1 Dec 2009 10:17

Moscow press review for December 1, 2009

MOSCOW. Dec 1 (Interfax) - The following is a digest of Moscow newspapers published on Dec 1. Interfax does not accept liability for information in these stories.

VEDOMOSTI:

"Retailers and suppliers must publish prices and trade markups, law makers argue. Only this way can the go-betweens, the motive force of inflation, be defeated. Companies do not want to disclose their commercial secrets, but the Duma Economic Policies Committee wants to oblige retail chains and their suppliers to disclose prices and trade markups online. The lawmakers submitted their proposed amendments to the Law on Trade to the presidential staff and government office for approval."

"United Russia has formed a group of managers, selected in the HR Reserve - Professional Team of Russia project, who are ready to work for AvtoVAZ , a high-placed party functionary and project manager said. The dozen candidacies selected have been negotiated with the government and First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, in charge of the AvtoVAZ problem, has given his go-ahead, he said. It remains to decide when the candidates will go to AvtoVAZ."

"The state road construction company Avtodor could cost the government 13.9 billion rubles in six years The company plans to spend over 100 million rubles on each tender to select partners. Avtodor's claims exceed spending on most state corporations. The state company has laid its requests down in a draft strategy for 2010-15. It hopes to get 13.9 billion rubles from the budget, which it plans to spend before 2016. The main parameters of the program have been okayed, and editing will have to do with style, rather than the content," Deputy Transport Minister and member of Avtodor's Supervisory Board Oleg Belozyorov said.

KOMMERSANT:

"Investigators probing Friday's train bombing are also questioning suspects in another criminal case - the train bombing on the same railway back in 2007. A verdict is to be announced in the 2007 Nevsky Express bombing soon and investigators suspect that Friday's bombing could have been timed to coincide with the pronouncement of the verdict. Meanwhile, facial composites have been made of a man and woman, who reportedly stayed near the scene of the disaster for several days and then disappeared."

"The Central Bank plans to bring oversight over the backbone Russian banks to a new level. Special control,, introduced in the time of crisis for Russia's top ten banks, will continue, according to draft amendments to the Law on the Central Bank. Bankers have officially welcomed the Central Bank's initiative, while auditors, not accountable to it, argue that total control will be established over the bank management."

ROSSIISKAYA GAZETA:

The newspaper carries an interview by head of the Federal Communications, Information Technology and Mass Communication Oversight Service (Roskomnadzor) Sergei Sitnikov on Russian TV's switch to digital broadcasting and on ways to enhance to efficiency of radio frequencies as a state resource. "Roskomnadzor has been instructed to chart a territorial frequencies plan for digital broadcasting, i.e. to define the radio frequencies to be used in digital television broadcasting. A territorial frequencies plan was drafted and negotiated with the Defense Ministry in September for the first package of programs (multiplex), which will cover national mandatory accessible television and radio channels. The list of such channels was confirmed in June 2009 in a presidential decree. In December we will be ready to report that the territorial frequencies plan and a second multiplex are ready," Sitnikov said.

NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA:

"The positive economic that made themselves felt in Russia in early autumn were short-lived by all accounts, and October saw a decline in the processing industry, while GDP shrank further by 8.1% against 7.8%. These tendencies were largely due to problems in industrial lending and to extremely low demand. The government is not in the defeatist mood, however. It looks like Putin has decided to test the Western anti-crisis model, taking Russian specifics into account. The crisis configuration has changed. It was a crisis of liquidity last autumn. In other words, the world economy lacked money. Therefore, priority was given to pumping liquidity into banks. The world economy now has a lot more money, experts say."