Russians may buy shares at Athens intl airport, Greek gas & oil firms RODOS, Greece, October 2 (Itar-Tass) — Russians may purchase shares at the Athens international airport, Greek gas and oil corporations during the beginning process of privatisation, said on Sunday prominent Greek lawyer and consultant of major investment projects Alexandros Likurezos, speaking in an interview with Itar-Tass. Likurezos was the key reporter on a juridical basis of Greek-Russian relations at the first bilateral conference “New horizons of economic mutual relations between Greece and Russia in the sphere of investment policy, commerce and tourism”, that ended on Rodos Island on Sunday. According to the lawyer, the forum discussed a programme for privatisation of Greek state property, in which Russian firms may participate. “We are very interested in Russians purchasing important infrastructure projects in Greece, since this will contribute to our country’s economic development,” Likurezos said. According to the lawyer, the authorities will implement a plan on selling the new Athens international airport in the area of Spata near Athens where 55 percent of stocks are owned by the Greek state, 40 percent by the German company Hochtief and five percent – by the group of compnies of Greek tycoon Copelouzos. “There is another major and interesting project – a sale of a large area of the old Athens international airport in the Athens suburb Elliniko,” the lawyer added. Elliniko assets were handed over to the Fund for using state property, which now announced a tender on hiring real estate experts. The list of privatisation also contains the company “State Lottery (100 percent), the State Power Company (17 percent), the State Gas Corporation and the oil corporation Hellenic Petroleum. Greece and Russia rally behind Cyprus By Jean Christou Published on October 2, 2011 GREECE AND Russia rallied behind Cyprus yesterday in the island’s rights to explore for hydrocarbons in its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and to condemn Turkish threats as the Cyprus Republic turned 51.
"China is now in a position to have greater expectations of and place demands on Russia, while Russia is struggling to come to terms with this new power dynamic," the report said. "In both countries, strategic planners warn that the present competition could escalate to a more pointed rivalry, entirely undermining the notion of a strategic partnership. "Consequently, China and Russia will continue to be pragmatic partners of convenience, but not partners based on deeper shared world views and strategic interests." (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Ron Popeski) Politics - Published Monday, 03 October 2011 06:50 | Author: AFP / The Swedish Wire STOCKHOLM (AFP) - China's dependence on Russia for arms and energy imports has declined and Moscow's position when dealing with Beijing has weakened as a result, a Swedish think tank said. "Decreasing dependence on Russian arms exports and a growing number of alternative energy suppliers mean that China has taken the upper hand in the relationship," the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in a report released Monday. A key to the changing dynamic, the report said, is that China "is today mainly interested in acquiring technology to develop its own arms industry," and so its need for weaponry has diminished. Moscow has proved unwilling to sell its most sophisticated systems to Beijing, because it fears China will copy the technology and then export its own product. "The nature of the arms transfer relationship will increasingly be characterised by competition rather than cooperation," said Paul Holtom, who heads SIPRI's arms transfer programme. China's position has been further strengthened because its need for Russian crude oil has declined over the past five years, according to SIPRI. "China's largest oil supplier is Saudi Arabia, followed by Angola, Iran and Oman," SIPRI said.
exports although the quality of wheat has somewhat deteriorated as compared with the last year’s harvest,” he said. Apart from that, rice harvest is expected to reach 1.2 million tons, maize harvest – six million tons, sunflower harvest – nine to ten million tons, and soy beans harvest – from 900,000 to one million tons. He also spoke about plans for winter crops. Thus, he said, “It was initially planned to sow winter crops on an overall area of 17.8 million hectares but time has been lost in some regions, so the plans reduced to 17 million hectares.” “We will have to compensate what we have lost in terms of winter crops in the spring sowing campaign, virtually as we did last year,” he added. Russia must diversify or growth will stall, says regional expert by on Oct 03, 2011 at 07:01 Russia needs to diversify its economy or growth could be undermined, according to Renaissance Asset Management portfolio manager Takouhi Tchertchian. Echoing made by her colleague , Tchertchian said, while the country was blessed with masses of natural resources, the unrealised potential of infrastructure development will form a foundation of the country’s economy in the future. ‘Going forward, if Russia wants to remain a high growth country it needs to diversify its economy. For the last 10 years, real GDP growth has been over 5% per annum, which has mainly been driven by commodities,’ she said. ‘It is still very much dependent on oil, as well as gas, because Russia is the number one producer of oil and the number two gas and potash producer in the world. But it has become much more important to diversify into different areas.’ Tchertchian made the comments while outlining the potential for the firm’s Russian Infrastructure Fund, which is a closed-ended fund devised by Renaissance in order to tap into infrastructure prospects in the country. ‘There is a high demand for investing in infrastructure in Russia. It has become even more acute in recent years, and that is because we have had decades of under investment,’ she said.