Putin participates in opening ceremony of Russia-China oil pipeline’s Russian section

Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin

August 29, 2010

(KATAKAMI / RIA NOVOSTI) — Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin took part in the opening ceremony of the Russian section in the Russia-China oil pipeline, which took place in Russia’s Far Eastern Amur region on Sunday.

At the beginning of the opening ceremony Putin called the pipeline a multidimensional project to step up Moscow-Beijing energy cooperation. “This is vital project for us as we diversify the deliveries of our strategic raw materials. Thus far, we made the major deliveries to Europe…The Asia-Pacific region received unsubstantial volumes,” Putin said.

Setting the pipeline in operation will change the situation dramatically, the premier emphasized. “We will deliver 30 million tons of oil and, in case of expansion, 50 million tons to the Asia-Pacific Region.”

“The implementation of this project is a crucial task for Russia and our Chinese friends. It means stabilization of supplies and energy balance for China, and for us it creates entry to new challenging markets, in this particular case, to the growing market of China,” Putin said at the ceremony.

The project is part of the East Siberia – Pacific oil pipeline, which was launched into operation in December 2009 and is designed to pump up to 1.6 million barrels (220,000 tons) of crude per day from Siberia to the Far East and then on to China and the Asia-Pacific region.

The Russia-China pipeline will stretch from the town of Skovorodino in the Amur region to the city of Daqing in China’s northeastern Heilongjiang province.

“I recall how Chinese President Hu Jintao broached the issue of the project’s implementation in time of one of his visits to Moscow. We were then discussing the rout of the project, were the pipeline would lie: to the north or to the south of the Lake Baikal,” Putin said at the opening ceremony.

He emphasized that both Russia and China have known that the issues are complicated but all of them would be successfully resolved.

“I hope, our Chinese friends will tell the Chinese president and the prime minister about the fact… that the project has been accomplished in Russia. But Chinese friends will have to work for a while. Major efforts are ahead for them – 930 kilometers [of the pipeline] should be put up, these are high-technology operations,” Putin said.

“But I am absolutely confident that Russian oil will enter China this year,” he added.

In March, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said the construction of the pipeline would be finished by the end of the year and become fully operational in 2011.

Russia’s largest oil company Rosneft, oil pipeline monopoly Transneft and China’s state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) are partners in the project. In line with the contract, the Chinese side provided the Russian companies with a $25-billion loan to construct the pipeline. In exchange, the Russian side agreed to pump 15 million tons of oil per year via the pipeline in 2011-2030.

Putin stresses importance of new Far East space center

August 28, 2010

(KATAKAMI / RIA NOVOSTI) — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin underlined on Saturday the significance of a planned new space center in Russia’s Far East.

“We began talking about the necessity of building such a space center in 2005,” Putin, speaking at the Amur Region site where the Vostochny Space Center is to be built, said.

Russia currently uses two launch sites: the Baikonur space center in the Central Asian Republic of Kazakhstan, which it has leased since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the Plesetsk space center in northwest Russia.

“The creation of a new space center…is one of modern Russia’s biggest and most ambitious projects,” Putin went on. “It will give us the opportunity not only to confirm Russia’s leading technological status…but will give hundreds, perhaps thousands, of young specialists the chance to prove their talents.”

He also said that while Russia had signed an agreement with “friendly” Kazakhstan on the continued use of Baikonur until 2050, the Kazakh center alone was not sufficient for “such a powerful space force as Russia.”

Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said earlier in the day that all Russian manned space fights would be launched from the Vostochny Space Center from 2018,

He also said that cargoes and satellites would be launched from the space center from 2015.

The new space center, which will employ 20,000-25,000 people, will ensure Russia’s independence in the launch of piloted space vehicles, currently carried out at Baikonur.

Construction is expected to start in 2011, with design and survey work already under way.

Putin said in July that Russia would allocate 24.7 billion rubles (around $811,000) for the next three years for the construction of the space center.

Putin praises Russian car on 2,000-km drive in Far East

August 2010

(KATAKAMI / RIA NOVOSTI) — Russia’s car industry had a pleasant surprise for Vladimir Putin on Friday as the prime minister was moved to praise the Lada Kalina he is driving through four Far Eastern Russian regions.

Stopping to fill up the tank at a gas station almost 400 kilometers into his 2,000-kilometer trip along the newly-completed highway from Khabarovsk to Chita, Putin praised his Lada Kalina to a group of tourists.

“Unexpectedly, it turned out to be a very convenient, comfortable and reliable car,” Putin said when asked why he had chosen the latest offering from Russia’s car giant AvtoVAZ, which started selling the model in 2005.

“Try buying this car. I assure you, you won’t regret it,” he said.

He added that he would have been happy driving any AvtoVAZ car.

While western experts say the outlook for Russia’s indigenous car industry is grim, with some arguing the Russians only buy domestic cars because they cannot afford foreign marques, the Kremlin continues to put on a brave face.

Billions of rubles have been earmarked to help struggling automakers, and AvtoVAZ has been the main beneficiary of the country’s cash for clunkers scheme, which gives people trading in old cars 50,000 rubles towards the purchase of a Russian-made car.

These days, Russian-made vehicles include thousands assembled from imported knocked-down kits by Renault, Ford, Daewoo and many other international carmakers.

Despite the low price tags, many Russians remain wary of the Ladas and Volgas that have in various forms rolled off production lines for over 30 years now.

Even the country’s bureaucrats have resisted the allure of a domestic set of wheels – several feeble attempts to force them into Ladas and Volgas over the past decade have not gone beyond high-flown patriotic words in the parliament.

Instead, the elite have grown even more attached to their jet-black Mercedes and BMWs.

Russia Putin says cannot criticize late President Yeltsin

August 23, 2010

(KATAKAMI / RIA NOVOSTI)  Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has recently written an introduction to the book about the late Russian President Boris Yeltsin, saying he could not criticize the person who determined his future.

The Yeltsin’s biography, written by Boris Minayev, was published on the eve of the anniversary of Russia’s August coup d’etat in 1991 that resulted in ousting President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev and proclaiming Yeltsin the new president of Russia.

Russian social political weekly Ogonyok published on Monday the introduction written by Putin, who succeeded Yeltsin on the highest state position in 2000.

“I said several times that when Yeltsin’s presidency was coming to an end, that I saw a different destiny for myself. But everything turned out differently. And this was the choice of my life,” Putin wrote.

Putin said the unbiased assessment of Yeltsin’s actions can be made over the years since “we, contemporaries, are definitely biased to everything that was happening before our eyes.”

The premier said he personally could not criticize Yeltsin either.

Putin recalled what Yeltsin said when leaving the Kremlin in 2000: “Take care of Russia.”

“These exact words should remain in history, to become the main parting words for everybody who takes this high position,” Putin said.