The Moscow Times

Business: RenCap Cuts RTS '08 Target to 2,350
Renaissance Capital on Monday slashed its year-end forecast for the benchmark RTS Index from 3,000 to 2,350 and increased its equity risk premium for the country from 4 percent to 5.5 percent in a sign of continued investor jitters.

News

Energy Ties Take Medvedev Eastward
By Max Delany / Staff Writer Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller held talks with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov in Ashgabat on Tuesday, focusing attention firmly on energy ties ahead of President Dmitry Medvedev’s trip to the region later this week.

Miners To Invest $5Bln in Far East
By Robin Paxton, Polina Devitt / Reuters The founders of British-Russian miners Peter Hambro Mining and Aricom will invest about $5 billion over the next six years developing mining, banking and infrastructure assets in the Far East.

Pskov Resort No Holiday for German Investor
By Alexander Osipovich / Staff Writer Heiner Berr was inspired to start a resort on Chudskoye Lake, a sprawling body of water in northwest Russia, when a local official showed him the site and promised to support the project.

Top Judge Wants Law Making It Easier to Prosecute Officials
Reuters Supreme Court chairman Vyacheslav Lebedev has proposed removing legal hurdles that make it hard to prosecute senior officials, including judges and lawmakers.

Russia to Offer Joint Security Plan to NATO
Reuters Russia will offer NATO in September a detailed proposal to build a joint collective security system that would cover the Northern Hemisphere, Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s envoy to the alliance, said Tuesday.

Dagestani Newspaper Founder in Rare Probe
By Natalya Krainova / Staff Writer Investigators in Dagestan have opened an unprecedented criminal investigation into allegations that the founder of a local newspaper was interfering in the work of his own journalists.

Police Take Photos of Traffic Offenses
By Yelena Shuster / Special to The Moscow Times A new law allowing drivers to be fined based on photographic evidence from traffic cameras came into effect Tuesday, though the system is in place in only three spots on Moscow’s streets.

Killer Said Hiding in Belgium
By Marianna Tishchenko / Special to The Moscow Times The man suspected of killing investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya is hiding in Western Europe, Investigative Committee chief Alexander Bastrykin said Tuesday.

Business

TNK-BP Woes Might Send Dudley on Visa Run
By Miriam Elder / Staff Writer The future of TNK-BP’s daily operations was thrown into doubt on Tuesday as officials inside the embattled firm warned that CEO Robert Dudley was among the foreign staff that might soon be forced to leave the country.

Russian Firms Get Low Marks In Backing Whistle-Blowing
By John Wendle / Staff Writer Only 22 percent of Russian firms encourage whistle-blowing, according to a report released Tuesday, which cited the country's historical enmity toward ""informants"" as the reason for the low score.

Rosneft May Change Chinese Contract
Bloomberg Rosneft said Tuesday that it might request changes to the pricing formula in its supply contract with China National Petroleum Corporation because of rising global crude prices.

Chubais May Take RSPP Task
The Moscow Times Anatoly Chubais, recently unemployed after Unified Energy System wound up its operations Monday, will likely work on an RSPP project to draft a position on a new EU-Russia partnership agreement, his former spokeswoman said Tuesday.

New Services Nearly Double Rostelecom's Profit for 2007
Combined Reports Rostelecom, the country's biggest long-distance telephone company, said Tuesday that its profit almost doubled last year, boosted by new services such as Internet access.

Svyazinvest's Sees Profit Almost Triple
Bloomberg Svyazinvest, the country’s holding company for fixed-line phone operators, said Tuesday that profit almost tripled last year on more customers and new services.

Economists Expect Ruble Gains
By Gleb Bryanski / Reuters The ruble is expected to strengthen by 0.6 percent by the end of 2008 against the dollar/euro basket, a poll of 10 economists showed Tuesday, suggesting another Central Bank revaluation move this year.

Moscow, Kiev Look to Settle Refinery's Management Fight
Reuters Kiev and Moscow have renewed efforts to solve a management dispute at Ukraine's largest refinery, which has led to a cut in supplies from Russian producer Tatneft, Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuri Prodan said Tuesday.

Jolie Has What's 'Wanted' at Box Office
Combined Reports Angelina Jolie is the most “Wanted” woman at the Russian box office. Her action thriller, directed by Russia’s Timur Bekmambetov, brought in $11 million in Russia and the CIS on its opening weekend.

Khodorkovsky Faces 15 More Years
By Miriam Elder / Staff Writer The Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor General’s Office on Tuesday confirmed that it had brought new charges against former Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky that could add 15 years to his prison sentence.

Business in Brief
Small Business Bills DraftedErste Buys Russian StakeRenault's Fuel-Efficient CarsAcron Says Q1 Profit TriplesGold Miner to Hold IPORosinter to Skip DividendRenaissance Taps Nike ExecFor the Record

Opinion

Yevgeny Kiselyov: Lessons About Franco, Football and Freedom
For three glorious weeks, football ruled in Europe. But that is all behind us now. Spain won the championship, and passions have died down -- that is except in Russia, where football fever is still gripping the population like some form of mass madness. There is a good reason for that excitement, of course. To everyone's pleasure and amazement -- including mine -- Russia's team rose from its initial standing in 16th place after a dismal showing in the qualifying round to finish in third place overall. Now even housewives who never cared about football before know that nothing like this has happened since 1988, when the Soviet team last made it to the European championships. Soccer coverage dominated the airwaves almost as much as Putin's Plan did before the presidential election. But we heard much less about the fact that Spain last made it to the finals in 1964, when they beat the Soviet team.

Looking Beyond Oil
President Dmitry Medvedev has begun to outline what could become a serious Russian initiative to address the environmental impact of profligate energy use and to encourage greater energy efficiency.

Editorial

A Rich Russia Must Protect All People
Estonian President Toomas Ilves should have known that his remarks that some Finno-Ugric people have yet to taste freedom would irk Russia, home to 2 million of its members.

The Dangers Of Wearing A Headscarf
One week ago in the center of Makhachkala, assailants gunned down Colonel Mogamed-Arip Aliyev, head of the local branch of the Interior Ministry in the city of Buinaksk.

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