... debt — other than by default — is to get your economy to grow. Fear of debt is rooted in human nature, so the extinction of it as a policy aim seems right to the average citizen. Everyone knows what financial debt means: money owed, often borrowed. To be in debt can produce anxiety if one is uncertain whether, when the time comes, one will be able to repay what one owes. This anxiety is readily transferred to national debt — the debt owed by a government to its creditors. How, people...

... of Russian thin capitalization rules (in Article 269.2 of the Tax Code) in view of the nondiscrimination provisions of double taxation treaties. These international treaty provisions had for a long time been viewed as an ironclad defense for Russian borrowers against claims from the Russian tax authorities concerning the rate of loan interest deductible for profit tax purposes, but given the Presidium's decision the time has come to reconsider the strength of that defense. Analysis of the ruling...

... taxpayers with foreign capital from deducting interest they pay on loans "with a foreign element." Apart from the prospect of reducing foreign investments, this ruling may already entail considerable taxes being additionally assessed on Russian borrowers when tax audits are held. Julia Alexandrova Senior Associate Pepeliaev Group Alongside actively developing cross-border economic, trade and customs law and adjusting to European standards and the WTO principles, Russia is seeing the adoption...

The country's biggest steel maker Evraz is seizing on record-low borrowing costs for its American subsidiary to expand in the U.S. even as the European debt crisis sends yields on its international bonds soaring. The country's biggest steel maker Evraz is seizing on record-low borrowing costs...

... rates' surprising lack of responsiveness to national differences in fiscal policy and debt levels. Because financial markets failed to recognize distinctions in risk among euro-zone countries, interest rates on sovereign bonds did not reflect excessive borrowing. The single currency also meant that the exchange rate could not signal differences in fiscal profligacy. Greece's confession in 2010 that it had significantly understated its fiscal deficit was a wake-up call to the financial markets, causing...

LONDON — Rosneft is looking to tap the international lending market for a sizeable syndicated loan only six weeks after agreeing to an increased $2 billion loan, bankers close to the borrower said.  "On an annual basis, depending on what's going on, Rosneft's financing need is anywhere from $15 billion upward. So, a $2 billion deal on its own is not such a big deal for them," one banker said. Other bankers warned Europe's...

... "In the long term, democratic development that leads to better governance could be positive for Russia's ratings, but in the short term, uncertainty has increased." Putin has said Russia's debt grade is an "outrage" that lifts corporate borrowing costs and increases risks. The nation's sovereign credit rating was last raised by New York- based Moody's Investors Service in 2008 to Baa1, the third-lowest investment grade, one level ahead of Brazil and four below China. "Political...

... Thursday. Energy revenue was 49.7 percent of total budget revenue in 2011, according to Finance Ministry data. “If the oil price falls, then we could waste our reserves very quickly,” said Siluanov. The government was already planning to borrow 1.8 trillion rubles on the internal market in 2012, he added, and warned that forcing this any higher could “remove the liquidity from all our financial institutions.” Russia reported its first budget surplus in three years on Thursday...

... that we are many, many miles from the nearest sea); pink champagne for the parents; stunt policemen turning up complete with guns and handcuffs to arrest a wrongfully accused stunt Spiderman; 30-foot inflatable climbing walls in the back yard; and one borrowed anecdote from a friend who glanced into her neighbors' yard some time last year to see the 5-year-old birthday boy sitting resplendently in the seat of his present: a full-sized Hummer with a bow on top. As an expat living here I couldn't hope...

... lighting, is from the same group as Jean Jacques and Cafe Mart. Music comes courtesy of radio Follow Me, part of Moscow's trendy online magazine, TV and radio station Look at Me. There have, however, been problems along the way. Initially skates could be borrowed for free, but after hundreds were stolen, a deposit of 1,500 rubles ($47) was introduced. There have also been complaints about huge waits over the holidays. Skating through as many people as there are on Tverskaya Ulitsa on a busy Saturday...

... IMF and will propose alternatives to the fund's demand to raise household natural gas tariffs during talks this week. While the former Soviet republic can survive without the resumption of IMF disbursements, the government is seeking to repay cash it borrowed from the Washington-based fund in 2008 and 2009, according to Prime Minister Mykola Azarov. "We'll bring a package of documents to the IMF — we'll show them our offers of how to solve" the domestic gas price issue, Azarov told...

... article on Monday. "We have reserves for increasing tax revenues in several directions: expensive property, consumption of luxury goods, alcohol, tobacco, the collection of rents in those sectors where it is currently low," he wrote. Putin has borrowed the idea from Delovaya Rossia, a lobby group for small and mid sized businesses that backs selective tax hikes — on oil and gas extraction, tobacco and alcohol and property — to finance business tax cuts. "In Russia, those taxes...