Russian Press at a Glance, Thursday, December 22, 2011

POLITICS Newly elected deputies on Wednesday divided key posts in the lower house of Russia’s parliament, the State Duma, and appointed heads of parliamentary committees (Vedomosti, Kommersant, Rossiiskaya Gazeta) Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will deliver his last state-of-the-nation address to the Federal Assembly on Thursday and analysts are curious as to what people can expect to hear (Rossiiskaya Gazeta) An advisory council to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has called for the second conviction against ex-tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky to be overturned (Vedomosti, Kommersant) The Russian Central Election Commission has published Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s income for 2011 (Rossiiskaya Gazeta) A member of Russia’s Ruling United Russia party, Sergei Naryshkin, a former head of the presidential administration, was voted in as speaker of the Russian parliament’s lower house on Wednesday, the State Duma (Kommersant) ECONOMY & BUSINESS Russia will become one of the best countries for business within the next ten years, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said (Vedomosti, Kommersant) Starting next year the price of a Hyundai Solaris in Russia will be 20% higher than it was last year, when the car first appeared on the Russian market (Vedomosti) Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman, the owner of the financial conglomerate Alfa-Group, is set to invest up to $1 billion in properties on the east coast of the United States (Vedomosti) The U.S. government’s trade agency, the Office of the United States Trade Representative has excluded Moscow’s Savelovsky Market from its annual Notorious Markets List which tracks markets that help to sustain global piracy and counterfeiting (Vedomosti) OIL & GAS Ukraine still wants to create a trilateral gas consortium with the EU and Russia to manage its gas transportation system, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych said (Rossiiskaya Gazeta) TECHNOLOGIES The Russian Ministry of Communications said it is possible to equip only 60% of polling places across Russia with webcams ahead of the March 2012 presidential elections (Kommersant) "Why does a carwash need the Internet?" That was a running joke at a conference on small business and the Internet, as guests questioned how a modest brick-and-mortar business could make use of online services (The Moscow Times) SOCIETY Finding good wine at a reasonable price in Russia is like finding a needle in a haystack; limited growth in demand, new alcohol consumption rules and even the changing winds of international politics have all complicated the import industry (The Moscow Times) RULE OF LAW Russian investigators have opened 53 criminal cases into irregularities in the run-up to and during the December 4 parliamentary elections (Kommersant) Following official requests from two Duma deputies, investigators on Wednesday opened a check into accusations that Kremlin allies illegally tapped opposition leader Boris Nemtsov's phone and published the recordings online (The Moscow Times) MOSCOW Heavy snow falls hit the Russian capital covering roads with thick layers of snow that caused major traffic jams in Moscow on Wednesday (Kommersant)