Russia 110201 Basic Political Developments

Patriarch anniversary marked

http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/02/01/42247938.html
Feb 1, 2011 10:18 Moscow Time

Celebrations are underway in Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral marking two years since Metropolitan Kirill became Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.

Addressing more than 1,000 people gathered inside, Metropolitan Hilarion said that the Patriarch “is more than a church leader. He is a charismatic person, who is able to communicate with believers and non-believers alike”.

The Metropolitan also mentioned the broad outlook and enormous religious experience of the Patriarch.

Naomi Campbell interviews Vladimir Putin

http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/02/01/42232850.html

Feb 1, 2011 01:08 Moscow Time

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin gave an interview to Naomi Campbell for the English version of the magazine GQ.

In particular the top model asked the Prime Minister how he manages to keep in shape. Putin replied that he frequents a gym and goes swimming every day.

He recalled that his favorite sport is judo, which he has been practicing with for 14 years

Women tells of her ordeal at hands of terrorists behind the Moscow Airport bomb attack

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/02/01/women-tells-of-her-ordeal-at-hands-of-terrorists-behind-the-moscow-airport-bomb-attack-115875-22889961/

by Greig Box-Turnbull, Daily Mirror 1/02/2011

A MUM claims terrorists threatened to kill her baby girl if she refused to blow up an airport.

Zeinat Suyunova has told Russian investigators that she was being groomed by the infamous “Black Widows” Islamic extremist terror group in Moscow.

She claimed that she only discovered her husband was a terrorist after he was captured by the security service.

Suyunova, 24, was then kidnapped by the terror group and her daughter taken from her. She said: “They threatened to kill her if I did not agree to go to Moscow and help with explosions. In the end I agreed. I did not have a choice.”

In Moscow, she was trained for explosions to be detonated at Domodedovo airport, as well as a mall near Red Square, with a woman named Aminat.

Suyunova claims she then fled and later gave herself up after Aminat was killed accidentally detonating a belt packed with explosives.

The terror group last week carried out the airport plan, killing 35. It is not known if Suyonova is back with her daughter.

Russian Press at a Glance, Tuesday, February 1, 2011

http://en.rian.ru/papers/20110201/162400533.html
08:51 01/02/2011

POLITICS

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told the modernization commission that state corporations must substantially increase investment in scientific research and development projects

(Kommersant, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Rossiiskaya Gazeta)

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has appointed General Director of the Sukhoi and MiG aircraft companies Mikhail Pogosyan as head of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC)

(Kommersant)

The country's top traffic police officer was promoted to oversee transportation security nationwide after last week's Domodedovo bombing. He will be in charge of transportation security and must draft a detailed plan of reforms within the next few weeks

(The Moscow Times, Nezavisimaya Gazeta)

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov urged Western countries to detain terrorist ringleaders hiding out in Europe instead of their little known relatives. His call came in the wake of Monday's dramatic announcement that Ruslan Umarov, a brother of Chechen militant leader Doku Umarov, is in an Italian detention center for illegal immigrants in the city of Gradisca

(Kommersant, The Moscow Times)

ECONOMY & BUSINESS

Buying steel is like shopping for food, said Igor Chepenko, chief executive of rolled steel trader Brok-Invest-Service. You make your selection, take it home and hopefully make something nice out of it. It's just that your shopping bag is an eight-ton truck

(The Moscow Times)

Energy companies LUKoil and Novatek are flying their employees out of strife-torn Egypt, but say the evacuations won't affect operations in the country and that "all work will continue."

(The Moscow Times)

According to preliminary estimates from the Russian State Statistics Committee, the economy in Russia grew by four percent in 2010, year-on-year

(Vedomosti)

WORLD

Kazakhstan will hold presidential elections earlier than scheduled, the country's long-serving president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, said

(Kommersant, the Moscow Times, Nezavisimaya Gazeta)

Yevgeny Primakov, head of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI), speaks in an interview with the Rossiiskaya Gazeta about the current situation in Egypt

(Rossiiskaya Gazeta)

SOCIETY

Galvanized by popular uprisings against authoritarian leaders in Tunisia and Egypt, hundreds of liberal opposition activists chanted for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's ouster at a sanctioned rally that ended peacefully Monday

(The Moscow Times, Nezavisimaya Gazeta)

MOSCOW

Judging by his words, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has not failed to impress during his first 100 days in office, promising to solve the city's traffic problems and transform the chaotic megalopolis into a modern financial center

(The Moscow Times)

SPORTS

Sergei Gaplikov has been appointed the head of the state corporation Olympstroy replacing Teimuraz Bolloyev

(Kommersant)

Gagarin's daughter wants to register his trademark

http://www.sify.com/news/gagarin-s-daughter-wants-to-register-his-trademark-news-international-lcbkEhahdig.html

2011-02-01 10:40:00

Moscow, Feb 1 (IANS/RIA Novosti) The daughter of the world's first cosmonaut, Yury Gagarin, has filed an application to register in the name of her father a trademark titled 'Yury Alexeyevich Gagarin'. 'I do not consider it shameful given that everyone is making money on Gagarin's name. Why can't his family do it?' head of Russia's space agency Roscosmos, Anatoly Perminov said. Gagarin's youngest daughter, Yulia, filed the application in the Russian Federal Service for Intellectual Property, Patents and Trademarks Jan 26 ahead of the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the first manned spaceflight by Gagarin. Yulia was born one month before the historical flight, April 12, 1961, which made Gagarin famous. According to expert estimates, the Gagarin trademark is worth one billion rubles ($33.5 million).

WIKILEAKS

01 February 2011 - 06H38  

BP Russia arm eyed deals in sanctioned states: cables

http://www.france24.com/en/20110201-bp-russia-arm-eyed-deals-sanctioned-states-cables

AFP - BP's Russian arm sought new operations in states subject to western sanctions in an ongoing power struggle that clouds the subsidiary's future, memos seen by Tuesday's Telegraph newspaper showed.

US diplomatic cables leaked by the WikiLeaks website revealed that BP Chief Executive Bob Dudley was the subject of raids and forced out of Russia after the board of TNK-BP vetoed the exceptional proposals.

In 2008, then TNK-BP CEO Dudley told US officials that one of the company's Russian directors pushed for exploration in states including Myanmar, Cuba, and Sudan.

TNK-BP accounts for around 25 percent of BP's global production and was formed in 2003 when a group of Russian oligarchs, the Alfa-Access-Renova (AAR) consortium, entered a deal with the British company.

The memo, sent from the US embassy in Moscow on June 20 2008, revealed Dudley's beliefs.

"Dudley said AAR and, in particular, German Khan, had been systematically using TNK-BP resources to vet these projects," it said.

A separate memo dated June 16 2008, which detailed a meeting between TNK-BP's vice president for international relations, Shawn McCormick, and US officials went even further.

"The Alfa partners and in particular German Khan had been using the company's resources to vest projects in places BP couldn't invest, such as Kurdistan, Cuba, Burma and the like," the cable claimed.

"When the TNK-BP board rejected these proposals, Khan would then slide them to a separate company that Alfa controlled, an arrangement that suited Khan and his Alfa partners fine."

Dudley claimed that oligarch Khan, described as "mentally unstable" in another memo, "led the charge against TNK-BP's foreign executives."

Dudley also said that Kremlin agents had subjected him to "sustained harassment" before he was forced out of the country on a labour-law ruling.

The leaked cables said that Dudley "expected the attacks on him to continue in the form of law suits and the like but... believed his profile was too great for there to be any physical threat against him."

The memos also revealed that Dudley believed the Kremlin wanted the company's two factions to "fight each other to exhaustion, like 'Siberian tigers,' and then capture the survivor to create a third Russian major oil company."

In another leaked memo, former Russian deputy energy minister Vladimir Milov said that there was also a power battle going on between Dudley and then global CEO Tony Hayward, who stepped down after the Deepwater Horizon oil leak.

Hayward is now CEO of TNK-BP in Russia.

BP recently entered an alliance with state-run energy company Rosneft for Arctic oil exploration.

In the memos, Dudley accused Rosneft chairman Igor Sechin of backing the oligarchs' "war" against him.

A BP spokesman Monday played down the comment, saying the pair had "a strong relationship and mutual respect."

The leak comes as BP prepared Tuesday to announce its end of year results, with the company's first loss for two decades expected.