[governance] WG: Russian Federation increases financial contribution to ITU

[William Drake]

One has to assume this is a strategic decision that will be leveraged later, that's how it works.  I was sole CS person on the US delegation to the 1997 World Telecom Policy Forum where the big issues were the WTO's new basic telecom agreement and the pressures eroding the accounting and settlements system from which many PTTs were making billions via above-cost rates.  The head of the Japanese delegation got up and pledged a pot of money to help developing country PTTs make a soft landing transition, to great applause.  Soon thereafter he was elected Secretary General, and spent two terms campaigning for ITU control of the Internet. Putin recently met with SG Toure, and now there's this.  I don't know if any of their more visible participants are eyeing leadership posts for the next election cycle, but the Russians do have proposals on the table seeking to expand ITU regulatory authority viz. the Internet and related issues, and they undoubtedly would like a nice voting bloc behind them.  

Which raises again the question of whether there's any way a new UN body, e.g. as envisioned by the IBSA proposal, could be insulated from the sort of vote buying & trading dynamics that pervade other UN processes, what that could mean for the Internet, etc…?

Bill

On Oct 15, 2011, at 10:24 AM, Kleinwächter, Wolfgang wrote:

> FYI
> 
> ________________________________
> 
> Von: ITU Press Office [mailto:pressoffice at itu.int]
> Gesendet: Fr 14.10.2011 19:04
> An: Mr Wolfgang Kleinwachter
> Betreff: Russian Federation increases financial contribution to ITU
> 
> 
> 
> ORIGINAL: English
> 
> Russian Federation increases financial contribution to ITU -
> Support to enhance the role of ITU in global ICT development
> 
> Geneva, 14 October 2011 - The Russian Federation announced a significant increase in its financial support to ITU, raising its 'contributory units' from ten to fifteen, amounting to CHF 4,777,000, or about USD 5.32 million at current exchange rates. Each 'contributory unit', which ITU Member States provide on a voluntary basis, is CHF 318,000.
> 
> This increase is in addition to the CHF 5 million contribution from the Russian Federation towards the refurbishment of ITU's main conference hall, now dedicated to Alexander Stepanovich Popov (1859-1906), the Russian physicist who first demonstrated the practical application of electromagnetic waves.
> 
> 
> For full text see:
>  http://www.itu.int/net/pressoffice/press_releases/2011/40.aspx
> 
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