The Moscow Times

Market Matters : Markets Rise as Cabinet Settles In
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's strong backing for aggressive oil tax cuts in the near future provided Russian stock markets with a long-awaited catalyst to push the RTS to a record high last week.

News

Reiman Wants Free Home to Cell Phone Calls
By Tai Adelaja / Staff Writer People will soon be able to call mobile phones from landlines without paying a kopek, IT and Communications Minister Leonid Reiman said. ""We will try to resolve this problem before the end of 2008,"" Reiman told Ekho Moskvy radio. ""It will be partially resolved by March 1, when a government directive on the issue comes into effect.""

Karimov Gives First Visit to Kremlin
By Anna Smolchenko / Staff Writer In a positive sign for Moscow's continued influence in Central Asia, Uzbek President Islam Karimov will meet President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday in his first official visit abroad since being re-elected in December.

Moscow Lawyer Seeks U.S. Asylum
By David Nowak / Staff Writer Lawyer Boris Kuznetsov, who has defended numerous high-profile clients against government charges and is suspected of divulging state secrets, said Tuesday that he had requested political asylum in the United States.

News in Brief
Aleksanyan Trial DelayNew Region, New GovernorFire at FSB HeadquartersVictim Not With IKEA

NATO Gets KGB-Trained Hungarian
By Judy Dempsey / NEW YORK TIMES SERVICE The new chief of the Hungarian secret services, who spent six years at the KGB's academy in Moscow during the 1980s, in January became the chairman of NATO's intelligence committee, a rotating post that is held for a year.

One Dead, 2 Injured in St. Pete Blast
The Moscow Times An explosion tore through an apartment building Tuesday in St. Petersburg, killing one and wounding two others, officials said.

8 Suspects Arrested in Race Murders
The Moscow Times Police have arrested eight young men suspected of involvement in the murders of at least 20 dark-skinned foreigners, authorities said Tuesday.

Dispute in Mens' Bathroom Line Leads to Brawl
By Carl Schreck / Staff Writer In any club or restaurant where the alcohol is flowing freely, it's usually patrons of the fair sex who are forced to suffer long lines for the bathroom.

Kasyanov Loses Case on Appeal
By Natalya Krainova / Staff Writer The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down an appeal by Former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov that he be allowed on the ballot for the March 2 presidential election.

OSCE Balks at Sweetened Proposal
By Francesca Mereu / Staff Writer The OSCE turned down an offer from the Central Elections Commission on Tuesday to allow election monitors to begin work Feb. 20 for the presidential elections, saying the date was too late for their observers to do their work properly.

Different Traditions Meet in Army's New Look
By Alexander Osipovich / Staff Writer Influences from different countries and eras were on display as designer Valentin Yudashkin presented his vision for a new military.

Putin Calls for Success in Sochi
Reuters President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday urged officials to make a success of hosting the Winter Olympic Games in 2014, an event supporters say will form a crucial part of his legacy.

Prince Andrew Scolds U.S. on Iraq
The Associated Press The United States could have avoided some of the problems it is experiencing in Iraq if it had listened to Britain's advice and learned from its experiences, Prince Andrew said in comments published Tuesday -- a rare airing of political opinion by a senior member of the royal family.

Iraq Raises New National Flag in Step Toward Reconciliation
Reuters Iraq's temporary new national flag was raised over the country's parliament for the first time Tuesday, trumpeted by the government as a break with the past and a step toward reconciliation. In another symbolic move, the government said it had started to rebuild a revered Shiite shrine which was bombed two years ago, sparking sectarian violence that killed thousands of Iraqis.

Mugabe Will Face First Major Challenge in March Election
Reuters A senior member of Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party, Simba Makoni, said Tuesday that he would run for president in the March 29 election in the first major internal challenge to Robert Mugabe in 20 years.

Mediators Awaited in Chad
The Associated Press Sporadic gunfire rang out Tuesday around Chad's capital, which was awaiting African mediators after three days of fighting between rebels and the army took a heavy toll on civilians and increased instability in the region along Darfur's border.

24 States to Choose Party Candidates
By John Whitesides / Reuters The biggest day ever in U.S. presidential nominating contests was underway on Tuesday with Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in a close fight and Republican John McCain aiming for a knockout blow against Mitt Romney.

Business

MICEX and RTS Retreat
Bloomberg The MICEX Index fell for the first time in three days, dropping 2.7 percent to 1,632.37 as all but five of the 30 stocks retreated. The dollar-denominated RTS Index declined 2.3 percent to 1,966.73.

$13Bln Chelyabinsk Refinery Planned
Bloomberg Quality Energy Petro Holding International, owned by a member of Abu Dhabi's al-Otaiba family, plans to build a $13 billion oil refinery with the government of Chelyabinsk in the United Arab Emirates, the company's chairman said Tuesday.

Auditors Could Be Asked to Snitch
Bloomberg The Central Bank and Finance Ministry are proposing legal changes that will require auditors to pass on to authorities any information they have on breaches of regulations by their clients, Kommersant said Tuesday.

Ukraine Accepted Into WTO
Bloomberg Ukraine on Tuesday won permission to join the World Trade Organization after a 15-year battle to speed up economic growth, improve living standards and set up a free-trade area with the European Union.

Russians Push Up Prices of Rare Icons
By Peter Finn / The Washington Post Buyers are going on a spending spree at London auction houses to return the art to its motherland.

BP Says Kovykta Talks May Take Longer
Reuters BP said Tuesday that it could extend talks with Gazprom over an asset-swap deal involving the giant Kovykta gas field if the two sides did not reach an agreement by a July deadline.

Kremlin Aide Sechin to Run Again for Board of Rosneft
Reuters Igor Sechin, a Kremlin deputy chief of staff, will run again for the board of Rosneft, the government said Tuesday, dashing speculation that the powerful official could lose his big oil job this year.

Gazprom, SUEK Value Power Venture
Reuters Energy majors Gazprom and SUEK have agreed in principle on the terms of their joint power venture, which they value at $14 billion to $18 billion and may complete by September, a source with direct knowledge of the deal said.

Terminal-3 Seen Ready a Year Late
The Moscow Times Sheremetyevo Airport's Terminal 3 will be delayed a year, and costs have run one-third over the original budget of $400 million, Aeroflot chief executive Valery Okulov said Tuesday, Interfax reported.

U.S. Wary of Russian Finance
Reuters The United States should be worried that Russia, China and OPEC countries could use their growing financial clout to advance political goals, the top U.S. spy chief told Congress on Tuesday.

Business in Brief
Health Care ReorganizationCitibank Told to Rehire 6Ministry Safe Until ElectionsLUKoil Seeks Russneft AssetNabucco's One-Year DelayNord Stream AlternativeChemezov Requests CopperGazprom to Prepare ExclavePulkovo Traffic Up 20%Inflation AcceleratingFire Near Nuclear StationNanotechnology Sales PlanFor the Record

Opinion

Putin's Jewish Anomaly Comes as a Surprise
By Vladimir Shlapentokh Josef Stalin and President Vladimir Putin epitomize the type of leader who is ready to sacrifice the country's interests to maintain his power. Of course, Stalin and Putin used ideologies extensively for propagandistic purposes and for the legitimization of their personal power. But given the fact that they were concerned only about personal power, these two leaders were extremely flexible and open to the idea of changing the country's ideological course in any direction.

Yulia Latynina: The News That Doesn't Get Reported
There is something very strange about the way news is presented in Russia. On one hand, there is news that we are all aware of -- news of Medvedev meeting with dairy farmers, for example, or Medvedev outlawing inflation and increasing pensions.

A Lot of Doom About Nothing
By Bret Stephens In 1788, Massachusetts playwright Mercy Otis Warren took one look at the unratified U.S. Constitution and declared, ""We shall soon see this country rushing into the extremes of confusion and violence."" This, roughly, is the origin of American declinism -- and it's been downhill ever since.

City Wise

Enter Noodle Territory
By Nathan Toohey / Staff Writer Menza is the first in what is to be a new chain of noodle houses -- in fact, the restaurant is subtitled ""territory of noodles."" Given that it was created by the restaurateurs behind the Gi-No-Taki and Yakitoria chains, it's not surprising to discover that Menza is simple and democratic like a noodle house should be -- although the only other Moscow eatery that it can really be compared to is the Udonyasan chain, which debuted near Novoslobodskaya in September. But while at Udonyasan guests place orders at the counter and then wait for their meal to be brought out to their table, Menza has a more novel system: Customers take a seat and order by filling out a form, ticking boxes next to the dishes they want. The wait staff collect these questionnaires from diners' tables and promptly bring the food out.

Ask the Chef
Kirill Karmalov is head chef at Bocconcino.

A Green Winter Wonderland
By John Wendle / Staff Writer Searching for winter houseplants, mysterious greenthumbs make Moscow's Botanical Garden as unique as an orchid.

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