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Articles by Derek Andersen

Court Leaves VimpelCom's Hands Tied

The Moscow Arbitration Court declined Wednesday to hear VimpelCom's appeal of interim measures restricting the Russian company's activities while a lawsuit...

RusAl in $850M Finance Deal With Chinese Bank to Build Siberian Factory

United Company RusAl and the Export-Import Bank of China have signed a cooperation agreement on a RusAl greenfield project in Eastern Siberia worth...

Newsmaker: Scholarly Belousov Viewed as Putin's Chief Economic Ally

Dapper, gray-haired Economic Development Minister Andrei Belousov, 53, had a distinguished academic career before entering full-time public service.

Russia Abroad: In Ethiopia, Russian Is the Language of Healing

Addis Ababa is home to the last Russian Red Cross outpost abroad, a remnant of a network that, in its Soviet heyday, included locales such as Pyongyang...

Petersburg Native to Head Realtor Group

St. Petersburg realtor Alex Romanenko has been elected president of the International Real Estate Federation, which unites 100 national real estate associations...

Kaku Helps Rostik Celebrate 30 Years

Rostik Group president Rostislav Ordovsky-Tanayevsky Blanco celebrated his company’s 30th anniversary by inviting about 300 “partners, friends and...

Survey Shows Details of Urban Life

The conventional wisdom that "Moscow is not Russia" is confirmed by a recent Cushman & Wakefield report on retail facilities and spending around the country...

Moscow's Luxury Real Estate Rankings Could Use Improvement

Moscow made a mediocre showing in the Global Cities Survey by international luxury real estate agency Knight, but the firm sees an upward trend in the...

Bank of Moscow Boss Says He's Left Russia

Bank of Moscow president Andrei Borodin has left the country amid growing speculation that he might face fraud charges in connection with a loan that investigators...

Food Businesses Cater to Startup Spirit

A catering business, just like any self-employment in Moscow, isn't for the lax. For creative individuals willing to work hard, catering offers opportunities...

Mortgage Risk, Russian-Style

Being invited to a bank board member's barbeque is a better indicator of whether his institution will give you a mortgage than your actual credit history...

Mistral Construction In Russia, But Not by Pugachyov

A new shipyard will be constructed on Kotlin Island, 32 kilometers off St. Petersburg in the Baltic Sea, in order to build two Mistral helicopter carriers...

What Lies Ahead After a Year of Thieving

The 2010 annals of corruption stories took a creative twist this week when the public learned that Moscow's metro chief is also a talented inventor.

U.K. to Scrutinize Firms With Russia Ties

International companies doing business in Russia will be subject to greater scrutiny by the United Kingdom beginning in April, when a draconian anti-corruption...

PepsiCo to Invest $250M in Azov

PepsiCo is setting up a $250 million ecosystem of farming and production in the southern city of Azov, opening a new potato chip plant and laying the cornerstone...

Troika Exec Arrested at JFK in Fraud Case

Troika Dialog global markets division head Peter Ghavami has been arrested in the United States on a fraud charge. The charge against him is related to...

RusAl Picks Partners For Listing

RusAl said Wednesday that it chose Sberbank as the issuer and VTB Capital as its advisor for the first-ever Russian Depositary Receipts.

Overflight Fees Could End With WTO

Russian airlines look ready to weather the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars of overflight fees from European airlines. An agreement to eliminate...

Russian Railways Signs $2Bln Italian Venture

Russian Railways and Italian conglomerate Finmeccanica said they had signed a memorandum of understanding on the creation of a joint venture to develop...

United Russia Claims Food Price Reduction

A specialized group created by the United Russia political party has claimed that it succeeded in reducing basic food prices. People's Oversight "has proved...

Kudrin Wants Privatization Fund

Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin proposed creating a reserve fund of proceeds from privatization, interest from which could be used to plug budget gaps,...

More Spring Crops, Less Poultry Needed

The government will halve the quota on poultry imports next year and wants farmers to sow 25 percent more spring crops to meet the demand after a severe...

China Starts to Trade Yuan Against Ruble

The ruble joined the ranks of foreign currencies traded in Shanghai on Monday as Prime Minister Wen Jiabao arrived in St. Petersburg for a three-day visit...

Reluctant Kudrin Defends Tax Hikes

Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin garnered praise for his candor when he spoke Friday at a tax conference, but his words made few happy: Business will pay...

Nokia Agrees to Join Skolkovo Center

Nokia committed on Wednesday to open a research facility at the Skolkovo high-tech innovation center being set up outside of Moscow, with a memorandum...

Chichvarkin Offers IPO Assistance

Former Yevroset co-owner Yevgeny Chichvarkin would be happy to lend a hand in the company's upcoming initial public offering, he said in an interview published...

Daily Moscow Commute Gets Longer

Forty percent of Muscovites spend more than an hour each way commuting to work or school, according to a survey by the state-run VTsIOM polling agency...

Daimler Investigation Opened

The Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor General's Office said Friday that it is opening a corruption case related to purchases of Mercedes-Benz automobiles...

Mitsubishi Revives $1Bln Tatarstan Fertilizer Factory

Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said that it would build a $1 billion fertilizer plant in Tatarstan for a state-owned Russian company, reviving a deal...

U.K. Firm Will Make Lighting

British lighting equipment producer Abacus announced plans Wednesday for its Russian unit to build a plant in St. Petersburg next year as the country is...

$18.6Bln in Remittances Left in 2009

The World Bank ranked Russia fourth for 2009 among countries whose foreign residents transfer money abroad. The United States came in first, followed by...

U.S. Targets Bribes in Russia, Again

Russia figures again in the U.S. administration's latest anti-corruption case, which has cost a Swiss logistics company and its clients a total of $236...

Russia Lags in Fixing Business Conditions

Russia slipped in the latest annual ranking of business-friendly countries because its neighbors were more vigorous in improving conditions for businesses...

Foreigners Take the Lead in Green

Western companies are a major force behind the spread of corporate ecological consciousness in Russia, as they try to apply their standards in local operations...

Fishing to Get $13Bln Overhaul

The commercial shipbuilding industry is in dire straits — with a shrinking fleet and little domestic manufacturing — and requires $12.8 billion in...

Putin's Baby Boom Spurs Importers

Thanks to a demographic blip and some help from the state, the birthrate is rising in Russia, and the market for children's products is following suit...

Yukos Assets Under Dispute Following Dutch Ruling

The Amsterdam Court of Appeals has ruled that it would not recognize the 2007 sale of Yukos Finance BV, a Dutch corporation, by Russian court-appointed...

Gazprom Neft Pushes Into Lubricants

Gazprom Neft said Tuesday that it began construction on facilities for the mixing, packaging, storage and shipment of automobile and industrial lubricants...

Mikhalkov Looms Over Copyright Fight

Film director Nikita Mikhalkov is looming over a dispute about collecting fees on imported electronic devices and recordable media, which may be worth...

Uranium Deal Faces U.S. Objections

Russian uranium producer Atomredmetzoloto maintained a calm front Friday in the face of objections by powerful U.S. legislators to a deal that would give...

India Will Order Up to 345 Warplanes

Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony announced on Thursday that his country would make hefty purchases of military aviation produced jointly with Russia...

Pay TV Faces Modest Growth

Pay television executives have predicted that the industry will remain modest as many households are unwilling to accept bills for the service. A major...

IKEA Will Focus on Existing Investments

IKEA is changing its strategy in Russia to focus on existing stores rather than expansion to more sites, new IKEA CEO for Russia Per Wendschlag said. No...

Senator Pugachyov's Bank Goes Bust

International Industrial Bank, one of the country's top commercial banks, closed its doors Tuesday after the Central Bank revoked its license. The bank...

Foreign Executives to Sit Down With Putin

Chiefs of major international firms will meet with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Oct. 18 at a session of the Foreign Investment Advisory Council, the...

Construction Sector Votes for New Path

The Russian construction industry set the course for its future Thursday in contentious elections held by its highest self-regulatory body. Yefim Basin...

U.K.-Irish Firm to Revamp Museum

Moscow's Polytechnical Museum is about to begin its transformation into a modern science center after a British-Irish firm won a competition to produce...

TNK-BP Serious About Vietnam

TNK-BP intensified its involvement in Vietnam on Wednesday by signing a contract for oil deliveries and discussing deals on a Vietnamese oil refinery and...

Canada's Nordion Turns to Rosatom for Isotope

Canada's MDS Nordion, a provider of products and services for health science, is trying to certify a rare medical isotope that it agreed to buy from a...

Hu Touts A ‘New Start’

President Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese President Hu Jintao opened an oil line connecting the two countries, as they met for the fifth time in the past year...

Putin Stays Up Late for Amur Highway Opening

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin held a videoconference in the early hours of Friday morning to congratulate Transportation Minister Igor Levitin and a group...

Putin Vows Bright Arctic Future

The Arctic region has a bright and peaceful future with a growing Russian presence, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Thursday at an international conference...

Companies Eye Brazilian Energy Sector

Representatives from Russia and Brazil have agreed at an oil and gas conference in Rio de Janeiro to explore Russian participation in the Latin American...

Rival Builders Battle For Key Industry Job

Administrative procedures in the Russian construction industry could come closer to world practice, after a battle over leadership of a regulatory group...