General Prosecutor’s Office is checking contracts of Rosneft and Transneft with China

Russia agreed on the oil exports to China in 2009. At that time a 25-year contract was called a Russian victory: in exchange for the guarantee of the supply of 300 mln tons of raw materials (in 2011-2030) the Chinese State banks issued credits for $25 bln for Rosneft and Transneft. Though recently the companies said about the reconsideration of these agreements not releasing the details.
Now the General Prosecutor’s Office is checking them: in late March the agency started to audit the possible violations made in its reconsideration of the contracts, is said in the letter of the General Prosecutor’s Office to the delegate of the State Duma, N. Kolomeitsev. In late February he asked the President, D. Medvedev, and the General Prosecutor, Y. Chaika, to check the new contracts of the state companies with China and assess their consequences for the economy of Russia. Similar request will be soon sent to the Accounts Chamber, Mr. Kolomeitsev says. The reason for his requests were the mass media reports that the companies had agreed to make a discount for China of $1.5 per each barrel of the supplied oil, so Russia can loss about $3 bln of profits. 
The General Prosecutor’s Office will check the agreements of Rosneft and Transneft, though initially the delegate’s request had been sent to the Moscow agency, the letters say. It means that it was impossible to check the facts by the forces of the Moscow agency, and the audit is very important, a representative of the General Prosecutor’s Office said.
The representatives of Rosneft and Transneft refused to comment.
Mr. Kolomeitsev is not the first who is trying to check the details of the contracts with China of Rosneft and Transneft. Their minority shareholder, A. Navalny, is unsuccessfully trying to get the papers in Court. The requests of some chairmen, including the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Energy also wanted to get acquainted with the documents but failed as well, a source close to one of these Ministries told Vedomosti. The current reaction of the General Prosecutor’s Office for the delegate’s request might be connected with the personnel changes in the Government, the managing partner of “Dashevsky and partners”, S. Dashevsky thinks. W. Churchill once compared the Kremlin policy with the “fight of 2 bulldogs under a carpet”, he reminds. Nothing has changed from that moment and we might soon see the victim of this situation, Mr. Dashevsky says.

http://www.vedomosti.ru/companies/news/1631647/kitajskij_zapros
Translated by Galiya Musabekova