Russia, Germany sign multi-billion-euro deals

YEKATERINBURG, Russia — Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday oversaw the signing of multi-billion-euro deals to cement already tight Moscow-Berlin links.German engineering giant Siemens signed deals worth several billion euros for the supply of trains and wind turbines to Russia as the country embarks on a drive to modernize its outdated economy.Siemens also agreed to help the Kremlin in its efforts to establish a technology centre in Skolkovo just outside Moscow -- the country's answer to Silicon Valley -- for which the government has earmarked 170 billion rubles (5.5 billon dollars)."These truly are serious, big agreements," Medvedev told reporters after the talks with Merkel -- their fifth meeting this year -- in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg."This is the evidence of a fundamental character of our strategic partnership."Medvedev expressed hope that German companies would bring their expertise to the Skolkovo high-tech hub as he welcomed a decision by Siemens to build a research centre there."This is a very encouraging example for us," he said.Under a memorandum of understanding Siemens will modernise 22 Russian railway switching yards by 2026 and jointly with Russian Railways build 240 regional trains over the next ten years.In a joint venture with state conglomerate Russian Technologies and utility company RusHydro, Siemens is also to install wind turbines with a total capacity of at least 1,250 megawatts in Russia by 2015, the company said in a statement."The agreement of the strategic partnership will make Siemens a pioneer in the Russian market for renewable energies," the company said.The deals have a total value of "several billion euros", Siemens said, without giving further financial details.German government sources have said the railway deal alone is worth 2.2 billion euros (2.8 billion dollars).Russia's VEB development bank and Germany's KfW bank group for their part signed an agreement to support small and medium-sized businesses and innovation

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