As Russians struggle to get a grasp on vague rules of English small talk, English speakers spend years mastering Russian big talk.

The recently opened Grande Bouffe brings together some heavyweight players from Moscow's culinary circles.

Leonard Cernko, from Austria, is chef de cuisine at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.

Community Bulletin Board

Kerimov Made SenatorInviting Election Observers5 Killed in Plane Crash

A bus blast that killed two women and injured 14 others in southern Russia over the weekend was the result of an explosive device, investigators said Monday.

Uzbek President Islam Karimov has struck a conciliatory tone with the West ahead of next week's presidential election, vowing to improve relations with the United States and Europe.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday that a unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo's ethnic Albanians would violate international law and trigger a chain reaction across the region.

November Inflow $3BlnGazprom Gets Libya PermitZubkov's Pipeline PromiseTNK-BP's $2Bln Pipe DealGAZ to Buy Tractor PlantVTB Acquires Copper StakeSeverstal Has Celtic OfferFord Resumes 2nd ShiftEuropean Chevy Sales UpRBC Raises $187MBlavatnik Into ComstarSmarts Silent on BuyoutTele2 Awarded 14 LicensesFaulty Goods Law AmendedKazakhs' WTO Talks

Evraz's second U.S. acquisition represents good value, as it will help garner market share, analysts say.

The country's second-largest bank, VTB, on Monday posted a 28.8 percent rise in net profit for the first nine months of 2007, beating analyst forecasts, and said profit for the full year would grow by 10 percent to 15 percent.

Bank Hapoalim, Israel's second-biggest lender by assets, is in talks to buy at least 75 percent of Russia's SDM-Bank in a transaction that values the lender at as much as $160 million.

As most countries do, Russia protects its right to tax in a variety of ways. One of them is designed to fight erosion of the tax base of Russian entities by paying excessive amounts of interest to related parties.