Jan. 14 – Financial crimes in Russia last year caused up to US$158 billion (5 trillion rubles) in illegal turnover on the Russian financial market, an amount equal to 10 percent of Russia’s gross domestic product, the Central Bank and Russian Interior Ministry have calculated.
According to their research, 56,700 crimes took place between January and November 2011 that impacted the financial and credit industries of Russia. Read the rest of this entry »
Dec. 2 – Russia has the world’s highest economic crime rate, according to a newly released survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers and The London Business School. The survey shows that the misappropriation of assets remains the most common economic crime (72 percent) with a US$5 million loss reported by 22 percent of the businesses who had encountered fraud.
A total of 126 representatives from Russia’s leading entities took part in the 2011 Economic Crime Survey. The study was designed to seek respondents’ views on economic crime in general and, specifically, about cyber-crime which is a growing concern in C-suites and boardrooms. Read the rest of this entry »
Nov. 25 – A visa agreement between Russia and the United States may be ratified before the New Year’s holiday, although it will have to wait until after a lower house of Russian Parliament, State Duma, is voted into office, according to different reports.
After a four-month delay, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton finalized a much-touted U.S.-Russian visa facilitation agreement last week. Read the rest of this entry »
Nov. 16 – The Federal Service for State Registration, Cadaster and Cartography, known as Rosregister, will launch a new online service providing information about each real estate deal that has been made in every Russian region.
Information about all registered real estate deals since 1999 will also be published in the new portal. For example, by some estimates, 17 million real estate deals were made in Russia last year. Read the rest of this entry »
Oct. 24 – Russian Finance authorities are trying to take another stab at tax severance packages of senior executives. According to Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Shatalov, “severance packages for senior managers at Russian companies are likely to be taxed starting next year.”
“Most likely we will in the near future make the decision that ‘golden parachutes’ will be taxed,” Interfax reported Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Shatalov as saying last week at an American Chamber of Commerce tax conference in Moscow. Read the rest of this entry »
Oct. 14 – The so-called third anti-monopoly package “On Amendments to the Federal Law On Protection of Competition and Certain Other Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation,” passed by the lower house of Parliament (State Duma) in the third and final reading.
The package developed by the Russian Federal Anti-Monopoly Service and approved by the presidium of the cabinet in June includes two draft laws amending the law about competitiveness protection, the Criminal Code, the Code about the Administrative Violations and a range of the other legislative acts, according to reports by RIA Novosti. Read the rest of this entry »
Sept. 27 – Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Saturday he would like to reclaim the Russian presidency next year in a move that could keep him at the helm of the country until 2024.
Russia will hold presidential elections in March of 2012. Last Saturday, at a carefully-choreographed congress of ruling Edinaya Rossiya (United Russia) party it was announced that Putin, 58, will run for the post. Read the rest of this entry »
Sept. 22 – Russia must make fundamental changes to its fiscal and monetary policy in the next few years to reach stable economic growth and reduce the country’s vulnerability to external shocks, the International Monetary Fund said Wednesday.
Under the current economic scenario, Russia will remain vulnerable to shocks, with GDP showing modest growth of 3.8 percent annually through 2016 and remaining below 4 percent in the long term, said Odd Per Brekk, the IMF’s senior resident representative in Russia. Read the rest of this entry »
Aug. 1 – Residents of the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad may soon be able to visit relatives and do business in the European Union border region with special permits for regular crossings, instead of visas, under a proposal unveiled by the European Commission on Friday.
The European Commission has proposed allowing the states bordering Kaliningrad to negotiate bilateral agreements to make border crossings easier for people living within 30 kilometers to 50 kilometers of the EU frontier.
“(This) will facilitate people-to-people contacts and enhance economic cooperation on both sides of the border, without affecting security,” EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom told reporters in Brussels. Read the rest of this entry »
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