Moscow press review for March 20, 2013
MOSCOW. March 20 (Interfax) - The following is a digest of Moscow newspapers published on March 20. Interfax does not accept liability for information in these stories.
POLITICS & ECONOMICS
If Cyprus does not manage to raise cash with a tax on bank deposits, which the island's parliament rejected Tuesday, it could resort to privatization. Russia will be looking for proposals on interesting assets, including offshore resources, but is not currently prepared to bail out Cyprus with government budget money (Vedomosti, p. 1).
Russia's Supreme Court has asked to review the criminal cases of former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky and former Group Menatep head Platon Lebedev. This coincides with charges by Yukos lawyers of forgery allegedly committed in a review of a complaint concerning the sentences handed down in these cases. The two men could have a chance of being freed or at least have their sentences reduced (Kommersant, p. 1).
As the deposit tax controversy in Cyprus drags on, it has become clear that Russian businesses will be hardest hit. The tax of 9.9% is not the main threat - far more serious are the possible restrictions local regulators might impose on payments from Cyprus in the coming weeks (Kommersant, p. 1).
Russia's Investigative Committee has closed its investigation into the 2009 death in police custody of auditor Sergei Magnitsky, due to the "absence of a criminal act." The death of Magnitsky, who had accused officials of a massive tax fraud scheme, sparked an international outcry and has led to U.S. sanctions against Russian officials (Kommersant, p. 3; Vedomosti, p. 2).
Interview: Russian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets (Vedomosti, p. 8).
OIL & GAS
Russian gas giant Gazprom has not given up hope of signing a gas supply contract with China's CNPC. The companies are discussing the possibility of financing the construction of a pipeline to supply Russian gas to China (Vedomosti, p. 12).
UTILITIES
The future CEO of Russian Grids, which will consolidate the country's power grids, could be named today. The candidates are Federal Grid Company CEO Oleg Budargin and former Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko. President Vladimir Putin will hold a meeting on the development of Russia's electricity sector Wednesday (Vedomosti, p. 4).
BANKING, FINANCE & INSURANCE
More than 20 million Russians have now transferred their pension savings to nongovernment pension funds, which manage about 750 billion rubles (Vedomosti, p. 10).
RETAIL & CONSUMER MARKET
Moscow city hall has begun replacing management at city markets. Four of eleven markets already have new directors. The authorities are unhappy with the markets' performance and are demanding they increase profitability so they can be sold at a good price (Kommersant, p. 1).
REAL ESTATE & CONSTRUCTION
The founder of the Kopeika retail chain, Alexander Samonov has found a partner for construction of warehouses in Russia. His real estate company AREIM has formed a joint venture with Germany's Garbe Logistic and they are prepared to invest about $500 million (Vedomosti, p. 10).
The contract to build roads around the Moscow suburb of Skolkovo, which was awarded to Arkady Rotenberg's Mostotrest last year without a tender, will be worth nearly $2 billion (Vedomosti, p. 11).
TELECOMMUNICATIONS, MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY
Russian consumers are adopting 4G LTE mobile services faster than they adopted 3G. Mobile TeleSystems, one of the country's top three operators, has therefore decided to accelerate LTE network construction and increase investment to about 20% of revenue in 2013 (Vedomosti, p. 17).
TRANSPORTATION
The Russian government could get a stake of 25-35% in a merged Vnukovo Airport, VTB Capital reckons. First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov will hold a meeting Wednesday on plans for consolidating the Moscow airport's assets (Vedomosti, p. 11).
AUTOMOTIVE & ENGINEERING
Fiat is trying to improve its position on the Russian car market with duty-free imports of automobiles from Serbia, where it has promised to produce 330,000 vehicles per year. Serbian officials will on Wednesday propose that Russia reduce duties to zero under a free trade agreement. Serbia might link the reduction of duties to the sale of its Zelezara Smederevo steel plant to Russia's Uralvagonzavod (Kommersant, p. 1).
The Russian government is proposing new criteria for defining luxury automobiles that might be subject to a higher tax - price and brand rather than engine size. The proposed threshold is 6 million rubles, but the Mercedes-Benz S class and BMW 7 series might be exempted (Vedomosti, p. 1).
