Kommersant
1. Renata Yambayeva et al. article called "St. Petersburg forum changing faces" says the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum has been affected by the Ukrainian crisis as many heads of companies, mainly U.S. ones, are not coming and the total number of foreign attendees is down 40 percent against 2013; pp 1-2 (1,020 words).
2. Nikolai Sergeiev and Yelena Kovaleva article headlined "657M Rubles for technical needs" reports that police have started looking into suspected fraud at Masterbank that lost its license in November 2013. The Deposit Insurance Agency, who prompted the inquiry, suspects that over 657 million rubles ($18.25 million) was issued in loans to the bank staff; pp 1, 4 (884 words).
3. Yelena Chernenko article headlined "Advice to Europe" reports on the Council of Europe meeting in Vienna and notes that the statement made by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was not as strong as it could have been, had Ukraine put its resolution criticizing Russia up for voting; pp 1, 4 (864 words).
4. Maxim Ivanov et al. article called "Unnecessary things being removed from federal districts" quotes a source in the presidential administration as saying that the institution of presidential envoy is going to be overhauled to avoid duplication and overlap between them and the presidential administration; pp 1-2 (815 words).
5. Sergei Goryashko article headlined "Experience and Crimea" looks at the results of an opinion poll by the VTsIOM pollster that was conducted in the run-up to the anniversary of Vladimir Putin's inauguration as president. Forty-four percent of those interviewed said they found it appealing that he is an experienced politician and 43 percent said they appreciated that he had made Crimea part of Russia; p 2 (390 words).
6. Andrei Pertsev and Yaroslav Malykh article titled "Alexei Orlov leaves Kirsan Ilyumzhinov with chess" comments on the early resignation of head of Kalmykia Alexei Orlov, who is going to run for re-election "to maintain socio-political and economic stability in the region"; p 2 (512 words).
7. Ivan Safronov article called "Oleg Salyukov swaps General Staff for commander's post" briefly profiles Colonel General Oleg Salyukov who has been appointed as commander of the Ground Troops. The post fell vacant when then-commander Vladimir Chirkin was sacked over bribery charges; p 2 (414 words).
8. Alexander Chernykh and Yevgenia Malyarenko article titled "Lessons to be learned from Crimea" contains teachers' opinion on lessons plans that have been published by the Ministry of Education and Sciences for schools to instruct children in the history of Crimea as a legitimate Russian region; p 4 (485 words).
9. Ksenia Dementyeva and Valeria Kozlova article called "SMP-Bank gets off cheaply" concludes that SMP-Bank has not been hit hard by sanctions imposed by the U.S.; p 5 (713 words).
10. Yegor Popov article headlined "Moscow takes car market in tow" says car sales dropped across Russia in the first quarter, while Moscow and St. Petersburg shows a growth of 7 to 8 percent. Experts says the situation is typical of a stagnating economy; p 5 (572 words).
11. Kirill Melnikov and Yana Rozhdestvenskaya article headlined "Rosneft pays board of directors in cash" reports that the oil company Rosneft will pay end-of-the-year bonuses to its directors in cash as two of them — Donald Humphreys and John Mack — are not allowed to receive the company's equities; p 5 (493 words).
Vedomosti
1. Darya Borisyak and Tatyana Voronova article called "Mosoblbank's balance sheet short of money" says a check by the Central Bank has revealed that Mosoblbank has been accepting people's deposits off the books; pp 1, 14 (600 words).
2. Olga Kuvshinova article called "Prices on top" quotes experts as saying that inflation, that reached 7.3 percent in April, may grow further in May and June, but is likely to go down as of July; pp 1, 5 (650 words).
3. Nikolai Epple and Maxim Trudolyubov op-ed titled "Battle of referendums" argues that both referendums in the southeast of Ukraine to take place on May 11 and the May 25 presidential election are bound to be deemed illegitimate because they have been called in haste and amid an armed confrontation; pp 1, 6 (550 words).
4. Alexei Nikolsky article headlined "To Sevastopol instead of Astrakhan" says the Defense Ministry is re-channelling funds to the Black Sea Fleet to provide it with new vessels, some of which were originally intended for the Caspian Flotilla; p 2 (600 words).
5. Anastasia Kornya article called "Blocking in law" reports that the Tagansky District Court has deemed legal the blocking of the opposition news website Grani.ru on grounds that it contained materials inciting public disorder; p 2 (400 words).
6. Svetlana Bocharova article headlined "Accelerated compulsion" says a bill enabling the Justice Ministry to put NGOs on the list of foreign agents may go through a first reading as soon as May; p 2 (200 words).
7. Maria Zheleznova and Olga Churakova article titled "Navalny's other list" looks at how a blog post by Alexei Navalnyy has spurred his followers to vote for seven candidates competing for seats in the Public Chamber; p 3 (500 words).
8. Polina Khimshiashvili article called "Issue postponed" reports that the Ukrainian parliament has failed to back a proposal by acting Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseny Yatsenyuk to conduct a nationwide poll on maintaining the country's territorial integrity on May 25; p 3 (400 words).
9. Yekaterina Kravchenko article titled "To neutralize Russia" says the energy ministers of G7 countries have agreed to seek to reduce their dependence on energy supplies from Russia. The article notes that most of the diversification options that are available to Europe are costly; p 4 (800 words).
10. Yekaterina Shulman essay called "Applied conspiracy theory" warns its readers against believing in conspiracy theories about Russia's enemies forcing it to send troops to Ukraine as conspiracy theories in general are convenient, but send the country into self-inflicted isolation; p 6 (1,300 words).
11. Andrei Sinitsyn op-ed headlined "Ceiling of reason" criticizes the authorities for seeking to regulate each and every aspect of life in the country, be it the use of swear words on television or footballers' salaries; p 6 (400 words).
12. Sergei Aleksashenko op-ed titled "F in economics" is negative about President Vladimir Putin's economic achievements during his third term of office; p 7 (850 words).
13. Ilya Klishin column called "War that passed unnoticed" explains what hybrid warfare is and says that people need to be warned about it to be able to resist its effects; p 7 (450 words).
14. Ksenia Boletskaya article headlined "Some 342 journalists" in the column "Figure of the week" says the state awards, that have been secretly presented to 342 journalists for covering Crimea developments, turn them into "information soldiers" who by definition cannot be unbiased and independent; p 7 (450 words).
Izvestia
1. Petr Kozlov report "Gas discount for Kiev to be linked to South Stream" says that without the completion of the construction of the South Stream gas pipeline, Russian gas deliveries to European consumers will not be secured; pp 1-2 (1,300 words).
2. Ivan Cheberko report "Moscow will build satellites for Iran and train cosmonauts" says that following the U.S. sanctions against companies of the Russian space industry, Russia is ready to step up cooperation with Iran; pp 1, 4 (900 words).
3. Alena Sivkova report "CIS heads offered to set up tribunal on Ukraine" says that the systemic opposition in the State Duma is confident that neither the European Court of Human Rights nor the International Criminal Court in The Hague will not be able to carry out an objective investigation of the tragic events in Ukraine; pp 1, 7 (650 words).
4. Pavel Chernyshov report "Ukraine prepares war with disguise" says that it became known on May 6 that Russian military uniform and fake military IDs have been brought to Donetsk; p 4 (650 words).
5. Konstantin Volkov interview "Fate of referendum in Luhansk will be decided by simple majority voting" with Ukrainian lawmaker Oleh Tsaryov who speaks about how to make Ukraine a federal state; p 7 (450 words).
6. Darya Tsoy report "Russia suspends military cooperation with Lithuania" says that Moscow has unilaterally suspended military cooperation with Vilnius. To retaliate, Lithuania threatened to deploy the U.S. ABM system in its territory; p 8 (600 words).
7. Igor Karaulov article headlined "Please, welcome Novorossia!" looks at Ukrainian lawmaker Oleh Tsaryov's statements regarding the crisis in Ukraine; p 9 (850 words).
Rossiiskaya Gazeta
1. Yuriy Snegirev article called "Town under blockade" gives an account of the May 6 developments in Ukraine's Slovyansk; pp 1, 8 (735 words).
2. Leonid Radzikhovsky op-ed called "Place in history" tries to unravel the secrets of Vladimir Putin's success as head of state. The latter has been running the country for 10 years now and has always been popular; p 2 (954 words).
3. Unattributed article called "Ten years of Putin's presidency: Five events" presents a list of Putin's five biggest success stories, with Crimea's merger with Russia being on top of it; p 2 (654 words).
4. Fedor Lukyanov op-ed titled "Adversaries again" shares his impression of a forum of experts in Berlin and concludes that few people in Germany understand Russia's stance on the Ukrainian crisis and that one should not expect Germany to be a buffer against its opponents in the West as Berlin is more interested in having consensus in Europe; p 8 (724 words).
5. Marina Aleshina article called "Speaking out loud" contains excerpts from Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's speech at the Council of Europe meeting in Vienna; p 8 (632 words).
6. Tatyana Shadrina report "To put blog" says that the newspaper publishes several documents regulating the Internet. Popular bloggers will have to indicate their names and electronic addresses; pp 1, 4 (650 words).
7. Vitaly Petrov interview "Federalism is not illness, but medicine" with Federation Council speaker Valentina Matviyenko who looks at Ukraine's future; p 5 (2,000 words).
8. Petr Orlov report "Bad shot" says that the U.S. has expressed concern over frequent flights of Russian Air Force aircraft over the Pacific Ocean; p 7 (550 words).
9. Mikhail Falaleyev report "Hoist flags!" says that the Black Sea Fleet will be reinforced with new military hardware and units; p 7 (400 words).
10. Anna Fedyakina report "Hunting Graham Phillips" says that supporters of the Kiev authorities have offered an award for a British journalist who is doing reports from Ukraine's southeast for Russia Today, referring to him as a "Russian spy"; p 8 (350 words).
Moskovsky Komsomolets
1. Irina Bobrova and Irina Alexanderova article called "Defense of Slovingrad" contains a selection of disturbing eye witnesses' accounts of what has been going on in Slovyansk; pp 1, 3 (1,180 words).
2. Konstantin Smirnov article titled "Small business promised help in rubles" details the functions of the newly established Loan Guarantee Agency that is meant to become yet another tool to support small and medium-sized businesses; p 2 (577 words).
3. Mikhail Zubov article headlined "Russian human rights advocates to illegally cross Ukrainian border" says Russian human rights activists are going to Ukraine to monitor the May 11 referendum in Donetsk, but they will have to cross the Ukrainian border illegally as Russian men are barred from the country; p 3 (447 words).
4. Olga Bozhyeva article called "Apprehension about civil war" doubts the plausibility of reports on casualties released by interim Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and that an armored train has been destroyed by government forces. The author notes that there is an increased demand for handguns in Kiev, which is a bad omen; p 3 (505 words).
5. Dmitry Popov report "We have no article for Serdyukov" looks at the amnesty for former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov; p 1 (250 words).
RBK Daily
1. Anastasia Mikhaylova and Nino Imedashvili article headlined "Salaries of judges increased by some 30 percent" investigates an increase in the judges' salaries in 2013; p 2 (700 words).
2. Ivan Petrov article headlined "Plan to defend Crimea" says the Foreign Ministry is revising its Black Sea Fleet development program because of the absorption of Crimea into Russia; p 3 (600 words).
3. Farida Rustamova article headlined "Lessons of Crimea" says the Education Ministry has suggested schools should explain to students the significance of Crimea and Sevastopol to Russia; p 3 (700 words).
Komsomolskaya Pravda
1. Sergei Semushkin article headlined "Kiev special services prepare provocation with Russian military uniforms" says Ukraine's security service is preparing "anti-Russian acts of provocation" in the country's southeast; p 3 (300 words).
2. Oleg Rubashov article headlined "Artist compares opposition with demons" says an exhibition of paintings depicting Russian opposition activists as demons has opened in Moscow; p 6 (500 words).
3. Alexander Grishin article headlined "Chairman of the government of the Donetsk people's republic Denis Pushilin: 'It's in our blood — to resist fascism'" is an interview with one of the leaders of the pro-Russian forces in Ukraine, Denis Pushilin; p 8 (800 words).
4. Viktor Baranets article headlined "Military prosecutors: Serdyukov amnestied as 'defender of fatherland'" says former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov has been amnestied in a high-profile fraud case; p 11 (200 words).
5. Yaroslav Korobatov article headlined "Physicists digging black hole near Moscow?" says the Russian scientists are working on an analogue of a Large Hadron Collider; p 12 (1,100 words).
Argumenty i Fakty
1. Yekaterina Mirnaya article headlined "U.S. playing too much?" features comments by Putin's adviser Sergei Glazyev on U.S.-Ukraine relations; pp 2, 8 (400 words).
2. Mikhail Khazin article headlined "U.S. sanctions — against EU?" comments on the Western sanctions on Russia; p 5 (400 words).
3. Anna Ulyanova article headlined "Batallions to make more fire" has Russian pundits' comments on the unrest in east Ukraine; pp 6-7 (1,700 words).
4. Unattributed article headlined "Our missiles — in Nicaragua?" features a Russian pundit's comment on the Russian-Chinese plans to build another "Panama Canal" in Latin America; p 48 (200 words).
Tvoi Den
1. A series of articles under a joint headline "We are dying but not giving up" says nationalists would like to erase the Ukrainian city of Slovyansk, controlled by the pro-Russian forces, from the face of the earth; pp 1-3 (600 words).
Krasnaya Zvezda
1. Viktor Ruchkin article headlined "You cannot break people" says Kiev's "forceful punitive actions" have met resistance in southeast Ukraine; pp 1, 3 (1,000 words).
2. Denis Dubrovin article headlined "Aiming to link Russia with conflict" says the West is refusing to take any responsibility for a "civil war" in Ukraine and is blaming Russia for destabilizing the country; p 3 (900 words).
BBC/ BBC Monitoring
