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MOSCOW - YUKOS oil company is to remain an integral, operable company and a traded security. The respective statement was made by the representatives of Russia's Federal Finance Markets Service over the meeting with representatives of the capital companies - members of the YUKOS minors' committee held by order to the RF Government, sources with the Federal Finance Markets Service told AK&M. Representatives of Prosperity Capital Management, Atria Advisors, VR Capital Group took part in the said meeting. During the meeting, reps. of the Federal Finance Markets Service said any actions of the authorities to make YUKOS settle back taxes...

MOSCOW - Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov assigned the Finance Ministry to prepare a decree on one-time payments to the relatives of those killed in Tuesday’s air crashes, he said at a meeting with Transport Minister Igor Levitin. For his part, Mr. Levitin said the Transport Ministry was negotiating with the heads of regional administrations and airline companies on the compensations. In particular, the administration of the Volgograd region said it would pay RUR 50,000 (about $1,712) for each crash victim who lived in the region. The Sibir airline company said it would transport the bodies of those who were...

TBILISI - US senator Richard Lugar, the Chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who is visiting Georgia currently, is expected to sign an agreement with this country on increasing the US financial aid to Georgia from $15m to $30m. These resources will be spent on destroying weapons of mass destructions, in particular biological weapon. Lugar is going to visit Georgian military bases. On August 29 the senator told journalists in the Tbilisi airport that it was one of the main targets of his visit. The Georgian State Office reported that the senator would meet with Georgian President Mikhail...

MOSCOW - By GDP growth in the first quarter of 2004, Russia left behind all industrially developed nations of the world. Russia’s GDP grew 7.4 percent in January-March 2004 compared to the same period last year. Based on IMF publications, the Federal Statistics Service established that industrially developed countries are behind Russia. Japan, with its GDP up 5.6 percent, is closest to Russia in terms of GDP growth. In the United States, the GDP grew 4.8 percent, and in the UK – by 3.4 percent. In France, Canada and Italy, the GDP grew by less than 2 percent. Russia is...

MOSCOW - Foreign investment in the Russian economy in the first half of 2004 totaled $19bn, 49.9 percent more than in the same period last year. Foreign direct investment in Russia was $3.427bn, up 35.3 percent compared to Jan.-June 2003. Foreign portfolio investment was $129m, 3.4 times more than last year. Other investments were $15.427bn, 52.9 percent more than in the first half of 2003. Foreigners invested $10.25bn in manufacturing in the first six months of 2004, $6.113bn – in trade and public catering, and $468m – in the sphere of finance, loans, insurance and pension provision, according to the...

SOCHI - Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed amendments to Part 2 of the Russian Tax Code and some other acts of the Russian Federation. According to the amendments, VAT shall not be applied to the exports of oil and natural gas to the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Mayak radio reports. “This was a difficult step for Russia, but we did it deliberately,” the Russian President said during his meeting with Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma. According to Mr. Putin, the passing of the amendments will lead to the reduction in budget revenues at the initial stage....

MOSCOW - The Russian government has approved in principle the federal draft budget for 2005. According to the draft, the budget surplus will be RUR 278.112bn (about $9.5bn). The budget revenues are projected to be RUR 3.327 trillion (about $113.86bn), while budget expenditures are planned to be RUR 3.048 trillion (about $104.3bn). The Stabilization Fund will be RUR 795.3bn (about $27.22bn) by the end of 2005. Based on the average annual price of Urals oil of $28 per barrel, allocations for the Stabilization Fund will be RUR 387.8bn, including RUR 92.2bn for the payment of the foreign debt. A total...

NABEREZHNYE CHELNY - KAMAZ, a major Russian truck producer, has announced its financial and operational results for the first half of this year. Its group net income amounted to RUR150.2m (about USD5.179m) compared to a net loss of RUR121m (about USD4.172m) for the first half of 2003. However, its group revenue jumped by 18 times to RUR12.2bn (about USD420m). The company produced vehicles worth RUR16.305bn (about USD562m), which is a 25.9-percent annual increase. The company sold 13,578 trucks in the January to June period, which is a 31.6-percent annual increase. KAMAZ sold 20,040 cars in the January to June...

MOSCOW - $25.248bn in oil export revenues has been transferred to the transit foreign currency accounts of Russian companies in the first half of 2004, 32.7 percent more than a year earlier, the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation reported. In June 2004, the average actual price of oil exports was $217.3 per ton, 19.7 percent more than in June 2003 and 0.6 percent more than in May 2004. The price for Urals oil was $234.3 per ton in June 2004, which is 13.5 percent more than in June 2003 and 9.3 percent less than in 2004. Oil...

No description (TRJ) E-Mail this article Comments to Editor Discussion Forum Printer-Friendly Advertisement For a decade Washington has been backing the Turkish and Azerbaijan governments to steer the export of Caspian region crude oil away from Russia. Russia's newest riposte has been to ally the Russian and Iranian oil industries, and open up the shortest, cheapest, and most lucrative oil route of all, southwards out of the Caspian to Iran. The economics of the southward route are the latest blow for the Bush Administration, as it tries to redraw the geography of the Caucasus on an anti-Russian map. But for...

MOSCOW - There are no problems left in the energy sector between Russia and Belarus, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared at a meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko held in the resort town of Sochi (Russia), Mayak radio reported. According to Putin, hindrances in the energy sector have been eliminated since agreements in the gas sector have been achieved. The Russian President stressed that Gazprom and Beltransgaz were working out plans of cooperation for 2005. Putin noted that growth in trade between the two countries had been 38 percent over the past 6 months, "which was the result of activities...

Can anyone please post to me a graphic I seen here...it is of 4 flags with Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant and Jewish signs...says something to the like of United We Stand...or something like that...any other such graphics also very welcome...especially any that show Islam for what it is...thank you.

MOSCOW, August 12 (Itar-Tass) - President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said that Russia would considerably increase its defence spending in 2005. “The increase will account for approximately 40% on this year’s spending,” Putin told a meeting of the heads of Russian force and financial agencies. Putin said that the country was facing complex defence tasks, which require it to spend more on these purposes. For his part, Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, who was also present at that meeting, said that “the 2005 defence order was supposed to increase by 40%, an equivalent to nearly 70 billion roubles in money...

The Ministry of Taxation of the Russian Federation has reported the taxes and fees collected for the period January–June 2004. The data show that the 13% flat tax on personal income continues to achieve very positive results. During January–June 2004, the Ministry of Taxation collected 252.4 billion rubles ($1 = R29.1) in personal income tax receipts, an increase of 27.7% over the comparable period in 2003. After adjusting for annualized inflation of about 11–12% in the first half of 2003, personal income tax revenue rose at an annualized real rate of about 16% in the first half of 2004 as...

The adoption and success of the flat tax in a growing number of countries in Central and Eastern Europe, including Estonia, Latvia, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, and Ukraine, has prompted interest in several other countries around the world. On July 22, 2004, Hungary's finance minister, Tibor Draskovics, a member of the Socialist Party, stated that he was prepared to examine the possibility of a flat-rate income tax if it did not favor wealthy taxpayers. He made this comment in response to a proposal offered the previous week by his junior liberal coalition party, the Free Democrats, which proposed a 30% optional...

RUSSIA DECRIES GEORGIAN THREAT TO BLACK SEA SHIPPING 12.08.2004 | 07:30:43 | Views: 62 Russian Defense Minister Sergi Ivanov, for his part, condemned Saakashvili's statement as "piracy" and "inconsistent with international law.” RUSSIA DECRIES GEORGIAN THREAT TO BLACK SEA SHIPPING The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement condemning Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's harsh warning that the Georgian navy will open fire on any vessels that attempt to enter the port at Sukhum, capital of the Republic of Abkhazia, without obtaining prior permission to do so from the Georgian authorities. Noting that the threat extends to boats bringing Russian tourists...

MOSCOW - South Ossetian authorities have issued an ultimatum to Tbilisi saying that if Georgians do not stop firing at Tskhinvali, they will face a military operation held by Ossetian servicemen. This morning Georgians started firing at Ossetia again after almost a daylong ceasefire. Propelled gun shooting damaged an Ossetian hospital. According to recently announced data, 3 people were injured in the incident. Georgians used anti-aircraft guns during today's assault, witnesses say, the First Channel reported. However, Georgians say that 3 people died and 2 were injured after Ossetians fire at Georgian towns, the Rustavi-2 television reported. Georgian Prime Minister...

MOSCOW - The volume of production of cars of foreign makes will increase by almost threefold to 146,000 automobiles in 2004, Nikolay Sorokin, the deputy chief of the Department of Industrial Production of the Industrial Production and Energy Ministry of Russia, declared at a news conference yesterday. According to him, 54,800 cars of foreign makes were made in Russia during the first six months of this year, while the total number of such cars made in 2003 was 53,600. Sorokin added that the corresponding figure would reach 400,000 cars by 2010. According to Sorokin, the number of cars produced by...

MOSCOW - Russia on Wednesday accused Georgia, which has threatened to shoot at boats taking Russian tourists to the breakaway region of Abkhazia, of losing its grip on reality. Every summer thousands of Russians spend their holidays in Abkhazia's Black Sea resorts – worn out and lacking infrastructure, but extremely cheap. Boats, cruising along the Black Sea coast, offer the easiest way from Russia to Abkhazia, at Georgia's northwestern tip. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, who seeks to bring Abkhazia and another separatist region, South Ossetia, back under Tbilisi control after nearly 14 years of effective independence, on Tuesday urged Russian...

From now on Russian tourists are undesired guests in Abkhazia. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili made this statement late on Tuesday, the NTV television reports. According to the Georgian leader, “the territory where Georgian blood shed, and where Georgians’ heads were used to play football with is not the right place for so-called Russian tourists.” “If you decide to travel to Abkhazia from Sochi by boat, you have to live with the incident that happened last Saturday.” On that day, the Georgian coast guard opened fire on a Turkish vessel en route to Sukhumi (Abkhazia). “I made an order several...