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Kommersant: New treaty may help U.S. deploy new ballistic missile shield in Europe; Vedomosti: Ukraine could buy Russian gas at 25% discount; Kommersant: Victory parade could spark Russia-Moldova scandal; Ekspert: Bakiyev could turn Kyrgyzstan into a drug country.

Kommersant: New treaty may help U.S. deploy new ballistic missile shield in Europe

The United States plans to complete the deployment of its ballistic missile shield in Europe within eight years, thanks to the new START treaty signed with Russia.

Late last week, the Pentagon explained why President Barack Obama scrapped Bush-era plans to deploy elements of the system in Poland and the Czech Republic.

The Czech radar installation and the 10 long-range missile interceptors in Poland would have covered only 75% of Europe's territory, which U.S. allies said was not enough. The new missile defense shield will cover 100% of Europe, said Bradley Roberts, deputy assistant defense secretary for nuclear and missile defense policy.

The new system is to be deployed within eight years. The first phase, by the end of 2011, stipulates the deployment of a radar, sea-based Aegis missile defense systems and Standard Missile 3 interceptors in southern Europe.

Around 2015, more-advanced interceptors and missile detectors would be fielded in addition to the first land-based SM-3 facility in southern Europe. The final two stages of the shield would see the land and sea fielding of even-more sophisticated versions of SM-3 interceptors that would be able to fly faster and farther to protect Europe and the United States.

U.S. Missile Defense Agency Director Lt. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly said that the long-range interceptors in Poland would have cost $70 million each, whereas a single SM-3 interceptor would cost $10 million to $15 million.

O'Reilly dismissed recent assertions from Republican lawmakers that a new nuclear arms control treaty with Russia would jeopardize plans for missile defenses in Europe.

"The new START treaty actually reduces constraints on the development of the missile defense program," he said during a hearing in the House Armed Services subcommittee.

The accord, signed in early April by Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, will permit missile defense tests that had been prescribed under the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, he said.

"Our targets will no longer be subject to START constraints, which limited our use of air-to-surface and waterborne launches of targets which are essential for a cost-effective testing of a missile defense interceptor against medium-range and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in the Pacific region," O'Reilly said.

Vedomosti: Ukraine could buy Russian gas at 25% discount

Moscow says it has reached a gas agreement with Ukraine.

Ukraine, on the other hand, only cited "some progress" on the issue without elaborating. The official figures haven not been revealed. Yet, Ukrainian sources claim Russia is ready to cut its gas price down 20%-25%, which would result in a $3bn shortfall for Gazprom.

Nothing has been officially signed yet, two Gazprom Group sources said, echoed by another source close to the Ukrainian president's staff. However, there is a preliminary agreement, two more sources told Vedomosti with reference to information from the Ukrainian Cabinet: Ukraine will be buying Russian gas at an average price of $250-$260 per 1,000 cu m (down from $334 as stipulated in the country's budget).

Reports differ on how long the discount will be applied.

So far, we are talking about 2010 only, as Gazprom will sign a 12-month additional agreement to its 11-year contract with Naftogaz signed in January 2009, a Gazprom source said adding he could not tell what would happen with the price after the 12 months expire.

Another source close to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's staff said the additional agreement would change the long-term contract, meaning the discount will be applied through 2019.

The gas discount "is one of the options we are discussing," Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said on Saturday. Ukraine expects the issue to be settled on Wednesday April 21, when Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will visit the country. Medvedev said on Friday the issue was still under discussion.

According to Sechin, Ukraine is offering several cooperation options in exchange for a gas discount. For example, Russia could take part in hydroelectric power generation projects in Ukraine or in its nuclear projects: "There are also strategic interests and other options."

A source in the Ukrainian Fuel and Energy Ministry and a similar Russian source cited three proposals of potential interest to Russia: a nuclear fuel supply contract with Tvel for 2011-2015, although for "hundreds of dollars, not billions a year;" a contract to supply equipment for two new units of Ukraine's Khmelnitskaya nuclear power plant (Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said he would consider financing the project with $5-$6 billion), and assistance in returning a stake in the Kremenchug refinery to Russia's Tatneft.

Ukrainian Zerkalo Nedeli (Mirror Weekly) quoted an official document that adds six more options to the above list.

Moscow wants to resolve the problems hindering joint construction of super heavy transport An-124 Ruslan; it is also interested in the Zheltye Vody uranium enrichment plant and the Kharkiv Turboatom engineering company; Gazprom wishes to influence Ukraine's domestic market; and the Russian government is demanding preferential treatment for Russian investors eyeing Ukrainian mechanical engineering and defense industry facilities.

Kommersant: Victory parade could spark Russia-Moldova scandal

Because of its difficult economic situation, Chisinau has not yet decided whether to send representatives to the Victory Parade in Moscow on May 9, said Moldova's Defense Minister Vitalie Marinuta. But Kommersant sources say the true reason for refusing to participate is the exclusion of Romania in the march.

The economic situation in Moldova is difficult. But these problems are unlikely to interfere with dispatching Moldovan representatives to the parade, Moscow believes. "The idea was to send an eight-member group, including four war veterans.

Russia is prepared to pay for their flight, accommodation and meals," said a source in the Russian Foreign Ministry. "The arrival of the delegation is symbolically important. After all, Moldova is one of the former Soviet republics. It is Russia's ally and a CIS partner."

The mention of economic difficulties is a pretext, according to a newspaper source close to the Moldovan government. "The reason [acting President of Moldova] Mihai Ghimpu is not hurrying the decision is because Romania is not invited to be in the parade," the source said.

But no one has invited Romania, because until 1944, when Soviet troops liberated the country, Romanian troops had been fighting on the side of Nazi Germany, the Russian Foreign Ministry explained.

Chisinau's efforts to show solidarity with the Romanian authorities are easy to explain: lately, Bucharest has become the main foreign policy partner for the coalition Moldovan government that came to power after parliamentary elections in July of last year. Late in January, Romanian leader Traian Basescu declared during his triumphant visit to Moldova that Romania would allocate Chisinau a 100 million euro grant through 2013 - a good amount according to local yardsticks.

Seen against the background of a particularly warm Moldovan-Romanian relationship, which was practically frozen during Communist rule, ties between Chisinau and Moscow look inexpressive. Right after the elections, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin pledged $500 million in loans for Moldova. But in the course of the October CIS summit in Chisinau, Russian officials spoke in terms of a hundred million. And even this amount has not yet been made available to Moldova.

Under these conditions, Chisinau is increasingly speaking about the need to withdraw Russian troops from Transdnestr. In addition, on Ghimpu's initiative, it was decided not to call May 9, 2010 Victory Day, as is common in Russia, but rather "the 65th anniversary of the end of World War II." On top of all this, Chisinau decided to institute the Memorial Cross order to coincide with that date and be awarded to veterans of both the Red Army and the Romanian army.

Ekspert: Bakiyev could turn Kyrgyzstan into a drug country

The uprising in Kyrgyzstan was neither a planned clan action nor a color revolution, but a revolt of desperate people.

Its most striking element was the speed with which Kurmanbek Bakiyev's regime fell. Bakiyev's regime looked quite solid because he seemed to have consolidated power in his hands and the hands of his family. But it turned out that he controlled very few things in his country, most importantly not its law-enforcement agencies. When the day of reckoning came, they did not protect the regime either because they did not have the power to do so, or because they saw no reason to protect a corrupt regime.

Greed was Bakiyev's undoing.

"The Bakiyevs grabbed everything they could in that impoverished country," said Semyon Bagdasarov, a member of the international affairs committee of the Russian parliament's lower house.

"In the past, the powers that be held a certain share of the country's wealth, leaving the rest to business leaders and other families. But the Bakiyevs 'privatized' everything," he said.

The Kremlin is alarmed by developments in Kyrgyzstan, primarily because drugs from Afghanistan to Russia are trafficked via that Central Asian country. Bakiyev, who was affiliated with the drug barons of the southern Osh region, ensured them a favorable regime.

"In November last year, Kurmanbek Bakiyev liquidated the Drug Control Agency and transferred its powers to the Interior Ministry, even though the UN sees Kyrgyzstan as a main drug route," Bagdasarov said. "As a result, the volume of drugs detained in the republic plummeted 90% because the issue was no longer in the spotlight."

If the deposed president gains control of the southern part of the country, he could turn it into a drug state. This is why Russia has become involved in the Kyrgyz conflict and de-facto recognized the interim government, even though this could be seen as involvement in orchestrating the uprising.

April 19, 2010 

RIA Novosti 




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