Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov watches the Federation Cup 2004 tennis tournament in Luzhniky Sports Center.
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
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Luzhkov Wants Chubais to Invest, Not Offset
In a letter addressed to Anatoly Chubais, Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov proposed to CEO of RAO UES of Russia not to make up for damages attributed to the Moscow blackout of May 25, 2005, but to transfer the funds to repair power lines of the city.
“The losses of each enterprise were indemnified both from the city’s budget and from the floating assets of the enterprises,” said Pyotr Aksenov, 1st vice mayor of Moscow, who is in charge of the city’s utilities. Aksenov specified Moscow is not compelled by exigency to allocate funds for tackling this problem. “The matter in hand is the official amount which we have announced, except the funds of the Moscow refinery.”
Moscow authorities evaluated blackout losses at nearly 1.8 billion rubles.
Meanwhile, it appears the final amount has not been determined yet, the statements of Moscow authorities notwithstanding. “Roughly two-thirds of the claims have been considered so far, the group will complete the work in two weeks approximately. After that, we will decide on meeting all claims that are justified,” RAO UES board member Andrey Trapeznikov told Kommersant September 6, 2005, adding the funds won’t be transferred to accounts of the Moscow government but will go “right to consumers directly suffered from the blackout and presented all proofs required to the effect.”
As to the Moscow power lines, they will be upgraded under the program currently elaborated on parity basis by Moscow authorities and Moscow Energy Managing Co., which is in charge of the city’s heat/energy nets, Trapeznikov pointed out.
By the look of it, the idea put forward by Moscow is not bad at all, the analysts say. RAO UES will have to pay anyway, so it is better to invest in the infrastructure, improving capitalization of Moscow grid companies and of RAO UES as a whole. However, the issue will hardly be solved without going to law. The risk of RAO UES holders is obvious – incorrect and subjective evaluation of losses incured in the blackout. Most likely, the court will have to meet to rule on the damages.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 07, 2005
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