Ekspert Online
UN Security Council passes fresh set of sanctions against Iran
Analysts believe the move might make Tehran take Russia's interests more seriously
On June 9, the UN Security Council voted in favor of imposing a fourth round of sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program, with 12 votes after Brazil and Turkey voted against the new sanctions and Lebanon abstained.
The resolution extended the list of Iranian companies and individuals barred from foreign economic activity. Head of Iran's Esfahan Nuclear Technology Center Jawad Rahiki has been added to a list of 40 people subject to both an asset freeze and travel ban.
Tehran will not be able to finance the operation of foreign companies in its nuclear sector. The resolution authorizes inspection of Iranian ships for nuclear related cargos.
One difference with this resolution is the change in Russia's policy. While earlier Moscow was strongly opposed to imposing sanctions against Iran and threatened to veto them, this time Moscow supported the decision.
Russia views new sanctions against Iran as a forced measure, according to the Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin. Moreover, even though the resolution will not affect the S-300 surface-to-air missile system, Russia still reportedly decided to suspend S-300 deliveries to Iran. Without this antimissile technology, Iran is vulnerable to a possible Israeli strike against its nuclear facilities.
It looks like the United States has persuaded Russia to support the sanctions in exchange for a few concessions in its missile defense plans in Eastern Europe. Current sanctions against Russian companies (Rosoboronexport, Tula Instrument Design Bureau, Moscow Aviation Institute and Russian Chemical Technology University) were also lifted, which certainly helped.
Moscow also had its own reasons to snub Iran: Russia was very disappointed by Tehran's nuclear deal with Turkey, which left Russia with a secondary role.
Analysts do not believe Iran will begin pressuring or threatening Russia, because it is in no position to make threats. It would do little good for Iran to terminate joint projects with Russia, because there are so few.
Turkey may be a good and useful ally to Iran, but it is not a permanent member of the Security Council and has no nuclear technology.
"The Iranian president should not have been so careless to walk out on its friends, for he does not have many," head of the upper house committee on foreign affairs Mikhail Margelov said.
BFM.ru
Ruble gains 10% January-May
A strong national currency is said to be bad for the country because it prevents local producers from competing with imported goods. But the Russian Central Bank is strengthening the ruble, and simultaneously increasing inflation.
The ruble's real effective rate (weighted average of a country's currency relative to an index or basket of other major currencies adjusted for inflation) has grown 9.7% against the euro and the dollar from January through May of this year, according to the Central Bank.
The ruble's real rate (based on the GDP deflator measurement of the price level in domestic and foreign countries arbitrarily set equal to one in a given base year) strengthened 1.4% against the dollar and 17.1% against the euro, and the nominal effective rate against the two currencies went up 7.6%.
At the same time, the ruble's nominal effective rate (unadjusted weighted average value of a country's currency relative to all major currencies being traded within an index or pool of currencies) fell 1.4% against the dollar but grew 14.3% against the euro.
The global economic revival and a renewed demand for commodities, primarily hydrocarbons, Russia's main export, are strengthening the ruble, said Maxim Osadchy, the chief analyst at the Moscow Corporate Financing Bank.
Oil revenue is spurring the growth of the ruble, which the Central Bank has been trying to offset by printing more money but has so far only succeeded in accelerating inflation. Maintaining the ruble is a constitutional task of the Central Bank, but the Constitution does not mention inflation, Osadchy said.
It is believed that by weakening the ruble we can encourage exports, but is this so?
"When the Chinese weaken their national currency, they are promoting trade and the destruction of whole industries in the West due to their inability to resist the onslaught of cheap Chinese goods," the analyst said. "But a cheap ruble will not strengthen the competitive positions of Russian oil and gas companies because the diameter of the pipe does not depend on the ruble rate."
Osadchy said that a weak ruble could decrease oil and gas company expenses and increase their profits because they will spend less on labor and counteragents. Does the Central Bank really want to redistribute GDP in favor of oil and gas?
A strong ruble is a negative variable for Russian exporters, said Igor Kissel, an asset manager at Pilgrim Asset Management. It affects not only oil and gas companies but all Russian producers who compete with imports, in particular farmers.
On the other hand, a strong ruble is beneficial for people who are paid in rubles and even more so for those who travel abroad.
Novye Izvestia
Combat losses of Russian Internal Troops
On Thursday, Colonel-General Nikolai Rogozhkin, Commander of the Russian Interior Ministry's Internal Troops, said 2,984 of their serving soldiers had been killed in the North Caucasus and 9,000 wounded since 1988.
Rogozhkin said 87 officers and soldiers had been awarded the title of Hero of Russia during combat operations in Chechnya, and that 22,000 more had been decorated for bravery.
After making these alarming statistics public, Rogozhkin said the number of insurgents in the North Caucasus has not diminished, and that the regional situation remained complicated but controllable. Rogozhkin said Internal Troop units in the North Caucasus comprised 24,000 officers and men.
The paper's sources at Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said hostilities were currently shifting from Chechnya to neighboring republics, namely, Daghestan and Ingushetia, and that 80% of insurgents came from those two republics.
There are now 300 insurgents operating in Daghestan and 150 in Ingushetia.
The arrest of Ingush insurgent leader Ali "Magas" Taziyev on Wednesday gives hope that the situation in the North Caucasus will begin to stabilize.
Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov said Taziyev was even more ruthless and dangerous that Doku Umarov, the self-proclaimed Emir of the North Caucasus. FSB spokesman for Ingushetia Ilyas Dugov said although Taziyev's arrest was a major success, it was still too early to celebrate because separatist leader Umarov remains at large.
"Taziyev's arrest will primarily facilitate the stabilization of the situation in Ingushetia where he led insurgent operations," Dugov told the paper. Taziyev is currently in the maximum-security Lefortovo criminal investigation isolation ward in Moscow.
Another counter-insurgency operation has begun in Chechnya. On June 8, federal commandos killed eight insurgents, including Jordanian citizen Yasser Amarat, aka Amir Yasser, in the republic's high-altitude Vedeno District.
Vedomosti
Tashkent says no
Procedural matters have dominated the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, which opened in Tashkent on Thursday. Today, its members (Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) are expected to adopt regulations on new members.
The draft document stipulates that an applicant state must be in Europe or Asia, have diplomatic relations with all SCO member-countries and the status of a SCO observer or dialogue partner, be free from UN sanctions and not be involved in armed conflict with another country.
The last but one point automatically disqualifies Iran from candidate membership, because it has been under sanctions since 2006.
The summit coincided with a UN Security Council resolution on Iran. Its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, did not show up at the meeting attended by Russia and China which supported tougher sanctions, while radical Iranian politicians, according to Spain's newspaper ABC, put both on the list of "Iran's enemies."
On Thursday, Mikhail Dmitriev, head of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, confirmed that Russia would restrict defense sector cooperation with Iran in areas specified by the resolution. The restrictions do not cover supplies of S-300 missile systems, however, said Andrei Nesterenko, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman.
It was by accident, rather than design, that this long-running work on SCO regulations coincided with the adoption of the new resolution in the Security Council, believes Konstantin Kosachev, deputy chairman of the State Duma's international committee.
"Statements by Iranian politicians are regrettable, but Russia has always been direct in its policy dealings with their country, which is not something Iran has always appreciated," Kosachev said.
Public opinion in Iran has never been so negative towards Russia as now, believes Radzhab Safarov, head of the Russian Center for Iranian Studies.
Iran is not relinquishing its status of SCO observer. Aside from Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan have also applied to join the organization.
The previous SCO summit, held in June 2009, had an economic agenda: China allocated $10 billion in loans to member-countries to help them overcome the financial crisis.
This time, discussions will focus on organizational issues and the region's security problems in Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan.
Political analyst Fedor Lukyanov says that although the SCO's effectiveness is difficult to judge, its global standing has grown markedly in the recent period. In his view, Mongolia may join soon, while Pakistan could not be admitted without India.
Inside the SCO there are two trends: China backs economic integration, while Russia supports military-political integration, says Lukyanov.
Izvestia
Criminal nationalities
Deputies want to fine media for extra details
Moscow City Duma deputies will propose that the State Duma amend the Code of Administrative Violations of Russia and the Law on the Media and introduce fines for journalists and the media for publicizing information on the national identity, race, faith, gender, age, and profession of people reported in crime stories. Such details released before a court verdict serve only to foment civil strife, according to the bill's authors and their supporters in the Moscow Duma.
PRO
Mikhail Solomentsev, chairman of the Moscow committee for inter-regional ties and ethnic policy:
"When media report that a Daghestani, for example, killed another citizen, it may be misinformation. The person can be an Adygei Armenian living in Daghestan, not a Daghestani. Such information is obtained in the course of an investigation and may not be recognized as valid until after a court sentence. When the media gives the national identity, race, faith, profession, gender, and age of the person concerned, the public ascribes the crime to the whole community. This practice must be banned. Label-pinning is big problem. If it is really necessary, they can be referred to as a resident of Moscow or a resident of Georgia, but I think it is better to omit such details altogether."
CONTRA
Mikhail Fedotov, secretary of Russia's Union of Journalists, co-author of the media law:
"I agree that it is better not to mention the ethnicity, faith and name of a suspect in crime news stories. But such restrictions should not be a rule of the law; it is an ethical decision. Russian media law already specifies that inter-ethnic and inter-faith strife must not be fomented. Not so long ago, one of the richest people in France read in a newspaper that he was not a Jew - he took it for an insult and filed a case against the paper. But this is a highly unusual case. Under the Russian Constitution, individuals determine their national identity themselves. It is not on their identity cards. An investigator may ask the suspect for his or her ethnic origins, and they could reply: "elf". The answer is then recorded and quoted in a court ruling, becoming "authentic information" according to those backing these amendments.
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MOSCOW, June 11 (RIA Novosti)
