My profile:
Marshals Await Ruling
The Federal Court Marshals Service said Tuesday that it may decide to proceed with the sale of Telenor's 26.6 percent stake in after a court ruling Wednesday.
A court is scheduled to hear the Norwegian company's appeal of a March decision to seize the stake amid a dispute over VimpelCom's expansion, said Sergei Sazanov, deputy head of the service. The service may sell the shares in parts on a stock market. (Bloomberg)
Deficit Rises to 3.6% GDP
Russia's budget deficit widened last month to the equivalent of 3.6 percent of gross domestic product as the government spent 510.7 billion rubles ($16.4 billion) more than it collected.
Revenue in the period was 2.6 trillion rubles, or 39.3 percent of the amount the government planned for 2009, while spending was 3.2 trillion rubles, or 32.2 percent of forecast expenditure, the Finance Ministry said on its web site Tuesday, citing preliminary figures. (Bloomberg)
Gazprom Eyes LNG Sources
Gazprom is considering Sakhalin-4 and Sakhalin-5, controlled by and BP, as well as unlicensed Sakhalin-3, as resource bases for liquefied natural gas to Asian markets, deputy CEO Alexander Medvedev said at a roundtable with Royal Dutch Shell on Tuesday.
"While the market potential can't be fully certain, with a high degree of confidence we will start thinking about Sakhalin 3, 4 and even 5." (Bloomberg)
States Discuss Wireless Plan
Russia has joined other Baltic nations in negotiating a common plan for using wireless spectrum that will be released by the shift to digital television.
Ministers of nine Baltic Sea nations met in Helsinki on Tuesday to discuss long-term spectrum use. Failure to agree may endanger the smooth cross-border mobile roaming achieved with the GSM standard, Finnish Communications Minister Suvi Linden said in a briefing arranged with the GSM Association, a lobbying group for the telecommunications industry.(Bloomberg)
Mechel Pledges Collateral
Mechel may pledge as much as 35 percent of the Chelyabinsk steel mill and 50 percent of its Oriel Resources unit as collateral for loans, the company said in a resolution, which was published on its web site on June 5, to be voted on at its annual shareholder meeting.
The assets may be pledged against as much as $5 billion of borrowings. (Bloomberg)
For the Record
Russia banned pigs and pork products from the U.S. states of Connecticut and Pennsylvania on concern over the spread of swine flu, the Agriculture Ministry's health watchdog said in an e-mailed statement Tuesday. (Bloomberg) Nutrinvestholding will propose the terms of restructuring a 1.2 billion ruble ($38.5 million) bond to investors on Wednesday, according to an e-mailed statement on Tuesday. (Bloomberg) plans to boost output at the Yurkharovskoye gas field in the Arctic by the end of this year with the start of the project's third phase, CEO Leonid Mikhelson said Tuesday, Interfax reported. (Bloomberg) 
