Putin praises French investors for support in crisis.

MOSCOW, December 10 (Itar-Tass) -- Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
praised French investors for support to Russian AvtoVAZ carmaker and other
joint projects during the financial crisis.
"French (investors) were very stoic regarding AvtoVAZ during the
crisis," he said on Thursday following a meeting with French counterpart
Francois Fillon.
Renault-Nissan bought a stake in Avtovaz before the crisis and
invested close to two billion dollars into the biggest Russian carmaker.
Head of Russian Technologies Corporation Sergei Chemezov told Tass on
Wednesday Renault-Nissan is expected to acquire a controlling stake in
AvtoVAZ next year with Renault holding 35 percent and Nissan -15-20
percent.
Putin said the Russian government also did a lot to bail out AvtoVAZ
which was on the verge of bankruptcy during the crisis.
"We made the first contribution to the company without diluting the
French stake. And they responded with a wish to continue joint activities.
The same concerns new technologies and production of completely new
vehicles. There is a clear and positive result in all these guidelines,"
the prime minister said.
The Russian government initially provided a 25-billion ruble
interest-free loan to AvtoVAZ and then added 28 billion rubles as property
contribution of the Russian Technologies, which is the strategic investor.
The government reserved another 10 billion rubles for the development of
the enterprise. The utilization program envisaging discounted sales of new
cars in exchange for old ones comprised 21 billion rubles and the biggest
beneficiary was AvtoVAZ which accounted for 80 percent of all sales under
the program. In ten months of 2010 the sales upped 40 percent.
Putin said "this year we disbursed 28 billion rubles to Russian
Technologies accounts that would be transferred to AvtoVAZ and have
reserved another 10 billion rubles".
"It is all being done to implement the development program which we
agreed with you," Putin told Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn.
"This year we shall reach the pre-crisis level" in bilateral
cooperation with France. "We accumulated a very good pace in the year and
it naturally did not happen all by itself, but rather due to the effort
also of our French partners," Putin said.

.Russian arms trader creates JV with French Sagem.

MOSOW, December 10 (Itar-Tass) -- The Russian Rosoboronexport arms
trader agreed on Thursday with the French Sagem Defense Securities to set
up a joint venture to produce inertial navigation systems (INS).
The agreement was signed in the presence of Russian and French prime
ministers, Rosoboronexport spokesman Vyacheslav Davidenko told Tass,
adding the joint venture will operate on the Russian territory and the
arms trader will hold a 51-percent stake while Sagem - 49 percent.
"I am convinced the work of the Russian-French JV will not only expand
the sphere of military-technical cooperation between our countries, but
also open new prospects for joint and mutually advantageous high-tech
engineering and production and exchange of advanced technologies," said
Rosoboronexport deputy CEO Ivan Goncharenko.
Sagem Chairman and CEO Jean-Lin Fournereaux said the deal "was a vivid
confirmation of the exceptionally favorable relations between our
countries both at the industrial and state level."
Sagem, is a high-tech company in the Safran group. It is a world or
European leader in solutions and services in optronics, avionics,
electronics and critical software for the civilian and military markets.
Sagem is the European No. 1 and worldwide No.3 in INSs for aeronautic,
naval and land applications.

.Putin, Kiviniemi to discuss trade, Baltic Sea ecology.

MOSCOW, December 10 (Itar-Tass) -- Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will
leave on a three-day trip to St. Petersburg on Friday to meet Finland's
Prime Minister Mari Kiviniemi and launch a fast-speed railway service with
Helsinki together with Finland's President Tarja Halonen.
"The heads of government will discuss in detail a wide range of issues
in trade, economic and investment cooperation, including in the sphere of
transport, energy, high technologies and innovations, timber and
agricultural complexes, border and customs infrastructure," the Russian
government press service said.
The chancellery of the Council of State of Finland said Kiviniemi and
Putin will discuss trade and economic cooperation and environmental
protection of the Baltic Sea.
Transportation cooperation will highlight the talks as high-speed
railway trains will link St. Petersburg and Helsinki on Sunday and
President Tarja Halonen will be among the first passengers.
Putin and Halonen agreed to launch the project yet in 2001. Four
Allegro trains of the French Alstom Company will run at a speed exceeding
200 kilometers per hour and nearly halve the travel time between the two
cities from six hours 18 minutes to 3.5 hours.
The number of tourists in both countries has radically increased of
late and the Finnish customs reported close to eight million people
crossed the border with Russia in 2010.
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