The Moscow Times

Market Matters : Oil Tax Pledge Buoys Markets
Markets surged after the swearing-in of Dmitry Medvedev as president in a pomp-filled ceremony Wednesday and a tax-cutting speech by Vladimir Putin the day after, when he was approved as prime minister.

News

Protesters Cry 'May Day' Over Prices
By Catrina Stewart / Staff Writer Thousands of people used traditional May Day marches to call for something new: an end to rising food prices.

Flying Cameras and a Prayer for Medvedev
By Alexander Osipovich and Natalya Krainova / Staff Writers The final act in Russia's highly choreographed transition of power is set to begin Wednesday at noon.

Thousands March to Protest, Celebrate
By Anna Malpas / Staff Writer Communist supporters outnumber United Russia's 2-to-1 in Moscow, while Limonov's face is smeared with feces in St. Petersburg.

Putin Promises Continuity to Tehran
Reuters President Vladimir Putin has told Iran’s president that there will be continuity in Russia’s relations with Tehran, RIA-Novosti reported.

UN Presses Russia to Grab Opportunity to Stem AIDS
Reuters Russia will undo good progress in combating HIV/AIDS and miss the chance to stem the epidemic if it does not offer more help to people who inject themselves with drugs, UN AIDS chief Peter Piot said.

Drunk Hockey Fan Dies on Flight to Toronto
The Moscow Times A Russian hockey fan died aboard a Toronto-bound Aeroflot flight after drinking heavily and harassing other passengers, including Russian Hockey Federation president and Hall of Fame goalie Vladislav Tretyak.

Visas to Be Simplified For British Soccer Fans
AP, Reuters Authorities will take unprecedented measures to simplify visa procedures for English soccer fans coming to the Champions League final in Moscow, match coordinator Alexei Sorokin said.

DNA Is That of Tsar's Children, Ending Mystery
By Mike Eckel / The Associated Press For nine decades after Bolshevik executioners gunned down Tsar Nicholas II and his family, there were no traces of the remains of Crown Prince Alexei, the hemophiliac heir to the throne.

No Sign of Any Plan By Georgia to Attack
By Niko Mchedlishvili / Reuters Russia says Georgia is massing troops and weapons in this steep-sided valley ready to attack the separatist Abkhazia region, but it does not feel like a place preparing for battle.

Abkhazia Claims Downing Of Planes
The Associated Press An official of the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia said its forces shot down two unmanned Georgian spy planes over the territory on Sunday.

Estonians Seek Junk in Big Cleanup
Reuters Tens of thousands of Estonians scoured fields, streets, forests and riverbanks to amass tons of rubbish in the country's first national cleanup.

Bush's Missile-Defense Plan Inches Forward in Congress
The Associated Press A U.S. Senate panel has given a boost to U.S. plans to build a missile-defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic by authorizing a doubling of funds for the project.

Niyazov's Statue Will Fall
The Associated Press Turkmenistan's leader has ordered the removal of a giant golden statue of his late predecessor from downtown Ashgabat, the Turkmen capital.

11 U.S. Diplomats Leave Minsk in Feud
The Associated Press Eleven U.S. diplomats have left Belarus after being declared personae non grata amid escalating diplomatic tensions between Washington and the ex-Soviet nation, embassy officials said.

U.S. Administration Pushes Nuclear Pact
By Susan Cornwell / Reuters The administration of U.S. President George W. Bush hopes to send a pact on civilian nuclear cooperation with Russia to the U.S. Congress in the next month, but a congressional aide said there would be strong resistance to the deal.

Bolivian Region Votes on Autonomy
Reuters Bolivia's richest region of Santa Cruz voted on greater autonomy from the central government on Sunday in a referendum that poses the biggest challenge yet for leftist President Evo Morales.

Mugabe Agrees To Runoff
Reuters Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe accepted that the opposition's Morgan Tsvangirai won more votes in the presidential election and will contest a runoff in a political battle that has raised fears of bloodshed.

Storm Kills Over 350 In Myanmar
The Associated Press More than 350 people have died in Myanmar in a powerful cyclone that knocked out power in the country's commercial capital and destroyed thousands of homes, state-run media said Sunday.

News in Brief
Market Bombers Convicted2 Georgians Killed in IraqFor the Record

Business

Beslan Faces Cutoff Of Electricity Supply
By Nadia Popova / Staff Writer An unpaid bill for street lighting could plunge Beslan, the North Ossetian town that suffered the country’s worst-ever terrorist attack, into darkness if the local government doesn’t pay up.

Kazakh Inflation Leaps on Food Prices
Bloomberg Kazakh inflation accelerated in April to an annual 19.1 percent, the highest rate since March 2000, as food prices increased.

Oil Export Tax Will Grow by 17%
Bloomberg The crude export tax will increase by 17 percent to a record on June 1, after oil prices rose in March and April.

Surgutneftegaz Revenue Up As '07 Production Declined
MT, Bloomberg Surgutneftegaz increased its net revenue last year by 15 percent, earning 88.6 billion rubles ($3.8 billion) according to Russian accounting standards, the company said Sunday.

Baikal Challanges Global Warming Idea
Bloomberg Lake Baikal is warming faster than the atmosphere, challenging the idea that large bodies of water can withstand global warming, U.S. and Russian scientists said.

TNK-BP Warned on 'Violations'
Bloomberg The government warned a unit of TNK-BP that it might lose oil-production rights after ""gross violations"" of licensing terms were found during an inspection.

Deripaska Is Sued
By For 3Bln / Bloomberg Billionaire Oleg Deripaska owes former business partner Michael Cherney at least $3 billion after failing to honor an agreement concerning stakes in aluminum companies, lawyers for Cherney told a London court hearing.

Oil Production Declines For 4th Straight Month
By Dmitry Zhdannikov / Reuters A fall in output this year would be the country's first in a decade.

Airlines Fly Slower to Save Money
By John Wilen / The Associated Press Drivers have long known that slowing down on the highway means getting more kilometers to the liter. Now U.S. airlines are trying it, too -- adding a few minutes to flights to save millions of dollars on fuel.

Microsoft Drops Bid for Yahoo
By Anupreeta Das / Reuters Microsoft walked away from its bid to buy Yahoo over the weekend after the Internet company turned down its offer to raise the price by $5 billion to $47.5 billion.

Business in Brief
U.S. Pork Plants BannedGrain Farmers Get AheadBaltika Sends Beer to ItalyTelevision Beer Ad ProposalTurkmenistan Unifies RatesOil Funds Hit $163BlnRussneft Appeals Tax ClaimsFor the Record

Opinion

Russia's New Strategic Industry
By Richard Ferguson A decade ago, the public perception of the agriculture industry was one of subsidies, trade distortions and rigged markets. More recently, public awareness has focused on concerns over food security, price inflation and even shortages.

Alexei Bayer: Remaining a Moral Victor
In the 1970s, Alexander Solzhenitsyn hoped that Russia would be cleansed by its suffering under communism and eventually emerge as a beacon for other nations, leading the West toward moral regeneration.

Boris Kagarlitsky: Communism's New Crisis
A decade ago, the triumph of liberalism in Europe was so overwhelming that even parties that traced their political lineage to the early 20th-century revolutionary working class movement did not to speak openly about the radical transformation of society.

Vladimir Frolov: Georgia Is Medvedev's First Foreign Policy Test
Whether by a calculated design or an unintended chain of events spinning out of control, President-elect Dmitry Medvedev will have a foreign policy crisis on his hands when he officially takes office on Wednesday.

Sports

Zenit Reaches Final in Style
By Gennady Fyodorov / Reuters Zenit St. Petersburg may not be the most fashionable club but the Russian champion made the rest of Europe take notice when it crushed German giant Bayern Munich 4-0 on Thursday to reach the UEFA Cup final.

City Wise

Take a Boat Ride
By Lara McCoy Roslof What to Do

An Azeri Evening at VV
By Nathan Toohey / Staff Writer Vostochniye Vechera is a truly old-school Caucasus restaurant. Although it is situated in a rather unappealing location wedged between busy Nizhegorodskaya Ulitsa and the Third Ring Road, it strives to compensate with the fancifully decorated, free-standing building that houses it.

Restaurant News
By Nathan Toohey

Career

The New Face Of Hospitality
By Svetlana Osadchuk / Staff Writer Although a latecomer to her family business, Katerina Oudalova wants to create a new kind of Russian hotel.

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