Kommersant
FSB to pay terrorist informants
The Federal Security Service (FSB) is going to reward people helping the secret services to uncover and prevent terrorist attacks and catch those masterminding them.
In the past the FSB has occasionally paid civilians for their services: in March 2005 they handed over $10 million for help in the killing of Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov. Who received the money remains a secret.
The initiative is laid out in a draft bill signed by FSB head Alexander Bortnikov and posted on the FSB website.
The document says that the amount paid to citizens helping the secret services will be calculated "according to their personal contribution and the results obtained in the fight against terrorism."
It also explains the conditions for receiving the monetary reward. One is information that leads to the detention and arrest of suspected terrorists. Another is "a timely report about a planned terrorist act."
The idea of paying money for information about the whereabouts of militant leaders was voiced several times both during the first and second Chechen wars. Federal forces hoped this would kill two birds with one stone - helping them catch their main enemies and winning over the local population.
Chechnya's pro-Russian leaders backed this approach. In May 2003, Akhmar Zavgayev, then Chechnya's representative in the Federation Council, suggested setting up a special incentive fund for the fight against rebel leaders.
In September 2004, the FSB offered $10 million for assistance in catching or killing Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov.
On March 15, 2005, a week after his death, the FSB reported that the citizens who provided information on Maskhadov's whereabouts had been "rewarded in full."
"The FSB has of late been taking correct, effective measures to fight terrorism and this deserves our full support," said Vladimir Vasilyev, head of the State Duma's security committee.
The member of parliament did not rule out the possibility that the secret services' recent successes in the North Caucasus, such as the detention of one of the most odious leaders of illegal armed groups in Ingushetia, Ali Taziev (aka Magas), were made possible by help from the public.
Vedomosti
Tony Hayward's deeper concerns
BP's chief executive, Tony Hayward, will travel to Moscow to reassure President Dmitry Medvedev in person about the company's financial status and the future of its Russian assets, the Financial Times writes.
Yet, Medvedev does not seem in the least concerned. He said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal he had no problems with BP. Despite admitting the company would "lose big money this year," Medvedev said he was "confident that BP partners in the Russian Federation and in other countries are monitoring the situation" and guarding their interests.
So who is Hayward trying to reassure? Perhaps himself?
The higher the estimates of BP's potential losses from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the more rumors there are of a possible breakup. His latest official estimate put its losses at $20 billion, while some analysts are suggesting as much as $50 billion. However, BP is not planning to sell its Russian assets.
Russian projects account for a quarter of BP's output, 20% of its total reserves, and substantial dividends. In 2009, BP received $2.2 billion in dividends on its 50% stake in TNK-BP. The British company also owns 1.25% of Russia's state oil corporation, Rosneft.
Therefore, Heyward's courtesy call to Russia is a clever pro-active PR move, very fitting with a Western company's business ethics. BP's Russian assets were acquired with the Russian authorities' consent. Therefore, formally or not, the Russian government is a concerned party, and should be treated with due respect.
On the other hand, Hayward's visit may be to determine whether the Russian shareholders of TNK-BP are considering a break-up with their British partners now that they have a formal reason to do so. There have been tensions between the two parties before. The Russian partners said BP was limiting the joint venture's expansion into international markets, thus impeding its development.
There was a time when Russian oil tycoons sought British protection from Russian authorities; now the British seem to be seeking Medvedev's support.
Delovoi Vtornik
Crushing end to a Baltic dream
Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania's hopes for a prosperous future crashed when the EU stopped subsidizing the "small but proud" republics. Former Latvian Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis inferred as much in an interview with Latvian daily Diena.
He said the government refused to cut state expenditure preceding the elections. "I can see that everything is going to hell, yet we still think we'll be able to cut expenses after the election," Kalvitis said.
When the global financial crisis broke out, Latvia asked the International Monetary Fund for a $7.5-billion bailout, and the EU later gave it a 1-billion euro loan. But the measures did not do much to improve the situation.
Latvia's former prime minister assessed the situation soberly, although his criticism of the authorities is not entirely accurate, because they continue a policy formulated long before they took charge, including a policy set by the government of Kalvitis. Their choice to integrate with the eurozone countries foreshadowed a life on subsidies and a liquidation of the national economy. The current problems were predictable.
The Baltic countries' authorities are unwilling to recognize the failure of their "project." Moreover, they have been trying to draw people's attention from the problems with a witch hunt. The media report that the Estonian and Latvian police present Russian language speakers as the fifth column working to undermine their governments.
An annual report by the Estonian police describes the ongoing integration of the Russian Diaspora as CCCP, Russian for USSR. But in the case of the Estonian Diaspora, the letters refer to "coordination," "consolidation," "communication" and "protection."
In Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, politicians are trying to scare people with the alleged danger of the Russian language community's consolidation. The conservatives represented in parliament never tire of criticizing the Kremlin, and Andrius Kubilius, the current prime minister and the leader of the conservative political party Homeland Union - Lithuanian Christian Democrats, made public a Russia Deterrence Strategy three years ago.
Lithuanian politicians believe that the threat comes from Russia's growing propaganda and cultural invasion of Lithuanian society. Conservatives claim that the information expansion in the republican media is lavishly financed [presumably by Russia], and that Russia is using new information resources such as the media and cultural establishments to influence people in Lithuania.
The Baltic authorities' Russia-phobia is counterproductive and contradicts common sense. Some Baltic politicians have repeatedly called on their governments to develop ties with Russian authorities in order to improve their economies. They are acting wisely, as Russia is the largest importer of Baltic cheeses, smoked sprats and other goods on the Baltic countries' modest export lists.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
Angela Merkel's Transdnestr gambit
Germany wants Russia to withdraw its forces from Transdnestr, a breakaway territory located between the Dniester River in eastern Moldova and Ukraine, in exchange for promoting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's May 2008 initiative on drafting a European security pact, the paper's sources say.
The EU would subsequently be willing to discuss this new continental security system with Moscow at a meeting of the new Russia-EU foreign and security policy committee.
European analysts and diplomats are still considering the Russian-German proposal to establish such a committee.
Alexander Rahr, Director of the Russia Eurasia Program at the German Council on Foreign Relations, said the June 5 memorandum, which President Medvedev and German Chancellor Angela Merkel signed at Merkel's Meseberg Residence, 60 kilometers north of Berlin, could be interpreted as being the EU's response to the Russian leader's initiative for a new European security pact.
Rahr said Germany was essentially answering Russia on behalf of Europe, saying: "Let's resolve the issue of the Russian troop withdrawal from Transdnestr because without it the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty cannot be implemented and it damages mutual trust in the Black Sea region, and then we can negotiate a common security system."
The analyst thinks Moscow is unlikely to agree to this concession. "I am afraid that this proposal on establishing the committee will not get far," Rahr said in conclusion. The June 5 memorandum only mentions the Transdnestr conflict.
Alina Inayeh, Director of the Black Sea Trust and the German Marshall Fund's office in Bucharest, said the EU, and Germany in particular, support the establishment of a committee like this for several reasons.
"One key goal is settling the Transdnestr conflict by involving Russia in constructive cooperation and pressuring Transdnestr leaders to accept a compromise," Inayeh said, adding that "Russian forces could either be withdrawn or subordinated to a common EU-Russia mandate."
Konstantin Kosachev, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee at the Russian lower house of parliament, the State Duma, told the paper that Russia-EU relations currently lacked the mechanisms needed to minimize the human factor and prioritize strategic interests.
Supporting the committee's establishment, Kosachev said that as the then president of France and of the EU it was up to Nicolas Sarkozy to mediate the August 2008 Russian-Georgian conflict over the breakaway province of South Ossetia, and that the situation could have developed differently if Estonia had the EU presidency at that time.
However, Kosachev declined to link Medvedev's initiative on agreeing a European security pact with the Russian-German proposal to establish the Russia-EU security committee, adding that the latter was intended for practical crisis resolution and emergency peacekeeping missions.
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MOSCOW, June 22 (RIA Novosti)
