18:01
PENTAGON EXPECTED TO CONFIRM THAT IT WILL HIRE RUSSIAN AN-124 AIRLINERS TO TAKE U.S. SPY PLANE OUT OF CHINA
The Pentagon has not yet officially confirmed that An-124 heavy-duty transport airliners of the Voronezh Polyot Airlines will be hired to take the U.S. spy plane out of China. More detail...

15:40
GROUP OF INDIAN MILITARY TO MASTER T-90 TANK IN RUSSIA
A team of Indian army officers will head for Russia mid-June for a familiarization with and training for the use of the T-90 Russian tank. More detail...

14:12
RESULTS OF THE INTERNATIONAL SHOW OF MILITARY HARDWARE IN SIBERIA
Leonid Drachevsky, Russian president's representative in the Siberian federal district, pointed to the significance of the fourth international show of military hardware, technologies and armaments for the land forces held in Omsk (a regional centre in Western Siberia), VTTV-Omsk-2001 for short. More detail...

20:39
KLEBANOV TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR RUSSIA-ARMENIA ECONOMIC CONTACTS
A governmental resolution has appointed federal Vice-Premier Ilya Klebanov Russian chairman of the intergovernmental commission for economic cooperation between the Russian Federation and Armenia, the Russian government's information board said Saturday. Klebanov is replacing Yevgeny Adamov at the post.

19:18
RUSSIAN COMPANY WINS CONTEST TO REMOVE U.S. RECONNAISSANCE CRAFT FROM CHINA
Polyot Airlines will bring the American ER 3 reconnaissance plane back from China. More detail...

18:50
RUSSIAN-CHINESE TRADE VOLUME AMOUNTS TO USD 2.39 BILLION
The Russian-Chinese mutual trade volume in the first quarter of 2001 amounted to USD 2.39 billion, the Russian ministry of economic development and trade informed RIA Novosti noting that the trade volume increased by 65.7 percent year on year. More detail...

18:22
RUSSIA SHOWS CONTINUITY IN DEVELOPING NON-FERROUS METALS PLANTS ABROAD
More than 90 facilities in 24 countries across the world have been built or modernised by Russia's foreign trade association Zarubezhtsvetmet. Among them are aluminium smelters in India, Turkey and Egypt, nickel factories in Cuba, and ore dressing works in Bulgaria, Guinea, Poland, Yugoslavia and other countries. More detail...

18:03
CIVIL AVIATION COUNCIL OF RUSSIA AND BELARUS MEETS IN SESSION
Within the framework of integrating Russia's and Belarus' air departments, the Civil Aviation Council of the two countries has had its first meeting in Minsk. More detail...

17:56
EX-PREMIER DENIES REPORTS OF HIS RETURN TO CABINET
Sergei Stepashin, Russia's former federal prime minister and incumbent Audit Chamber chairman, has denied media reports that he is going to be among the cabinet ministers again. Stepashin told reporters Saturday that he is happy with his present job at the Audit Chamber. More detail...

17:17
TOP COP MEETS WITH AUDIT CHAMBER BOSS
Russian Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov met with the Chairman of the Audit Chamber, Sergei Stepashin, on Saturday, to coordinate joint operations. More detail...

14:09
HEAD OF FINANCIAL PYRAMID SENTENCED TO DEPRIVATION OF LIBERTY FOR 15 YEARS
Head of the Tibet financial pyramid Vladimir Dryamov has been sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment. More detail...

13:29
CHINA IS INTERESTED IN INVESTMENTS IN RUSSIAN FAR EAST
Chinese partners have a stake in increasing investments in the economy of the Russian Far East, representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Far-Eastern federal district Konstantin Pulikovsky stated summing up his trip to the Chinese province of Heilongjiang. More detail...

21:10
MORDOVIAN TEACHERS- SALARY AGAIN PAID IN MOST COVERTIBLE CURRENCY
Teachers of village schools in Mordovia will probably spend the first days of school holidays selling vodka. More detail...

19:55
SERGEI NIKOLAYEV: TO BREAK 40 THOUSAND BOTTLES OF VODKA?
Two lorries ?Kamaz¦, full of vodka have been stopped in Ulyanovsk region. The lorries were following from the city of Vladikavkaz to the city of Yoshkar-Ola. More detail...

19:54
WORLD BANK PLANS GIVING RUSSIA 100 MILLION-DOLLAR LOAN
The World Bank plans to give Russia in August a regular 100 million-dollar tranche of the second coal loan Secal. This was reported by Julian Schweitzer, World Bank director in Moscow, who said that it is one of the last privatisation Secal tranches. More detail...

19:10
NATALYA LANE: ?WATER TREATMENT¦ FOR DUST-CARTS IN THE CITY OF ROSTOV
Dust-carts, coming daily in a district of the city of Rostov-on-Don, could undermine the health of citizens. The grime on dust-carts- wheels and boards is brought daily in the city, in spite of all the sanitary inspections. More detail...

19:02
JAPANESE BUSINESSMAN ON DEVELOPMENT OF RUSSIAN-JAPANESE TRADE AND ECONOMIC TIES
If Russian-Japanese trade and economic ties are to strengthen, an investment climate in Russia must be improved, Takashi Imai, head of a government economic delegation of Japan and chairman of the Japanese Federation of Economic Organisations /Keidanren/, said at a news conference in Moscow on Friday, this correspondent reported. More detail...

18:53
EUROPEAN COMMISSION ON RESTRUCTURING RUSSIAN NATURAL MONOPOLIES
The European Commission (EC) calls for being cautious while restructuring Russian natural monopolies, a RIA Novosti correspondent reports. More detail...

18:36
RUSSIA HAS GOOD STARTING CONDITIONS TO CONTINUE ECONOMIC GROWTH
In terms of political stability and macroeconomic situation Russia has good starting conditions to continue economic growth this year. This statement was made by Viktor Khristenko, vice-premier of the Russian government, at the Friday meeting with representatives of the leading Japanese corporations. More detail...

18:35
MOSCOW AND ANKARA REACH RECORD-HIGH LEVEL OF ECONOMIC COOPERATION
Russia and Turkey today reached an "unprecedentedly high level of trade and economic cooperation," Igor Ivanov, head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, said Friday upon conclusion of official negotiations in the capital of Turkey. More detail...

18:16
RUSSIAN VICE-PREMIER COMMENTS ON MEETING BETWEEN PRESIDENT PUTIN AND JAPANESE BUSINESSMEN
Viktor Khristenko, vice-premier of Russia, described today's meeting in the Kremlin between President Vladimir Putin and a delegation of Japanese businessmen as "unprecedented." The meeting will be conducive to improvement of Russia's investment climate, the vice-premier believes. More detail...

17:04
RUSSIAN MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS: GAS PIPELINE FROM RUSSIA TO TURKEY WILL BE COMPLETED NEXT YEAR
In the near future, all the remaining technical questions, related to the construction of the Blue Stream gas pipeline, will be resolved, said Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Igor Ivanov at a news conference in Ankara after meeting with his Turkish counterpart, Ismail Cem. More detail...

16:45
RUSSIA TO ALLOCATE TO BELARUS $32 MLN LOAN TRANCHE
Before the end of June, this year, Russia will grant Belarus the first, 32-million-dollar tranche of a stabilisation loan, said Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov on Friday after the session of the Council of Ministers of the Russia-Belarus Union. More detail...

15:54
GAZPROM POSTS CONSOLIDATED NET PROFIT AT $2.06BN IN 2000
Gazprom has released a report on the head company's performance for the first time. Russia's gas monopolist used to make only its consolidated reports public. More detail...

15:52
LACK OF RUBLES CAUSES CORRECTION ON CURRENCY MARKET
The results of the trade on the currency market in the past few days show that there has been no clear trend on the market for a rather long time, banking experts told RBC, commenting on the results of the morning trade on the Unified Trading Session (ETS) and on the inter-bank market. More detail...

15:49
TYUMEN OIL COMPANY REFUSES TO FINANCE RECONSTRUCTION OF YAROSLAVLNEFTEORGSINTEZ
The Tyumen Oil Company (TNK) does not intend to participate in financing of the reconstruction of the Slavneft-Yaroslavlnefteorgsintez (YANOS) company, a source in TNK told RBC. More detail...

15:47
TYUMEN OIL COMPANY REFUSES TO FINANCE RECONSTRUCTION OF YAROSLAVLNEFTEORGSINTEZ
The Tyumen Oil Company (TNK) does not intend to participate in financing of the reconstruction of the Slavneft-Yaroslavlnefteorgsintez (YANOS) company, a source in TNK told RBC. More detail...

15:37
PRESIDENT PUTIN INFORMED ON CABINET DEBATES OVER 2002 BUDGET
President Vladimir Putin of Russia met Friday with Vice Premier and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin. According to the President's press secretary, the Vice Premier informed the head of state about the results of Cabinet debates on the basic characteristics of the 2002 draft budget. More detail...

15:26
GAZPOMBANK'S ASSETS SIGNIFICANTLY RISE IN Q1 OF 2001
Gazprombank's total assets reached RUR102.2bn (about $3.5bn) in the 1st quarter of 2001, which is 1.8 times more than in the similar period of the previous year. Gazprombank board member Alexander Chernovil said that the bank's cash flow increased 2.1 times in 2000 compared with 1999 and surpassed RUR18.9bn (about $648.15m). More detail...

14:39
RAO UES HEAD TO PARTICIPATE IN SESSION OF CIS ELECTRIC ENERGY COUNCIL IN MINSK
RAO UES Executive Board Chairman Anatoly Chubais is arriving in Minsk today, where a session of the CIS Electric Energy Council, of which Chubais is the chairman, will be held. The RAO UES Media Relations Department reports that members of the council will discuss the situation in the energy systems of CIS countries. More detail...