18 February 2004 21:41
Yesterday in Brief for February 18, 2004
The following is a digest of headline news from February 17 to 11:30 a.m. on February 18: UES CONSOLIDATED NET
PROFITS DOWN 25%
Russian power monopoly Unified Energy Systems (UES) saw its consolidated IAS net profits shrink 25% year-on-year in
January- September 2003 to 16.6 billion rubles, because the company had to pay deferred tax on profits arising from a
fixed asset revaluation as of January 1, 2002, the company said in a press release.
UES in its fourth-quarter financial report named Sberbank as nominal owner of a 10.5%-block of shares thought by
analysts to belong to gas giant Gazprom. UES officials have neither confirmed nor denied Gazprom's stake, while
Gazprom has said its stake in UES is less than 10%. YUKOS TO BOOST OIL PRODUCTION NEARLY 9% IN 2004
company, was charged on Tuesday with stealing more than $30
million in revenue from the sale of apatite concentrate, a
Yukos plans to increase oil production by 8.9% to 88 million tonnes in 2004 and to 110 million tonnes by 2010,
according to a report prepared to Russian accounting standards.
The company's board of directors will confirm the 2004 production plan on February 26. YUKOS'S LEBEDEV HIT
WITH ANOTHER CHARGE
Yukos co-owner Platon Lebedev, who was arrested in July 2003 for allegedly embezzling a state-owned 20% stake in an
apatite
Vainshtok said that the company would approach the Federal
Energy Commission with a request to increase its oil
spokesman for the Prosecutor General's Office said.
Several days ago, Lebedev was charged with large-scale personal tax evasion. TRANSNEFT TO INCREASE BALTIC PIPELINE
CAPACITY
Russia's pipeline monopoly Transneft plans to increase the capacity of the Baltic Pipeline System from 30
million tonnes to 42 million tonnes per year within the next 10 days, company President Semyon Vainshtok told
journalists in London.
transportation tariffs. TNK-BP, SIBNEFT TO SPLIT MEGIONNEFTEGAZ LICENSES
Oil majors TNK-BP and Sibneft, owners of Slavneft, plan to divvy up the licenses to Slvaneft's main producing
enterprise, Megionneftegaz, on a parity basis, TNK-BP chief executive German Khan told reporters in London.
Khan also said TNK-BP was considering buying Sibneft's stake in Slavneft but that no talks were held on this
today. REGULATOR LETS NORILSK NICKEL TRADE SHARES ABROAD
The Federal Securities Commission allowed Norilsk Nickel to have common shares traded outside Russia, the
commission's press office said. ALCOA EYES RUSAL DOWNSTREAM UNITS
Sweden's IKEA is planning to increase production in Russia
by 750% in the next five years to $600 million worth of goods,
U.S. aluminum giant Alcoa has been negotiating the purchase of two downstream units - the Belaya-Kalitva fabrication
plant and the Samara Metals Plant - belonging to RusAl, Russia's biggest aluminum company, the Rostov regional
administration said in a news release. AVTOVAZ UPS SALES IN RUSSIA 3.4% IN 2003
Avtovaz, Russia's biggest carmaker, upped sales in Russia 3.4% to 610,000 in 2003 from 590,000 in 2002, the
company said in its quarterly report. The company said it produced just under 700,000 cars in 2003, from 703,000 in
2002.
Avtovaz held 42.6% of the Russian car market in 2003, compared with 41.6% in 2002. IKEA TO INCREASE PRODUCTION IN
RUSSIA
including $400 million worth of furniture, IKEA Deputy General Director Gerhard Eggert said during a meeting with the
State Customs Committee. ROSTELECOM IAS NET PROFITS DOWN 60% FOR JAN-SEPT 2003
Net profits at Russia's long-distance provider Rostelecom dropped 60% to $36.4 million under international
accounting standards in the first nine months of 2003, the company said. GLITCH SUSPECTED OF BLOCKING MISSILE
TEST-FIRE
A satellite glitch kept two ballistic missiles from firing from the nuclear submarine Novomoskovsk during an exercise
that President Vladimir Putin was observing during a pre-election visit to Russia's Northern Fleet, a fleet staff
source said, citing what he called a preliminary report.
Navy commander Vladimir Kuroyedov denied the report, saying that simulated electronic launches had been mistaken for
abortive shooting. 26 VICTIMS FOUND IN AQUA PARK RUBBLE IDENTIFIED
Rescue workers have recovered 26 bodies from the rubble of the Transvaal aqua park in southwestern Moscow after the
roof collapsed on Saturday, and all have been identified, Moscow city police chief Vladimir Pronin told Interfax on
Wednesday.
Rescue teams found the body of a 13-year-old boy on Wednesday, the last person on a list of missing people who may
have been at the water park when the tragedy occurred, Pronin said. FSB CONCLUDES MOSCOW METRO BLAST WAS SUICIDE
BOMBING
The Federal Security Service (FSB) concluded that the February 6 explosion in the Moscow metro was a suicide
bombing.
"Experts have concluded that an explosive device equivalent to 4 to 5 kilos of TNT was used, composed of
ammonium nitrate, aluminum powder and TNT, identical to the homemade bomb used by terrorists in a commuter train in
Yessentuki in 2003," the FSB told Interfax on Tuesday.
Forensic experts have officially identified 40 victims, the FSB said. HIV PATIENTS NOT GETTING TREATMENT IN
RUSSIA
Of more than 750,000 HIV-positive people in Russia, only 1,000 are receiving real help, experts estimate. Many who
are HIV- positive are not registered or do not take the necessary medical tests, Kalman Mizsei, director of the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS, said during a televised discussion of HIV
and AIDS on Tuesday. CIS AND THE BALTICS GEORGIA COMPLETING NATO COOPERATION PLAN
The Georgian government announced that the country has virtually completed drafting a plan for individual cooperation
with NATO, and may receive NATO aspirant status in the near future, said Lt. Col. Irakly Batkuashvili, chief of the
Georgian General Staff's office coordinating NATO's Partnership for Peace program in the country. GEORGIAN
PARLIAMENT CONFIRMS NEW GOVERNMENT
The Georgian parliament on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly in favor (165 of 170 deputies) to confirm a new government
led by Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania.
The Georgian government will have four ministers of state and 15 other ministers. KAZAKHSTAN RECEIVES $24.5 BLN FDI
IN 1993-2003
Total foreign direct investment in the Kazakh economy in 1993-2003 amounted to $24.5 billion, Yerlan Arinov, head of
the investment committee at the republic's Industry and Trade Ministry said Tuesday. The main investors in this
period were the United States, Britain, Italy, South Korea and Switzerland, he said. AIDS RATE DOUBLES IN KAZAKHSTAN IN
2003
Sixty-eight new AIDS cases were registered in Kazakhstan in 2003 from 28 in 2002, the State Statistics Agency told
Interfax. As of January 1, 2004, 4,001 people were reported as being HIV- positive, of whom 153 had AIDS. Kazakhstan has
a population of more than 14.9 million. FORMER BROADCASTING OFFICIAL ARRESTED IN BELARUS
Yegor Rybakov, former chairman of the Belarussian TV broadcasting company, has been taken into custody on suspicion
of abuse of power, theft and bribe-taking.
The press center of the Belarussian Prosecutor General's office told Interfax on Tuesday that the detention was
authorized by the Deputy Prosecutor General.
[Interfax] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
