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By Svetlana Kononova, Special to Russia Profile
March 10, 2010
Recent data from the Federal State Statistics Service shows that in 2009, foreign investment in Russia dropped by 21 percent to $82 billion. Also, since last year, direct foreign investment has fallen by 41 percent to $16 billion, the federal service reports. As a result of the global financial downturn, which dealt a heavy blow to Russia’s economy, foreign investors withdrew billions of dollars from the country. But will they ever come back?
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By Tom Balmforth, Russia Profile
March 9, 2010
Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus could adopt a single currency in the next phase of development in their Customs Union, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said on Friday. Was this a sign of the union’s deepening economic ties, or the false veneer of alliance? Economists say the rationale for the Customs Union is sound, but the politics has been a different story. Both Kazakhstan and Belarus have reason to resist a single currency. Is there substance to Shuvalov’s comment? Or is he just trying to divert media attention from the stormy Belarus-Russia relationship.
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By Tai Adelaja, Russia Profile
March 9, 2010
The past 18 months have been testy times for young Russians looking to purchase a home they could call their own. But come April, the difficult times may be over, as the government starts paying more serious attention to the idea of using Russian taxpayer money to get at the root of the nation’s mortgage problem: the higher-than-average interest rates that scare off potential borrowers. But does this actually mean that the average Russian citizen will be able to afford a mortgage?
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Introduced by Vladimir Frolov, Russia Profile
March 5, 2010
Ukraine has just had a successful presidential election, choosing Viktor Yanukovich, the leader of the Party of the Regions, as its fourth president. He has promised to embrace relations with Europe while simultaneously renewing ties with Russia, but it is not clear how he will achieve this goal. What will be Ukraine’s foreign policy under president Yanukovich? How will he negotiate the intricate gas-transit relationship with Russia’s Gazprom? How far will Yanukovich move toward Russia? Will he seriously pursue economic integration projects with Russia, like joining the Customs Union and the Single Economic Space? Will he continue on a path toward Ukraine’s membership in the EU?
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Comment by Alexander Arkhangelsky, Special to RIA Novosti
March 5, 2010
It is impossible to defend the two antiheroes of our lost Vancouver Olympics from righteous indignation – Minister Vitaly Mutko and (especially) the President of the Olympic Committee Leonid Tyagachev. Although for the sake of objectivity it should be noted that Mutko assumed ministerial duties a short while ago and he simply didn’t have the time to do anything especially good or especially bad for sports. While his predecessor, Vyacheslav Fetisov, was doomed to endlessly quarrel with Tygachev instead of focusing on his work. This doesn’t mean that Mutko shouldn’t be held responsible for the defeat – formally. But let’s not confuse the target with its background.
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By Roland Oliphant, Russia Profile
March 4, 2010
Last Thursday morning a Mercedes carrying LUKoil Vice president Anatoly Barkov collided with a red Citroen C3, killing two respected doctors, 36-year-old Olga Aleksandrina and 72-year-old Vera Sidelnikova, a prominent gynecologist. Barkov himself was hospitalized with a leg injury, while his driver was not seriously hurt. In the days since a vigorous grassroots movement has emerged to challenge the version of the police that Aleksandrina was to blame, vitriolic rap has been released on the subject, and the Echo of Moscow radio station has been accused of censorship.
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By Tai Adelaja, Russia Profile
March 4, 2010
After years of playing second fiddle to the world’s major grain suppliers like the United States, Canada and the European Union, Russia now appears poised to boost its grain exports, focusing its attention primarily on East Asia. At a recent grain conference in Singapore, Russian grain farmers and union officials trumpeted what seems to be the nation’s new strategic goal of boosting its wheat sales to countries like Japan, China and South Korea. However, as industry experts were quick to point out, Russia’s renewed vigor to plow into new territories is as much a result of strategic planning as a product of desperation.
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By Svetlana Kononova, Special to Russia Profile
March 3, 2010
March 8 is a very special day for every female in Russia. Men on the streets and on the metro carry bouquets of yellow mimosas and colorful tulips, congratulating their mothers, wives and female colleagues. Restaurants, bars and strip clubs are crammed with inebriated women celebrating their holiday. Dating Web sites experience an influx of female visitors, and flower, perfume and makeup retailers make extraordinary profits. But in Russia, International Women’s Day is more than just a holiday – for many, it is also an occasion to reflect on the place of women in present-day society.
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By Roland Oliphant, Russia Profile
March 2, 2010
After the national debacle in Vancouver, the Russian authorities are taking out all the stops to ensure that the Sochi 2014 games are a success. But why is Sochi so important for the ruling elite, and can it turn around its athletes’ fortunes in time for the home performance?
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Photo: Dauvit Alexander, Flikr
Family Leaps to Death After Losing Asylum Bid
Russian diplomats pressed British officials for information Tuesday after media reports said a Russian family of three had jumped to their deaths from an apartment building in Glasgow after being denied asylum. The crumpled bodies of Serge Serykh, 43, his wife Tatyana and his stepson, aged about 20, were found Sunday morning outside of a 30-story building where the family was facing eviction from an apartment on the 15th floor, British media reported.
But three days after their deaths, Russian and British officials had yet to confirm the nationalities of those killed and the circumstances that had led to their apparent suicides. "We have been informed about the tragic incident, but at the moment we have no official information about whether those people were Russians," a Foreign Ministry spokesman told The Moscow Times on Tuesday afternoon.
Serykh had appealed for asylum on the grounds that he feared Canadian security agents might kill him after he unveiled a plot between Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the Times of London reported Tuesday.The Times reported Monday that Serykh believed that he had uncovered a plot by the Canadian government to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II and claimed to be a Federal Security Service agent. The Times, citing an unidentified source, said Serykh had suffered from psychological problems.
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Source: The Moscow Times
New & Updated from Resources Section
Magomedsalam Magomedov
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Ruble Continues Rally To 14-Month Heights
The ruble scaled fresh 14-month highs on Tuesday, increasing speculation that the Central Bank would step up currency interventions or speed up interest rate cuts to keep a fragile economic recovery on track. The ruble has rallied 2.6 percent against its currency basket in the past month, reflecting a 10 percent surge in the price of oil. That has eaten into the ruble value of foreign currency revenues of exporters, including influential energy and commodity giants.
"There are many factors supporting the ruble. Oil is one of them [and] interest rates remain high compared to [close to] zero in other countries," said Vladimir Osakovsky, an analyst at UniCredit. "But the ruble's appreciation is not very favorable for the economy." So far, dealers say the Central Bank has been shifting the ruble's floating trading band by 5 kopecks for each $700 million of interventions at its boundary, as part of a policy to smooth out volatility without stifling market trends.
On Tuesday, the boundary was shifted twice, to 34.50 to 37.50, taking the number of such moves to 10 in the past three weeks, dealers said. The ruble firmed as far as 34.52. The market is now on high alert for any possible changes to the intervention parameters after Central Bank First Deputy Chairman Alexei Ulyukayev said last month that the size of the boundary shifts could be changed, without giving any more details.
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Source: The Moscow Times
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From Revolt to Gaga
By Dmitry Babich
Pyotr Vail, an American citizen, a resident of the Czech Republic and a great Russian writer, died in Prague on December 8 at the age of 60, creating an enormous void in Russian-American cultural relations. More..
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