Russian Press - Behind the Headlines, December 26

© Alex StefflerRussian Press - Behind the Headlines, December 26
Russian Press - Behind the Headlines, December 26 - Sputnik International
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Killers on the Loose/ Russian Agency Proposes Holding Youth Events Abroad/ Gazprom’s Export Monopoly Questioned

MOSCOW, December 26 (RIA Novosti)

Kommersant

Killers on the Loose

Investigators suspect that the terrorists who killed TV journalist Kazbek Gekkiyev three weeks ago were behind the assassination of Boris Zherukov, Rector of Kokov State Agrarian University in Kabardino-Balkaria.

Boris Zherukov, Rector of Kokov State Agrarian University in Kabardino-Balkaria and Head of the United Russia Party Group in the Republic's Parliament, was assassinated in Nalchik yesterday by two unknown men posing as students. The assailants entered the Rector’s Wing and the Rector’s Reception Office and shot him twice in the head with a 9-mm handgun. The Rector died on the spot, and the attackers ran off. The police were unable to locate and arrest them.

A criminal case concerning Zherukov’s assassination and illegal arms circulation has been opened and is currently under investigation by the Investigative Committee’s North Caucasus Directorate and overseen by Alexander Bastrykin, Head of the Investigative Committee. A team of experienced law enforcement professionals has also been sent from Moscow.

Arsen Kanokov, the head of Kabardino-Balkaria, who also supervises the investigation, called the crime a “cynical, coldblooded and brutal act, which is hard to explain from the human standpoint.” Kanokov said the crime intended to sow panic and all-out fear.

He called this a challenge to society and a consequence of certain efforts to reinstate law and order in the republic. “We will continue our work in this. We will take tougher measures. The infection must be eradicated,” Kanokov stressed.

Kanokov demanded that local law enforcement agencies solve the crime as soon as possible.

Other United Russia members have also spoken of the assassins’ desire to destabilize the situation in the republic. “They are trying to hit respected public figures,” said Sergei

Zheleznyak, Deputy Secretary of the United Russia General Council.
Investigators believe that the crime might be linked with Zherukov’s political activities and his post as a university rector. Members of local gangs may also be involved in the crime.

Video footage from the Rector’s Wing shows a person resembling Zeitun Boziyev, a local militant leader, also wanted for the murder of news announcer Kazbek Gekkiyev from the Republic’s Subsidiary of the VGTRK All-Russian State Television and Radio Company.

Investigative Committee officials said they have suspects in the Zherukov case but declined to go into details.

Izvestia

Russian Agency Proposes Holding Youth Events Abroad

Russia’s Federal Agency for Youth Affairs will open two more youth camps next year, in addition to Seliger in the Tver Region, where pro-Kremlin young people have met every summer since 2005. These new youth camps will be held in the United States and Europe.

Agency head Sergei Belokonev said  the European event could run in Strasbourg, the home of the European Court of Human Rights and Council of Europe meetings.

The Agency has established a special commission and an organizing group to oversee youth camps abroad, whose main goal is “to bring compatriots living abroad together.”

According to polls, at least 35 million Russians live abroad.

“We will focus on compatriots who did not choose to emigrate, but were taken abroad as children. I have talked with some of them and can tell you that they are better patriots than their Russian peers,” Belokonev told Izvestia.

He added that they won’t urge repatriation, but will encourage Russians “to strengthen the country’s economic might” while living abroad.

“We need to involve them in economic projects in Russia to help direct technology and investment into Russia and export finished products and services from Russia,” said Belokonev. “Camps abroad should help young people formulate projects beneficial for Russia.”

Dmitry Sablin, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee for the CIS and Compatriots, said that these camps could be a way for the Russian government to influence other countries’ policy towards Russia.

“They are Russians, even though they hold foreign passports. If we can find a way to unite them, European and US politicians will have to phrase their intentions more carefully when considering decisions that can damage Russia’s interests,” Sablin said.

Nadezhda Nelipa, chief executive of Verrus, an organization that helps ethnic Russians in Europe, said the project will fail if organized by a Russian agency.

“Many people in Germany try to organize similar events, but they all fail because the way of life and of working is completely different in Europe,” Nelipa said. “If you want lots of students to participate in a project, you need to begin organizing it more than three or four months in advance.

Students abroad have a different rhythm and besides, they don’t have summer holidays. Some of them can take a few weeks off in October. They plan their studies six months ahead.”

Many Russian organizations in Europe organize events for young people, such as Russian language camps for school and preschool kids and roundtables for university students, Nelipa said.

Political analyst Mikhail Vinogradov said that the Agency is sponging off the issue of supporting compatriots and that its strategy of encouraging business activity among young people cannot succeed in the West.

The Seliger youth camp was first held on Lake Seliger in 2005 and was open only to active members and leaders of the Nashi (Ours) movement until 2008. Environmentalists and journalists criticized it for leaving heaps of garbage behind and the opposition for its pro-Kremlin leanings.

Vedomosti

Gazprom’s Export Monopoly Questioned

Novatek is fighting for the right to export liquefied natural gas from its site in Yamal, which would shatter Gazprom’s gas export monopoly. The final decision will be made by President Vladimir Putin.

Novatek, Russia’s second largest gas producer, plans to sign its first contracts to supply LNG from its Yamal facility in the second quarter of 2013, chief executive Leonid Mikhelson told Vedomosti: “Sales will start in late 2016. We have already held two roadshows. But don’t ask me to tell you who we are in talks with,” he said.

Novatek needs export contracts to secure financing for its Yamal LNG project. Supply contracts can be used as collateral, while the current agency agreement with Gazprom does not allow this, Mikhelson explained.

The current LNG market is estimated at around 240 million metric tons and is expected to grow to 400 million in 2020.

Novatek signed an agency agreement on liquefied gas supply from Yamal with Gazprom in the summer of 2010. “However, Gazprom Export has not signed a single contract with consumers yet, or given any projections. So we told them, if you are not capable of fulfilling your commission agreement, let us sign our own long-term supply contracts,” Novatek co-owner Gennady Timchenko told Forbes. “Novatek failed to provide all the data required for the export of LNG from Yamal,” a Gazprom representative retorted.

“We think regulatory changes ought to be considered to allow us to export LNG independently,” Mikhelson said, clarifying that Novatek is only referring to liquefied gas exports.

The government is considering the proposals, but no decision has been taken yet, Mikhelson said.

The Economic Development Ministry proposed granting this right to a wide range of producers including Novatek, in view of Russia’s small share of the LNG market (about 4.3 percent in 2011, according to the International Gas Union), the need to diversify exports, and to attract investment for the development of new gas deposits. The Energy Ministry has declined to comment.

Gazprom believes a single export channel is more advisable in the current situation: its export monopoly is not a preference, but rather compensation for its financial and social responsibilities at home, such as subsidized domestic market prices, maintaining the national distribution grid and expanding it to more consumers in the regions.

Gazprom also pays a higher mineral tax than independent producers such as Novatek. Greater competition in an unstable market would push prices down and reduce Russia's revenues, he added.

Energy Minister Alexander Novak has said the decision is in Putin’s hands. The decision is still under consideration, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Gazprom is facing a host of problems, such as the plummeting demand in Europe and the long and frustrating negotiations on its own long-term supply contracts, which explains its reluctance to sell another company’s gas, said Grigory Birg from Investcafe. The government could make an exception for Novatek’s LNG exports, since there are not many projects of this kind in Russia, he added.

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

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