POLITICS
A top Kremlin aide cautioned on Sunday that no “reset” looms in long-troubled relations with Britain, hours before Prime Minister David Cameron was to arrive in Moscow for the first visit by a British leader in six years. Ahead of the visit, four former foreign ministers called on Cameron to defend Russian businesses from corruption, and two former deputy ministers demanded to bring to justice those guilty in Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky
(The Moscow Times, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Moskovskie Novosti)
An attack on the Israeli Embassy in Cairo may grow into a serious crisis in the country’s relations with Egypt as Israel almost immediately withdrew its ambassador from the country
(Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Kommersant, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Moskovskie Novosti)
The Yabloko right-wing opposition party co-founder Grigory Yavlinsky will come out of political retirement to head the party's list in the State Duma elections, the party announced Sunday at a Moscow congress
(The Moscow Times, Kommersant, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Moskovskie Novosti, Vedomosti, Izvestia)
ECONOMY
Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin called on the European Union on Saturday to make a clear commitment to a common economic policy that would aid debt-ridden countries and keep the euro-zone crisis from spreading.
(The Moscow Times, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
OIL & GAS
More than half of additional budget income this year was not related to hydrocarbons, which the Foreign Ministry sees as a positive tendency in the Russian economy. Experts, however, say the Russian economy still relies mainly on natural resources exports, meaning that the link between budget incomes and oil prices, though not direct, will persist.
(Nezavisimaya Gazeta)
The government is seeking to raise 1.2 trillion rubles ($40 billion) from selling state assets in the next three years, with Rosneft expected to be the biggest contributor, bringing in more than 200 billion rubles in 2012, the Economic Development Ministry said.
(The Moscow Times, Vedomosti)
Rosneft President Eduard Khudainatov could soon be replaced, media reports said little more than a week after the state company signed an Arctic offshore development deal with ExxonMobil. The company dismissed the reports.
(The Moscow Times, Kommersant, Moskovskie Novosti)
Total, Europe's third-largest oil company, has made a "major" natural gas discovery in the Caspian Sea off Azerbaijan that may boost supplies of the fuel pumped to the European Union
(The Moscow Times, Nezavisimaya Gazeta)
AVIATION & AEROSPACE
The Kremlin proposed to increase fines for flight safety violations and subsidize the lease of new aircraft following last week's Yak-42 crash that killed 43, including most of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl ice hockey team.
(The Moscow Times, Kommersant, Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Moskovskie Novosti, Vedomosti)
TELECOMS & IT
Three leading companies on the Smartphone market - Apple, HTC and Samsung Electronics - have become involved in another patent litigation
(Kommersant)
CONSUMER
Knockoff Chinese Jin Ling cigarettes from Kaliningrad, Italian Asti wines actually made in the CIS and Bavarian car parts made in Podolsk imply a certain geographic schizophrenia for Russian consumers. But the harsh reality is a market for counterfeit goods worth between $3 billion and $6 billion per year.
(The Moscow Times)
DEFENSE
A fan of military hardware, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin climbed inside a battle tank at a weapons exhibition in Nizhny Tagil on Friday, before promising 64 billion rubles ($2.2 billion) to state-owned Uralvagonzavod.
(The Moscow Times, Kommersant, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Izvestia)
SOCIETY
The Russian Investigative Department lifted charges against officials suspected of negligence and lax security after the January blast in Russia’s largest airport Domodedovo
(Kommersant)
SPORT
A funeral ceremony for members of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl hockey team who were killed in a plane crash last week was held in Yaroslavl on Saturday. The ceremony was attended by at least 100,000 people
(Kommersant, Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
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