POLITICS
Russia supported new UN sanctions on Iran. It abstained from a vote on a Libya no-fly zone.
Moscow's decision to veto a Western-backed UN Security Council condemnation of the Syrian government's crackdown on protesters angered Washington and its allies and raised questions about whether the Kremlin was adopting a tougher foreign policy in the months before a presidential election expected to be won by hawkish Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
(The Moscow Times, Kommersant, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Moskovskie Novosti)
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov raised eyebrows on Wednesday after admitting that his boss's discovery of ancient amphorae in the Black Sea this summer was staged and claiming that fears of an imminent "Brezhnevization" were unfounded because Leonid Brezhnev was a good Soviet leader.
(The Moscow Times, Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
According to opinion polls, more than half of Americans believe that U.S. President Barack Obama will not be re-elected in November 2012 elections
(Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
The post-Soviet alliance, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), should create its own human rights court, similar to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, First Deputy Federation Council Speaker Alexander Torshin said. Human rights activists say such court, if created, will create obstacles for Russians who want their case to be heard in the Strasbourg Court
(Kommersant)
The second part of the United Russia party congress may be held earlier than initially planned. The congress may convene in November, a month before the elections to the Russian parliament
(Kommersant)
The Russian Central Election Commission approved the United Russia party list
(Kommersant, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Moskovskie Novosti, Vedomosti)
ECONOMY
Capital outflow from Russia has reached about $49.3 billion so far in 2011, with an estimated $18.7 billion leaving in the third quarter, the Central Bank said.
(The Moscow Times, Kommersant)
Europe’s debt problems may shatter the global financial system, but the second wave of the crisis, if happens, will not be as serious in Russia as it was in 2008-2009, Russian economics minister Elvira Nabiullina said
(Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
Russia might export a total of 23 million tons of grain by next June, as this year's harvest is sufficient to meet domestic demand, First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov said. The country, which recently lifted a grain export ban introduced last year after severe drought ruined a substantial part of the crops, has already exported 10 million tons
(The Moscow Times, Nezavisimaya Gazeta)
OIL & GAS
The searches in European offices of Gazprom subsidiaries are not a routine check, and were conducted as part on in antitrust investigation, European officials said
(Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
POWER GENERATION
Major Russian plants are switching to producing energy for their needs rather than buying it due to high electricity costs
(Kommersant)
BANKING & FINANCE
Another state bank may appear in Russia as Gazprombank - a de-facto state bank at the moment, may soon get such formal status
(Kommersant)
DEFENSE
On the eve of a visit by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to China, the Federal Security Service has pressed spying charges against a Chinese national whom it accuses of trying to purchase sensitive information about the S-300 air defense system.
(The Moscow Times, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Moskovskie Novosti)
Russia will double the number of professional servicemen in its armed forces in the next five years. This will allow to a cut in the required number of conscripts to 80,000
(Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
SOCIETY
Nelli Dmitrieva, a police investigator implicated in the prosecution of Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky has been charged with extorting a $3 million bribe, officials said.
(The Moscow Times, Kommersant Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Moskovskie Novosti, Vedomosti, Izvestia)
Pavel Gorbunov, the court marshal who oversaw City Hall's controversial demolishment of the Rechnik cottage settlement last year has been beaten to death with a metal pipe outside his home in southwestern Moscow. The man, whose court-ordered actions infuriated residents of the settlement in southwestern Moscow, was struck at least three times on the head at about 6 a.m. as he walked to his car from his house.
(The Moscow Times, Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
SCIENCE
The Nobel Prize for Chemistry 2011 has been awarded to Israeli scientist Daniel Shechtman for the discovery of quasicrystals
(Kommersant, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Izvestia)
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