... is working on its quality standards. "We need to be more focused on it," he said. Last year the Russian Food Union, with the participation of the National Dairy Producers Union, checked the quality of dairy products in Moscow and the Moscow region. About 50 percent of all butter did not meet standards. Protasov said other segments also will be checked. Meanwhile, food retail market players attending the summit were not very impressed by the opportunities coming out of the Customs Union of...

Money laundering takes place on an enormous scale in the North Caucasus and authorities have failed to stop the flow of funds to criminal elements and terrorists in the region, Kremlin envoy Alexander Khloponin said Friday. Money laundering takes place on an enormous scale in the North Caucasus and authorities have failed to stop the flow of funds to criminal elements and terrorists in the region, Kremlin envoy Alexander...

The side frames of freight cars on a train carrying oil through the Amur region in the Russian Far East broke Tuesday morning, causing 17 oil tanks to fly off the cars. Side frames of freight cars on a train carrying oil through the Amur region in the Russian Far East broke Tuesday morning, causing 17 oil tanks to fly off...

The chief of the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service's Ivanovo region branch was shot Monday morning while heading to work. The chief of the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service's Ivanovo region branch was shot Monday morning while heading to work, investigators said. Alexander Borovkov was shot three times and seriously...

... refrigerator magnet contends with words emblazoned across the sky above a powerful oil derrick, then Siberia's capital is surely Tyumen. Buoyed by the seemingly infinite oil and gas wealth channeled through the city from the icy north of the Tyumen region, the capital dazzles with a beautiful mixture of exquisitely restored tsarist-era buildings and modern office buildings abuzz with business. Founded in 1586 as the first Siberian fort, Tyumen was a bastion of support for the White Army during...

One soldier has died and 42 more were hospitalized with pneumonia in the Krasnoyarsk region, prompting speculation that the temperature inside the soldiers' barracks was kept too low. One soldier has died and 42 more were hospitalized with pneumonia in the Krasnoyarsk region, prompting speculation that the temperature inside...

Arkhangelsk Governor Ilya Mikhalchuk was dismissed by President Dmitry Medvedev, becoming the second governor to lose a job after United Russia posted poor results in region in State Duma elections. Arkhangelsk Governor Ilya Mikhalchuk was dismissed on Friday by President Dmitry Medvedev, becoming the second governor to lose his job after United Russia posted poor results in the regions in last month's State Duma...

The pending bill reintroducing gubernatorial elections may loosen the top-down political system and inject a fair amount of rivalry among regional powerhouses, but it could be investors who gain from that future thaw. The pending bill reintroducing gubernatorial elections may loosen the top-down political system and inject a fair amount of rivalry among regional powerhouses, but...

... protesters who took to the streets after last month's parliamentary elections. Political analysts said the text, published on the Kremlin's web site, left many questions unanswered and predicted that the Kremlin would still retain a strong grip over regional politics through the use of indirect pressure and other means. Government officials were quick to point out that the draft legislation does not allow the president to reject candidates as previously suggested by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin...

... Bozhenov's looming nomination produced a local backlash over his record in Astrakhan, where he was accused by political opponents of rigging elections, said Ivan Novakov, a member of Putin's presidential election campaign team and head of the Volgograd region's rectors union, Kommersant reported Tuesday. Novakov said an alternative to Bozhenov was General Sergei Kokorin, a staunch Putin supporter and head of the local branch of the Federal Security Service. The governor's seat is open after unpopular...

... election of governors, which then-President Vladimir Putin cancelled in 2004 after the Beslan school attack that resulted in 334 hostage deaths. The authorities would like us to believe that the new law will help improve elective government in the regions. But the Kremlin would still have plenty of ways to influence and control the governors elected by the people. The federal authorities know exactly how to remove unwanted candidates from a race, regardless of the number of signatures they have...

... efficient personnel logistics and global mobility system, conducted journey management activities;  Coordinated international medevac activities. • 2001-2003 "Starstroi" CPC oil pipeline Maintenance Project (Novorossiysk, Krasnodar region – Russia) - about 150 employees on multiple locations within 4 regions. Position: HR Manager (Head of HR Department). Reported directly to Project Manager (France Bouygues group) and Branch Director. Key achievements: • Organized overall HR...

ROSTOV-ON-DON — The Can-Pack Group, headquartered in Krakow, Poland, plans to open an aluminum can production plant in the Rostov region in December 2012 with a capacity of 950 million cans per year, the regional industry and energy ministry said, Interfax reported Monday. Investment in the project will total $106 million. The plant will be built in the village of Donskoi and create...

Two women have filed a lawsuit against a maternity home in the Orenburg region, claiming that their daughters were switched at birth there 37 years ago, in an echo of a story in Chelyabinsk that made international headlines last year. Two women have filed a lawsuit against a maternity home in the Orenburg...

... Petersburg police officer. A 15-year-old boy caught stealing a woman's purse died early Sunday after being viciously beaten by a St. Petersburg police officer, Interfax reported. The teenager was seen by police robbing a 45-year-old woman in the Nevsky Region of St. Petersburg early Sunday morning, Itar-Tass reported. The police pursued the suspect and "applied physical force" to prevent him from fleeing. Subsequently police took the boy to the regional police station for questioning and,...

A Volgograd region company that produces knitted woolen goods has received an order for 50 individually designed iPad cases from the region administration, website LifeNews.ru reported Wednesday. The Volgograd administration paid the company, called Uzory, 42,500...

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, standing for election in a March presidential vote, pledged $8 billion in development aid for the coal industry during a visit to a major mining region, a hotbed of political protest in the past. KEMEROVO — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, standing for election in a March presidential vote, pledged $8 billion in development aid for the coal industry during a visit to a major...

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin lashed out Monday at nationalists who call for cutting off government funding to the Northern Caucasus as well as those who want to create regional separatist parties, saying their positions could lead to the collapse of Russia. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin lashed out Monday at nationalists who call for cutting off government funding to the North Caucasus as well as those who...

... ousted over United Russia’s poor showing in the elections. The ruling party — whose trust rating was the lowest among Volgograd voters, according to a survey by the FOM pollster last fall — won about 35 percent of the vote in the region. United Russia won about 50 percent nationwide. Brovko’s ouster brings an end to a turbulent chapter in the region under an unpopular governor whose team was accused of closing its eyes to corruption and conflicts between the local elite...

... the first part of an aid package to reinforce its fragile borders ahead of the planned withdrawal of U.S. troops from nearby Afghanistan. Russia is supplying the equipment to the impoverished republic to increase security on the southern flanks of a region it still considers its sphere of influence. The aid package, worth about $16 million, reinforces ties between the two countries, whose newly elected president pleased the Kremlin by opposing the renewal of the lease on a U.S. military air base...