Medvedev going to the Netherlands to open Hermitage Museum branch.

MOSCOW, June 19 (Itar-Tass) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will
depart for Amsterdam on Friday in order to open together with Queen
Beatrix of the Netherlands a branch of Russia's State Hermitage Museum -
the Hermitage on the Amstel. In the city where more than 50 museums are
working the Russian culture centre will occupy the third honourable place
after the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum.

A high-ranking Kremlin official called in an interview with Itar-Tass
the opening of the museum and exhibition complex "the central event of the
working visit" of the Russian head of state. The opening ceremony is
expected to be "festive and large-scale."
"This unique both for the bilateral cultural cooperation and for
Europe in general project reflects the high level of partnership
interaction between Russia and the Netherlands," the official of the RF
presidential administration noted.
The idea to open in the "Northern Venice" a branch of the largest
museum of the Russian "northern capital" - St. Petersburg originated at
the end of the past century. In 2001, when Queen Beatrix was on a visit to
Russia, the sides signed a corresponding agreement. It took 8 years and 40
million euros to restore the ancient Amstelhof building where a home for
elderly people was situated. Amsterdam mayor's office gave the monument of
architecture to the Dutch Hermitage on the Amstel Fund for use for 50
years taking a symbolic pay of 5 euros with the possibility of extension
of the lease term for another 50 years on the same terms.
The first stage of the reconstruction ended in 2004. Nine exhibitions
have already been held since then at the Hermitage on the Amstel. On
Saturday, after the opening of the whole museum, the visitors will be able
to see a new exposition devoted to the Russian tsar's court of the 19th
century - from Paul I to Nicholas II. More than 2,000 exhibits from the RF
State Hermitage Museum will be put on display here. The total area of the
exhibition halls is 4,500 square metres. But the Hermitage on the Amstel
will also become a research and education centre equipped with modern
appliances, with lecture halls and classrooms for teaching children.
Branches of the Hermitage are already working in the Somerset House
Museum (London) where interiors of several rooms represent some halls of
the Russian museum, and the US exhibition centre named the
Hermitage-Guggenheim. There are also plans to open other branches, for
instance, in Italy and Brazil. However, the Amsterdam exposition is the
largest.
The Royal family of the Netherlands that had Russian roots gives major
attention to the project. Her Majesty Queen Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard is
the great-great granddaughter of Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna - the
daughter of Paul I and wife of Wilhelm II.
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.Medvedev to discuss in Netherlands bilateral coop on itl problems.

MOSCOW, June 19 (Itar-Tass) - Business contacts between Russia and the
Netherlands, as well as the most important international problems will be
in the focus at talks between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Dutch
Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende. The Russian head of state will depart
for Amsterdam on Friday on a two-day working visit.
A high-ranking Kremlin source told Itar-Tass that the visit is paid at
the invitation of the prime minister of the Netherlands. In Amsterdam
"Medvedev will hold a conversation with Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands,
talks with Prime Minister Balkenende, as well as a meeting with the
leadership of the leading Dutch and trans-national corporations based in
the Netherlands - active participants in trade-economic and investment
exchanges with Russia," the representative of the RF presidential
administration noted.
He called the Netherlands "one of the most active and promising
economic partners of Russia in the world." By the results of 2008 this
country occupied the second position regarding trade turnover volume with
Russia and regarding the investment sum in the Russian economy. Thus,
Russian-Dutch trade approached the volume of 62 billion US dollars, and
the total volume of accumulated Dutch capital investments in Russia
reached 45.2 billion US dollars by the end of last year, which makes 18
percent of the whole volume of foreign investments in the Russian economy.
Among the largest projects are Sakhalin-2 (production of liquefied natural
gas; Gazprom and Shell concerns are the project participants), the
construction of the Nord Stream gas pipeline in which the Dutch company
Gasunie in 1997 bought 9 percent of stocks.
The Sakhalin-2 project is one of the biggest oil and gas developments
in the world. Two oil and gas fields are being developed offshore Sakhalin
Island in the Sea of Okhotsk: Piltun-Astokhskoye and Lunskoye. Associated
infrastructure has been constructed onshore. Piltun-Astokhskoye is
primarily an oil field and Lunskoye is primarily a gas field. The project
is managed and operated by Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd.
(Sakhalin Energy). Sakhalin-2 is of vital importance to Russia's future
energy policy. For this reason, in 2006 the Russian government targeted
the foreign owners of the development, forcing them to sell a majority
stake to Gazprom.
Nord Stream (former names: North Transgas and North European Gas
Pipeline; also known as the Russo-German gas pipeline or the Baltic Sea
gas pipeline) is a planned natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany by
the company Nord Stream AG. The name of Nord Stream refers usually to the
offshore pipeline between Vyborg, Russia, and Greifswald, Germany, but
sometimes it may have wider meaning, which includes the onshore pipeline
in Russia and further connections in Western Europe.
The main source of natural gas for the Nord Stream pipeline will be
Yuzhno-Russkoye field, which is located in the Krasnoselkupsky District,
Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Tyumen Oblast. The licence for the Yuzhno-
Russkoye field is owned by Severneftegazprom, the subsidiary of Gazprom.
BASF and E.ON are minor shareholders in Severneftegazprom. The proven
reserves of Yuzhno-Russkoye are 800 bcm and estimations are more than 1000
bcm of natural gas. The planned capacity of Yuzhno-Russkoye is about 25
bcm of gas per year. Nord Stream will be fed additionally from fields in
Yamal Peninsula, Ob-Taz bay. Gazprom has also indicated that the majority
of gas produced at the Shtokman field would be sold to Europe via the Nord
Stream pipeline. For this purpose, the pipeline from the Shtokman field
via Kola peninsula to Volkhov or Vyborg in the Leningrad Oblast has to be
built.
"At present the sides are taking a complex of measures in order to
minimise the negative effects of the global financial and economic crisis
on the bilateral business cooperation," the Kremlin source noted.
According to him, it is planned to organise on the sidelines of the visit
a meeting of the co-chairs of the joint economic cooperation commission -
RF First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov and Dutch Economics Minister
Maria van der Hoeven."
The RF presidential administration official stressed that the "two
countries' leaders will have an exchange of vies on a wide spectrum of
international problems." Among them he named the discussion on the Russian
initiative of the creation of a new European security treaty, Russia-NATO
and Russia-EU interaction, and the Afghan issue. "Russian-Dutch
coordination on the global and regional agenda is traditionally
distinguished by the trust-based attitude and constructive dialogue," the
Kremlin official added.
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