The Moscow Times

Market Matters: Markets Lose Steam After St. Pete Bump
As Russia's business and political elite wound up their weekend gathering in St. Petersburg, the local markets received a short-term lift, but wider concerns over global inflation lingered through the week.

News

Oil Enriching Nenets, Bankrupting Traditions
By Miriam Elder / Staff Writer When an airplane carrying LUKoil workers crashed in the far north of this Arctic region three years ago, killing 29 of 52 people on board, many blamed the weather.

TNK-BP Woes Might Be Inside Job
By Miriam Elder / Staff Writer The Russian billionaires who own half of TNK-BP are locked in a fierce struggle over the fate of the embattled oil firm, prompting the flurry of negative activity that hit the company last month, sources said Thursday. Mikhail Fridman, the head of Alfa Group and the country's fourth-richest man, is urging fellow shareholder Viktor Vekselberg, head of Renova, to sell their combined share in TNK-BP at a lower valuation, sources close to the company said.

UN Head Looks to Moscow for Funds
By Anna Smolchenko / Staff Writer United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday expressed hope that Russia would increase its annual contributions to the global body and threw his weight behind Moscow's ambitions to host a Middle East peace conference.

American Charged With Visa Scam
The Associated Press A Beverly Hills man has been arrested on charges that he used his English language schools as a front to get student visas for Russian prostitutes and other ineligible foreigners.

Yaroslavl Man on Trial for Poisonings
Reuters A Yaroslavl man is facing life in prison for killing at least six people, including his wife and daughter, by adding poison to their food and watching their agonizing deaths, national media reported.

Baby Mammoth Opening Up
By Dmitry Solovyov / Reuters Russian scientists say they have obtained the most detailed pictures so far of the insides of a prehistoric animal, with the help of a baby mammoth called Lyuba found immaculately preserved in the Russian Arctic.

Khitrovka Residents Say Area Facing New Threat
By Anna Malpas / Staff Writer An eight-story office block threatens to blight the skyline of what was once one of the city's most dangerous districts.

Soyuz Docks With International Space Station
The Associated Press A Soyuz spacecraft carrying South Korea's first astronaut docked successfully at the international space station Thursday.

Bout Makes Plea to Kremlin for Help in Getting Released
AP, MT Russian citizen Viktor Bout, accused of being one of the world's top black-market arms dealers, pleaded with the Kremlin to help secure his release in a televised statement from a Thai prison.

Kaczynski Softens Russia Stance
By Agnieszka Flak / Reuters Polish President Lech Kaczynski sought on Thursday to soften his remarks linking EU partnership talks with Russia with Georgia's and Ukraine's future membership in NATO.

Putin May Take Envoys Along to White House
Reuters, MT Regional envoys might be tied to the government, increasing the powers of the prime minister.

Nepalis Head to Polls in Historic Vote
Reuters Praying that it will bring their country lasting peace after a decade of war, Nepalis trekked and lined up from dawn Thursday to cast their vote in a historic election, the country's first in nine years.

Technology Giants Spar Over Yahoo
Reuters Yahoo, which was widely believed to be running out of alternatives to accepting Microsoft's takeover offer, has become a target of two warring camps of technology giants and their media allies, sources said on Wednesday.

China Says It Foiled Terror Plot
The Associated Press China said Thursday that it had uncovered a criminal ring planning to kidnap athletes and others at the Beijing Olympic Games. The ""violent terrorist gang"" was based in the restive western Xinjiang region and headed by a man identified as Abdulrahman Tuersun, Public Security Ministry spokesman Wu Heping said at a news conference. He also gave more details on a second alleged ring that had been uncovered in January.

Business

Nabiullina Challenges Chemezov's Asset List
By Max Delany / Staff Writer A source says she is particularly concerned about interest in passenger airlines and KamAZ.

Ukraine Parliament Ratifies WTO Deal
Reuters Ukraine's parliament ratified a protocol on joining the World Trade Organization on Thursday, clearing the final hurdle to membership after more than 14 years of negotiations.

Rozhetskin Suspect Identified
The Moscow Times The man arrested last week in connection with the disappearance of Russian-born American businessman Leonid Rozhetskin is his Latvian housekeeper Anatoly Demchenkov, a local police spokesman said Thursday.

VTB Says 2007 Profit Rose 30%
Bloomberg VTB Group, the country's second-largest bank, said Thursday that 2007 profit climbed a more-than-estimated 30 percent as lending doubled. Net income climbed to $1.48 billion, or 0.024 cents a share, from $1.14 billion, or 0.022 cents the previous year, the state-run bank said in a statement. That exceeded the $1.4 billion median estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Khristenko Sees Oil Tax Cut Consensus
Bloomberg The country will cut taxes on oil companies to overcome production ""stagnation"" after a decade of growth, Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko said Thursday.

LUKoil '07 Net Profit Surges 27% on Rising Output, Prices
Reuters LUKoil, the country's second largest oil producer, reported on Thursday a better-than-expected rise in 2007 earnings on the back of higher output and oil prices, as well as effective cost control.

2 Regions Claim $170Bln From Total
Reuters, Bloomberg The regions of Volgograd and Saratov are claiming up to $170 billion from oil group Total in a legal case going back to the tumultuous expansion at Elf Aquitaine, now part of Total, the Le Figaro newspaper said Thursday.

Gazprom May End Year as No. 2 Earner
By Anatoly Medetsky / Staff Writer Propelled by historically high oil prices, Gazprom is poised to earn enough cash in 2008 to end the year as the world's second most profitable company.

Opinion

Georgian Spring
By Gregory Dubinsky NATO's decision not to offer Georgia an immediate path to membership appears at first glance to be a blow to Washington. Although the NATO secretary-general announced that Ukraine and Georgia would eventually become members, Russia's envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, confidently predicted that nothing would change anytime soon.

Sports

Rogge Admits It's Crisis Time
By Stephen Wilson / The Associated Press International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said Thursday that the turmoil surrounding the Beijing torch relay and the politically charged buildup to the Summer Games posed a ""crisis"" for the Olympic movement.

Business in Brief

Business in Brief
Sberbank Eying AcquisitionsForeign Car Sales Surge 54%Gaming Law UncertaintyReserves at Record $508BlnIlim Project ApprovedPutin Wants Tax IncentivesBudget Suprlus in Q1

The Language of Lust, Love and Cheating
By Michele A. Berdy As part of my Spring Self-Improvement Plan, I thought I would make my way through sem' smertnykh grehov (seven deadly sins). Let me restate that. I thought I'd read about the seven deadly sins in order to better avoid them. I did zavist' (envy). Next on my list: Pohot' (lust). This sounds like more fun. But there's a problem. In order to understand the Russian words for this particular sin, I've had to read reams of detailed definitions and descriptions, which has kept me wallowing in that which I pledged to avoid. So that you will not fall into this trap, here's a short primer on the most interesting sin.

Private Sector Is Best Engine for Growth
Russian Railways has expressed an interest in bidding for the huge Udokan copper field in Siberia. This is another example of how the government's economic policy is increasingly shifting from free-market reforms to the creation of gigantic, state-controlled ""national champions.""

News in Brief
8 Convicted of 14 MurdersValuable Vacuum FindPolice Brutality ConvictionsRussia Eyes Cyprus RoleOSCE Criticizes Azeris

Man Utd, Barcelona Complete Lineup
By Zoran Milosavljevic / Reuters Manchester United completed a 3-0 aggregate win over AS Roma on Wednesday to join Liverpool and Chelsea in the Champions League semifinals in a repeat of last season for the three English teams.

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