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MOSCOW — When equity markets were climbing, credit was flowing freely and the economy was prospering, many satisfied minority shareholders with stakes in profitable Russian companies did not concern themselves with issues of corporate governance and shareholder rights. But Russian equity markets have fallen about 70 percent since their all-time high in May and cash-strapped oligarchs have been driven to take desperate measures to avoid margin calls and hang onto their assets. Now, broaching the topic with some distressed investors is likely to evoke a stream of expletives. After one such bout, Ian Hague, the director of Firebird Management, sighed heavily and apologized. |
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MISS WORLD
Siphiwe Sibeko / Reuters
Ksenya Sukhinova of Tyumen, Russia, watches as Zulu traditional dancers perform after she was crowned Miss World at the Sandton Convention Center in Johannesburg on Saturday. |
 Dozens of protesters were arrested Sunday during an anti-Kremlin protest in St. Petersburg aimed at the government’s handling of the economy and constitutional changes that prolong presidential terms. The police said more than 60 protesters were detained near the Gostiny Dvor mall on Nevsky Prospekt, St. Petersburg’s main street, where the opposition groups had gathered, while more than 100 activists were reportedly detained at a similar event in Moscow.
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It has been less than six months since Maxim Reznik, the leader of the St. Petersburg branch of the democratic party Yabloko and one of City Hall’s most vocal critics, was cleared of physically assaulting three policemen, but now the politician appears to have once again landed in hot water. Police are looking into the circumstances of an incident on Sunday that saw two young men reportedly shower Reznik with slops and dung while filming the assault. |
All photos from issue.
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MOSCOW — The severed head of a Tajik man murdered last week in an apparent hate crime was discovered in a dumpster in western Moscow, investigators said Thursday. In a disturbing twist, an obscure ultranationalist group claimed responsibility for the slaying by e-mailing a photograph of the victim’s detached head to two human rights organizations, the groups said Thursday. The victim’s head was discovered wrapped in a plastic bag in a dumpster Wednesday on Ulitsa Tolbukhina, near Kuntsevskaya metro station on the Moscow western outskirts, the Investigative Committee said in a statement. |
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LET THERE BE LIGHT!
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
Church-goers bearing candles take part in the Santa Lucia Festival of Light at the Swedish Church of St. Catherine on Malaya Konyushennaya Ulitsa on Friday. |
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MOSCOW — At least 12 people were killed and several others injured in a blast in a Murmansk region mine where raw materials are extracted for producing fertilizers, officials said Friday. The blast at the Rasvumchorrsky mine, outside the Arctic town of Kirovsk, occurred at around 8:30 p.m. Thursday as workers were arranging explosives in preparation for a controlled blast, Irina Gretskaya, a regional Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman said by telephone.
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MOSCOW — President Dmitry Medvedev defended a recent constitutional amendment extending presidential terms from four to six years, but was heckled by an opposition activist during a speech on Friday, Constitution Day. Addressing officials and legal scholars at the Kremlin, Medvedev suggested the proposed amendment would prepare the country to confront 21st-century challenges. |
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MOSCOW — Sociologist Yevgeny Gontmakher has painted a disturbing picture of what might emerge from the financial crisis. As Gontmakher sees it, a provincial industrial town will see huge protests after massive layoffs at its main factory next year. |
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MOSCOW — The fur industry is awash with chat about the crisis — the crisis of another mild Russian winter cutting demand for the coats considered part of its heritage. This year’s total fur sales — mainly coats — will halve to about $2.5 billion, and 2009 will remain tough, said Sergei Stolbov, head of the Russian Fur Union. |
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MOSCOW — Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Klepach was forced to clarify his comments Friday after saying the country has entered a recession that might last through the first two quarters of 2009. “The recession has already begun and, I’m afraid, it won’t end in two quarters,” Klepach said, Interfax reported. |
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Auto Tariff Protests MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russia’s plan to raise tariffs on imports of foreign cars drew protests in the far-eastern city of Vladivostok on Sunday, Agence-France Presse reported. |
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The financial meltdown has led automakers to urgently increase the price of their most popular models, while the decline in car export volume continues. Several major automobile producers operating in Russia have announced that the prices of their cars will increase after the upcoming holiday season. |
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Like many other sectors of the economy, the manufacturing industry currently faces the threat of job losses and wage cuts as production rates fall. Local recruitment experts are divided on the general outlook for personnel in the manufacturing sphere for next year. |
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The outlook for Russian manufacturing seems gloomier than ever after output in November shrank to 39.8 points, its lowest level, from 46.4 in October, according to Vneshtorgbank Europe. Analysts say it is the worst manufacturing result since the 1998 financial collapse: in September that year, the index’s figure was 43. |
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MOSCOW — Novolipetsk Steel, controlled by billionaire Vladimir Lisin, on Friday joined the growing list of the country’s steel majors to cut full-year guidance in response to plummeting fourth-quarter demand. |
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MOSCOW — German manufacturer Daimler inked a deal Friday to purchase 10 percent of Russian truck maker KamAZ at a price 3.5 times the stake’s current market value. The deal calls for $250 million to be paid immediately, and another $50 million to be paid in 2012 if the business develops favorably, Troika Dialog CEO Ruben Vardanyan said Friday, after the deal was signed by Daimler, Troika Dialog, KamAZ, and state corporation Russian Technologies. |
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 Sovereign credit analysts endeavor to “rate through the cycle.” This means taking a long-term view on the creditworthiness of a national economy, regardless of whether total output is growing above or below its potential, or of any temporary decrease or increase in the borrowing needs of a government or the broader economy. |
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Democracy is useless in national emergencies. In good times, perhaps, societies can afford the horse-trading needed to achieve consensus, but they had better dispense with the democratic niceties when push comes to shove. |
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BAGHDAD — The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush in a supreme insult has suddenly become the talk of Iraq. The little known Shi’ite reporter said to have harbored anger against Bush for the thousands of Iraqis who died after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, had previously made headlines only once, when he was briefly kidnapped by unknown gunmen in 2007. |
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LONDON — Triple Olympic track cycling gold medalist Chris Hoy was named the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year on Sunday to cap a remarkable night and year for the sport. The Scot finished ahead of Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton and double Olympic swimming gold medalist Rebecca Adlington in a vote by the British public. |
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LONDON — Chelsea missed the chance to reclaim top spot in the Premier League when they were held to a 1-1 home draw by West Ham United Sunday, a day after Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal also drew. |
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 ATHENS — The ferocity of rioting by frustrated young Greeks shocked many across Europe but provides a warning to the continent’s leaders as they discuss ways to confront the global economic crisis. Seven days of protests, which caused hundreds of millions of euros of damage across 10 Greek cities, were triggered by the police shooting of a teenager on Dec. |
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Issues Archive