ID :
80533
Fri, 09/18/2009 - 12:31
Auther :

GM to produce cheap cars in Russia.



SOCHI, September 18 (Itar-Tass) -- General Motors facilities in Russia
will produce cheap cars and initial investment will comprise 170 million
euro, according to German Gref, the head of Sberbank, which together with
Canadian Magna bought GM European Opel branch.

"Production will be arranged in a brief time in St. Petersburg. Most
likely Opel Astra will be assembled," Gref told reporters late on Thursday.
"New Opel business plan has 170 million euro, which are investments in
Russia that may be provided for production of components and for
assembly", he said, adding total investments may be close to 600 million
euro. However, "that is a distant perspective," he said.
"Opel's problem is that the company has to decrease costs and preserve
investments into innovations. The project is very difficult and would be
impossible without such partner as Magna," Gref said.
He did not rule out cooperation with crisis-hit AvtoVAZ carmaker in
case it offers a similar cheap car. "If AvtoVAZ has a similar low-cost
model we can cooperate in component production. That is possible. We are
interested in stabilizing the situation at AvtoVAZ," Gref said.
In the meantime, in Moscow foreign ministry spokesman Andrei
Nesterenko admitted the deal to buy Opel had "a certain political
dimension" on the eve of the German election.
"In modern life politics and economics are interlinked notions. But in
this context the deal with Opel targets mostly economic aims for us.
However, I would not conceal that due to its large-scale scope and the
pre-election context in Germany it also has a certain political
dimension," Nesternko said, but added one should "not look for a secret
political agenda in the deal."
"That is a mutually beneficial deal, which we hope will become a new
step in the integration of the Russian economy into the European one. That
is an important event, a substantiated and market-based choice aimed at a
long-term perspective with a certain degree of social responsibility," he
said.
"The deal will not only allow to expand cooperation with our partners,
but also to get access to advanced foreign technologies and modern
production management methods," Nesterenko said.


.Six turbines to be built anew at damaged hydropower plant.

ABAKAN, September 18 (Itar-Tass) -- Six out of ten turbines have to be
built anew at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower plant in Siberia, which
was ruined in August when water flooded the turbine room and took a toll
of 75 lives.
At the first stage four turbines can be restored, but will have to be
replaced after their service life period expires, Deputy Prime Minister
Igor Sechin told a press conference on Thursday. At the second stage six
new turbines will be built, he said and estimated restoration will cost
over 40 billion rubles.
The RusHydro Company, that owns the plant, can attract over 20 million
rubles of private investments, however the state will preserve its
controlling stake in the company, according to Sechin.
He refused to specify one concrete cause of the accident, saying the
absence of coordination, lack of technical control, the general reform in
power engineering, and commercial projects of the plant leadership were to
blame.
"It is premature to say that a single cause triggered the accident.
Safety was not a priority for the plant leadership," he said.
"The leadership of the plant was excessively engaged in commercial
projects and there were numerous intermediaries at the facility," Sechin
said and explained the plant leadership and their relatives founded the
Hydroenergoremont repairs company, which carried out repairs at the second
turbine in 2009 where the accident occurred. At the same time, the power
Machines Company that produced the equipment was denied a possibility to
service it.
"We see that professional ethic has been lost. A code of professional
ethic has to be introduced," Sechin said.
He said the urgent task was to complete the construction of a water
discharge by the time of spring floods and recalled the government had
decided to appropriate 4.3 billion rubles to speed up the work.
The water discharge has to be completed by June 1, 2009. However as
spring floods begin earlier in the area, Sechin said at least one line of
the water discharge has to be ready by the time.
"This construction is a priority object for the restoration of
Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower plant. It is to cope with high waters. I
urge RusHydro leadership and all subcontractors to strictly comply with
all the schedules," Sechin said.

.Russia stunned by requested tough punishment to Salonen.

MOSCOW, September 18 (Itar-Tass) -- The Russian foreign ministry said
on Thursday it was surprised by the tough punishment requested by Finnish
prosecutors for Rimma Salonen, the Russian mother of a child illegally
taken out of Russia by his Finnish father.
"The tough punishment demanded by the Finnish prosecutors for Rimma
Salonen - seven and a half years in custody - cannot but cause surprise.
Such cases are always complicated and demand a very delicate approach,"
foreign ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said, adding the Russian
embassy in Helsinki was in constant contact with Salonen in order to
provide additional legal support to her.
Five-year-old Anton Salonen was illegally taken out of Russia by his
father Paavo Salonen in a trunk of a diplomatic car, triggering tensions
between the two countries.
However, Finnish authorities insist Rimma Salonen had herself
illegally taken the son to Russia yet in 2008.
Salonen (nee Kazakova), who holds both Russian and Finnish
citizenship, had earlier received guarantees from Finnish police that she
would not be arrested if she traveled to Finland, according to her
spokesman Johan Backman.
However, she was arrested and in August Finnish police said they have
completed preliminary investigation against the woman on suspicion of
abducting her son, deprivation of liberty and embezzlement.
-0-nec

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