Medvedev to start up Nord Stream construction.

MOSCOW, April 9 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and
European leaders will attend on Friday the start-up ceremony of Nord
Stream gas pipeline construction that is to link Russia and Germany across
the Baltic Sea bed.
Medvedev will arrive in Portovaya Bay near Vyborg for a symbolic
welding of a joint uniting Russian and European gas transportation
networks.
Participating in the ceremony will be also Dutch Prime Minister Jan
Peter Balkenende, French Foreign Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Idrac,
European Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger, former German Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder, and Nord Stream Company CEO Mathias Warnig. German
Chancellor Angela Merkel will address the ceremony through a TV link-up.
The 7.4-billion euro project is to link Russia with Greifswald in
Germany and will be 1223 kilometers long and have a total annual capacity
of 55 billion cubic meters. It will have two lines, and Nord Stream Chief
Financial Officer Paul Corcoran said the first stage of construction has
been fully financed.
He said project stockholders will provide 30 percent of costs and
borrowed finances will cover the remaining 70 percent.
Corcoran specified 3.9 billion euros have been provided by 26
international banks for the first line of the project and close to 2.5
billion euro are to be borrowed for the second line. "Second stage
investments are to be attracted by the end of 2010," Corcoran said in St.
Petersburg.
The start-up of the first line is scheduled for late 2011 and of the
second line - for 2012.
Russia's Gazprom holds 51 percent in the project, German Wintershall
Holding AG and E.ON Ruhrgas AG - 20 percent each, and Dutch Gasunie - 9
percent.
Warnig said Gazprom had already found customers for a half of the gas
to be transported through Nord Stream.
Direct gas supplies bypassing transit countries are always cheaper
both for the supplier and the customer, Warnig said, adding "we are
contributing to diversification of transit routes which increases
reliability of supplies."
He dispelled fears of growing European dependence on Russian gas,
saying Europe has to remember that Gazprom and the Russian state budget
depend on gas exports to Europe. "There is a mutual dependence," he said.

.Lavrov to visit Ukraine Friday.

MOSCOW, April 9 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
will begin a two-day visit to Ukraine on Friday, which will be the first
after the end of the "Orange epoch" and the election of President Viktor
Yanukovich who is set to improve relations with Russia.
Lavrov will meet his Ukrainian counterpart Konstantin Grishchenko to
discuss border delimitation in the Kerch Strait in the Sea of Azov,
cooperation in international organizations, joint response to common
challenges and threats, and the progress of Dniester conflict settlement
in neighboring Moldova.
Noted Ukrainian political scientist Mikhail Pogrebinsky said "after a
five-year pause Ukraine and Russia are trying to find a common language
and non-conflict ways to resolve acute problems."
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