The Moscow Times

Market Matters: Struggling Stocks Spur New Record Oil Prices
Oil hit another record of just under $143 as global stocks tumbled last week, with the Dow briefly dipping into bear market territory as investors sought safety in gold, government debt and the Swiss franc.

News

Norilsk Board Survives Prokhorov's Assault
By Catrina Stewart / Staff Writer Norilsk Nickel's shareholders voted to retain the company's current board of directors Tuesday, striking a further blow to the chances that Oleg Deripaska's United Company RusAl will succeed in acquiring Mikhail Prokhorov's blocking stake in the firm.

Worries Loom for Sargsyan at Home
By Simon Saradzhyan / Staff Writer Serzh Sargsyan, the handpicked successor of outgoing Armenian President Robert Kocharyan, is to be sworn in Wednesday as the next president of the South Caucasus republic.

Big Business Asks Medvedev for Help
By Anna Smolchenko / Staff Writer Members of the country's leading business lobby appealed to President-elect Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday for help in safeguarding property rights and protection against the ravages of corrupt state officials.

Lavrov Wants Permanent Base Access
Reuters Russia is demanding that the United States give its military permanent access to its planned missile-shield sites in Eastern Europe, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying Tuesday.

Nepalese Election to Create Republic, Bring in Maoists
Reuters Nepal stages a historic election on Thursday meant to rope a once-feared Maoist guerrilla army into democratic politics and bring an end to a once-loved 240-year Hindu monarchy.

Iran Installs 6,000 New Centrifuges
The Associated Press Iran has begun installing 6,000 new centrifuges at its uranium enrichment plant in Natanz, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday, a move Western nations condemned as defiance of United Nations demands for Iran to halt enrichment.

Petraeus to Halt Troop Withdrawals
Reuters The top U.S. commander in Iraq told Congress on Tuesday he plans to stop U.S. troop withdrawals in July because of fragile security gains in a progress report with repercussions on the U.S. presidential campaign.

Protests Put Relay in Doubt
The Associated Press The Olympic torch arrived for its only North American stop amid heavy security Tuesday, a day after its visit to Paris descended into chaos and activists there scaled the Golden Gate Bridge to protest China's human rights record.

FSB Says Foreign NGOs Help Terrorists
Combined Reports The Federal Security Service on Tuesday accused foreign nongovernmental organizations of helping terrorist groups to recruit in the country.

Pensioners Paid Late in Mix-Up
The Moscow Times A mix-up in the transfer of state pension payments to recipients that left many without their April disbursements Monday was fixed by Tuesday, State Pension Fund and bank officials said.

Soyuz Takes First Korean Into Space
By Douglas Birch / The Associated Press A Russian capsule carrying two cosmonauts and Korea's first astronaut blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome Tuesday, en route to the international space station.

EU Slams Russia Over Visa Red Tape
By Conor Sweeney / Reuters Russian immigration red tape is so cumbersome that many Europeans are leaving rather than trying to comply, European Union embassies have told the government in the latest round in a visa dispute.

Business

EU Visiting Turkmenistan to Talk Energy
Reuters Senior EU officials will descend on Turkmenistan this week to promote cooperation with Central Asia, a region that is key to Europe's ambitions to diversify energy supplies and reduce its dependence on Russia.

Surgut Doubles Upgrade Cost for Biggest Refinery to $2Bln
Reuters Surgutneftegaz, the country's fourth-largest oil producer, said Tuesday that it would invest at least $2 billion in its long-delayed Kirishi refinery upgrade, more than doubling the project's initial cost.

Smugglers Lend iPhone Sales a Hand
By Alex Nicholson / Bloomberg Apple has gained unlikely allies in its bid to boost iPhone sales: Russian smugglers.

New Influx of Capital Expected
Combined Reports The Central Bank said Tuesday that it expected net capital inflows to resume shortly and amount to $35 billion this year and that it still hoped to keep inflation to single digits in 2008.

Rosneft 2007 Profit Triples, Debt Drops
Reuters Rosneft said Tuesday that its profit more than tripled in 2007, beating analysts' expectations, while net debt fell due to strong cash generation.

Court Extends Storchak Detention
Bloomberg Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin vouched for his deputy Sergei Storchak and called for his release after a Moscow court extended an order to detain him on charges of attempted embezzlement on Tuesday.

Cancer Drug Spurned in U.S. Approved
By Luke Timmerman / Bloomberg Antigenics, the maker of a drug that stimulates the immune system against kidney cancer, won approval to market the product in Russia after a study failed to meet the statistical standard in the United States.

TPG Invests $800M for Drug Firm Stake
By Anatoly Medetsky / Staff Writer U.S. private equity investor TPG Capital announced its first foray into Russia on Tuesday, paying $800 million for 50 percent of leading pharmaceutical distributor SIA International.

Business in Brief

Business in Brief
Norilsk Nuclear IcebreakerUdokan Copper DepositLabor Force 'Overvalued'Mechel Buys Romanian MillFirst Superjet Flight in MayKazakh Oil Tax Next MonthImports Worry Zubkov

Is NATO Expansion Bad for Russia?
By Uffe Ellemann-Jensen Andrei Liakhov Russia's main argument against NATO enlargement is that it would threaten its security. That is nonsense, and Russia knows it.

Ask the Chef
Frederic Andrieu of France is the pastry chef at Swissotel Krasnye Holmy hotel.

Dim Sum at Dim Sim
By Nathan Toohey / Staff Writer The new Asian restaurant Dim Sim should certainly not be associated with the greasy deep-fried snack-bar staple found throughout Australia.

Likbez
By Svetlana Osadchuk Moscow does not have a reputation as a particularly child-friendly city, but there are some restaurants and stores that provide facilities with changing tables.

Special Delivery
By Svetlana Osadchuk / Staff Writer More and more expatriate women are open to giving birth in Moscow, even though doing so requires some adaptation.

How to...
By Svetlana Osadchuk Despite all the challenges involved with giving birth, for foreigners delivering in Russia, the arrival of the baby is only the beginning.

Fair-Weather Generals
By Yulia Latynina The Kremlin has designed its power vertical in such a way that any public complaint against the government is considered a sign of disloyalty.

Predicting the End of the Commodity Bubble
By Martin Gilman For once in history, Russia appears to be on the right side of a global price trend.

News in Brief
Zyuganov Doubts DyarchyTajiks Charged With KillingSpain Takes Down Sex Ring

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