Kyrgyz PGO probes into legality of jet fuel import for US military.

BISHKEK, May 1 (Itar-Tass) -- Kyrgyz transport prosecutors have
launched a probe into the legality of jet fuel supplies for the US Air
Force base at Bishkek's Manas airport, which was renamed to Transit Center
last year, the press-office of Kyrgyzstan's Prosecutor-General's Office
told Itar-Tass on Friday. The prosecutors suspect that the younger son of
the country's ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, Maxim, is involved in
this corruption affair.
According to PGO officials, preliminary inquiries have found that the
Kyrgyz parliament in November 2004 made a decision (subsequently approved
by the head of state) to impose an excise duty on the import of jet fuel
of about 50 US dollars per tonne. However, the next year, when President
Kurmanbek Bakiyev took office, "the rate of the excise tax was reduced to
zero."
"From that moment on a total of 1,807,200 tonnes of jet fuel was
brought into the country from Russian refineries without any taxes paid,"
the PGO press-service said.
According to prosecutors several companies were involved in providing
jet kerosene for US military, and all of them belonged to Maxim Bakiyev.
On the list of such firms were OOO Manas Fuel Services, OOO Kyrgyz
Aviation, OOO Central Asia Fuel, OOO Aviation Fuel Service, OOO Aircraft
Petrol Limited and OOO Central Asia Trade Group.
"The main providers" of jet fuel for the Transit Center were Red Star
Enterprises Limited and Mina Corp Limited (registered in London and
Gibraltar), with which Kyrgyz companies operated "on the basis of agency
contracts."
The Kyrgyz Transport Prosecutor's Office has opened a criminal case
under article 303 of the Criminal Code (corruption).
"At present the size of the damage caused to the state is being
evaluated," the PGO said.
The US airbase near Bishkek emerged in December 2001. At first it
housed military and equipment from the member-countries of the
anti-terrorist coalition, but currently the backbone of the group
constitutes by US Air Force personnel, responsible for supporting the
operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.
In the meantime, a number of Kyrgyz politicians have accused
Washington of connivance with the ousted Kyrgyz president and his
entourage in exchange for consent to host the air base further on. At the
beginning of last year Bakiyev warned that he would secure the base's
withdrawal, only to change his mind a while later.

.Russia is raising export tax on crude to 284 dlrs a tonne.

MOSCOW, May 1 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia is raising the export tax on crude
oil to 284 dollars a tonne from 268.9 dollars.
Under the same government resolution the taxes on light oil products
are going up from 193.5 dollars to 203.7 dollars a tonne, and that of
heavy oil products, from 104.2 dollars a tonne to 109.7 dollars a tonne.
On December 1, 2009 the government introduced the zero tax on the
export of crude from a number of fields in East Siberia. According to an
Economic Development Ministry official, the export tax on East Siberian
crude will be cut to zero on the monthly basis, at the same moment the
taxes on oil and oil products are established.
As the chief of the Finance Ministry's analysis department, Alexander
Sakovich, has said, the average price of oil, according to monitoring
statistics, was at 78.71 dollars per barrel on March 15 through April 14,
going up more than three dollars in contrast to the same period of a month
ago.
The maximum level of the oil export tax is 284.063 dollars a tonne, so
the rate has been set at 284 dollars.

.Cargo spacecraft to bring tools, sweets, science fiction to ISS Sat.

MOSCOW, May 1 (Itar-Tass) -- While most Russians will spend the first
day of the merry month of May holiday-making, picnicking and gardening in
the countryside, the crew of the International Space Station (ISS) will
have a day of great responsibility, as the unmanned cargo spacecraft
Progress carrying over 2.5 tonnes of supplies is to be docked with one of
the ISS ports.
"The fifth modified spacecraft Progress M-05M blasted off from the
Baikonur space site on April 28, and it is expected to be docked with the
ISS in the automatic mode at 22:35 Moscow time, Mission Control spokesman
Valery Lyndin told Itar-Tass. In case of problems commander Oleg Kotov and
flight engineer Alexander Skvortsov will take over to carry out manual
docking.
The Progress cargo spacecraft is carrying foods, drinking water, fuel,
equipment, clothes, sanitation and hygiene items and also tanks with
oxygen and air. Alongside the standard cargoes the crew are to receive a
bioreactor and a container with a suspension for the biotechnological
experiment Cascade, new detectors for the nearly life-size torso filled
with radiation sensors and the equivalent of human tissue, named
Matryoshka after the Russian dolls (Matryoshka's duty is to measure the
effects of the space radiations environment on the human body for future
exploration missions to the moon and Mars), and a briefcase with tools to
be used to assemble the new Russian module MIM-1 the space shuttle
Atlantic is to deliver in the middle of May.
As a compensation for a very busy weekend the crew will get messages
from home and some presents. On the way to the crew - Oleg Kotov,
Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Korniyenko, of Russia, Tracy Caldwell
Dyson and Timothy Creamer, of the United States and Soichi Noguchi, of
Japan, are parcels from relatives, fresh fruit and chocolate.
For the Russian half of the crew psychologists have added three
science fiction novels by the Strugatsky brothers, a book of psychological
advice from Vladimir Levi and a philosophic essay by Konstantin
Tsiolkovsky.

-0-str