Europe Intelligence Wire articles from July 2008

Europe Intelligence Wire archives from July 2008

Lugansk authorities want large families.
July 1, 2008... (From The Ukrainian Times) Byline: Vladimir Yelenin The program Lugansk Family, which is scheduled for the period ending in 2012, will help increase a birthrate and reduce the number of abortions in the city. To this end, a lump-sum...

Monument to Soviet classic to be erected in Odessa.
July 1, 2008... (From The Ukrainian Times) Byline: Alla Bakulina A monument to Issak Babel, author of the Odessa Stories and other works, will be built on Rishelyevskaya Street in the historical center of the port city. In the meanwhile, a competition...

debitel in agreement with T-Mobile over iPhone sales.
July 1, 2008... (From Die Welt) debitel, the German telecommunications service provider, has reached an agreement with mobile operator T-Mobile, the exclusive German co-operation partner of US IT and consumer electronics group Apple, enabling debitel to...

Osterreichische Post acquires remaining shares in trans-o-flex.
July 1, 2008... (From Suddeutsche Zeitung) Osterreichische Post, the Austrian postal service operator, is acquiring the remaining 23.85 per cent stake in trans-o-flex, its German logistics subsidiary. It has said that it will pay 79m euros to the private...

Creditor meeting of Securenta on July 22.
July 1, 2008... (From Suddeutsche Zeitung) The creditors' meeting of Securenta, the main company within the collapsed German investment group Gottinger Gruppe, is to take place on July 22, according to the court handling the case, rather than October 7....

Siemens management faces criticism of restructuring and reorientation.
July 1, 2008... (From Suddeutsche Zeitung) Employee representatives at Siemens, the German technologies group, are critical of the group's restructuring plan. They are of the view that, with the orientation towards international markets in Asia and Latin...

Paulson Says U.S. Welcomes Rubles.
July 1, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson appealed for Russia to invest its oil riches in the dampened U.S. economy on Monday, during the first Kremlin visit by a senior U.S. official following the accession of...

OGK-1 Goes to Dubai for $5.34Bln.
July 1, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) OGK-1, the country's biggest wholesale power producer, will be sold to Dubai World for a record $5.34 billion, UES chief Anatoly Chubais announced Monday as he lowered the flag on Unified Energy System. Chubais...

Gas Guzzlers Still Kings of Russia's Roads.
July 1, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) As American automakers ponder record losses due to the falling popularity of trucks and SUVs, larger carsare breaking sales records in Russia. May was the first month since 1991 that a sedan outsold the popular...

Swiss Extradite Ex-Sovkomflot Manager.
July 1, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) Switzerland on Monday extradited a former manager of state-owned shipping giant Sovkomflot, who is wanted on charges of embezzling millions of dollars in fraudulent tanker deals. Yury Privalov, a former...

Stavropol's Top Cop Investigated.
July 1, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) The Interior Ministry's top official in the Stavropol region is under investigation on suspicion of conducting illegal surveillance and abuse of office, the Investigative Committee said Monday. Nikolai...

Publisher Appeals to Medvedev.
July 1, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) The publisher of the muckraking weekly magazine The New Times has asked President Dmitry Medvedev to grant Russian citizenship to journalist Natalya Morar, a Moldovan national barred from entering Russia. ...

2 German Architects Beaten and Robbed.
July 1, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) Two German architects were beaten and robbed while returning home in southern Moscow, police and colleagues said Monday. Werner Redeleit and Moriz Maedebach were attacked by three unidentified assailants at...

Norilsk Shareholders Balance Board.
July 1, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) A record turnout of 77 percent of shareholders voted in favor of increasing the size of its board from nine to 13 members and elected two independent directors Monday, results that seemed to please all parties...

Inkombank's Vinogradov Dead at 52.
July 1, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) Vladimir Vinogradov, founder of Inkombank and one of seven influential bankers who enjoyed direct access to then-President Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s, died of a stroke in a Moscow hospital Sunday at the age of 52....

Making New Space at the Soviet Agriculture Expo.
July 1, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) The park opened in 1939 as a showcase for Soviet agricultural achievements, expanding in the 1950s to include monuments to construction and industrial feats. Today, its scattered pavilions are picturesquely...

Compost firm has a bright future in electricity.
July 2, 2008... (From Western Daily Press) A Year ago the management team at a leading West biotechnology company was poring over design spreadsheets for a new factory to convert organic waste into nutrient-rich fertiliser. Business Reporter Now...

Tasty idea for cheese appeals to american market.
July 2, 2008... (From Western Daily Press) A Small family-run Somerset firm which creates cheeses with unusual flavours is celebrating its first exports to North America, thanks to a deal with one of the West's leading food exporters. Business...

GBP500m bid to double docks' size.
July 2, 2008... (From Western Daily Press) Later this year Bristol Port Company - which runs the docks at Avonmouth and Royal Portbury - plans to submit an application for a new GBP500 million deep-water container ship terminal. RUPERT JANISCH went to see...

Shopping centres hit by fuel crisis.
July 2, 2008... (From Western Daily Press) Hard-pressed shoppers are staying away from out-of-town shopping centres as a result of the soaring cost of petrol - according to research published today. Business Editorm.ribbeck@bepp.co.uk And the...

Learn to cut asbestos risk.
July 2, 2008... (From Western Daily Press) Health and safety is an area that all businesses need to be mindful of, but for certain industries it can be a veritable Three Rs minefield. The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) itself provides plenty of...

Insurer in GBP10m takeover.
July 2, 2008... (From Western Daily Press) A Business which specialises in debt management and consolidation has taken over insurance specialists Group Direct. Bristol-based Brightside Group announced completion of the acquisition and its associated...

Green efforts earn lawyer prince's praise.
July 2, 2008... (From Western Daily Press) A Bristol lawyer has been personally named by Prince Charles as an award winner for his work in fighting climate change. Bob Smyth, who works for law firm Burges Salmon, was given the HRH Ambassador award at...

Support our charity walk.
July 2, 2008... (From Western Daily Press) Charity Walk the Walk is encouraging local businesses to come together and show their support for breast cancer causes by getting involved in the SunWalk Bristol, on Sunday. Pukka Herbs, Fresh & Wild,...

Under-fire builder to strike deal.
July 2, 2008... (From Western Daily Press) Struggling house builder Barratt Developments is to strike a deal with its lenders to strengthen finances hit by the housing market downturn, it emerged yesterday. The company's bankers - led by HSBC, Royal...

Don't risk setting up without knowing three rs.
July 2, 2008... (From Western Daily Press) There is some essential research that entrepreneurs need to carry out before launching their venture. It can make the difference between success and failure, reports Peter Jump This includes getting to grips with...

EU invites bids for Galileo project.
July 2, 2008... (From Suddeutsche Zeitung) The European Union is again inviting tenders for its Galileo satellite system, with 30 navigation satellites, through which the EU aims to compete with the GPS system of the US. It will aim to launch Galileo in...

Pskov Resort No Holiday for German Investor.
July 2, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) SPITSINO, Pskov Region -- Heiner Berr was inspired to start a resort on Chudskoye Lake, a sprawling body of water in northwest Russia, when a local official showed him the site and promised to support the project....

Killer Said Hiding in Belgium.
July 2, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) The man suspected of killing investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya is hiding in Western Europe, Investigative Committee chief Alexander Bastrykin said Tuesday. Prosecutors had said Politkovskaya's...

Police Take Photos of Traffic Offenses.
July 2, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) A new law allowing drivers to be fined based on photographic evidence from traffic cameras came into effect Tuesday, though the system is in place in only three spots on Moscow's streets. The cameras have been...

Dagestani Newspaper Founder in Rare Probe.
July 2, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) Investigators in Dagestan have opened an unprecedented criminal investigation into allegations that the founder of a local newspaper was interfering in the work of his own journalists. Prosecutors suspect...

TNK-BP Woes Might Send Dudley on Visa Run.
July 2, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) The future of TNK-BP's daily operations was thrown into doubt on Tuesday as officials inside the embattled firm warned that CEO Robert Dudley was among the foreign staff that might soon be forced to leave the...

Russian Firms Get Low Marks In Backing Whistle-Blowing.
July 2, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) Only 22 percent of Russian firms encourage whistle-blowing, according to a report released Tuesday, which cited the country's historical enmity toward "informants" as the reason for the low score. Roughly one...

Khodorkovsky Faces 15 More Years.
July 2, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) The Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor General's Office on Tuesday confirmed that it had brought new charges against former Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky that could add 15 years to his prison sentence. ...

Chubais May Take RSPP Task.
July 2, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) Anatoly Chubais, recently unemployed after Unified Energy System wound up its operations Monday, will likely work on an RSPP project to draft a position on a new EU-Russia partnership agreement, his former...

The Dangers Of Wearing A Headscarf.
July 2, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) To Our ReadersThe Moscow Times welcomes letters to the editor. Letters for publication should be signed and bear the signatory's address and telephone number. Letters to the editor should be sent by fax to...

Standard & Poor's downgrades Hypo Real Estate ratings.
July 3, 2008... (From Suddeutsche Zeitung) The rating agency Standard & Poor's has reduced seven of its ratings for Hypo Real Estate, the German property financing group, by one notch in each case. The agency has explained this by the expectation that the...

Kremlin to Cede Power to Fight Graft.
July 3, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) President Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday that Moscow had to cede some of its powers to regional governments if it is to be successful in rooting out the corruption he described as having become a "way of life" in...

Mystery Shrouds Shchekochikhin's Death.
July 3, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) Five years on, the circumstances surrounding the death of Yury Shchekochikhin, a liberal State Duma deputy and one of the country's most fearless investigative journalists, remain an enigma. Shchekochikhin, who...

Foreign NGOs Lose Tax Status.
July 3, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has signed a decree reducing the number of international organizations allowed to issue tax-free grants from 101 to just 12, Interfax reported Wednesday. The sharp reduction could...

Norwegian Found Dead in Astrakhan.
July 3, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) A Norwegian engineer and his Russian wife have been found dead with gunshot wounds in their Astrakhan apartment, and two suspects have been detained, investigators said Wednesday. Staale Helseth, 40, and his...

Toilets Hijack Bastrykin Site.
July 3, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) The personal web site of Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin has been occupied by an apparently defunct company selling bathroom fittings. Biographical from the site, Bastrykin.ru, was cited by...

Deputy Accuses Top Investigator of Illegal Business.
July 3, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) State Duma Deputy and muckraking journalist Alexander Khinshtein has accused Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin of illegally running a real estate business in the Czech Republic. Bastrykin is...

Investor Signed Up For Tourist Spaceship.
July 3, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) The Federal Space Agency has signed an agreement with an investor to secure financing for an additional ship to help the country cash in on the growing space-tourism boom. The agency said in a statement Monday...

Prokhorov Touts New Innovations.
July 3, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov said Wednesday that he would soon create a foundation to support scientists, joining a growing chorus of businessmen eager to invest in new innovations. "We have to use our...

BACKTRACK - The vicar of Wimbledon.
July 4, 2008... (From The Northern Echo) Byline: Mike Amos Oh enter then his gates with praise; Approach with joy his courts unto?. TO begin at the conclusion, the answer to Tuesday?s question was that John Hartley, Wimbledon winner in 1879 and...

Chelsea Owner Escapes Politics.
July 4, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday accepted the resignation of Roman Abramovich, the Kremlin's most loyal oligarch, as governor of the far eastern Chukotka autonomous district, a job Abramovich has long made...

Work-Permit Tour Exemplifies Strange Feud.
July 4, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) A senior TNK-BP employee and the government's top work-permits official walked triumphantly into the sunshine Thursday, after the Federal Migration Service issued eight permits to the firm's senior staff, including...

Medvedev Will Make Economic Pitch to G8.
July 4, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) The Group of Eight summit in Japan next week will be a global coming out party of sorts for Dmitry Medvedev, as the new president is expected to offer his take on global economic problems and their possible...

Not All Regions Created Equal.
July 4, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) PSKOV -- It was once the pride of Soviet telephone technology, producing the bulky phones that graced the desks of countless factory directors and Party officials. Now, the Pskov ATS Factory has fallen into...

Tax Status Unclear For Foreign NGOs.
July 4, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) The government will clarify later this year the tax status of grants from dozens of international organizations excluded from tax exemptions in a recent decree signed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, a government...

British Dancer Detained in Car Arson.
July 4, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) Amid a wave of car arsons that hit the city in recent weeks, a British dancer was detained in southwestern Moscow on suspicion of setting fire to a Mercedes, city police said Thursday. Police detained Alistair...

Popovkin Appointed Space Forces Chief.
July 4, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) President Dmitry Medvedev has signed a decree promoting Space Forces chief Vladimir Popovkin and replacing him with a career officer, a Defense Ministry spokesman said Thursday. Popovkin, 50, was tapped to...

Putin Says Sochi Sites Must Move.
July 4, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Thursday ordered that three sites for planned Olympic venues be moved because of environmental concerns and reprimanded the Sochi games preparations chief for weak assurances that...

Power Machines Wins Iraq Deal.
July 4, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) Power Machines, the country's biggest energy machinery producer, announced Thursday that it would build a 26.8-megawatt hydrostation in northern Iraq by July 2010, raising hopes for other Russian firms looking to...

How to Depict Sour Faces and Sour Smiles.
July 4, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) Eeneye: sourpuss To Our ReadersThe Moscow Times welcomes letters to the editor. Letters for publication should be signed and bear the signatory's address and telephone number. Letters to the editor should...

New Bill Targeting Graft at Customs.
July 7, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) A group of State Duma deputies on Friday proposed a major overhaul of the Customs Code aimed at simplifying the Byzantine process of importing goods into the country and stamping out corruption. Should the...

Railway a Gauge of Sakhalin's Future.
July 7, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, Sakhalin -- Sakhalin is not only separated from the rest of Russia by several kilometers of water, but also by the 457-millimeter difference between the width of its train tracks. This legacy...

A Belgian Business Model for Making Dough.
July 7, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) Ian Zilberkweit understands how important bread has always been to Russians, and he is basing the success of his business here on the belief that he can do it better. On Monday, Zilberkweit will open a fifth Le...

Married Couple Charged In Killing of Norwegian.
July 7, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) A married couple has been charged with the murder of a Norwegian man and his Russian wife in the southern city of Astrakhan, a top regional investigator said Friday. The suspects, a 27-year-old man and his...

Dubrovka Proceedings Will Be Closed.
July 7, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) Pending hearings at Europe's top human rights court into the 2002 hostage crisis at Moscow's Dubrovka theater will be closed to the public at the request of Russian authorities. The European Court of Human...

PwC Says Russian Bankers Report Different Concerns.
July 7, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) Bankers don't think alike after all. Amid a worldwide banking crunch, Russian bankers and their counterparts abroad view liquidity shortage as their biggest risk, according to a new report by...

Moscow Hit With Burst of Road Rage.
July 8, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) Alexander Lavrushin was crossing Prospekt Vernardskogo on his way to class at Moscow State Pedagogical University when the driver of a Mercedes coupe stopped his car, got out and punched him twice in the face. ...

Medvedev Gets Kudos From G8 Peers.
July 8, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) TOYAKO, Japan President Dmitry Medvedev won praise Monday as a "smart guy" who is as direct as Vladimir Putin even though his first talks at his international debut at a G8 summit yielded few results. ...

A New Day for Family, Love and Fidelity.
July 8, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) Russians already splurge on tulips for International Women's Day and heart-shaped knickknacks for St. Valentine's Day. Now a new holiday is being added to the roster: the Day of Family, Love and Fidelity, which...

3 Rounds of Talks Before EU Summit.
July 8, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) Negotiators hammering out a new partnership agreement will hold three rounds of talks before the next EU-Russia summit in November in France, diplomats said Monday. They will prepare a joint progress report for...

Grabovoi Found Guilty, Gets 11 Years.
July 8, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) Moscow's Tagansky District Court found cult leader Grigory Grabovoi guilty of 11 counts of fraud Monday and sentenced him to 11 years in prison, but not before the proceedings were delayed for two hours by a bomb...

Blogger Handed Suspended Sentence.
July 8, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) The Syktyvkar City Court handed blogger Savva Terentyev a one-year suspended prison sentence Monday for a controversial post he made last year, saying police officers should be "periodically set on fire" in city...

2 Officials Close to Baluyevsky Quit.
July 8, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) Two top military officials have resigned after the recent ouster of General Staff chief Yury Baluyevsky, Interfax reported Monday. Colonel General Yevgeny Karpov, chief of the Signal Corps, and Colonel General...

TNK-BP Chief Dudley Survives Vote on Ouster.
July 8, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) The Russian shareholders who own half of TNK-BP on Monday failed to dismiss the firm's American CEO, Robert Dudley, who they argue has run the venture in favor of 50 percent shareholder BP. Viktor Vekselberg,...

Potanin to Lead Norilsk Board.
July 8, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) Norilsk Nickel's recently elected nine-member board of directors chose Vladimir Potanin as chairman Monday at its first meeting and named the deputy general director of Potanin's Interros Holding, Sergei Batekhin,...

TGK-11 to Appeal Rosneft Court Win.
July 8, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) Power producer TGK-11 said Monday that a Moscow court's ruling could leave some Siberian residents without heat and electricity as soon as this winter, and promised to appeal the decision calling its merger...

Modernized Spa Rises On Predecessor's Plot.
July 8, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) A historic spa complex will return to Novy Arbat by mid-2010 after a nearly two-decade absence, this time packaged with high-end apartments and office space. Russian developer Baltiiskaya Stroitelnaya Kompania...

Slump is reaching west's rich areas.
July 9, 2008... (From Western Daily Press) The doom and gloom hitting the property market is spreading out of London and into some of the most prosperous parts of the West, according to one of the country's leading estate agents. Business...

Seemingly endlesstide ofbadnews.
July 9, 2008... (From Western Daily Press) The region's leading business experts and entrepreneurs have called on the Bank of England MPC to leave interest rates as they are when it meets this week. With fears the economy is heading for recession and...

Kurils Deal Linked to Economic Ties.
July 9, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) TOYAKO, Japan Japanese Prime Minister Jasuo Fukuda took eight aides into his talks with President Dmitry Medvedev on the sidelines of a G8 summit on Tuesday. Medvedev arrived with five aides. Still, the...

Regional Raiders Ignore Medvedev's Message.
July 9, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) Tax and sanitary inspectors have never found anything irregular during their visits to Agrofirma Engels, but that hasn't stopped them from dropping hints to director Nikolai Motsny that the authorities of the...

New Demands Sent to TNK-BP.
July 9, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) TNK-BP faced more bureaucratic hurdles Tuesday when labor authorities announced an investigation into purported employment violations and fined the company 41,000 rubles ($1,750) and the Federal Tax Service demanded...

Kremlin Fingered in Litvinenko's Murder.
July 9, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) A British security services agent has said the Russian government likely played a part in the 2006 poisoning in London of Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko. The accusation was made just hours after President...

Amid City Construction Boom, Thieves Heist Heavy Machinery.
July 9, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) As Moscow's construction boom continues unabated, thieves and robbers continue to heist heavy machinery such as cranes and cement mixers from local construction sites. Three KamAZ cranes and one cement truck...

Price for Central Asian Gas to Double.
July 9, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) From next year, Gazprom will buy its gas from Central Asia at double today's rates, following the trend of high prices in Europe, CEO Alexei Miller said in a televised meeting with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on...

Risks Seen In Global Warming.
July 9, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) While global warming may bring Russia short-term savings on fuel costs and increased crop capacity, a temperature increase of more than 3 degrees Celsius would eventually lead to food and water shortages in some...

Bank Rossiya Emerges From Shadows.
July 10, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) It is an overhang from Vladimir Putin's Russia, a byword for the cronyism and connections that prevail in government. But Bank Rossiya, otherwise known as the bank of Putin's friends, looks like it is trying to turn...

Medvedev Is Neither Tsar Nor Saint.
July 10, 2008... (From The Moscow Times) Russians have a serious problem on their hands. They don't know which of the two tsars is the real one. Russia has been governed by collective leadership more than once, starting when Tsar Peter (before he...