What the Russian papers say

Russia to have prison chaplains/ Gas in exchange for pipeline/ New Russian space center to launch spacecrafts in 2018/ LTE development postponed/ Russian submarine gives British Navy a fright

Nezavisimaya Gazeta

Russia to have prison chaplains

Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service has launched an experiment to set up a system of prison chaplains in four Russian regions, the service head said.

Alexander Reimer said the plenitentiary service is conducting the experiment jointly with the prison ministry department of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The Synodal Division for Prison Ministry was set up on March 5, 2010 and is headed by Bishop Irinarkh (Grezin) of Krasnogorsk. He organized services like this in the local prison camps when he was the bishop of Perm and Solikamsk.

At his first news conference in this new role, on June 3, Bishop Irinarkh said he would promote the prison ministry.

"Currently, the Moscow Patriarchate cannot allocate any funds...but the time will soon come when we will be able to carry out all our welfare activities with state support," he said.

To be able to do so, "we must prove to the state and officials that we can do it," the bishop said.

Importantly, the experiment is a Federal Penitentiary Service initiative.

On the day Bishop Irinarkh held his press conference in Moscow, the Kemerovo Diocese Council met to discuss the official letter from the Federal Penitentiary Service asking them to formulate their proposals on prison chaplains.

Gleb Kurlyuta, who heads the prison ministry for the Kemerovo Region, said the Federal Penitentiary Service plans to roll out the experiment across the Saratov and Kamchatka regions and the republic of Mordovia.

The Kemerovo Diocese Council decided that prison authorities should fund prison ministries. In other words, prison chaplains will draw their salaries from the Federal Penitentiary Service.

Meanwhile, the Russian Orthodox Church is working energetically in the penitentiary system. According to the Federal Penitentiary Service website, as of August 1, 2010, there were 523 prayer facilities at prison camps and pretrial detention premises.

This figure includes 40 mosques and 2 synagogues, as stipulated in official statements made by the Federal Penitentiary Service when cooperation agreements with Russia's Council of Muftis and Federation of Jewish Communities were signed.

This means that the overwhelming majority of prison chaplains will represent the Russian Orthodox Church.

Vedomosti

Gas in exchange for pipeline

Ukraine could receive regular deliveries of cheap Russian gas if it shares its gas transport system with Russia, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said.

Ukraine can buy Russian gas at the Russian domestic price of about $60 per 1,000 cu m, i.e. 40 percent cheaper, if Gazprom and Naftogaz unite, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said on the Vesti-24 (News-24) channel after talking to his Ukrainian colleagues on Friday. Gazprom and Naftogaz could form a joint venture based on a common Russian-Ukrainian resource base. According to Miller, "this could lead to a stable gas supply in Ukraine." "We are discussing various options to expand our cooperation; approaches that should benefit both companies and the Russian and Ukrainian people," Ukrainian Fuel and Energy Minister Yuriy Boyko said, commenting on Miller's statement.

Gazprom presented Naftogaz with a list of deposits that could be included in a joint venture, Miller said. He did not go into specifics, but said these options could be "large deposits" of 0.8-1 trillion cu m of gas in western Siberia and Russia's south. Gazprom and Naftogaz are discussing projects to explore gas fields in Astrakhan, a source directly involved with Naftogaz's activities said. In exchange, Gazprom wants control of the Ukrainian pipeline system, it added.

Under the law, the gas transport system must remain the property of Ukraine. Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych could change the law (his Party of the Regions makes up the majority of the parliament), but it is unlikely, as such a move would trigger opposition, Kiev Institute of Global Strategies Director Vadym Karasyov said.

Karasyov believes Moscow has touched Ukraine's sore spot: gas prices. Ukrainians purchase gas at a reduced price, about $100, whereas businesses buy it at the import price, about three times as much.

A stable supply is another sore spot: the Nord Stream and South Stream pipelines could leave Kiev on the sidelines of Russian gas transport. Gazprom has not given any supply guarantees for the Ukrainian pipeline system, a source directly involved with the Ukrainian government said.

A Gazprom-Naftogaz merger was suggested by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in April 2010. Kiev would not gain a lot in this joint venture, believes former Ukrainian presidential envoy on energy security issues Bohdan Sokolovsky: Russian officials admit that Ukraine would get only 5 percent of the joint venture in exchange for 100 percent of Naftogaz and Ukraine's gas transportation system.

The establishment of a joint venture is a compromise, Sokolovsky believes: Moscow would be able to take part in the management of the Ukrainian pipeline system, and Kiev would get access to Russian gas fields and would continue to have gas delivered through its pipeline system.

Vzglyad

New Russian space center to launch spacecrafts in 2018

The first launch pad at the Vostochny space center in Russia's Far East will be commissioned in 2015, and the first spacecraft will be launched in 2018, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told a meeting on Saturday.

The Vostochny space center will reaffirm Russia's status as a leading hi-tech power and will boost development of its Far Eastern regions.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting at the Vostochny space center, which is under construction, and reaffirmed Russia's readiness to build its own spaceport. This will make Russia a leading hi-tech power and will boost development of its Far Eastern regions.

Putin familiarized himself with the architectural plans and a model of the future space center before the meeting. Federal Space Agency Head Anatoly Perminov told the Prime Minister that there were plans to build two launch pads, complete with all the required pre-launch infrastructure and vehicle-assembly buildings, at the Vostochny site. A special astronaut-training facility is also under construction there.

Perminov said the hi-tech Vostochny space center will be ten times smaller than the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan and three times smaller than the Plesetsk center in northern Russia.

Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said a silo-based Strategic Missile Force unit was previously located at the construction site. Four converted ballistic missiles have launched commercial payloads from there.

Designers chose this particular site as it is conveniently located near the Trans-Siberian Railroad, the Chita-Khabarovsk motor road and the Amur River.

The first Vostochny launch facility is to become operational in 2015.

"The relevant organizational and managerial structure should be established by 2011. The first launch facility will be built in 2015-2016, and the first manned missions will be launched from this space center in 2018-2020," Putin said.

The new space center will launch multi-role spacecraft, unmanned space vehicles and cargo craft of various categories and possibly even International Space Station (ISS) modules.

Russian spacecraft are currently launched from Baikonur. Although Russia and Kazakhstan have signed an agreement on the joint use of the Baikonur space center until 2050, Moscow needs to build its own space center in line with military security and other considerations, Putin said.

RBC Daily

LTE development postponed

The establishment of LTE (Long Term Evolution) test zones in Russia has been postponed indefinitely.

The Ministry of Defense, which manages the frequencies for the 4G network, opposes the project. Market experts say that, in the end, the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media could give up on the tests and transfer this right to the companies that will eventually receive these frequencies for commercial use.

The postponement was leaked by a government agency source. Deputy Communications and Mass Media Minister Naum Marder confirmed the information on Friday, explaining that the issue needed further scrutiny.

A source close to the regulating authorities said that the issue of testing these 4G networks at present depends on the Defense Ministry. In early summer, the ministry refused to allocate the frequency band of 2.3-2.4 GHz and 790-862 MHz for tests because this band is partially used for military purposes. The ministry has not changed its decision so far. "There may be no LTE test zones at all," a source told RBC Daily.

The companies that will receive these frequencies for commercial use are most likely to be testing the LTE standard. This will help the government avoid a tricky situation when mobile network operators invest in setting up test zones and then demand that they be given certain frequencies.

The decision on who will test the new fourth-generation networks has not been taken yet. Sources said earlier that the Communications and Mass Media Ministry will test them assisted by related independent organizations. There were rumors in spring that the test could feature several network providers, including the so-called Big Three - MTS, Beeline and Megafon - and Tele2.

It has been decided that the 4G test zones will be set up outside Moscow and St. Petersburg. The list of regions which were to host the tests included Kostroma, Sverdlovsk, Rostov and Primorye. The LTE technology was to be tested in all the frequency bands that the International Telecommunication Union has determined as the most suitable for the technology's development, namely 790-862 MHz, 700 MHz, 900-1800 MHz, 2.3-2.4 GHz and 2.5-2.6GHz.

Rossiiskaya Gazeta

Russian submarine gives British Navy a fright

A Russian nuclear-powered submarine was spying on the British strategic submarine Vanguard carrying Trident intercontinental missiles, a British broadsheet newspaper reported.

The report says the Russian submarine tried to record the unique engine sounds of the British Navy's underwater missile carrier. If that had happened, Britain's strategic deterrence would have been at risk. Fortunately for the deterrent force, the Trafalgar nuclear-powered submarine was dispatched to intercept the Russian Akula and chased the Russian spy away from the British coast, scuttling the perfidious Russian mission.

The incident reportedly took place six months ago, but was not disclosed until now. And there is another interesting detail. British media have reported a record number of acoustic contacts made with Russian submarines in the North Atlantic since 1987.

What is happening in reality? The Main Headquarters of the Russian Navy said it is just regular combat training. And the fact that Russian nuclear submarines have been sailing in the open oceans only shows that submariners are resuming their normal professional drills. Many Russian boats had been moored at their berths for too long.

Project 971 nuclear submarines known as Shchuka-B under the Soviet classification system belong to third-generation submarines and are a steel copy of titanium Project 945 "barracudas" - the best multi-purpose nuclear submarines at the end of the 20th century. They are designed to chase hostile submarines of all types, as well as aircraft carrier groups. A distinctive feature of these boats is that they are capable of detecting the traces of a surface or an underwater ship in the ocean several days after its passage through the particular spot. This was reported in the open press in the early 1990s. In addition, the boats run very quietly. That was perhaps the reason why NATO called Project 971 submarines the Akula, or sea shark.

The appearance of such a boat off Scotland, if it really happened, is in no way connected with reconnaissance, in the opinion of Russian submariners. Rather the boat was practicing a hunt for a strategic submarine. Though risky, it is a common business.

To conduct reconnaissance, Russia has long built special submarines, which are practically impossible to spot. As regards the "unique sounds" of combat submarines, they have long been recorded both by Russia and NATO.

The incident in no way points to a confrontation or a worsening of relations between NATO and Russia.

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MOSCOW, August 30 (RIA Novosti)