Ruminations on Russia

According to the Moscow Times (no link love due to ante-deluvian archiving policy) Oleg "the natural resources beast" Mitvol is off to the US to lecture the likes of Capital International on how to invest in Russian E&P stocks.

Presumably such tips include;

• Open a short position - launch an enquiry



• Close short position, open long position, meet with relevant governor. Admit that you were in the wrong, sell long position.

Brilliant investment advice.

Oleg Mitvol, the environmental regulator who threatened to halt a $20 billion Shell project last year, said Wednesday that he planned to advise U.S. fund managers on how to invest in Russia's natural resources.

Mitvol will hold meetings with investors from Capital Research & Management, American Century Investments, Fidelity Investments, UBS, State Street and Wells Capital Management during a trip to the United States next week, the deputy head of Federal Service for the Inspection of Natural Resources Use said in a statement.

Mitvol said he would travel from Sept. 4 to Sept. 7, on an invitation from the investors. He will be accompanied by Igor Maidanov, director of the Natural Resources Ministry's department for international cooperation.

Mitvol to Go on U.S. Lecture TourLast year, Mitvol led a campaign against Shell's Sakhalin-2 project in the Far East, which did not subside until the foreign-owned development ceded control to state-run Gazprom.

Bloomberg

I have not read Transitions Online, but it gets mentioned reasonably frequently in the english language Russian blogosphere so when this article Europe’s Escape Routes, was linked to via the authoritative The Oil Drum, which found the story on Business Week, it seemed worth a read.

I was close to giving up after reading the first paragraph:

Wary of Moscow's stranglehold on natural gas supplies, the EU hopes several planned pipelines will provide a way out.  Russia's threat in early August to nearly halve the amount of gas it exports to Belarus over unpaid bills must have brought back bad memories for many in Europe.

on the assumption that everyone, bar Edward Lucas, has just about worked out that Russia has to sell its gas to Europe in order to pay for the developments that will allow it to sell its gas to Europe.  But I struggled manfully through to the second paragraph:

Memories, for instance, of earlier this year, when Russia cut off the gas that flowed through its Druzhba pipeline to Belarus in a dispute over price hikes and tariffs. At that time, a wave of disruption surged down the supply chain.

Just imagine the turmoil, if you aren't getting gas through Druzhba then all those cars won't run.  Except that the author was talking about natural gas, not US gas.  No wonder it had knock-on effects in the supply chain.  If you were waiting for gas through the Druzhba pipeline then your supply chain is probably pretty screwed-up.

Within days, the Czech Republic and Slovakia (who rely on Russia for around 65 percent of their natural gas) saw their shipments halved. Poland and Germany began tapping reserves, and other countries looked to increase imports from other suppliers like Norway.

Except that the Druzhba is an oil pipeline as a cursory search would show this as the top hit:

Druzhba pipeline - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Druzhba pipeline (Russian: нефтепровод «Дружба») is the world's longest oil pipeline, it carries oil some 2500 miles from southeast Russia to points in ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druzhba_pipeline - 24k - Cached - Similar pages

Technorati Tags: Gas, Russia

After some considerable, but worthwhile wait, Ecto3 has been released; albeit in Alpha version.

Has not crashed my struggling laptop yet.

Writing in today's (01/08/2007) FT Quentin Peel once again manages to put
the western side of the Russian debate, whilst acknowledging Russian
concerns and western policy mistakes and missteps. It is a difficult line
to tread, and in this case done with some nuance.

What confounds many of us who try to convey a balanced view is the utter
cynicism with which the Fifth Directorate Thugs conduct business. a
mirror to the same cynicism displayed in the UK and US without even a
smattering of a critical press to print, and embarrass, just how corrupt
the posturing is.

Reverting to the taxi driver school of foreign reporting, and as a result
of a 2 hour journey to DME in the middle of July: if the vlast had to
experience this, how different it would be. The ability to drive would
help - some 40-50 per cent of licences are bought.

Neil Buckley, the very antithesis of a competent foreign reporter, has over
the last few days reported that we await VVP's glorious return in 4 years
for another 7 years.

God forbid (as if he/it/she had anything to do with it): damn this
certainty, can' t we have some hope that things might get better.

Returning to London to get SWMBO and CC#1 via Domodedovo. Firstly huge
kudos to East Line for DME, it is really a first class airport these days
(well compared to everywhere else), once you have checked in (albeit avoid
Sector B if you can). Time between checking in and having a beer in my
hand must have been at least 7 minutes. Of which, 3 minutes was waiting
for a beer and 2 minutes in passport control. Not sure if the whizzy
security machine is of any use (in my previous incarnation I looked at a
number of these technologies - let's just say there is probably a reason
that they are not used in London or New York).

None of which is pertinent to the subject of this story. The coffee shop
at DME gives an excellent view of the businessmen leaving the BA lounge,
which given the time of year are all British (or American) as the
biznessmen are now safely ensconsed with the tall and beautiful who have
been topping up their tans for a month already.

And what a strange lot we are. Guys, it was 25 degrees in Moscow today - a
worsted wool suit with tie in a shirt whose neck size might have been
appropriate when you were 18. Pasty and with an unhealthy addiction to
crackberries.

They actually made Russian youth look healthy.