Rossiiskaya Gazeta

About 2 million Russian children wait in line for kindergarten

The number of kindergartens in Russia has halved in 20 years, as a result about 2 million children have to wait in line for access. Only some of them will actually get it, others will start school without ever having experienced kindergarten.

The Prosecutor General's Office is already working on this issue. It has recently calculated how many kindergartens there are in Russia, putting the figure at a little over 45,000 compared with over 76,000 in 1992. Moreover, in 19 regions some kindergartens are being used for other purposes, and those that are functioning normally are oversubscribed. The first penalties have been initiated: seven criminal cases were opened, over 100 people were held to account, and 300 claims and over 1,000 petitions were filed. However, experts believe that these actions alone cannot resolve the problem.

In general, no one in the national government is directly engaged in this issue, as the powers were transferred to local governments long ago, and the actions of the latter depend on their available budget. So places lucky enough to have solid foundations, like Moscow, enjoy a better position.

For example, only about 60% of children aged 1.5 to 7 years attend kindergartens in the Samara Region, the Krasnodar Territory and other regions, as there is not enough room for the remaining 40%. Parents from Samara have held numerous pickets in front of the regional government and parliament, asking them to resolve this problem. However, 50,000 children are still waiting in line and the birth rate continues to grow.

Other regions are experiencing a similar problem. Pickets were held in the Sverdlovsk Region, Novosibirsk Region, Yekaterinburg and Arkhangelsk. Local authorities are trying to improve the situation, but they lack money and energy, and there is only a very slow increase in the number of kindergartens, although almost all regions have programs to reconstruct the old and build new kindergartens.

Some local governments have found unconventional ways to solve this problem. For example, the Samara Region government decided to put an extra story on kindergarten buildings, saying it was cheaper than building new facilities. The Krasnodar Territory government ordered the opening of kindergartens in schools in any area where there are no kindergartens at all, and in June the Sverdlovsk Region government issued an order to increase the maximum number of children enrolled in any one kindergarten.

However, there is still no general nationwide solution. It seems that the problem will only be resolved in the coming years if the federal government takes the initiative.

Vedomosti

Ukraine wants to review contracts with Gazprom

The existing gas contract is the result of a 20-day gas war, which left some European countries without gas. Since it was signed, Ukraine has griped about it and has actually achieved some success in altering it: at the end of 2009 Gazprom agreed to a 20% cut in the volume of gas to be purchased by Ukraine in 2009-2010, and in early 2010 Russia lifted an export duty on gas deliveries to Ukraine. This alone saved Kiev $10 billion in 2010, says Denis Borisov, a Bank of Moscow analyst.

The Kharkov agreements rolled back gas prices and enabled Ukraine to make ends meet, says Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov. But he described the document as fettering and voiced the intention to review it: above all, he says, it is necessary to amend the price formula, which is based on an average of gas oil and fuel oil prices in Europe and calculated with a nine-month lag. In the 4th quarter, gas will cost $390 per 1,000 cu m. A price like that could spell disaster for Ukraine's economy and people, Azarov says.

As it signed the contract, Gazprom said that $450 was the market rate and an average price for supplies to Europe. Since then prices in Europe have fallen, but the benchmark rate has remained unchanged, says Vitaly Lukyanenko, Azarov's spokesman. A Ukrainian government official said that one of the proposals is the netback of the German market price less the transport charge to Russia's borders with Ukraine. If Gazprom agrees, the benchmark price will be cut by 40% and be $270 per 1,000 cu m. That would save Ukraine $3 billion in 2010, says Borisov.

Ukraine does not use gas oil in its fuel budget, so it is not correct to link the price to this commodity, the Ukrainian government official said. Kiev is also unhappy about the tough penalties. Gazprom has already abandoned fines for failing to purchase the contracted amount, which helped Ukraine save $1.3 billion in 2009, said Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov. Combined with monthly fines, this makes $8.5 billion, says the Ukrainian presidential secretariat. Now Kiev wants to delete the average daily supply quota from the contract: it allows for a 6% margin. Otherwise Ukraine's Naftogaz may face a fine of 150% to 300%, depending on the season, according to the government official.

Gazprom and Naftogaz declined to comment on the talks.

There have been no official negotiations as yet, said the government official, but Ukraine's demands are well known, and are likely to be the main topic of Russian-Ukrainian talks in the fall.

Kommersant

Mobile Internet revolution to come this fall

Russia boasts only few examples of successful innovative businesses, but this however does not mean that they are entirely absent from the market. On August 30 Russia's Yota Internet provider is launching a fourth-generation LTE (Long Term Evolution) network in Kazan. The company recently opened an office in London and is entering foreign markets: it has proved a success in Nicaragua, and has announced its plans to build networks in Belarus and Peru. According to The Economist, Yota owes this success to its technology and marketing policies, which have enabled the company to become one of Russia's leading Internet providers in just over a year.

Yota has indeed been developing at an unprecedented rate for Russia. This new broadband provider was first announced in October 2008. Yota entered the Russian market in June 2009. The company won 600,000 customers in a year and its fourth-generation WiMAX networks appeared in five of Russia's main cities - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Ufa, Krasnodar and Sochi - which have a total population of 25 million. This stunning progress was made possible by the company's simple and skilful marketing and the fact that it prioritized unlimited 4G broadband.

By October 2009, the company already had 200,000 customers and was turning a profit. In the first half of 2010 Yota earned $66 million while the overall investment in the company totals $500 million.

The Russian market has been effectively revolutionized. Yota has successfully gained representation in Russia's chains of electronics and mobile phone stores, where, according to a survey by the Public Opinion Foundation, the company's modems are both recommended and purchased more frequently than its competitors. Experts say that it is already impossible to break the trend of broadband Internet becoming cheaper. Moreover, it was Yota that triggered this technological revolution. The company was one of the first to pay attention to LTE. As for now, only Japan boasts an LTE network. Thanks to Yota, Russia will be the second. The United States will join the club in November.

Many providers using WiMAX technology remain wary of LTE. For example, it is incompatible with older generations of mobile networks and smartphones supporting it are still scarce. Meanwhile, Skartel, the company operating under the Yota trademark, has already announced a tender to create its own LTE smartphone. Experts believe that although today LTE is still quite a new market entrant, it could have as many subscribers as WiMAX a year from now. Experts from Ericsson and Nokia share this opinion, saying that LTE technology will completely dominate the mobile Internet market by 2015.

Kommersant

Moscow restricts imports of Moldovan fruit and vegetables

Russia's food safety watchdog has reduced the number of Moldovan companies that are allowed to export fruit and vegetables to Russia. The restrictions are in addition to already existing sanctions introduced by the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Supervision (Rosselkhoznadzor) against Moldovan wines. Economic relations between Moscow and Chisinau have deteriorated following the acting Moldovan President Mihai Ghimpu's openly anti-Russian actions. Russian officials insist, however, that the restrictions are not politically motivated.

The Moldovan Agriculture Ministry was first to report on Rosselkhoznadzor's decision to reduce the number of Moldovan companies allowed to export fruit and vegetables to Russia. Moldovan Agriculture Minister Valery Kosarchuk announced that more than 100 Moldovan companies had been banned from exporting fruit and vegetables to Russia. Before the ban, 136 companies were allowed to export these products to Russia, the minister said. Following the restrictions, only 33 companies can continue exporting fruit and vegetables to Russia. Pesticides found in the Moldovan products were named as the main reason for the ban.

The new sanctions, imposed by Rosselkhoznadzor, could seriously damage Moldova's agriculture-based economy, as exports to Russia account for 80% of the country's total fruit and vegetables output. Even more so, as they come on the heels of the earlier sanctions against Moldovan wines, imposed by another Russian agency, the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Protection and Welfare.

Even if the trade war with Chisinau is not politically motivated, experts say it will still have an impact on the internal political situation in Moldova in the run up to the parliamentary elections this fall. The quality of Moldovan wines is far from perfect, as the country produces several times more wine than its capacities allow, Moldovan political analyst Bogdan Tsyrdya believes. However, he says political aspects are also present in the Russian sanctions, as they can play into the hands of leftist forces, such as the opposition Communist Party and the Democratic Party.

Another Moldovan political analyst, Vitaly Andrievsky, also believes that Moscow's sanctions will certainly affect voter preferences. Ghimpu has been consistently and deliberately irritating Russia, as he is more concerned with scoring points with his right-wing electorate than with the country's national interests. His main goal is to be viewed as the main leader of the Russophobes in Moldova, Andrievsky said. "With regard to the Russian embargo, it can play into the hands of the Communists, but that is too simple an answer. What's more important is that voters are becoming frustrated and irritated by the fact that ordinary people are suffering because of the games played by politicians. This can result in political destabilization."

Vzglyad

Lithuania says Gazprom is pressuring sovereign states

Gazprom has announced its intention to sue Lithuania over its energy reform plans, which could deprive the Russian energy giant of its property there. In response, Lithuania released a statement regarding large companies pressuring a small country.

The conflict between Gazprom and Lithuania flared up on Wednesday over Lithuania's plans to reform its gas pipeline system in accordance with the European Commission's third energy market liberalization package, which provides for dividing the gas transportation business and pipeline ownership.

If Lithuania carries out the reform, Lietuvos dujos, a Lithuanian company 76% owned by Gazprom and Germany's E.On Ruhrgas, will lose control of the country's trunk gas pipelines. Gazprom paid $35 million for a stake in Lietuvos dujos in 2004.

Lithuania's plans have alarmed both partners, who decided at their joint meeting on Wednesday that Lithuania must comply with the agreement that made them shareholders in Lietuvos dujos.

Gazprom intends to file an appeal against the Lithuanian government's actions in an international commercial court and will demand damages, reads a letter from Valery Golubev, a deputy CEO of Gazprom, to the prime minister of Lithuania.

The letter also says that a lawsuit is not Gazprom's preferred action.

The Lithuanian government immediately responded that the bulk of Gazprom's claims are not justified and that it would not review its energy reform plans. According to the government, the reform should break the monopoly in the gas market and help it implement strategic projects, such as the construction of an LNG terminal and a gas pipeline to Poland.

The Lithuanian energy minister told the press that Gazprom's intention to appeal to an international commercial court regarding the energy reform plans amounted to crude pressure.

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MOSCOW, August 26 (RIA Novosti)