Resources – Connect Russia

Russia groans under the weight of its rubbish

Landfill areas in Russia are bigger than some countries and authorities call for more recycling and tougher action against pollution.

With more than 2,000 square km of rubbish and solid waste rotting across Russia, the total area is six times the size of Malta.

Only 30 per cent of Russia’s waste is recycled properly, leading to 80 billion tons being dumped across the country.

The volume increases by 7 billion tons each year, the Federation Council’s first vice-speaker Alexander Torshin said at a national ecological forum, Moskovsky Komsomolets reported.

Vladimir Putin has also warned that the authorities need to act if they want to change the ecological situation in the country.

The Prime Minister said that about 15 per cent of Russian territory is in poor ecological condition, Interfax reported.

“In almost all of the country’s regions air and water pollution remain high,” Putin said at a meeting devoted to improving Russia’s ecology.

Federation Council first vice-speaker Alexander Torshin suggests that in the coming years we will begin mining trash piles for secondary resources (he continues to suggest that this could rival Gas/Oil as a source of resources/wealth)

(Via Johnson’s Russia List)

Medvedev sets sights on cleaner public procurement with new Russian laws

As three government departments set about drawing up a new Public Procurement Law, President Medvedev reiterated the need for more openness in the procurement system last week, calling for tougher anti-corruption measures.  “I repeat that we need clear, transparent and effective rules in the state procurement system, especially as concerns planning state procurement needs, setting the initial purchase prices for goods and services, and managing and monitoring the way contracts are performed,” he said at a meeting to discuss the execution of presidential instructions.

The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service, the Finance Ministry and Economic Development Ministry are drawing up new legislation that better regulates the state procurement process.  Kickbacks in state procurement programs have been a serious problem in Russia, with Konstantin Chuichenko, head of the presidential oversight administration, estimating last November that they amount to one trillion rubles ($32.5 billion) a year.

(Via Modern Russia)

Russia employs Arctic brigade to defend oil and gas reserves

The move follows a muscular series of comments from the deputy head of Russia’s Border Service Colonel-General Vycheslav Dorokhin who said the Kremlin planned to build up its forces in the region to better patrol its Arctic territorial waters.

The troops will be based in the far northern town of Pechenga on Russia’s Kola Peninsula close to the Norwegian and Finnish borders and will be combat-ready later this year.

Russian military planners said they had studied the way Arctic troops in Norway and Finland operated and had ordered in the necessary winterised clothing and arms for the new brigade which could number up to 8,000 troops.

In particular, he said Russia wanted to step up patrols of the strategically important North East shipping passage.

“Our potential there will be built up. We won’t let anyone feel themselves free (to move about as they please) in the Arctic.”

Russia, the United States, Canada, Denmark and Norway are all locked in a race to grab a slice of the northern wilderness after US researchers predicted that global warming might leave the area ice-free, and therefore more easily navigable and explored, as early as 2030.

Experts say the region potentially contains one fifth of the world’s oil and gas reserves and that the swath of Arctic territory claimed specifically by Russia could be home to oil supplies double the size of Saudi Arabia’s proven reserves.

(Via The Telegraph; by the interesting journalist Andrew Osborn)

To Lure Foreign Investment, Russian President Calls for Reform

The president of Russia, Dmitri A. Medvedev, on Wednesday proposed a sweeping change to the management of the country’s many state-run companies, saying an overhaul that would remove ministers from the boards of directors is overdue.

After a decade of rolling back the results of its early post-Soviet privatizations, the Russian economy is again top-heavy with government-run companies, particularly in the oil and natural gas industries.

As president, Mr. Putin had appointed loyal officials in his government to crucial positions on the boards of large companies dealing in energy, transportation, military industry and aviation. Igor I. Sechin, a deputy prime minister overseeing the oil industry, is chairman of the state oil company Rosneft, for example.

Mr. Kudrin is on the board of Alrosa, Russia’s diamond mining company.

Mr. Medvedev, when he served as deputy prime minister before his election as president in 2008, had also served as chairman of Gazprom, the big natural gas company.

Russia’s Medvedev Wants Govt Out of Business (blogs.forbes.com)
Medvedev Bid to Oust Officials From Boards Is ‘Small Revolution’ (businessweek.com)

Fallout from Chernobyl in Poland

It is not uncommon today to read, or hear that the effects of the Chernobyl accident “have been greatly exaggerated” and that “only” 31 people died immediately when the disaster occurred (particularly as people rushed to minimize the dangers posed by Japanese Reactors following the recent earthquakes).

Naturally, the former Soviet republics of Belarus and Ukraine come to mind quickly. But what about other countries?

Poland was the third country profoundly affected by Chernobyl.

It was a glorious late-spring time, sunny, warm, blue sky, light breeze. On Sunday evening, April 27th, the wind became very strong and changed direction. Many people had similar feelings of sleeping badly that night, waking several times and sweating. “It must be that hot eastern wind”, people commented.

The sister of the journalist, aged 40 at the time, a scientist in the field of fishery and hydrobiology, spent the day working on lakes in north-east Poland, about 40 miles from the former USSR border. On April 29th, the evening news on Polish TV was interrupted by a special communiqué from Moscow. “There was an accident in Ukraine nuclear power-station. “Shortage of tincture of iodine, all sold out” – a perplexed, tired looking lady chemist announced. (Iodine tablets did not exist in Poland).

My parents had a small bottle of iodine tincture at home. Ten million Polish children continued their normal school routine getting plenty of “fresh air” in their usual sport and outdoor exercise activities.

March 18th 2011 marked the 10th anniversary of her death.

(via The Irish Times)

Armenia’s retail trade in January rises 1.4% from a year earlier

Armenia’s retail trade in 2011 January rose by 1.4% from a year earlier, according to the latest numbers, revealed by the CIS Statistical Committee, which said that the average growth among several former Soviet republics was 2.6%.  According to its figures, in terms of retail growth Armenia came in seventh among CIS countries.   The highest retail growth of 20.6% was reported by Belarus. Ukraine came in second with 11.7% growth. It was followed by Kazakhstan – 11.1%, Azerbaijan- 8.3%, Tajikistan – 5.8%, Moldova – 4.4%, Russia- – 0.5%. Kyrgyzstan posted a 7.2% decline. No data were available on Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

(Via Arka Armenian News Agency)

Related News Articles on Economics/Resource availability (particularly in Armenia)

Prices of vegetables, potato and fruits see highest rise in the first quarter of 2011

Inflation for vulnerable population in Armenia rises to 20% in quarter one, 2011

Government of Armenia plans to involve additional money for implementation of the program “Available apartments to young families”

National Statistical Service disagrees with allegations of some of local poultry farms

Armenia’s trade with Russia in Jan.-Feb. 2011 surges by 16.7% to $159.5 million

Nagorno-karabakh president visits Martakert region, emphasizes socioeconomic situation improvement

Armenian central bank governor off to Germany to discuss status of implementation of kfw loan programs

Prime Minister Sargsyan discusses tax regime efficiency enhancement issues with World Bank delegation

Foreign investments in Armenian real sector economy in 2010 contract by 41.1%

Armenia’s international investment position grew by 5.85% as of December 31, 2010

Prime Minister Sarkisian visits Pepsi plant in Armenia

Yerevan Joor to lower price of drinking water for Yerevan households to 175 drams per one cubic meter

Projected GDP growth for 2011 quite feasible, MP says

316 tons of aluminum foil produced in Armenia in Jan-Feb 2011

615 kilograms of cheese destroyed in Armenia after governmental inspections

Putin Wants Greater Biotech Role

Russia wants to have a 5 percent share in the global biotech market by 2020, a senior official said Friday after a government meeting chaired by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

“The new wave of global technological development will be linked to biotechnologies and new materials unlike the previous wave linked to information and computer technology,” Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Klepach told reporters.

The government approved on Friday 25 so-called “technology platforms,” modeled on their European equivalents, which will provide framework and coordination for research and funding. Three of the platforms are linked to biotech.

(Via The Moscow Times)

Lavrov Opposes Arming Libyan Rebels

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned the West on Wednesday against arming rebels battling Moammar Gadhafi’s forces and said Libyans must forge their political future without any outside interference.

With Western leaders saying they were not ruling out arming the rebels, Lavrov emphasized Russia’s opposition.

Russia, a veto-wielding permanent UN Security Council member, backed sanctions against Gadhafi’s government and abstained in the vote on the resolution authorizing military action to enforce no-fly zones, allowing it to pass.

Turning to the future, Lavrov said “the Libyan sides must agree on what the Libyan state should be.”

(Via The Moscow Times)

Energy efficiency becoming promising area for investment in Russia

President Dmitry Medvedev has made energy efficiency a plank of his modernization platform. In 2008 he set a target to reduce Russia’s energy intensity by 40 percent by 2020.

And the Energy Efficiency Program to 2020, approved by the government last October, set aside 9.5 trillion rubles ($3 billion) for energy saving programs.

“In Russia we are totally focused on energy saving,” he told The Moscow Times.

Honeywell is only one of many foreign companies seeking a slice of the energy efficiency pie.

Currently, average efficiency for a gas turbine is about 35 to 38 percent, while average for a combined-cycle turbine is 55 to 56 percent. Alstrom’s range of turbines includes a simple-cycle turbine with 38.1 percent efficiency and a combined-cycle turbine with 58.3 percent. The McKinsey & Company report projected that Russia could save $486 billion over the next 20 years and reduce energy consumption by 23 percent if it plowed $210.8 billion of investment into maximizing efficiency.

(Via The Moscow Times)

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