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

Foreign Oil Firms See Hope in Salym
By Miriam Elder / Staff Writer With state pressure and ownership shakeups increasingly a fact of life, times are turbulent for foreign oil majors working in the country.

Rogozin Stays on Message in Brussels
By Alexander Osipovich / Staff Writer He was once a firebrand nationalist politician who led rallies against illegal immigration, met indicted Serbian war criminals and ran a campaign ad that seemed to compare dark-skinned southerners to garbage.

Paper Closes After Putin Marriage Story
By Anatoly Medetsky and Matt Siegel / Staff Writers A Russian tabloid that published a story claiming that President Vladimir Putin had left his wife to marry a 24-year-old former Olympic gymnast suspended operations on Friday, sparking fresh criticism about withering press freedoms in Russia.

$1Bln Not Enough for Forbes' 100
By Tai Adelaja / Staff Writer A billion dollars just ain't what it used to be -- to make the cut on Forbes Russia's new top 100 a cool $1.1 billion is required.

Berezovsky Lawsuit at High Court
Combined Reports A $2 billion lawsuit brought by self-exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky against his former business partner, Roman Abramovich, reached the High Court in London on Friday.

Building Russian Cafe Culture
By Alexander Osipovich / Staff Writer Dmitry Borisov has opened a series of restaurants that appeal to ""normal people.""

Soyuz Capsule Misses the Mark on Landing
By Mike Eckel / The Associated Press A Russian space capsule touched down in Kazakhstan after hurtling through the Earth’s atmosphere in a steeper-than-normal descent, subjecting the crew to severe G-forces and landing hundreds of kilometers off target.

Putin Orders Friendlier Georgia Policy
The Associated Press President Vladimir Putin ordered his government to take steps to ease tensions with Georgia, the Foreign Ministry said Friday, a move that came amid international concern over Moscow's recent decision to strengthen ties with two breakaway Georgian regions.

Yamadayev Criticizes Amnesty for Rebels
By Gleb Bryanski / Reuters A military commander at odds with Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov said Saturday that amnestied rebels recruited by Kadyrov were engaged in violence and stood ready for another war with Russia.

NGO Deadline Extended 2 Weeks
By Anna Malpas / Staff Writer The Federal Registration Service has extended the deadline for nongovernmental organizations to submit their accounting records, after numerous NGOs struggled with submitting their documents on time, the agency said Friday.

Business

UES Ready to Delay OGK-1 Sale 2 Years
Reuters Unified Energy System is ready to delay for up to two years the sale of electricity producer OGK-1 if a consortium of billionaires does not offer a premium price.

Price Freeze, Grain Duties May End
Reuters The Economic Development and Trade Ministry sees no need to extend a price freeze on food staples or prolong grain export barriers to keep consumer prices down, a deputy minister said Friday.

Former Ahold Exec Plans Retail Chain
Reuters A new discount retail chain headed by a former executive of Dutch supermarket group Royal Ahold will open its first store in July and plans to expand further, the official heading the project said Friday.

Putin, Berlusconi Talk of New Alitalia Offer
By Francesca Mereu / Staff Writer President Vladimir Putin and Italian Prime Minister-elect Silvio Berlusconi on Friday rekindled ties by talking up a possible new bid by Aeroflot for troubled airline Alitalia and hinted that a gas deal between Gazprom and Italy's Eni involving Libya could be in the cards.

Medvedev Mediates Power Spat
Reuters President-elect Dmitry Medvedev has stepped in to try to resolve a dispute between state-controlled power firms Unified Energy System and Rosneft, UES chief Anatoly Chubais said Friday.

Opinion

Deciphering Putin's New Role as Leader
By Vladimir Frolov President Vladimir Putin's appointment as United Russia head sends conflicting signals about how Russia will be ruled after May 7.

Business in Brief

Business in Brief
Raspadskaya Profit DoublesGazprom Neft's Output PlanPutin Orders Georgian TalksEmbargo Cost 1.1% of GDPExchange to Open in JuneOil Tax to Be Settled by July$2.6 Trillion Offshore CostFor the Record

What to Do: See Political Cartoons
By Maria Antonova Tsaritsyno estate museum will exhibit works by Kukryniksy, a Soviet art group of the 1930s and '40s famous for their political cartoons and posters.

Echoes of the Anschluss in Georgia
By Mart Laar President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday accelerated Moscow's creeping annexation of Georgian territories to sweeping annexation.

Restaurant News
By Nathan Toohey Arkady Novikov, a leading restaurateur and one of the founders of Moscow's modern restaurant scene has been awarded the Italian Order of Merit of the Republic, or Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana.

Soviet Side Door Eats
By Nathan Toohey / Staff Writer Sluzhebny Vkhod is the latest retro-Soviet eatery to appear in Moscow, having opened just over a month ago.

The Lovely Smell of U.S. Stagnation
By Alexei Bayer It has become a cliche to point out that the government is busy reviving various ideological and symbolic trappings of the Soviet Union.

Putin's Legacy

Barclays Capital Chief Warns of Global Fallout
By Catrina Stewart / Staff Writer Russia will not emerge unscathed from a likely global slowdown, and will need to tackle high growth rates if it is to bring down inflation, Barclays Capital chairman Hans-Joerg Rudloff said.

Russia Investment Roadshow

All Is Quiet on the IPO Front — For Now
By Max Delany / Staff Writer By this time last year, four Russian firms — Sitronics, Polymetal, Sberbank and Integra — had already raised a total of almost $10.5 billion in IPOs.

Barclays Capital Chief Warns of Global Fallout
By Catrina Stewart / Staff Writer. Russia will not emerge unscathed from a likely global slowdown, and will need to tackle high growth rates if it is to bring down inflation, Barclays Capital chairman Hans-Joerg Rudloff said.

The Rules of the Game
By Catrina Stewart / Staff Writer As Dmitry Medvedev prepares to become president, investors wonder what they need to do to work in Russia.