MOSCOW – President Vladimir Putin has signed the law on the contractor selection system for public purchases.
Under the new system, public procurements have to be made by customers using competitive methods for selecting suppliers or by buying goods, works or services from a sole supplier through a public tender, a tender with limited participation, a two-stage tender, a closed-subscription tender, a closed-subscription tender with limited participation, a closed two-stage tender, an electronic auction, a closed auction, or requests for quotations of proposals.
MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law on the return the Esterhazy Princes’ book collection to Vienna, the Kremlin press service reported on Monday.
The law ratifies the Russian-Austrian intergovernmental agreement signed in Moscow on September 21, 2012.
The agreement establishes the procedure of the Esterhazy collection’s transfer to Austria. Thus, under the agreement, Austria undertakes to pay insurance, packing, and transportation fees, and to ensure its safety. When all the books of the collection are handed over to Austria, a final protocol will be signed that will mean that all Austria’s claims concerning the Esterhazy book collection are considered settled once and for all.
MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved amendments to the Federal Law “On Gas Supply in the Russian Federation” and some legislative acts, the Kremlin press service reported.
The amendments “are aimed at improving the state regulation of natural gas prices (tariffs): they determine the mechanisms to cancel decisions of the executive authorities of subjects of the Russian Federation in the field of state regulation of tariffs adopted in violation of the law; eliminates the ‘gap’ in the legislation regarding the application of regulated gas prices to process gas losses in distribution networks during its transit, as well as during emergency, maintenance and other works.”
MOSCOW – President Vladimir Putin has signed the Federal Law “On the Audit Chamber of the Russian Federation.”
The federal law stipulates that the Audit Chamber is a permanently functioning supreme body for external governmental audits, formed in accordance with the said federal law, which is accountable to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.
The federal law sets forth the procedure for appointing the Audit Chamber Chairperson and its deputy, as well as the Chamber’s auditors.
HANNOVER – Russian President Vladimir Putin hopes that specialists from different countries will learn about Russia’s drive for diversifying its economy.
Putin said Russia “is represented by 160 companies from 20 regions and its products are exhibited on the area of 5,000 square kilometres”. “Russia is represented by not only famous grants, which successfully work in the energy sector, but also by the companies specializing in machine-building, electronics and biomedicine,” the Russian president stressed.
HANNOVER – Russian President Vladimir Putin has set the task to increase trade turnover between Russia and Germany up to 100 billion U.S. dollars.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Putin said, “Now trade turnover between the two countries reaches 74 billion dollars.”
HANNOVER – Russia’s authorities are concerned not about the work of NGOs in Russia, but about their financing from abroad, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said on Monday.
The president said over four months, the organisations of the kind had received 28 billion 300 million roubles.
HANNOVER – It would be better to have spent the enormous sum that came from foreign sources to Russian non-governmental organizations (NGO) in the past four months to provide financial aid to Cyprus, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
HANNOVER – The law on activities of non-governmental organisations should be binding, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin told a news conference on results of his visit to Germany on Monday.
“This law has come into force, and everyone will abide by it,” the president said in response to the question about inspections of non-governmental organisations in Russia.
“We are not controlling anyone, but we want to know by what routes and for what purposes the money is coming to Russia from abroad, and we want to know, whether the organisations receiving it are involved in the political activities inside the country,” the president explained.
HANNOVER – Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed the hope that German non-governmental organizations will continue their work in Russia.
HANNOVER – The Chernobyl nuclear disaster may seem ‘baby talk’ in case of escalation of tensions in North Korea, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday.
HANNOVER – Russian President Vladimir Putin considers it necessary to do the best to suspend arms supplies to all parties involved in the conflict in Syria.
HANNOVER – Russia reposes trust in the economic policy of the European Commission and Germany, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday.
AMSTERDAM – Russian President Vladimir Putin said he takes protests in Europe calmly.
When asked about his reaction to the fact that different groups of people, including FEMEN, organised protests during his visits to Holland and Germany, Putin said, “As for the girls… I did not have time to eat my breakfast today and I would have been delighted to see some sausage rather than their charms.”
AMSTERDAM – The Russian authorities will continue to take efforts to improve the investment climate in the country, President Vladimir Putin said.“We will do everything we can to create favourable conditions for doing business,” Putin said at a meeting with Russian and Dutch entrepreneurs, which he held together with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Monday, April 8.
AMSTERDAM – Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to protect the rights of sexual minorities and hopes to “reach a consensus” with them but expects the titular nations to have more children to increase the birth rate in Russia.
“The rights of sexual minorities are not infringed upon in the Russian Federation. They enjoy the full range of rights and freedoms,” he said at a press conference in Amsterdam after talks with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on my, April 8.
AMSTERDAM – Russian President Vladimir Putin and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands opened the Year of Russia in the Netherlands and Year of the Netherlands in Russia.
MOSCOW – Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev called to increase the share of non-cash operations to make the taxation more transparent in Russia. Medvedev noted the importance of this measure at an enlarged meeting of the Finance Ministry board on Monday.
The prime minister noted that the Russian taxation system should be predictable, but it should not oust the business in the shadow, but on the contrary promote its development.
MOSCOW – Inflation targeting remains a right policy in the current economic conditions, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told an expanded meeting of the Finance Ministry’s collegium on Monday.
“In these conditions the inflation targeting policy remains right one and, of course, this also concerns those decisions that had already been taken,” he said. “These are the decisions to create an international financial centre in Moscow and a single financial market regulator.”
MOSCOW – Tough observance of the budget rule is the necessary precondition of macroeconomic stability, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said at an enlarged meeting of the Finance Ministry board on Monday.
He noted that the budgetary system can be made balanced only through the introduction of the budget rule, which makes the parameters of the budgetary policy independent from current fluctuations of the oil prices and protects the economy for external shocks.
MOSCOW – Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Russia’s state debt should be kept below 10 percent of GDP.
Speaking at an expanded meeting of the Finance Ministry’s Board on Monday, April 8, Medvedev said: “Owing to a prudent - I can’t think of any other way to describe it -- just prudent borrowing policy, debt sustainability remained at a low and safe level for the country, which is a big advantage compared to other countries.”
Russia’s current state debt is about 10 percent of GDP. “And we must certainly keep this competitive advantage,” Medvedev added.
MOSCOW – Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has approved the Justice state program of the Russian Federation, the press service of the Russian government reported.
The program’s objectives are to develop in the society the legal model of conduct of citizens, to overcome legal nihilism, to maintain stable respect for the law and raise confidence in the justice system.
MOSCOW – The Russian Finance Ministry proposed to increase the excise duties on the oil products for more revenues in the road funds. Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov has made the proposal at an enlarged meeting of the Finance Ministry board on Monday.
MOSCOW – The Russian Finance Ministry intends to reform the Federal Financial and Budgetary Supervisory Service (Rosfinnadzor), Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said.
The ministry hopes that the relevant draft law would be adopted by the State Duma during its current session in order to give more powers to the financial watchdog agency and similar regional and municipal services, Siluanov said at an expanded meeting of the Finance Ministry’s Board on Monday, April 8.
MOSCOW – The Russian budget has no resources for new spending, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said.
“Unfortunately, there are no serious resources for new expenditures. They can appear only if the existing budget funds are distributed,” Siluanov said at an expanded meeting of the Finance Ministry’s Board on Monday, April 8.
According to the forecast, the Russian economy will grow steadily until 2030 but at a rate of no more than 4 percent a year.
MOSCOW – The Russian government will in every possible way promote the development of world trade, but not to the detriment of the citizens of the country, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said at the opening of a meeting of the committee of the Codex Alimentarius Commission in Moscow on Monday.
MOSCOW – Gazprom Group will become an exclusive supplier of natural gas vehicle (NGV) fuel for Volkswagen Motorsport as of May 2013, the Russian gas monopoly said in a statement on Monday.
The deal was inked by Gazprom’s subsidiary Gazprom Germania GmbH on the sidelines of the Hannover Industrial Fair, where a working meeting between Gazprom Board Chairman Viktor Zubkov and Volkswagen Board Ulrich Hackenberg took place.
MOSCOW – According to the updated reports, the Russian budget deficit has made 0.9% of GDP or 141 and 61 billion roubles for the first quarter of this year, the Russian Finance Ministry said in its materials on Monday.
In particular, the budget revenues reached three trillions, 100 billions and 804 millions of roubles (20.8% of GDP) for the reporting period in 2013. The budget expenditures reached three trillions, 241 billions and 865 millions of roubles (21.8% of GDP) for the reporting period. The GDP volume reached 14 trillions, 888 billions and 603 millions of roubles in January-March 2013.
MOSCOW – Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak said on Monday Russia would sign an agreement to issue a 500 million dollar tranche to Serbia on April 9.
“The government has already taken the decision, tomorrow we will probably sign it,” he told reporters noting that the loan will be issued for budget support measures.
MOSCOW – The Russian Finance Ministry plans to increase the excise duties on the high-quality petrol of fourth and fifth classes, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told reporters on Monday.
“We intend to restore the tax rates (on the high-quality petrol) step by step, gradually, not spurring up the price growth,” he said. “Speaking about the adequate taxation, the fourth and fifth classes of petrol are undertaxed,” the minister noted.
MOSCOW – Nord Stream Consortium is starting consultations with Baltic States to build new sections of the pipeline, the company reports on Monday.
The consultations will be held with Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Germany. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland are informed about the beginning of the consultations, the report says.
MOSCOW – Russia’s wheat grain export dropped by 5.5 times in the first two months of the year, as compared to the same period of 2012, and stood at 331,000 tonnes, the Federal Customs Service said in its regular report.
Herein, the value of wheat export decreased by 4.2 times to 110.4 million U.S. dollars, the document underlined.
In January–February 2013, Russia’s wheat export to those countries, which are not members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), dropped by 6.3 times to 286,800 tonnes, while the export in value terms decreased by 4.9 times to 94.2 million U.S. dollars, the Customs Service underlined in its report.
MOSCOW – Russia’ inflation rate is forecasted to make up 0.3–0.5 percent in April and 2.2–2.4 percent over the first four months of the year, Russian Ministry of Economic Development said on Monday in its weekly survey of the country’s economic development.
Under the forecast, the year-to-year inflation will amount to 7.1–7.2 percent in April, the document added.
MOSCOW – Russia raised its vodka export in volume term by 17.9 percent in the first two months of the year, as compared to the same period of the preceding year, the Federal Customs Service said in its regular report, adding that the indicator made up 291,627 decalitres in equivalent of 100-percent alcohol.
In January–February 2013, Russia’s vodka export grew by 25.5 percent in value terms to 23.6 million U.S. dollars, the report said.
MOSCOW – The surplus of the Russian balance of trade went down by 0.6 percent in the first two months of the year, as compared to the same period of 2012, and stood at 36.7 billion U.S. dollars, the Federal Customs Service wrote in its regular report.
According to the Customs Service’s statistics, Russia’s foreign trade turnover decreased by 1.9 percent in the period under review, as compared to January–February 2012, and amounted to 123.6 billion U.S. dollars, the document underlined.
MOSCOW – The budget request of 900 billion roubles made by the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) for building new spaceports is justified if research and production clusters are created there as well, Andrei Ionin, correspondent member of the Russian Academy of Aeronautics, told ITAR-TASS on Monday, April 8.
HANNOVER – Russian Corporation “Uralvagonzavod” and Canada’s subsidiary Bombardier (Bombardier Transportation) have signed documents at the Russian-German business summit currently underway in Hannover.
The parties concluded the agreements, which would regulate joint plans to work out metropolitan trains on the Russian and CIS markets, and deals to start preparations for technical support service of Moscow’s metropolitan trains.
MOSCOW – Russian Railways, Sinara Group and Siemens have signed a memorandum on strategic partnership in manufacturing locomotives.
HANNOVER – The Transneft company expects that the construction of the oil pipeline in the area of the Yurubcheno-Tokhomskoye field in Eastern Siberia will be completed by 2016.
“The project documentation is ready. Hopefully, in October the construction and assembly works at all the sections will be launched,” Transneft President Nikolai Tokarev said. “By 2016 we hope to complete everything,” he added.
TBILISI – Georgia will start exporting its alcohol beverages, mineral waters and vegetables to Russia already by summer, Georgia’s Agriculture Minister David Kirvalidze said on Monday.
After Russian consumer rights watchdog’s two inspections over 60 wine and mineral water producers were given the right to register their produce in Russia and start exports, he said.
KIEV – Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovich has approved a strategy for protection and integration of the Roma community into the Ukrainian society until 2020, the presidential press service said on Monday.
The Cabinet of Ministers is given six months to adopt a plan of actions to implement the strategy.
KIEV – Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich has signed law that facilitates visa regulations with the European Union.
The parliament ratified the relevant agreement on March 22, 2013.