Jan. 16 – Russia-focused equity funds attracted US$43 million of inflows in the week to January, 11, equaling about 0.4 percent of the total amount under management, UralSib Financial Corp. said in a report, citing EPFR Global Data.
“This is the first week of positive flows in the last eight,” UralSib analyst Slava Smolyaninov said in a report. Read the rest of this entry »
By Marina Romanova
Sino-Russian series of bad dates
Chinese-American international energy consultant Edward Chow once said that the Russian-Chinese energy relationship isn’t a marriage, but rather “a series of bad dates.” As far as their energy relationship goes – also keeping in mind the two rather extreme types of relationship of ‘honeymoon’ (1950s) and ‘divorce’ (1960s and 1970s) between Beijing and Moscow – the whole Sino-Russian strategic partner can be described with this kind of metaphor.
Chinese businessmen and bureaucrats are playing a part in almost every Russian investment round-table and economic forum. And it wouldn’t be too much to say that almost every presentation by Chinese participants contains some words about Russia’s “investment unattractiveness” as one of the main reasons not to invest in the Russian economy. Read the rest of this entry »
Jan. 10 – Iran and Russia have replaced the U.S. dollar with their national currencies in bilateral trade, Iran’s Fars News Agency reports, citing Seyed Reza Sajjadi, Tehran’s Ambassador to Moscow.
Speaking to Fars, Sajjadi said that the proposal for replacing the U.S. dollar was raised by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Astana on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting June, 2011. Read the rest of this entry »
Dec. 23 – Toyota Motor Corp. plans to open new authorized dealer’s centers in the Far East Russian cities of Khabarovsk, Vladivostok and Nakhodka by summer of 2012, President of Toyota Motors Russia Takeshi Isogaya said in a statement released to the press.
Dealer’s centers would be established in concentrated areas within the cities already receiving Japanese investment. Read the rest of this entry »
Dec. 14 – Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov said on Monday he will run against Vladimir Putin for president next year. Expert opinions on Prokhorov’s decision are divided: some of them believe the New Jersey Nets basketball team owner’s move has been inspired by the Kremlin, while others sees it as his second attempt to come into Russian politics.
Prokhorov, a 46-year-old metals tycoon who is chairman of Polyus Gold, Russia’s largest gold producer, also holds a stake in the aluminum giant RUSAL, and has declared himself a “champion of the middle class.” He has also said he is already working to create a grassroots political party to counter “populist tricks” and promote open dialogue within civil society. Read the rest of this entry »
Dec. 12 – Political uncertainty and the prospect of more large protests are adding an extra layer of concern for foreign investors in Russia.
The MICEX Index tumbled 4.7 percent Tuesday after the first gathering of protestors last Monday evening and the transfer of additional Interior Ministry troops to the Russian capital.
Fear hit the market again on Friday as investors sold on the eve of what may be Russia’s largest demonstration in years near the Kremlin on Saturday. The RTS slipped 4.3 percent on Friday, compared with a 2 percent drop for the MSCI Emerging Markets Index and little movement in Brent crude prices. The ruble dropped against the dollar and the euro. Read the rest of this entry »
Dec. 7 – Vladimir Putin’s United Russia achieved a conventional victory in last weekend’s parliament election, winning 49.5 percent of Sunday’s vote for the State Duma, down from 64.3 percent in 2007, the last full year of Putin’s second Kremlin term, according to the Central Election Commission.
The party that has dominated the 450-seat Duma since 2003 had its majority cut from 315 seats to about 238. Read the rest of this entry »
Nov. 18 – After roughly 18 years of membership talks, Russia finally looks set to enter the World Trade Organization on favorable conditions, both Russian and international analysts say noting the minor import tariff cuts.
The final barrier keeping Russia from the global trade club fell when Russia and Georgia signed an agreement approving Russia’s WTO entry on November 9 in Geneva, after both agreed on international monitoring of the disputed crossings with the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Read the rest of this entry »
Nov. 14 – Restrictions on Russian companies that want to list equity on foreign exchanges will not be lifted until a central security depositary is fully implemented, Federal Financial Markets Service (FFSM) Head Dmitry Pankin said on Thursday.
Speaking at a Deutsche Bank forum, Pankin said the restrictions on foreign listings could only be removed after a long-anticipated central securities depositary had been fully established, Russian daily Vedomosti reported.
“After the implementation of the central depositary, we will remove the 25 percent limitations,” he said. Read the rest of this entry »
Nov. 9 – Russia is preparing for a historic return to deep space with the launch of the Phobos-Grunt spacecraft on Wednesday on an ambitious and risky three-year US$163 million mission to bring back a soil sample from the Red Planet.
The launch is scheduled for 12:16 a.m. Moscow time this Wednesday (20.16 GMT Tuesday), Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) reports. The Zenit-2SB rocket with the Phobos-Grunt mission is set to launch from the Baikonur Space Center located in Kazakhstan. Read the rest of this entry »
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