What the Russian papers say

© Alex StefflerWhat the Russian papers say
What the Russian papers say - Sputnik International
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Russia, Ukraine, Turkey to establish Black Sea defense alliance/ Moldova to mark Soviet Occupation Day/ Who is Mr. Popovkin?/ Finance Ministry cuts foreign borrowing by 90%/ Russia waits for peace in Kyrgyzstan before opening second military base

Nasha Versiya

Russia, Ukraine, Turkey to establish Black Sea defense alliance

Russian, Ukrainian and Turkish defense ministries plan to establish a new alliance called the Black Sea Defense Treaty.

Although most documents paving the way for the new regional alliance were drafted in 2003, the election of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko in 2005 delayed the creation of the new organization for a long time.

This idea is currently being negotiated once again. In the past few years, Turkey has been trying to convince the Russian Defense Ministry to launch bilateral talks, saying Ukraine would subsequently join in.

Now that Ukraine has a new president in office, Kiev is ready to cooperate with Moscow and Ankara. Chief of Turkish General Staff General Ilker Basbug is expected to visit Moscow in July. The sides will probably be able to finalize all the details, and national defense ministers may sign protocols on establishing the new defense organization as early as this August.

The Turkish Navy's surface fleet primarily comprises patrol ships and speed boats, while Russia plans to strengthen its Black Sea Fleet with more powerful ships, including a Mistral-class amphibious assault ship. However, Turkey has an edge in advanced submarines.

The main intrigue is that Turkey is a NATO member, whereas Russia and Ukraine are not. Although Brussels has not yet reacted to the new planned alliance, Turkish analysts say NATO's reaction will be restrained because Ukraine and Russia have long been involved in joint exercises with NATO and are considered promising partners by the alliance.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen recently said Russia's NATO-membership prospects were not as far-fetched as some skeptics believed.

Russia's motives for creating a new military organization in the Black Sea region remain unclear. Analysts say closer partnership with Ankara will enable the Russian Black Sea Fleet to more actively navigate the Mediterranean Sea. In the next few years, the Black Sea Fleet will receive several new warships, due to be placed on combat duty in the Black and Mediterranean seas.

Expanded Russian-Turkish partnership will moderate the claims of neighboring Romania and Bulgaria to oil-bearing sectors of the Black Sea shelf.

Moreover, Russia will receive an additional opportunity to stipulate more reservations regarding the presence of U.S. warships, now frequenting Georgia, in the Black Sea.

Skeptics believe that Russia would have to act as a regional policeman together with Turkey if such an alliance is established.

Nezavisimaya Gazeta

Moldova to mark Soviet Occupation Day

New tensions in Russian-Moldovan relations were provoked by Moldovan authorities, who declared June 28 Soviet Occupation Day. Russia is the legal successor of the Soviet Union, which collapsed in 1991, and must now withdraw its "occupation troops" from Transdnestr, a breakaway republic of Moldova, the Moldovan leader said in a decree.

Acting President Mihai Ghimpu has recreated the situation of 1991, when his predecessor, Mircea Snegur declared war on Russia during his speech in parliament, but took his words back almost immediately. However, Ghimpu will not rethink or reword his demand.

He is preparing for the parliamentary and possibly presidential elections and needs to increase his extremely low rating of 2%. The popularity of his Liberal Party has fallen in the past six months, and its members are fleeing to another pro-Romanian rightwing party, the Liberal Democratic Party, whose rating has been growing.

Ghimpu has nowhere else to win votes because Moldova's rightwing electorate comprising intellectuals and students who identify themselves as Romanians is very stable, 20%, and has not been growing. That electorate is divided between the two parties, which reflect certain moods of society but not of its majority. This explains why Moldovans are divided over Ghimpu's decree.

The Moldovan parliament will today hear a report on the consequences of the Communist regime in the country. The agenda includes a proposal to prohibit the use of all Soviet and Communist Party symbols in the republic.

Ghimpu is expected to submit to parliament a draft law canceling the concept of the republic's nationalities policy adopted in 2003, in which Moldova was described as a polyethnic state and Russian as the dominant spoken language. That concept provoked major protests in the republic.

Valery Klimenko, leader of the socio-political movement Equality, described the developments as a rollback to the 1990s, when the Moldovan People's (Popular) Front held the power in the republic. Ghimpu was one of its leaders.

The extreme rightwing government pursued a policy that provoked an armed conflict on the Dniester, which has not been settled to this day, Klimenko said.

Bulgars and Gagauz, small ethnic groups living in compact communities in the south of Moldova, have expressed protest against the authorities' actions that are complicating relations with Russia.

The Civil Society movement said it would call people to the streets today, but the Liberals have the support of young people, who are society's most energetic part. This means that Ghimpu's decree may provoke clashes in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova.

Profil

Who is Mr. Popovkin?

On June 22, First Deputy Minister of Defense Col. Gen. Alexander Kolmakov was dismissed from his post and the armed forces, to be replaced by Deputy Minister of Defense Gen. Vladimir Popovkin, in charge of weapons procurement. Gen. Popovkin has thus become No. 3 in the ministry, preceded only by Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and Chief of General Staff Nikolai Makarov.

Gen. Popovkin is expected to streamline the ministry's administration system, where the responsibilities of Col. Gen. Kolmakov, in charge of battle training, used to overlap with the functions of Gen. Makarov. This decision, however, has one more important implication. The promotion of the person in charge of rearmament shows that the ministry and Russia's top political and military leaders have upgraded the importance of this issue.

Major changes have been enacted in the state's rearmament policies in the past two years. Throughout the Soviet era, almost no equipment or machines were purchased for the general purpose forces. The state's meager funds went mainly to nuclear containment forces.

The situation changed radically in 2008. Despite the recession, the state started allotting funds for serial purchases of next generation combat systems, placing orders for Sukhoi Su-34 and Su-48 fighter-bombers and the cutting edge multi-purpose fighter jets Sukhoi Su-35, and starting to rearm the air defense forces. A few days ago Russia announced its plans to upgrade the weapons of the Black Sea Fleet.

Gen. Popovkin is known to have taken tough decisions in his previous post. In recent years, the funding of unpromising research and design projects was wound up, and several types of weapons and technological solutions have been imported from abroad on a regular basis. This new and revolutionary approach is intended to spur Russia's defense production and supply the armed forces with cutting-edge combat systems and equipment. Replying to criticism about the ministry's plans to import armored vehicles, which offer better crew protection capabilities, Gen. Popovkin stated that given the growing demographic deficit, Russia should care more about the life and health of every service member.

RBC Daily

Finance Ministry cuts foreign borrowing by 90%

Russia will not rush headlong into borrowing on foreign markets and will not borrow more than one-tenth of what was planned for the next three years, Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak said.

With the state debt quite low at the moment, the government will probably try to help companies struggling with their foreign debts by taking over part of their liabilities.

Russia has returned to the foreign debt markets after a ten-year break: in April, the government issued a $5.5 billion Eurobond. The bonds sold at a good price, according to Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin.

The country plans to borrow abroad regularly over the next three years: 1.5 trillion rubles in 2011, 1.3 trillion rubles in 2012, and 931 billion rubles in 2013. This decision was made to cover the growing budget deficit, which is expected to reach 5.4% of the country's GDP this year.

Currently Russia's debt equals 8% of its GDP, the lowest of all G20 countries. However, the Finance Ministry has been seriously concerned about the debt issue for some time. Kudrin said the government's decision to achieve a deficit-free budget by 2015 will send the country's total debt up to 14% of GDP. This is a moderate level though, Kudrin said.

Yet, the ministry decided to play it safe by cutting its next three-year borrowing program. Storchak said on Sunday that foreign borrowing will not exceed 10% under this plan. "We will borrow over 90% of the required financing domestically, while foreign loans will not account for more than 10%," he was quoted by Reuters as saying. "In 2011, foreign loans will account for no more than 3% of the total, while in 2013, they will account for 4-10%," he added.

"The budget deficit creates conditions for an increase in government debt," said Yaroslav Lissovolik, chief economist with Deutsche Bank in Moscow. "The government is cutting Russia's borrowing plan in order to restrain further growth of the debt. It is also opting for other sources to cover the deficit, such as privatizing state companies."

Analysts do not rule out that the government will take over the heavy corporate debt, which stood at $400 billion as of April 1. "In addition to the state policy, we should create a favorable financial environment at home, and that means affordable interest rates, but right now the situation on the domestic market is not very good," Lissovolik added.

Kommersant

Russia waits for peace in Kyrgyzstan before opening second military base

Russia is temporarily freezing plans to expand its military presence in the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan.

Moscow has decided against sending a peacekeeping force to Kyrgyzstan, a Russian diplomatic source told the paper.

Nor does Russia have any intention of resuming talks on establishing a military training center in southern Kyrgyzstan, as previously agreed with former Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

Russia plans to resume talks on the issue after Kyrgyzstan holds general elections this fall and receives a new legitimate government.

At the same time, the United States is expanding its regional military presence and has announced plans to invest $10 million in a new military training center in Tajikistan, another Central Asian republic.

"Although the relevant package of documents on establishing a military training center in southern Kyrgyzstan was nearly finalized this spring, a revolution happened in April. Given these circumstances, it has been decided that any reexamination of this issue would be premature. Russian military personnel could become a target for provocations due to the extremely tense situation in southern Kyrgyzstan," the source said.

Russia moved to create another military base in the republic, in addition to its Kant Air Base in northern Kyrgyzstan, last summer, after an unpleasant surprise from President Bakiyev.

Bishkek had promised to close the Manas Air Base, a U.S. military installation at Manas International Airport, near the capital of Kyrgyzstan, and subsequently received a $150-million non-repayable loan and a $300-million soft loan from Russia.

At the same time, the Kyrgyz government and Washington agreed to preserve the base and to rename as the Transit Center at Manas.

On June 21, Viktor Ivanov, Head of the Federal Service for Drug Control, proposed establishing a Russian military base in Osh, southern Kyrgyzstan. He said this would facilitate more active efforts to thwart illicit drug trafficking.

That Russia should deem a base necessary due to the drugs threat should be no surprise - Russia has repeatedly stated that narcotics-related activity in Central Asia poses a major national security risk.

However, Washington continues to strengthen its military positions in Central Asia. On Friday, Kenneth E. Gross, Jr., U.S. Ambassador to Tajikistan, said the United States would invest $10 million in building a national training center for Tajikistan's armed forces.

Washington is to make the relevant decision this fall, and the center is due to be built in 2011.

"We are aware of such plans, and a response is forthcoming," a senior Russian Foreign Ministry official told the paper. It appears that Moscow will resume discussions regarding the creation of a second base in Kyrgyzstan.

RIA Novosti is not responsible for the content of outside sources.

MOSCOW, June 28 (RIA Novosti)

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