MOSCOW, May 18 (RIA Novosti)
Politichesky Zhurnal
Putin Aide: Baltics Stifling Russia-EU Relations
Russia's relations with EU newcomers are being stifled by vengeful elite who want the new Russia to bear the burden of Soviet historical responsibility, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, presidential aide for EU policy, told the Russian weekly Politichesky Zhurnal.
Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland have, in light of recent VE-Day celebrations, tried to draw attention to the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states after victory in World War II, still a touchy issue for many, but one Russia considers long resolved.
According to Yastrzhembsky, representatives from these newly minted EU states are trying to bring a spirit of confrontation with Russia to the EU and their historical negativism is barring them from being more flexible with Russia.
Such partners are harder to talk to, he said, than nations that have no problem with their own identity and place in history. Nations with well-defined statehood are much easier to deal with, he said. The "old" Europeans like Germany, France, Italy and Spain, who seem to feel their scores have long been settled and tend to concentrate on today's agenda, are irritated by an unhealthy addiction some seem to have to plaguing history with conflict, he said.
Yastrzhembsky says the time has come to clearly distinguish between history and politics.
"Let historians, researchers and experts work on historical topics; let us not make politicians constantly refer to the problems of the 1930s and 40s," he said. "If you drive a car, looking only into the rear-view mirror, some day you could run into a post."
Kompaniya
European Parliament Member: Letts And Estonians Participated In Baltics Occupation
European Parliament member Giulietto Chiesa acknowledged Soviet occupation of the Baltic states in an article in the weekly Kompaniya, but noted that the Latvians and Estonians fully participated in it.
According to data from the Annual Statistical Report of 1987, at the beginning of perestroika, he wrote, Latvians were not discriminated against in Soviet Latvia. Latvians accounted for 52% of the republic's population, yet their share in the executive bodies of the Communist Party was 80% and 83% of leading posts in republican ministries and agencies were held by Latvians. In the culture and art sphere they accounted for 73.6%. Only in such sectors as transport, industry and communal housing were most of workers of the "Russian-speaking population."
According to Chiesa, on April 28 the Latvian parliament endorsed a draft resolution asking the government "to demand that Russia repatriate individuals who had moved from the Soviet Union... as well as their families... to ask the European Parliament to organize an international meeting attended by Germany and Russia... in order... to prevent foreign citizens and their descendants, who moved to the republic during the occupation, from remaining on Latvian territory." This would mean deporting 450,000 people.
However, Chiesa wrote, Latvia and Estonia are not the only countries that have non-citizen residents. In Riga, "non-citizens" account for more than half of the population. They do not have civil rights, cannot vote in the elections and are excluded from public life.
If 450,000 ethnic Russians living in Latvia and 100,000 in Estonia have to leave, a lot of empty apartments will be left behind and someone will be lining their pockets.
Vremya Novostei
Russians, Kazakhs Not To Need Foreign Passports To Cross Common Border
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev ordered the drafting of regulatory legal acts Tuesday to allow Russian and Kazakh citizens to travel between the two countries without foreign passports, Vremya Novostei, a daily, reported.
The presidents have only one week to coordinate all the details, as the protocol abolishing the simplified trips between these former Soviet republics, which EURASEC nations (Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan) signed in Astana two months ago, is to come into force May 25.
The agreement emphasizing the unique relations between the two neighboring states somewhat undermines the idea of EURASEC as a single mechanism. As for Russia, this move was one of the simplest ways to retain railroad communication between European Russia and Siberia and the Far East.
Until Tuesday, Omsk, linked to Kazakhstan more than any other part of Russia, had been in subtle panic after the consequences of the new EURASEC agreement became clear. Alexander Tselko, the chief of the Western Siberian railroad, recently said he was worried that all trains would be stopped on the border on May 25 because "nobody would have foreign passports."
Now the question is whether the political will of the Russian and Kazakh leaders can take bureaucratic form and reach the border guards. The railway agency learned about the Putin-Nazarbayev agreement from the media. According to Natalia Akafyeva, the acting chief spokeswoman for Russian Railways, the company is already preparing to inform passengers at train stations and on trains.
Kommersant
U.S. Fast Food Company Yum! Brands Buys 40% In Russian Rival
U.S. fast food major YUM! Brands intends to buy heavily into the Russian fast food chain Rostik's, a key competitor of its mainstream brand KFC, Kommersant, a daily, reported.
Sources close to negotiations suggest that the $18-million to $30-million deal could be sealed as soon as this week. Both companies, however, declined yesterday to officially confirm these reports.
If the deal is successful, Yum! could eventually secure a strong bridgehead on the Russian market, given its 2003 promise to open at least 120 restaurants here through 2010.
Most KFCs opened here since the mid-1990s were unsuccessful, leaving Rostik's dominating of the chicken fast food market segment. As Russian market researchers KOMKON put Rostik's into the top five of fast food networks (10.1% of Russians say they eat there), KFC lags behind the top ten.
"Russia is an interesting market for KFC," says Natalia Polishchuk, vice president of Delta Private Equity Partners, an investment fund. "The fast food market in Moscow alone is worth $700 million to $800 million per year, and it grows by 20% annually. KFC's know-how plus Rostik's infrastructure and venues could make a very successful alliance. And Yum! could tap into a ready big business, either."
Rostik's, incorporated in 1993 and now comprising 73 venues in Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Samara, Kiev, Minsk and other cities, posted a turnover of $146 million last year.
In Russia, Yum! operates mainly through franchises: the St. Petersburg-based Nitstsa Nord manages 11 KFC restaurants, Moscow-based American Restaurants and Sistema Bystrogo Pitaniya 2003 have two Pizza Huts, three KFCs and one Pizza Hut and Singapore-based Acma Technologies holds two Pizza Huts.
Vedomosti
Russia To Manufacture Secure Smart Phones
Bug-resistant cell phones could be available on the Russian market as early as June, Vedomosti, an economic daily, reported.
The Federal Security Service (FSB) forbids the importation of foreign smart phones, so Russia will be producing its own, costing about $3,000, or twice as much as the foreign equivalent. Experts say these new secure smart phones are likely to become popular with local businessmen.
The first Russian-made smart phone, available this June, was developed by the well-known local Ancort data-protection company.
Ancort President Anatoly Klepov said that the first cell phones will be assembled at a Malay enterprise and fitted with Ancort encryption systems. Each new smart phone will also operate as a conventional mobile phone. Smart phone owners can push a special button for encoding all conversations and SMS messages.
"It took Ancort �5 million to develop the secure smart phone," Klepov said. However, the company hopes to regain its investment soon. Klepov estimates the national smart-phone market at about $1 billion. Ancort has already received 65,000 smart-phone orders both here and elsewhere, he said.
However, some experts are still hung up on the smart phone's high pricetag. Bug-resistant Siemens phones cost between $1,000 and $1,500.
"Such phones will hardly become very popular among businessmen," Alexei Volchkov, president of the RusCrypto association, said.
GSM networks are not easily bugged because each GSM phone features a vocoder, or scrambler. Nonetheless, specialists can bug GSM conversations rather easily. Encoded smart phones were developed for users who like their privacy.
