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MOSCOW — Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin announced Friday that the state would invest $6.7 billion from the National Welfare Fund into “secure, high-yield” Russian securities, just after hisprediction that the market’s troubles would continue sent stocks tumbling. The $48.7 billion welfare fund is currently invested in foreign bonds, including ones issued by government-affiliated agencies in the United States and Britain. Kudrin said the investment in securities could start as soon as Monday. The money will add to the more than $200 billion that the government has set aside for the financial sector, $86 billion of which has been allocated to boost banks’ liquidity. Still, economists and analysts say the measure will have little effect on the market unless it is immediately detailed and put into action. |
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NEW DAWN
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
Naval cadets taking their oath of service on the Aurora Cruiser upon graduation from the St. Petersburg Marine Technical College on Friday. For the first time women have been allowed to graduate from the college, with 55 female graduates among the 1,200 cadets in the college. |
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MOSCOW — The Kremlin signaled Sunday that it was in no hurry to confirm its participation in an international summit called by U.S. and EU leaders to tackle the global financial crisis over the weekend. The apparent reluctance to join other world leaders came as a senior government official said that unlike in the West, there was no crisis in Russia.
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 An anti-draft march, originally scheduled for Oct. 12 but banned by the authorities, was instead held as a stationary demonstration on Sunday. Several dozen protesters came to a standing demo, originally called the March for an All-Volunteer Army, held in place of the banned event. |
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MOSCOW — The Federal Mass Media Inspection Service has renewed the broadcast license for the cartoon network 2x2, despite warnings from prosecutors that the channel aired an “extremist” episode of “South Park” and violated children’s rights by broadcasting shows such as “The Simpsons. |
All photos from issue.
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MOSCOW — The Moscow Arbitration Court reduced a tax claim against the British Council on Friday, triggering hopes for a resolution to a bitter dispute that has closed several of its offices. The court made the ruling after the council, the cultural arm of the British Embassy, complained that a claim for unpaid taxes from 2004 to 2006 was too high, the council said in a statement, without providing exact figures. British Council spokesman Antony Watson would not confirm reports that said the court had thrown out most of the claim. “The details are incredibly complex, and we are reviewing the judgment with our lawyers,” Watson said by telephone from London. |
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HELPING HAND
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
A baby being treated at the burns unit of Children’s Hospital No. 1. On Monday, three British men arrived having driven non-stop for six days from Glasgow, Scotland to make a donation of $10,000. |
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MOSCOW — An international arrest warrant has been issued for an Icelandic exchange student who accidentally shot and killed her host brother in the southern city of Astrakhan, the Investigative Committee said Friday. It was unclear if the case might affect a request by Reykjavik for a multibillion-dollar loan from Moscow to bail out its struggling financial sector.
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The number and volume of mortgages issued in St. Petersburg fell by almost 30 percent during the third quarter of this year. From June to September, 3,901 mortgages were taken out in St. Petersburg, totaling 10,739.2 million rubles ($408 million). Until now, the mortgage market had only ever seen positive growth. |
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MOSCOW — The Carlyle Group is suing steelmaker NLMK to force it to complete a $3.5 billion deal to buy U.S. tubular steel maker John Maneely, one of Russia’s biggest merger deals this year. |
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Deripaska Seeks Funds MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska is looking to raise funds to repay part of the $4.5 billion borrowed to buy GMK Norilsk Nickel, the Financial Times reported, citing two unidentified people familiar with the deal. |
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MOSCOW — The government is stepping up its efforts to help domestic airlines struggling with high jet fuel prices, calling for long-term contracts between oil companies and carriers. |
 MOSCOW — Vneshekonombank said Friday that it would buy midsized Bank Globex, which had acute liquidity problems, making it the fourth bank among Russia’s top 50 to be effectively nationalized in the past few weeks. State-owned VEB said it would take over the troubled bank for a symbolic 5,000 rubles ($190). |
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 Given how rapidly Russia moved from near-bankruptcy in 1998 to what seemed like unprecedented prosperity in 2007 and early 2008, perhaps we should not be surprised that Russian financial markets have been hit even harder than those in the United States, Europe and Asia. |
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Prime Minister Vladimir Putin recently said that the financial crisis has undermined confidence in the United States as the leader of the free world and destroyed trust in Wall Street — perhaps forever. |
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 JERUSALEM — Tzipi Livni will have another two weeks to try to form a government and become Israel’s prime minister after receiving on Monday an extension to an original 28-day presidential mandate to put together a coalition. Foreign Minister Livni, elected leader of the centrist Kadima party last month, would take over as prime minister from Ehud Olmert, who resigned in a corruption scandal but remains in office until a new government is established. |
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KABUL — Two Taliban gunmen on a motorcycle killed a British woman aid worker in the Afghan capital on Monday, accusing her of spreading Christian propaganda. |
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SILIVRI, Turkey — A shadowy right-wing group went on trial in Turkey on Monday on charges of trying to topple Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s government. Eighty-six people, including retired army officers, politicians, lawyers and journalists, are accused of planning assassinations and bombings to sow chaos and force the military to step in. |
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FAYETTEVILLE, North Carolina — Democrat Barack Obama won the support of former Republican Secretary of State Colin Powell on Sunday and announced he raised a record $150 million last month, dealing a double blow to rival John McCain’s presidential campaign. |
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LONDON — The key to Madonna’s enduring appeal has been to stay one step ahead of the game in the famously fickle world of pop. But a successful musical career does not always equal harmony at home, and the performer announced on Wednesday that she and British film director Guy Ritchie were divorcing eight years after their fairytale wedding in Scotland. |
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 MADRID, Spain — Fourth-ranked Andy Murray beat Gilles Simon of France 6-4, 7-6 (6) Sunday to win the Madrid Masters. The U.S. Open finalist became the first Briton to win four titles in a season. He will be the first Briton in the Open era since Fred Perry in 1936 to finish the year at No. |
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SHANGHAI — Lewis Hamilton turned discipline into dominance at the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday and trusted the same calm approach would lead him to the Formula One title in Brazil next month. |
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LONDON — Hull City gatecrashed the Premier League’s top four again on Sunday with a 1-0 home defeat of West Ham United — their fifth win in eight league games in their debut season in the top flight. Stoke City, another of the promoted clubs, beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 later to leave the London club rooted to the bottom of the table with just two points. |
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