The Moscow Times

Market Matters: As Conflict Ends, Markets on Road to Recovery
After tumbling to its lowest point in almost two years on Tuesday, Russia's MICEX Index began to slowly claw its way back over the rest of the week, suggesting a possible end to the volatility that has plagued the country's markets since tensions erupted between Russia and Georgia on Aug. 8.

News

The Deadly Case of 9 Fleeing Skiers
By Svetlana Osadchuk / Staff Writer Nine experienced cross-country skiers hurriedly left their tent on a Urals slope in the middle of the night, casting aside skis, food and their warm coats.

Poland Agrees to Host U.S. Shield
By Alexander Osipovich / Staff Writer The United States and Poland reached ""an agreement in principle"" on missile defense Friday, prompting an angry reaction from Russia over the weekend.

Ukraine Seeks to Simplify Gas Trade
By Anatoly Medetsky / Staff Writer Ukraine on Saturday took a first step toward removing intermediaries from its natural gas imports, an effort that threatens to annul a hard-won agreement with Russia two years ago.

Tajikistan's Flagship Air Carrier Banned
AP, MT The Federal Air Transportation Agency on Saturday banned Tajikistan's national airline from flying to Russia, citing violations of air transport agreements.

Air Force Sends Planes to Arctic and Atlantic
Reuters The military sent fighters and long-range bombers to the Arctic and North Atlantic on Friday to take part in maneuvers demonstrating the revival of some of the power it lost with the Soviet collapse.

Nashi Says It's Healthy and Planning to Double in Size
The Moscow Times Pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi said Friday that it was seeking to double its membership this year and dismissed reports of its imminent demise.

Bolshoi's Opening Delayed By a Year
By Valery Stepchenkov / Reuters The Bolshoi Theater will reopen after restoration in November 2009, a year behind schedule, after the completion of emergency work to save it from collapse, officials said.

Kasyanov to Take His Bid to Court
Reuters Former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov will appeal to the Supreme Court over his disqualification from running in the March 2 presidential election, his spokeswoman said Friday.

Rights Group Calls Putin a 'Brutal' Leader
LAT, MT Human Rights Watch has called President Vladimir Putin a ""repressive"" and ""brutal"" leader on par with the leaders of Zimbabwe and Pakistan.

Russia Rejects OSCE's Ire As 'Games'
The Associated Press The Foreign Ministry accused Europe's main security organization on Friday of playing political games in the dispute over election monitors weeks before a key presidential election.

Milosevic's Wife, Son Get Asylum
By David Nowak / Staff Writer Russia has granted asylum to the widow and son of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, both of whom are on Interpol's wanted list, the Federal Migration Service said Friday.

Aleksanyan Denied Release for Illness
By Svetlana Osadchuk / Staff Writer A Moscow court rules that the former Yukos executive has failed to prove he is in urgent need of treatment.

Medvedev Courts Farmers and War Veterans
Reuters, MT The presidential candidate hits the campaign trail with a stop in Volgograd.

Opposition Seeks Peacekeepers as Youth Gangs Clash in Kenya
Reuters Gangs of youths from rival ethnic groups armed with clubs, bows and machetes clashed in Kenya's Rift Valley on Sunday, shouting war cries, firing salvos of arrows and pelting one another with rocks.

Egypt Closes Last Gap in Border With Gaza
The Associated Press Egypt closed the last opening in its breached frontier with Gaza on Sunday, ending a chaotic 12-day influx of Gazans, and in a thinly veiled reprimand of Gaza's Hamas rulers warned that it would not permit any future border violations.

Microsoft Tries to Snap Up Yahoo for $42Bln
The Associated Press Unable to topple Google on its own, Microsoft is trying to force crippled rival Yahoo into a merger, with a wager worth nearly $42 billion that the two companies together will have a better chance of tackling the Internet search leader.

Chad Says It Repulsed Rebels
Reuters Troops loyal to Chad’s president struck back at rebels besieging his palace Sunday, and the government said it repulsed an attack by Sudanese forces in the east that it called “a declaration of war.”

Race Too Close to Call as Serbia Votes
By Ellie Tzortzi / Reuters Serbs voted Sunday in a knife-edge presidential election that could decide whether their country turns its back on the West in response to the imminent loss of the breakaway province of Kosovo.

Business

Prosecutors Ask Britain to Turn Over 5 Suspects
By Nikolaus von Twickel / Staff Writer Prosecutors have asked Britain to extradite five suspects in a fraud case at state-owned shipping giant Sovkomflot, adding another twist to the already fraught relationship between London and Moscow.

St. Pete Oil Terminal Plans to Modernize
Bloomberg Petersburg Oil Terminal, the country's largest oil-product exporting port, plans to spend as much as $200 million on modernizing facilities as it seeks to expand annual loading capacity by one-quarter to 15 million tons.

Levitin Seeks $860Bln for Transport
Bloomberg The country may invest as much as 21 trillion rubles ($862 billion) to improve transportation infrastructure over the next seven years to handle increasing domestic traffic and transit shipments from Asia.

Ports Bidding for Upgrade Tax Breaks
Bloomberg The government has begun accepting bids from the country's seaports for tax breaks and other incentives to upgrade infrastructure and diversify the economy.

Workers Vote on Ford Offer
The Moscow Times Workers at Ford’s car plant near St. Petersburg started voting Friday on a pay offer of about 20 percent that the company said it hoped would settle a dispute that flared into a three-week strike in November.

CTC Buys 20% of Kazakh TV Firm
Reuters Entertainment television company CTC Media said Friday that it signed a deal to buy a 20 percent stake in Channel 31, Kazakhstan's fourth-largest television network by audience share.

Manufacturing Hits August 2006 High
Bloomberg Manufacturing expanded in January for the fourth consecutive month, reaching the highest level since August 2006 as new orders rose, a gauge of industrial production showed Friday.

Poland Seeks Cheaper Pipeline Route
Bloomberg Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk will seek to persuade Russian officials to pick a ""cheaper"" route for Gazprom's planned Nord Stream pipeline during a visit to Moscow on Friday.

Lithuania to Merge Energy Companies
Reuters Lithuania's government won a parliamentary vote Friday to merge a private and two state-owned energy companies to invest in a new nuclear power plant and build connections to Sweden and Poland.

Central Bank Moves to Combat Inflation
Reuters, MT The Central Bank took markets by surprise Friday by using a wide range of measures to curb inflationary pressures and sacrificing banking-sector liquidity to defeat price growth.

A Canadian Mogul, Clinton and a Kazakh Pact
By Jo Becker, Don Van Natta Jr. / NEW YORK TIMES SERVICE Late on Sept. 6, 2005, a private plane carrying Canadian mining financier Frank Giustra touched down in Almaty. Several hundred kilometers to the west a fortune awaited: highly coveted deposits of uranium that could fuel nuclear reactors around the world. And Giustra was in hot pursuit of an exclusive deal to tap them.

More Uranium for U.S. Nuclear Power Plants
Reuters U.S. nuclear power reactors will be able to obtain more supplies of Russian enriched uranium for fuel, under a trade deal signed by the two countries Friday.

U.S. Signs Kazakh Army Deal
Reuters In a new military cooperation pact certain to irritate Russia, the United States promised Kazakhstan on Friday to help it bring its armed forces up to NATO standards.

2 Plutonium Reactors Will Close Early
By H. Josef Hebert / The Associated Press wo of Russia's plutonium-producing reactors may be closed six months ahead of schedule, a major milestone in U.S. nuclear nonproliferation efforts, a senior Energy Department official said.

Opinion

Match Made in Heaven
President Vladimir Putin's decision to serve as prime minister should First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev become the next president has made the duo's electoral success in March a virtual certainty.

Useless Dudes in Cyber Era
February is National Reading Month in the United States -- and not a moment too soon. Last November, the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts issued ""To Read or Not to Read,"" a sobering report detailing how American youth have been reading progressively less and worse, with both frequency and proficiency declining at ""troubling rates."" Once American kids enter adolescence, the NEA intoned, ""they fall victim to a general culture which does not encourage or reinforce reading ... [so] they do more poorly in school, in the job market and in civic life."" Yikes.

City Wise

First Person
By James Marson / Special to The Moscow Times Ali Young, English-language teacher

The Legacy of a Dean
By Anna Tsvetkova / Special to The Moscow Times Though he never sought the position of dean, Yasen Zasursky's impact on Moscow State University endures.

Business in Brief

Business in Brief
Renault Picks for AvtoVAZBritain Unsure on SakhalinOil Spill in DagestanRuble Bond Sales May DropGazprom, Fluxys Scrap PlanRosinter Q4 Sales ImproveGas Firm to Invest $340MSibur Interest in Tire MakerFor the Record

Chinesean at Chin Chin
By Nathan Toohey / Staff Writer Chin Chin serves ""Chinesean"" food, or at least that's what's written on the front of the menu. Other than this amusing orthographical error, however, Chin Chin tends to get things right. It may be located on the basement level of a shopping center, but it does have its own separate entrance. And as the main dining hall is almost entirely separated from the rest of the arcade, it doesn't feel like you're eating in a food court. In fact, considering that Chin Chin would seem to be counting on attracting the weekday lunchtime crowd, it doesn't strike you as a typical lunch spot -- though it does offer free Wi-Fi. Its large main room is dark but cozy, with the bar area bathed in deep red lighting -- quite the opposite of a Pret a Manger-style place.

Restaurant News
By Nathan Toohey / Special to The Moscow Times Valentine's Day promotions are already being offered for those wishing to sign up early.

$32Bln Fund Must Go the Extra Mile
Most countries with sovereign wealth funds say they are only investing their windfall profits for future generations. If only it were so simple for Russia.

News in Brief
Generals Run a Kilometer4 Years for Food Theft2 Killed in ChechnyaRadioactive Material HaltedParrot Smuggler FoiledTajiks Seize Drug StashSpa Messes Up Enemas

Pop Music as Key Tool in Armenian Elections
As the race for Armenia's presidency heats up, with candidates hurling abuse at each other and gunshots fired outside campaign offices, pop music has emerged as a propaganda tool in this increasingly fierce struggle for power. Last week, Serzh Sargsyan, the current prime minister and the favored candidate of the political establishment, deployed Armenia's 2008 Eurovision Song Contest hopeful, Sirusho, as he chased the youth vote.

Russia Beats Israel in Fed Cup
HE ASSOCIATED PRESS Maria Sharapova and Anna Chakvetadze both won their reverse singles matches in straight sets Sunday, and Russia also won the doubles match, giving Russia a 4-1 victory over Israel in the Fed Cup World Group first round.

Clinton's Politics of Soul Is Bad Taste
Mentioning Senator Hillary Clinton's name in an e-mail to a Moscow friend evoked a fury in the reply that caught me off guard. Though counting herself no great follower of President Vladimir Putin, my friend was still put out by Clinton's comment that he had no soul. She was offended both as a patriot and as an Orthodox believer.

Market Matters

January Closes With An 'Irrational' Selloff
By Catrina Stewart / Staff Writer Russian stock markets bowed out of January with one of their worst months of trading in years, the benchmark RTS suffering its biggest losses since 2000.

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