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ALROSA WILL SUPPLY DIAMONDS TO ARMENIAN CUTTERS

RusData Dialine – Russian Press Digest
December 25, 2007 Tuesday

In line with an agreement signed in August between Alrosa and the
government of Armenia, the Russian diamond miner is due to begin
supplying manufacturing facilities in Armenia with rough diamonds.

An Alrosa delegation, headed by President Sergey Vybornov is presently
on a working trip to the Caucasus country to discuss implementation
of the agreement, on cooperation in the areas of diamond and jewelry
manufacturing.

The agreement provides, in particular, for bilateral exchanges
of information and coordinated moves aimed at strengthening the
competitive edge of Russian and Armenian diamond manufacturers in
the global market.

A team of Alrosa experts has conducted a study of 20 diamond cutting
enterprises in Armenia. With the approval of Armenia’s Ministry of
Industry, four diamond cutting enterprises were selected to receive
rough supplies beginning this month.

Alrosa reported that it has already sold rough diamonds to two of
the diamond cutting factories.

RUSSIA’S SUKHOI SLIGHTLY DELAYS FIRST FLIGHT OF SUPERJET 100

Prime-Tass English-language Business Newswire
December 25, 2007 Tuesday 12:19 PM EET
Russia

Major Russian aircraft holding Sukhoi Company has slightly delayed the
first flight of the SuperJet 100 regional aircraft, Olga Kayukova,
PR director of the holding’s subsidiary Sukhoi Civil Aircraft, told
Prime-Tass Tuesday without providing an exact timeline.

The first test flight of the SuperJet 100 was expected to take place
by the end of 2007 and mass production was expected to start in 2008,
the company said earlier.

The rolling out of SuperJet 100 aircraft took place in the city of
Komsomolsk-on-Amur on September 26. Kuyakova noted that in general
aviation practice, the period between the rolling out of a plane and
its first test flight is usually four to five months.

As of now, Sukhoi Civil Aircraft has firm orders to supply 73 SuperJet
100 aircraft.

In particular, Sukhoi Civil Aircraft has contracts to supply 30
SuperJets 100s to Russian flag carrier Aeroflot Russian Airlines,
15 aircraft to Russian airline alliance AiRUnion, six aircraft to
Russian airline Dalavia, 10 aircraft to Russia’s Financial Leasing
Company, 10 aircraft to Italian airline ItAli and two aircraft to
Armenian airline Armavia.

Sukhoil Civil Aircraft is a subsidiary of Russian aircraft maker
Sukhoi, which is in turn controlled by the United Aircraft Building
Corporation (UAC).

It is developing the SuperJet 100 aircraft in cooperation with U.S.

aircraft company Boeing. The SuperJet 100 is expected to replace
Tu-134 passenger aircraft.

10TH ANNIVERSARY OF ART ACADEMY GYUMRI BRANCH
By Gegham Manukian

AZG Armenian Daily
25/12/2007

"This building is reconstructed by means of "Armenia" All-Armenian
Foundation, Armenian General Benevolent Union and with the money
collected during the pilgrimage of Loris Chgnavorian to Gyumri
in 1991".

This is written on the signboard of Arts Academy (not official name)
building in Gyumri.

On December 21, Art Academy Gyumri branch celebrated its 10th
anniversary.

Today in 6 departments of Gyumri Arts Academy study 192 future
specialists.

RA Minister of Education and Science Levon Mkrtchian, Yerevan Sate
Art Academy rector, professor Aram Isabekian, AGBU Armenia office
Director Ashot Ghazarian, representatives of local institutes,
authorities and culture sphere delivered speeches in the ceremony.

Levon Mkrtchian spoke of the greatest role in Gyumri renaissance the
foundation of that kind of cultural institution on those days.

The same day participants and the guests of the ceremony watched
the exhibition of the branch lecturer’s works held in Aslamazian
Sister’s Gallery.

LEVON MELIK-SHAHNAZARYAN: ARMENIA MUST CHANGE THE STRATEGY AFTER ELECTIONS

armradio.am
24.12.2007 16:22

The Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations in the framework of the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict settlement yielded no results in 2007, political
scientist Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan told a press conference today. He
noted that although Azerbaijan declares about its readiness to make
concessions, that country offers nothing more that broad autonomy to
Nagorno Karabakh.

According to Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan, currently the negotiations
are somewhat "frozen," which is caused by the pre-election period
in Armenia and Azerbaijan. The political scientist is assured that
after the elections Armenia must change its strategy in the talks,
making it more aggressive.

"The complementary policy is favorable for us, but world changes
rapidly, and Armenia should reconsider its foreign policy," Levon
Melik-Shahnazaryan said. In his words, by saying "complementary"
one should not imagine a "peaceful, harmless" state.

VANDALS DEFACE HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL IN ARMENIA
By Michael Freund

Jerusalem Post
Dec 23 2007

Unknown vandals defaced a memorial to the Jewish victims of the
Holocaust in central Yerevan last week, scrawling a swastika on the
simple stone structure and splattering it with black paint.

Rabbi Gershon Burshtein, a Chabad emissary who serves as Chief Rabbi of
the country’s tiny Jewish community, expressed shock upon discovering
the vandalism while escorting visitors to the site on Wednesday.

After calling the police and local government officials to inform
them of the incident, he said, "I just visited the memorial the other
day and everything was fine. This is terrible, as there are excellent
relations between Jews and Armenians."

A senior adviser to Armenian President Robert Kocharian denounced the
defacement as "a provocation", and promised Rabbi Burshtein that it
would be taken care of forthwith.

The monument has been defaced and toppled several times in the past
few years. It is located in the city’s Aragast Park, a few blocks
north of the centrally-located Republic Square, which is home to a
number of government buildings.

The text inscribed in Hebrew on the stone reads, "To be or to forget:
in memory of the victims of the Holocaust".

Armenia’s Jewish population is estimated at between 300 and 500 people,
most of whom live in the capital of Yerevan.

200 MEN CANNOT AFFORD TO PAY ALIMENTS

KarabakhOpen
24-12-2007 12:20:39

The court has decided on over 200 cases when the ex-husband fails
to pay aliments, the minister justice Arthur Mosiyan told the Azat
Artsakh. "No confiscation was possible regarding thirty because they
cannot afford to pay aliments. A survey showed that part of them do
not work, there are doubts regarding the others," Arthur Mosiyan says.

Panorama.am

13:26 22/12/2007

U.N. WANTS TO MAKE POSTCARDS FROM DRAWINGS OF ARMENIAN CHILDREN

The works of the students of the Armenian National Center of Esthetics
have been exhibited in Rome within the framework of Armenian Culture
Days program. U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
headquarters has applied to the director of the center Henrik Igityan
with a request to make postcards on Christmas and Easter from the
pictures of the students.

Armenian foreign ministry press and information department informs
that the pictures of the students on topics of bible were exhibited at
FAO headquarters. The Armenian official delegation was present at the
opening ceremony. Present were ambassadors accredited to Italy and
FAO, permanent representatives and reporters. The exhibition is a
success so far and many students of Rome visit it.

Source: Panorama.am

Russia secures Caspian gas pipeline deal
By Isabel Gorst in Baku
Published: December 21 2007 02:00 | Last updated: December 21 2007 02:00

Russia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan finalised a landmark agreement yesterday
to build a pipeline to transport gas to Russia, tightening Moscow’s control
over Central Asian gas exports.
The deal comes at a time of intense competition for the region’s rich energy
resources. Dubbed Pricaspiysky, the new pipeline will skirt the east coast of
the Caspian Sea carrying 20bn cubic metres a year of Turkmen and Kazakh gas
north to Russia’s Saratov region.
The accord, signed in the presence of Vladimir Putin, the Russian president,
and Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan’s leader, is a setback for Europe, which
is courting Caspian producers for gas supplies to reduce its dependence on
Russian imports.
Julia Nanay, of PFC Energy, said, "The agreement on this pipeline marks a
strengthening of energy relations between Central Asia and Russia and fulfils
one of Putin’s key policy goals of tying large supplies of gas from Central
Asia into the Russian system."
Gazprom, the state-controlled Russian gas company, needs Central Asian gas to
compensate for a fall in production from its Siberian fields, a decline that
threatens to undermine its $37bn (=82¬25.5bn, £18.4bn) a year European gas
export business.
Mr Putin said the Pricaspiysky pipeline would be "a serious investment by our
countries in strengthening energy security, not just in Eurasia but more
widely, bearing in mind our main consumers in west Europe".
Separately, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan plan to modernise
and expand a Soviet-era pipeline, currently the only large gas export route
out of landlocked Central Asia.
Viktor Khristenko, the Russian energy minister, said the Pricaspiysky
pipeline would be built by late 2010. Each republic would take responsibility
for financing construction of the pipeline on their territory, he said.
Mr Putin and Mr Nazarbayev earlier spoke by telephone with Gurbanguly
Berdymukhammedov, the Turkmen president, who came into office a year ago after
the death of Sapurmurat Niyazov.
Mr Berdymukhammedov has begun construction of a gas export pipeline to China
that will end Russia’s stranglehold on Turkmenistan’s gas export routes by
the end of 2009.
He has also held frequent talks with western governments about a project to
build a gas pipeline across the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan to link up with the
planned Nabucco system supplying Caspian gas to Europe. Nabucco is central to
the EU’s strategy to diversify gas imports away from Russia.
Finalisation of the Pricaspiysky project, first announced in May, has been
postponed several times despite intense lobbying by Russian diplomats.
Meanwhile, Turkmenistan has persuaded Gazprom to accept a 30 per cent
increase in gas prices, despite an earlier contract fixing the price at $100
per thousand cubic metres until 2009. The price will rise again to $150 per
thousand cubic metres in the second half of next year.
Analysts said it would be difficult for prospective investors in the
trans-Caspian pipeline to compete with the higher price Gazprom has agreed to
pay Turkmenistan.
The Financial Times Limited 2007

ACCORDING TO PRESIDENT OF RA, ARMENIAN-IRANIAN COOPERATION PROCEEDED
EFFICIENTLY IN RECENT YEARS THANKS TO CONSISTENT AND CONSTRUCTIVE WORK

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 22, NOYAN TAPAN. The Armenian president Robert
Kocharian on December 21 received the Iranian ambassador to Armenia
Alireza Hagigian who has completed his diplomatic mission in Armenia.
R. Kocharian said that the Armenian-Iranian cooperation has proceeded
especially efficiently in the past few years thanks to consistent and
constructive work, to which the Iranian ambassador has made a great
contribution. According to the RA president’s press service, R.
Kocharian expressed confidence that the new cooperation programs will
be implemented with the same success.

ARMENIA DID NOT DEMAND TO DISCUSS GEORGIAN TERRITORY QUESTIONS IN EC

Panorama.am
20:30 20/12/2007

Armenia never demanded to discuss Georgian territory antagonism
in EC. Panorama.am asked David Harutunyan, the leader of Armenian
delegation in EC, and the monitoring group member, to analyze Georgian
deputy Elena Tevdoradze’s announcement.

Note that according to Black Sea Press; the Georgian deputy announced
the above mentioned in "Mze" TV.

"Your announcement does not express the real situation in EC," said
D. Harutunyan.