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VTB potential minority shareholder in Rostelecom

Acquisition would give Rostelecom funds to buy out shareholders who opposed a spin-off of the operator’s mobile communications assets for a proposed merger

© ITAR-TASS/Alexandra Krasnova

MOSCOW, January 30. /ITAR-TASS/. Major Russian bank VTB may soon become a large minority shareholder in state-owned telecommunications operator Rostelecom by buying stock in a 35 billion ruble, $1.06 billion deal, Kommersant daily reports on Thursday.

Acquisition would give Rostelecom funds to buy out shareholders who opposed a spin-off of the operator’s mobile communications assets for a proposed merger between those assets and another industry player, Tele2 Russia, half owned by VTB, says the report.

This spin-off was voted down at an extraordinary shareholder meeting on December 30 though divestment was backed by the 43%-stakeholding Federal Agency for State Property Management, Rosimushchestvo.

Rostelecom's proposed deal goes to its board for approval next week, sources close to the transaction told the paper.

One source said VTB plans were to buy Rostelecom common stock and stock owned by its subsidiary Mobitel. The proposed 16.6 percent share deal was assessed at around $1.06 billion at market prices.

The parties also plan a forward contract for Rostelecom to buy the shares back in two to three years when the company will have to pay interest calculated on money-market floating rates.

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"We know what kind of developments are being carried out there, but this will happen tomorrow or in a year or two, but we have such a system already today," the president said

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Houthis say they attacked Israeli military base with hypersonic missile

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Illegal decisions on Russian property in Finland will not go unanswered — diplomat

Maria Zakharova noted that the Russian Embassy in Helsinki has sent requests to clarify the situation

US, European officials suggest returning nukes to Ukraine — NYT

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Ukraine was warned about possible missile strike — Pentagon

Department of Defense Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh gave no answer to the question of how could Ukraine prepare for this kind of attack

Biden’s actions on Ukraine meant to 'muck things up' for Trump — Lavrov

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Western air defense systems unlikely to intercept Russian missiles — France’s Le Monde

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China against double standards in international law — Foreign Ministry

Spokesman Lin Jian highlighted Washington's use of double standards in handling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict within the United Nations

Russian stock market indices mixed on Friday — market data

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Zelensky fine with conflict continuing due to Western help — Slovak PM

Robert Fico pointed out that "more and more evidence show that the West seeks to prolong the war in Ukraine for various reasons"

Western nations should take Putin's statement seriously, warns Hungarian PM

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US missile defense base in Poland long among Russian army’s targets — Foreign Ministry

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Russian forces cut off key Ukrainian supply route in Velikaya Novoselka, DPR

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India, Russia discuss defense industry within military cooperation commission

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Eliminating best enemy units: Defense Minister visits special op area

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Decision on strikes inside Russia seals US puppet Zelensky’s fate — commentator

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