22.07 Russian Press at a Glance, Monday, July 22, 2013
POLITICS
About 1,000 supporters gathered at a Moscow rail station to greet anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny, who had been sentenced to five years in jail on embezzlement charges but released Friday pending an appeal at the request of the prosecution. Meanwhile, his supporters who covered walls and doors of the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, with stickers and graffiti, now face vandalism charges.
(Kommersant, Moskovskie Novosti, Vedomosti, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Izvestia)
The candidates in Moscows September 8 mayoral elections are preparing to start their campaigns. All acting Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin's opponents said they were ready to take part in the forthcoming TV debates, while Sobyanin's participation is yet to be confirmed.
(Kommersant, Izvestia)
Divisions between the various Syrian opposition groups are growing: Kurdish rebel groups clashed with Al-Qaida-linked militants over oil deposits in the north while radical Islamists are in conflict with the pro-Western Free Syrian Army. The tendency shows that the Syrian civil war is turning into a war of all against all.
(Kommersant)
ECONOMY
The G20 countries are preparing to carry out the biggest tax reform program in the past 100 years, intended to bring hundreds of billions of dollars into national budgets.
(Kommersant, Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
Russia is about to overcome its economic stagnation, Russia's Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Klepach said. July will be the last month of the near-zero economic growth, he said.
(Vedomosti)
METALS & MINING
Mechel, one of Russias leading mining and metals companies, reported selling 100 percent of shares of British-based steel plant Invicta Merchant Bar for 1.1 million pounds ($1.7 million).
(Kommersant)
OIL & GAS
Transneft, which operates the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean oil pipeline, has raised the question of who will finance the upgrade of the pipeline and other export routes to China, after Moscow signed a deal recently to increase its fuel supplies to Beijing.
(Vedomosti)
VEHICLES & ENGINEERING
The number of people employed in Russias car making industry dropped 29 percent in the past five years, although output rose 24 percent.
(Vedomosti)
Sollers, a leading Russian automotive company, proposed setting up a special economic zone for its plant in Vladivostok, in a bid to attract partners from Japan.
(Kommersant)
TELECOMS & IT
Microsoft recorded a $900 million charge in its fourth-quarter earnings, attributed to price cuts for Surface RT tablets. The companys shares fell more than 11 percent on Friday, wiping $34 billion off its value, the biggest plunge since 2009, when the company announced it was cutting 5,000 jobs.
(Vedomosti)
Russias state-owned satellite communications operator, the Russian Space Communications Company (RSCC), and Europes largest satellite communications operator Eutelsat have announced an agreement to lease capacities of Eutelsats Ka-Sat satellite. The deal will bring satellite internet to millions of Russian users.
(Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
BANKING & FINANCE
Andzhibank became the sixth bank from Russias North Caucasus Republic of Dagestan to lose its license this year. The majority of them were closed over falsified financial statements.
(Vedomosti)
CONSUMER
Red caviar prices have rapidly grown in Russia since mid-June. In the Kamchatka Territory, which accounts for 40-60 percent of Russias caviar output, prices have grown by almost 70 percent, to 2,100-2,500 rubles ($65-$77) per kilogram.
(Kommersant)
DEFENSE
Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Klimashin and Special Assistant to the US President and the Cybersecurity Coordinator Michael Daniel are to co-chair the Russian-US presidential cybersecurity group.
(Kommersant)
SOCIETY
After a series of incidents in which people were badly injured or killed with so-called non-lethal firearms, more than half of Russians support a nationwide ban on such weapons. The ruling United Russia party admitted that rules for selling such weapons should be toughened.
(Kommersant)
Three people - two British tourists on a fishing trip and their local guide - were killed in an incident involving a private Eurocopter C120 in Russias Murmansk Region on Sunday.
(Kommersant, Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
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