(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Nathan Gray – March 21, 2013) PARIS – Before an audience of mostly French businesspeople in Paris on Tuesday, political and business representatives outlined the benefits and risks of conducting business in Russia at The Economist magazine’s Russia Business Summit. Targeted at Western European investors, the event at times took on the air of a […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – March 20, 2013) As the financial crisis deepens in Cyprus, attention is focusing on Russia’s role in preventing the Mediterranean island nation from going bankrupt and exiting the eurozone. RFE/RL’s Claire Bigg spoke to Natalya Orlova, chief economist at Alfa Bank. RFE/RL: Michael Sarris, the Cypriot finance minister, was in Moscow this week to discuss the […]
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(Institute of Modern Russia – imrussia.org – Donald Jensen – March 19, 2013) Despite rumors of his waning influence, Rosneft chief Igor Sechin remains one of the most powerful members of Russia’s ruling establishment. Donald N. Jensen, Resident Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, discusses Sechin’s latest “string of triumphs.” […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – March 19, 2013) Foreign companies operating in Russia said the country’s business climate had improved in 2012, according to a study released by the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and Fleishman-Hillard Vanguard, a subsidiary of U.S. public relations agency Fleishman-Hillard. Compared with 2011, 44 percent of the respondents noted an improvement, with 34 percent […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Aleksandras Budrys – March 19, 2013) Russia’s Culture Ministry has presented to the government a bill on 10-day visa-free entry for “non-dangerous” foreigners to participate in cultural, sporting and business events, Minister Vladimir Medinsky said on Tuesday. “We have developed a number of draft laws in this regard,” Medinsky told Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev at […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ilya Khrennikov – March 17, 2013) More than two decades after McDonald’s Corp. (MCD)’s outlet on Moscow’s Pushkin Square began offering a golden-arched alternative to grey communist eateries, the fast-food pioneer is on the defensive. McDonald’s, which virtually created the market for burgers and fries in the country and convinced Russians it’s okay to eat with […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anastasia Matveyeva, Moskovskiye Novosti – March 18, 2013) Over the next few years, stagnation awaits the Russian economy, competitiveness of Russian producers will decline and the growth of incomes will slow down. This is the judgment of the consensus-prognosis for 2013-2014, published by the Center for Development at the Higher School of Economics. The economy […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anatoly Medetsky – March 15, 2013) A new executive at the head of Gazprom could give a mighty boost to the stock price of the world’s biggest gas producer, especially if the replacement came with a policy change, according to managers that run funds with Russian assets. The belief comes even as there is understanding […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, 13 March 2013) The Presidential Council for Human Rights has called for a reform to denationalize federal TV channels in the next few years because it believes that the level of the authorities’ influence on their information policy is blocking the formation of an appropriate picture of modern Russian society. “The Council considers it necessary to recommend […]
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GORKI. March 12 (Interfax) – Russia’s first major privatizations will begin in the second half of this year, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said. “We have not considered the timing, but I think that in any event the start will be in the second half,” Siluanov responded when asked when the first major privatizations would begin during a meeting conducted […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – March 13, 2013) The case of an entrepreneur who spent five years behind bars before even being sentenced will be used by the business ombudsman to reduce the maximum time that suspected criminals can remain in pretrial detention. Business ombudsman Boris Titov has joined forces with human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin to […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Scott Rose – March 11, 2013) OAO Gazprom, Russia’s natural gas export monopoly, is thwarting efforts to boost oversight of its $28.9 billion in capital spending as the state seeks to improve investment, Deputy Economy Minister Sergei Belyakov said. “Despite the fact that it’s a state company, even we, to put it mildly, can’t always see […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – March 12, 2013) President Vladimir Putin has instructed major state companies to unofficially provide tax and financial authorities with information about their deals monthly in an effort to probe corruption. The Federal Tax Service and Federal Financial Monitoring Service receive the information in order to check whether corporate management is affiliated with any businesses, a […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Ben Aris, special to RBTH – March 11, 2013) Some $350 billion has fled Russia since the 2008 global crisis. But things aren’t as bad as they seem. Genuine capital flight is only half the official figure, according to a new study by Ernst & Young, together with the Russian Direct Investment Fund […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – www.rbth.ru – Tim Wall, RBTH – March 11, 2013) Russian Presidential Commissioner for entrepreneurs’ rights Boris Titov gives an insight he is helping businessmen successfully deal with pressure from officials through the courts. Boris Titov, Russia’s foremost producer of sparkling wines, knows all too well what it’s like to face pressure from officials. But now, […]
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MOSCOW, March 11 (RIA Novosti) – Almost 300,000 self-employed Russians have quit business in Russia in the past three months due to social tax hikes, an Economics Ministry official said on Monday. From January 1, 2013, the Russian government doubled the annual fixed-sum social security tax for individual entrepreneurs to 36,000 rubles ($1,200), in a move that directly affected […]
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(RIA Novosti – February 26, 2013) Aleksandr Lebedev, the co-owner of Aeroflot has nominated three people for the company’ board of directors, including his own son Yegor. According to open sources, Yegor was born in November 2011. Petr Fradkov (born in 1978), the eldest son of Mikhail Fradkov the director of the Russian Federation Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), heads the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Howard Amos – March 4, 2013) The personal fortunes of businessmen rumored to enjoy close relationships with President Vladimir Putin jumped sharply in a new Forbes ranking Monday as Facebook investor Alisher Usmanov retained the title of Russia’s richest man. The wealth of Gennady Timchenko, owner of oil trader Gunvor and a large stakeholder in […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – March 7, 2013) Yelena Andreyeva wears two hats. Most of the time, she is the head of Bastion, one of the country’s leading private security agencies, which she founded in 1992. But a few days a week, Andreyeva, a textile engineer by training, teaches students at the Moscow University of Design and […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, February 28, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/02/window-on-eurasia-from-upper-volta-with.html) Twenty-five years ago, German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt characterized the Soviet Union as being an “Upper Volta with missiles.” Now, Russian analysts, in response to findings of a Swiss firm, have suggested that a better analogy might be between the Russian Federation and a “Nigeria with snow.” The […]
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(Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 10, Issue 39 – Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – Sergei Blagov – March 1, 2013) The Russian government pledged to manage $3.3 trillion worth of its state-controlled assets more efficiently, including through the continued privatization of state-owned companies. However, the authorities have to prove that the latest privatization efforts could fare better than earlier attempts to […]
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(Governent.ru – February 26, 2013) Correspondent (via interpreter): Mr Prime Minister, thank you very much for finding time for Globo in your schedule. In your recent article in the influential Financial Times, you wrote that Russia should look to the East, to the Asia-Pacific Region. How, looking East, did you wind up in Brazil? Did you follow Columbus who set […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – February 26, 2013) Oleg Smolin, a State Duma deputy with the Communist Party, praised a law that entered into force Monday and requires companies to hire disabled people or face fines of up to 10,000 rubles ($330). “We supported this legislation because it looks like a first step forward,” Smolin, who is […]
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WASHINGTON, February 25 (By Sasha Horne for RIA Novosti) The Kremlin has moved aggressively in recent months to stifle US influence on its domestic politics, but America’s fast-food footprint continues to grow across Russia’s nine time zones. Iconic US eatery McDonald’s has announced it could widen its presence from Russia’s western exclave of Kaliningrad to eastern Siberia in a […]
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MOSCOW, February 26 (RIA Novosti) Every tenth Russian company making settlements through the Central Bank’s payment system dodged tax payments in 2012, according to data posted on the regulator’s website on Tuesday. Central Bank figures show 242,000 companies or about 11 percent of the 2.2 million businesses surveyed by the regulator made zero tax payments last year, despite conducting […]
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(Moscow TImes – themoscowtimes.com – February 25, 2013) Two companies co-owned by people seen as close to President Vladimir Putin were awarded the largest number of major road and bridge construction contracts by City Hall in 2011-12, Vedomosti reported Tuesday. In the period, a total of 150 road and bridge construction contracts worth 182.4 billion rubles ($6 billion) were awarded, […]
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MOSCOW. Feb 21 (Interfax) – Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika said he was concerned with groundless interference of police in commercial disputes. “The practice of opening groundless criminal cases, arresting enterprises’ accounts and assets hasn’t been eradicated,” Chaika said during his speech at the all-Russian prosecutors’ conference on protecting rights of businessmen. Chaika said that “the number of operational procedures […]
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MOSCOW. Feb 21 (Interfax) – McDonald’s plans to open at least 150 restaurants in Russia in the next three years, the company’s president for Russia and Eastern Europe, Khamat Khasbulatov, told a press conference. The company opened 46 restaurants in 2011 and 37 in 2010. It opened its first diners in the Lipetsk region and cities of Saransk, Izhevsk and […]
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MOSCOW, February 19 (RIA Novosti) The Russian government’s work in the next five years will be crucial to improving the system of state governance and the business climate, essential to restoring investor confidence and the level of investment to modernize the economy, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday. Medvedev made his comments while unveiling a long-term budget […]
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(Kremlin.ru – February 15, 2013) The Kremlin, Moscow Vladimir Putin met at the Kremlin with the Group of Twenty Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors. Russia is currently chairing the G20. The situation in global finances and the G20 countries’ actions to stimulate global economic growth and restore confidence in financial markets were the main subjects of discussion. The G20 […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Howard Amos – February 18, 2013) The Moscow Exchange began trading its own shares Friday, successfully concluding the largest initial public offering in Russia since the 2008 financial crisis. The bourse, which was formed from the merger of the MICEX Index and the dollar-denominated RTS, sold 15 billion rubles ($500 million) worth of shares, indicating […]
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MOSCOW. Feb 14 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded that special services’ interference in business disputes be stopped. “I want to emphasize particularly that being dragged into commercial disputes, putting pressure on business, and creating various artificial obstacles and barriers to the implementation of investment projects is unacceptable,” Putin said at a Federal Security Service (FSB) expanded board […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – www.rbth.ru – Galina Starinskaya, special to RBTH- February 14, 2013) CEO Igor Sechin directed massive growth for state-owned Rosneft in 2012, developing international partnerships in offshore projects, a merger with TNK-BP and a move toward direct long-term contracts. If Gazprom loses its monopoly on exports of liquefied natural gas, as Rosneft expects, the latter will […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.com – February 14, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin called for an end to the long Soviet-era habit of classifying geological data as a state secret. As part of the new look Russia-can-do Inc, that he hopes will bring in more investment, the president said the information on the size and location of the countrys natural […]
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MOSCOW. Feb 13 (Interfax) – The accessibility of information about the activities of Russian financial institutions does not yet meet world standards, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said. At a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, the prime minister demanded that measures be taken to eliminate this shortcoming. “We need to meet the level of world standards in terms of the accessibility, quality […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Anna Arutunyan – February 11, 2013) Anna Arutunyan is the politics editor of The Moscow News In early December in the Siberian city of Barnaul, Vitaly Sidukhinsky, 28, was trying to board a bus with his mother. The doors closed before his mother could get on the bus, and Sidukhinsky, who was mentally disabled and […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Howard Amos – February 12, 2013) Natural gas assets being sold by crisis-ridden Greece are at the center of an escalating battle between Russian companies with ready cash and European officials reluctant to facilitate the growth of Moscow’s influence in their backyard. One of the juiciest prizes of Greece’s privatization program, gas company DEPA and […]
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MOSCOW. Feb 11 (Interfax) – The Russian Presidential Experts Directorate has compiled several measures aimed at de-offshorization of the Russian economy, the head of the directorate, Ksenia Yudaeva, said. As well as privatization inside Russia, reforming regulations for investing pension savings and easing the tax regime for investors, the measures suggested include the creation of a special arbitration court and […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – www.rbth.ru – Elena Shipilova, RBTH – February 8, 2013) Russia is set to privatize three large-scale holdings in 2013, and Putin wants shares sold on the Russian market. Experts, however, believe privatizing state-owned companies via the Moscow Stock Exchange as opposed to London or New York is likely to make them less successful, […]
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MOSCOW, February 8 (RIA Novosti) The market value of Russia’s government owned assets is more than 50 percent higher than the country’s 2012 GDP, but the authorities say the property’s management is not always effective. The Russian government held a meeting Thursday to try to work out a concept in the sphere of managing federal property. Russia’s Federal Agency […]
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(Interfax – February 7, 2013) Russian Prime Minister Dmitriy Medvedev has said that public officials of all levels should leave the boards of directors of state companies, Russian privately-owned Interfax news agency reported on 7 February. He also criticized the procedure for approving state company directors. “In future only professional directors should work on boards; state employees should leave,” Medvedev […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Nikolaus von Twickel – February 7, 2013) One year before the Winter Olympics are to kick off, it looks like Sochi 2014 is getting mired in controversy. While the country’s leaders have made it clear that the Olympics are a matter of national pride and prestige, national and international media attention is increasingly focused on […]
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(Interfax – February 6, 2013) A senior Russian government minister has dismissed allegations that migrant workers involved in preparations for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi are being cheated out of wages and denied adequate rest, food and housing, the privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax reported on 6 February. With almost exactly a year to go until the Games, Dmitriy […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Lena Smirnova – February 6, 2013) Bill Mayfield is utterly convinced Russia is ready to embrace more expat workers. He’s so sure it’s not hard for foreigners even those who don’t speak a single word of Russian to find work here that he’s written a book about it. “What are expats good at […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Henry Meyer – February 5, 2013) “Are you totally out of your mind?” Russian newspaper tycoon Alexander Lebedev exclaimed as he jumped to his feet. He stared combatively at property developer Sergei Polonsky, who had taunted Lebedev for ridiculing his claim to be a major charity donor. As tempers flared during the recording of a TV […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Bratersky – January 31, 2013) More then 40 percent of Russian businessmen have moved into the shadows since the government increased social taxes in 2011, business ombudsman Boris Titov said. Titov, the government envoy for protecting the rights of small and medium-size businesses, said the introduction of a 34 percent social tax in 2011 […]
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MOSCOW, January 29 (RIA Novosti) Russia has hired U.S. banking giant Goldman Sachs in a $500,000 deal to polish the image of the country’s investment potential abroad and lure foreign cash, Deputy Economics Minister Sergei Belyakov said. “We, officials, don’t know how to communicate with investors,” Belyakov said, explaining the government’s decision. Under a memorandum signed with the Economic […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – January 29, 2013) The Defense Ministry’s opacity makes it difficult to determine whether anti-corruption reforms are being carried out, Transparency International said in a report released on Tuesday in which it gave Russia a “D-” grade on an A to F corruption index. The rating put Russia on par with Turkey, Belarus, and China, and […]
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NOVO-OGARYOVO. Jan 25 (Interfax) – Privatization deals should be carried out on Russian markets, but the infrastructure needs to be put in place, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting dedicated to stock market development. “These deals should occur on Russian trading floors,” he said. “Privatization done within the country is testament to the fact that our plans to […]
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(Interfax – January 28, 2013) Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has described as an intentional legal mistake the adoption of the Magnitsky Act by the U.S. Congress. “I think that the whole situation is bad. It is not beneficial for either Russian-American relations or international law and order,” he said in an interview with CNN, the transcript of which is […]
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