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

Japan Sees Hope in Island Dispute
By Anna Smolchenko / Staff Writer Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and President Vladimir Putin agreed on Saturday to expedite talks to resolve a decades-old territorial dispute by issuing “fresh directives” to their respective governments, Japan’s Foreign Ministry said.

Rock Legends Are Playing to a Political Beat
By Anna Malpas / Staff Writer One day after Dmitry Medvedev was elected president, rock star Andrei Makarevich and his band, Mashina Vremeni, entertained a crowd of pro-Kremlin youth activists on Red Square.

Tensions Rise Sharply Over Abkhazia
By Nikolaus von Twickel and Matt Siegel / Staff Writers Tensions between Moscow and Tbilisi escalated over the weekend amid reports that Russian military reinforcements were being deployed in Georgia's breakaway republic of Abkhazia and local residents were being forced to swap their ID cards for Russian passports.

Ex-Governor Denies Bribery Investigation
The Moscow Times Former Arkhangelsk Governor Nikolai Kiselyov has denied being questioned by law enforcement agents about a bribery scandal stemming from a video posted on the Internet last year.

Caucasus Seen Facing Turmoil
Reuters Chechnya is making progress on human rights, but Dagestan and Ingushetia may plunge into violence, a senior European human rights official said Friday.

Media Clampdown Approved by Duma
By Francesca Mereu / Staff Writer The State Duma passed in a first reading Friday a bill that would allow courts to close media outlets for publishing libelous statements, a law critics say would give authorities an additional tool to crack down on dissent.

Iran Urges Azeris to Release Atomic Plant Parts
Reuters Iran has urged Azerbaijan to release Russian parts for the Islamic Republic’s first nuclear power plant, the Foreign Ministry said Sunday.

Hundreds Rally Over Rising Prices
Reuters Hundreds of motorists protested rising prices of fuel and other goods in a Far East port on Saturday.

Tears and Anger Over Chernobyl
The Associated Press Several thousand supporters of Belarus’ opposition marched through Minsk on Saturday to commemorate the 22nd anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident and protest an alleged government coverup of the disaster’s consequences.

100 Hit the Streets of Tallinn To Mark Bronze Soldier Riots
The Associated Press About 100 demonstrators gathered in the Estonian capital on Saturday to commemorate the anniversary of the riots that shook the country one year ago.

Putin Sends Kremlin Aides to the White House
Combined Reports President Vladimir Putin on Friday began forming his staff for when he takes over as next prime minister next month.

Putin Library Clears the Duma
Reuters The State Duma approved in a final reading Friday the creation of a foundation for Vladimir Putin to preserve his legacy after eight years as president.

Putin Signs Law Curbing Referendums
Combined Reports President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed into law an amendment imposing new restrictions on national referendums, which was vehemently opposed by Communists.

Lithuania Ready to Block EU’s Russia Talks
By Nerijus Adomaitis / Reuters Lithuania is prepared to take a stand against the rest of the European Union to try to tighten the terms of an EU mandate for partnership talks with Russia, the country’s foreign minister said.

Tamil Rebels Take to the Air In Bloody Week in Sri Lanka
The Associated Press Sri Lanka's separatist rebels used light aircraft to bomb an army defense line in the island's war-torn north early Sunday, hours after fierce clashes killed 42 combatants, the military said.

EU to Debate Path for Accession for Serbia
Reuters The European Union will try Tuesday to approve a gesture to pro-EU parties in Serbia before elections on May 11, but Dutch leaders say Belgrade must arrest a top war crime suspect before they sign on.

Karzai Dodges Assassination Attempt
By Omar Sobhani / Reuters Afghan President Hamid Karzai escaped unhurt on Sunday after an assassination attempt by Taliban fighters who fired guns and rockets at an official celebration in the capital, Kabul.

Protesters Trail Torch In S. Korea
Reuters Protests and scuffles greeted the Olympic flame as it began a two-day journey on the divided Korean peninsula Sunday along a route guarded by thousands of riot policeman.

Business

RusAl Wants Norilsk Tie-Up in a Year
Combined Reports Oleg Deripaska’s United Company RusAl said Friday it would seek to combine with Norilsk Nickel, the country’s biggest mining company, in the next year and may buy shares on the open market.

Rebranding Puts Russian Firms on World Stage
By Tai Adelaja / Staff Writer While Russian brands remain less recognized on a global scale than their Western and Chinese counterparts, names such as MTS, LUKoil and Baltika have started to ring a bell on the international stage.

UPM, Sveza to Invest $1.5Bln in Pulp Venture
By Diana ben-Aaron / Bloomberg UPM-Kymmene, Europe's second-largest papermaker, and Sveza Group, Russia's largest plywood producer, plan to invest 1 billion euros ($1.56 billion) in a joint venture to produce pulp, lumber and wood panels in Russia.

Storchak Relieved of EBRD Duties
Reuters Jailed Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak has been stripped of his duties as a deputy governor of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Interfax reported Saturday.

Speculators Hit Forex Market
By Simon Falush / Reuters Foreign exchange markets feel the weight of Russian traders, who helped pushed the pound up 4 percent against the yen last week.

Vekselberg Spells Out RusAl Plans
Reuters United Company RusAl and Norilsk Nickel should pool their assets to take on global giants like BHP Billiton, RusAl chairman Viktor Vekselberg said in an interview Friday.

Arbat & Main

Sham Inauguration Rocks!
By Mark H. Teeter If American voters are discouraged by a seemingly endless and increasingly hyperbolic presidential campaign -- now called ""The Campaign That Would Not Die"" by some and disparaged last week by The New York Times as ""meaner, more vacuous, more desperate, and more filled with pandering"" as it drags on -- they might want to consider what Russian voters have had to put up with after the formidably brief and utterly unhyperbolic presidential campaign here.

No Russian Bad Guy
By James Marson / Staff Writer Alexander Nevsky wants to make a name for himself in Hollywood -- but on his own terms.

Likbez: The Other Alexander Nevsky
By Lara McCoy Roslof Alexander Nevsky, the actor and bodybuilder, is far from the only famous Russian to bear the name. The other Alexander Nevsky was a 13th-century prince-soldier widely regarded as one of the most important figures in medieval Russia.

Russia's Pre-Olympic Nightmare
By Garry Kasparov The international community is justly concerned about China's crackdown in Tibet in the run-up to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Restaurant News
By Nathan Toohey It might well seem that a new Japanese restaurant or at least a sushi bar opens every day somewhere around town.

A Lesson in Fine Wine
By Nathan Toohey / Staff Writer Vinnaya Istoria must boast the city's most advanced wine list. This is not simply a large, comprehensive collection, although it does feature 900 wines from 15 different countries.

Determined Deripaska Casts a Long Shadow
By Yuriy Humber and Hugo Miller / Bloomberg A table laid out with platters of blini, beets and caviar and a bottle of 2001 Montrachet awaits Oleg Deripaska and his guests in a dining room at his Moscow headquarters. While others dig in, Deripaska sips only black tea and nibbles on toast.

News in Brief
Editor Faces Trial | 3 Acquitted of Murder | EU Satellite Launched | EU Reprieve for Tashkent | Locusts Infest Tajikistan

A Room in a City With A Fast-Changing View
By Matthew Collin Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, welcomed back one of its most famous families last week as a descendant of the Nobel brothers returned to the city where his ancestors made huge fortunes during the Caspian Sea oil boom more than a century ago.

White Paper Blacked Out
By Richard Lourie In February, Boris Nemtsov published a white paper on the Vladimir Putin years that he considered so inflammatory that he suspended his membership in Union of Right Forces, the party he co-founded, to spare it the Kremlin's ire.

Market Matters

Markets Drop by 2% As Holidays Approach
By Tai Adelaja / Staff Writer Russian stocks fell by an average of more than 2 percent last week, underlining investors' weariness ahead of the Easter break.

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