failed to join NATO in the ordinary way, Georgia is trying to become a de facto member by offering a transit corridor to Afghanistan. However, analysts say the Georgian corridor has no future and cannot be considered as an alternative to the Russian route.
Georgian Defense Minister David Sikharulidze said they were not considering a U.S. base in Georgia, but were ready to open their air space for NATO aircraft flying to Afghanistan.
The Georgian air space would be necessary for the NATO operation in Afghanistan only if the U.S. and Turkey agree to set up a military base in the Black Sea city of Trabzon in Turkey as an alternative to the Kyrgyz base, which is due to close later this year.
Russian analysts see this as Moscow's big diplomatic victory.
Vladimir Yevseyev, an analyst at the International Security Center of the Moscow-based Institute of World Economy and International Relations, said: "A U.S. base at Trabzon would be better than the U.S. base in Uzbekistan or a base at Almaty Airport, which the U.S. was discussing with Kazakhstan."
The U.S. failed to convince any of the CIS countries to house its base, the expert said, saying that these countries value relations with Moscow more.
Yevseyev has also questioned the efficiency of a transit corridor via Trabzon and Georgia.
"Although a NATO member, Turkey has recently found a taste for independent policy. It will most likely formulate tough conditions for the use of its base," he said. Besides, Turkey does not want to quarrel with Iran, across whose air space planes taking off from Trabzon would fly, Yevseyev said.
The Georgian leadership's generous gesture is likely to be disregarded, because the U.S. sees no alternative to flights via Russia and Central Asia, especially now that Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have approved the flight of U.S. transport planes to Afghanistan via their air space.
Kommersant
Russia floats ambitious project to replace Energy Charter
Russia is ready to begin working on a new energy cooperation agreement with the European Union to replace the Energy Charter it is unhappy with.
Having finally accepted the fact that Moscow will never ratify the Energy Charter, Brussels agreed to discuss a possible compromise with Moscow two weeks ago. Russia proposed drawing up a new energy cooperation agreement, and the European Commission accepted but said the new document should contain all the basic clauses of the old Energy Charter.
Russia entrusted Deputy Parliament Speaker Valery Yazev with creating a Eurasian energy forum. Yazev is known as Russia's most powerful gas lobbyist. His idea is to unite players of the gas, oil, coal and power markets under the new project. Gazprom could represent the gas industry in the new organization, along with national gas producers of Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and other countries, gas transit companies such as Naftogaz Ukraine, Beltransgaz, and Europolgaz, and gas consumers such as European E.ON Ruhrgas, OMV, ENI, Total and GDF Suez.
A well informed source said E.ON Ruhrgas had tentatively approved of the idea.
Founders of the new organization will be selected by mid-May, and a constituent assembly will be held before mid-July 2009.
Kommersant's sources in Brussels said the EU was unlikely to accept the timeframe suggested by Yazev, as elections to the European Parliament are slated for June and a new European Commission will be formed after that. This means any negotiations with Russia, including such an important project, will break for the summer.
The Russian gas society, a lobby group headed by Yazev, admits that the new forum is meant to accelerate the implementation of Gazprom's international projects including Nord Stream, South Stream and Shtokman.
Analysts say that although yet another discussion group for energy security issues will do no harm, the idea will be difficult to implement.
"Europe is wary of Russia's initiatives, while certain countries are plainly jealous," said Valery Nesterov from Troika Dialog. "The controversy on energy issues has reached a boiling point."
Vedomosti, Kommersant
Disney not allowed to buy Russian television channels
The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (FAS) has turned down a request by The Walt Disney Company, the world's largest media and entertainment corporation, and Media-One Holdings Limited, a broadcaster managing 30 television channels in Russian regions, to establish a joint venture.
In October 2008, FAS denied Google Inc. the right to buy the Begun contextual-advertising system from Rambler, Russia's largest Internet portal, for $140 million.
"The applicant submitted unauthentic information about the proposed deal," FAS deputy director Andrei Kashevarov told the papers. He said Disney had failed to disclose joint-venture management plans and its influence on corporate operations.
Kashevarov said some documents contained misprints and inaccurate provisions, and that there were discrepancies in the Russian- and English-language versions. Disney has the right to eliminate these problems and to resubmit the documents, he said.
Disney planned to launch a family channel with unique corporate content on the basis of Media-One TV. At present, state-owned ORT (Channel One) and national television broadcaster CTC have the right to show Disney films and animated cartoons.
Media market players declined to comment on the FAS decision. "This is politics, not business," a TV-channel CEO said.
Although foreigners currently operate on the Russian media market, and although Sweden's Modern Times Group and RTL Group of Luxembourg own 39% and 30% stakes in CTC Media and REN TV, the government does not want them to become more influential, media managers said.
Merrill Lynch analyst Maria Rubanovskaya said such FAS decisions served to reduce the value of Russian media companies.
"The state views the media and the Internet as strategic sectors and does not want foreign investors to buy into them," political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin, head of the Moscow-based Mercator think tank, said.
Disney CEO Robert A. Iger is trying to get an appointment with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and to discuss plans for launching his TV channel in Russia, a source close to the company told the papers.
Vedomosti
Rosneft largest 2014 Olympics sponsor among oil companies
Russia's largest state owned oil company, Rosneft, has offered $160 million for the right to become an official sponsor of the 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Sochi, on the Black Sea coast.
It is to sign an agreement with the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee today before the meeting of the Presidium of the Sport Council chaired by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, a Rosneft employee said.
According to the Ministry of Sport and Tourism, the company will pay more than $160 million for the contract, which includes discounted fuel and lubricant supplies i to Olympic structures.
Rosneft will also be granted a most favored status in the allocation of land for building filling stations in the Krasnodar Territory in southern Russia, which will allow it to make up for its expenses as a sponsor, the ministry official said.
A source at Rosneft said the company's spending, together with discounted supplies of fuel and lubricants, would exceed the above sum, adding that the issue was discussed on Monday.
The other oil companies bidding to become a sponsor were LUKoil and TNK-BP.
LUKoil proposed building filling stations with Olympic symbols along the Moscow-Don route, but withdrew its offer when the sum of the contract exceeded $100 million.
TNK-BP also said the contract was too expensive.
Rosneft will be the third Russian sponsor of the 2014 Winter Games. In January, a consortium of Rostelecom and MegaFon won the contract in telecommunications, pledging to pay $130 million for the sponsor status and to provide services worth another $130 million. This is so far the largest sponsor contribution in Olympic history.
Rosneft's contract may also break a record. The largest Olympic contract with an oil company has been signed with BP, which paid 50 million pounds for the status of a tier one sponsor, pledging to provide all the Internet and landline links during the London 2012 Olympic Games in return for exclusive marketing rights.
The Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee is to choose tier one sponsors in six categories this year, each partner pledging at least $100 million.
This is a huge sum for a national sponsor, Maxim Belitsky, sports director at the Brand Action Group, said. In the past, only global sponsors of the International Olympic Committee paid comparable sums for the right to use Olympic symbols around the world.
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