<TITLE: 5th Symposium of Russian and East European Studies: Workshop on EU, Russia and the Politics of Northern Energy Resources
ACADEMIC DOMAIN: social sciences
DISCIPLINE: Russian studies
EVENT TYPE: conference presentation
FILE ID: CPRE07B
NOTES: continuation of and continued in CDIS070, session also includes presentations CPRE07A/C

RECORDING DURATION: 18 min 25 sec

RECORDING DATE: 17.3.2005

NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS: 15

NUMBER OF SPEAKERS: 3

S1: NATIVE-SPEAKER STATUS: Finnish; ACADEMIC ROLE: senior staff; GENDER: male; AGE: 31-50

S3: NATIVE-SPEAKER STATUS: Russian; ACADEMIC ROLE: senior staff; GENDER: male; AGE: 51-over

S4: NATIVE-SPEAKER STATUS: Finnish; ACADEMIC ROLE: senior staff; GENDER: male; AGE: unknown

SU: unidentified speaker

SS: several simultaneous speakers>


<S3> er the topic of my er research which is just in the very beginning is actors in russian energy policy toward the european union er so the aim of this paper and the future report er is to analyse different interest groups in- inside the russian federation which are playing significant role in shaping national e- energy policy to the european union and external markets in general factors include er ministries regional administrations er energy companies and some other institutions i am going in my lecture just count them and give some short remarks the idea of the report er of er my research is to present existing mechanism of federal energy policy formation as a result of er discussions and competition inside the government inside business communities a special emphasis will be given in my research to analysis of business and strategic interests of russian energy companies in a er quite unique situation of high oil and gas prices and possibility or rather easy attract investments from abroad into the oil into a new oil and gas provinces especially in north-western part of russia er there is there is a difference between er north-western er regions of russia there are foreign er companies and biggest russian companies are very much concerned in in developing new oilfields an construction pipelines and it's last geopolitic because there are there are in eastern part of russia mostly in siberia where we have purely geopolitics er around these oil energy projects and pipelines special attention will be given also to a process of formation of lobbying groups in the in russian parliament and local parliaments in russian regions so er er why energy sector is important for russia and for EU-russian relations first of all because of er more than 60 per cent of hard currency coming to russian russia from abroad is coming from uni- er from european union member state er second because of more than 50 per cent of economic growth in russia is driven by energy sector the share is er s- er slowly moving down at least according to latest research er which had been done by world bank but anyway after this point er 50 per cent of the gross and the gross last year was quite impressive seven point one per cent of GDP was driven by energy and third one of course energy policy is important er because of it helps to develop some regions some russian regions er in the list of russian regions in terms of per income per capita or in terms of er re- er gross regional product at the top we will find tyumen region er and some other er s- mostly west-siberian republics (xx) or oblasts where oil and gas are produced so for from the point of view of regional policy of russia that's very important and er the threat of deconstruction of the o- of russian federation is not as sharp as it was ten years ago under yeltsin's time but still it's important and still it's a very important priority erm and er er from here er i should er probably come to the question if there is any er foreign economic strategy of russian federation in the field of energy and in general er the recently adopted well recently four five years ago adopted concept of foreign policy clearly put foreign or economic interest of russian promotion of economic interest o- of russia abroad as priority number one for russian ministry of foreign affairs of course after eleventh of september after beslan there is another competing priority which is fighting this international terrorism but still er in any er government or parliamental document in any speech of russian president economisation of russian foreign policy and er protection of economic interests of companies pl- public companies private companies is very much at the head of the at the top of the agenda er if there is strategy toward european union that's er that's a big question i think our report may help us to find out if there is russia's strat- economic strategy toward the european union but er at least there are some er original approaches to the formation of this er er policy and er er which role er russia energy er er energy sector and and energy cooperation between russia and EU should play for EU-russia relations er that's is er is er is very important question er the i don't like in fact i hate these conpirac- conspiracy theories that russia is going to use energy policy for er moving er er er for increasing its role in european politics and so on but to to some extent if er russian heritage from soviet union a part of its role of super-state or or one (xx) in the world politics it's only in the sector of energy not in the economy in general so energy gives us russia good leverage for er for negotiating with its key partners in the world and of course european union is partner number one in the field of politics and in the field of economy as well . so some words er about er attempts to classify somehow actors so there are there are maybe different approaches actors in russian energy policy are state public and private national and foreign conservative and liberal federal and regional big and small even patriotic and non-patriotic and in my research of course i will concentrate er er i will use more mechanical way of analysing different types of institution but divided them anyway in two groups public and private er and probably i will start with the role of president and presidential administration in decision-making energy policy they play key role that's i mean it's er based on the reading of russian constitution based on an analysis of what presidential administration is doing and of course it's important to know what's inside this black box because of presidential administration is something er not very transparent and if you look er into discussions er into the structure of presidential administration of russia which is in fact a copy of russian government like in soviet union's times er central committee of communist party was a er shadow government of soviet union er the currently the presidential administration is a sho- shadow government of er russian federation and inside that er black box called presidential administration we we'll easily find two groups of er er of politicians with a not totally different but quite different priorities in the field of energy policy according if you'll follow er the erm the narrative of our er western colleagues mostly american colleagues we should divide them into liberals and siloviki former or chekists or former er KGB er staff and er to some extent now or then we have this big discussion about the future of yuganskneftegas that's true er we have dmitri medvedev who is er voting for creation of huge oil company er as a as er independent institution and we have igor se- er and igo- er dmitri medvedev is a head of er what's rosneft gas and er er we have no s- and er we have igor sechin who er the head of siloviki group who is for er creation of er yuganskneftegas as integral part of gasprom so the i mean er and more powerful institution the super-institution in the field of oil and gas policy so er probably if you would like to define or to understand at least what's going on in er presidential administration as a key institution for setting the strategy of russian economic whole economic of energy policy we should look into to these two groups and the role which putin is playing well usually putin is never er come into the stage and make clear statements what should be done and er there are no no mhm no possibility to foresee that in future he will personally play a monitor role in in defining the er what role should be done by public institution and private institution what should be their mechanism of control of private companies in the field of energy but er still his role is a crucial government of russian federation well we should probably start from prime minister but for last five years we usually speak not about prime minister but technical prime minister <SU> mhm-hm </SU> @@ it's easier to to it's difficult to find any description of the er russian government that if you'll not mention technical prime minister meaning meaning that it's just a manager who is fi- er er who is following the orders from kremlin er whose political role is close to zero er but er prime minister is a head of government and in the government we have at least er five ministries who are playing er i- important role in energy policy and decision-making in energy policy er role of some of them is quite small like minister of finances they take taxes from oil companies and and these taxes have been set by state duma so but some ministers play a crucial important role and first of all minister of economic development and trade ministry which is defining the strategy for development of energy sector oil gas electricity nuclear er of power stations and so on so and that er and german gref is a minister is is one of key players ministry of of energy whe- whose role is also not not really very important because it's mostly collecting statistics and observing the situation and providing analyses for prime minister and probably after that the president er but still it's a big player er minis- ministry of natural resources <FOREIGN> ministerstvo prirodnykh resursov </FOREIGN> er issuing licences taking back licences from companies like exxon mobil and so on it's a it's a really big player not independent of course but to some extent er very important and finally ministry of foreign affairs according to a number of decisions which had been made at the yeltsin time times er minister of foreign affairs is a key institution who is coordinating the activities of any governmental er agency or institution administrated abroad so minister of foreign affairs should play active role in energy policy and on the surface we see minister of foreign affairs every time when er we have discussions i mean we russia have discussions with the european union and with er some companies er from european union er wanting to move their business to russian federation er but er still the role of minister of foreign affairs is is not very clear regions no sorry parliament er just very briefly there are two houses of parliament that have a group of a of lawmakers er of and who or whom can be divided into er different er lobby groups for biggest er oil and gas companies there is a lukoil fraction in er gosduma there is a gasprom fraction i- a- and of course in in (komas) or in a state duma it was for example khodorkovsky to create yukos fraction that's and that was probably one of the biggest er reasons er behind here this yukos affair at least he he was blamed unofficially but many times that he was going during the elections to state duma to create his (xx) groups which may change legislation especially in the field of taxation of oil companies and so on so there are er oil biggest er russian oil companies have their own er quite independent ways to influencing the state duma er in in defining their general strategy i- or general trends in changing the legislation , so i should move go to move back regions er well er in my research er will be seven regions for analysis starting from st petersburg er which is a big important market and st petersburg government especially since valentina matvienko became the governor in october 2003 is very business friendly for oil companies er both for foreign and for national companies of course there is the (xx) of er valentina matvienko which is lukoil and that's why lukoil have a very good promotion in the er regional market during last one year or a year and something er but er anyway generally speaking the business erm situation and business atmosphere in st petersburg is getting better and one of the er tis- or one of my first revo- results of the of my research is participation in the sessions er of a group of finnish advisors to governor of st petersburg there is this group which is starting more than ten years ago one of its recent meetings was er last i think la- er somewhere last april or may 2004 and representatives of finnish oil companies were er talking directly to vice-governors and to heads of committees and they are promoting er their interests in terms of getting er land for to er to open facilities and for mhm greater access to regional market and the reaction was very positive so of on this er er level of implementation of policies and (xx) administration is quite friendly the er probably because of that we have last year a huge growth of er foreign investments into st petersburg economy more than 40 per cent of growth of foreign investments into er economy compared to year 2003 also in my research will be leningrad with its er er terminals and erm refineries er plans for refineries er er or constructions murmansk region is where a super oil er terminal rented for united states for selling oil e- e- everywhere but most of crimean states arkhangelsk region is where er competitive er option for terminals competitive to murmansk ko- komi republic is fastly growing er exploration of oil pskov oblast is a victim of russian geopolitics <SS> @@ </SS> @@ it will be @@ i mean in terms of of of transit of oil for baltic states kaliningrad will be special case both with er transit and these er facilities for refineries </S3>
<S4> and primorsk and vysotsk </S4>
<S3> er it's <SU> [leningrad oblasts] </SU> <S4> [mhm-hm] </S4> [leningrad region] i've already mentioned them <S4> mhm </S4> i mean the as a of er terminal facilities er primorsk vysotsk vyborg er uslu- no usluga it's not so much for oil but er anyway yeah them er so of because i have two minutes <SS> [@@] </SS> [er so just just] very briefly er o- energy companies gasprom lukoil surgutneftegas three key biggest m- players in the regional market er they are moving not just their er facilities but headquarters of some very important institutions for example from moscow gasprom moved their er part which is responsible for transportation of gas er pipelines er to st petersburg and of course it's like a gift to governor matvienko because the taxation will be done in st petersburg and it lead to a big growth of er collection of taxes and city budget but from other point of view of course it's a reflection of the role of north-western russia in the er in the the the selling energy er and in in cooperation with the west of course about er port and terminals they are they are not independent players but they are important erm e- elements in the infrastructure for cooperation between EU and russia er here primorsk kronshtadt with a more than four plus million tons of export during summer season mostly vysotsk st petersburg (with them) financial institutions financial institutions in russia are very weak and they weak players in energy policy but and because of that russia er face some big problems for example er in the case of er yuganskneftegas with er re-nationalisation as <NAME> mentioned probably i will er i'll i would love to find s- some other definition because about them it's a re-nationalisation for a billion dollars it's little bit more than simply re-nationalisation but er yeah er the russian financial institutions simply they're not able to provide this amount of money er which is crucially important for president for administration for government and so on that's why because of this weakness of financial institutions er er russia is for example trying to protect that market er er while russia is entering WTO you know the the biggest discussion with the er er united states in terms of access to WTO is about financial institutions er stock exchanges er it's not really big er issue but this also i already mentioned also liberalisation of shares of gasprom currently the price of er gasprom is something a little bit more than 60 billion dollars if your er er er ga- er to gasprom rosneft and maybe yuganskneftegas and will compare the price of oil er i mean which is reflected in the price of shares the optimistic very probably optimistic scenario will be that gasprom (fusion) cou- with super-company will cost up to one trillion dollars it will be the simply the biggest company in the world in general so er er for that reason stock market and er er is ne- badly needed in russia and er should be important er priority of development of transparent mhm legislation and be- business partners as well so because of my time has run out i just briefly mention u- unions of industrialists and the entrepreneurs er it's in the group of independent players research institutions and centres non-governmental organisations foreign companies er working on russian territory as another four groups which probably should be analysed but in a less er less detailed way there are also some conclusions but i think that in my presentation i already made some of them so [thank you] </S3>
<S1> [thank you] </S1>
