The State Duma decided to amend the entry procedures for foreigners coming to Russia to require them to buy medical insurance. As explained by Alexey Zhuravlev, the State Duma deputy from the “United Russia” party, who initiated the measure, this is necessary in order to stop the illegal “medical tourism,” when citizens of the Commonwealth […]
Economics
Russian Railways Will Borrow NWF Funds For a Long Time
Russian Railways is under considerable scrutiny of late. Its President, Vladimir Yakunin, has been accused of fraud by opposition leader Alexei Navalny. In a recent ruling, Russian Railways managers will have to report their income and expenditures to the government, which meets some demands of the opposition, but perhaps only in appearance. Russian Railways is also […]
Investors See “Gazprom” at the Bottom
“Our everything” is rapidly melting away, so far at least in the eyes of potential investors in the shares of the largest Russian company. According to the 2013 Financial Times Global 500 rating issued yesterday, Gazprom took 57th place after sliding down by 26 notches in just one year. It is no longer one of […]
Economic Authorities Are Not Afraid of Recession, But There’s Another Danger – Stagnation
Since the beginning of the year the growth of industrial production and the Russian economy as a whole has almost stopped. However Alexei Ulyukaev, the new chief of the Ministry of Economic Development, is confident that it will not result in a recession. Officials and a number of independent experts expect a recovery in growth […]
Ministry of Communications takes away Operators’ Frequencies to Build an LTE Network
The Ministry of Communications (Mincomsvyaz) intends to withdraw some of the frequencies used by the “Big Four” telecom companies to build a fourth generation network and transfer the frequencies to a newly established state-owned company. Operators are outraged. The Ministry of Communications (Mincomsvyaz) submitted to the Presidential Administration a draft executive order on redistribution of […]
Finance Ministry Warns of Potential “Privatization Hole” in Budget
Russia’s budget may be short 887 billion rubles from the privatization program of 2014-2016, according to a draft of the basic trends in the budget policy obtained by RIA Novosti. The document has not been officially reported. Sources at the Ministry of Finance indicate that the privatization plan forecast revenue for the budget of 230 […]
Putin’s Plans for the G8
In the run-up to the G8 Summit in Northern Ireland (17-18 June) and the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (20-22 June), Vladimir Putin gave a long and rather dull interview to RIA Novosti on Russia’s priorities in foreign economic policy. Slon.ru has selected the most significant themes: What can be expected from these G8 and […]
Regime Moves Toward Intellectual Bankruptcy
Sergei Guriyev, one of Russia’s best economists and administrators of economics scholarship, has resigned from his post of dean of the Russian Economic School (RES) and has refused to run for a seat on the supervisory board of Sberbank. Guriyev is in Paris for now, where his family lives and where his wife, the brilliant […]
Liberal Emigration Wave: Why Sergei Guriyev May Leave Russia
Sergei Guriyev, dean of the Russian Economic School, has resigned of his own accord from the supervisory board of Sberbank and has written a request not to include him as a candidate in the voting list at the annual meeting of the bank’s shareholders. Sberbank announced this 28 May, adding that Guriyev explained his wish […]
Moscow Mayor is Poorer Than His Deputies
Many deputies of the mayor surpassed him on that indicator. The total sum of the income declared by Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin for 2012 was 5. 3205 million rubles, according to information on his income, property and liabilities published on the official city government site. The mayor’s income for 2011 was 5.718 million. In 2012, […]