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MOSCOW — Talks between Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Iraqi counterpart Nouri al-Maliki on Friday produced a breakthrough agreement that would allow Russian oil companies such as LUKoil to revive prewar contracts in the Gulf state. A triumphant Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko told reporters just minutes after the meeting that Iraqi authorities had agreed to begin talks on renewing prewar deals, a major departure from Baghdad’s previous stance that Russian companies would have to compete for the fields on an equal footing. “It’s not a minor sensation, it’s major news,” Shmatko said. “A goal has been set to restore the contracts that were concluded before the war. … I believe it’s very serious progress.” LUKoil, Russia’s second-biggest oil producer, and mid-sized oil company Tatneft would be some of the biggest winners if Iraq agreed to honor contracts that were signed before a U. |
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PLAY FOR TODAY
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
A performer with the Derevo theater troupe dances on the stage of the Music Hall. Derevo, which was founded in St. Petersburg by Anton Adasinsky but is now based in Dresden, will perform its “Islands” production at the Music Hall on Tuesday and Wednesday. |
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MOSCOW — A construction company recently rang up the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant to order a bulldozer. But there was a catch: The company lacked the 3.5 million rubles ($106,000) needed to buy the vehicle. No problem, said Stepan Sergeyev, head of the tractor plant’s logistics department. The Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant is now finalizing the sale of the bulldozer in exchange for 3.
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TBILISI — Georgian opposition leaders said on Monday they would move daily street protests to President Mikheil Saakashvili’s office as they fought to maintain momentum in a campaign to force his resignation. Some 20,000 people demonstrated on Monday outside parliament in the former Soviet republic, the fifth day of their protest. |
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MOSCOW — Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday that he wanted to see documentary evidence from Dubai police that Chechen commander Sulim Yamadayev was assassinated there last month. |
All photos from issue.
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MOSCOW — Traffic jams near the Kremlin are a daily headache for many Moscow motorists who are forced to idle while police wave through motorcades for senior officials. But the country’s top road safety official defended the practice of blocking traffic to make way for officials on Friday, saying security concerns come first. “Of course, when we stop traffic even for a few minutes, we get huge traffic jams. But probably, the security of those accompanied by police is more important than this,” Viktor Kiryanov, head of the Interior Ministry’s road safety department, told the State Duma in a question-and-answer session, Interfax reported. |
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HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times
Celebrants prepare to mark Southern Asian New Year, which falls on Tuesday, at the Bangladesh Cultural Center in the House of Nationalities on Mokhovaya Ulitsa. |
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A small oppositional rally in defense of the constitutional right to gather on Nevsky Prospekt, St. Petersburg’s main street, lasted for just 14 seconds before the police took the two protesters, who were standing still holding posters, put them into a police van and took them to a police precinct. It was the third Sunday in a row that activists of the United Civil Front (OGF) and Yabloko Democratic Party had attempted to hold a protest, which the authorities have repeatedly refused to authorize, referring to the fact that metro stations and adjacent territories require “special security measures,” as well as to the “high density and intensity of passenger traffic” in the area.
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Karate Killer MOSCOW (Reuters) — A karate expert has been charged with beating to death a 61-year-old woman and her 25-year-old son, whom he accused of infecting his wife with lice, a state investigator said Friday. The drunken 26-year-old man burst into a neighboring room in his hostel Tuesday in Tatarstan and used karate moves to kill the pair, investigator Eduard Abdullin said. |
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MOSCOW — As top officials this week declared their spouses’ income and property for the first time and, taking a cue from President Dmitry Medvedev, made the declarations public, it emerged that some of them — on paper, at least — are not the main breadwinners in their families. |
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MOSCOW — For most of the decade, the country’s billionaires have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on boats, jets, expensive art and the occasional football team. But, despite strained bank accounts and public outrage, the tycoons have been loath to part with their expensive trinkets, choosing instead to hunker down and wait for better days. |
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MOSCOW — The Defense Ministry said Friday that it had signed a contract to buy drones from Israel in the first such deal aimed at strengthening the armed forces after last year’s brief war with Georgia. |
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 The hotels facing a fine by the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) for price fixing have taken the case to court, which could result in a delay in the fines being issued. West Bridge Hotel company, which owns the Novotel Saint Petersburg Center, and the company Moika 22 which owns the building of the Kempinski Moika 22 hotel opened a case last Tuesday against the St. |
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MOSCOW (Bloomberg) — Russia’s anti-crisis package for business will have more success should the ruble be kept steady within a trading band of 38 to 41 against its dollar-euro basket, the head of the country’s biggest business lobby said. |
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MOSCOW — A national network of consumer cooperatives said Friday that it planned to merge its shops into a new giant company, and state-controlled banks will participate, industry sources said. The move comes as many retailers are facing a decline in consumer spending and heavy debt repayments. |
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MOSCOW — A six-week rally in equity markets and an uptick in investor confidence could make now the right time for cash-strapped but highly rated firms to issue new debt abroad. |
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KIEV — The Ukrainian government said in a statement Friday that Prime Ministers Yulia Tymoshenko and Vladimir Putin would meet later this month, although Russia said a date had not yet been decided. Both sides said the prime ministers spoke by phone Thursday, and the Ukrainian statement said an intergovernmental committee on economic cooperation would meet after April 20. |
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PARIS — French utility GDF Suez said Friday that it was in talks with Gazprom over taking part in the Nord Stream gas pipeline project. GDF Suez chairman and CEO Gerard Mestrallet told reporters that getting a stake in the pipeline was part of its drive to secure and strengthen its gas supplies. |
 MOSCOW — Turkmenistan accused a unit of Gazprom on Friday of violating its gas supply agreement, sharpening its rhetoric in a dispute after a pipeline explosion halted supplies to Russia. Flows from Central Asia’s top gas producer to Russia stopped on Thursday following the blast, which Turkmenistan said had happened because Gazprom Export cut imports without sufficient warning, which led to the rupture. |
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Gazprom to Set Fines KIEV (Bloomberg) — Gazprom may seek as much as $530 million in fines from Ukraine for failing to import contracted volumes of natural gas in March, Kommersant-Ukraine reported, citing an unidentified Gazprom official. |
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MOSCOW — Russian Railways said Thursday that it expected a loss of 49.7 billion rubles ($1.48 billion) this year, compared with a profit of 13.4 billion rubles in 2008, and that it planned to shed 53,700 jobs. The state railway monopoly had a loss of 26. |
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MOSCOW — Alrosa, the world’s second-largest diamond producer, said Friday that it cut its 2009 production plans by one-fifth as the global financial crisis dents demand for the gems. |
 MOSCOW — VTB said Friday that it was taking control of legendary Moscow football club Dynamo to help the financially strapped team repay a loan to the bank for the construction of a new stadium. The team had previously denied that it was having trouble meeting its debt obligations or that any ownership changes had been made, saying it was preparing to announce the terms of a new sponsorship deal with state-controlled VTB. |
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 For the first time in recent memory, the heavy hitters of international election monitoring — the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the Council of Europe and the European Parliament — were in agreement with Russia-led observers from the Commonwealth of Independent States: Moldovan parliamentary elections on Sunday were run more or less in accordance with accepted norms. |
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The Russian government sees some sectors of the economy improving in the second half of 2009. Whether the recovery can be sustained — and, more important, whether the recent good times can return — will largely depend on the price of oil. |
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 MONTE CARLO — Newlywed Roger Federer kept an unusually low profile on Monday as the Monte Carlo Masters kicked into gear with Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic eager to start staking their claims on the clay. Minor seeds without the bye offered to the leading eight got started in the first round along with the rest of the field as Spain’s Oscar Hernandez created French disappointment with his defeat of Julien Benneteau 6-4, 6-4. |
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MANCHESTER — Fulham kept up their challenge for a European place as Clint Dempsey’s double sealed a 3-1 victory at Manchester City on Sunday. After 14 league matches without an away success this season, Roy Hodgson’s side have now won their last two games away from Craven Cottage. |
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LONDON — John Terry believes Guus Hiddink is the only man to lead Chelsea after reports linked the Premier League club with a move for AC Milan boss Carlo Ancelotti. Hiddink has revitalised Chelsea since taking over from Luiz Felipe Scolari on a temporary basis earlier this season. But the Dutchman’s contract runs out in May and his insistence that he will resume his role as Russia coach on a full-time basis has reportedly forced the Blues to sound out Ancelotti about the job. |
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Issues Archive