POLITICS
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will meet during an offsite session of the Russia-NATO council to be held in Sochi on Monday. The meeting may be crucial in talks on the missile defense system in Europe
(Kommersant, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Izvestia)
A survey by the independent pollster Levada Center shows that 27% of Russians want Vladimir Putin to run for his third presidential term. Dmitry Medvedev is only half that popular among Russians
(Kommersant)
The Communist Party of Russia hopes to gain 35% of the vote at the forthcoming parliamentary elections. Experts are less optimistic, saying the Communists would get slightly more than they did in 2007, when they garnered about 11.6% of the vote
(Kommersant, Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
In his speech at a military parade to mark Belarus’s Independence Day, President Alexander Lukashenko accused external forces of waging a war against his country, using “information weapons of mass destruction.” Meanwhile, police in Minsk used tear gas to disperse demonstrators clapping over the speech.
(The Moscow Times, Kommersant, Moskovskie Novosti, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Nezavisimaya Gazeta)
Warsaw assumed the rotating EU presidency for the next six months. During this period, Poland is expected to prepare a strategic document on developing ties with Russia, including an eased visa regime for the Russian Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad
(Kommersant, Izvestia)
OIL GAS
Russian oil pipeline operator Transneft will soon discuss the expediency of further cooperation with Bulgaria under the trans-Balkan Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline project
(Izvestia)
POWER GENERATION
Russia’s electricity supplies to Belarus resumed only after a direct instruction from President Dmitry Medvedev. The supplies resumed on Saturday, though Belarus repaid its debt on Friday
(Kommersant)
TELECOMS IT
Vkontakte, Russia’s largest social networking site, suggested its users be held liable for distribution of pirated content
(Kommersant)
– The Federal Anti-Monopoly service ruled that the Ru-Center domain names registration center violated anti-monopoly laws. The center will have to pay a fine of almost 240 million rubles ($8.6 million)
(Kommersant, Vedomosti)
BANKING FINANCE
In the largest bailout of a Russian bank since the 2008 crisis, Bank of Moscow, the country’s fifth-largest bank, will receive up to $14 billion in state-backed loans after the discovery that almost one-third of the bank’s assets are “problematic.”
(The Moscow Times, Kommersant, Vedomosti, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Izvestia, Nezavisimaya Gazeta)
DEFENSE
Russian state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport signed a deal to supply aviation engines worth over $500 million to China
(Vedomosti)
AGRICULTURE
Russia lifted its grain export ban imposed last summer in the wake of a severe drought in the country but its comeback to world grain markets is unlikely to be easy, as grain prices are falling worldwide
(Vedomosti, Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
SOCIETY
The number of Russians living below the poverty line in Russia grew by 2.3 million people in the first quarter of 2011, to 22.9 million
(Kommersant)
The Russian Investigation Department said its searches in the Domodedovo Airport offices were conducted as part of a criminal case into poor security, which led to a deadly terrorist attack in January. Spokesmen for Russia’s busiest airport say the searches were held in an attempt to launch criminal cases against the airport’s owners
(Kommersant, Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
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