Mikhail Shishkhanov, a nephew of billionaire Mikhail Gutseriyev, has agreed to sell top 50 Russian lender Binbank to businessman and senator Vadim Moshkovich, the bank said on Friday.Gutseriyev is in self-imposed exile with a warrant out for his arrest in Russia.Kommersant business daily quoted Shishkhanov as saying he had agreed to sell as the deal would allow Binbank and its clients to escape political risk.Moshkovich has agreed to buy 99 percent of the bank from main shareholder Shishkhanov and minorities, Binbank said."They have agreed: one will sell, the other will buy," it said, adding that the deal was not yet complete and was subject to regulatory approval.Moshkovich is the owner of agricultural holding Rusagro and a senator in the Federation Council, Russia's upper house of parliament.Gutseriyev is the former head of mid-sized oil firm Russneft, which had its assets frozen last August in a tax probe.Binbank issued a statement in November saying it was in talks with a number of
Russia’s Human Rights Ombundman, Vladmir Lukin, in his annual report noted there were 28,617 complaints which represents a 12% drop from last year. However, independent human rights groups believe he has vastly underestimated the situation in a nation characterized by an authoritarian president who stifles expression by those who oppose his rule. Lukin’s report dealt [...]
Russia's Defence Ministry said there was insufficient proof that Washington's decision to fire a missile at the disabled satellite was to prevent a potentially deadly leak of toxic gas as it re-entered Earth's atmosphere."Under cover of discussions about the danger posed by the satellite, preparation is going ahead for tests of an anti-satellite weapon. Such tests mean in essence the creation of a new strategic weapon."
WASHINGTON, DC -- Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine have agreed on a reshuffling of the cards in Russia-Ukraine gas relations.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin (R) and his Ukraine counterpart Viktor Yushchenko exchange documents as they meet in Moscow's Kremlin.
During Yushchenko’s February 12-13 visit to Moscow the two presidents adopted on a personal basis
KIEV, Ukraine -- Russia will resume a joint project with Ukraine to build An-70 military transport aircraft after an almost 2-year delay in setting up the program, the Ukrainian defense minister said on Friday.
An-70 military transport plane
Russia withdrew from the program in May 2006 to build the giant plane, which was launched in 1984, on the grounds that it was outdated.
"Russia has
Russian President Vladimir Putin has again warned that Russian missiles will be pointed at Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Poland if those countries allow U.S. missile defense facilities to be...
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WASHINGTON, DC -- The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, today condemned Russia for threatening to point its nuclear missiles at Ukraine if the former Soviet republic joins NATO.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
"The unhelpful and really - I will use a different word - reprehensible rhetoric that is coming out of Moscow is unacceptable, and it's not helpful to a relationship that
At a meeting witht the prime minister of the Ukraine, Russia’s President Putin addressed the issue of American missiles that would soon be based in Poland and the Czech Republic. He warned the Ukrainian leader that seeking membership in the European Union would undoubtedly result in a changed Russian attitude toward his nation. “I am [...]
MOSCOW, Russia -- Vladimir Putin and Viktor Yushchenko reached a last-minute agreement over Ukraine's debts to Russia, averting the Kremlin's threat to close off Ukraine's gas supplies. But serious issues still divide the two neighbors.
Putin said Russia would re-aim its nuclear warheads at Ukrainian territory, if Kiev allows NATO missiles to be stationed in Ukraine.
The Russian and Ukrainian
MOSCOW, Russia -- Russia has said it may target its missiles at Ukraine if its neighbour joins NATO and accepts the deployment of the US missile defence shield.
Russian President Vladimir Putin made the comments alongside Ukraine's President, Viktor Yushchenko.
After urgent talks in Moscow, the two leaders reached a deal to avoid disrupting gas supplies to Ukraine.
Mr Putin has condemned US
The Moscow Times has been fighting aganst the increasinging spread of Putinism within Russia, a modern form of disease known as “latent Stalinism.” It offered the story of Mikhail Trepashkin who was arrested in October, 2003 on charges of illegal firearm possession just days before he was to offer testimony regarding the alleged role of [...]
By Christian Lowe and Conor Sweeney MOSCOW (Reuters) - Europe's main election watchdog cancelled plans on Thursday to monitor Russia's presidential election next month, citing unacceptable restrictions imposed by Moscow. Dmitry Medvedev, an ally of outgoing President Vladimir Putin, is overwhelming favourite to win the March 2 contest that Kremlin opponents say is slanted in his favour. "We made every effort in good faith to deploy our mission," said ODIHR director Christian Strohal in a statement. "The Russian Federation has created limitations that are not conducive to undertaking election observation." A verdict from the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) is regarded by Western states as the best yardstick of whether a vote is fair and the group's withdrawal is likely to damage further Russia's democratic credentials. The pullout follows weeks of argument over the observer mission. Russia said the monitors could arrive only 11 da
By Denis Dyomkin KHABAROVSK, Russia (Reuters) - Dmitry Medvedev, likely to be Russia's next president, says the country's so rich from an oil-fuelled boom that billions can be doled out simply by a click of the fingers. "Money today is not a problem at all: only click (your fingers) and there you are: two billion, three billion," he said, clicking his fingers for effect during a meeting with officials in the Far East region of Khabarovsk. Favoured to win next month's election to succeed President Vladimir Putin, he said he would pursue present Kremlin policy, known as "Putin's plan" to revive Russia's place in the world. The latest opinion polls say Medvedev will score an easy win over his rivals in the March 2 vote. The economy has been swelled by billions of dollars of income from energy exports. The value of Russia's rainy-day oil and gas fund from revenues from energy exports is $157 billion. But economists say inflation is a growing worry, especial
MOSCOW, Russia -- Ukraine may join the WTO on unfavorable terms just to beat Russia to it and gain advantage, Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Saturday, adding that Russia would only take an offer that guarantees its economic stability.
Alexei Kudrin
"On the wave of its political relations with the West, Ukraine will most likely join (the WTO) on unfavorable terms just to join ahead
MOSCOW, Russia -- Russia is concerned over Ukraine's bid to join NATO which may seriously harm the former Soviet republic's relations with Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Saturday.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
"The desire to accelerate (Ukraine's) accession to this military-political bloc, expressed by the Ukrainian leadership, will entail serious consequences
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Central Election Commission said on Thursday it had grounds to disqualify former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov from running as an independent in a March presidential election, news agencies reported. Kasyanov was Putin's first prime minister but became a Kremlin critic after losing his job in 2004. "The number of valid signatures (in support of Kasyanov) is less than two million, which is grounds for refusing the candidate's registration for the post of Russian president," said Commission secretary Nikolai Konkin, according to TASS news agency. Commission officials could not immediately be reached for comment on the reports. All independent candidates who want to run as candidates for the March 2 election must provide at least two million signatures in support of their bid. No more than 50,000 names may come from any one of Russia's 85 regions. Yelena Dikun, a spokeswoman for Kasyanov, disputed the election commission's findings.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made it clear his nation would not be bullied by the West and intended to be completely in charge of its own territory as well as its foreign affairs. He made it clear to the Britsh government that the British Council which promotes cultural and education ties is closed down [...]
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin front-runner in Russia's presidential election, Dmitry Medvedev, has the backing of 82 percent of voters with six weeks left before the vote, an opinion poll published on Wednesday showed. Medvedev, Russia's first deputy prime minister who was named last month by Putin as his favoured successor, has seen his popularity rise 3 percentage points since December, according to the poll by independent pollsters, Levada. The figures shows Medvedev even further ahead than a separate VTsIOM poll published a day earlier, which gave Medvedev 60 percent support. The Levada poll put Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov in second place with 9 percent support, unchanged on its December poll. Nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky was in third spot with 8 percent, down one. Unlike the VTsIOM poll, Levada excluded voters who did not know how they will vote, which may have accounted in part for the stronger Medvedev showing. The poll was carried out on Jan. 18-21, and ques
By Chris Baldwin MOSCOW (Reuters) - A top Kremlin figure on Wednesday threatened to sack space agency officials unless they get on with developing a Russian satellite navigation system to rival the U.S.-controlled global positioning system GPS. First Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Ivanov told a collegium at the Russian space agency Roskosmos they should focus on the long-delayed system rather than space exploration. "I call attention to the unacceptable failure to achieve goals ... the personal responsibility of the directors ... and I do not exclude carrying out organisational and staff changes," Ivanov said. President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly mentioned the hi-tech application, which is being coordinated by the space agency, as a priority for his administration. GLONASS, short for Global Navigation Satellite System, began as a military project in the 1970s but stalled in the early 90s. In December amid much fanfare, Russia launched the final components to provid
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to attend an alliance summit in Bucharest in early April, a NATO spokesman said on Wednesday. If Putin accepts, it will be the first time a Russian leader has attended a NATO summit since the 1992 Rome meeting that launched the existing NATO-Russia partnership format. "It made sense in terms of clearing the air ... there is a lot to discuss," the spokesman told a news conference of the reason for inviting Putin, referring to differences with Moscow on issues ranging from Kosovo to the U.S. missile shield plan. The spokesman said the Kremlin had yet to reply to an invitation letter sent in recent days. Russia's newly appointed envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, confirmed Moscow had received the invitation, but he did not say if Putin would accept, Interfax news agency reported him as saying. The prospects of a meeting depended on "the degree of relations&quo
ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Russian human rights campaigners have launched legal action against their own government for closing down the British Council's regional offices, an activist told Reuters on Wednesday. Last week Russia demanded the British cultural body close its two regional offices in Saint Petersburg and the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, which it said were operating illegally. British diplomats say Russia's move against the Council was part of a feud that has been simmering since Kremlin critic and emigre Alexander Litvinenko was killed in London by radiation poisoning in 2006. "I brought the suit in the Syktyvkar city court today. We believe that none of the Russian foreign ministry complaints announced in its demarche against the British Council had any legal grounds," Ernest Mezak, of the Memorial human rights group in the northern Russian republic of Komi, told Reuters. Russian courts rarely hand down rulings against the government. Komi, an o
KIEV, Ukraine -- Russia is again warning Ukraine that any move to join NATO will "seriously" complicate bilateral ties and force Moscow to take "appropriate action."
Russian President Vladimir Putin called NATO's expansion to Russia's borders harmful.
The warning was released Tuesday in a Russian Foreign Ministry statement.
Last week, Western-leaning Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and
energyPICS posted a photo:
Whether a new gas war will start will become clear next week when Yulia Timoshenko arrives in Moscow for talks with Russian Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Rights group Amnesty International on Friday urged Russia to provide proper treatment for a jailed oil executive who has AIDS and says he could die if he is not moved to a specialised hospital. Russia has snubbed three requests from the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg to move 36-year-old Vasily Alexanian out of his Moscow jail. He says he is nearly blind, has suspected tuberculosis and is being denied medication. Russian rights campaigners have called Alexanian a political prisoner because he is a former vice-president of the Yukos oil company, whose bosses were jailed after they fell out with the Kremlin. In a statement, Amnesty said Alexanian "is seriously ill with AIDS because he is being denied adequate medical treatment in detention". "Amnesty International is urging the Russian authorities to transfer ... Alexanian to a specialised hospital for HIV/AIDS patients where his illness can be treated adequately." It also called
Israel’s Foreign Miniser Tzipi Livni urged her Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, to exert pressue on Iran to halt its nuclear development program as well as Russia ceasing its program of nuclear assistance to that nation. She complained that Russian shipment of nuclear fuel to Bushehr(Iran’s nuclear site) could be used for military purposes. [...]
MOSCOW, Russia -- Back in 1993-1994, Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s sudden rise to prominence and the resonance that his openly chauvinistic and revanchist views found among elements of the Russian public gave rise to talk of a “Weimar Russia.”
Russia's Vladimir Putin
Zhirinovsky quickly self-destructed, and the Weimar Russia image soon faded. Unfortunately, it may be time to speak of a far more
SAN FRANCISCO, USA -- If you're worried about nuclear terrorism, it makes sense, at face value, to support nonproliferation programs, particularly those that target the former Soviet Union. The problem, however, is that money can't always buy you security.
Nothing illustrates this dilemma better than a new report by the Government Accountability Office.
The GAO says that no only does the
KIEV, Ukraine -- Russian prosecutors claim dioxin of the quality found in the Ukrainian president's blood is not produced in Russia, Ukrainian news agency UNIAN said on Saturday.
Yushchenko before and after dioxin poisoning.
The agency cited Ukraine's Prosecutor General Oleksandr Medvedko as saying that this was a response by the Russian Prosecutor General's Office to a request by Ukraine as
Watch what happened at the Russian Superleague Ak Bars vs. Traktor hockey game at the Tantneft Arena in Kazan on January 8, 2008. After scoring a goal, members of the opposing team start a quarrel that will soon evolve into an epic fight. Reporters said this was the biggest fight in hockey history according to its overall duration time, including the NHL games. A total of 378 penalty minutes were given out on the play.via
President Akio Mimura said Thursday Arcelor Mittal SA of Luxemburg will supply steel sheet and other steel products to Japanese automakers starting operations in Russia.
“It is natural that Arcelor Mittal, to which Nippon Steel gives technical assistance, supplies steel products to Japanese automakers operating in Russia,” Mimura said in an interview.
The world’s major automakers are [...]
The British Council was warned by the Russian Foreign Ministry not to attempt any reopening of its offices since the Russian government does not recognize its work or intentions. The British Council is a cultural arm of the its nation’s embassy and does not engage in political activities, but in Putin’s Russia any form of [...]
KIEV, Ukraine -- In her first major comments on relations with Russia, Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine's new Prime Minister, last month insisted that she had no intentions of worsening relations with Russia: "I will strive to establish a relationship of equal partnership," she said.
Ukraine's Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko
Although Ukraine held its most recent round of legislative elections on Sept.
The year 2007 will be seen as a major turning point in the development of Caspian energy, perhaps the most significant 12 months since the 1991 collapse of communism opened up the possibilities of developing one of the world's last great oil frontiers.
At the heart of developing Caspian reserves...
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KIEV, Ukraine -- Maksym Kravets remembers watching hunger kill his father, then his mother. Kravets, who was 14 when famine struck Ukraine in 1932, says he survived by eating a dog. About a third of the 1,000 people in his village, Lozova, perished as Soviet leader Josef Stalin cut off food supplies to force peasants onto collective farms.
Maksym Kravets, wearing medals for his service in the
The song is from Floodland (1987)and the album cut is 7.02 long!! How and friend and i used to jamm this in the dorms at SFA in Nacogdoches Texas.Subscribe to my Posts...
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PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- 2007 was the year Vladimir Putin implicitly compared the United States to the Third Reich. It was the year Moscow threatened to target its missiles at Europe and was accused of carrying out a cyber-attack on a NATO member. It was the year Russia pulled out of a key arms-control treaty and resumed strategic-bomber patrols.
Russian President Vladimir Putin
And it was the
Russia launches final satellites for its own GPS
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia successfully launched a rocket on Tuesday carrying the last three satellites to complete a navigation system to rival America’s GPS.
[Enerprise Fresh] ...
Christmas is a little different, but not a lot. Here in the USA and most of the world, Christmas is connected with the birth of Christ. Now, I am not much into religion these days, but this is just a fact. Nowadays, Russia believes in this same tradition, but the actual holiday for Christmas falls on January 7th. It falls on this day due to the old Julian calendar that was used in Russia prior to the Soviet Union. Christmas is again associated with the birth of Christ, but it is merely a religious holiday now.
New Year's Russian Style
New Years on the other hand is celebrated similarly to our Christmas. It is a celebration with a decorated tree (a Yolka) and gifts are exchanged. As well, they have parties to bring in the New Year. So it is a New Years/Christmas party wrapped up all in one - and from what I have seen, Russians really know how to party!
New Years Eve, Russia
A Little History
Santa Claus is originally known as St. Nicholas. The Soviets did away with religion during t
In 2004, during a terrorist attack in Belsan, Russian authorities completely fouled up operations which resulted in the death of over 300 people, including 150 children. Family and friends have been attempting for years to get some accurate answers to the disorganization and incompetence of police and military units whose inept performance led to tragic [...]
I have a friend living and working in Zurich in Switzerland. He is an enthusiastic skier, and he told me a couple of days ago that he is planning to go skiing in Kamchatka peninsula deep in Russia. This is not his first time skiing in very exotic places. Previously he has conquered Kyrgystan and [...]
Ernest & Young has published its research on risk management in Russia, comparing it to risk management in developing countries in general. The managers of 288 companies on emerging markets and 88 of the largest Russian companies were polled. Significant differences were found between their risk management strategies.Risks in Russia are typical of developing countries in several categories. It varies from the mean in the activeness of the management by companies of operational and normative risks. Those risks are more substantial after the YUKOS case, as are information-protection risks. The coincidences are more interesting. Contrary to general opinion, managers in Russia and other developing countries assess their risks from corruption, logistic risks and safety risks identically. Accounting risks are assessed as nearly the same. Although unemployment is significantly lower in Russia than other developing countries, personnel risks are still the same. The activities of companies
Russia's major producer of natural gas OAO Gazprom has presented here the Eastern Program of energy resource supplies to East Siberia, the Russian Far East, and Asia-Pacific country in this century."The Eastern Program was endorsed by the Russian government in September," Alexander Ananenkov, a deputy chairman of the board of governors said at the presentation ceremony here Friday. "it aims to develop the gas industry so as to ensure reliable supplies to consumers in East Siberia, the Far East, as well as Asian and Pacific countries, including Japan."He recalled that the program had been developed over a number of years and the drafting process involved experts from the Russian Ministry of Economic Development and Ministry of Natural Resources.Following endorsement of the program on September 3, the government commissioned coordination of all the works related to it to Gazprom."The document provides for laying grounds for a sustained economic development of Russia's eastern regions and
The recent IAEA and NIE reports have made Russia adopt a more realistic approach and finally ship nuclear fuel to Iran, MP Mohammad-Ali Rudaki said here on Wednesday.The latest National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report on Iran, which was compiled by sixteen U.S. intelligence agencies, and all the reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency have said that Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program.Iran and Russia reached an agreement last week on a schedule to finish building the Bushehr nuclear power plant after years of delay. The first shipment of nuclear fuel arrived in Bushehr on Sunday.The vicissitudes in Iran’s nuclear dossier and the United States’ heavy pressure on Russia were the major reasons for Moscow’s delay in fulfilling its promises, but the new developments in the nuclear issue led to a change in Russia’s approach, Rudaki told the Mehr News Agency.Similar views were sounded by political analyst Fayaz Zahed, who said that new developments in regard to I
Closely held oil firm Surgutneftegaz has elected a career oil manager, Vladimir Yerokhin, as its new chairman after the previous head of the board of directors, Nikolai Zakharchenko, resigned for health reasons. Surgut said in a statement that Yerokhin, who has headed Surgut's drilling division for over 30 years but became a director only earlier this year, had been elected Tuesday and would serve until the next annual meeting. It did not give Yerokhin's age. The firm's web site says he was born in 1949. Analysts closely watch changes at reclusive Surgut, as the company is repeatedly rumored to be an acquisition target given its complicated shareholding structure and billions of dollars of spare cash in its accounts. State-controlled energy majors Gazprom and Rosneft have often been named as potential bidders, although the firms and Surgut's influential general director, Vladimir Bogdanov, have repeatedly denied the speculation.Via: Reuters
Rosneft will split its Tomskneft oil unit 50-50 with Gazprom, boosting the oil business of the gas behemoth, sources close to the deal said.The deal will end a guessing game over the real owners of the 240,000-barrel-per-day oil unit. Rosneft had said it sold half of Tomskneft in July after buying the unit in May at a Yukos bankruptcy auction.Tomskneft would become the first Yukos asset that Rosneft has agreed to share. The move comes days after President Vladimir Putin blessed Gazprom chairman Dmitry Medvedev's presidential candidacy."Tomsk's cash flows as well as production volumes and export marketing will be equally split from January," one source said Tuesday, adding that Gazprom would own the stake through its Gazprom Neft unit.Rosneft bought Tomskneft and other assets of Yukos in one lot in May for $6.8 billion in a deal that brought Rosneft's total debt to over $30 billion. The state oil firm later said it sold half the firm to Vneshekonombank, or VEB, for $3.4 billion.But VEB,
BASF AG and Russia’s OAO Gazprom officially launched production operations at the Russian natural gas field Yuzhno Russkoye. This is the first time that a German company has been directly involved in the production of natural gas in West Siberia.In an official ceremony at the Gazprom headquarters in Moscow, Alexej B. Miller, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of OAO Gazprom, and Eggert Voscherau, Vice Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF, pressed the button to launch production operations at the Yuzhno Russkoye gas field together with Dimitri A. Medwedew, First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of OAO Gazprom, and the Germany Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Shortly beforehand, the completion of work at the gas field was confirmed in a live broadcast from Siberia.The Yuzhno Russkoye field in West Siberia has recoverable reserves of more than 600 billion cubic meters of natural gas, which makes it
Russia has delivered the first shipment of nuclear fuel to Iran's Bushehr atomic power station, a step both Moscow and Washington said should convince Tehran to shut down its disputed uranium enrichment programme.But a senior Iranian official said his country would under no circumstances halt its efforts to enrich uranium fuel.Russian Foreign Ministry said the final shipment of fuel would arrive in February next year, allowing the plant to start operating six months later.Via: Gulf Daily News
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