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

Khodorkovsky Challenges Medvedev
By Miriam Elder / Staff Writer Former Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky applied for parole on Wednesday in a bid to challenge President Dmitry Medvedev to follow through on promises to build an independent judiciary, his lawyers said.

Dudley's Contract Puts Visa In Peril
By Anatoly Medetsky / Staff Writer The Federal Migration Service has until Saturday to decide whether to extend the visa of TNK-BP CEO Robert Dudley, in a key decision in the shareholder dispute between BP and its Russian partners in the 50-50 joint venture.

A Plan to Let Prisoners Make One Phone Call
By Natalya Krainova / Staff Writer When Sergei Sankin was taken to a Nizhny Novgorod police station after his wife told officers that she wanted him out of their home, police told him that he would not be charged. What they didn’t tell him was that he would be punished.

Napolitano Backs New Security Pact
By Anna Smolchenko / Staff Writer Italian President Giorgio Napolitano on Wednesday praised Russian proposals for new broad security framework for Europe, saying he would promote the idea within the European Union, in the warmest response so far from a Western politician to the Kremlin's overtures.

3 Jurors Charged In Banker's Trial
The Moscow Times Three jurors in the 2006 murder trial of central banker Andrei Kozlov have been charged with wrongdoing, officials said Wednesday.

Orthodox Faithful Remember Execution of the Tsar's Family
The Associated Press A descendant of Tsar Nicholas II called for formal recognition that his slain family were victims of Communist-era oppression Wednesday as church ceremonies commemorated 90 years since their murder.

News in Brief
7 Prostitutes InjuredGerman Minister to Visit

Black Bangs, Piercings Raise Eyebrows in Duma
By Yelena Shuster / Special to The Moscow Times In a basement studio in northern Moscow, singer Valentin Ayedonitsky screeches about his broken heart, his asymmetrical bangs flapping with every beat.

Ireland Rejects Referendum Redux
Reuters Ireland rebuffed as premature on Wednesday a French suggestion that it hold a second referendum on the EU reform treaty rejected by voters last month, saying hasty conclusions were unhelpful.

Malaysian Opposition Leader Jailed
The Associate Press Malaysian police arrested opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on suspicion that he sodomized a male aide, a charge that could send him to jail for 20 years and cripple his campaign to bring down the country’s weakened government.

Pope Headlines Offbeat Festival
The Associated Press A reformed crack addict brought pilgrims to tears with tales of his spiritual transformation, nuns partied it up and Pope Benedict XVI petted a koala during a low-key second day of a massive Roman Catholic youth festival.

Karzai Fires Prosecutor For Run
Reuters Afghan President Hamid Karzai fired the attorney general on Wednesday after the country's top prosecutor announced he intended to run for the presidency in elections next year.

Hezbollah, Israel Swap Dead Soldiers
Reuters Israel handed over five Lebanese prisoners to Hezbollah via the Red Cross on Wednesday after the Shiite guerrilla group returned the bodies of two Israeli soldiers seized in a crossborder raid in 2006.

Uncut Text of Solzhenitsyn's 'First Circle' Due in English
By Hillel Italie / The Associated Press An uncut edition of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s “The First Circle,” a highly praised and controversial novel published 40 years ago and heavily edited because of its story of a Soviet prison camp, is coming out in English.

The eXile Back With a New Web Site
The Moscow Times The defunct alternative Moscow biweekly The eXile has launched a new web site, a month after its investors withdrew funding following a government inspection of its editorial content.

Court Rejects Bid To Annul Elections
By Natalya Krainova, Nikolaus von Twickel / Staff Writers The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a request by the Communist Party to have the results of the State Duma elections annulled on the grounds of what the party described as massive electoral violations.

Chicago Blues Scene in Decline as Legends Die Out
By Caryn Rousseau / The Associated Press Blues guitar virtuosos and honey-voiced singers filled the Chicago streets with music during the 1950s. Muddy Waters' guitar seeped from corner juke joints. Willie Dixon strummed bass guitar beats, echoing the city's blues sound.

Boss' East Berlin Show Strikes Chord 20 Years On
By Erik Kirschbaum / Reuters When Bruce Springsteen spoke out against the Berlin Wall at the biggest concert in East German history in 1988, no one in the crowd of 160,000 imagined that the symbol of the Cold War would soon be history.

Business

Euro 2008 Puts Brakes On Output
Bloomberg The country's industrial output rose in June at the slowest pace in 5 1/2 years as workers focused on the national football team's progression through Euro 2008 and production of locomotives, cement and oil fell.

25 Superjet Orders at Air Show
Bloomberg Sukhoi Civil Aircraft and Finmeccanica said Wednesday that their Superjet airliner venture won orders for 25 planes, worth about $750 million at list price.

Baturina Denies Buying $100M Estate
By Jeremy Ventuso / Special to The Moscow Times Yelena Baturina, the country's wealthiest woman and wife of Mayor Yury Luzhkov, on Wednesday denied a report in a British newspaper that she had bought a luxurious London residence for $100 million.

Shares in Federal Grid Plummet 30%
Reuters Shares in the Federal Grid Company, a successor to former power monopoly Unified Energy System, dropped 30 percent from their opening price on the first day of trading Wednesday.

Saudis Coaxing Russia Away From Tehran, Diplomats Say
Reuters Saudi Arabia has been working on weaning Russia away from Iran over the past year but is unlikely to have extracted a promise from Moscow that it will change its policy, diplomats said Wednesday.

Inflation Rate Reaches 9.1% Since January
Reuters Consumer prices grew 0.2 percent in the second week of July, bringing accumulated price rises to 9.1 percent since the start of the year, the State Statistics Service said Wednesday.

Moody's Upgrades Russian Bonds
By Sabina Zawadzki / Reuters Ratings agency Moody's upgraded Russia's government bond ratings Wednesday, citing a strong fiscal position and reduced political risk, and said it saw healthy economic growth continuing in the medium term.

Hapoalim to Buy 76% of SDM-Bank
By Marianna Tishchenko / Special to The Moscow Times Bank Hapoalim, one of Israel's largest lenders, will acquire 76 percent of midsized SDM-Bank, which it has valued at $142.5 million, the Russian bank announced Wednesday.

VTB Says Deposits Rose 83%
Reuters VTB Group, the country’s second-biggest bank, reported Wednesday that rising deposits boosted its core business in the first quarter, encouraging investors despite a $453 million securities trading loss.

Business in Brief
Rosneft, TNK-BP Oil SwapsNorilsk Exec to LeaveRusAl Boosts H1 OutputSistema Unit's Movie StudioRenCap, BNP Team UpGazprom May Sue BelarusMMK, Alta Close Mine DealFor the Record

Letters

Big Business, Visa Agony and Genghis Khan
Your Letters

The Kremlin's Tibet
Almost daily we hear of a new incident in Abkhazia or South Ossetia -- an explosion, murder or random shelling. Moscow accuses the Georgian military of provocation, and Tbilisi responds by blaming Moscow.

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