A brief look at the stories making headlines in the Russian-language press

Moscow Deputy Mayor Valery Shantsev expressed high hopes for Moscow's 2012 Olympic bid during a presentation of the city's official bid application in Vienna on Saturday.

The upcoming meeting in Bratislava on Thursday between President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush will perhaps be the most useless summit in the history of U.S.-Russia interactions since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The late January decision by Standard & Poor's to raise Russia's sovereign credit rating to investment grade should have been an important milestone in the country's integration into the global economy.

One day Vladimir Vladimirovich™ Putin was sorting through his collection of sacred objects.

Fuel Duties Set to Rise MOSCOW (Bloomberg) -- Russia, the world's second-largest oil supplier, will raise export duties on diesel, gasoline and kerosene by 20 percent to curb exports and slow the domestic increase in oil-product prices. Customs will start charging $68.20 per ton of the light and medium-grade fuel, up from $57 per ton now, the government said in a statement posted on Rossiiskaya Gazeta's web site on Friday. The fuel oil export duty will decrease to $36.70 per ton, down from $45.40 per ton now. The new duties will come into force a month after publication in the newspaper. Choppers for Caracas CARACAS, Venezuela (Bloomberg) -- Venezuela, seeking to build up security on the Colombian border after clashes with irregulars, said it would sign a $120 million contract on Monday for the delivery of 10 Russian helicopters, El Universal reported.