A Qualitatively New Infrastructural Matrix of Russia as a Territory of Safe Solidary Development. New foreign policy paradigm

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33917/es-6.186.2022.52-65

“The world will never be the same again,” says the overwhelming majority of socially active Russians, referring to the “old world” as the planetary community until February 24, 2022. At the same time, the most rapid, cardinal, unmistakably projected transformations are announced as crucial tasks for Russia all Russian life support systems and accelerated modernization. The most important of them, according to the authors of the article, is the logistics project proposed in 2006 by Academicians of the Russian Academy of Sciences V.A. Sadovnichim and G.V. Osipov, which in the new edition is presented in the article as “United Eurasia – Transsib 2.0”. It is based on the concept of the spatial economy, which is made up of transnational megaprojects that have been successfully implemented over the past 70 years.

“United Eurasia — Transsib 2.0” at the initial stage is intended to overcome the attempts of Europe and the United States to implement a transport blockade of the Russian Federation. Such a blockade could hinder the development of our country, which would lead to a decrease in the living standards of the population and, as Russia’s enemies suggest, corrosion of national unity and consolidation of the masses with power structures after the start of the military operation to liberate Donbass. In the future, after the successful solution of the Russian transport problems proper, the proposed logistics project can successfully develop as a transcontinental one, linking different regions of the world along new economically and politically promising vectors and directions. In particular, we can talk about pairing with the Chinese logistics corridor “Silk Road”, to counter which at the June G7 summit in South Bavaria, the countries of the “golden billion” proposed to allocate unprecedented investments of 0 billion.

The article contains a list of the main threats to the Russian Federation, consisting of 10 points, and a summary of their prompt relief with subsequent complete elimination. The technology for the implementation of the megaproject “United Eurasia — Transsib 2.0” has been prescribed — along with budgetary financing of the new Transsib, it is planned to attract investments from the regional budgets of those entities through which the proposed route will pass, as well as to co-finance the capital of private investors and issue marketable “Trans-Siberian” loan bonds.

Obviously, after conducting a special military operation in Ukraine, Russia will have to equip its Eurasian space between Europe and East Asia in the shortest possible time in the neighborhood of five civilizations — Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Shinto and Buddhist — so that it can finally become a territory of safe solidarity development.

Financing oil and gas completion operations: ARO tools

DOI: 10.33917/mic-4.105.2022.53-64

Asset Retirement Obligations (ARO) are legal obligations to complete the closure of a facility when a long-lived tangible asset, such as an oil well, offshore platform, pipeline, or terminal, is permanently decommissioned. The most common type of ARO for an oilfield is the legal requirement to plug and abandon and restore the site of oil and gas wells to their original natural level at the end of their useful life.

The term «oilfield ARO» is used to cover the full range of statutory activities for the disposal of oil assets, including reclamation and environmental restoration. Interim and subsequent ARO carry additional financial risks.

References:

1. It’s Closing Time: The Huge Bill to Abandon Oilfields Comes Early. Carbon Tracker, June 2020. URL: https://carbontracker.org/reports/its-closing-time/

2. US GAO. Information on infrastructure Decommissioning, 2017. URL: //www.gao.gov/assets/gao-17-642t.pdf 

3. BOEM. Evaluation of a Lessee’s Ability to Carry out Present and Future Obligations. URL: https://www.boem.gov/sites/default/files/documents//Evaluation%20of%20a%20Lessee%27s%20Ability%20to%20Carry%20out%20Present%20and%20Future%20Obligations.pdf

4. Khalidov I.A., Milovidov K.N. Methodology and practice of liquidation fund management: analysis of management decisions in global and domestic oil and gas companies: Monograph. M.: Buki Vedi, 2021. 339 p. (In Russ.).

Eurozone on the Verge of Widespread Negative Interest Rates

DOI: 10.33917/es-3.169.2020.50-54

The global economy, including the eurozone, experienced a shock in 2008. As one of the consequences, central banks of the largest economies in the world, in order to support economic activity, reduced interest rates on loans. Although 11 years have passed, in the eurozone lending rates still remain extremely low. This indicates that the monetary union has not yet recovered from the post-crisis state. In fact, more and more probable is becoming a recently inconceivable scenario that the eurozone for a long time will get into the era of negative interest rates.