LOCAL NEWS

CIS LEADERS GATHER FOR HORSE RACES

MOSCOW — President Dmitry Medvedev gathered leaders from some of Russia’s closest allies at the Moscow hippodrome this weekend for a stylish, though informal, CIS summit, but only half of the group’s presidents showed up.

While racehorses, 11 of which belonged to Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, circled outside, Medvedev hosted Saturday’s talks in a lavish white tent over food and wine, winning a promise from Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev that a much discussed customs union would start Jan. 1. He also managed to set up direct talks between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Nazarbayev said in televised comments that several other CIS members were interested in joining the customs union with Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

BIDEN TO REASSURE UKRAINE OVER ‘RESET’

KIEV — Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Kiev on Monday on a mission to reassure Ukraine that U.S. efforts to repair relations with Moscow will not come at the expense of support for Russia’s ex-Soviet neighbors.

But while Biden’s programs in Ukraine and, later this week, in Georgia, provide opportunities to express U.S. backing in word, his trip was not expected to spur new support from Washington in deed, experts said.

ECOLOGISTS APPEAL TO EUROPE FOR SUPPORT OVER POWER PLANT

Environmental groups from Russia, Lithuania, Belarus and Finland are appealing to the European parliament to help push the Russian authorities to organize an international discussion and public hearings on the construction of the second Leningrad Nuclear Power Station, or LAES-2, which they regard as a highly hazardous project.

Work has already begun on LAES-2, a complex of six power station units with VVER-1200 reactors that is due to complement the existing four 4 RBMK-1000 units of the Leningrad Nuclear Power Station (LAES).

The project’s estimated cost is $10 billion.

Andrei Ozharovsky, a nuclear safety expert with the Moscow-based environmental organization Ecodefense, drew attention to the fact that in 1991 Russia signed the Espoo Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context, which obliges all participating countries to organize public discussions on all potentially hazardous projects, not only within the countries considering them, but in all countries that might be affected by the consequences of an accident.

KADYROV SHOWS OFF HIS HORSES

MOSCOW — Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov basked in the successes of his racehorses at the Central Moscow Hippodrome over the weekend — even though his most prized acquisition placed a disappointing fourth.

Medvedev Targets Teens and Maybe Gymnast Khorkina

MOSCOW — President Dmitry Medvedev indicated on Friday that he is actively looking for young people to join the government and hinted that Olympic medal-winning gymnast Svetlana Khorkina might be in line for a governor’s post.

“There are two charming women sitting here. I mean Svetlana Khorkina and [Nashi activist] Marina Zademidkova.

NATIONAL NEWS

Accountant Given 5 Years For Fiddling Expenses

MOSCOW — An accountant working at a major space enterprise was sentenced Friday to five years in prison for defrauding the company of 3 million rubles ($95,000) by falsifying claims for business trips, RIA-Novosti reported.

Tatyana Kulagina, a finance manager of the Khrunichev State Research and Production Center located outside Moscow, was found guilty by Moscow’s Dorogomilovsky District Court of pocketing money through several schemes, including one in which she claimed that workers had traveled by plane when they actually had traveled by train, a police source told RIA-Novosti.

LOCAL BUSINESS

PUTIN WARNS ON VEB LOAN EXTENSIONS

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Saturday warned United Company RusAl and several other top Russian companies that they would not be able to extend indefinitely the $10 billion in emergency government loans they received last year.

The world’s largest aluminum producer received $4.

TYCOON FAILS TO SHOW UP

Beleaguered entrepreneur Shalva Chigirinsky might not return to Russia after failing to appear for questioning over a tax evasion case involving the Moscow Oil and Gas Company, investigators said Friday.

FLUCTUATING CRUDE PRICE KEEPS RUBLE VOLATILE

Last year, the ruble seemed to embody everything that was wrong with the Russian economy — it was managed but volatile, and prone to the occasional collapse.  

Since last year’s controlled devaluation, the currency had been surprisingly well behaved.

IN BRIEF

Magna Crafts Final Bid

BERLIN (Bloomberg) — Magna International Inc., Canada’s largest car-parts maker, aims to buy a larger stake in General Motors Co.

OPINION

The Price of Wealth

Now that we are at least 30 percent poorer than a year ago due to the devaluation, with another round of it expected, it’s time to examine what money really means to us. No doubt it’s food and a roof over one’s head. To delve a little deeper, money gives people self-confidence, security, power and freedom.