The Moscow Times

The Crisis: Electricity Providers Face Bankruptcy
Electricity suppliers across the country are cracking down as the number of delinquent private and corporate customers surges, as the dilapidated industry is mired in debt linked to unpaid consumer bills and the multibillion-dollar investment programs that investors signed onto during the privatization of Unified Energy System, which wrapped up just weeks before the financial crisis struck.

News

Putin's Pension Talk Scares Businesses
By Jessica Bachman / Special to The Moscow Times The social security taxes paid by businesses will rise by as much as 8 percent at the beginning of 2010 in an effort to strengthen the country's pension system, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced Wednesday. The measure, which generated a negative review from business groups, drew more positive reviews from market watchers.

Merkel, Medvedev To Focus On Crisis
By Nikolaus von Twickel / Staff Writer President Dmitry Medvedev and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are likely to focus on economics in St. Petersburg on Thursday as they meet for the fourth time this year.

Chichvarkin Says Liquidity Woes Forced Sale
By Nadia Popova / Staff Writer Acknowledging he had chosen a risky strategy, Yevroset's former owner said the credit crunch left him with no choice.

News in Brief
Somalia Plans RecognitionRussia to Double QuotasMayoral Term 5 YearsNavy Ships to Visit Libya

Skinheads Admit to Killing 20
The Moscow Times The leaders of a skinhead gang charged with hate crimes admitted Wednesday to committing 20 racially motivated murders and attempting 12 more, Interfax reported.

Retail Shop Comes to Ossetia
By Nadia Popova / Staff Writer This neighborhood, where many of the buildings are still without replacements for windows blown out during five days of combat in August, seems an unlikely place for a new retail outlet.

Giving Orphaned Bear Cubs a 2nd Chance
By Maria Antonova / Staff Writer Gamekeeper Nikolai Kralya wound up with two bear cubs last January when licensed den hunters shot their mother in the Novgorod region.

Warship Shows Russia's Reach
By Vladimir Isachenkov / The Associated Press Russia's decision to dispatch a warship to pirate-infested waters off Somalia reflects its determination to project power worldwide. But it remains unclear what role the vessel might play in the latest hostage crisis there.

Moscow Courts Bolivia
The Associated Press Bolivia's plan to purchase five Russian civil defense helicopters is a ""first step"" in deepening ties between the two countries as Russia looks to expand its role across Latin America, Russia's ambassador to Bolivia said.

Palin Faces Heat Over Warplanes
By Martha Mendoza / The Associated Press Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, cites vigilance against Russian warplanes coming into U.S. airspace over her state as one of her foreign policy credentials. But the U.S. military command in charge says that has not happened in her 21 months in office.

5 Children Die in School Collapse
Reuters Part of a school building in an Orenburg region village collapsed Wednesday, killing five children and injuring four.

Police Official and Son Gunned Down
The Moscow Times A senior regional Interior Ministry official and his son were shot dead Wednesday morning in North Ossetia, RIA-Novosti reported.

Soviet Political Cartoonist Yefimov Dead at 108
By Nabi Abdullaev / Staff Writer Boris Yefimov, an eminent Soviet political cartoonist who once personally took Josef Stalin's orders on how to depict U.S. General Dwight Eisenhower, died in Moscow on Wednesday, just two days after President Dmitry Medvedev congratulated him on his 108th birthday.

EU Monitors Start Patrols in Georgia
By Matt Siegel / The Associated Press European Union monitors began patrolling Georgian territory Wednesday under a French-brokered peace deal, and Russian troops allowed some monitors into a buffer zone around South Ossetia despite insisting earlier that they would be blocked.

Last Tsar Declared Victim of Repression
The Associated Press The Supreme Court on Wednesday declared the last tsar and his murdered family to be victims of political repression.

Business

Putin Blames U.S. For Financial Woes
Combined Reports Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that U.S. ""irresponsibility"" led to the global financial crisis and discredited its claims to world leadership, as his finance minister moved to link domestic woes to the broader downturn.

Bailout Package Seen Not Saving All Banks
By Maria Levina / Special to The Moscow Times Despite the bank bailout package swiftly introduced by the government, many Russian banks will face liquidity pressures and falling profitability as access to credit stays limited and rising rates lead to fewer loans and more defaults, banking analysts said Wednesday.

Lack of Staff to Fight Money Launderers
By Anatoly Medetsky / Staff Writer The government's money-laundering watchdog must fill a gaping hole in its ranks, U.S. and European experts said in a report released Wednesday, suggesting that the service's oversight might not be tight enough.

Business in Brief
Gas to Europe Hits $500Liquidity Auction CanceledSberbank Raises RatesRZD Backs Off BondsSibir Stake Not for Sale$191Bln Transport PlanFor the Record

New Steps Proposed for Liquidity
By Tai Adelaja / Staff Writer The Central Bank on Wednesday announced a series of measures aimed at shoring up liquidity and helping to cope with the effects of the ongoing financial crisis.

Opinion

Liberals Must Come to Grips With New Russia
Russian liberalism is not just in crisis, politically speaking. It has ceased to exist. It is not represented in the parliament, it has disappeared as a focus of public debates, even among intellectuals, and its claims to be a credible and politically attractive ideology now seem vain if not preposterous.

Boris Kagarlitsky: Prepare for a Bumpy Ride
When some analysts began discussing an upcoming drop in real estate prices last spring, most economists reacted with open contempt. ""How can you speak of a drop when prices are climbing daily?"" they asked.

No Love Lost in Beijing
Second honeymoons rarely, if ever, recapture the zest of lost love. Yet ever since the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991, Russia and China have sought to rekindle the close relations that once supposedly existed between the two countries before Nikita Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin in 1956.

City Wise

Festival Promises Fun for Family
By Svetlana Osadchuk / Staff Writer The Domashny Ochag Festival at the Central House of Artists promises to be the best event for the family this weekend.

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