POLITICS
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will announce Russia’s ultimate stance on the European missile shield before the meeting of NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs in Brussels on December 7-8 (Izvestia)
The United Russia party has demanded that the Communists remove their list of their candidates to the State Duma and the parliamentary assembly in the Perm region over the alleged bribery of voters. (Kommersant)
Only Russia’s ruling United Russia party and the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia will spend more money on the current parliamentary election campaign than in 2007. The rest of election-running parties are in the grasp of a financial crisis. (Vedomosti)
ECONOMY BUSINESS
“Gas wars” between Russia and Belarus are apparently over. Moscow may cut the price of natural gas exports to Minsk by half in 2012, and equal it with domestic prices starting in 2013. (Vedomosti, Izvestia)
Transparency International has criticized the draft legislation on the reform of the Russian system of government contracts as corruption-prone. (Moscow News)
Kremlin economic aide Arkady Dvorkovich proposed on Monday that the government consider introducing a sales tax to replace the backbone of federal finances, the value-added tax. The idea is “stale” and ineffective, experts believe. (Moscow Times, Kommersant, Vedomosti)
Russia’s last domestically-owned tobacco company – Don Tobacco – has been put up for sale. The most likely buyer is Britain’s Imperial Tobacco. (Kommersant)
Consumption of vodka in Russia may be falling by 7.7 percent annually in the future due to increased excise duties. Experts believe that vodka will be gradually replaced by home-brew, wine and beer. (Vedomosti)
DEFENSE
Deputy Defense Minister Mikhail Mokretsov, who has supervised the Armed Forces’ finances since July 2010, may soon lose his job over differences with Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov in how to streamline Russia’s troubled state defense order. (Kommersant)
SOCIETY
Muscovites want to teach their children good manners regardless of costs and time consumption. The Russian capital has registered an increased demand for etiquette courses for children and teenagers. (Moscow News)
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin suggested on Monday that domestic movie makers should develop their industry’s moral code, reducing the amount of violence and promoting human values in their films. (Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
Owners of 19 movie theaters in Moscow have refused to show a German documentary on the life of jailed Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky. (Kommersant)
Russia is to spend up to $60 million on a six-year advertising campaign to bolster its image as a tourist destination. (Moscow Times)
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