Russia 090423 Basic Political Developments

Russia, Hong Kong to scrap visas

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20090423/121256891.html

HONG KONG, April 23 (RIA Novosti) - Russia and Hong Kong will sign an agreement on Thursday in Beijing cancelling visa requirements for visitors on short trips, a spokesman for the Russian consulate in South China's territory said.

As soon as the agreement comes into effect, Russians will be able to visit Hong Kong for up to 14 days visa free.

Russian Ambassador to China Sergei Razov and Hong Kong immigration chief Simon Peh are to sign the documents, agreed during a visit by a Russian Foreign Ministry delegation to Hong Kong in September 2008.

The number of tourists travelling to the former British colony is growing every year. In 2008, over 37,000 Russians visited Hong Kong, up 13% against 2007.

However, Hong Kong saw the biggest rise from Finnish visitors with a 20% increase year-on-year.

Ukraine leader to review gas accords with Moscow

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hfBQd1RmZOrjLj4mD2S4fAHST-rA

7 hours ago

KIEV (AFP) — Agreements reached in January to end the gas dispute between Kiev and Moscow should be reviewed as they disadvantage Ukraine, the country's president, Viktor Yushchenko, said Wednesday.

"We must return to the issue of gas relations in a most open manner, on the basis of clear principles," he told reporters in Kiev.

"Neither Ukraine nor Russia can be proud of what was reached in January 2009," he added.

The accords the two countries signed had only generated problems and "do not reinforce stability either in Russia, or Ukraine, or Europe," said Yushchenko.

The accords were "asymmetrical" and disadvantageous for Ukraine because they fixed a minumum amount of gas Kiev, but did not specify a minimum volume of gas that Russia had to transit to Europe through Ukraine, he explained.

Ukraine is responsible for more than 80 percent of Russia's gas transit to Europe.

It paid 280 dollars (215 euros) per 1,000 cubic meters for Russian gas in 2009's second quarter -- more than the price paid by Germany, he noted.

At the same time, the transit tariffs Russia paid to Kiev (1.7 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters per 100 kilometers) remained substantially lower than the standard European price, he added.

"No European company pumps gas through at this price," said Yushchenko.

Everyone understands that this is unprofitable -- the tariffs do not cover the expenses" of transport."

In January, a bitter payment dispute between Moscow and Kiev led to a cut-off of Russian gas exports through Ukraine to downstream clients, leaving millions of Europeans without gas in the middle of winter.

Russian gas dependence worries Lithuanian leader

http://businessneweurope.eu/users/subs.php

bne
April 23, 2009

In an interview with The Associated Press, Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus said the former Soviet republic is likely to become fully reliant on Russian natural gas supplies once it shuts down a Chernobyl-style nuclear plant later this year. "As I always said, energy independence is political independence," the 82-year-old leader said. "There will be some years that we will depend on only one single source ... but I appeal here to the goodwill of our neighbor that ... this situation would not be used for political pressures of any kind."

Under its accession agreement with the European Union, Lithuania must close the last operational nuclear reactor at the aging Ignalina power station on Dec. 31. Many Lithuanians fear that Russia will use its gas supplies to assert influence until the country of 3.4 million people develops other energy sources, including an underwater link to Sweden's electricity grid and a new nuclear plant to be built by the all 3 Baltic nations and Poland.

Adamkus said Lithuania should have devoted more resources to developing those alternatives during the years of strong economic growth before the financial meltdown cut deep into the Baltic economies last year. "We have not foreseen or haven't planned enough to take that surplus and save for one of those dark days to come," Adamkus said. "That was shortsighted planning and we are paying for that right now a bigger price."

Russia: Presidential Aide Arkady Dvorkovich’s Responses to Questions from Reporters

http://www.isria.info/RESTRICTED/D/2009/APRIL_23/22_April_2009_67.htm

RUSSIAN PRESIDENTIAL AIDE ARKADY DVORKOVICH: As the President of the Russian Federation has noted, today we will be giving a document to our colleagues in the G8, G20, CIS countries, international organisations, and our neighbouring countries, on the conceptual approaches to a new legal base in international energy cooperation. This document consists of three sections. The first one contains the international energy cooperation principles, which we feel must be included in the new international legal act. The second section contains elements of an agreement governing [energy] transit, an integral part of which will be an agreement on resolving transit conflicts. And the third section contains a list of energy materials and products that we suggest applying these legal acts to. So, we are not only talking about gas or oil, but about all other energy products, including nuclear fuel, electricity, coal, and all the other goods traded by ourselves and other countries in the energy sector.

Last year at the G8 summit the President said that we will prepare such suggestions and present them to our partners. We have expressed our readiness to do this at a variety of forums, and have stated on many occasions that we are not satisfied with the Energy Charter and the related documents as they currently exist, and that we feel a new legal base is needed. Now, we have a topic for discussion: some very concrete suggestions that include a ready set of regulatory acts, but we are still working to finalise their inner legal structure. After that, we will be ready to present them to our partners for discussion.

As the President said earlier, we are ready to intensively discuss these documents with our partners – first and foremost, with the European Union (which includes our closest energy partners), – in the upcoming weeks, in a variety of formats.

QUESTION: What does all this mean? After all, Russia did not join in on the Energy Charter, so it cannot talk about leaving it.

ARKADY DVORKOVICH: Russia signed the Energy Charter, but did not ratify it. This means that we do not consider ourselves bound by obligations under the Energy Charter. As for the Energy Charter Treaty, we also do not feel that we are bound by obligations under it.

But it is not a matter of binding obligations. The actual issue is that we are suggesting a full-fledged new regulatory base for future energy cooperation. We want for relations to be built on the principles of transparency, clarity, reliability and stability that are satisfactory to all sides: fuel consumers, suppliers, and transit countries. The documents that are currently available do not answer the actual, current state of affairs.

For example: unlike the times when the Energy Charter was signed, today we have the European Union with its regulatory base and its member states. But many of the principles that work within the European Union are no longer in synch with the Energy Charter’s provisions and the respective Charter treaties. These contradictions are not dealt with; they can only be dealt with by signing new agreements. Furthermore, despite many discussions and even some promises, these documents were never extended to cover, for example, nuclear energy, although this is an issue of great importance to us. We have always expressed our interest in this topic and we have felt that in this area we should apply the same principles. That did not happen, and the only possible way to resolve this problem is a new agreement, so we will suggest working on it as intensively as possible with our partners.

QUESTION: So it cannot be said that Russia has left the Charter?

ARKADY DVORKOVICH: No, we are not leaving it: in fact, these documents never applied to us.

QUESTION: Do you think that Russia’s partners will respond positively to these suggestions? Are these suggestions being offered as a substitute for the Energy Charter?

ARKADY DVORKOVICH: These documents are basically being suggested as a substitute for the Energy Charter, although there may be different approaches to their legal implementation. They may serve either as amendments to the Energy Charter or as preparations for a new document, since the suggestions call for changing many existing and adding many new principles, and because today’s Energy Charter does not include many major global market players. I think we should discuss a new document with a wider group of countries, a group that includes countries which have not signed the Energy Charter. I am referring to some of our most important partners: the United States, Canada, China, and India. Even Norway, one of the major global oil market suppliers, is not a member to the Energy Charter. So we probably need a new document, but we are open to dialogue in any legal format.

QUESTION: Do you think that the EU will respond to these suggestions?

ARKADY DVORKOVICH: We have already discussed this issue on many occasions in a variety of formats with our EU partners. We have talked about it, so it comes as no surprise to them; they know that we are not satisfied with the Energy Charter in its current form and that we will suggest amending it. Our partners’ attitudes toward this issue gradually changed over the past several months, although from a legal standpoint, their position remained the same. Still, we could see that they were increasingly open to dialogue on this issue, so we feel that initial consultations and subsequent talks can be very constructive, although, naturally, we understand that the EU will need to do a great deal of internal work on this issue.

QUESTION: Which of the CIS countries support Russia’s suggestions?

ARKADY DVORKOVICH: Today is the first time we hand out the documents containing our suggestions, so it is simply too early to talk about which countries support them. Our Finnish partners received these documents first. Since we were finally ready to present these documents only today, while we are in Finland, we felt it necessary to make them available first to our Finnish partners. In the next few hours, all of our other partners will also receive these documents.

QUESTION: How many of them are there?

ARKADY DVORKOVICH: Several dozen countries. I have already said that at the very least, they will include all member countries of the G20 and the CIS, international organisations operating in this sector, and the European Commission, but also other active energy market players, including members of the Energy Forum, which includes key oil producers and consumers.

Finland was the first country to receive these documents because today is the day that we are finally ready to present them, and we happen to be here, in Finland.

QUESTION: Back to the topic of today’s talks, was any kind of concrete agreement reached with Finland regarding the Nord Stream project?

ARKADY DVORKOVICH: This is a matter of scheduling internal procedures here in Finland. That is what was discussed; we believe that this year we may achieve some progress.

QUESTION: So are you saying that the Finnish government will accept the legal procedure and agree to the obligations? Or, if not, then what do you mean?

ARKADY DVORKOVICH: We do not want to get involved in internal Finnish procedures. It really is a sovereign matter for each country to undertake this process in accordance with national legislation. We respect these principles, we feel that the project allows for maximum environmental safety, and based on this, we count on positive attitudes from our Finnish and Swedish partners toward this project.

QUESTION: What about the Estonians?

ARKADY DVORKOVICH: And our Estonian partners as well. If we set aside political issues, then from an environmental and, even more so, economical stand point, this project is secure and beneficial for everyone.

QUESTION: Could you please tell us, what exactly are the main principles you referred to in the first section of the document?

ARKADY DVORKOVICH: The first section of the document on the new legal base for international energy cooperation covers the principles of stability and transparency of relations in this sector. It is about the sovereignty of each country over the resources located on its territory. It is also about a non-discriminatory access to development of such resources in accordance with relevant agreements and arrangements. It is about countries encouraging investment and creating favourable tax environment for this kind of investment. It is about the fact that future agreements governing certain aspects of energy cooperation, such as transit, should not contain contradictions, but should instead be applied equally to everyone, based on a fair approach principle. It is about the fact that agreements must address all aspects of energy cooperation, rather than only transit, consumption, or production, and they must address all forms of energy, all products and materials that can be used to generate energy. It also includes a few other principles, which you will see when the document is published and openly accessible.

QUESTION: Could you please speak in more detail about nuclear materials? How will that work?

ARKADY DVORKOVICH: The subject of nuclear materials has always been of particular interest to us. Unfortunately, any issue in this area brought up today in Europe is resolved on the basis of individual agreements and is not subject to the Energy Charter principles. Accordingly, if we had chosen to participate in the Energy Charter (which we did not do), we would be limited by some obligations. However, our partners do not have any such obligations in regard to nuclear materials. If our suggestions are accepted, then they will apply to trade in nuclear materials as well.