Moscow press review for July 30, 2012
MOSCOW. July 30 (Interfax) - The following is a digest of Moscow newspapers published on July 30. Interfax does not accept liability for information in these stories.
POLITICS & ECONOMICS
Russian industry has already worked out its own plan to deal with a possible new crisis. Some 63% of companies intend to reduce wages and working time, 43% plan to cut production and 27% are prepared to lower prices, the Economic Policy Institute found in a survey (Vedomosti, p. 1).
Russia's Labor Ministry might begin new reforms of the pension system with workers employed in hazardous jobs. Responsibility for financing their early retirement could be shifted from the government to businesses in 2013-2014. There are currently more than 6 million such pensioners in Russia (Kommersant, p. 1).
The Russian government has finally reached a final agreement on cutting defense spending. Expenditures on defense contracts will be cut by about 700 billion rubles over the next three years. Now the only obstacle to a balanced budget is the hole in the Pension Fund (Vedomosti, p. 3).
The situation with forest fires in Siberia continued to escalate over the weekend. Official figures show the area affected by forest fires in Russia increased by a third, from 18,000 hectares to 26,600 hectares, since Friday, when Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev declared emergency situations with fires in 11 regions of the country. Analysts believe officials are continuing to hide the true scale of the fires and are allocating only a fraction of available resources to fight them (Kommersant, p. 3).
OIL & GAS
The Tyumen Arbitration Court on Friday ordered BP to pay TNK-BP Holding 100.4 billion rubles ($3.1 billion) in a lawsuit brought by the Russian oil company's minority shareholders. This victory, the biggest in the history of Russian corporate disputes, will cost the country's investment climate dearly, analysts believe (Vedomosti, p. 1; Kommersant, p. 1).
ConocoPhillips is continuing to get rid of its Russian assets. Having sold its stake in Lukoil, the U.S. oil company is also pulling out if their joint venture Naryanmarneftegaz. The Russian oil major has obtained regulatory approval to buy out ConocoPhillips' 30% stake in the firm (Vedomosti, p. 7; Kommersant, p. 9).
Gazprom is again interested in producing gas abroad, this time off the coast of Ecuador. As in other foreign projects, there is little economic incentive for the Russian gas giant in this project. The block the company is interested in only has gas reserves of up to 50 billion cubic meters (Kommersant, p. 9).
BANKING, FINANCE & INSURANCE
Russian insurance companies increased sales by 15-45% in the first half of 2012. The top ten insurers collected 255 billion rubles in premiums in the first half, which was more than the whole market in the first quarter (214 billion rubles). Rosgosstrakh regained its leading position, pushing Sogaz back to second place (Vedomosti, p. 9).
TELECOMMUNICATIONS, MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY
Russia's VTB Capital and Bulgaria's Corporate Commercial Bank have agreed to buy a controlling stake in leading Bulgarian telecom provider Vivacom in a deal that could be worth EUR737 million. World Chess Federation President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who in June reached an agreement to buy Bulgaria's Petrol Holding, was also interested in the operator (Kommersant, p. 7).
AUTOMOTIVE & ENGINEERING
Moscow's transport department has filed a lawsuit against the GAZ Group's bus division seeking more than 260 million rubles in damages. The department claims the company supplied more than 2,000 buses with faulty air conditioning systems to the city last year, and is now late on deliveries (Kommersant, p. 9).
AGRICULTURE & FORESTRY
Drought in Siberia and the south, compounded by a heat wave in central Russia have further worsened the outlook for the country's harvest. The grain and grain legume harvest will drop to 77 million-80 million tonnes this year, the Federal Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring Service forecasts. The Agriculture Ministry's pessimistic forecast was 80-85 million tonnes just a week ago (Vedomosti, p. 7).
