MOSCOW, April 16 (RIA Novosti)
Moldova to turn to Brussels over Moscow / Minimal nuclear deterrence is a utopia today - expert / Japan directs business to conquer BRIC markets / Certain companies decline government support
Kommersant
Moldova to turn to Brussels over Moscow
Even proven violations of Moldova's election process won't change Brussels' attitude. Compared with other members of the European Union's Eastern Partnership program, Moldova looks like a model liberal democracy. As for the country itself, Moldova's "European choice" certainly gives it a better chance of preserving sovereignty and integrity than Moscow's mediation.
The fair victory of Moldova's ruling Communist Party was certified by international observers. Even without that, the popularity of leftist ideology in a poor country is only natural. Moreover, that the government stopped short of using force to suppress a wave of vandalism will certainly put President Vladimir Voronin in Europe's good books.
Moldova is certainly aware that only Brussels has significant political and financial tools to pressure and restrain Romania. True, the traditional European deliberation before responding to remote crises is making it difficult to estimate how far the EU will go in using these tools. But in any case, there are no diplomatic forces equal to it in Europe.
Therefore, the "European choice" helps Moldova solve several very specific and practical problems. The more intensive its interaction with Brussels, the more chances to obtain some guarantee of security on its western border - unlike interaction with Moscow, which gives no guarantee of resolving the Transdnestr problem.
In the long term, at least theoretically, there is a possibility of direct integration with the European economic and legal space, not through Romania. This will help preserve all the status and privileges of a small but independent state.
Moldova is ending a second decade of independence, however unstable its statehood and identity. It has political elites with their own hierarchy and bureaucracy, which have as much need to follow Romania's orders, as, say Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to become the Moscow governor in Minsk.
Moskovsky Komsomolets
Minimal nuclear deterrence is a utopia today - expert
The idea of "minimal nuclear deterrence" proposed by the Federation of American Scientists to President Barack Obama as a new U.S. nuclear doctrine, is worth working with, writes Viktor Yesin, a former deputy commander of Russia's Missile Strategic Forces. But one should stick to reality.
And the reality is this. To begin with, there are other nuclear powers in addition to Russia and the United States. Any sizeable reduction - down to several hundred nuclear warheads - is impossible unless other nuclear powers, above all China, France and the United Kingdom, take part in the negotiating process. Nor can India, Pakistan and even Israel, with their nuclear potential, be left out.
Second, such a major element as a U.S. global anti-missile system is factored out. Cuts below 1,000 warheads without serious restrictions clamped on the capability of the U.S. missile shield will upset the principle of undiminished security for the sides: the Americans will be able to intercept our remaining warheads, while we will lack such a possibility.
Third, talk of 12 targets on Russian territory concerns nuclear planning. We, too, can choose targets on U.S. territory (this is not difficult) and similarly declare that we will "humanely" engage only them. But the existing control system is such that it allows retargeting to be done within a matter of minutes.
Now Russian nuclear forces are on alert duty with so-called "zero flight mission task," that is to say there is no plan fed into the control system - we announced this back in 1995. The Americans claim that their missiles, too, are targeted somewhere on the oceans, with no people or facilities. Perhaps this is so, but no one can check this, either in Russia or in America. So any talk of 12 targets for missiles is a utopia. We should be moving in another direction: if we want such cuts, we should go over from bilateral negotiations to multilateral ones - involving all nuclear powers.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
Japan directs business to conquer BRIC markets
The Japanese government said the country's producers should focus on cheap goods for the rapidly growing middle class in the BRIC countries.
Russian analysts say Japanese goods could push back Chinese and Russian goods.
According to the draft 2009 white paper for manufacturers, which the Japanese government is to approve in May, the development of low-priced products such as home appliances with simple functions can boost demand in emerging countries.
The draft says the number of consumers with annual disposable incomes of $5,000 or higher in the four key emerging economies - Brazil, Russia, India and China - grew to 630 million in 2007 from 250 million in 2002.
This market is bound to attract attention amid the global economic downturn, which is why Japanese manufacturers are encouraged to produce simpler household goods at lower production costs, as India's Tata Motors did when it created the Nano car, "high on fuel efficiency and low on emissions" and cheap at that, only $2,000.
Analysts say they are worried by the news, as Japanese manufacturers can overtake their rivals in every respect. It is not a coincidence that they are citing the example of the Tata Nano, said Sevastyan Kozitsyn, an analyst at Broker Credit Service.
"This [policy] will have a direct effect on the automotive industry," he said. "It would be rather difficult to strip an electric kettle of excessive functions, but car manufacturing outlays can be easily cut."
If Tokyo implements its plans, foreign auto concerns assembling cars in Russia will have to back off.
"A medium-class automobile costing $10,000 made in Japan will immediately become the sales leader in Russia," Kozitsyn said. "In this situation, first the Koreans and then the Chinese, who have so far not succeeded much on the Russian auto market, will have to make room [for the Japanese]."
The Japanese policy will also hit Russian producers.
Irina Vorobyova, an analyst at the 2K Audit Business Consultancy, said: "If Japan comes to the Russian market with cheap home appliances, Russian producers will find it difficult to maintain their position on the market. They will lose to Chinese goods in price and to Japanese goods in quality."
Vedomosti, Kommersant
Certain companies decline government support
Russian sixth-largest oil producer Tatneft says it will waive inclusion in the government list of 295 strategic companies, because the chances of getting financial assistance are small, while greater government control of its operation is inevitable.
However, the Economics Ministry does not think the company's wish will be enough to take it off the list. The government does plan to exercise tighter control of oil majors.
The companies on the list are required to submit monthly reports including 70 points. Otherwise, they would have only had to present quarterly financial reports.
Tatneft's key investment project is a major oil refinery and petrochemicals plant under construction in Nizhnekamsk, worth $3 billion-$5 billion, said deputy CEO Nail Ibragimov. However, he said, the government is not planning to provide money for business development under the strategic companies bailout program. It will only have "more serious control" of them.
The company needs long-term cheap loans to finance investment. Without the money, there is no point in submitting reports, said Konstantin Cherepanov from KIT Finance. Tatneft must have estimated additional costs of making the reports and realized there in no point remaining on the list, echoed Denis Borisov from the Solid brokerage.
Tatneft is not the only company saying it doesn't need government support. Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller also said the monopoly would rather do without it for the time being when offered support by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin a few days ago. The Gazprom source did not say whether the state giant planned to withdraw from the list.
In any case, it will not be easy. "The situation in the country largely depends on the situation in strategic companies. Therefore, government monitoring will be continued, regardless of the companies' wishes," an Economics Ministry official said.
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