What the Papers Say, Feb. 11

Kommersant

1. Vladimir Dzaguto et al. report headlined "Investments do not reach Caucasus" says an attempt by Presidential Representative to the North Caucasus Federal District Alexander Khloponin to attract investments to the region with the assistance of the federal centre has failed. As the federal government has ignored the initiative, experts note that Khloponin's policy in the region has not worked; pp 1, 3 (1,614 words).

2. Afsati Dzhusoyti article headlined "Naturalized bronze" reports on performance of Russian athletes at the Sochi Olympics; p 1 (281 words).

3. Andrei Kolesnikov article headlined "Fourth side of medal" reports on the victory of Russian figure skater Evgeni Plushenko at the Sochi Olympics and on his difficulties with recovering after a spine operation; pp 1, 12 (2,490 words).

4. Yegor Popov et al. report headlined "AvtoVAZ rolls back" says AvtoVAZ car sales fell by 21 percent in January 2014. Experts attribute the trend to a decreasing demand for low-cost vehicles; pp 1, 9 (675 words).

5. Maxim Ivanov article headlined "Moscow election regulations to be compared with international ones" says the Communist Party is appealing to the Constitutional Court against the new regulations for the Moscow City Duma elections that do not allow political parties to take part in the polls with their own lists of candidates. The Communists believe that United Russia has changed the regulations for its own benefit; p 2 (502 words).

6. Sergei Mashkin article headlined "Impossible to catch son-in-law" says Anatoly Puzikov, the relative of former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, has avoided arrest on fraud charges and is probably hiding abroad; p 5 (500 words).

7. Pavel Tarasenko article headlined "Geneva 2 goes to second round" says no breakthrough is expected from the second round of Syria talks in Geneva; p 6 (496 words).

Nezavisimaya Gazeta

1. Mikhail Sergeyev article headlined "Moscow hopes for reconciliation with EU" says the future of the utilization duty imposed in Belarus and thus affecting other countries of the Customs Union is still unclear. Moscow is monitoring the reaction of the European Commission to the duty; pp 1, 4 (500 words).

2. Tatyana Ivzhenko article headlined "Ukrainian radicals ready to seize mainstream gas pipelines" says the EU is undecided whether to impose sanctions against the Ukrainian authorities or to continue a dialogue with Kiev. Meanwhile, Ukrainian opposition radicals do not want to wait for the results of lengthy talks; pp 1, 6 (1,200 words).

3. Ivan Rodin article headlined "United Russia platforms collide due to material evidence" says two groups within United Russia, liberals and patriots, cannot come to agreement over the right of the law-enforcement agencies to seize large batches of goods as part of material evidence. Goods seized by the police often get lost causing entrepreneurs losses; pp 1, 3 (700 words).

4. Anastasia Bashkatova article headlined "Russians should not wait for petrol to become cheaper" says prices on petrol grew by 6 percent in Russia in 2013, while they decreased by 3 percent during the same period in Europe. No fuel price reduction is expected in Russia; pp 1, 4 (1,000 words).

5. Sokhbet Mamedov article headlined "West prepares Maidan for Baku" says the West is to support civil society in Azerbaijan ahead of the 2015 European Games; pp 1, 6 (400 words).

6. Editorial headlined "Will change in name hamper Alexei Navalny?" says Alexei Navalny's People Alliance has been renamed into the Party of Progress after another opposition party took the alliance's name. The article notes that the former name of Navalny's party was more appealing to left-wing electorate who are indifferent to progress; p 2 (400 words).

7. Oleg Nikiforov article headlined "Carte Blanche. Who is he, new German ambassador to Moscow?" looks at the career and political affiliation of German diplomat Ruediger Freiherr von Fritsch who is to become new German ambassador to Russia; p 3 (500 words).

Vedomosti

1. Yelena Khodyakova article headlined "Gazprom to occupy St. Petersburg in two years" says Gazprom is to move to St. Petersburg by the end of 2015. The gas giant is looking for new offices and personnel in the city as not everybody is going to leave Moscow to continue working for the company; pp 1, 12 (500 words).

2. Editorial headlined "Torch and smoke" says Russian officials accuse bloggers writing about theft in the preparation for the Sochi Olympics of a lack of love for their motherland. The article notes that President Vladimir Putin's control over the Olympics created high expectation among general public; pp 1, 6 (400 words).

3. Anastasia Kornya article headlined "Bolotnaya prisoners were humanely fed" says the Russian government has asked the European Court of Human Rights to turn down a complain by defendants in the case of 2012 unrest in Moscow's Bolotnaya Ploshchad. The defendants say they have been inhumanely treated in jail; p 2 (500 words).

4. Maria Zheleznova et al. report headlined "Spoilers at zero" says half of Russian parties work with zero financial balance, their reports to the Central Electoral Commissions show; p 3 (500 words).

5. Another editorial headlined "Good riddance" says commuter trains are being cancelled in many parts of Russia. Small private bus companies can replace trains in the regions where roads are available; p 6 (300 words).

6. Andrei Zubov opinion column headlined "Slavic winter" says the unrest in Ukraine has been caused by the authorities' unwillingness to strengthen the country's ties with the EU; pp 6-7 (1,500 words).

7. Konstantin Simonov opinion column headlined "Barrier for the young" says young Ukrainians would like their country to be closer to the EU, but the bloc itself has high unemployment rate among its young people; p 7 (500 words).

8. Irina Mokrousova and Galina Starinskaya interview with businessman and Federation Council senator Leonid Lebedev over his claims on a share from the sale of TNK-BP oil company to Rosneft; pp 8-9 (2,500 words).

Izvestia

1. Lyudmila Podobedova article headlined "Oil companies ask to protect them from Gazprom's appetite" says Rosneft, Novatek and LUKoil want to have equal access to underground gas storage facilities controlled by Gazprom; pp 1, 4 (815 words).

2. Sergei Podosenov article headlined "Paid informers to help defeat bribery" says experts from the National Anti-Corruption Committee have suggested that a number of measures should be taken to terminate the corruption in Russia. Paying informers who report on bribes is one of the possible measures; pp 1, 2 (874 words).

3. Alexei Krivoruchek article headlined "Army demands artificial intelligence" says the Defense Ministry economic analysis department will receive a new computer system to evaluate the efficiency of budget spending. The new software is to determine the way to spend the budget funds; pp 1, 6 (659 words).

4. Natalya Bashlykova article headlined "Ryzhkov does not want to reconcile with Nemtsov and Kasyanov" says Vladimir Ryzhkov and his supporters from the Republican Party do not want to reconcile with former allies from the People's Freedom Party Boris Nemtsov and Mikhail Kasyanov. Experts believe the opposition alliance has no future; p 3 (663 words).

Rossiiskaya Gazeta

1. Igor Zubkov article headlined "The slower you drive, the more you pay" says the Russian Union of Oil Industrialists has come up with an initiative to introduce social norms of petrol consumption and to sell fuel cheaper than the market price. The measure could help Russians cope with an expected rise in petrol prices this year; pp 1, 2 (607 words).

2. Natalya Kozlova interview with head of the Moscow directorate of the Investigative Committee Lieutenant General Vadim Yakovenko speaking on crimes committed by migrants; pp 1, 13 (1,741 words).

Moskovsky Komsomolets

1. Marina Lemutkina article headlined "Scandal for entire Livanov's ministry" says that the Education and Science Ministry should have welcomed activists publishing on-line their findings about forged theses. But instead, the officials pretend that they are fighting against plagiarism and show no support for the initiative of the public activists; p 1 (592 words).

2. Natalya Rozhkova interview with politician and founder of the Republican Party Vladimir Ryzhkov speaking on his disagreements with former political allies, Boris Nemtsov and Mikhail Kasyanov; p 2 (569 words).

Komsomolskaya Pravda

1. Alexei Bogomolov interview with Moscow police chief Anatoly Yakunin speaking about the crime rates among illegal migrants, a shooting in a Moscow school and the fate of illegal casinos; p 1, 11 (1,200 words).

2. Viktor Baranets article headlined "Puzikov, Motherland awaiting your arrival" says that former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov's brother-in-law Valery Puzikov suspected of committing large-scale fraud has been put on a wanted list and speculates on his possible role in former Defense Ministry employee Yevgenia Vasilyeva's corruption case; p 10 (400 words).

3. Yelena Chinkova article headlined "CNN to buy photo of separated doorknob" reports on the supposed fake photos that foreign journalists covering the Winter Olympics in Sochi posted on the internet; p 9 (900 words)

4. Yelena Chinkova article headlined "Stop hammering Russians!" says that British readers have harshly criticized The Daily Telegraph for a sarcastic article about Sochi; p 9 (350 words).

Noviye Izvestia

1. Yelena Ryzhova article headlined "Should we move Felix?" reports on plans to return the monument to Felix Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the Soviet secret service, to its former place of honor in Lubyanka square; pp 1, 4 (300 words).

2. Vitaly Solovetsky article headlined "Shall we spare no expense?" says that Russian lawmakers intend to review a draft law introducing prison sentences for insulting the memory of the World War II; p 4 (400 words).

Trud

1. Viktor Churakov article headlined "They have come here in numbers" says that Swiss voters have narrowly backed a national referendum proposal to bring back strict quotas for immigration from EU countries and compares the state of affairs with immigration in Switzerland and Russia; p 2 (550 words).

2. Alexander Dmitriyev article headlined "Remember this word, Roslyakovo" says that Russian state-controlled energy giant Rosneft will start constructing shipyards in the village of Roslyakovo in Murmansk Region; p 3 (550 words).

RBK Daily

1. Yevgeny Novikov et al. article headlined "Sochi requires new construction sites" says Sochi requires additional investments to become a viable seaside resort despite the fact that a substantial proportion of funds has been invested in the construction of Olympic facilities in the city; pp 1-2 (600 words).

Feb. 11, 2014 / BBC Monitoring / ©BBC