MOSCOW, May 12 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian...

MOSCOW, May 12 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian government"s foreign debt, including liabilities of the former Soviet Union, declined 2.7% in January-March 2009 to $39.5 billion, the Finance Ministry reported on Tuesday. However, exchange rate differences mean that when calculated in euros, the government"s foreign debt increased 3.8% to 29.9 billion euros, the ministry said. Non-restructured debts to official creditors that are parties to the Paris Club of creditor nations declined $100 million to $1.3 billion in the reporting period, the ministry said. Debts to official creditors outside the Paris Club ($1.9 billion), former Communist bloc countries ($1.4 billion) and also former Soviet debts to foreign commercial creditors ($1.2 billion) were unchanged in January-March 2009, the ministry said. Also unchanged in the reporting period were outstanding government domestic foreign currency-denominated bonds (OVGVZ) at $1.8 billion and Russia"s foreign currency denominated government guarantees at $0.6 billion. The Russian government"s liabilities to international financial institutions shrank by $300 million to $4.3 billion, and the amount of Russia"s outstanding Eurobonds declined from $27.7 billion as of January 1 to $27 billion as of April 1, the ministry said.

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

MOSCOW, July 22 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law to regulate the production and turnover of ethyl alcohol and alcoholic products, the presidential press service said Friday. The State Duma, parliament"s lower house, adopted the law on July 8 and the Federation Council, parliament"s upper house, adopted it on July 13. The law aims to improve the legal regulation of this area of the economy, strengthen state control and protect consumers from black-market products. The law expands the authorities of the federal bodies of state power. Under the law, they will introduce a unified state automated system to calculate the volumes of produced and sold ethyl alcohol and alcoholic products. If there is no information in the system about certain products, the products will be confiscated. Authorities will also be charged with defining the procedure to license alcohol retail sales and ensuring that organizations observe license rules. The law states that state enterprises and organizations with paid-in equity capital worth no less than 10 million rubles, or $349,650, can produce ethyl alcohol, while state enterprises and organizations with paid-in equity capital worth no less than 50 million rubles, or $1.75 million, can produce vodka. Putin spoke in Kaliningrad on July 2 at a State Council session. He criticized the current alcohol market regulation system and advocated a state monopoly on alcohol.

Kyrgyzstan"s former interior minister was...

Kyrgyzstan"s former interior minister was flown to Manas airport near Bishkek on Monday after being detained in Moscow in a joint Kyrgyz-Russian operation, Kyrgyzstan"s AKIpress agency reported.