Russia 100527 Basic Political Developments

VOR: Press review

http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/05/27/8558462.html
May 27, 2010 11:53 Moscow Time

Most of the Russian mass media are focusing on the details of a recent terrorist attack in the south Russian city of Stavropol. The death toll from a terrorist attack in Stavropol has risen to 7 after one more wounded woman died in a hospital on the night from Wednesday to Thursday. An official with the Investigation committee under Russia's General Prosecutor's office said that the explosion was equivalent to 0.4 kg of TNT.

An explosive device that went off outside the city's House of Culture and Sport early on Wednesday evening before a Chechen dance ensemble's concert. Stavropol's authorities have attracted the leaders of the national diasporas to help to stabilize the situation in the city after the tragedy. 

Nezavisimaya gazeta newspaper is writing about the EU-Russia summit which is to be held in Rostov on May 31.  The key topic on the agenda of the coming talks is "Partnership for modernization" project.  Now is necessary to set the guidelines which will help Moscow and Brussels to carry out joint projects.  The EU officials hope that in Rostov the parties will sign an agreement which will enable them to start working on the implementation of the Partnership for modernization program.

The Finnish Court has dismissed a complaint by a 82 year old Russian woman filed in response to the decision on her deportation out of the country, Gazeta daily reports. Irina Antonova has to return to Russia where she has no one to take care of her. Antonova's daughter who is a Finnish citizen says that the authorities are making a KGB agent out of her mother. She hopes that the coming visit of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to Finland will help to resolve the issue. Putin's visit to Finland begins on Thursday. 

Exactly a year ago, Russia’s largest digital library named after President Boris Yeltsin opened in the Synod building in St. Petersburg. It happened just two years after a presidential decree on creating a library accessible to all citizens from housewives to academicians. Later, however, it became clear that the range of themes topped by state history and law, and rare and unknown documents, have narrowed down its readers to a predominantly scholarly audience, the Rossiiskaya Gazeta reports. The Yeltsin library maintains close ties with the Library of the United States Congress.

A regular Moscow International Chekhov Festival has opened with an ambitious project by the renowned German director Frank Kastorf who merged two of Chekhov’s works – the play “Three Sisters” and the story “Peasants” (“Muzhiki”) – into a bold production titled “To Moscow, to Moscow!”, the Vremya Novostei writes. The main characters – the three well-educated and well-off sisters depressed by the boring routine of a provincial town, and the wife and daughter of a cook who had to leave his Moscow job and return to his poverty-stricken and dirty home village after falling ill, are deeply nostalgic for Moscow.

National Economic Trends

2010-05-27 08:36

Reuters: UPDATE 1-Russia cbank aims for inflation no more than 7 pct

http://www.iii.co.uk/news/?type=afxnews&articleid=7914285&action=article
ST PETERSBURG, Russia, May 27 (Reuters) - Russia's monetary policy is aimed at stimulating economic growth while ensuring inflation does not exceed 7 percent, central bank governor Sergei Ignatyev said on Thursday.
"The central bank intends to follow monetary policy so as on the one hand to stimulate the growth of bank lending and thus economic growth, and on the other hand not allow inflation to exceed 7 percent this year or next," Ignatyev told a banking forum.
He said year-on-year inflation was running at 5.7 percent as of May 24.
Economists and officials expect the inflation rate to increase in the second half of 2010, with pressure from stronger domestic demand and a traditional end-of-year increase in federal expenditures.
Such a trend is seen limiting the scope for further interest rate cuts, with some analysts saying last month's reduction in the refi rate to 8.00 percent may be the last in the easing cycle which started in April 2009.
The Russian economy, however, should not suffer a strong negative impact from euro zone woes, Ignatyev said.
"The (euro zone) problem is more political than economic," he said. "With swift coordinated actions of European nations, the problem is fully solvable."
As a result of the Greek crisis, though, and the shrill it has sent through investors, financial markets have become jittery and prices for oil and other goods have slumped -- affecting the Russian currency.
The rouble is slowly recovering from an 8-1/2 month low versus the dollar of 31.69 earlier this week, trading at 30.88 per dollar on Wednesday.
Ignatyev said the currency remains under the regulator's control -- even if the control has softened somewhat.
"Now, (the exchange rate) is much more flexible than it was before the (Russian) crisis and the exchange rate regime reflects much better the current volatile situation on global financial and goods markets," Ignatyev said.

(Reporting by Dmitry Sergeyev; Writing by Toni Vorobyova and Lidia Kelly, editing by Mike Peacock) Keywords: RUSSIA CBANK/ ([e-mail]; Tel: [phone], Reuters Messaging: [e-mail])

Bloomberg: Euro Crisis Poses No Risk for Russia, Ignatiev Says (Update1)

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aCWLb2UQi1zM

By Paul Abelsky and Artyom Danielyan

May 27 (Bloomberg) -- Russia’s banks and the ruble can withstand shocks triggered by the euro area’s sovereign debt crisis, central bank chairman Sergey Ignatiev said.

“I don’t think all these events will have a strongly negative effect on the Russian economy,” Ignatiev said at a conference in St. Petersburg today. “The Russian banking system is better prepared for external shocks than it was in 2008.”

The economy is protected by sufficient liquidity, a “much more flexible ruble,” and large international reserves, the world’s third biggest after China and Japan, according to Ignatiev. While the Russian currency reflects external volatility, it can better withstand external shocks than it did before the global financial crisis, he said.

The ruble advanced for the second day against the dollar, gaining 1.1% to 30.8565 at 11:03 in Moscow today.

----With assistance from Maria Levitov in Moscow. Editor: Tasneem Brogger.

To contact the reporter on this story: To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Abelsky in Moscow at [e-mail]

Last Updated: May 27, 2010 03:21 EDT
May 27, 2010 12:03