Russia, Egypt nuclear deal

From Yahoo News, by Victoria Loguinova, Tue Mar 25:

NOVO-OGARYOVO, Russia (AFP) - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak met Tuesday with Russian leaders to close a deal allowing Moscow to join a tender for Egypt's first civilian nuclear power station.

The agreement, which has taken years to draw up, opens the way for Russia to bid for a 1.5-1.8 billion dollars (970 - 1.16 billion euros) reactor project on Egypt's Mediterranean coast....

...Meeting with Mubarak at Novo-Ogaryovo outside Moscow, President Vladimir Putin praised Egypt as "one of the leaders of the Islamic and the Arab world" and said Russian-Egyptian relations were of "strategic importance."

Putin's incoming successor Dmitry Medvedev, who takes over the Kremlin in May, told Mubarak that he expected a "productive partnership" in the nuclear sphere...

....Russia -- which is close to completing Iran's controversial first nuclear facility in Bushehr, and also recently signed a contract for a reactor in Bulgaria -- is keen to re-establish a commercial and diplomatic presence in the Middle East.

The region was a stronghold of Soviet influence before the end of the Cold War and subsequent surge of US dominance. Today, nuclear technology and conventional weapons sales are again giving Moscow a foot in the door....