Chechnya Oil
January
1111--01/29/03 Expansion of Tengiz Oil Project in Kazakhstan ... 1111--01/09/03 Conference on Caspian Basin Business Opportunities for U.S. Oil and Gas Firms ... [Read More]
Russia
Five of the six national, and more than 20 percent of the 35,000 registered local, newspapers and periodicals remained in private hands; however, the Government attempted to influence the reporting of independent publications. Only approximately one-fourth of the 750 television stations in the country remained in private hands, and the Government indirectly influenced most private media companies through partial government ownership of federal and local-level commercial structures, including the gas monopoly Gazprom and the oil company Lukoil, which in turn owned large shares of media companies. ... [Read More]
January
1111--01/29/03 Expansion of Tengiz Oil Project in Kazakhstan ... 1111--01/09/03 Conference on Caspian Basin Business Opportunities for U.S. Oil and Gas Firms ... 1111--01/29/03 Future of Iraq, Oil and Energy Working Group Meeting ... [Read More]
Russia
In September a provision of the joint stock companies law that allows a minority shareholders to force the liquidation of companies showing a negative balance for more than 2 years was invoked against TV-6, another privately owned television station with a reputation for independent news coverage. TV-6 had hired a number of NTV journalists who had quit NTV to protest Gazprom's take over. Minority shareholder Lukoil-Garant, a pension fund that owns 15 percent of TV-6, won a claim in the Moscow Arbitration Court to liquidate TV-6's parent company, which is 75 percent owned by the oligarch, Kremlin critic, and exiled businessman, Boris Berezovskiy. Media freedom experts generally considered the ruling to be a government-supported effort to remove TV-6 from the control of Berezovskiy, accused of financial crimes in an unrelated case, and to remove a management team headed by Yevgeniy Kiselev that had moved to TV-6 after the Gazprom takeover of NTV. On December 29, an appeals court overturn ... [Read More]
Russia
Authorities attributed bombing incidents in Dagestan and several cities in southern areas of the country to Chechen rebels.Government forces and Chechen fighters have used landmines extensively in Chechnya and Dagestan since August 1999 (see Section 1.g.); there were many civilian landmine casualties in Chechnya during the year. b. Disappearance There were reports of government involvement in politically motivated disappearances in Chechnya; however, there were fewer reports of kidnapings than in previous years. The NGO Memorial claimed that federal military forces detained thousands of persons from Chechnya. Some of these persons disappeared, but most were released, often after their relatives paid a bribe. Memorial estimated that the number of individuals unaccounted for was somewhere between several hundred and a thousand. Former Presidential Representative for Human Rights in C ... [Read More]
2001
1111--06/15/01 Signing of Williams - Yukos Oil Supply Agreement ... [Read More]
Department of State Washington File: Transcript: State Department Noon Briefing, April 7, 2000
6-7 Russian oil tanker boarded on April 5 by Multinational Interception Force. No determination yet on origin of oil. If found to be Iraqi oil, cargo will be diverted. ... RUBIN: Well, right now, as I understand it the Multinational Interception Force -- MIF -- has boarded a Russian-flagged tanker on April the 5th. The vessel is suspected of carrying smuggled Iraqi oil. They have to go through a process now to determine whether or not the vessel is, indeed, carrying smuggled oil. And it will be detained until that determination is made. As far as I know that determination hasn't been made as of yet. But I will check that for you. ... [Read More]
2003
1111--01/29/03 Expansion of Tengiz Oil Project in Kazakhstan ... 1111--01/09/03 Conference on Caspian Basin Business Opportunities for U.S. Oil and Gas Firms ... [Read More]
Russia (05/05)
Russia’s overall trade surplus during 2004 was $73 billion, up from $60 billion during 2003. World prices continue to have a major effect on export performance, since commodities--particularly oil, natural gas, metals, and timber--comprise 80% of Russian exports. Russian GDP growth and the surplus/deficit in the Russian Federation state budget are closely linked to world oil prices. ... Trade (2004): Exports--$152.7 billion: petroleum and petroleum products, natural gas, woods and wood products, metals, chemicals. Major markets--EU, CIS, China, Japan. Imports--$79 billion: machinery and equipment, chemicals, consumer goods, medicines, meat, sugar, semi-finished metal products. Major partners--EU, U.S., NIS, Japan, China. U.S. exports--$3 billion. Principal U.S. exports (2004)--oil/gas equipment, poultry, inorganic chemicals, tobacco, aircraft, medical equipment, autos/parts. U.S. imports--$11.8 billion. Principal U.S. imports (2004)--oil, aluminum, chemicals, platinum, iron/steel, fish and crustaceans, knit apparel, nickel, wood, and copper. ... [Read More]
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