MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin instructed the Ministry of Economic Development to make arrangements for issuing an information-analytical bulletin on WTO-related issues.
“A matter of principle importance is that all basic information on our economic performance within the WTO should be open and accessible to national business. I ask the Ministry of Economic Development to organise the publication of an electronic information-analytical bulletin on WTO-related issues,” Putin said at a meeting of the Security Council on Wednesday, November 21.
MOSCOW — Russia will not give up support for the national economy after accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
“More complex and flexible regulation instruments including a broad application of protective, compensational and antidumping measures will be needed,” President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting of Russia’s Security Council on Wednesday, November 21.
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday suggested discussing ways of provision of national security and protection of economic interests in the initial stage of Russia’s full-fledged membership of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Putin called the WTO accession a crucial event of 2012. The president recalled that it had taken 18 years for Russia to join the WTO. China had spent 16-17 years to finish the accession talks.
MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin said Russia has been facing increased risks after accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) due to crisis tendencies in global markets.
“Crisis tendencies in global markets have increased the risks related to the obligations we have assumed, primarily those to reduce import duties for certain goods,” Putin said at a meeting of the Security Council on Wednesday, November 21.
He noted that “our economy will have to make a big adaptation effort and reach a new level of competitiveness and openness during the initial period of our functioning within the WTO”.
The president did not rule out “some difficulties in the short term, especially at the moment when global growth rates have slowed down”.
MOSCOW — Net private capital outflow from Russia reached $61 billion in January-October as against $60 billion over the same period of last year, the chairman of the Central Bank of Russia told a State Duma session on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Russia forecasts that capital outflow from Russia may reach $67 billion in 2012, while the Ministry of Economic Development predicts the outflow of $70 billion.
MOSCOW — The Federation Council on Wednesday, November 21, approved bigger funding for political parties that received more than 3 percent of votes in Duma elections.
The new law will raise such funding from 20 to 50 roubles multiplies by the number of votes received at the latest federal elections.
The new rule will apply to five political parties: United Russia, the Communist Party, Just Russia, and the Liberal Democratic Party -- all four passed the 7 percent barrier and got elected to the lower house of parliament – and Yabloko, which received more than 3 percent of votes that are required for budget funding.
Under law, funding will also be provided to the parties whose candidates received at least 3 percent of votes in the latest elections, but its amount will not change.
Additional budget funding to parties will be 1.8 billion roubles in 2012; 2 billion roubles in 2013; 2.2 billion roubles in 2014; and 2.3 billion roubles in 2015.
MOSCOW — Russia’s consumer prices continued growing in a week from November 13 to November 19 and edged up by 0.1 percent, the Federal State Statistics Service said in a regular report on Wednesday, adding that the indicator has grown by 6.0 percent since the beginning of the year and has increased by 0.3 since the beginning of the current month.
MOSCOW — Russia’s state foreign debt was estimated at 40,916.6 million U.S. dollars as of November 1, 2012, the Finance Ministry said in its regular report, adding that the debt decreased by 400.9 million U.S. dollars over September-October.
MOSCOW — The unemployment rate, or the ratio of the jobless people to Russia’s able-bodied population, amounted to 5.3 percent in October 2012, the Russian State Statistics Service said in its regular report made public on Wednesday.
Under the document, as of the end of the month under review, the total number of the officially registered unemployed persons in the country amounted to 987,000 people, which was 16.3 percent (782,000 people) smaller than in October 2011, but 1.0 percent (38,000 people) more than in September 2012.
MOSCOW — The Federation Council on Wednesday, November 21, approved the law that raises the mining tax for the production of natural gas.
Previous mining tax rates were 582 roubles per 1,000 cubic metres for 2013 and 622 roubles from 2014 for the owners of gas transportation networks. Lower rates were introduced for independent organisations.
The new rates are 622 roubles per 1,000 cubic metres from July 1 to December 31, 2013 (up 7 percent); 700 roubles from 2014 (up 12.5 percent); and 788 roubles from January 1, 2015.
Higher rates will also apply to independent producers (decreasing coefficient will grow from less than 0.5 to about 0.65-0.7 in 2013-2015).
MOSCOW — Gazprom and Tomsk Region have agreed to draft a joint programme for 2013–2015 to boost production volumes in regional industrial companies to meet Gazprom’s needs.
“Our programme is aimed at import substitution and cost reduction by 15 to 30 percent,” Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said at a meeting with Tomsk Region Governor Sergei Zhvachkin.
PARIS — All directives regarding Rosneft’s purchase of TNK-BP have been approved by the government, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said.
Rosneft is said to have offered 15-20 billion U.S. dollars in cash for BP’s 50 percent share in TNK-BP, plus a 10-20 percent stake in Rosneft. This will allow BP to get a seat on Rosneft's Board of Directors.
The overall cost of the deal is estimated at 26-28 billion U.S. dollars.
The purchase of the BP stake by Rosneft will make it the biggest publicly listed oil company in the world if it also buys the other 50 percent of TNK-BP from a consortium of local oligarchs known as AAR for a reported 28 billion U.S. dollars.
BERLIN — Getting a visa to Russia should become a comfortable and pleasant procedure. This task is set before the Russian visa centre, which opened in the German capital on Tuesday.
CHISINAU — Most Moldovan citizens are in favor of the republic’s accession to the Custom’s Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. This is indicated by the results of the “Barometer of Public Opinion” sociological survey published on Tuesday. The survey was conducted at the request of the Institute for Public Policy in November 2012.
The survey showed that if a referendum were held in Moldova some 56 percent of respondents would support the idea of acceding to the Customs Union. Nearly a third of their number believe that fuel prices in Moldova would drop after that. Others (15 percent) note this would lead to the rise in the number of jobs and commodities export
KIEV — Ukraine’s accession to the Customs Union, which involves Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, runs counter the country’s legislation, Vice-Prime Minister Valery Khoroshkovsky said.
Speaking at the first conference of the Ukrainian National Platform for the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum on Wednesday, Khoroshovsky said, “Ukraine’s accession to the Customs Union is outside of law.”
At the same time, he said Ukraine could not give up mutually advantageous relations with its Eastern partners.