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

IOC Inspectors Say Sochi Will Be a Challenge
By Anatoly Medetsky / Staff Writer The Sochi 2014 Olympics will be among the most challenging to prepare for, a key International Olympic Committee official warned Tuesday, just a few days after the country's Olympic construction chief stepped down amid worries that costs were ballooning out of control.

Moscow Says Drone Broke UN Strictures
Combined Reports Russia said Tuesday that a Georgian unmanned reconnaissance flight over the rebel region of Abkhazia violated United Nations cease-fire agreements.

Railways Owe $20,000 to 1967 Victim
By Natalya Krainova / Staff Writer A Novosibirsk court has ordered Russian Railways to pay more than $20,000 in compensation to a man who had his legs amputated after he was hit by a train 40 years ago, the state-controlled company said Tuesday.

Banker to Be Charged in Historic Fraud Case
The Moscow Times Investigators are close to wrapping one of one of the largest cases of purported bank fraud in the country's history, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday.

Somali Troops Storm Ship Hijacked by Pirates
Reuters Somali troops stormed a Dubai-flagged ship Tuesday that had been hijacked off the Horn of Africa, releasing its crew and arresting seven pirates, authorities said.

Samsung Head Steps Down After Scandal
The Associated Press Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-hee said Tuesday that he was stepping down after 20 years as chief of South Korea's biggest conglomerate, quitting in the aftermath of his indictment on tax evasion and other charges last week.

Sudan Shuts Down As Census Takers Struggle With Count
The Associated Press The Sudanese capital was at a standstill, and all public transportation was halted in Khartoum and between major towns as a key nationwide census began Tuesday, fraught with many political and security concerns in this troubled country.

China Calls Arms Deal 'Normal'
Reuters China said Tuesday that a shipment of weapons bound for Zimbabwe may return home after the vessel was unable to unload in South Africa, but it defended the cargo as “perfectly normal trade.”

UN Cautions About Rising Food Prices
Reuters A “silent tsunami” unleashed by costlier food threatens 100 million people, the United Nations said on Tuesday, but views differed as to how to stop it.

U.S. Arrests Suspected Israeli Spy
Reuters U.S. authorities arrested an American engineer Tuesday on suspicion of giving secrets on nuclear weapons, fighter jets and air-defense missiles to Israel during the 1980s, the Justice Department said.

Business

Firms Trying to Gain Foreign Footing
By Anna Smolchenko / Staff Writer Dmitry Afanasyev, a high-powered Moscow lawyer, needles Aeroflot CEO Valery Okulov at least once a year about the fact that the airline doesn't offer a direct flight to Miami.

Vekselberg Ups Stake In Oerlikon
Combined Reports Billionaire Viktor Vekselberg raised his stake in Switzerland's Oerlikon to 32 percent, taking another step toward wresting control from the group's other major shareholder ahead of the annual shareholders meeting next month.

TNK-BP Field Investigation Extended
By Miriam Elder / Staff Writer The Natural Resources Ministry has extended by one month its investigation into TNK-BP's largest oil field, a senior official said Tuesday, keeping up pressure against the embattled Russian-British oil firm.

Gazprom Neft Puts Focus on Acquisitions
Reuters Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of gas export monopoly Gazprom, outlined on Tuesday its output strategy through 2020, aimed at more than doubling output by 2020 through acquisitions.

Sibur Management May Seek to Gain Control
Combined Reports Sibur managers want to buy a controlling stake from other shareholders in Gazprom's petrochemicals unit, Kommersant reported, citing a source familiar with the situation.

IMF Suggests Central Bank Lift Rates
By Gleb Bryanski / Reuters The International Monetary Fund believes that the Central Bank needs to raise interest rates further as there are strong signs of overheating in the economy, the head of the IMF in Russia said Tuesday.

Alitalia Waits For Loan or Aeroflot Bid
Reuters The Italian government called a Cabinet meeting Tuesday to discuss an emergency loan to keep ailing national carrier Alitalia flying after Air France-KLM torpedoed hopes of reviving its takeover plan.

Armenia Uranium Deal
Bloomberg Uranium Holding ARMZ, the mining unit of state nuclear corporation Rosatom, plans to set up a venture with the Armenian government to explore for and extract the metal used to make atomic fuel.

The Kazakh Rockefeller of Nuclear Fuel
By Elliot Blair Smith / Bloomberg Muktar Dzhakishev, the head of Kazatomprom, is seeking to supply one-third of the world’s nuclear fuel.

Atomic Firm Faces Tax Claim
The Moscow Times Rosenergoatom, the state company that manages the country's 10 nuclear power stations, received a back tax claim of 1.7 billion rubles ($73 million), a company spokesman confirmed on Tuesday.

Business in Brief

Business in Brief
131,000 MillionairesOil Hits Record $118European Medical Center100 CIS Companies on LSE2 Execs Leave X5 BoardGazprom's Price for PolandFor the Record

The Real Joe McCarthy
By Ronald Kessler Fifty-four years ago Tuesday, U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy started his televised hearings on alleged Soviet spies and communists in the U.S. Army.

Crazy for Coffee
By Maria Antonova / Staff Writer Western chains arrive in Moscow eager to claim part of the thriving market for coffeeshops.

Likbez: Do You Really Get What You Pay For?
By Lara McCoy Roslof When the first Starbucks in Russia opened at the Khimki Mega mall last September, much was made of the cost of the most expensive coffee drink on the menu.

Ask the Chef
Andrei Serdin is the brand-chef of the Goodman chain of steakhouses.

GUM's New Canteen
By Nathan Toohey / Staff Writer Stolovaya 57 is quite incongruously located. Buried deep among GUM's boutiques and jewelers, the new eatery is exactly what its name would lead you to believe: It's basically a cafeteria, albeit a very good one.

3 Years Doesn't Fit the Crime in Miles Case
Judges from the Golovinsky District Court have probably presided over quite a few puzzling cases in their careers.

Kadyrov Is the Better of Two Chechen Evils
By Yulia Latynina Modern Chechnya, like France under Louis XIV, is going through the final stage of its centralization. The latest victim in that process is the Vostok battalion commanded by Sulim Yamadayev.

There Is Nothing Normal About Corruption
By Anders Aslund In 2004, Foreign Affairs published a seminal article by professors Andrei Shleifer and Daniel Treisman, arguing that Russia was a ""normal country""

News in Brief
New Monument for YeltsinChernogorov Asks OutLithuania Waffles on Block

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