http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/ Russia and former Soviet Union http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122287/ Russia and former Soviet Union Sun, 12 Feb 2012 12:00:16 +0200
Berdymukhamedov, a 54-year-old trained dentist, was elected to his first term with 89 percent of the vote in 2007, weeks after the sudden death of his eccentric, iron-fisted predecessor, Saparmurat Niyazov.

Berdymukhamedov came to power amid hopes of a gradual loosening of the country's closed political system, but those expectations have largely been dashed.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122275/ Russia and former Soviet Union Sat, 11 Feb 2012 16:15:35 +0200
The Ministry said Saturday that the adoptions should resume only after Moscow and Washington sign an accord that allows Russian monitors to visit the homes of adopted children.

A Pennsylvanian couple was convicted in November of the involuntary manslaughter of their son adopted from Russia.

In 2010, a Tennessee woman sent her allegedly violent adopted son on a plane back to Russia — unaccompanied by an adult.

U.S. citizens have adopted nearly 50,000 Russian children since the early 1990s.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122270/ Russia and former Soviet Union Sat, 11 Feb 2012 13:24:22 +0200
The members of the PACE pre-electoral delegation have met with four of the five presidential candidates (Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Gennady Zyuganov, Sergei Mironov, and Mikhail Prokhorov), Central Elections Commission Chairman Vladimir Churov, human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin, and Heidi Tagliavini, the head of the OSCE ODIHR mission.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122260/ Russia and former Soviet Union Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:37:32 +0200
The inquiry was ordered after allegations that the death of a 15-year-old boy in an ambulance on his way to hospital followed a beating by police.

The incident has caused public indignation in the city, the home town of both Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and a major centre of protests against the conduct of parliamentary elections in December.

An Interior Ministry spokesman told Russian state television Sukhodolsky had been sacked because of "systemic failures, including those linked to staff training". Medvedev's decree gave no reason for his dismissal.

Sukhodolsky has been tipped in some media as a possible replacement to Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev.

Protests against alleged fraud in the December elections have swollen into the biggest opposition rallies in Putin's 12-year domination of Russian politics.

The opposition say the new parliament is not legitimate and demand an election re-run. They are also questioning the legitimacy of the presidential poll in which Putin is seeking his third term in the Kremlin.

The opposition, which is particularly strong in large cities like Moscow and St.Petersburg, plans to stage more rallies before the election and has announced that it will continue to protest after the polls until its demands are met.

Sukhodolsky's spokesman Sergei Shevchuk, who was dismissed along with his boss, told reporters in St.Petersburg that the general was besieged in his office by OMON special police troops. His statement was later denied by the police.

"After I came to collect my personal belongings, OMON troops blocked my office. My aides could not come to their desks. It is very sad that a general can be treated like that," Sukhodolsky was quoted as saying by the daily Moskovsky Komsomolets.

Medvedev, who will step down in May, met Interior Ministry staff in Moscow on Friday, telling them the police faced "a period of hard work" ahead in election year and warning that there was no room for "hysteria" in their daily work.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122257/ Russia and former Soviet Union Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:48:04 +0200
The Interior Ministry had carried out an internal investigation following the death of the teenager, who had been detained as a suspect in a robbery.

The dismissal also followed reports of infighting and rivalry between Sukhodolsky and his deputy, and between Sukhodolsky and Russia's interior minister. Sukhodolsky had been the interior minister's first deputy before being appointed the St. Petersburg police chief in June of last year.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122235/ Russia and former Soviet Union Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:21:56 +0200
In recent years, there have been 19-to-20 annual suicides per 100,000 teenagers in Russia — three times the world average, Boris Polozhy of the respected Serbsky psychiatric center in Moscow said Friday.

"Until the highest authorities see suicide as a problem, our joint efforts will be unlikely to yield any results," he said.

In the southwestern Siberian region of Tuva, the rate reaches a staggering 120 suicides per 100,000 teenagers, while the nearby region of Buryatiya has an average rage of 77 per 100,000. Both regions are impoverished and have high crime and alcoholism rates.

Two 14-year-old girls in the Moscow suburb of Lobnya killed themselves this week by jumping off the roof of a 14-story building while holding hands. They had skipped classes for two weeks and were terrified of what their parents would do to them once they found out, Russian media quoted their friends as saying.

Several other recent teen suicides have been reported elsewhere in Russia.

Experts say that domestic violence and problems in schools are among the main reasons why adolescents take their lives.

Relations between Russian children and their parents are often "notable for their cruelty,"

said Natalya Sinyagina of the Education Ministry's Center for Education Issues in Moscow. "(But) school is also not the safest place for kids."

Russia's public schools are underfunded, staffed with poorly paid teachers and have been widely criticized for neglecting the issue of bullying among children.

"We've seen cases when a child says 'Better kill me, I'm not going to school,'" Sinyagina said.

Internet-savvy and handy with cell phones and computers, Russian teens spend hours on social networking websites and idolize pop stars just like teens elsewhere in the world. Experts say some teens romanticize early death and suicide, perceiving them as games, and are attracted by online suicide clubs that list the best ways to take your life.

"Video games and information found online have devaluated death," says Urvan Parfentyev of the Moscow-based Center for Safe Internet.

"I have seen websites that offer a thousand ways of killing oneself," said Zurab Kikelidze, Health Ministry's chief psychologist.

Pavel Astakhov, the government-appointed children's rights ombudsman, said school psychologists should find and help suicidal teenagers on social networking websites and crack down on cyber-bullying, another widespread cause of teenage suicides.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122240/ Russia and former Soviet Union Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:13:31 +0200
The agency said Nesterets committed treason as he worked as a senior engineer at the Plesetsk launch pad in northwestern Russia, a facility the military uses to launch satellites and test its new missile systems.

The security service's terse statement did not say when Nesterets had been arrested or give any further details about his case.

Russia's RIA Novosti news agency quoted the officer's wife, Irina, as saying she could not understand the guilty plea because her husband had told her he did nothing wrong and had not betrayed his country.

The conviction comes amid growing tension in U.S.-Russian relations, despite President Barack Obama's efforts to overcome strains that had developed during the previous U.S. administration.

Relations between Moscow and Washington have worsened over a new U.S.-led missile defense system being developed by NATO around Europe, and Russia teaming with China to block a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have urged Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has been increasingly eager to challenge the U.S. as he campaigns to reclaim the Russian presidency in next month's election. He has accused Washington of driving the mass pro-democracy protests in an effort to weaken Russia.

Political scientist Pavel Salin said the case against Lt. Col. Nesterets should be seen in the context of the presidential election.

"The Russian authorities are pushing the idea of Russia as a besieged fortress, and in order to buttress this idea they need big, scandalous cases to show that the Western special services are active on the country's territory," Salin said.

Earlier this week, Putin's protege, President Dmitry Medvedev, praised the Federal Security Service for exposing 41 foreign intelligence officers and 158 of their agents last year.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122252/ Russia and former Soviet Union Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:58:26 +0200
"Well, did you drink the water?" Putin asked Russia's Natural Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev after being presented with a vial of water which the government said was from the Vostok borehole.

Trutnev, looking flustered, assured Putin that he had not tried a drop of the water.

"Well it would have been interesting you know: dinosaurs drank it and Trutnev, a member of the Russian government, too," Putin said with a smile.

Trutnev stifled a chortle and said he did not want to be dinosaur.

Sealed deep under the ice, Lake Vostok is one of the world's last unexplored frontiers. Scientists suspect its depths may provide a glimpse of the planet before the ice age.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122229/ Russia and former Soviet Union Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:30:35 +0200
The footage appeared aimed at showing Russia's scientific prowess and helping Putin's bid to reclaim the presidency in March's election. Putin hailed the discovery of Lake Vostok as a "great event" and said the research team members will receive national awards.

After more than two decades of drilling, the Russian researchers reached the lake on Sunday at a depth of 12,366 feet (3,769 meters) in a location about 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) east of the South Pole.

Reaching the surface of Lake Vostok, the largest of nearly 400 subglacial lakes in Antarctica, was a major discovery avidly anticipated by scientists around the world.

The lake is expected to hold living organisms that have been locked in icy darkness for some 20 million years, as well as clues to the search for life elsewhere in the solar system.

Scientists believe that microbial life may exist in the dark depths of the lake, despite its high pressure and constant cold — conditions similar to those believed to be found under the ice crust on Mars, Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus.

American and British teams are drilling to reach their own subglacial Antarctic lakes, but they are smaller and younger than Vostok.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122234/ Russia and former Soviet Union Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:50:08 +0200
Currently serving as prime minister, Putin is campaigning in a presidential election that will extend his rule to 2018 with promises for tougher measures to fight corruption.

He once dismissed a journalist's speculation about his personal wealth as snot smeared over paper.

When asked about the perception of corruption, Putin's election campaign chief, film director Stanislav Govorukhin, said that corruption had existed for centuries in Russia and that Putin had managed to tame the excesses of the 1990s.

"Putin didn't give birth to it. Corruption existed in tsarist Russia," said Govorukhin, 75, who is best known for his cult 1979 Soviet film, "The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed", about the hunt for a gang of robbers.

"In the 1990s, there was no corruption. Instead it was a thieving outrage, open plunder. Billions were stolen, factories and whole sectors. They destroyed and stole, they ground Russia into dust," he told the Trud daily newspaper.

"Today we have returned to 'normal', 'civilised' corruption which, alas, there is in China though they shoot them there and in Italy and in America," he said. "We are dragging ourselves out of the thieving outrage."

While the comments appear to be an attempt to address widespread concerns about corruption by reminding Russia's voters about the chaos of the 1990s, they also underscore how acceptable graft has become for the Russian elite.

Russia is ranked as the most corrupt country in the Group of 20 by anti-corruption campaign group Transparency International, though in 2011 it rose to 143rd place in the 183-country index, beside Nigeria and Uganda, from 154th place in 2010.

CIVILISED CORRUPTION

Corruption, which plagued tsars and communist general secretaries for centuries, reached vast proportions as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and is now a way of life for many Russians, from small bribes paid routinely to traffic police to multi-million dollar kickbacks for officials who hold sway over the $2.1 trillion economy

"He is right in that corruption has become more organised. I think that is what he means with the word normal, and that it is more civilised, if he means it is carried out by people wearing very good suits," said Yelena Panfilova, head of the Moscow office of Tranparency International.

"The worst corruption in Russia now happens not on the street but quietly in very civilised offices and is carried out by people in very good suits. So in a purely visual sense, it looks more respectable but that doesn't make it less terrible and less damaging for the country," said Panfilova.

Govorukhin, who said corruption did not exist under Soviet leader Josef Stalin, argued penalties for corruption should be increased, suggesting the confiscation of property for those convicted of corruption offences.

"Under Stalin, by the way, there was no corruption. It blossomed only in the last years of the Soviet Union," he said.

Putin, he said, would win in the first round of the presidential election.

Western executives say the biggest barriers for business in Russia are alarming levels of official corruption, mounds of red tape and the arbitrary rule of law.

Perceptions of corruption have also undermined Putin's authority among the urban youth. At the biggest protests of his 12-year rule, opponents chanted "Putin is a thief" and his ruling party was cast as the party of "swindlers and thieves" in the Dec. 4 parliamentary election.

OLIGARCH TAX?

Putin, 59, was clearly taken aback by the scale of the protests against alleged vote rigging in the parliamentary election, initially dismissing opponents as the pawns of the West and even branding them chattering monkeys.

But as the seriousness of the challenge became evident, Russia's most popular politician changed tack, reshuffling his team, promising gradual reform and underlining his self-cast role as the father of Russian stability.

Speaking to Russia's richest men on Thursday, Putin sought to use the ghosts of the rigged state asset sales of the 1990s to underline his reputation as the slayer of oligarchs since the 2003 arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, then Russia's wealthiest man. Khodorkovsky is still in jail.

The rigged sales under Boris Yeltsin are still immensely controversial as they made a tiny group of savvy businessmen - known as oligarchs - fabulous fortunes while ordinary Russians were thrown into poverty.

"We need to close the period of the '90s, of what, speaking honestly, was dishonest privatisation," Putin said in a speech to the Russian Federation of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), a big business group known as 'the oligarchs' union' which controls two thirds of the Russian economy.

"This should be a one-off contribution, or something like that. We should think about something like that."]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122231/ Russia and former Soviet Union Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:08:10 +0200
The agency said that Nesterets worked as a senior engineer at Plesetsk launchpad in northwestern Russia. The facility run by the Russian military is used both for launching satellites into orbit and for testing missiles.

A terse statement issued by the FSB didn't say when Nesterets was arrested or give any further details.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122216/ Russia and former Soviet Union Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:02:14 +0200
The organizing committee supported the idea of a 'human ring' along the inner side of Garden Ring in Moscow and a subsequent assembly near the Kremlin, "where an action has been planned, called 'Sending Off Putin's Political Winter', timed to coincide with the end of Maslenitsa (the week before Lent begins)," Udaltsov said.
"The action will be arranged in the form of a flash mob, and details will be made public in the near future," he said.

A mass rally 'For Fair Elections' is planned on one of the central squares in Moscow for March 5, at which people can sum up outcomes of the March 4 presidential election, Udaltsov said. "Notification will be forwarded to the Moscow city administration 15 days before the rally," he said.

In addition, the opposition plans a march 'For Fair Elections' in the city center between March 8 and 10, and the exact date will be determined through voting on the Internet, he said.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122214/ Russia and former Soviet Union Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:42:01 +0200
In an apparent effort to thwart the move, riot police late Thursday raided Dzhioyeva's headquarters in the provincial capital, Tskhinvali. The local government said in a statement that Dzhioyeva was hospitalized in serious condition after the raid.

Dzhioyeva and her Kremlin-backed rival in November's election both advocated close ties with Russia, which recognized South Ossetia as an independent state after the brief 2008 Russian-Georgian war and still has troops in the region.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122211/ Russia and former Soviet Union Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:04:07 +0200
Alexei Pushkov, the head of the State Duma's foreign affairs committee, said Russia strongly opposes another "operation to promote democracy."

Russia and China used their veto power at the U.N. Security Council to block a resolution urging Assad to step down. The move came even as the Syrian government forces intensified their crackdown and drew strong international condemnation.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122210/ Russia and former Soviet Union Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:52:31 +0200
Sixty-four accidents have been registered across Russia in relation to disruptions in the utility sector, the minister said. That includes 35 emergencies in the housing and utility infrastructure, 23 in the electricity infrastructure and six in transport.

The most significant accidents include power supply disruptions in the Krasnodar Territory, traffic disruptions on the R-228 motorway in the Murmansk region, as well as in the Saratov and Volgograd regions, Shoigu said.

"Overall, the Russian warning system is working efficiently," he said

To minimize the effect of the frosts, assistance services have been organized for vehicles stuck on the 21st federal and 42nd regional motorways, he said.

"In addition, 2,540 warming shelters have been opened [on the motorways]. In cooperation with the executive authorities, 685 warming shelters have been opened in 593 towns and villages. More than 4,000 people sought their services in the past 24 hours alone and over 30,000, since the start of the abnormally cold period," the minister said.

Emergency response services are on high alert, and backup power sources and equipment are on standby, Shoigu said.

Today, 1,900 diesel power stations are ready to operate, he said.

Temporary accommodation with a 30,000 capacity can be provided, if need be, the emergency situations' minister said.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122153/ Russia and former Soviet Union Thu, 09 Feb 2012 20:34:16 +0200
But Gorbachev, reviled by many Russians for unleashing the bold reforms that helped sink the Soviet Union, said Putin's continued rule put Russia's future into question.

"I don't think he will be able to change course and I am saying we need a change of the entire system, not just handouts or sporadic steps," Gorbachev told students in a lecture at Moscow's International University.

"If he cannot change things and change himself, and I think that will be very difficult for him, then I think people will pour out into the streets."

The father of "perestroika" (restructuring) and "glasnost" (openness) advised protesters who have come out in their tens of thousands over recent weeks against alleged vote-rigging to ensure their demands were clear and to remain strong.

Protest leaders, a fragmented group of politicians, activists, journalists and bloggers, have called for a re-run of the Dec. 4 parliamentary election which they say was rigged. Official results show Putin's party won 49.3 percent of the vote.

Gorbachev warned protesters to guard against provocateurs who he said would try to incite people to burn down Moscow and thus force a clampdown by the security services.

AGILE

Fielding questions for two hours from students, the 80-year-old former leader of the communist world appeared mentally agile, even joking with one student who asked for a date and advising others to buy his books to find answers.

Gorbachev dismissed the criticism of his countrymen, saying the whole world recognised his achievements. He is feted in the West for ignoring hardliners who advised him to crush growing dissent in the eastern bloc which led to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

Putin, who has ruled as president and then prime minister since late 1999, has presented himself as the anchor of Russian stability.

But his plan to take over the presidency from Dmitry Medvedev has provoked a backlash from within the elite and from younger urban voters.

Gorbachev criticised what he called the "political chemistry" of Putin's Russia and said he did not believe the official reason - invalid signatures of support - for the banning of opposition leader Grigory Yavlinsky from the presidential election on March 4.

"I think Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin) is doing everything to win in the first round," Gorbachev said. "He is convinced that he will win of course."]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122130/ Russia and former Soviet Union Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:20:56 +0200
It's all part of Poland's ambitious goal to exploit Europe's biggest estimated deposits of shale gas. Beginning in 2014, Warsaw wants to tap an estimated 5.3 trillion cubic metres of recoverable reserves of gas - enough, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, to supply Poland with more than 300 years of its domestic energy needs.

But the shale gas push is about more than energy. Poland wants to break its reliance on Russian energy and reduce Moscow's power over Europe. That is one reason why Warsaw has welcomed U.S. oil majors such as Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Conoco and Marathon, even though it risks igniting tensions with Russia.

"If this thing comes true, if the American technologies deployed here at some point are really able to produce this gas, then this means a winning situation for the whole of Europe really," Radzieciak said in an interview in his small office filled with sports trophies, banners from local teams and a large map of Poland on the wall. "It would create more competitiveness on the gas market, which is now dominated by Russia, and one side would not be able to force anything unilaterally anymore."

Western European capitals are just as eager as Poland to diminish Russian influence over supplies. Russia currently supplies 25 percent of deliveries to the European Union. Daniel Yergin, a Pulitzer-prize winning author and energy historian who included a chapter on shale gas in his latest book "The Quest", sums up Warsaw's thinking: "They're motivated to develop it economically and they're motivated to develop it politically."

But Russian officials, publically at least, dismiss the challenge, arguing it will prove Russian gas is cheap.

"Oh, we're so thrilled that they are starting to produce shale gas!" Sergei Komlev, head of contract structuring at Russia's state-controlled Gazprom told Reuters last week. "Look, we do not believe in this myth of shale gas, that it is cheap gas. It is not true."

FRACKING? NO PROBLEM

There is one good practical reason Poland has turned to U.S. companies to unlock its huge shale fields: American firms dominate shale gas technology.

The breakthrough came in 2003 when independent U.S. drillers, led by Devon Energy Corp, combined drilling at once-impossible angles, known as horizontal drilling, with hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking" - an older technology in which shale rock is cracked open by chemical-laced water blasted underground along with sand to prop the cracks open.

The United States produced 4.87 trillion cubic feet from shale gas in 2010, up from virtually nothing in 2000 according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The agency estimates shale gas will account for about 46 percent of U.S. natural gas production in 2035 -- an encouraging sign for Poland and other eastern European nations exploring unconventional gas.

But the torrid pace of shale development has also sparked a public backlash in the United States and elsewhere over fears that fracking pollutes groundwater and may cause earthquakes. Similar worries have led to a ban in France and Bulgaria and suspension in Britain. Fracking is also the subject of public debate in Germany.

A European Union study commissioned study found in January that EU law was enough for now to regulate shale gas exploration, although changes might be needed once Europe enters the development phase.

In Poland, so far, energy security concerns have trumped environmental worries. In comparison with countries such as Britain or Germany, the green movement is less powerful in coal-reliant eastern Europe. A late 2011 poll found that 73 percent of Poles backed developing shale while only four percent opposed exploiting the unconventional gas.

A short drive outside Lesniowice, workers at a Chevron-operated well-head keep a massive drill running 24 hours a day in search of the natural gas trapped in rock deposits.

"I have no worries at this stage, the technology seems 100 percent safe," said mayor Radzieciak, who estimated that potential revenues from shale could mean a more than 10-fold increase of his office's current annual budget of 10 million zlotys ($3.15 million). "People here are more opposed to wind farms than this."

THE FEARS IN MOSCOW

A Poland awash in gas could mean dwindling revenues and further loss of influence in a region Moscow once controlled with an iron fist. Are Russian officials too dismissive of the threat?

Moscow, some diplomats and oil analysts say, believes that Poland's weak infrastructure, among other problems, will slow the country's ability to exploit its gas.

"They are aware of the dangers," one Western diplomat said. "But they really don't believe shale will happen in Europe."

That could be why Gazprom felt confident enough to cut supply to Europe during the recent cold snap.

Others say Russia is only too aware of the shifting dynamic. Poland's investment in shale gas since 2009 has already shifted the terms of trade, according to Robert Hormats, the U.S. under-secretary of state for economic, energy and agricultural affairs. One obvious change: Russia and Poland renegotiated Poland's gas contract last year at terms very favorable to Warsaw.

Amy Myers Jaffe, an energy policy expert at the Baker Institute at Houston's Rice University, sees rival gas sources as a factor behind Russia's April deal with Exxon in which state-run Rosneft brought in the U.S. giant to accelerate its development of deepwater Arctic oil and gas.

Other analysts say Poland and other rivals were not a factor in that deal.

A Baker Institute report showed that Russia's market share of European gas fell from about a quarter to a fifth in the decade to 2010, partly due to increased use of natural gas diverted from the over-supplied U.S. market.

"Especially in gas, countries like Russia that were slow to the mark are losing market share and are going to lose more market share," she said. "There's a finite market which is going to go to shale, because I can do that quickly, and it doesn't require a $10 billion (LNG) installation where I have to put all that money at risk."

Poland currently relies on coal for most of its energy needs; natural gas, most of it Russian, accounts for about 13 percent of its supply. That gives Poland more leverage over Russia than is sometimes apparent.

"The last thing they (Moscow) want is anything that upsets their monopoly on gas," said William Perry, a former U.S. secretary of defense after a trip to Moscow to discuss nuclear proliferation. "I think it's fair to say that they are very concerned about it."

The Russian Energy ministry declined to comment.

POLAND'S BUMPY ROADS AHEAD

Much needs to be done in Poland if it is to wean itself off Russian supplies. Any boom will require thousands of skilled workers to build and operate wells and construct the roads and pipelines required to transport gas westward.

"For Poland to move forward  the key thing is going to be the scale-up," said John Claussen, Chevron's country manager for Poland.

One incentive for outside investors is the fact that gas prices in Europe are more than two times higher than in the United States. And with long-term contracts in Europe and Asia tied to oil prices, shale gas remains attractive despite worries about a weak economy that could cap future demand.

Poland's government has so far granted more than 100 exploration licenses, and hopes the eight currently active wells prove that extracting gas is viable-though the first two have so far been disappointing.

Malgorzata Maria Klawiter, an official from near Gdansk in northern Poland, remains optimistic. Gdansk has distributed 89 concessions covering about 85 percent of the region. In total, licenses cover 58,565 square kilometres, or some 18 percent of Poland's land.

Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Beata Stelmach said the next step is to enact legislation needed to attract investors and give them assurances they will see returns for exploration that can cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

"If we move to production level, then Poland's international position can change from a gas importer, to producer, or maybe eventually even exporter," Stelmach said. "This changes not only the domestic situation by improving energy security, but also strengthens the competitiveness of our country.

"Our Gazprom contract runs until 2022 and let's until then move within the framework of this contract. But, at the same time, we have to keep our fingers crossed to develop the shale gas project."

John Buggenhagen, the Warsaw-based exploration director for San Leon energy, said that while other former Soviet-bloc nations such as the Czech Republic, Hungary and Ukraine are exploring similar developments, it is Poland that offers the most promise.

"Look at the history of Poland," Buggenhagen told a recent shale gas conference in Warsaw. "We are only 23 years from the fall of communism and we are in an energy rush with a country that has been reliant on coal and on supplies from the east."

At Chevron's site outside Lesniowice, head of drilling Tim Nowak and his crew are doing all they can to make that happen. The site is a hive of activity with trucks owned by Halliburton parked in the lot, and drill parts and pipe casings strewn across the ground. The low rumble of the drill drones on in the background.

Nowak acknowledges the challenges of creating an industry from the ground up. But as he guides a tour around the first of Chevron's five exploratory wells in Poland, he remains positive. "Right now Poland is an exciting place to be," he said.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122127/ Russia and former Soviet Union Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:47:57 +0200
"If he does not overcome himself, change the way things are — and I think it will be difficult for him to do that — then everything will end up on city squares," Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, said at a news conference.

Gorbachev said of Putin: "He won't carry that weight. By now he has exhausted himself."

Hours later, however, Putin came forward with suggestions of how to cut corruption — a constant plague in Russia — and even made amends with businessmen involved in the unpopular 1990s privatization of state enterprises.

Gorbachev recently urged Putin to give up power and annul the results of December's fraud-tainted parliamentary vote, which triggered the anti-Putin rallies. The thousands of protesters also have joined Kremlin critics in accusing Putin's government of cracking down on dissent, limiting press freedom and breeding widespread corruption in Russia.

Gorbachev led the Soviet Union from 1985 until its collapse in 1991. He remains admired abroad, but he is regarded as insignificant at home and his comments are not likely to threaten Putin's grip on power.

Putin, meanwhile, is striving to show that he still has a vision of reforms in Russia.

In an address to a business leaders' association, Putin said he would like businesses to work more closely with the government on drafting legislation and shaping policies.

But he also urged the business community to revisit the 1990s privatization wave in which many major factories and assets were sold at bargain prices to those who have become Russia's richest men.

"We need to close this problem of the 1990s, what was, frankly speaking, dishonest privatization," Putin said. "This should a one-off contribution or something like that. But we need to think about it together."

Putin is running against five other candidates, and one of them, New Jersey Nets tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov, is trailing second in polls in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Prokhorov addressed the same business group a few hours before Putin and suggested that businessmen voluntarily donate 1 percent of their personal income and 0.2 percent of their companies' profits to a "social fund" to finance important but expensive projects like cancer and heart disease research or schools for talented children.

"Only this approach could help us regain trust of the society," he said.

Prokhorov left before Putin addressed the same audience, listing steps that could help Russian businesses, such as cutting the number of permits needed for opening and running businesses and rewriting Russian labor laws to make them more business-friendly.

Although Putin was enthusiastically received by the audience, the business executives still seem to take his promises with a pinch of salt.

"All of this is doable," Moscow-based consultant Andrei Muradov said, referring to Putin's list of ways to improve the business climate. "The important thing is that it's done with a long-term political will, and not just for the sake of election campaigning."]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122125/ Russia and former Soviet Union Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:19:01 +0200
"China and Russia are selling arms to the government of Sudan in the full knowledge that many of them are likely to end up being used to commit human rights violations in Darfur," said Brian Wood, an expert on military and policing for Amnesty International.

"To help prevent further serious violations of human rights, all international arms transfers to Sudan should be immediately suspended and the U.N. arms embargo extended to the whole country," he added.

It is not illegal to supply weapons to Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, but states are required to have so-called "end-use" guarantees from the Sudanese government that the arms will not end up in Darfur.

Russia is also under the spotlight for selling arms to Syria, where the government has killed thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators, while at the same time vetoing a U.N. resolution that called for authoritarian leader President Bashar al-Assad to step down.

China was the only other U.N. Security Council member to block the move.

Mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in Sudan's western Darfur region in 2003. Khartoum set out to crush the rebellion, unleashing a wave of violence that Washington and some activists call genocide.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122124/ Russia and former Soviet Union Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:05:54 +0200
Putin has built his campaign on a contrast with the turbulent 1990s, when millions were thrown into poverty after the collapse of the Soviet Union while ethnic conflicts such as the war in Chechnya threatened to tear Russia apart.

Patriarch Kirill, a bearded cleric seen as a modernising figure in the Russian church, the largest in Orthodox Christianity, compared the period preceding Putin's ascent to power to the 1941 Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union.

"What were the 2000s then? Through a miracle of God, with the active participation of the country's leadership, we managed to exit this horrible, systemic crisis," Kirill told a meeting at the ancient St. Daniel's monastery.

"I should say it openly as a patriarch who must only tell the truth, not paying attention to the political situation or propaganda, you personally played a massive role in correcting this crooked twist of our history," Kirill said.

Putin replaced the ailing Boris Yeltsin as president in 2000. He presided over an oil-fuelled economic boom until the global economic crisis struck the country in 2008.

Banned by the constitution from running for a third consecutive term, Putin stepped down in 2008 but remained in charge in the position of prime minister.

He looks set to win the election despite the biggest opposition protests of his rule but may be forced into a second round if he fails to get more than 50 percent of the vote in the first.

OPPOSITION "SHRIEKS"

Kirill called opposition demands to "ear-piercing shrieks" and said the protesters represented a minority of Russians. He said Western consumer culture was admired by many of Putin's opponents and was a major threat to Russia.

"The majority, I assure you, are those who agree with what I am saying," Kirill said.

Kirill's speech was echoed by leaders of other faiths.

"You had it right, the fact that they (opposition protests) took place on Saturday suggests that it was not a Jewish business," Russia's chief rabbi, Berel Lazar, told Putin.

"We joked in the synagogue that it would have been better to come for a prayer on that day."

The gathering was also attended by four muftis from predominantly Muslim Russian regions, a Buddhist lama, an Armenian bishop and representatives of Roman Catholics and other Christian churches.

"Muslims know you, Muslims trust you, Muslims are wishing you success," said mufti Ravil Gainutdin. Mufti Ismail Berdiyev from the turbulent North Caucasus added: "You are the only person who has shown the United States its place."]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122112/ Russia and former Soviet Union Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:23:26 +0200
"It is absolutely necessary to replace the Russian State Duma - this Duma is totally illegitimate - and to elect governors," he said.

Gorbachev also thinks that the promises given by the program articles of Putin "must be kept or otherwise he must be called to account."]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122107/ Russia and former Soviet Union Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:23:59 +0200 http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122099/ Russia and former Soviet Union Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:05:56 +0200
"Of course if we get minus 45 [degrees] throughout Russia then some measures will have to be taken, but the sun is shining today," he said.

"We've made pretty good preparations for the winter. We've been producing more gas. We've put more gas into storage, enabling us to tap an extra 25 million cu m per day. Gazprom is capable of keeping Russian consumers fully supplied with gas. Winter is already at an end. Peak consumption has passed," Golubev said.

Last year, Gazprom limited supplies to the majority of Russian consumers under milder temperatures, but it also exported significantly more gas than at present.

Gazprom said that it is exporting the necessary contracted minimum amounts of gas, but this is still lower than the operative applications from purchasers in Europe. Italy currently has a Russian gas shortfall of 11% per day, whereas last week the gap approached 30%.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122096/ Russia and former Soviet Union Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:29:23 +0200
He also spoke of the need to establish a single system of enterprises working for air and space defense.

"Russia has several corporations working in the sphere of air and space defense. They cannot be knitted into a single concern. But an integral system must be made. An integrator should be developed for air and space defense," he said.

"We are interested in combining the defense industry, research and customer," Rogozin concluded.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122065/ Russia and former Soviet Union Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:36:14 +0200
Valery Lukin, the head of Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) who oversaw the mission and announced its success, likened the endeavor to the epic race to the moon won by American scientists over the Soviets in 1969.

"I think it's fair to compare this project to flying to the moon," he said Wednesday.

The Russian team hit the lake Sunday at the depth of 12,366 feet (3,769 meters) about 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) southeast of the South Pole in the central part of the continent.

Scientists hope the lake may allow a glimpse into microbial life forms that existed before the Ice Age and are not visible to the naked eye. Scientists believe that microbial life may exist in the dark depths of the lake despite its high pressure and constant cold — conditions similar to those expected to be found under the ice crust on Mars, Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus.

"In the simplest sense, it can transform the way we think about life," NASA's chief scientist Waleed Abdalati told The Associated Press in a email.

American and British teams are drilling to reach their own subglacial Antarctic lakes, but Columbia University glaciologist Robin Bell said those lakes are smaller and younger than Vostok, which is the big scientific prize.

"It's like exploring another planet, except this one is ours," she said.

Lake Vostok is 160 miles (250 kilometers) long and 30 miles (50 km) across at its widest point, similar in area to Lake Ontario. It's kept from freezing into a solid block by the mammoth crust of ice across it that acts like a blanket, keeping in heat generated by geothermal energy underneath.

The technological challenges of drilling through the ice crust in the world's coldest environment have made the project unique.

Temperatures on the Vostok Station on the surface above have registered the coldest ever recorded on Earth, reaching minus 89 degrees Celsius (minus 128 degrees Fahrenheit), and conditions were made even tougher by its high elevation, more than 11,000 feet (3,300 meters) above sea level, resulting in thin oxygen.

The effort, however, has drawn strong fears that 60 metric tons (66 tons) of lubricants and antifreeze used in the drilling may contaminate the pristine lake. Bell said the Russian team was doing its best "to try really hard to do it right" and avoid contamination, but some others were nervous.

University of Colorado geological sciences professor James White was among those who urged caution about drilling into subglacial lakes.

"Lake Vostok is the crown jewel of lakes there," White said by telephone. "These are the last frontiers on the planet we are exploring, we really ought to be very careful."

Lukin said Russia had waited for several years for international approval of its drilling technology before proceeding to reach the lake. He said about 1.5 cubic meters (50 cubic feet) of kerosene and freon poured up to the surface tanks from the boreshaft, proof that the lake water streamed up from underneath, froze and then blocked the hole, sealing off the chance that any toxic chemicals could contaminate.

Russian scientists will later remove the frozen sample for analysis in December when the next Antarctic summer season comes. They reached the lake just before they had to leave at the end of the Antarctic summer, as plunging temperatures halted air links.

Some scientists hope that studies of Lake Vostok and other subglacial lakes will advance knowledge of Earth's own climate and help predict its changes.

"It is an important milestone that has been completed and a major achievement for the Russians because they've been working on this for years," said Professor Martin Siegert, a leading scientist with the British Antarctic Survey, which is trying to reach another Antarctic subglacial lake, Lake Ellsworth.

"The Russian team share our mission to understand subglacial lake environments and we look forward to developing collaborations with their scientists and also those from the U.S. and other nations, as we all embark on a quest to comprehend these pristine, extreme environments," he said in an email.

Americans scientists are drilling at Lake Whillans, west of the South Pole.

In the future, Russian researchers plan to explore the lake using an underwater robot equipped with video cameras that would collect water samples and sediments from the bottom of the lake, a project still awaiting the approval of the Antarctic Treaty organization.

The prospect of lakes hidden under Antarctic ice was first put forward by Russian scientist and anarchist revolutionary, Prince Pyotr Kropotkin, at the end of the 19th century. Russian geographer Andrei Kapitsa noted the likely location of the lake and named it following Soviet Antarctic missions in the 1950s and 1960s, but it wasn't until 1994 that its existence was proven by Russian and British scientists.

The drilling in the area began in 1989 and dragged on slowly due to funding shortages, equipment breakdowns, environmental concerns and severe cold.

The lake's pristine water may make entrepreneurs sweat just thinking of its commercial potential, but Lukin shot that idea right down.

He said his team had no intention of selling any Vostok water samples but would eventually share the results of their work with scientists from other nations.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122079/ Russia and former Soviet Union Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:01:48 +0200
Lavrov's remarks indicated that Russia, which vetoed a draft U.N. Security Council resolution supporting an Arab League call for Assad to cede powers, has not changed its stance on Syria following his meeting with Assad in Damascus on Tuesday.

Lavrov reiterated Russia's call for countries that have influence with opponents of Assad to press them to enter dialogue with the government. Moscow has accused Western nations of encouraging Assad's opponents to avoid talks.

"We need to get the government and all opposition groups to sit down at the negotiating table," Lavrov said.

Russia said it blocked the resolution on Saturday because it believed adopting it would have meant taking sides in a civil war in Syria, where the United Nations says more than 5,000 people have been killed in 11 months of violence.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan during a telephone conversation later on Wednesday that the search for a solution to Syria's crisis should continue, including in the U.N. Security Council, but that foreign interference was not an option, the Kremlin said.

Lavrov said the draft resolution, which was backed by Western and Arab nations, put too little pressure on armed opponents of Assad to stop violence and would have allowed them to occupy cities following the withdrawal of government forces.

He made clear Russia did not approve of decisions by the United States and other countries to shut their embassies in Syria, saying that "we do not understand the logic of this" and that it would not help efforts to resolve Syria's crisis.

Lavrov reiterated Russia's support for an Arab League initiative floated last November that envisaged a withdrawal of troops from cities and towns, the release of prisoners and reforms.

In Damascus on Tuesday, Lavrov said Assad assured him he was committed to seeking an end to violence by all sides but he made no suggestion that the government, which blames the bloodshed on armed extremists, would halt its military offensive unilaterally.

Assad said he would cooperate with any plan that stabilised Syria, but made clear that he was referring only to last November's Arab League proposal that called for dialogue and other measures - not to a January plan that called for him to cede power.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122076/ Russia and former Soviet Union Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:11:27 +0200 http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122075/ Russia and former Soviet Union Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:01:24 +0200
Loening planned to meet with Ales Belyatsky, a leading Belarus rights activist who was convicted of tax evasion and imprisoned in November.

His trial was widely criticized by U.S. and European officials as politically motivated.

Loening — who also hoped to meet with dissidents and relatives of other prisoners — said: "I very much regret that I am not welcome in Minsk."]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122073/ Russia and former Soviet Union Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:54:16 +0200
Unable to compete on the local market, where some 60 percent of assets are split between state-controlled lenders, Barclays decided in February last year to sell the unit for an undisclosed sum and focus on investment banking.

Expobank said on Wednesday it is going to rebrand the former Barclays retail business during spring-summer 2012.]]> http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/122067/ Russia and former Soviet Union Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:59:46 +0200
Nazarbayev says it covers areas such as rare earths — needed by makers of high-tech goods — and metals.

Merkel says she also addressed human rights in Kazakhstan, and December clashes in the Kazakh oil town of Zhanaozen in which at least 16 people died.

She says she supports the president in calling for a commission of inquiry to find out what happened there.]]>