Page 92 - RUSRptOct18

unrecognised, republic was known as the Soviet Florida in the communist years, and has a Black Sea coastline of around 200 km — almost two-thirds of Georgia’s coastline. The same study shows that Georgia (excluding the two separatist republics) received only 483,000 Russian tourists during the six-month period, while a further 189,000 visited South Ossetia.
Russian Ambassador to Thailand Kirill Barsky expects up to 1.7mn Russians to visit the country by the end of 2018 . "We continue to top record travel levels: in 2017, 1.346mn Russians visited the kingdom, a 23% increase compared with 2016," he said in an interview with TASS. "Considering that 900,000 Russians have already visited Thailand in seven months of this year, meaning before the peak season, I do not rule out that the final result will be 1.6-1.7mn people," the diplomat added.
9.1.10 Utilities sector news
Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev has come out in favour of the proposed increase in fees for connecting consumers with capacity below 150 kW to the grid, as well as introducing payments for grid capacity that was reserved but is not being used. These issues are quite important for the grid sector. Payments for reserved capacity could increase the discipline of consumers when applying for new connections, while the elimination of reduced rates for connecting small consumers could improve the economics of grid companies. Given the already-large share of the grid component in the end-consumer electricity bill, increasing that, in our view, is a sensitive issue. In addition, still unclear is the government's position on the third point of the grid sector reform: how cross-subsidization will be changed and incorporated into Federal Grid Company tariffs, which could affect large industrial consumers. The final impact on the grid sector will depend on how these decisions are implemented, so we treat the news and ongoing discussion as just positive for sentiment.
9.1.12 Transport sector news
In a draft plan for Russia’s infrastructure development by 2024, officials proposed several projects specifically intended for financing from companies on Kremlin aide Andrei Belousov’s tax list. Despite multiple promises from Belousov and Finance Minister Anton Siluanov that the projects would be economically viable, experts believe the investments to be financially unwise.
Demanding "patriotic" investments only goes so far. Forcing companies to cough up hundreds ofbns of rubles to support large rail projects is both a large ask and problematic for RZhD -- non-oil and petrochemical resources usually earn low tariffs for the rail system. But getting them to pay for parts of the Moscow-Kazan high-speed route is an attempt to dodge including Chinese firms and contractors. More interestingly, the Makhachkala HSR route wasn't included, likely both from impracticality and businesses' refusal to back Kadyrov's demands to link Grozny.
Included on the list is:
● a high-speed rail (HSR) from Moscow-Gorokhovets, a bridge to
Sakhalin, and a port on the island.
● The Moscow-Gorokhovets rail line will form a section of the
92 RUSSIA Country Report October 2018 www.intellinews.com