POLITICS
The Yabloko opposition party proposed that all registered parties sign a memorandum on joint election monitoring.
(Kommersant)
Schools in Bashkortostan voiced plans to join Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s new movement, the All-Russia People’s Front; an entire street joined the association in Vladimir. All new members say they made the decision to join on their own but experts doubt their words.
(Kommersant)
A media leak about Kim Jong-il’s plans to arrive in the Far Eastern Russian city of Vladivostok for a meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev caused the North Korean leader, concerned about his security, to change his mind.
(Kommersant)
ECONOMY BUSINESS
A long-anticipated deal signed Wednesday finalized the merger of Moscow’s two stock exchanges, MICEX and RTS, with the two entities expected to begin operating as a single unit by September.
(Moscow Times, Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
President Dmitry Medvedev’s decision to reduce Russia’s payroll tax will cost the budget 400 billion rubles ($14.3 billion), which may be offset by asset sales and energy income, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Wednesday.
(Moscow Times)
The Russian Central Bank will provide a 150-billion-ruble ($5.4 billion) loan to VTB to save the embattled Bank of Moscow.
(Vedomosti)
The State Duma adopted on a first reading a bill opening access to companies’ confidential information for minority shareholders.
(Vedomosti)
Russian energy giant Gazprom may raise dividends by 50% due to a record profit in 2011.
(Vedomosti)
Russia’s budget policy in the next three years should be aimed at forming a model of economic growth based on private initiative, President Dmitry Medvedev said, adding that the budget should also be based on utilizing innovation and high-quality financial and production infrastructure.
(Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
SOCIETY
A video caught President Dmitry Medvedev narrowly avoiding an incident that would have seen his car drive into a crowd of people in the city of Kazan.
(Moscow Times)
IT
Police forced Russian IT providers to block access to websites with pirated content without a court ruling.
(Vedomosti)
For more details on all the news in Russia today, visit our website at http://en.rian.ru.