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Indian Frigates May Switch Wharves
United Industrial Corp., which is controlled by Tuvan Senator Sergey Pugachev, may receive the contract to build two frigates for India, even though it lost in the competition for that contract, which is worth about $1 billion, in 2006. UIC is in negotiation with Rosoboronexport on the transfer of the frigates to its Northern Wharf from the Yantar plant in Kaliningrad. The state holds a 51-percent share in Yantar and about 32 percent of it belongs to the Interregional Investment Bank.
Yantar won the competition in 2006 to build three frigates for India for $1.6 billion not only because of its low bid, but because plant's need for support as well. The ships were to be delivered in 2010 and 2011. Rosoboronexport began having doubts that Yantar would be able to fulfill the order last autumn. The situation worsened in December, after Interregional Investment Bank board member Igor Kruglyakov was arrested for attempted embezzlement in the same case as Deputy Finance Minister Sergey Storchak was arrested in. Yantar has issued hundreds of million of rubles in loans to Yantar.
India had an unpleasant experience when its aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov was modernized in Russia and another scandal is highly undesirable. Therefore, the government is attending to the situation while it is still remediable. Altering the Rosoboronexport contract with Yantar will be extremely complex.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Feb. 05, 2008
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