Oct. 1 – Gold miners asked the Russian government to raise its threshold for strategic gold deposits to boost national reserves and production mining, executives said Thursday at the sixth Russia-CIS Mining and Exploration Forum 2010. Fields with more than 50 metric tons of gold are considered strategic, requiring extra government approvals. The government should[…..]
Sept. 28 – Siberia S7, Russia’s leading domestic airline, will join Oneworld, one of the leading global airline alliances, starting November 15. British Airways, which recommended S7 for introduction into the alliance, has been supporting Siberia through its 18-month alliance implementation project as its Oneworld sponsor airline, with working groups covering some 35 streams of[…..]
Sept. 23 – OAO Rosneft, Russia’s largest oil producer, and China National Petroleum Corp. will invest around US$5 billion in a joint oil refinery in the Chinese port city of Tianjin. Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, who is also Rosneft’s board chairman, joined Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan in the future refinery town of[…..]
Sept. 20 – Istanbul-based Atlasjet, an unlisted discount Turkish airline, said it was investing US$110 million to form an airport and airline venture together with the Omsk regional authorities and NPO Mostovik, a Russian builder. Flights will start in May 2011 and the Omsk-Fedorovka International Airport is set to be open in 2013, Atlasjet said[…..]
Sept. 17 – The Russian cabinet has expanded the list of state assets to go private. The government plans to earn US$50 billion from privatization sales over the next five years and will overrule objections from state managers over the sale of their firms, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said to Reuters on Wednesday. “We will[…..]
Sept. 16 – X5 Retail Group N.V., Russia’s largest retailer in terms of sales, announced it has signed a new US$800 million group loan to refinance its existing US$1.1 billion syndicate facility; due to mature by the end of the year. The remaining US$300 million will be refinanced through other existing facilities, including the forward[…..]
Sept. 14 – The uniform national accreditation system proposed by Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MERD) was approved by the cabinet last week, the Kommersant reports. During the cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin noted that the new system will allow Russia to generate a network of independent test centers “with flawless professional[…..]
Sept. 13 – Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Sobyanin has said the state’s role in the Russian economy has reached a “critical limit” and should not increase. “The size of the state’s stake in the economy has reached a critical limit, which would be dangerous to exceed. Every second employee occupied in the economy works in[…..]
Sept. 9 – Yandex, Russia’s most used search engine, started offering a bank services search yesterday. The new service allows internet users to find the most comprehensive banks, Russian daily Vedomosti reports. “The service allows users to find deposits with the greatest interest rates, as well as consumer loans and mortgages with optimum conditions for[…..]
Sept. 8 – Canada’s Kinross Gold Corporation has purchased one of Russia’s largest gold and silver ore deposits in the Chukotka region of the Russian Far East, company press release stated. Kinross plans to process ore from the Dvoinoye deposit at the existing Kupol mill, pursuant to an ore purchase agreement with Kinross’ 75 percent[…..]