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

Auchan Store Mired in Red Tape
By Tai Adelaja / Staff Writer The huge glass-fronted windows of French retailer Auchan's spanking new Troika mall in northeast Moscow reveal shelves in pristine condition, stacked with rows and rows of already priced goods.

Stricter Rules for Press in Putin's White House
By Anatoly Medetsky / Staff Writer Reporters have been allowed to wander around the White House as they pleased for the past 16 years -- with the exception of the fifth-floor area around the prime minister's office.

Putin May Have 11 Deputies
The Moscow Times President Vladimir Putin will have 11 deputy prime ministers after he assumes his new post as prime minister — six more than in the current government structure, Gazeta reported Monday.

Dress Rehearsal On Red Square
The Associated Press President Vladimir Putin said Monday that the show of tanks and other military hardware at this year’s Victory Day parade should not be seen as saber-rattling.

Some Foreign Media Offered Kremlin Trips
The Moscow Times The Kremlin is planning to give foreign news agencies greater access in covering the new president, Dmitry Medvedev, a Kremlin spokesman said Monday.

Nestle Apologizes After Gift CD Angers Baku
Reuters Swiss-based food company Nestle has apologized to Azerbaijan after computer discs it handed out free with packets of breakfast products angered the country by accusing it of provoking war with Armenia.

Latvia Evacuates Cruise Ship
By Gary Peach / The Associated Press Latvia’s coast guard Monday began evacuating a stranded cruise ship with nearly 1,000 people on board after tug boats failed to pull the luxury liner off an underwater sand bank in the Baltic Sea.

Bomb Kills 5 Policemen In Grozny
Combined Reports A roadside bomb killed five police officers in Grozny, and another officer was shot dead near the city, officials said Monday.

FSB Seeks To Clarify What Is Espionage
By Nabi Abdullaev / Staff Writer The Federal Security Service has drafted amendments to the Criminal Code clarifying the definition of espionage.

Opposition to Protest Inauguration
By Matt Siegel / Staff Writer Hundreds of opposition activists will stage a protest in central Moscow on Tuesday, defying city authorities on the eve of President-elect Dmitry Medvedev’s inauguration, opposition coalition The Other Russia said Monday.

Yemenite Rebel Warns of Escalation
The Associated Press A Shiite rebel leader in Yemen warned Sunday that his group will escalate its fight against the government if the army continues an offensive that has left almost 20 rebels and soldiers dead over the past two days.

Deadly Riots Over Food Prices Rock Mogadishu Marketplace
Reuters A young man was shot and killed when thousands of Somalis protested in Mogadishu on Monday over food traders’ refusal to take old currency notes amid spiralling inflation, witnesses said.

Bolivia's Richest Region Votes For Autonomy in a Landslide
Reuters Bolivia’s richest region of Santa Cruz voted overwhelmingly for autonomy on Sunday in a referendum widely seen as a rejection of President Evo Morales’ leftist reforms, exit polls showed.

Iran Won't Consider Nuclear Incentives
By Edmund Blair / Reuters Iran said Monday that it would not consider any incentives offered by world powers that violated its right to nuclear technology, ruling out a precondition that it suspend uranium enrichment.

Myanmar Cyclone Kills Nearly 4,000
By Aung Hla Tun / Reuters A devastating cyclone killed nearly 4,000 people and left thousands more missing in army-ruled Myanmar, state media said Monday as the ruling generals gave a ""careful green light"" to offers of international aid.

Central European Leaders Urge Balkans Toward EU Integration
The Associated Press The leaders of 19 southeastern and Central European countries agreed Saturday that European Union integration will not be complete unless all western Balkan states are included.

Echoes of Kosovo in Szeklerland
By Nicholas Kulish / NEW YORK TIMES SERVICE Dozens of wreaths trailing ribbons in red, white and green, the colors of the Hungarian flag, covered the base of a memorial to the 1848 revolution in the town park here on a recent day.

Nationalists Seek Comeback in Serbian Elections
By Dusan Stojanovic / The Associated Press Two years after Slobodan Milosevic died in prison while on trial for genocide, his Serbian loyalists may score a parliamentary election victory Sunday that would return them to power and dramatically worsen the West's troubles in the Balkans.

Business

Liberalized Gas Prices Face Delay
By Anatoly Medetsky / Staff Writer The Economic Development and Trade Ministry will propose a delay in the government's plan to deregulate gas prices for industrial consumers, a senior ministry official said Monday.

Chinese to Rescue Electricity Plans
By Simon Shuster and Jacqueline Cowhig / Reuters Chinese engineers are coming to the rescue of the electricity sector, as outgoing President Vladimir Putin backs a five-year expansion plan that will rival Lenin's drives to electrify the nation.

Israeli Firms in $75M St. Pete Land Deal
Bloomberg Menora Mivtachim Holdings, an Israeli insurer, and GTC Real Estate will buy land in St. Petersburg for 48 million euros ($74.8 million).

Emerging Europe Properties Lead Meinl to Post a Q4 Loss
Bloomberg Meinl European Land, the third-largest Austrian developer, posted a fourth-quarter loss after its properties in Central and Eastern Europe lost value.

LSR Plans $2Bln Boost For Revenue
Bloomberg LSR Group, the developer and building-materials maker controlled by billionaire Andrei Molchanov, is seeking to increase revenue to $2 billion this year as the company benefits from rising prices for some products.

Mirax Purchases London Townhouse
Reuters Real estate developer Mirax Group has bought a 19th-century townhouse in central London that it plans to turn into sumptuous accommodation for wealthy Russians, the company said last week.

Chemezov Seeking Real Estate
The Moscow Times Russian Technologies may be seeking control of state properties in Moscow worth more than $150 million, including a villa opposite the Kremlin on the Moscow River, an elite dacha complex and buildings on Pushkin Square.

Mordashov, 'Tanker King' to Face Off
Reuters Russian, Norwegian, Spanish and British shareholders of TUI will fight one another and management at the tourism and shipping group's annual meeting Wednesday, with group strategy at stake.

Silvinit Investors Back $2Bln in Loans
Bloomberg Silvinit, the country's biggest potash producer, said Monday that shareholders approved borrowing more than $2 billion from banks to pay for the right to develop part of the world's second-largest deposit of the mineral.

Putin Signs Law on Strategic Sectors
Reuters President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed a long-awaited law on strategic industries, designed to clarify which assets will be off-limits to foreigners, the Kremlin said in a statement.

Fund Loses $45.5M in Phone Suit
The Associated Press A Caribbean court has issued a $45.5 million confiscation order against a Bermuda fund that was involved in a long-running dispute over a blocking stake in MegaFon, the British Virgin Islands' state-run news agency said.

Dagestani Firm Tries Hand at Whisky
By Dmitry Solovyov / Reuters Forget the bagpipes and misty island distilleries: a Russian company is betting it can create a whisky to compete with Scottish imports and even lure vodka lovers away from their national drink.

OGK-1 Profit Down in 2007
Reuters Electricity producer OGK-1 said Monday that net profit last year fell to 1.97 billion rubles ($83.1 million) from 5.97 billion rubles in 2006 because of a one-off reversal of prior losses.

Russneft's Back Tax Claims Could Double to $1.7Bln
Reuters Russneft may see its back tax claims doubling to more than 40 billion rubles ($1.69 billion) in a move that would further complicate its sale, an industry source said Monday.

New Rules On Power Postponed
By Nadia Popova / Staff Writer The Cabinet postponed the adoption of rules for a liberalized electricity market by more than a year Monday, potentially endangering the interests of investors in the recently privatized power industry.

Risk of Suicide Grows for Stressed Traders
By Michael Taylor / Reuters Being a trader has seldom been more stressful. Since a stock market bull run came to a grinding halt last year, psychologists who help stressed-out traders and bankers now fear a higher cost than mere write-downs: suicide.

Microsoft Rebuff Puts Yahoo CEO In Hot Seat
By Michael Liedtke / The Associated Press Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang is convinced that the company he started in a Silicon Valley trailer 14 years ago is worth more than the $47.5 billion that Microsoft had offered for the Internet pioneer.

Rice Sale Off in Sign of Price Relief
Reuters The Philippines scrapped its largest rice tender of the year on Monday and said it preferred to hold back importing until prices fall, sending a signal to world grain markets that rice prices might have peaked.

Bush's Food Talk Riles India
Reuters A remark by U.S. President George W. Bush saying India was partly responsible for rising global food prices has sparked a nationalistic storm, with the defense minister calling it a ""cruel joke.""

Business in Brief
Inflation Spikes in AprilElectricity Prices to DoubleImedi Goes Back on AirPacific Pipeline Faces DelayPulkovo Runway UpgradeCar Production to DoubleFor the Record

Real Estate in Brief
The Tatarstan branch of the Federal Inspection Service for Mass Media, Telecommunications and the Protection of Cultural Heritage has warned that excessive building around Kazan’s Kremlin could lead to it being excluded from UNESCO’s list of World Heritage sites, Kommersant reported Monday.

Opinion

Alexander Golts: A Fight for Peace in Georgia
There won't be a global war, but there will be a global battle for peace so heated that it won't leave a single stone unturned."" I am reminded of this Soviet-era joke in light of the conflict among Georgia, Abkhazia and Russia.

Alexei Pankin: High-Stakes Soap Opera
In my March 11 column, I predicted that there will be a continuation in the relationship between President-elect Dmitry Medvedev and Rossia state television news anchor Konstantin Syomin.

City Wise

Chef's Secrets: Herring Marinated in Mizkan Vinegar With Sweet Potato and Peanut Pesto
A recipe from gastropub Prostiye Veshchi's guest chef, restaurant critic Alexei Zimin

The Latest Botanika
By Nathan Toohey / Staff Writer It was several years coming, but Botanika No. 2 has arrived. The original Botanika, located on Bolshaya Gruzinskaya Ulitsa, is not the kind of place you would expect to become a chain.

What to Do: Learn About Water Without Getting Wet
By Maria Antonova To get to the museum of water, you have to go through a little sculpture garden.

Comment

Rebranding Gazprom
By Chris Weafer The transfer of presidential power to Dmitry Medvedev will likely mark a turning point in how the world views Gazprom. For much of the last four years, Gazprom has been viewed with suspicion mixed with frustration as approval for projects to increase the country's energy exports were often delayed.

A Survival Guide for Expats
By John Wendle / Staff Writer A recent conference aimed to help new arrivals make the most of their time in Moscow.

Criteria Proposed for Office Center Grades
By Yekaterina Dranitsyna / Staff Writer Three international real estate consultancies have presented new criteria for the classification of office centers, recommending that the system be implemented to ease communication with clients and partners.

Community Bulletin Board

Community Bulletin Board
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EVENINGS will host a lecture entitled ""Reflections on Beautiful, Terrible, Mad Moscow"" by Australian poet David Wansbrough on May 16 at the Chekhov Cultural Center

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