04 December 2003 21:37
Daily Headline News for December 4, 2003
The following is a digest of headline business news from December 3 to 11:30 a.m. on December 4, 2003: RUSSIA *** The
world community does not yet possess "a truly effective and comprehensive algorithm" to control the
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a Security Council session on
Wednesday. Russia consistently meets its nonproliferation commitments and is ready to cooperate with other states in
this field, Putin said.
The Russian government will produce a program to guarantee safety in the sphere of nonproliferation of weapons of
mass destruction by the middle of next year, Deputy Prime Minister Boris Alyoshin told reporters after a Security
Council session. *** Russian President Vladimir Putin has confirmed Russia's support of the UN as an authoritative
and multifaceted institution in a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the presidential press service said on
Wednesday. *** Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said Moscow understands the opposition of the
United States to attempts to drag out talks on the North Korean nuclear problem by including matters of purely bilateral
interest on the agenda of the negotiations. *** Russia's government is moving toward the ratification of the Kyoto
Protocol, an international agreement to reduce the discharge of greenhouse gases, a Deputy Minister of Economic
Development and Trade Mukhamed Tsikanov, who is responsible in the government for the Kyoto Protocol process, said. ***
Russia's federal budget surplus totaled 238.9 billion rubles in January-September 2003, the State Statistics
Committee reported. *** Russia will continue to seek the lifting of U.S. sanctions from companies suspected of helping
Iran develop its missile and nuclear programs, Deputy Security Council Secretary Oleg Chernov said. *** The U.S. Embassy
plans to start fingerprinting Russians applying for visas from December 9, unconfirmed reports say. *** Russian Prime
Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said the country's industrial output is expected to show an increase of 7%, and gross
domestic product an increase of 6.5% for this year. *** The Central Bank of Russia is planning to raise the share of
gold in its forex reserves to 10%, but does not think this is possible next year, First Deputy CB Chairman Oleg Vyugin
said. *** Standard & Poor's Ratings Services is keeping its 'BB' ratings on Yukos on CreditWatch with
negative implications, and its 'B+' ratings on Sibneft on CreditWatch with developing implications, following
media reports of Yukos owing $5 billion in back taxes (subject to further confirmation by the legal authorities).
Shareholders in Yukos and Sibneft are continuing to hold intensive talks and hope to announce the preliminary results
of these talks by the start of next week that began last Friday, when Sibneft announced a merger deal between the two
oil majors was being suspended. *** The International Finance Corporation (IFC) said it would invest $600 million in
Russia projects this year, as much as in 2002. *** The board of directors at Unified Energy Systems of Russia has
offered UES Board Chairman and former Presidential Chief of Staff Alexander Voloshin to become the company's
full-time chairman and will discuss the proposal, if he accepts, at a meeting on December 5. CIS AND THE BALTICS *** The
United States has pledged comprehensive assistance to Georgia, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Lynn Pascoe told
journalists. *** Ukraine and Pakistan will hold a series of bilateral meetings in Kyiv this week to discuss cooperation
in the oil and gas sector, in particular pipelines construction, Naftohaz Ukrayiny said. *** Any breaches of law related
to the visit of Boris Berezovsky to Tbilisi will be punished, Georgian presidential candidate Mikhail Saakashvili told
reporters on Wednesday. WORLD *** The members of OPEC, who will hold a regular meeting in Vienna on Thursday, are
divided on whether to change their oil production ceilings.
[CEIW] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
