Crimean Map Scandals: Choice Between Offending Russia or Ukraine www.themoscowtimes.mn

Since Russian troops invaded and annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in March 2014, world topography has struggled to place the international border between the two countries. Research engines, academic textbooks, businesses and other world organizations have come under fire from both the Ukrainian and Russian foreign ministries depending on how they print their maps.

This week, Russia criticized Google for using Ukraine's “decommunized” spellings for street names in parts of Crimea. Google has adopted Ukrainian versions of 900 place names in Crimea.

Russia's Communications Minister Nikolai Nikiforov called the move a “short-sighted policy” and said that he hoped “the mistake is corrected.” “If Google pays so little attention to Russian law and Russian place names then it will not be able to do business effectively on Russian territory,” Nikiforov said.

Crimea's Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov claimed Google was “pandering to Kiev and feelings of Russophobia in Ukraine,” while another Crimean official accused the company of “topograhical cretinism.”

On Friday, Google reversed its decision and restored the Soviet names for Crimean settlements.

But Google is far from the only company to be caught in the conflict.

Russian search engines

Initially, Russia'a Yandex search engine reacted to the annexation by showing Crimea as Russian on Yandex.ru (the Russian version of the website) and as Ukrainian on Yandex.ua (its Ukrainian version). Russian search engine Mail.ru marked Crimea as part of Russia shortly after the annexation.

Textbooks

Only a handful of countries, including North Korea, Cuba, Syria and Venezuela, have recognized Crimea as part of Russia. Other members of the international community — even staunch Moscow allies like Belarus — have abstained on the issue.

Printing new school textbooks have sparked diplomatic rows with both Russia and Ukraine, depending on where the border was printed.

Kazakhstan angered Russian authorities by ensuring that Crimea remained Ukrainian in academic textbooks. In September 2014, the Kazakh Education Ministry was forced to release a statement on the issue. “The publisher and authors did not fully reflect the position of Kazakhstan or that of the international community in its treatment of the Crimea issue.”

The British publisher Oxford University Press also came under fire for printing a map of Crimea as part of Russia in a geography textbook, prompting complaints from the Ukrainian Embassy in London.

Cuba's Education Ministry, keen to avoid confrontation, printed textbooks with maps showing Crimea as simultaneously part of Russia and Ukraine.

World sporting organizations

FIFA also had to choose whether to offend Ukraine or the Kremlin. When it unveiled a promotional video of the 2018 World Cup in Russia, it included Crimea as part of the Russian Federation. This sparked protest from Ukraine's diplomats, with additional uproar as Russia is accused of “kidnapping” Crimean football clubs as part of the annexation.

Global corporations

Coca-Cola made a similar blunder in January when it included Crimea as part of Russia in its advertising campaign, drawing protests and threats of a boycott from angry Ukrainians. The U.S company said that the map, which appeared on its VKontakte page, had been changed by an advertising agency without its approval.

The Crimean annexation was the first time borders were changed in Europe by force and its topographical consequences will live on until the conflict is revolved.

Losses for Lada Manufacturer AvtoVAZ Increase Eightfold www.themoscowtimes.com

Net losses for Russian car manufacturer AvtoVAZ have ballooned by 800 percent in the first half of 2016, reaching some 27.15 billion rubles ($404 million).

The company, which produces the iconic Russian car brand Lada, reported that revenues were down 5 percent to 87.1 billion rubles ($1.3 billion) for the six months of the year.

The devaluation of non-circulating assets has been blamed for growing operating losses, which hit 27.6 billion rubles ($4.11 million) in 2016, against 5.16 billion rubles ($77 million) a year earlier.

Underproduction at the company's manufacturing plants is believed to be one of the major contributing factors to the devaluation.

AvtoVAZ produced 200,424 cars in its Togliatti and Izhevsk plants in the first half of 2016, including sub-assemblies and orders for Renault-Nissan. Renault, which owns a 37.3 percent stake in AvtoVAZ, reported 75 million euros ($83 million) in losses connected with the company for the first half of 2016, down 14 percent from 2015.

Company president Nicolas Maure announced that the company would be likely to produce 416,000 cars by the end of the year, or 25 percent less than last year, according to the company’s annual report. The AvtoVAZ plants in Togliatti and Izhevsk have a combined annual production capacity of 1.1 million automobiles, and are currently operating at 38 percent capacity.

The situation is far from unique to AvtoVAZ. According to the Industry and Trade Ministry, Russian car factories are currently operating at 40 percent of capacity on average.

Car manufacturing plants work best at 80 percent of capacity – or twice the current level that AvtoVAZ is operating, according to VTB Capital analyst Vladimir Bespalov. He said the automaker would not achieve that level earlier than 2020.

In order to boost production, AvtoVAZ is looking to develop its exports and expanding into new markets. The automaker primarily exports to Kazakhstan, but thanks to a car recycling tax introduced in early 2016, the company has been forced to change its business model. Rather than send finished automobiles to the country, assembly sets of various Lada models are now sent for assembly at the facilities of its partner Bipek Auto – Asia Auto.

If production at AvtoVAZ continues to decline, the size of their devaluation reserves could increase, said King & Spalding partner Ilya Rachkov. If that happens, the company would face even greater difficulty obtaining credit on the market and restructuring its existing debt. It also risks defaulting on its covenant current loans, Rachkov said.

AvtoVAZ has defaulted on loans in the past. In June of this yearm the company failed to meet minimum repayment terms on its 35.13 billion rubles ($524 million) of debt, although the banks did not require AvtoVAZ to make an early repayment.

AvtoVAZ “needs times to improve its financial performance,” Maure said in the company's latest report. The firm is “using all of the tools and possibilities available, including the support provided by the state and shareholders,” he said.

The car manufacturer is one of the main participants in a 50-billion-ruble government program for stimulating demand in the automobile market. Renault loaned AvtoVAZ 3.4 billion rubles ($51 million) in 2015, and another 4 billion rubles ($60 million) in 2016 to its subsidiary Lada Image which distributes AvtoVAZ parts.

Recapitalization will provide AvtoVAZ's primary means of support, details of which will be made public early this fall. State-owned technology company Rostec is prepared to write-off of two-fifths of the 51 billion rubles ($760 million) the automaker owes, and has agreed to convert the remaining 31 billion rubles into AvtoVAZ shares. The terms for Renault’s participation remain unclear.

The Great Wall: Is Matt Damon 'whitewashing' or good business? www.bbc.com

Marissa Mayer may walk away from Yahoo divorce with $123mn www.rt.com

Firing Marissa Mayer as Yahoo CEO could be a much more costly procedure than originally estimated, Fortune magazine reports.
Besides the original golden parachute of $55 million from Yahoo if Mayer's contract is severed, the CEO may also profit from selling company stock. This would more than double her walk-away package to more than $122 million, according to Fortune.

Chinese, African companies ink 17-billion-USD deals www.xinhuanet.com

BEIJING, July 28 (Xinhua) -- Companies from China and Africa signed 39 deals worth around 17 billion U.S. dollars on Thursday.

Norway to create world’s first floating underwater tunnel www.rt.com

The Norwegian coast may be beautiful but with more than a thousand fjords cutting into it, getting from one place to another often requires lengthy journeys.
Norway’s Public Roads Administration (NPRA) has an ambitious plan to solve the problem by building the world’s first floating submerged tunnel system about 30 meters (100ft) underwater.

Scientists: 'New antibiotic' found in human nose www3.nhk.or.jp

A group of scientists in Germany says it has discovered a new antibiotic from germs in human noses.
The finding could help the development of new medicines to treat drug-resistant bacterial infections.

Bezos passes Buffett, becomes third-richest person: Forbes www.reuters.com

Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), has become the world's third-richest person as of the market close for the first time, Forbes magazine said, passing Warren Buffett, the chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N).

Northeast Asian Think Tank opens in Ulaanbaatar www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Northeast Asian Think Tank opened on July 28, under the Institute of History and Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of Mongolia, at the initiative of the Institute for the Humanities of Japan, with an aim of studying the social and historic processes in the Northeast Asian region.

Hinkley Point: New hitch for UK nuclear plant deal www.bbc.com

Plans to build the first new UK nuclear plant in 20 years have suffered an unexpected delay after the government postponed a final decision until the early autumn.
French firm EDF, which is financing most of the £18bn Hinkley Point project in Somerset, approved the funding at a board meeting.
Contracts were to be signed on Friday.
But Business Secretary Greg Clark has said the government will "consider carefully" before backing it.
According to reports, EDF's chief executive Vincent de Rivaz has cancelled a trip to the UK on Friday following Mr Clark's comments.
Critics of the plan have warned of environmental damage and potential escalating costs.
They are also concerned that the plant is being built by foreign governments. One third of the £18bn cost is being provided by Chinese investors.
EDF still hopes to have more than 2,500 workers on site by next year.
Announcing the approval of investment earlier, EDF described the plant as "a unique asset for French and British industries", saying it would benefit the nuclear sectors in both countries and would give a boost to employment.
graphic
The announcement was immediately welcomed by employers' group the CBI, the Nuclear Industry Association and engineering workers' union GMB.
Why is Hinkley Point important?
Somerset hopes for Hinkley jobs boost
Ahead of the vote on whether to approve the Hinkley project, an EDF board member, Gerard Magnin, resigned, saying the project was "very risky" financially.
Earlier this year, EDF's finance director, Thomas Piquemal, had resigned amid reports he thought Hinkley could damage EDF itself.
Cost warning
Hinkley Point C is expected to provide 7% of the UK's total electricity requirement.
The project has been hit in recent months by concerns about EDF's financial capacity.
Despite the Chinese investment, Hinkley Point would remain an enormous undertaking for the stressed French company, which has had to raise money from its owners.
Earlier this week, EDF shareholders approved plans to issue new shares to raise 4bn euros (£3.4bn) to help pay for the project.
The French state, which owns 85% of EDF, will buy €3bn worth of new shares in the fundraising.
But Mycle Schneider, who used to advise the French government on nuclear and environmental issues, told the BBC that neither the state nor the company were fully on board.
"There is now a large front inside EDF, inside the nuclear establishment in France, advising against the construction because the sheer size of it could put not only the company EDF at risk, but this could actually put the whole state finances at risk."

"The price of every other form of energy is falling. That includes gas, which is plentiful and wind and solar are both coming right down in price," Nick Butler, visiting professor and chair of King's Policy Institute at King's College London, told the BBC.
"We should step back and review it. The danger of what we are getting into is that are now locked into a very high price for a very long time."
Ahead of Thursday's vote, EDF had said Hinkley Point was a "unique asset for French industry as it would benefit the whole of the nuclear industry and support employment in major companies and smaller enterprises in the sector".
'Too big to fail'
Although French unions are urging the company to push back the decision until the company is in a better financial position, UK unions - including Unite and GMB - have welcomed the project.
Environmentalists are concerned about the plan. After the announcement about the go-ahead, Greenpeace executive director John Sauven said: "Countless experts have warned that for British families this power station will be terrible value for money."
He added: "Today's decision doesn't prove the UK is open for business post-Brexit - it just shows the Hinkley deal became too big to fail in the eyes of British and French politicians."
The campaign group added that more investment was needed for renewable energy like offshore wind.
Hinkley Point timeline
Jan 2006 - Government proposes nuclear as part of future energy mix
Mar 2013 - Construction of Hinkley Point approved
Oct 2013 - UK government agrees £92.50 per megawatt-hour will be paid for electricity produced at the Somerset site - around double the current market rate at the time
Oct 2015 - EDF signs investment agreement with China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN)
July 2016 - EDF board meets on 28 July to consider final investment decision