MOSCOW, August 25 (RIA Novosti)
China, Russia fight over access to Mongolian reserves / Russia may resume gas purchases from Turkmenistan / Russia considers buying French infantry combat suits / Russian airlines ready to pay for carbon dioxide emissions /
Kommersant
China, Russia fight over access to Mongolian reserves
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has arrived in the Mongolian capital, Ulan Bator, on Tuesday on a two-day visit. Russia has been trying to gain access to the local Tavan Tolgoi coal deposit, one of the largest in the world, but it has a tough rival, China.
Moscow is prepared to offer Mongolia over $1.75 billion to get guaranteed access to the field. The development plan for Tavan Tolgoi proposed by rail monopoly Russian Railways (RZD) stipulates building a railroad from the field to the Ulan Bator Railroad, half-owned by Russia. From it, coal is to be delivered by the Trans-Siberian Railway to Russian ports on the Pacific Coast and from there to Japan and South Korea.
However, other local players, above all China, are trying to prevent the implementation of these plans. According to a Russian diplomat, Moscow has been seriously alarmed by the increased activity of Chinese state companies in Mongolia.
In July, the Mongolian Transport Ministry and China's Ministry of Railways signed a memorandum of understanding on China's contribution to the modernization of Mongolian railways. China has also proposed building a railroad to export Tavan Tolgoi coal across China.
World Bank analysts have made a detailed study of the cost of transporting coal to several possible target markets, and compared the merits of railways and roads at the request of the Mongolian government. They concluded that southward coal transportation would open the huge Chinese market, and that deliveries via the Chinese port of Tianjin would be 50% cheaper than across Russia.
To push back Chinese rivals, Russia will have to fulfill all of its commitments, in particular contribute $1.5 billion to the Infrastructure Development joint venture set up by RZD and Mongolian companies Erdenes MGL and Mongolyn Tomor Zam to upgrade Mongolian railroads and develop the Tavan Tolgoi coal deposit, as well as the Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mines, and increase the authorized capital of the Ulan Bator Railroad by $250 million in 2009.
Apart from making its contribution to the joint venture, Russia has also pledged to help Mongolia finance its payment to the railroad's capital.
RZD head Vladimir Yakunin said that the development of the Mongolian fields would cost at least $7 billion, which means that the project could be unfeasible without Russia's financial assistance.
Tavan Tolgoi's resources have been estimated at 6 billion tons and its recoverable reserves at some 900 million tons.
Gazeta.ru
Russia may resume gas purchases from Turkmenistan
Moscow and Ashgabat have agreed in principle that Russia will resume purchases of Turkmen gas, stopped in April following a blast on the SATS-4 gas pipeline, according to a Russian Foreign Ministry source. Volumes and prices will be fixed by presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov in mid-September when the Russian leader pays a working visit to Turkmenistan.
No progress was made on the construction of the East-West gas pipeline, the high-ranking source said. During Berdymukhammedov's visit to Moscow in March, the sides failed to reach agreement.
It was planned that East-West would supply the Caspian gas pipeline, whose construction was agreed on by Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Russia. It was to have run along the Caspian coast via Kazakhstan towards Russia. Now both gas pipelines are "up in the air", the diplomat said. "We need guarantees that if we invest $1.5 billion in East-West, the gas will flow through the Caspian gas pipeline, not the Transcaspian one imposed on Turkmenistan via Nabucco. The Turkmen side has failed to give us such a guarantee," he said.
The decision to buy gas from Turkmenistan is more political than economic, believes Alexei Vlasov, general director of Moscow State University's center of study of the political developments in the CIS: "The task now facing Russia is to get Turkmenistan back into dialogue with Russia at any cost. With the United States and China redoubling their efforts in Central Asia, Russia needs any points of cooperation, including even doubtful ones as far as economic reality is concerned."
"Russia wants Turkmenistan to give up Nabucco. But I am sure Berdymukhammedov will not do this," said Mikhail Korchemkin, general director of the East European Gas Analysis consultancy. According to him, gas purchases in Turkmenistan are a bad bargain for Russia, but it is ready to suffer serious losses to stop the European project in its tracks. "But this loss will weigh on people, not authorities or Gazprom, because ordinary Russian consumers will pay," the analyst believes. In his view, purchasing and re-selling gas, a business in which Gazprom is engaged, "leads nowhere," because the margin will always tend towards zero.
Vedomosti
Russia considers buying French infantry combat suits
France's FELIN infantry combat suit shown at the MAKS-2009 air show in Zhukovsky near Moscow has attracted the attention of the Russian Defense Ministry, which may consider buying it.
FELIN (Integrated Equipment and Communications Infantryman) combines a modified FAMAS rifle with a host of other electronics, clothing, pouches, and body armor. The integral SPECTRA helmet is fitted with a real-time positioning and information system and light amplifiers for night vision.
The Russian military is in talks with France's Sagem of the Safran group, which developed FELIN, on the possibility of buying the suits, the newspaper has learned from a source in the Russian Defense Ministry and an employee of an aircraft manufacturing company close to Sagem.
A Russian officer said that the French body armor and other individual protection systems are inferior to U.S. or German-made systems, but FELIN's electronic elements are extremely attractive. According to his information, the French have expressed a readiness to Russify the software and adjust the electronic systems to Russian tactical norms and designations.
The purchase of FELIN suits would be reasonable only if Russia also gets the related technology, said Mikhail Barabanov, an editor at the Moscow Defense Brief magazine.
Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, said the French partners could agree to turn over the technology, and that this would not damage France's security even though it is a NATO member.
However, there was a case when the purchase of French weapons damaged the importer. During the Falklands War in 1982, France disclosed to Britain the codes for the anti-ship missiles it had supplied to Argentina. However, it did so only after its closest ally put powerful pressure on it, and this in a highly dramatic situation.
Pukhov said that France would not do this for Georgia or any other post-Soviet country where weapons incorporating French systems could be used.
Kommersant
Russian airlines ready to pay for carbon dioxide emissions
The European Commission has issued a list of airlines that must reduce their carbon dioxide releases into the atmosphere before 2012. This is necessary to obtain free releases quotas, being introduced in the EU from January 1, 2012. The list includes all Russian airlines flying to Europe, including Aeroflot. Carriers will be banned from Europe only if they persistently refrain from purchasing the quotas, explain experts. The quotas will cost several dozen euros per flight.
The price of the quota is pegged to the price of oil, a 2012 certificate per ton of emissions will cost an airline 14 euros. The fine for failing to pay for the quota will be 100 euros per ton.
For convenience sake, every carrier is attached to the aviation authorities of a EU country to which it makes most flights: Aeroflot, Sibir and GTK Rossiya will be tied to Germany, and Transaero to Spain. Before August 31 of this year, airlines must submit to the authorities of "their" respective country all information on the amount of emissions and an action plan to introduce permanent monitoring.
The list also includes Russian state structures that use aircraft, such as the Emergencies Ministry and the Interior Ministry.
Spokesmen for Russian airlines say the companies are now preparing to introduce the new rules. "We have all the necessary information and documents ready and we will send them to the European Union before August 31," said Sergei Bykhal, a Transaero spokesman. He added that the carrier had hired a specialized U.S. firm to draw up a plan for reducing emissions. Aeroflot also said it was preparing documents for the EU and would deliver them on time.
Oleg Panteleyev, head of the Aviaport think tank, said he was confident that Russian airlines would not face cancellation of flights - they will only need to pay for quotas. "A real ban will be clamped only on those who persistently refuse to pay quotas and fines," said Sergei Sitnikov, a legal expert from Baker & McKenzie. Panteleyev added that even airlines failing to get free quotas will have to pay little given proper documents. For example, the quota for the Frankfurt-Moscow flight will cost 60 euros. Companies that fail to purchase quotas on time will have to pay a more sizeable sum - in the case of the same flight, it will work out at 750 euros.
RIA Novosti is not responsible for the content of outside sources.
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