Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said Tuesday that he was "ready" to look at a potential merger of Transneft and Zarubezhneft, a state oil producer that has assets in Vietnam. (Bloomberg) Mechel Mining, a coal and iron ore unit of Mechel, said Tuesday that shareholders approved an underwriting agreement on a "large deal," according to a regulatory filing today. (Bloomberg)

... deputy chief executive Yury Filippov said. Norilsk plans to build a processing plant at the site by the end of 2016, he said. Norilsk seeks to expand copper production to diversify away from nickel. Norilsk will mine as much as 2.16 million tons of iron ore concentrate a year as a byproduct at Bystrinsky. (Bloomberg)

Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works said Friday that 2012 finished steel output could increase 15 percent from last year and that demand will be stronger at home than abroad. "It is expected that steel consumption in Russia will grow in 2012 faster than the world...

... Turkmenistan is the subject of avid interest from the West, Russia and China for its natural gas reserves, which are estimated to be the fourth largest in the world. Berdymukhammedov, a 54-year-old dentist, came to power after the 2006 death of his eccentric, iron-fisted predecessor, Saparmurat Niyazov, amid promises of opening up the country's tightly controlled political system. Seeking investment and markets for his gas, Berdymukhammedov has taken steps to bring his country out of the isolation of the...

... bear sacked from his job as a doormat on Wall Street. As someone noted on Twitter, the latter is a story that could easily air on Russia Today. Fox News is said to be looking for the elephant as we speak. The U.S.-Soviet puppets mock both sides of the Iron Curtain in the program, and the viewer realizes how influential Miss Piggy was on the fashionwear of future female Russian bureaucrats. It was not the only trip to the Soviet Union for the Muppets. Jim Henson, the creator of the show met the father...

... presidential candidates like nationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov and the left-leaning Just Russia leader Sergei Mironov. The Chechen president, known to rule his republic with an iron first and with no tolerance for opposition, called those behind the December protests on Moscow's Bolotnaya Ploshchad and Prospekt Akademika Sakharova as the "enemies of Russia." "Who are they? They are 30,000 people speaking for the...

... Gazprom have been trying to identify a supply route since at least 2003, when they signed a cooperation accord. Russia has also proposed a railway project that would connect the Trans-Siberian Railway to South Korea via North Korea, opening up an "Iron Silk Road" that would cut shipping costs of South Korean companies to Europe. 179743

... gave the presidency to Yeltsin, who, in the worst Bolshevik tradition, promised them that he would strip the ruling officials of their special benefits and privileges and hand them to the common people. Yeltsin also inspired hope that he would use an iron hand to end Gorbachev's period of chaos that resulted from his democratic reforms. But Yeltsin fooled everybody. He allowed a small number of well-connected Russians to get very wealthy while leaving tens of millions to barely survive. Rephrasing...

... — a widespread impression that he had been elected through election fraud — would be far worse. A leader who does not enjoy the support of the majority of the people can rule by force, but this is ineffective in the long term. Josef Stalin's iron-clad hold on power in the early 1930s may have helped give the country an initial boost in terms of rapid industrialization, but it ultimately deprived the country of the long-term growth it normally would have experienced as a result of making the...

... protest. They want to express to Russia's rulers the extent of their frustration and determination. They may not expect regime change, but they expect at least some minimal reforms. Above all, they want to set limits on Putin's power. But their protest's ironic consequence may be that the more moderate of the ruling tandem, President Dmitry Medvedev, will not be appointed prime minister, as had been planned. A game of political musical chairs would simply be too much in the eyes of too many Russians....

..., then-Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko and his colleagues were more concerned about the economic fallout and political consequences that hyperinflation would have on Russians.  What would Russia be like today if the Central Bank had monetized? Ironically, the country chose to default on its local currency debt — much of it held by nonresidents — and decided to pay in full their hard-currency euro bonds.   As the Russian experience of the 1990s showed, solving a...

... on him are easily made, since he is a useful scapegoat," Zatulin said. At Thursday's Duma hearing, the head of United Russia's faction, Andrei Vorobyov, argued that Churov was "just a counter" of votes and not a political functionary. Ironically, Churov is not known to 64 percent of Russians, according to a recent survey conducted in 43 regions by the FOM polling agency. But only 5 percent of those who responded said they had a positive opinion of Churov. His resignation has been demanded...

... firm Gazprom, Sevmash completed Russia's first ice-resistant offshore production platform, which was tugged out to the Pechora Sea in August to drill at the oil-steeped Prirazlomnoye field. Quick and Pirate-Free Russia has long hauled cargoes of oil, iron ore and fish products across its sprawling northern coast, but until 2009 no foreign-flagged merchant vessel had plied the trade link. When fast-rising temperatures melted Arctic ice cover to its second-smallest recorded area in 2011, a record 34...

... of 10 million zlotys ($3.15 million). "People here are more opposed to wind farms than this." The Fears In Moscow A Poland awash in gas could mean dwindling revenues and further loss of influence in a region Moscow once controlled with an iron fist. Are Russian officials too dismissive of the threat? Moscow, some diplomats and oil analysts say, believes that Poland's weak infrastructure, among other problems, will slow the country's ability to exploit its gas. "They are aware of the...