After almost a decade of lightning-quick growth and skyrocketing salaries, Russia's investment banking sector has been brought down to earth with a thud by the global financial crisis.

The state monopolies team up to buy 90 percent of the failed investment bank .

Basic Element's CEO says liquidity woes have also meant a freeze in the hiring of new staff.

Amid toasts and celebration, the railway chief says the company is facing tougher times.

Although lenders insist their consumer business is going strong, the threat that the global financial crisis could hurt them remains.

It was just before 10 o’clock on a warm August evening when Khabas Bekulov’s battalion received the order to invade.

Russian Technologies is considering Norilsk Nickel as a new partner in its consortium with Metalloinvest, which is bidding to develop the giant Udokan copper deposit, Sergei Chemezov, head of the state corporation, said Friday.

It was exactly one month before the ruinous 1998 financial crash that Boris Nemtsov, then deputy prime minister, said he knew for sure that the country was headed for an economic meltdown.

Libya released a LUKoil executive from prison on Thursday, paving the way for smooth talks between Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his visiting counterpart on booming trade ties.

Railway boss Vyacheslav Steklyevich had just seen the first train roll over a new bridge he oversaw being built, a 10-meter stretch of iron and concrete that was only the beginning of the hundreds of kilometers of train track still needed around the island. It was, Steklyevich conceded, just a drop in the ocean compared to the huge building works happening across the country -- and it was obvious what the main difficulties ahead would be.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's accusation of illegal transfer pricing by mining giant Mechel was met with skepticism Tuesday, as analysts and tax experts argued that the country's inadequate legislation left the practice stuck in a legal gray zone.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez looks set to put pen to paper on a number of major arms deals during an official visit to Moscow on Tuesday but is unlikely to gain Kremlin support for his trademark attacks on the United States.

As a campaign by President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin against “legal nihilism” gathers steam, a seemingly mundane property dispute involving a business deal from both leaders’ pasts could prove an interesting test case.

The Finance Ministry has moved to stave off worries that the troubles at U.S. mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose a threat to the country’s gold and foreign currency reserves or the more than $157 billion it has salted away from taxes on energy exports.

New rules will slash the percentage of shares Russian energy and mining companies can sell on stock exchanges abroad and impose less severe restrictions on other companies, the Federal Service for Financial Markets announced Wednesday.

Sakhalin is not only separated from the rest of Russia by several kilometers of water, but also by the 457-millimeter difference between the width of its train tracks.

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.

""Only Russia and only victory,"" a drink-sodden football fan sang without irony as he rode the metro home alone at 1 a.m. Friday.

One has the fresh face of a teenager and a diploma in fashion design; the other is a portly, middle-aged Dutchman.

The product is as Russian as vodka and blini, and the company's as American as apple pie, but Coca-Cola thinks it has as good a chance as anyone of selling kvas on the booming local market.

On one side of Sakhalin, foreign oil workers are paying $5,000 per month for apartments and their Russian landlords are driving Bentleys and Humvees.

A deadline to set the state corporation's startup capital is held up by a government fight over how large the company should be.

The unappealing choice between overpriced taxis and overcrowded minibuses stuck in traffic should be a thing of the past, after Sheremetyevo finally became the last of Moscow’s big three airports to get a direct rail link to the city center.

The organizers of the weekend’s festivities in the northern capital make sure that there is something at the party for everyone.

At 28-to-1 with some bookmakers, the Russian national football team is a long-shot to win Euro 2008, which kicks off Saturday in Switzerland and Austria.

TNK-BP chief executive Robert Dudley has been summoned for questioning by the Interior Ministry over tax issues, as the head of British energy major BP on Thursday called in separate comments for the ""consistent application of the rule of law"" in the country.

This weekend’s St. Petersburg International Economic Forum will be President Dmitry Medvedev’s first major international appearance, while Prime Minister Putin, the headline attraction in recent years, will be nowhere to be seen.

For many in Russia, catching a taxi involves haggling over 50 rubles with the driver of a beat-up Zhiguli — but Yevgeny Andrachnikov’s company is aiming much higher than that.

Russian Technologies will not be making a play for Hungarian carrier Malev despite gobbling up the state’s stakes in parent company AiRUnion, the recently formed state corporation said in a statement.

Top-end office rates in central Moscow are now the second-priciest in the world after occupancy costs almost doubled over the past year, a survey released Wednesday said.