Kommersant: Rosneft and Transneft in two-three weeks ready to file a suit against CNPC

Kommersant says the Russian oil extraction hold its ground at the target level of 500 million tons a year without attracting foreign investments and access of foreign companies to the deposits on the shelf only till 2015, and only with lowering the tax burden on the oil companies without opening markets - till 2020. "Kurorty Severnogo Kavkaza" is launching a joint venture with the French national bank - Caisse des Deports et Consignationsx - for building ski slopes in Adygeya, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachayevo- Cherkessia. North Ossetia and Dagestan. This is the first foreign investments that the local resorts have managed to attract. The KIT Finans bank belonging to Russian Railways (RZD) is selling its largest asset - the portfolio of mortgage credits worth 36 billion rubles. The bank needs this money for paying off its debt to the Deposits Insurance Agency. Russia and the European Union as a whole have accommodated the plan for moving to the visa-free regime. True, the sides will not be able to sign the document at the upcoming summit in Nizhny Novgorod scheduled for early June. Moscow as a compensation reports about its achievements in other aspects. Kommersant examines them in detail.
Amnesty International late in the evening on Tuesday recognized ex-heads of Yukos Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev as prisoners of conscience. The story comments on Amnesty International's decision, saying how the Russian Foreign Ministry has regarded it. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Wednesday held a session of Agency of Strategic Initiatives (ASI) that , in the opinion of Kommersant political analyst Andrei Kolesnikov, take the bread out All-Russia People's Front's mouth, which means that Putin have to face a difficult situation between his two capacities. Kommersant describes the session , focusing on Putin's pronouncements. The Finance Ministry within the framework of budget projects has proposed to refuse from financing in 2012 or to transfer the 1.2 trillion ruble expenditure to a later budget cycle. To refuse from expenditure in 2012 was proposed not only to the Defense Ministry and the Interior Ministry, but also to President Dmitry Medvedev. Kommersant comments on the Finance Ministry's proposal. Group First Quantum (FQ) today is expected to sign an agreement with French Vinci on buying out the remaining 50 percent of share in OOO Nevskaya Konsessionnaya Kompania (NKK). Kommersant examines the project. Rosstat on Wednesday made public its accounting report about the companies' financial results in the first quarter of 2011. Kommersant examines the main report's provisions.
Transneft intends to buy out a share of Uralvagonzavod in their joint railway operator Vostokneftetrans that deals with a transportation of oil within the framework of the project VSTO. Kommersant sources assure that the consolidation of 100 percent of shares will take place in the interests of entrepreneur Gennady Timchenko. Sberbank itself will be the agent of its privatization. This decision was made by its main shareholder - the Central Bank, which will allow it to economize on inviting an independent privatization bank - agent. The Austrian Meinl Airports International fund has sold 100 percent of Airport Ulan-Ude. The investment has turned out to be unsuccessful. The fund has bought the asset for $24 million but sold it to IFK Metropol only for $5 million. Serbian NIS controlled by GAZPROM NEFT IS CONTINUING ITS EXPANSION TO THe BALKANS. Now the company together with Canadian East-West Petroleum Corp. will develop four units in the west of Romania that also contains slate gas. Russia's another attempt to lobby the project of the gas pipeline South Stream in the European Union was unsuccessful. Gazprom and the Energy Ministry conducted a presentation of the project before the European Commission. Kommersant reveals the essence of the corporate conflict in the alcoholic empire of Andrei Borodin, in which the management board has changed.