20.06 Russian Press at a Glance, Thursday, June 20, 2013
POLITICS
US President Barack Obama has proposed cutting another third of the US and Russian nuclear arsenals, including strategic and tactical weapons. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Russia would thoroughly study the proposal. According to Kommersant, the United States expects Russia to respond before October.
(Kommersant, Vedomosti, Izvestia)
Direct talks between the United States and the Taliban movement will be held on Thursday in Qatars capital Doha ahead of the planned US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan next year. Meanwhile, the government in Kabul has suspended its talks with the US on a bilateral security agreement because of the meeting. However, Afghan President Hamid Karzai will send his own delegation to Doha.
(Kommersant, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Izvestia)
Russias major opposition parties have nominated their candidates to run in the Moscow mayoral elections due this autumn. However, none of the candidates has the potential to become a serious rival to acting Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin.
(Kommersant, Vedomosti)
ECONOMY
The 2013 St. Petersburg Economic Forum will open in Russias second largest city on Thursday. The budget for the event this year stands at one billion rubles ($30.8 million), more than during the previous years.
(Vedomosti)
METALS & MINING
The government of Russia's republic of Yakutia has persuaded the federal authorities to drop plans for privatizing diamond miner Alrosa. The state will retain a controlling stake with only 41 percent of the company's shares cleared for sale to private bidders. The plans might be reviewed in 2016, however.
(Kommersant, Vedomosti)
OIL & GAS
Talks between Russian gas giant Gazprom and Chinas CNPC about gas sales to China may again stall in the near future. According to Kommersant, the Chinese company's new top management wants to review a previously agreed gas pricing formula.
(Kommersant)
VEHICLES & ENGINEERING
Russias state corporation Rostechnologii (Rostec) has failed to find funds to acquire 50 Boeing 737 Next Generation aircraft for flagship air carrier Aeroflot in 2013-2017. The deal, worth more than $4 billion and already described as one of the largest contracts on the Russian aviation market, will now be carried out by an affiliate of the state-owned VTB lender.
(Kommersant, Vedomosti)
Russian carmaker AvtoVaz expects car sales to drop about 10 percent in 2013, compared to last year.
(Vedomosti)
POWER GENERATION
Gazprom may soon announce the purchase of a Belgian thermal power plant from Enel for 200 million euro ($265 million).
(Vedomosti)
Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency will convene in St. Petersburg in late June to discuss the future of nuclear power generation industry.
(Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
REAL ESTATE
The demand for town houses has been growing steadily in Moscow. The reason behind the growth in demand is the price per meter for such housing - a terrace house with an area of about 100-150 square meters with a small plot of land near Moscow costs about the same as a smaller two-room apartment in the capital.
DEFENSE
Shortly after the G8 summit in the United Kingdom, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited a defense plant near St. Petersburg, where he inspected modern military equipment, including the new Vityaz air defense missile system.
(Kommersant, Izvestia)
SOCIETY
Russian opposition figures Sergei Udaltsov and Leonid Razvozzhaev were charged with organizing last years May 6 unrest in Moscow.
(Kommersant, Izvestia)
Businessman Sergei Polonsky, who was charged with fraud in Russia while still under investigation for an assault in Cambodia, now intends to apply for Israeli citizenship. His lawyer Diana Totosova said the required formalites have almost been completed.
(Kommersant)
A major earthquake, the strongest in the past years, was recorded in Siberias Kemerovo Region, causing panic in some areas. The authorities estimate the damage at hundreds of millions rubles, but no casualties have been reported so far.
(Kommersant, Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
Despite the recent positive trends in Russias ratio of births and deaths, the country has only five years to improve its demography, otherwise it will find itself in a dire demographic situation
(Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
For more details on all the news in Russia today, visit our website at www.en.rian.ru
