However, MPs from the United Russia party beat the government to it, and are already expected to make amendments to Russia’s Labor Code, which may come in force as of August 1. If they do, executive managers of state corporations will be entitled to three to 12 monthly paychecks and heads of companies with state involvement may receive from three to 18 monthly paychecks, Kommersant daily reports. The state corporations welcomed the initiative, calling it a logical and timely decision. The discussion was fueled by a 200 million ruble ‘parachute’ (roughly US$6.4 million) that Rostelecom paid to the outgoing head of the company, Aleksandr Provotorov. One United Russia MP drew Putin’s attention to that case and the president ordered Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s government to take measures and limit such levels of compensation, saying “Russian people don’t understand that.” However the parliament acted faster. … Read More
Battle for strategic Qusair: Syrian army, Hezbollah fight rebels for supply corridor
Earlier Monday, Syrian state news agency SANA reported that the army had “restored security and stability to most Qusair neighborhoods” and was “chasing the remnants of the terrorists in the northern district.” The agency quoted a military source as saying that army units dismantled a number of explosive devices, planted by terrorists in al-Souk area in the middle of the city. The source added that army units are continuing hunting the remnants of terrorists in some hideouts in the northern and southern areas of the city.“The Syrian army managed to make a full circle around the city, fighting the opposition fighters. The main achievement is to stop the line of supply chain between Lebanon and Syria,” local journalist Abdallah Mawazini told RT.“They started from the western side of the city, in the rural areas. They control this zone with some fighters from Lebanon. Some extremist groups were preparing to go into Syria to fight with the rebels, they were going to go make a bigger front in order to fight and expand the fighting line between the government and the opposition,” he said. But opposition activists denied that Qusair had been captured, saying that they had pushed back most of the attacking forces to their original positions, destroying at least four Syrian army tanks and five light Hezbollah vehicles.Troops backed by Hezbollah“made incursions into Qusair, but they are now basically back to where they started at the security compounds in east Qusair and at a…roadblock to the south,” local activist Tareq Murei told Reuters.Murei said that six people were killed by Hezbollah’s multiple rocket launches on Monday.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that 48 rebels had been killed, as well as four civilians. The Observatory’s director, Rahim Abdurahman, put Hezbollah casualties at 23 dead and 70 wounded. Lebanese security sources said at least 12 Hezbollah fighters had been killed.Qusair, which is about 18 miles (29km) southwest of Homs, is seen as a key city for both sides. It helps link the Syrian capital of Damascus with government strongholds on the Mediterranean coast and is a passageway for rebel supplies and fighters from Lebanon.According to UN figures, more than 80,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Bashar Assad began in March 2011. … Read More
‘Syrian conflict is a war targeting Iran’
Hezbollah militants are fighting beside Syrian governmental troops to retake the strategic town of Qusair from the rebels. It’s considered a key weapons smuggling route for opposition forces near the Lebanese border. The battle for the city in the contested Homs Province is viewed by both sides as a turning point which could prove crucial in deciding the conflict. Tariq Ali believes Hezbollah has joined the fight in order to protect the weapons smuggling routes of their own, those coming from neighboring Iran. As for the Syrian people, Ali says the majority just wants the war in the country to end, no matter which side gets the upper hand. RT: Shia Hezbollah have joined the fight against the mostly Sunni rebels. Is this conflict becoming sectarian?Tariq Ali: I think, effectively, what this war is now increasingly becoming is a war that’s targeting Iran and trying to remove Iran’s only Arab ally. It’s become very clear in the way which sectarianism has been used. Sunni versus Shia, Shia versus Sunni. I mean, without assigning blame or responsibility, that is what’s going on, effectively now, both in Iraq and in Syria. In Iraq you had a situation where the Sunnis constituted a minority, but ran the previous regime – the US intervened and effectively handed over power to the Shia religious parties of one sort or another. They then carried out large ethnic cleansings in Baghdad and in other cities, and we now see the response to that at a time when the US itself has very few – if any – troops left in Iraq. In Syria you had the opposite. You had a large Sunni majority, which was govern by an Alawite regime, very closely linked to Iran. And the Arab uprising that took place destabilized further. In my opinion, you have minorities supporting the Syrian government, minorities supporting the Islamist rebels and a large proportion of the population waiting for the war to end and hoping that something would happen to bring conclusion to this war. RT: Could Israel now attack Syria under the guise of defending itself, since its old enemy Hezbollah are there?TA: You know one reason Hezbollah is being actively defending the government forces in Syria is because they fear that their link to Iran will be broken and their long to getting weapons to defend themselves will be broken. The Israelis have already bombed Syria meeting with very little opposition – hardly any – from the so-called international community, which is the US and the EU. In fact the Israelis bombed Syria without getting some sort of green light from the US. Were they to do so again – it would create an even larger mess. The Israelis haven’t been threatened by Syria for a very long time. In fact, the Syrian government of President [Bashar] Assad and his father [former President Hafez Assad] had de facto collaborated with the Israelis in the past. So where they see the threat isn’t Syria, but Iran that’s the Israeli obsession. And in order to weaken Iran further they might carry out attacks on Damascus, but then they should be prepared for some consequences.RT: Strategic affairs analyst Salam Harba says militants are using the people in the city Qusayr as human shields. Could we see the Syrian government blamed for the civilian deaths?TA: Well, it could be. The situation is so confused. We still don’t know about the chemical weapons. The single United Nations’ reports blamed the rebels. The rebels blamed the Syrian government. The Syrian government says ‘Why should we even bother to use them when we’ve got MIG-29s in the air which can do more damage?’ Effectively, in my opinion, both sides are committing atrocities. There’s no doubt about it. In a civil war this is inevitable. It happens. So the fact that we’ve recently seen of Syrian or Islamist radicals eating the organs out of the body of a Syrian soldier is, of course, horrendous. And I think it’s done the rebels a great deal of harm. I think they are getting isolated from the Syrian people. I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. People are desperate. They have no idea what’s going to happen, when this war comes to an end. … Read More
E.On Russia to transfer 100% of 2012’s net profit into dividends
The company has recommended a dividend of 0.29 roubles per share for 2012, worth 18.3 billion roubles ($583 million), General Director Maxim Shirokov said on Friday.E.On Russia also plans to pay its shareholders 40-60 percent of its earnings under IFRS international accounting standards over the medium-term.According to Kommersant daily, German E.On needs money to compensate for the losses the company suffered after the German authorities pledged to turn their back on nuclear energy in favor of green energy. E.On is terminating the operation of the nuclear power plant it owns.The growing share of renewable energy sources and weak demand from industry have significantly reduced the profitability of the German company’s gas division.E.ON Russia’s payment of dividends will become the first time when foreign investors will get dividends from assets purchased during the split of RAO UES of Russia. Several Russian energy producers can boast dividends exceeding 1 billion roubles ($32 million). Others include RusHydro and Mosenergo. The Russian subsidiary of the German company has increased its energy production by 2.78 percent in 2012, according to the Finam business news agency. The increase is mainly due to the expansion of the Surgutskaya GRES-2 power plant – the largest power station in Russia. Two new 400MW units were commissioned to meet the energy requirements of the city of Surgut and Western Siberia, and have increased the existing capacity of the power station by 800MW, to 5,600MW. Investment in the expansion project is estimated at €2.8 billion.E.ON is the largest buyer of Russian gas and also the largest foreign investor in Russia. The expansion programme is part of the company’s investment programme aimed at increasing the clean energy production to 2,400MW.Total power generating capacity of E.ON Russia exceeds one billion watts. The company includes five hydroelectric power plants (Surgutskaya GRES-2, Berezovskaya GRES, Shaturskaya GRES, Smolenskaya GRES and Yajvinskaya GRES) and «Heat networks of Berezovskaya GRES», delivering energy to consumers in the region surrounding the plant. … Read More
‘Conflict of interest’: US govt adviser on board of $334mn anthrax drug stockpile supplier
Richard J. Danzig, former secretary of the Navy, a prominent lawyer and biowarfare consultant to the US government, was involved with Human Genome, a biotech company. He received more than $1 million in director’s fees and other compensation from the company between 2001 and 2012, reports the Los Angeles Times.Over the decade he was a strong advocate of improving America’s capability to respond to a possible bioterriorist attack. One of the scenarios he was warning about involved terrorist creating a strain of anthrax resistant to common antibiotics and weaponizing it.He had the ear of senior Pentagon and DHS officials, with the government eventually deciding to stockpile drugs to deal with such kind of anthrax. One of them called raxibacumab, or raxi, is produced by Human Genome.It was the first product that the company managed to sale and the US government is the only customer, the newspaper says. The US ordered 20,000 doses of raxi in 2006 and 45,000 more doses after 2009, when the initial batch expired. At shelf price of $5,100 per dose, the company received $334 million for the product, the newspaper says.The LA Times spoke to seven former top US officials, six of whom said they had no knowledge of Danzig being on board of the firm. One of them, Dr. Philip K. Russell, who helped the US prepare for biological attacks during the George W. Bush administration, said “Holy smoke—that was a horrible conflict of interest,” when the newspaper explained the situation.Danzig said in an interview that no such conflict existed and that he had acted “very properly.””My view was I’m not going to get involved in selling that,” Danzig told the newspaper. “But at the same time now, should I not say what I think is right in the government circles with regard to this? And my answer was, ‘If I have occasion to comment on this, it ought to be in general, as a policy matter, not as a particular procurement.’”Danzig started sounding the alarm about possible anthrax terrorist act after the widely-publicized 2001 attack, in which anthrax-laced letters killed five people and infected 11 others. In 2008, the DoJ named senior biodefense researcher Bruce Edwards Ivins, who had died a month earlier, as the sole suspect in the attack, but no formal trial was ever conducted.While the anthrax powder used in the 2001 attack was not resistant to antibiotics, Danzig said it would be “quite easy” for terrorists to create one. “Even at the high school level, biology students understand that an antibiotic-resistant strain can be developed,” he wrote in his key policymaking 2003 report “Catastrophic Bioterrorism – What Is To Be Done?”But the notion is not shared by some microbiologists.”It’s not a trivial endeavor,” Paul Keim, a Northern Arizona University geneticist and anthrax expert, told the newspaper. “This is something beyond the capability of a high school student or even someone with graduate training.”Keim added that if anthrax were made resistant to antibiotics, it would decrease the bacteria’s stability and virulence, greatly reducing its lethality.Human Genome was acquired by the British drug giant GlaxoSmithKline last year for $3.6 billion.Raxi was tested only on animals, since the lethality of anthrax does not allow for clinical trials on humans. Luckily, no terrorist group has used anthrax – antibiotic-resistant or otherwise – for a massive attack, which would put US stockpile of raxi to good use. … Read More
British business says ‘Brexit’ will cost UK $140bn annually
Some of the UK’s leading business heavyweights including Sir Richard Branson and Sir Martin Sorrell as well as the current and next presidents of the Confederation of British Industry and the chairmen of BT, Deloitte, Lloyds and Centrica argue that exiting the EU could cost the British economy up to £92bn (almost $140 billion) a year, The Independent newspaper reports. A number of UK’s most successful and eminent business figures have signed a letter to The Independent where they slam Eurosceptics for ignoring the national interest in their call for the UK to leave the European Union. It is the first coordinated response from the business community to the anti-EU rhetoric.The businessmen call for PM David Cameron to “strengthen and deepen” the European single market to drag an extra £110 billion ($167 billion) to the British economy. Opinion polls in the country reveal that exiting the EU is the most likely scenario. Anti-EU sentiment has been growing since 2007, when almost half the UK population didn’t trust the European bloc. A similar survey undertaken last year revealed that 69 percent of those who took part were euro-sceptic.A draft bill on an in-out referendum has been proposed by the ruling Conservative party, saying it must be held before the end of 2017. According to The Independent, two cabinet ministers have already declared that they would vote to leave the EU if the referendum were held today. The newspaper also says that some senior Tories are quite certain a new EU membership deal for Britain that eurosceptics would support is hardly an option for Cameron.The businessmen in their letter refer to the economics, saying that exiting the EU would bring nothing but losses to the UK economy. “The economic case to stay in the EU is overwhelming,” the business leaders state in the letter to the The Independent. “To Britain, membership is estimated to be worth between £31 billion ($47 billion) and £92 billion ($139 billion) per year in income gains, or between £1,200 to £3,500 for every household.”“What we should now be doing is fighting hard to deliver a more competitive Europe, to combat the criticism of those that champion our departure. We should push to strengthen and deepen the Single Market to include digital, energy, transport and telecoms, which could boost Britain’s GDP by £110 billion ($167 billion) ,” they add. … Read More
