Moscow press review for July 5, 2012
MOSCOW. July 5 (Interfax) - The following is a digest of Moscow newspapers published on July 5. Interfax does not accept liability for information in these stories.
POLITICS & ECONOMICS
Consumer prices in Russia have shot up, rising 0.9% in June and another 0.5% in the first two days of July. The acceleration of inflation is not just due to utility rates and excises on gasoline, tobacco and alcohol, which went up on July 1, but also to high prices for fruit and vegetables (Vedomosti, p. 1).
The head of state oil major Rosneft, Igor Sechin has suffered his first defeat in his battle with the new government to retain his influence on Russia's energy sector. The government has managed to curtail the former deputy prime minister's powers in the post of executive secretary of the new Kremlin commission for the fuel and energy sector. The final version of the decree creating the commission does not include the provisions that granted Sechin very broad powers (Kommersant, p. 1).
Private capital outflows from Russia decreased to $9.5 billion in the second quarter of 2012 from $33.9 billion in the first quarter, the Central Bank estimates. In June there was an inflow of capital for the first time in almost year, totaling an estimated $5 billion. But most analysts do not expect the inflow to last (Kommersant, p. 1; Vedomosti, p. 3).
The 2012 Farnborough International Airshow, which starts next week, promises to be the leanest ever in terms of orders for Russian aircraft, as well as the most politicized. Officials and businessmen planning to attend are reporting problems obtaining British visas (Vedomosti, p. 7).
BANKING, FINANCE & INSURANCE
State company Rosneftegaz, the principal shareholder of state oil major Rosneft and a major shareholder of Gazprom, has stopped working with Alfa Bank, and has transferred most of its savings to Gazprombank. As a result, Alfa Bank lost 24 billion rubles in deposits last year (Vedomosti, p. 1).
The Central Bank of Russia has been the leading trader on the stock market for four months running. This is due to repo transactions through which the Central Bank provides liquidity to the banking sector. Since banks primarily raise money using bonds as collateral, trading volume for these securities is growing (Kommersant, p. 8).
The board of directors of NP RTS on Wednesday recommended Roman Goryunov, the former head of the RTS exchange and first deputy CEO of the merged MICEX-RTS exchange, for the post of president of the partnership, which includes 150 brokers. His objective will not be for NP RTS to compete with MICEX-RTS, but to develop alternative projects (Vedomosti, p. 9; Kommersant, p. 8).
RETAIL & CONSUMER MARKET
The last European football championships drew the lowest number of television viewers in Russia in the past ten years. But this was not due to the Russian team's poor performance or lack of interest in football in general. Now fans not only watch games on the TV at home, but also in pubs and on the Internet (Vedomosti, p. 1).
REAL ESTATE & CONSTRUCTION
The fate of the famous Donstroy Invest building in western Moscow, the top floors of which former Mayor Yury Luzhkov wanted removed, has turned out well. The building has been completed with roof intact, and the penthouse that was intended for the developer's founders has been put up for sale for 1.4 billion rubles. Meanwhile, Donstroy Invest has announced new projects in Moscow totaling more than 1.5 million square meters (Vedomosti, pp. 7, 10).
TELECOMMUNICATIONS, MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY
Interview: Kjell-Morten Johnsen, Executive Vice President and Head of Telenor Group's European Operations, talks about the new dispute with Russia's Alfa Group over mobile provider Vimpelcom (Kommersant, p. 10).
TRANSPORTATION
Russia's railroads are slowing down to a crawl. The average speed of freight trains fell 10% to 10.3 km per hour last year, taking into account stops at stations, Russian Railways (RZD) reported. This is just a sixth of the speed in China. RZD attributes the slowdown primarily to depreciation of rolling stock and infrastructure (Vedomosti, p. 8).
AUTOMOTIVE & ENGINEERING
The United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) has finally acquired Baltiysky Zavod, the shipyard formerly controlled by tycoon Sergei Pugachev. A subsidiary of the state corporation bought 88.32% of the bankrupt shipyard for 224 million rubles, just slightly above the starting price of 222.2 million rubles. Minority shareholders of the shipyard hope that the company's bankruptcy will now be stopped, but sources said this is a "very foggy prospect" (Kommersant, p. 7).
Interview: Tadanobu Nagumo, CEO of Yokohama Rubber Company (Vedomosti, p. 5).
