Business

Business

A 400 million-euro ($570 mln) contract has...

A 400 million-euro ($570 mln) contract has been signed for the delivery of Russian MiG-29 fighters for the Myanmar Air Force, a source close to Russia"s arms export monopoly told a business daily on Wednesday.

A businessman is suspected of killing his...

A businessman is suspected of killing his wife and two daughters in Moscow to spare them the trouble of having to pay off his big debts, the Russian capital"s top investigator said Sunday.

(Adds details, background in paras 3-9)...

(Adds details, background in paras 3-9) MOSCOW, September 24 (RIA Novosti) - The Moscow District Military Court has upheld an arrest warrant for an Audit Chamber employee who was earlier detained on suspicion of receiving a 1 million euro ($1.4 million) bribe. The court rejected an appeal from Yury Gaidukov"s lawyers, who claimed his arrest was unlawful. Lawyer Vladimir Samokhin told journalists he plans to appeal to a higher court. Earlier reports said that Gaidukov was an officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) assigned to the Audit Chamber. However, the FSB denied that Gaidukov was its employee. Gaidukov is charged with receiving a bribe during an audit of the power and engineering company, Energomash. However, another lawyer, Igor Pastukhov, said the criminal case was "instigated to avoid accusations of violations uncovered during the audit." The head of Russia"s Space Agency, Anatoly Perminov, denied that Energomash management was involved in bribing an Audit Chamber representative. Lyudmila Aivar, the lawyer of another defendant in the case, said the Audit Chamber had discovered violations in Energomash"s business activities that could have led to the company"s management facing criminal proceedings. "After that, the management turned to a large legal company, headed by my client, for consultations on settling the situation, that is, how to eradicate the violations," she said, adding that her client, now in a pre-trial detention center, was paid for the legal assistance he rendered Energomash.

(Adds paragraphs 12-15)

A gun found on a man who was shot dead by...

A gun found on a man who was shot dead by police in south Russia was used in the murder of a priest in Moscow last year, investigators said on Tuesday.

A Moscow court ordered on Friday that Yukos...

A Moscow court ordered on Friday that Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev spend another three months in harsh pretrial detention rather than return to regular jail.

A rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly...

A rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), will pay a visit to Moscow next week to study the implementation of Strasbourg Court rulings.

A Russian Orthodox priest has been killed...

A Russian Orthodox priest has been killed in the Moscow Region south of the Russian capital, and two suspects have been detained, police said.

A team of Russian lawmakers will fly on...

A team of Russian lawmakers will fly on Wednesday to Ukraine to take part in monitoring the runoff presidential election on February 7, the head of the Russian delegation said.

At least 35 people have been killed and...

At least 35 people have been killed and 47 wounded when a series of explosions described by the Taliban as a message to NATO hit Afghanistan"s southern Kandahar province, CNN has reported.

Bomb disposal experts removed more than...

Bomb disposal experts removed more than 900 unexploded World War II artillery shells from a worksite in northwestern Moscow on Wednesday, an Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman said.

BRUSSELS, August 20 (RIA Novosti) - Oslo...

BRUSSELS, August 20 (RIA Novosti) - Oslo, Copenhagen and Zurich are the world"s three priciest cities, according to a study by Swiss banking experts.

China is planning to launch in 2011 a spacecraft...

China is planning to launch in 2011 a spacecraft equipped with two docking ports to serve as a basis for the country"s future space station, the Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday.

China"s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group signed...

China"s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group signed a $1.8-billion deal with Ford Motor Co. on Sunday to acquire the U.S. auto giant"s Volvo car unit, the Xinhua news agency said.

CHISINAU, December 11 (RIA Novosti) - Moldova...

CHISINAU, December 11 (RIA Novosti) - Moldova will seek to develop cooperation with Russia and ask the Russian authorities to provide it with a loan, the Moldovan vice premier said ahead of his visit to Moscow on Friday.

CSKA Moscow will take on Spanish club Sevilla...

CSKA Moscow will take on Spanish club Sevilla in the first knockout stage of this season"s Champions League.

Georgian Winter Olympic luger Nodar Kumaritashvili...

Georgian Winter Olympic luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died on Friday in Vancouver after a crash during training on Friday, IOC officials said.

GROZNY, October 6 (RIA Novosti) - Chechen...

GROZNY, October 6 (RIA Novosti) - Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov said on Tuesday he intended to do his best to support the development of fashion in the republic.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain...

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them under control. I trust you are not in too much distress."

MOSCOW, August 20 (RIA Novosti) - A Moscow...

MOSCOW, August 20 (RIA Novosti) - A Moscow court has ruled to arrest a former high-profile investigator, in custody on suspicion of bribe taking, a court spokesperson said on Wednesday. Dmitry Dovgy, who led a series of high-profile probes, was dismissed in late April allegedly for divulging confidential information and negligently carrying out his duties. He was remanded in custody for 48 hours on Tuesday accused of accepting a $1 million bribe. Earlier Wednesday the court ruled there was sufficient evidence for a criminal case against Dovgy. "Today the court ruled Dovgy"s actions showed signs of criminal intent," Anna Usacheva said. The court has also ordered the arrest of another suspect in the Dovgy bribery case, Andrei Sagura, the former head of the Chief Military Prosecutor"s Office. Dovgy denied the allegations ahead of the court hearing on Wednesday: "I maintained, and maintain that I have received no bribes. The person who has accused me of the crime is himself under investigation. Perhaps, he did a deal with the investigation committee." Dovgy"s lawyer, Yury Bagrayev, said he would appeal the court"s decision. "We will definitely appeal the decision by Moscow"s Basmanny Court. The court took none of our arguments into consideration, the law in regard to Dovgy has been cruelly and unpardonably breached," the lawyer said. Alexander Bastrykin, the chairman of the Investigation Committee at the Russian Prosecutor General"s Office, personally asked the court to initiate criminal proceedings against Dovgy. Dovgy led investigations against Sergei Storchak, the former deputy finance minister, and General Alexander Bulbov, a former senior drug control official, both in custody accused of embezzling $43 million in state funds, divulging state secrets and illegal phone tapping, respectively. It has also been alleged that Dovgy accepted 2 million euros ($3 million) in exchange for the release of former Trust Bank chairman Oleg Kolyda in an embezzlement case involving Yukos subsidiary Tomskneft. Over a thousand bribery investigations were launched in the first three months of this year, a record figure for Russia. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has made the fight against corruption one of his top priorities, signing a decree to set up a presidential anti-corruption council just two weeks after his inauguration.

MOSCOW, August 5 (RIA Novosti) - Kyrgyzstan...

MOSCOW, August 5 (RIA Novosti) - Kyrgyzstan wants Russia to locate a new military base closer to its border with Uzbekistan, in the southern Batken region, the Kyrgyz ambassador said on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, December 7 (RIA Novosti) - Thousands...

MOSCOW, December 7 (RIA Novosti) - Thousands of people have been queuing up in front of Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior to bid farewell to the deceased Russian Orthodox Church leader.

MOSCOW, July 20 (RIA Novosti) - Soviet cosmonaut...

MOSCOW, July 20 (RIA Novosti) - Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov praised on Monday the U.S.-U.S.S.R. race to the Moon in the 1960s as the "best competition ever in space."

MOSCOW, July 21 (RIA Novosti) - About 320,000...

MOSCOW, July 21 (RIA Novosti) - About 320,000 young men are to be drafted into the Russian Armed Forces in the fall of 2009, a deputy chief of the General Staff said on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, July 22 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian...

MOSCOW, July 22 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian government"s foreign debt, including liabilities of the former Soviet Union, fell by 3.6% in the first half of 2009 to $39.1 billion, the Finance Ministry said on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, July 5 (RIA Novosti) - The government...

MOSCOW, July 5 (RIA Novosti) - The government will formulate proposals on establishing a state monopoly on the wholesale of ethyl alcohol by fall, Economic Development Minister German Gref told a Tuesday news conference.

MOSCOW, July 7 (RIA Novosti) - The head...

MOSCOW, July 7 (RIA Novosti) - The head of the Russian Federal Statistics Service said Thursday that the country was experiencing a demographic crisis.

MOSCOW, June 20 (RIA Novosti)-Russia is...

MOSCOW, June 20 (RIA Novosti)-Russia is neither preparing nor expecting any surprises when the leaders of the world's most industrialized nations meet in July, a presidential aide said Tuesday.

MOSCOW, March 10 (RIA Novosti) - The development...

MOSCOW, March 10 (RIA Novosti) - The development of offshore software programming has become a state priority task in Russia. Participants in the Russian IT market believe that the implementation of measures written into the Conception of the IT Market"s Development in the Russian Federation, that was adopted recently, can make Russia the world"s second country on the IT outsourcing market after India and allow it to outpace China. This information was presented in the Supplement to the Kommersant newspaper. At present, India is the indisputable leader on the IT outsourcing market. It accounts for nearly 40% of this market and accumulates over $11 bln in foreign investments. China is slightly ahead of Russia in terms of turnover on the offshore programming market: last year, this segment of the Chinese market amounted to about $1 bln, whereas the turnover of the Russian offshore programming market should reach $994 mln by the end of this year (by the data of the RUSSOFT Association). In the opinion of Nil Vereshchagin, commercial director of the Russian LUXOFT company, "at present, Russia is trying to take a worthy place in the world industry of ordered programming. High skills of Russian specialists and a developed infrastructure in big Russian cities are the main reasons why Western clients choose our companies." According to RUSSOFT"s forecasts, if the Conception"s provisions are fully implemented, in five to six years the Russian export market of IT services will increase to $10 bln, of which offshore software programming will account for more than a third.

MOSCOW, March 26 (RIA Novosti) - Police...

MOSCOW, March 26 (RIA Novosti) - Police in central Russia have detained two people on suspicion of burning to death a beggar, the Investigation Committee of the Prosecutor General's Office said on Thursday.

MOSCOW, March 3 (RIA Novosti) - A criminal...

MOSCOW, March 3 (RIA Novosti) - A criminal case on charges of bribe-taking and abuse of office against a former high-profile investigator, Dmitry Dovgy, will be handed over for trial at the Moscow City Court on Tuesday, Russia's main investigative body said.

MOSCOW, May 24 (RIA Novosti) - The European...

MOSCOW, May 24 (RIA Novosti) - The European Union welcomes Russia"s commitment to the ongoing international fight against terrorism financing and money laundering, the deputy head of the European Commission"s delegation in Moscow said Thursday. Paul Vandoren said the European Commission and the Council of Europe will contribute 3.5 million euros ($4.5 million) through 2010 on a program to assist Russia in its continuing enforcement efforts. Alexander Seger, the head of the Council of Europe"s technical cooperation division in the Department of Crime Problems, said that Russia and the EU already have considerable experience working together to stop financial crimes. Russia is an active participant in the international fight against money laundering and a full-fledged member of the Egmont Group, he said, referring to the coordinating body for international financial intelligence units (FIUs) formed in 1995 to promote and enhance international cooperation in anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing. He said that international money laundering and terrorism financing registered a 15-fold increase in 2006 and early 2007 over previous years, although he did not cite any specific figures for Russia.

MOSCOW, May 29 (RIA Novosti) - A court in...

MOSCOW, May 29 (RIA Novosti) - A court in south Russia"s Astrakhan Region has given a three-year suspended sentence to a local businessman who traded pirated Microsoft software, the regional prosecutor"s office said on Thursday. A statement from the prosecutor"s office said that by producing and selling pirated discs, Mikhail Shvets inflicted damages to the copyright holders exceeding 5 million rubles ($211,000). Last month the Russian Interior Ministry reported that copyright piracy in Russia, which has been a major obstacle to the country joining the World Trade Organization, dropped 15% in 2007, year-on-year. Russia, the second-largest market for pirated products after China, has been strongly criticized internationally for its failure to protect intellectual property rights. Over 4,000 people were arrested in 2007, and more than 800 people in January-March this year for breaching copyright laws, Vladimir Lukyanov, deputy head of the ministry"s economic security department, said last month. Almost four million counterfeit items, mainly computer software, DVDs and CDs, worth an estimated 182 million rubles ($8 million) were seized last year. Last year Alexander Ponosov, a school principal in a small town in the Perm Region, was charged with copyright violation after he bought a set of computers for his school containing unlicensed Microsoft software.

MOSCOW, May 7 (RIA Novosti) - The body of...

MOSCOW, May 7 (RIA Novosti) - The body of Vladimir Lenin may go on public display in Belarus if Russia decides to remove the father of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution from his Red Square resting place, highly placed sources have said.

MOSCOW. (Nikita Petrov for RIA Novosti)...

MOSCOW. (Nikita Petrov for RIA Novosti) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has finished his visit to Warsaw. His talks with his Polish counterpart, Radislaw Sikorski, focused on the situation in the Caucasus and the planned deployment of ten U.S. antimissiles at Redzikowo, near Slupsk in northern Poland.

MOSCOW, November 13 (RIA Novosti) - Russia...

MOSCOW, November 13 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will deliver the last of six contracted Su fighter jets to Indonesia in 2010, a Russian Federal Service for Military and Technical Co-Operation deputy director said on Friday.

MOSCOW, November 8 (RIA Novosti) - A police...

MOSCOW, November 8 (RIA Novosti) - A police officer from the southern Russian city of Novorossiisk has been fired after posting a video on the web accusing his chiefs of corruption, an Interior Ministry spokesman said Sunday.

MOSCOW, October 14 (RIA Novosti) - New charges...

MOSCOW, October 14 (RIA Novosti) - New charges could be filed in the case of the Arctic Sea dry cargo ship"s seizure, an investigator said in a Moscow court on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, October 14 (RIA Novosti) - Russia"s...

MOSCOW, October 14 (RIA Novosti) - Russia"s new military doctrine does not rule out pre-emptive nuclear strikes against potential aggressors, the head of its Security Council said on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, October 16 (RIA Novosti) - Russia"s...

MOSCOW, October 16 (RIA Novosti) - Russia"s parliamentary speaker urged a consensus on Friday among parties in the State Duma after protests over the October 11 regional elections dominated by pro-Kremlin United Russia.

MOSCOW, October 20 (RIA Novosti) - Russian...

MOSCOW, October 20 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will meet on October 20 with the Indian foreign minister, during the diplomat"s visit to Moscow, the Kremlin said on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, October 2 (RIA Novosti) - The wife...

MOSCOW, October 2 (RIA Novosti) - The wife of Moscow"s mayor, the richest woman in Russia, is suing a former Russian deputy prime minister for defamation, her construction company said on Friday.

MOSCOW, September 29 (RIA Novosti) - Iran"s...

MOSCOW, September 29 (RIA Novosti) - Iran"s recent missile launches have demonstrated that the missiles pose no threat to the U.S., Russia"s envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin has said.

MOSCOW, September 3 (RIA Novosti) - Russia...

MOSCOW, September 3 (RIA Novosti) - Russia had mixed fortunes at the U.S. Open in New York on Thursday with Elena Dementieva becoming the first top player to crash out, while world No. 1 Dinara Safina had to dig deep to overcome her opponent.

MOSCOW, September 7 (RIA Novosti) - The...

MOSCOW, September 7 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian automotive industry is to receive $2 billion in foreign investments within the next two or three years, but experts warn current policy may put it at risk, a respected business daily reported Wednesday. Vedomosti wrote that Trade and Economic Development Minister German Gref believed that the automotive industry was thriving because of a decision to reduce import duties on foreign car parts. He said four investors were ready to sign investment agreements and another six were in negotiations. A ministerial official said Gref was referring to investment agreements with the Avtoframos Russian-French joint venture, and Severstal-Avto and IzhAvto, which both produce South Korean cars. Overall investment now respectively total 230 million euros, $75 million and $90 million. Toyota has already started building a plant in Russia and will also sign a similar agreement soon. Gref estimated this investment at $1 billion this spring, the paper said. Vedomosti quoted Yelena Sakhnova, a market watcher with the United Financial Group, as saying that carmakers were planning to earn more on foreign, rather than Russian, models. "For instance, EBITDA at AvtoVaz (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) totals 10.4%, whereas companies assembling foreign cars in Russia earn at least 15%," Sakhnova said. According to the paper, easy-term customs clearance makes this business even more profitable. IzhAvto earned just $4 million in 2004. By assembling KIA Spectras, it hopes to make $200 million in net profits in five years. Since 2002, $1.15 billion has been invested into foreign-car assembly projects in Russia. A partnership between American giant General Motors and domestic producer Avtovaz had invested $338 million by the time it opened a plant and then pumped in another $195 million, the paper reported. The paper said that experts had warned about potential risks with the government"s current auto-industry policies. Alexander Agibalov, the managing director of AG Capital, told the paper: "China once had big tax breaks, but the policy created large concerns and one-day companies. The latter used the privileges they were entitled to and then curtailed production. The problem is knock-down assembly does not require major investment."

Moscow traffic police chief Sergei Kazantsev...

Moscow traffic police chief Sergei Kazantsev was officially reprimanded on Wednesday over a "special operation" in which officers commandeered several private cars to stop a fleeing driver, but refused to pay compensation for damage caused.

NIZHNY NOVGOROD (central Russia), August...

NIZHNY NOVGOROD (central Russia), August 13 (RIA Novosti) - Production of MiG-35 multirole fighters offered for sale to India cannot start before 2013 or 2014, a Russian aircraft maker said on Thursday.

NOVOROSSIISK, August 24 (RIA Novosti) -...

NOVOROSSIISK, August 24 (RIA Novosti) - The Arctic Sea merchant vessel, recently freed from hijackers by a Russian missile frigate, is being towed by a tugboat to the south Russian port of Novorossiisk, a port official said on Monday.

NOVOSIBIRSK, May 4 (RIA Novosti) - Russian...

NOVOSIBIRSK, May 4 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Foreign Ministry officials in West Siberia are following the case of a local resident arrested in Los Angeles on tax-fraud conspiracy charges, an attache said on Monday. The San Diego Union Tribune said on Saturday that Novosibirsk resident Maxim Maltsev, 23, had been arrested and accused of conspiring to divert 65 income-tax-refund payments intended for U.S. citizens to accounts he had set up at four San Diego banks. "The Russian Embassy in the United States is dealing with the issue. The Russian Foreign Ministry"s office in Novosibirsk is keeping its eye on the situation and will get involved if the need arises," Denis Borodich said. He added that no inquiries had yet been received either from the Russian Embassy in the United States or from the Moscow headquarters of the Russian Foreign Ministry. According to the indictment, Maltsev and co-conspirators diverted income-tax refunds through online services "falsely advertised as being affiliated with the Internal Revenue Service." The refunds "withdrawn by debit and check cards and at ATMs in the United States and overseas" totaled about $105,000, the paper quoted U.S. Attorney Karen Hewitt of San Diego as saying. Maltsev has been held without bail in Los Angeles since he was arrested at the city"s international airport last Wednesday.

OBUZ-LESNOVSKY RANGE (Brest Region), September...

OBUZ-LESNOVSKY RANGE (Brest Region), September 29 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev arrived in Belarus on Tuesday to inspect the final stage of the Zapad 2009 joint military drills with his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko.

President Dmitry Medvedev has dismissed...

President Dmitry Medvedev has dismissed a deputy Russian justice minister and appointed a new interior minister in the volatile North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia as part of his efforts to improve law enforcement in Russia, the Kremlin said on Tuesday.