


	Remember me on this computer
	Forgot your password?
	Register

MT news

The Moscow Times Moscow Guide – Winter 2008

Since the middle of autumn one of the most important topics of discussion, could only be … no, not the financial crisis… New Year! The winter issue of The Moscow Times Moscow Guide is entirely devoted to New Years celebrations. Seven great ideas for celebrating the “Night of Nights” will help readers finalise their plans and choose how and where to party, give fresh ideas and lots of practical advice.

And don’t forget – problems will come by themselves, but happiness and luck need an invitation. That why the more cheerful and light-hearted your celebration of the coming holiday is, the happier and more successful 2009 will be for you.

The Crisis: Signs of a Kremlin Fearful Of Unrest
Sociologist Yevgeny Gontmakher has painted a disturbing picture of what might emerge from the financial crisis, forecasting continued unemployment, huge protests and spreading violence.

Market Matters: Huge Grain Harvest No Boon for Farmers
This year Russia is enjoying the biggest grain harvest it has ever seen -- and farmers couldn't be more worried.



Tuesday, January 06, 2009 Updated at 31 December 2008 22:36 Moscow Time.

The Moscow Times » Issue 4002 » Business

Dmitry Astakhov / Ria-Novosti

Merkel and Medvedev arriving in St. Petersburg on Thursday, where they oversaw a gas deal and discussed Georgia.

Gazprom, E.On Agree to Asset Swap

03 October 2008ST. PETERSBURG — Germany's E.On on Thursday agreed to swap part of its stake in Gazprom for an interest in a field that will help the gas monopoly fill the Nord Stream pipeline to Europe under the Baltic Sea.

The deal was struck at the St. Petersburg Dialogue, a German-Russian forum attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Dmitry Medvedev.

E.On will take 25 percent minus one share in the license holder of the Yuzhno-Russkoye gas field, and Gazprom will get the 49 percent it doesn't own of Gerosgaz, the two companies said in a statement. Gerosgaz holds 2.93 percent of Gazprom.

E.On will join BASF, its partner on the Nord Stream pipeline, in developing Yuzhno-Russkoye, which may produce half of the capacity for Gazprom's subsea link to Germany.

E.On and Gazprom said they planned to close the deal on the field near Tomsk, in western Siberia, in the second half of next year.

BASF agreed to take a 25 percent stake in the project after giving up a share in distribution venture Wingas and swapping assets in Libya. BASF also received one privileged share in Yuzhno-Russkoye's license holder, Severneftegazprom, representing an additional 10 percent economic interest in the company without voting rights.

E.On is paying about 3.9 billion euros ($5.4 billion) for its stake in the field, more than the 1.5 billion euros that BASF spent on its interest last year, according to Bernhard Jeggle, an analyst at Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg in Stuttgart, who has a "buy'' recommendation on E.On.

"It's still pretty expensive," he said. "It might have been safest to keep a larger holding in the parent company rather than the field."

Gazprom expects the field to produce 25 billion cubic meters of gas per year from 2009 and Nord Stream to come on stream the following year.

Gazprom plans to build the 1,200-kilometer pipeline with partners Wintershall, E.On Ruhrgas and Gasunie of the Netherlands.

E.On will keep its direct 3.5 percent holding of Gazprom.

At Thursday's forum, Medvedev said third countries shouldn't interfere in the Nord Stream pipeline, an apparent reference to recent comments by a U.S. diplomat who called for the project to be reconsidered.

"We hope that states outside the region that have nothing to do with the project won't try to influence its progress,'' Medvedev said during talks with Merkel in St. Petersburg.

Michael Wood, the U.S. ambassador to Sweden, last month published a commentary saying Europe should consider alternatives to the project following the war in Georgia.

Despite the energy deals, strains between Germany and Russia over August's war in Georgia were evident at Thursday's forum.

"We view Russia's reaction [in Georgia] as disproportionate and said trust must be rebuilt," Merkel said.

Medvedev said the countries' partnership had survived tensions caused by the war and said they should work together to overcome the international financial crisis and redesign the U.S.-centered global economy.

"Problems connected to the [financial] crisis are paramount; the rest have stepped back," he said. "The events showed that the time of domination by one economy and one currency is irreversibly gone."

Bloomberg, Reuters