Posted on 09/20/2005 3:52:14 AM PDT by .cnI redruM
Russia's major oil producers agreed Monday to freeze their gasoline prices in the country until the end of the year, the Interfax news agency said, citing the Industry and Energy Ministry.
The oil companies made the decision at a meeting with Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko, Interfax quoted ministry spokesman Stas Naumov as saying. The ministry could not immediately be contacted Monday.
"The result of the meeting was a voluntary decision by the management of Russia's largest companies; prices won't rise any further on the domestic market until the end of the year," the official said, according to Interfax.
Surging oil prices worldwide have boosted the cost of gasoline in Russia, the world's second-largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia, provoking criticism from Kremlin-loyal politicians. Gas prices rose by a ruble in the space of a week as of Tuesday, to 18 rubles ($0.63) per liter (0.26 gallon).
The biggest Russian crude oil producer, Lukoil, announced a unilateral cap on gasoline prices Monday with immediate effect. Another major oil company, TNK-BP, which is a 50-percent joint venture with British oil giant BP, declined to confirm the price freeze, but said it would make an announcement Tuesday.
"We support the government's efforts to ease up tensions on the fuel market," TNK-BP spokeswoman Marina Dracheva told The Associated Press.
In a statement, Lukoil blamed high mineral-resource taxes that are pegged to world prices, as well as under-investment in domestic refineries.
As for the Fins, they can negotiate and work something out if they wish.
In Georgia, or rather defacto independent Abhazia and S.Ossessia the people have won independence from Georgia and now want and demand to be part of Russia, which was also not the case for the first 7 years. Only after constant Georgian aggression from 1993-2000 (post the initial 1991-1993 wars) did they ask to be part of Russia.
I have no problem with them being independent nations, do you? Or is it better to force people against their will to be part of Georgia....yup, now that's "freedom". /sarcasm
Who cares? You want to count from 1920, so keep the line.
As for the Fins, they can negotiate and work something out if they wish.
Yeah right ROTLF
In Georgia, or rather defacto independent Abhazia and S.Ossessia the people have won independence from Georgia and now want and demand to be part of Russia, which was also not the case for the first 7 years. Only after constant Georgian aggression from 1993-2000 (post the initial 1991-1993 wars) did they ask to be part of Russia.
Maybe you want also independent Chechnya and all other nations occupied by Russia? Those separatist are instructed directly from Moscow so their claims are meaningless for me.
I have no problem with them being independent nations, do you? Or is it better to force people against their will to be part of Georgia....yup, now that's "freedom". /sarcasm
They are not independent, they are ruled by the Russian mafia. Kremlin even managed to change results of the so called “elections” in Abkhazia. I will accept their independence as fast as Kremlin recognize independent Chechnya (read NEVER)
Yeah, I'm sure the Georgians cleansing them were also instructed by Moscow. Please, you sound like a broken record.
Oh and as for the Chechens, sure if they take only the land they had in 1920, which is the southern half of what they now own. Grozny and the Tarek river valley belonged to the now extinct Tarek Cossaks....massacred by Stalin and his CHECHEN allies in the early 1920s.
Actually the Gergians are the one whom were cleansed. (250K in Abkhazia ans S Ossetia. )
Oh and as for the Chechens, sure if they take only the land they had in 1920, which is the southern half of what they now own. Grozny and the Tarek river valley belonged to the now extinct Tarek Cossaks....massacred by Stalin and his CHECHEN allies in the early 1920s.
Nor Abkhaz nor Ossetians were independent as well, so try to figure out something else comrade.
Yeah, sorta like the Germans from the Sudetanland after loosing the war. The Georgians left in 1993 as their army was routed, 2 years after they butchered a good chunk of Sohumi.
Abhazia was, do some research.
The us is a mojor exporter of technology why do we pay more for windos than anyone else?
The Georgians only defended their territories, the Germans attacked other countries and committed gigantic genocide. You must be blind or you have an agenda if you don’t see any difference.
No was not.
No worries ... Since Putin now owns Yukos, he'll simply raise the prices at the Yukos pumps outside Russia.
I was off by 2 years:
Of course this was prior to Soviet annexation of both, so lets see what happened after Soviet annexation:
So keep talking out your 3rd point of contact, you're good at that.
However, Gorbachev’s policies of glasnost (Russian for “openness”) and perestroika (“restructuring”), introduced in the mid-1980s, led many Abkhazians and Ossetians in Georgia to begin agitating for increased autonomy. Friction between the Georgian government and these ethnic minorities increased after the Georgian
---snip---
Supreme Soviet (legislature) passed a law establishing the Georgian language as the official state language in 1989. On April 9 of that year, demonstrators in Tbilisi, who were demanding that Abkhazia remain a part of Georgia and advocating Georgian independence from the USSR, were attacked by Soviet security forces. Nineteen people were killed and many others injured, resulting in increased anti-Soviet sentiment.
Evidence of brutal atrocities committed by the other side has been produced én masse. Lists of detailed descriptions of brutal assaults on individuals and groups, which I will spare the reader from, have been published, and ‘just’ mention that this includes decapitated infants, raped women and execution in front of family members and so on. In the administrative centre of South Ossetia, Tskhinvali, signs of destruction is still evident. There are bullet holes in almost every building and several houses remain in ruins. According to Georgian sources, some of these houses belonged to Georgian families, who fled or were driven out of Tskhinvali, their houses subsequently burnt. Another monument of the war is School No. 5. Not being able to bury their dead in the cemeteries because of the shelling and the snipers, the Ossetians used the school playground instead.
In addition to this, in lack of a better word, front-line fighting, the Georgians carried out a blockade by controlling the road south of the tunnel, which connects South Ossetia to North Ossetia, using the Georgian villages along the road north of Tskhinvali as strongholds. Georgians disconnected electricity supplies to Tskhinvali, and blocked the road by which the city received food and other products. In February 1991, the central Russian television characterised the situation in the city as "worse than Leningrad in 1942. The entire city is without heating and electricity...there is no food" (Fuller 1991, p.22). On several occasions, the South Ossetians blocked the Georgian villages north of Tskhinvali from the rest of Georgia as well (Helsinki Watch 1992, p.16-17).
As mentioned, troops from Russia's MVD had been in Tskhinvali from the start of the conflict. Their role was rather ambiguous and even contradictory. According to the Ossetians, they did not try to stop the Georgians from taking Tskhinvali. Meanwhile the Soviet Union collapsed and in December 1991, the Russian MVD troops left Tskhinvali. According to Georgian sources, the Russian MVD gave their arms to the Ossetians. Incidents of more overt assistance given by the Russian army were to follow.
In June 1992, the Chairman of the Russian Supreme Soviet, Ruslan Khasbulatov, made a statement in which he described the Georgian actions in South Ossetia as genocide which could force Russia to consider the South Ossetians authorities' request to join the Russian Federation. Shortly afterwards it was reported that heavy weaponry with Russian identification marks was used against the Georgians. Edward Shevardnadze, having been appointed as the chairman of the interim State Council of Georgia (March 1992), made a statement condemning the Russian armed forces' open participation in the conflict on the South Ossetian side.
Yes there was brutal war in these territories, both sides suffered because Kremlin has territorial claims towards Georgia. What do you want to proof?
We do not put lead in petrol (more exactly - lead tetra-ethyl) since 7-8 years ago.
Slyshal zvon, da ne znaet, gde on. (Heard the bells ringing, did not know where).
"We do not put lead in petrol "
This report conirms otherwise.
http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:s_RlUu3TlYwJ:www.un.org/esa/gite/cleanfuels/ifqc-globaloverview.pdf+%22+leaded+gasoline+it+is+still+marketed%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
The marketing and production of leaded petrol was officially banned in Russia since 1st of July 2003 (a law passed by Duma). The actual production ceded several years before due to dwindling consumption.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.