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MOSCOW — The U.S. Justice Department is investigating RosUkrEnergo, the secretive gas trader that has a monopoly on billions of dollars in gas sales to Ukraine, people familiar with the situation say.
The Swiss-registered company, half owned by Gazprom and half by unidentified beneficiaries, has come under growing scrutiny after it landed a lucrative role as Ukraine’s monopoly gas trader in a controversial Jan. 4 deal between Gazprom and its Ukrainian counterpart, Naftogaz Ukrainy.
Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has branded the deal a threat to European and Ukrainian energy security, while one of her top aides, Olexander Turchinov, has said he investigated the company for possible links with international organized crime when he headed Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, last year. |
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EASTER SUNDAY
Pool / Reuters
President Vladimir Putin (l) listens to Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II during an Easter service attended by thousands in the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow early Sunday. when Russian Orthodox Christians celebrated the holiday. |
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MOSCOW — Russia said on Monday it will soon invest a $61 billion oil fund in top-rated government securities, but analysts and politicians argued the country should diversify more and invest in riskier assets too.
A document posted on the government’s web site said Russia would have the infrastructure in place to start investing the fund, which is gathering oil duties above a cut-off price of $27 per barrel, within the next two months.
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All photos from issue.
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One of the West’s largest investment banks has entered the St. Petersburg real estate market. Local construction holding RBI and the RREEF investment fund, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bank Group, have announced a joint venture to realize development projects. |
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WASHINGTON — Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Friday he did not view the U.S. dollar’s status as a reserve currency as absolute, given the volatility in its value over the past several years. |
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Following a long-term tradition, members of the St. Petersburg International Business Association for North-Western Russia (SPIBA) held their Annual Meeting on April 19, 2006, in the restaurant Le Vernissage of the Ambassador Hotel. SPIBA friends and partners, regional and federal officials also took part in the event. |
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Developments in Russian legislation on non-governmental organizations could, potentially, bring radical changes to the work of numerous non-profit organizations in the city. |
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MOSCOW — Taking his cue from American real estate tycoon Donald Trump, metals magnate Vladimir Potanin is set to host his own, prime-time reality show — “The Candidate.”
If “You’re fired!” has become a staple of American television talk, Russians can look forward to “Vy uvoleny!”
The show, which will be aired on the TNT channel, will closely mirror Trump’s “The Apprentice. |
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MOSCOW — Over 90 percent of foreign businesses plan to expand their operations and increase investment in Russia over the next three years, attracted by brisk sales and rising profits, an annual survey of foreign businesses said. |
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Property prices are on the rise again. The price levels forecast for August have already been reached by April. After two years of stagnation, the city’s construction industry has noted the increase in sales with pleasure, but experts are warning buyers not to fuel the hysteria that can lead to an uncontrollable rise in prices. |
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Construction is booming across the country, but upcoming deregulation of the sector, combined with public attention on the industry after a series of fatal building collapses, has prompted calls for improvement. |
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I am by nature and upbringing a pessimist. As a boy in Glasgow, I was encouraged to expect the worst, on the principle that by doing so you’ll never be disappointed and sometimes you may even be pleasantly surprised.
This is not the American way. Optimism is in the DNA of the U. |
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Today Russia again sees itself as a seat of world power — the forthcoming G8 summit, to be held in St. Petersburg, might be viewed as confirmation of this standing. |
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The value of merger and acquisition deals in Central and Eastern Europe more than doubled last year, according to a survey released last week by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The 1,848 publicly announced private transactions, in ten countries of the region, amounted to $91.2 billion. The average value of disclosed deals increased from $52. |
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In case you missed it, the era of mutually assured destruction and nuclear parity has ended, at least according to a paper published by Professors Keir Lieber of Notre Dame and Daryl Press of the University of Pennsylvania in the March/April edition of Foreign Affairs. |
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Every year around this time, Muscovites come out of their hiding places and consider adventures that have grown almost unfamiliar over the cold winter: walks, sports, travel. |
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It wasn’t exactly the Turin Games, but there was plenty of international rivalry at the third annual Pig Olympics.
Out of a field of 12 pigs in the roughly 4-meter sprint, the Russians dominated, capturing first and second place, with the French taking third. The Ukrainians, Chinese, Canadians and Latvians went home without medals. |
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ALMATY — A British comedian who angered many Kazakhs with his satirical portrayal of their nation has found an unexpected ally in the Central Asian state — the president’s daughter.
Officials, enraged by Sacha Baron Cohen’s depiction of Kazakhstan as a nation of drunks, racists and sexists, have threatened to sue him and banned his web site in the country. |
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SEOUL — North Korea agreed on Monday to work toward implementing a deal under which Pyongyang would scrap its nuclear weapons programs, but could not be induced to come back to multilateral disarmament talks. |
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BUCHAREST — Thousands of Romanians were evacuated on Sunday night when the swollen Danube burst several waterlogged dikes and officials said on Monday more defenses could break.
The evacuations countered the hopes of local authorities that the worst may be over as Europe’s second longest river had begun to recede from its highest level for a century. |
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IMOLA, Italy — Ferrari fans had almost forgotten how it felt to see Michael Schumacher standing on top of the Formula One podium, happily conducting their Italian national anthem.
The German reminded them at the San Marino Grand Prix on Sunday, with the seven-times world champion capping his record 66th pole position with Ferrari’s first ‘real’ win since October 2004. |
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Issues Archive