MOSCOW, March 14 (RIA Novosti) Milosevic v. Hague Tribunal/ Russia's love for Milosevic, distaste for America/ United Russia favors simultaneous elections/ March 12 election results/ Gazprom to up capitalization
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Izvestia, Vremya Novostei
Slobodan Milosevic accuses Hague Tribunal
Sensational details are swirling around the death of Slobodan Milosevic in the pretrial detention center of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. The results of the tribunal's medical tests were shocking, suggesting that the former president, 64, may have been poisoned. Milosevic himself provided his supporters with new evidence of a plot against him by "Hague poisoners."
Respected Russian daily Izvestia published the prisoner's last letter in English to the Russian Foreign Ministry. In the letter, Milosevic directly reported about deliberate measures to undermine his health. The letter was written on March 8 and transferred to the Russian Embassy in the Netherlands on March 11, the day of the author's death.
In the letter, Milosevic said he was given a document on March 7 stating that traces of a strong medicine used to cure leprosy and TB had been found in his blood on January 12, though he said he had never taken antibiotics in the five years of his imprisonment. Milosevic said these circumstances were behind the tribunal's refusal to let him undergo medical treatment in Moscow.
Donald Uges, a toxicologist from Groningen University, the Netherlands, said rifampicin, a strong antibiotic against TB, could have caused the heart attack that killed the Serbian leader.
Russian experts labeled the statement as "too liberal." Doctors from the toxicology center at the Sklifosovsky Emergency Institute said large doses of rifampicin could damage the kidneys and liver, but that no antibiotic could cause a heart attack.
On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said: "A forensic medical examination is being conducted now. They did not believe us, so we also have the right not to trust those who are carrying out the examination."
Russian Ambassador to Ukraine Viktor Chernomyrdin, who was the Russian president's special envoy to Yugoslavia in 1999, said the Hague Tribunal had caused the former president's death: "The man spent five years in prison, the trial lasted some four years, and without any results. Does it matter how one can be killed? Evidently, he could not stand it."
Gazeta
Russia's love for Milosevic masks distaste for America
Sociologists are linking Russians' spirited support of the late former Yugoslavian President Milosevic to their anti-American sentiments. The behavior of Russia's former enemy No. 1, who is now seeking global hegemony, has provoked resentment in a society depressed by the loss of its superpower status.
"The majority of Russians will remember Milosevic as the leader of a proud independent country unconquered by the U.S. machine," said Valery Fyodorov, head of the All-Russia Center for Public Opinion Studies.
Russians' negative attitude toward Washington's policies dates back to the Cold War. Yury Levada, head of the Analytical Center think tank, commented on a recent survey: "About 30% of the respondents have condemned Washington's policy for decades. When the crisis raged in Yugoslavia, and no one offered the country any assistance or support, ordinary people criticized America for its aggression." The sociologist said that the same attitudes had formed toward Iran: "On the one hand, we do not want the Islamic country to develop a nuclear bomb, and yet we treat it better than its enemy, the U.S.A."
Russia is voluntarily offering moral and, consequently, political support to the world's outcasts - Milosevic, Kim Jong Il and Hussein. These statesmen have never treated Russia with piety, and sometimes have even been rude, yet the Russian establishment keeps building the image of devoted friends and partners in the eyes of the nation. Iranian President Ahmadinejad, who is actively exploiting the image of a fighter against U.S. hegemony, is an illustrative example.
Similar sentiments in the Russian society are regularly artificially stoked. This ideology can be easily manipulated and used for domestic political purposes. That is why the death of a hardly pro-Russian politician, like Milosevic, boosted the unfriendly sentiments of Russians toward the West.
Novye Izvestia
United Russia favors simultaneous parliamentary and presidential elections
Anonymous high-ranking deputies from several factions of the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, said that simultaneous parliamentary and presidential elections could be held in December 2007. Such an arrangement would mean that the incumbent president would resign a few months before the legal end of his term. Experts are confident that United Russia, the "party of power," will support this scenario in order to collect the majority of votes, if Vladimir Putin's successor receives all-out electoral support. Political scientists told the paper that the president also had certain reasons for supporting such a move.
The State Duma has on the whole reacted positively to this scenario; on the one hand, Russian society would be able to avoid two spells of pre-election fever one after the other, and on the other, the state would be able to economize budget resources.
Alexander Ivanchenko, former chairman of the Central Election Commission and president of the Independent Election Institute, said that simultaneous elections would be a dream come true for United Russia; their campaign to simultaneously press for a new parliamentary majority and promote "their own" president would be doubly beneficial for the party. However, Ivanchenko warned that a power vacuum and disorganized state administration would set in if Putin were to step down ahead of schedule.
Stanislav Belkovsky, general director of the National Strategy Institute, told the paper that the president had important motives for such a move: "This gesture could be directed at the West as a demonstration of a kind of goodwill and of the lack of an urge to power. There are many indications that Vladimir Putin will receive an important international post after resigning."
Former speaker of the lower house and independent deputy Gennady Seleznev said that combined elections were likely to take place. The United Russia parliamentary majority is trying by any means possible to enter the next parliament, using the high popularity rating of the president, although Putin "may not unequivocally support the bureaucratic party of power because he knows what it is really worth."
Vedomosti, Kommersant
Party of power hits electoral ceiling
Pro-Kremlin party United Russia has gained majorities in all of the eight regions where elections were held on March 12. However, the moderate results in several regions mean that the party will not have a majority in these regional parliaments. Democratic parties' modest results show that they are not capable of forming a unified opposition by the 2007-2008 federal elections.
The "party of power" gained less than 30% in Siberia's Republic of Altai and central Russia's Kirov Region. Rostislav Turovsky of the Institute of Regional Policy said, "The federal center failed to manage the situation in the regions, despite pre-election visits by members of United Russia and the presidential staff." The modest results show that the regional elites have become divided into rival factions, he said.
To gain a constitutional majority in the next State Duma (the lower house of parliament), United Russia needs 45%-50% of the vote, the political scientist said.
Andrei Isayev, a member of United Russia's General Council, said the party would try to gain popularity before the 2007 elections by intensifying the work of its regional branches. However, Nikolai Petrov, the head of the Center for Political and Geographical Studies, said the current election results were the best that the party was capable of achieving.
The right-wing parties Yabloko and Union of Right Forces (SPS) did not manage to overcome the 7% barrier in seven regions, showing a respectable result (6.54%) only in the Kursk Region in western Russia.
Sergei Ivanenko, deputy chairman of Yabloko, said the failure was due to disappointment among voters. "Life has not become better in 15 years under democratic governments," he said. "The people cannot believe that there are other, honest democrats who can improve their lives."
Maxim Dianov, the general director of the Institute of Regional Studies, said the democratic parties' position had been undermined by their decision not to participate in the 2004 presidential elections. "Unless SPS and Yabloko show their worth in October, they will have to create a new party," he said.
Kommersant
Gazprom to boost capitalization to $300 billion
Gazprom, the Russian state-run gas monopoly, plans to increase its capitalization to $300 billion in the next two to three years. Under a pessimistic scenario, this could take five years. Experts believe, however, that it will take the energy giant even more time to accomplish the objective.
The company's market capitalization totaled $14 billion in mid-2001, whereas ExxonMobil's figures reached $299 billion. Gazprom ranked seventh among the world's companies and fourth behind oil and gas giants ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell and British Petroleum, after its market value exceeded $200 billion in mid-January 2006. ExxonMobil was worth $380 billion at the time; and Gazprom's capitalization is now down to $185 billion.
Analysts usually avoid making long-term capitalization forecasts because it is an unrewarding task. However, analysts of the Aton investment group said Gazprom would not attain the $300-billion capitalization level before 2015.
Market players said the company's financial value had been fully calculated, but that its gas reserves were seriously underestimated. Valery Yazev, chairman of the energy committee of the State Duma (lower house of the Russian parliament), said Gazprom's capitalization should total $600 billion in terms of gas deposits. "However, the relatively cheap Russian gas deposits are unprofitable," Aton experts said.
Gazprom will continue to produce 550 billion cubic meters of gas in the foreseeable future and search for new growth factors because the market has already been liberalized. For instance, the Russian government may approve the gas monopoly's latest request and raise gas tariffs for national consumers ahead of schedule in mid-2006. Nevertheless, global energy prices will continue to be the main factor.
