Nezavisimaya Gazeta
One hundred Russian airlines may fold in the next few months
About one hundred Russian airlines may file for bankruptcy in the next few months, going the way of failed air carrier Kontinent. Between 50,000 and 60,000 members of staff will lose their jobs. This is what seems set to happen if the Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsia) gets its proposal to tighten requirements on air carriers approved. Experts believe only the largest airlines will make the grade.
Rosaviatsia unveiled its proposed changes to the requirements for commercial airlines last Friday.
The main change would ensure that only airlines with no fewer than 20 aircraft of the same type are allowed to fly regular long-haul flights. Only the top 15 airlines are in any position to meet this requirement. The other carriers should, according to the agency, be downgraded to charter operators or banned from flying regular services.
Rosaviatsia’s initiative coincided with Kontinent’s sudden departure from the market. Last week, hundreds of passengers were left grounded in Moscow, Krasnoyarsk, Krasnodar, Sochi, Gelendzhik, Anapa and other cities. Kontinent is by no means alone in its plight.
About a year ago, on July 26, AiRUnion alliance went bankrupt just as unexpectedly. Then, as now, Rosaviatsia denied it was to blame. Yet, its duties include supervising the Russian consumer aviation market.
Rosaviatsia’s passivity is costing the state dearly. Currently, when a business fails, the federal budget pays for stranded passengers to be flown to their destinations. The first instance of this was when AiRUnion collapsed. In 2009, this cost five billion rubles.
Given the well-oiled debt monitoring system, identifying struggling companies should be easy. But the trouble is that in reality the system does not function. Galina Buslova, an expert on air passenger traffic, says Rosaviatsia is only interested in the financial health of an airline when it issues licenses. There is no active oversight afterwards.
There are currently over 100 passenger airlines in Russia. But 90% of passenger air traffic in the country is carried by five or six major companies, Buslova added. Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov believes that should suffice. Other operators are bound to quit the market. Many carriers are not in any position to meet Rosaviatsia’s demands. Most carriers operate between three and seven passenger planes of a similar type. Experts are hard put to explain what Rosaviatsia based its new requirements on, and suggest the figure was simply plucked out of thin air. Meanwhile, the market will be squeezed and Russia’s airlines will struggle to make a profit and are doomed to drop out of the market. The hundred-odd small airlines Rosaviatsia has condemned to closure currently employ something in the region of 50,000 to 60,000 personnel. Not all of them will be able to find jobs in the future.
Kommersant
Police stand guard over two-hour Strategy 31 sit-in
The police calmly patrolled Moscow’s Triumfalnaya Square as the Strategy 31 opposition group held one of its regular rallies in support of the right to peaceful assembly on Sunday. It was not until the protesters stood up, intending to march the length of Tverskaya Street toward the Kremlin, that police control snapped.
The Other Russia, the political party that sponsors Strategy 31 protests, has now seemingly had its first chance to hold a peaceful assembly, avoiding mass arrests. Its rallies are held on the 31st of every month with 31 days to support Article 31 of the Russian Constitution (right of assembly).
Similar rallies in other Russian cities, where the police were less inclined to experiment with leniency, were dispersed minutes after they began.
In Moscow, supporters of the Other Russia leader Eduard Limonov gathered in Triumfalnaya Square where a few police patrols were awaiting them, warding off occasional passers-by unaware of the fact that this was not their best choice of location for a quiet stroll on the 31st.
It all began in a rather routine way. A man brandishing an anti-tandem poster was handcuffed and led away. Groups sang to the guitar or Tibetan drum while the police cordoned off reporters.
The scenario that followed surprised even the protesters themselves. The police calmly allowed Limonov and his supporters to emerge from the subway station – they broke off into three groups and sat on the ground at different ends of the square locking arms, expecting to be removed by the police. Some ventured chanting “Russia without Putin.”
As the chanting and applause grew louder, the police efficiently cleared space around the protesters and even temporarily closed that entrance to the subway to ensure they were not disturbed. The whole scene was reminiscent of football fans chanting from different ends of a stadium.
Around 100 activists and as many supporters spent around two hours chanting, ignoring police demands to disperse. “We did not interfere as long as they posed no danger to the public,” a police source told the media.
“I was greatly suspicious of their attitude. It looked like a trap to me,” Limonov commented. “But so far, the fact that the rally passed off successfully is seen by many as our victory. More cautious supporters might join us next time.”
It was probably the first time Limonov went home after the rally instead of being taken to the police station. However, after he left, his supporters attempted to march toward the Kremlin, stretching police tolerance to its limit. At least 70 were arrested, said Alexdander Averin, one of the Other Russia leaders.
In other cities the police behaved more predictably. Over 50 people were detained rather roughly in St. Petersburg and 11 were taken away in a police bus in Nizhny Novgorod, throwing copies of the Constitution out of the windows as it drove away.
Moskovskiye Novosti
U.S. Senate adopts pro-Georgia resolution
Moscow received two political signals from Washington last week when the State Department slapped entry bans on Russian officials who feature on the “Magnitsky list” and the Senate adopted a resolution affirming U.S. support for the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Georgia and the recognition of “Abkhazia and South Ossetia as regions of Georgia occupied by the Russian Federation.”
The Senate has called on Russia to honor the Medvedev-Sarkozy agreement and pull its troops back to their pre-war positions. It also urged Russia, Georgia and Abkhazia to safeguard the return of refugees and allow EU observers into Abkhazia and South Ossetia. It said that “lasting regional stability can only be achieved through peaceful means and long-term diplomatic and political dialogue among all parties.”
Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) introduced the draft resolution in December 2010.
According to MN sources, Georgia’s Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Georgy Baramidze was lobbying for the resolution in the United States in December 2010. In March 2011, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili met with Shaheen and thanked her for working on the resolution. In May, the reworked resolution was sent to the Senate, which backed it unanimously, without debate, a week before August 8, the day when the Georgian-Russian war began in South Ossetia three years ago.
U.S. media sources had reported that the CIA suspected Russia’s military intelligence (GRU) of being behind the September 2010 explosion at the U.S. embassy in Tbilisi.
Georgia accused Russian Maj. Yevgeny Borisov, currently deployed in Abkhazia, of planning that explosion and several other terrorist attacks. Russia has rejected the allegations. U.S. Ambassador to Georgia John Bass said the allegation would not damage the reset policy, but that neither would the United States sacrifice Georgia to it. Georgia is free to choose its future, he said.
The resolution is “a clear de-occupation signal to Moscow,” said Irakly Kavtaradze, first deputy chairman of the Georgian parliamentary committee on foreign affairs. “Russia has been given a clear signal that its policy on Abkhazia and South Ossetia will not receive international support. The European Parliament denounced Moscow’s policy as occupation in its January resolution, and now the U.S. Senate has done likewise.”
Soso Tsintsadze, rector of the Georgian Political Academy, said the resolution does not call for any action against Russia but will “influence discussions of the Jackson-Vanik amendment because Russia has been referred to as an occupying state.”
He said the resolution also indicates that Georgia should not abandon talks with Russia in Geneva, the only negotiating venue in existence since the two countries severed their diplomatic relations three years ago.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton first used the term “occupation” in relation to Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Tbilisi last summer. The Russian Foreign Ministry rejected it as unsubstantiated because there are no Russian troops in Georgia.
“I think Moscow will become even more intransigent now,” Tsintsadze said. “The Senators have only angered it.”
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