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SOCHI — A warm sun and lapping waves might be the perfect backdrop for striking a business deal, but as Russia was buffeted by a financial crisis, a storm whipping in off the Black Sea coast seemed to serve the purpose better. As participants at the Sochi investment forum gingerly walked along the shore under umbrellas searching for a round table or food, both of which were hard to find, contracts worth almost $20 billion were being signed. Troika Dialog managing director Andrei Sharonov, who moderated the forum’s opening plenary session at Sochi’s Winter Theater, advised the audience to send text messages if they wanted to buy shares. “The forum regulations do not forbid that,” he said, smiling. |
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HELPING HAND
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
Members of a team from Moscow adjust their robot at the opening of the Eurobot international competition at Lenexpo on Monday. The competition, which ends on Wednesday, is for young scientists and mechanics, with 22 teams, three of them from Russia, taking part this year. |
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SOCHI — Leading Russian and foreign investors reacted with cautious optimism this weekend at an annual gathering in Sochi to an emergency government package aimed at bolstering the country’s bourses but warned that difficulties remain ahead for the markets and the economy itself. “Things don’t just become normal in one day,” David Yakobashvili, chairman of dairy producer Wimm-Bill-Dann, said on the sidelines of the 2008 Sochi International Investment Forum.
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 Well-known local artists gathered Sunday to oppose the authorities’ plans to destroy one of the few surviving courtyard gardens on Petrograd Side and build a business center on the site, amid ongoing infill construction in the city. Film director Alexander Sokurov, ballerina Alla Osipenko and actress Larisa Dmitriyeva were among the people including artists, musicians and local residents who planted “name” trees in the garden on the corner of Syezzhinskaya Ulitsa and Ulitsa Blagoyeva, near the city’s zoo. |
All photos from issue.
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MOSCOW — The son of St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko is threatening to sue a British newspaper that wrote he insisted on staying at Nottingham Castle — of Robin Hood fame — in lieu of a hotel in the city. The story, which appeared Tuesday in the Nottingham Evening Post, said banker Sergei Matviyenko was planning to attend a martial arts competition and had rejected a four-star hotel in favor of staying at the castle. The report, which claimed that he would be arriving with a 40-person entourage, quoted Matviyenko as saying: “I was looking forward to learning more about Robin Hood while staying at this historic place.” The story was picked up by British tabloid The Sun and given the headline: “Russian Can’t Rent Robin’s ‘Hood. |
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 British Ambassador Tony Brenton is stepping down at the end of this month to write a book about Alexander Menshikov, who was the de facto ruler of Russia after Peter the Great’s death. |
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St. Petersburg is regarded as a promising market from which to attract tourists, according to representatives from the Republic of Philippines’ Department of Tourism (DOT) who arrived in the city at the weekend with a mission to promote the country as a new travel destination in South East Asia. |
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SOCHI — French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Saturday that talks on a Russia-EU pact, postponed after the war in Georgia, could resume early next month as Moscow and Paris sought to boost ties in the energy and technology sectors. |
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MOSCOW — The government will propose more tax cuts for the oil industry this year and implement them in 2010, Kremlin economic aide Arkady Dvorkovich said Friday, without giving many details of the plan. President Dmitry Medvedev met top officials Thursday to discuss tax reform after a debate between a pro-growth camp, which wanted a major cut in value-added tax, and fiscal hawks, led by Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin. Following heated exchanges, the two sides agreed to a compromise that postponed a decision on VAT until 2009 and required the government to look instead at cutting taxes on the oil sector. “In effect ... a decision was made on lowering the tax burden for the oil sector,” Dvorkovich told a news conference. |
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 CARACAS, Venezuela — Gazprom was among eight companies that signed deals to develop offshore gas fields with state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela at a ceremony presided over by President Hugo Chavez in the country’s capital Friday. |
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ISTANBUL — Turkey and Russia have resolved a trade spat that Ankara says has cost its exporters more than $1 billion in lost revenue, the state-run Anatolian news agency quoted a senior Turkish official as saying Friday. Turkish exporters began suffering delays late last month at Russian border crossings after Ankara allowed two U. |
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VTB Stocks Jump MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — VTB Group, Russia’s second-biggest bank, jumped Monday after Vedomosti newspaper reported it might agree to acquire Svyaz-Bank as early as that day. |
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 Before heading to Moscow to participate in the recent Valdai Discussion Club, I had the sense that the United States was on the verge of a new era of confrontation with Moscow that could prove far more dangerous and unstable than the previous Cold War. |
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Last week was not easy for banks. The stock market dropped steeply and some of its most active players lost so much that they were unable to meet their liabilities to partners on time. |
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 CAPE TOWN — The ruling African National Congress will name party deputy head Kgalema Motlanthe as South Africa’s caretaker leader after the ousting of President Thabo Mbeki, ANC members of parliament said on Monday. ANC leader Jacob Zuma made clear his backing for Motlanthe as he pledged that the party would ensure a smooth transition and economic policy continuity despite the biggest political crisis since the end of apartheid in 1994. |
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BEIJING — The number of Chinese infants sick in the hospital after drinking tainted milk formula doubled to nearly 13,000 and the country’s top quality regulator resigned on Monday in the latest blight on the “made-in-China” brand. |
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TOKYO — Outspoken nationalist Taro Aso, an advocate of spending and tax cuts to boost the economy, won the race on Monday to become Japan’s next prime minister and swiftly set his sights on an election expected within months. Aso, a former foreign minister, clinched the ruling Liberal Democratic Party leadership vote by a landslide to take over from Yasuo Fukuda, who quit this month just as the economy flirts with recession and faces further damage from turmoil on Wall Street. |
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 LOUISVILLE, Kentucky — An upbeat United States team inspired by rookie Anthony Kim won the Ryder Cup for the first time in nine years on Sunday, beating Europe by 16- points to 11-1/2. Kim crushed Sergio Garcia 5&4 in the top encounter to set the tone for the Americans before Jim Furyk secured the decisive point with a 2&1 victory over Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez at a sun-drenched Valhalla Golf Club. |
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BUENOS AIRES — Teenager Juan Martin del Potro demolished Igor Andreyev in straight sets on Sunday to give Argentina a 3-2 win over Russia and send them into a Davis Cup final against Spain. |
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MOSCOW — Russian premier league leaders Rubin Kazan beat Spartak Moscow 1-0 on Sunday to close in on their first national title. A 15th-minute strike by Serhiy Rebrov proved decisive. The former Ukraine striker also scored the only goal in Kazan’s 1-0 victory over Dynamo Moscow a week ago. Rubin, on 48 points from 22 matches, lead second-placed Dynamo, who beat bottom-of-the-table Shinnik Yaroslavl 2-0 on Saturday, by nine points with eight games remaining. |
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The topic of business schools in Russia and their development has created polemic opinions since their first appearance in the late nineties. Experts and public discussions on this kind of education are becoming more intensive year after year, as the deficit of managers is higher than ever before. The strong support that business schools have from big corporations and the government is due mainly to the fact that Russia’s rapidly developing industry depends on the growth of labor productivity, which would be impossible without boosting the efficiency of management. During the last decade, more than sixty business schools have opened in Russia to satisfy the soaring demand for MBA qualifications. |
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 Since the MBA degree won recognition around the world, international business education has undergone a renaissance in Russia. From the 1990s when the local market emerged, business knowledge has became a condition for professional success. |
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The Faculty of Sociology at St. Petersburg State University offers a two-year multidisciplinary Master’s degree program in Studies in European Societies. The course is run in cooperation with Bielefeld University in Germany, and is taught in English. The program is divided into four different modules, and students study European societies from an economic, political, cultural and sociological perspective. Two second-year students from Norway, Ida Stien Wullun and Hilde Kutshera, said they were very satisfied with the program. “The most attractive part is the international environment in the classroom. Several nations are represented, which makes discussions about European societies very fruitful,” said the students, who are taught by both Russian and German professors. |
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 During the last Baltic PR Weekend, which has been held in St. Petersburg since 2001, participants had the opportunity to talk to Andrei Volkov, a business education expert and vice-dean of Skolkovo Business School in Moscow. |
 Globalization and technology have had a huge impact on the executive education market. The landscape has tremendously changed over the past decade. Many Western economies have entered a period of recession whilst other parts of the world continue to prosper and grow, notably in Asia. |
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Manchester Business School Worldwide is offering an MBA scholarship for Russian students January 2009. The scholarship, which is worth ?8,700 (approx 393,250 rubles) and covers 50 percent of an MBA fees can be won by answering the following question: “Explain in 1,500 words how an MBA from Manchester Business School could benefit your career and your organisation in the context of Russia’s evolving business climate. |
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Women are applying to MBA programs in greater numbers than ever before. The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) reports that currently, 40 percent of those taking the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) test are women. This trend has been confirmed by the Forte Foundation, an organization that promotes women in management. Forte found that for the first time in 15 years, the number of women in business schools has risen significantly. “An MBA can transform your skill set, give you flexibility, and help determine what success means to you,” says Elissa Ellis, Forte Executive Director. “It is a credential offering women optimal opportunities and flexibility in business. |
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 Almost every Soviet child spent at least one month every summer in a pioneers’ camp, where they would learn new skills, try new activities and meet other children. |
 With the success of “The Peculiarities of the National Hunt” (1995) and “The Peculiarities of National Fishing” (1998) and other films with a humorous take on different distinct aspects of Russian life directed by Alexander Rogozhkin and starring Ville Haapasalo, the young Finnish actor was catapulted to stardom in Russia. |
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The American chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer started learning Russian because 40 percent of the world’s chess literature was published in that language. |
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In the Soviet Union, before the start of the school year in September, a school bazaar would be held at which students and their parents would try to find the necessary textbooks and other materials for school. It was a traditional annual ritual that has continued to this day. |
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Finec, International Double Degree Master Programs 21, Sadovaya ul., Tel: 310 1957, E-mail: miba@finec.ru , master.fr@finec.ru www. |
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