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If for now a media show meant to protect Schroeder, as far as Putin himself brought up Evans-Rosneft deal, the issue of the appointment of Evans as chairman of Rosneft takes proportions and is worthwhile following. Although the case is for now veiled in mystery, in the name of the WTO paper, probably, Putin seems to compromise indefinitely, possibly hoping to frame up Evans afterwards.
Aside of the WTO,
of Schroeder,
of the Yukos US’ trials haunting Putin
and eventually of Kasyanov case (which I haven’t followed and which could be a set up of Kasyanov himself, keen to invoke the lack of democracy and of the rule of law in Putin’s Russia),
I have no clue which could be the levers of this Evans-Rosneft deal, but no matter which they are, this is a very risky move that should’ve been avoided at any expense and which only Putin himself will be able to neutralize, if ever.
My question is: Does this man realize that he’s not immortal?
This negotiation on Evans leading Rosneft could be long and hard, Duma playing a role in the game.
However, in the end Putin will compromise as he always do.
The fact that Schroeder is involved in the business of a Russian energy company is no excuse and no obligation for Putin to hire Evans.
No Russian leads an American company. This is a fact.
And Putin’s complicated and coward poker game might one day turn against him.
Russia owns the natural resources. Why then must it always compromise indefinitely?
Does Putin really believe that he will ever get the WTO paper? Has he got drunk with cold water?
And if he will get it so what? The WTO is an American institution and Russia will only be screwed by the American roller there, giving more than it will receive.
Instead of establishing his own socialist trade organization, which would end the entire quarrel with the US, Putin bathes in sore appeals and dangerous compromises, begging now for over 10 years for a WTO seat.
The ASEAN Summit was a good start. Why can’t it be followed by other similar actions? And why has it happened so late?
Why after 6 years of stay in power must Putin render an account to his own country’s internal business?
What keeps him so tight from breaking Russia free from the US’ screws? Why can’t he play like a grown man and not like a child who cannot stand on his own feet and needs the US’ crutches all the time?
When will Russia become independent? When will it break free from the US’ reins?
When will it be able to expose its point of view without being forced to write pathetic scenarios in line with the US’ policy style and to play shameful theatre parts?
When will Russia have its own political program?
When will it have a non-timorous voice to speak with on the international stage?
For how many years and how many lives must we wait for a real and unequivocal change?
~Vera
SEE BELOW THE MAIN ARTICLES RELATED TO THIS TOPIC:
The Moscow Times:Monday, December 19, 2005. Issue 3319. Page 1.
Putin Drops Hint on New Rosneft ChairmanBy
Valeria Korchagina Staff Writer
President Vladimir Putin on Friday said that state-owned Rosneft was likely to be headed by a prominent foreigner, but stopped short of confirming reports that the job had been offered to former U.S. Commerce Secretary Donald Evans.
Media reports first surfaced last week that the longtime confidante of President George W. Bush had met with Putin earlier this month and been offered the post of Rosneft board chairman, currently held by the deputy head of the Kremlin administration.
"I suppose that any of our public companies -- and Rosneft is about to become one -- ... is interested in attracting a high-class manager regardless of his country of origin or citizenship," Putin told reporters at his residence in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, according to the presidential web site.
"Rosneft has every chance to become a world-class company. I am sure it will become one and do not rule out the possibility of invitations for foreign and high-class managers," he said.
Although Putin did not directly confirm the reports of an offer, sources close to Evans and in the Russian government have also not denied them. Evans ostensibly came to Moscow on the invitation of the American Chamber of Commerce but also paid a visit to Putin.
"I did not name names," he told reporters who bombarded him with questions about the candidate's identity. "I could name any surname at any time. But it is a matter for the negotiations between the company and the managers they are inviting."
A high-ranking government official told The Moscow Times last week that only Evans -- and no one else -- was being considered for the Rosneft job.
The government plans to sell up to 49 percent of the fully state-owned oil company in the coming year. The state wants to use the IPO as a way to repay a loan it took out to buy a majority stake in Gazprom.
A move to bring in a well-connected foreigner would appear to be a Kremlin attempt to make Rosneft attractive to foreign investors by showing that the company is serious about becoming a transparent, Western-style enterprise.
The news of the offer to Evans came just days after Gazprom announced that former German Chancellor Gerhard SchrЪder was going to head a Gazprom-led pipeline project under the Baltic Sea.
The question remains open as to whether Evans, who quit his U.S. government job in February 2005, would accept a job at Rosneft.
The decision to take the board chairmanship of the state-owned oil company would be a tough for any well-known foreigner, especially from the United States, said a businessman who knows Evans personally.
Rosneft's reputation was stained in the eyes of many international observers after it acquired Yuganskneftegaz, Yukos' largest production unit, after a forced government auction last December.
Yukos shareholders are still trying recover losses through courts in both Europe and the United States.
"I can't imagine any prominent U.S. figure walking into this with his eyes open and thus becoming a U.S.-based target for the legal battles yet to come," said the businessman, who requested anonymity because he did not want to speak on Evans' behalf without permission.
One such threat is a lawsuit that was opened by U.S.-based owners of American Depository Receipts in Yukos. During a visit to the United States in October, Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko was served with the suit, which accuses the Russian government, Rosneft and Gazprom of fraud in the de facto renationalization of the Yugansk unit.
In November 2004, Yukos' main shareholder, Group Menatep, filed a $28 billion suit against the Russian government under the terms of the Energy Charter, an international treaty that Russia has signed but not ratified.
A person close to Evans who last week was authorized to speak to the media and confirmed the Putin meeting, declined to comment on the questions about Rosneft's involvement in the Yukos affair.
Another open question related to the appointment of Evans to the Rosneft board is the fate of current chairman Igor Sechin.
Sechin is the deputy head of the presidential administration and has been a close Putin ally since the 1990s, when the president was still climbing the career ladder in the St. Petersburg mayor's office.
Sechin was appointed Rosneft's board chairman in July 2004.
Sechin has a reputation for being a powerful player among the siloviki, the Kremlin clan of mostly St. Petersburg security officers who rose to power under Putin.
Former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is now serving an eight-year prison sentence for fraud and tax evasion, has called Sechin "the organizer and motor behind the Yukos affair."
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/12/19/002.htmlThe New York Times:Putin Plays Headhunter for Oil Company· By ANDREW E. KRAMER
Published: December 17, 2005
MOSCOW, Dec. 16 - President Vladimir V. Putin confirmed Friday that Russia's state oil company, Rosneft, was seeking a "high-class" foreign manager, after reports surfaced this week that he had offered Donald L. Evans, the former United States commerce secretary, the post of chairman.
Mr. Evans, a longtime friend of President Bush, was responsible for shaping American trade ties with Russia while he served in the cabinet. He was in Moscow last week as a guest of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia.
Mr. Evans, a Texas oilman, is also a prominent fund-raiser for the Republican Party and was chairman of the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign.
The reported offer, coming on the heels of an announcement that Gerhard Schröder, the former chancellor of Germany, had accepted a position overseeing construction of a new Russian gas pipeline to Germany, signaled the growing influence and ambition of Russia's state-owned energy companies. It could also help their image troubles.
Foreign luminaries could help Mr. Putin legitimize the Kremlin's policy of partial nationalization of the oil industry, a policy that in the last year has turned Rosneft into a top-ranking player in the oil industry. The company took control of its largest asset last winter in a disputed auction after the dismantling of Yukos, once Russia's largest private company.
Mr. Putin, speaking from his vacation home in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, said Friday that Rosneft was "interested in inviting high-class foreign managers," but declined to say whether he was referring to Mr. Evans, the Interfax news agency reported.
"It will benefit us both in the intergovernmental relations sense, and from the point of view of Russian companies," he said of a possible foreign presence at the state company, according to Interfax. "It is the element of openness in Russia's economy," he said.
Asked if he was referring to Mr. Evans, Mr. Putin said: "It doesn't matter," according to the Russian news report.
Efforts to reach Mr. Evans, who heads the Financial Services Forum, a group representing large United States investment companies, were not successful Friday. The Forum moved to a new address in Washington this week and had no current listed telephone number.
Rosneft, totally state-owned, referred questions to the government property agency. The Kremlin has not commented publicly, nor have government officials denied a report first published in the Kommersant business daily.
Even if Mr. Evans declines what could be a ceremonial post, the offer suggests the government is serious about enhancing the tainted image of Rosneft, an opaque company even by Russian standards. Calls from journalists are gruffly turned away.
Mr. Putin spoke three days short of a year after Russia effectively nationalized the largest production unit of Yukos in an auction with only one bidder. A shell company won the auction and swiftly sold the production unit to Rosneft.
Any effort to legitimize Rosneft's assets, however, could meet opposition from Yukos shareholders, still smarting from the loss of the production unit and the jailing of the company's founder, Mikhail B. Khodorkovksy.
"We believe that what happened this time last year was expropriation," Claire Davidson, a spokeswoman for Yukos, said in a phone interview from London, where the company is run by a management team in self-imposed exile.
"When considering an opportunity to be part of the Rosneft board, it's important to consider that a significant number of shareholders, many of them American, have had their rights absolutely taken away from them through the renationalization of a private asset," she said.
Rosneft is entangled in a number of lawsuits with Yukos, and the affair is also under being examined by the European Court of Human Rights, Ms. Davidson said.
As commerce secretary in Mr. Bush's first cabinet, Mr. Evans was co-chairman of a working group with German O. Gref, Russia's minister for trade and economic development. That group discussed Russia's potential to supplant some of the oil now imported to the United States from the Middle East.
The chairmanship of Rosneft is now held by Igor I. Sechin, a Putin loyalist and member of a hard-line faction in the Kremlin known as the siloviki, or men with ties to the secret police, the military or interior ministry troops.
The Rosneft chairman oversees billions of dollars in revenue streaming into Russia as world oil supplies remain tight and prices high.
The new chairman would sit at the intersection of business and politics in decision-making over export routes and production levels, and would be at the epicenter of one of the two largest business deals expected in Russia next year.
The statement seemed a bold move by Mr. Putin for international legitimacy in exchange for surrendering some of the secrecy around Rosneft.
"If you look at this from the point of view of the investment case for Russia, it can't be anything but welcome that the authorities are concerned about how the company is perceived," said Bernard Sucher, the chairman of Alfa Capital, a large private equity group.
"They're willing to take the extraordinary step to consider a foreigner, of any nationality, to be involved at that level. It has to be appreciated as a real stretch of the envelope."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/17/business/worldbusiness/17energy.html?oref=loginITAR TASS:Russian companies may hire foreign managers – Putin16.12.2005, 21.11
SOCHI, December 16 (Itar-Tass) -- President Vladimir Putin thinks that Russian companies may employ highly skilled foreign specialists.
“Russian companies, including Rosneft, are interested in hiring highly skilled managers regardless their nationality and citizenship,” Putin said.
He said that Rosneft is getting ready for an initial public offering (IPO) to become a public company.
“I think that Rosneft has all chances to become a world company, and I am positive that it will become such. I also think that they may hire highly skilled foreign specialists,” the president said.
As for the Rosneft negotiations with former U.S. energy secretary Donald Evans, Putin said that the employment of foreign managers “is an element of openness of the Russian economy. This will be good for the Russian economy and Russian companies.”
http://www.tass.ru/eng/level2.html?NewsID=2730532&PageNum=0RIA Novosti:
Duma requests clarification over Evans appointment rumor19:55
16/ 12/ 2005
MOSCOW, December 16 (RIA Novosti) - The State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, has instructed the natural resources committee to request information from the government on the possible appointment of former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans as chairman of Russian state-owned oil major Rosneft.
Leading business daily Kommersant claimed Tuesday that Evans, a long-time ally of U.S. President George W. Bush, had had a personal meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on December 7, at which the president offered him the position.
Duma members are concerned about the national security implications of such an appointment.
The Economic Development and Trade Ministry said Tuesday it had no official information to confirm the report.
Kommersant said the move, if it were to come off, would be designed to reassure investors shaken by "the Yukos affair" in the run-up to Rosneft's initial public offering (IPO), which ministers have suggested will take place next year.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20051216/42528426.htmlRIA Novosti:Foreign CEOs beneficial to Russian companies - Putin21:51
16/ 12/ 2005
SOCHI, December 16 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that inviting foreign managers to run Russian companies would promote inter-state relations and benefit the companies.
Asked whether former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans had been offered the position of chairman in Russian state-owned oil major Rosneft, Putin said: "Any public company, and Rosneft is going to be public - you know it will hold an IPO - seeks to attract top- notch managers irrespective of their ethnic origin or nationality."
A leading Russian business daily reported Tuesday that Evans, a long-time ally of U.S. President George W. Bush, had been offered the position in a personal meeting with Putin in Moscow on December 7.
"Rosneft has a real opportunity to turn into a global [oil] company, and I am posit
ive it will. Inviting top-notch foreign experts to work for it is possible," the president said.
Putin said this would make the Russian economy more open and Russian business entities more transparent, helping them advance their interests and benefiting the state at large.
Evans could become the second former senior foreign official to head a Russian energy company. Last week, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder agreed to head the North European Gas Pipeline, a direct natural gas link between Russia and Germany.
According to a government official, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov discussed the idea of offering the top position to Schroeder with German Economy Minister Michael Glos at the pipeline opening ceremony.
Glos supported the idea and said the new chancellor, Angela Merkel, would approve it. The shareholders then approached Schroeder with the proposal, which he accepted, a government source said Friday.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20051216/42530132.htmlSee more articles related to the topic at the link below:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VladimirPutinRoundTable/message/287See related article:Bush ally may take over Rosneft reins – paper. C’mon?!
http://putinfreakshow.blogspot.com/2005/12/bush-ally-may-take-over-rosneft-reins.html
