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Strabag to Build $400M Business Center
Reuters Property developer Otkrytiye has contracted Austrian builder Strabag, in which Oleg Deripaska has a 25 percent stake, to build an office and hotel complex in Moscow for $400 million, Strabag said Thursday.

Muscovites Bristle at Looming Crystal Island
By John Wendle / Staff Writer Some have described it as a flying saucer, a Christmas tree or a Buddhist temple, while others see it as a bold step into Moscow's future. What no one debates is that Crystal Island will be the largest building in the world.

St. Pete Factory Gets a New Lease on Life
By Yekaterina Dranitsyna / Staff Writer Arsenal, one of the oldest industrial enterprises in St. Petersburg, is planning to turn its former factory into a multifunctional business center in a project that will cost $100 million to $150 million, the company said in a statement.

Deripaska Wins Apraksin Project
Bloomberg Oleg Deripaska beat fellow billionaire Shalva Chigirinsky in a competition to rebuild an 18th-century market in central St. Petersburg as Moscow developers look for growth in the country's second-largest city.

Polymetal Expecting Profitability
Bloomberg Polymetal, the country's biggest silver producer, expects profitability to rise 50 percent this year after it ended a hedging program and exposed sales to the full effect of booming prices for precious metals.

Russian Alcohol Reports 40% Higher Vodka Sales
By Maria Ermakova / Bloomberg Russian Alcohol, the maker of Green Mark vodka, said Monday that sales rose 40 percent in 2007 after it introduced a new brand and improved distribution and marketing.

Lenta's U.S. Co-Owner Seeks Redress
By Tai Adelaja / Staff Writer August Meyer, the U.S. co-owner of St. Petersburg-based supermarket chain Lenta, is seeking to recover his stake in the company after his Russian business partner, Oleg Zherebtsov, replaced the CEO in an apparent attempt to gain control.

Freeze on Food Prices Extended
Combined Reports The country's food retailers will extend an anti-inflationary price freeze on basic food products to May 1 after the current agreement expires on Jan. 31, the Agriculture Ministry said Monday.

More Expensive Handsets Push 2007 Yevroset Sales to $5.6Bln
Bloomberg Yevroset, the country's largest mobile phone retailer, said Monday that sales rose 21 percent last year on higher demand for more expensive handsets.

CIS Gas Cartel Could Come in April
Bloomberg Russia is planning to unite with other countries in the former Soviet Union to increase its clout in a planned OPEC-style natural gas cartel, Kommersant reported Monday.

Ministry Forecasts $74 for Urals in 2008
Combined Reports The Economic Development and Trade Ministry increased its forecast for this year's average price of Urals blend crude to $74 per barrel and $62 per barrel by 2010, national media reported Monday.

Stocks Take a Drop on U.S. Worry
Bloomberg Russian stocks fell for the first time in three days on investors' concerns that riskier markets could suffer if the U.S. falls into a recession. Rosneft, LUKoil, and Surgutneftegaz fell as oil prices slipped on concerns about global economic growth.

SocGen Says Rosbank Deal Still On
By Catrina Stewart, Tai Adelaja / Staff Writers France's Societe Generale insisted Monday it will close a deal to take a controlling stake in Rosbank in the next two weeks, after analysts cautioned that the scandal-hit bank may find it difficult to complete the acquisition.

Business in Brief
Sberbank Seeks $7BlnKuznetsov Joins Sberbank3 New Highland DirectorsGAZ to Produce Siber SedanNew MTS Ukraine ChiefRussian Market 'Resilient'VimpelCom's Golden PlanGeorgia's Trade Deficit UpUzbek Gas Back to KazakhsCarousel Revenue DoubledKopeika Sales Climb 53%

EU Offers Serbia Interim Agreement
Reuters The European Union, eager to encourage pro-European Serbians voting in a presidential election runoff, invited Serbia on Monday to sign an interim political accord on Feb. 7, days after Sunday's decisive poll.

Australian Republic Unlikely While Elizabeth Still Queen
By Michael Perry / Reuters Britain's Queen Elizabeth, Australia's head-of-state, must die or abdicate before Australia can become a republic, said one of the country's leading politicians and former head of the republican movement.

Greek Orthodox Archbishop Dies
By George Hatzidakis, Karolos Grohmann / Reuters The head of Greece's powerful Orthodox Church, Archbishop Christodoulos, who mended ties with the Vatican but clashed with the Greek state, died of cancer on Monday at the age of 69.

Hostages Released in Pakistan
The Associated Press Gunmen released unharmed dozens of students and teachers they had taken hostage at a school in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, the government said.

Death Toll in Kenyan Clashes at 800
By Elizabeth A. Kennedy / The Associated Press Hundreds of people from rival tribes confronted one another on a main road of Kenya's flower capital Monday, hefting machetes, clubs and rocks and retreating only when a handful of police between them fired live bullets into the air.

Euro Zone Businesses Still Borrowing
Reuters Euro zone businesses have shrugged off the impact of the credit crunch and are taking out new loans at their fastest rate in at least eight years, though homebuyers are feeling the pinch, figures showed on Monday.

SocGen Questioned on Deals by Rogue Trader in November
Reuters Exchange officials questioned deals by Societe Generale trader Jerome Kerviel in November 2007, the Paris prosecutor said Monday, adding to pressure on the French bank to explain how the trader almost brought it down.

Vietnamese Suffer 'Sticker Shock'
By Grant McCool / Reuters Every time Vietnamese factory worker Nguyen Thi Ha goes to the supermarket, she finds that prices on the shelves have climbed, evidence of a country facing its highest inflation rate in more than a decade.

Buyout of Alliance in Jeopardy
Reuters Alliance Data Systems Corp., a provider of transaction, credit and marketing services, said Monday that its $6.76 billion buyout by private equity firm Blackstone Group LP is in jeopardy. Alliance Data shares plummeted 43 percent to $37.21 in premarket trading.

Advertisers Gear Up for Super Bowl
By Seth Sutel / The Associated Press Thirty-second spots for this year's American football extravaganza will cost a cool $2.7 million.

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