POLITICS
The death of North Korean strongman Kim Jong-il cast a cloud over the future of the world's last Stalinist state, but Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it should not affect bilateral relations.
(The Moscow Times, Kommersant)
Recordings of Russian opposition leaders’ frank phone conversations were posted on the internet. The leaders face a scandal.
(Vedomosti)
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Information technology companies were the leading tenants of new offices in Moscow this year, taking the largest portion of space in a segment that is expected to exceed $3 billion in value.
(The Moscow Times)
Trading on the merged MICEX-RTS bourse started Monday in a major step toward turning Moscow into an international financial center. The important event was darkened by an unprecedented technical error.
(Kommersant, The Moscow Times)
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said he is "very disappointed" by asset-stripping schemes discovered at electric energy companies in the country, and expressed surprise at the compensation of some of the sector's executives.
(The Moscow Times, Kommersant)
Russia’s chief WTO negotiator Maxim Medvedkov said the work of the working group on Russia’s accession to the global trade body is not over.
(Kommersant)
Government experts say that control over government investment programs should be passed to banks and managing companies.
(Vedomosti)
SOCIETY
The Interior Ministry has charged a former senior IKEA executive in absentia of trying to extort $360,000 from a prospective tenant at the Teply Stan Mega mall.
(The Moscow Times)
The implementation of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s order to install web cameras at all polling places by March 4 would be difficult and will cost 15 billion rubles ($467.2mn.
(Kommersant)
IT
Communications channels will be unable to cope with the huge volume of traffic when webcams are installed at all polling places in Russia, a deputy communications minister said.
(Vedomosti)
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