Free Republic

As the possibility of free market competition in liquefied natural gas sales looms, Gazprom is preparing to do battle with potential domestic and international rivals. The gas giant plans to take as much as 15 percent of the world LNG market, up from its 5 percent share today, Gazprom chief Alexei Miller said at annual shareholder meeting held at company's headquarters on Friday. Europe's own gas production is decreasing, while many LNG producers prefer to supply premium markets in the Asia-Pacific region. As a consequence, Europe's share in world LNG imports decreased from 28 percent in 2009 to 21 percent...

Chechnya has pledged to spend about half a million dollars for a group of English teachers to give a three-week course in the southern Russian republic, according to an entry on the state purchases website. The teachers will be housed in "luxury suites in a five-star hotel" in the republic's capital, Grozny, the entry says, adding that the educators must have a doctorate degree and previous teaching experience in the United Kingdom. At least 16 foreign teachers are being sought for the program in order to raise the qualifications of local instructors, in part by providing theoretical approaches to teaching...

The new head of the Central Bank has vowed to continue her predecessor's battle against inflation, resisting calls for radical monetary stimulus and a weaker ruble to revive the economy. A first interest rate cut could come in the third quarter of this year, but only if inflation is clearly falling, Elvira Nabiullina said in an interview before she takes charge at the financial regulator Monday. In wide-ranging remarks, Nabiullina also said that without deep structural reforms and successful efforts to stamp out corruption, Russia’s $2 trillion economy cannot attain a goal of 5 percent annual growth set by the...

The newly appointed Economic and Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said Monday that his main task was to prevent a recession, while Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said the government expected a 400 billion ruble ($12 billion) budget deficit in 2014. Ulyukayev, who served as first deputy chairman of the Central Bank for almost a decade before being appointed economic development minister on Monday, outlined his future policy at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin. He indicated that he would try to pursue his policy without relying on high oil prices, but added that his task would be hard. “It is one...

About 21 percent of Russians are "seriously worried" about environmental issues in their country, according to a survey published by an independent Russian pollster on Wednesday. The Levada Center pollster said the figure is four percentage points less than during its previous poll on the issue held last year. Almost 62 percent of respondents, however, are convinced that polluted environment has a negative impact a person's health. The survey was conducted on May 23-27 among over 1,600 respondents in 130 cities and towns from 45 Russian regions. The margin of error does not exceed 3.4 percent.

The birth rate in Russia grew 30 percent since 2007, the Minister of Labor and Social Protection Maxim Topilin said on Wednesday. In his interview with the Ekho Moskvy radio station, the minister attributed the trend in part to the introduction of the so-called "maternity capital" on January 1, 2007. "During this period, the birth rate increased by 30 percent," Topilin said without giving the exact figures. Growth was attributed "to the introduction of the maternity capital, among other things." In a bid to encourage families to have more than one child, all women who gave birth to their second...

MOSCOW, June 19 (RIA Novosti) – Google has not provided the US authorities with direct assess to its servers, the head of Google Russia said on Wednesday, while acknowledging that the Internet giant regularly receives requests for user data from government agencies. “Yes, we receive government requests to provide data, but this is strictly in line with the law. It is important to understand that these are requests that we respond to, and not access to servers,” Yulia Solovyova, the recently appointed head of Google Russia, said in an interview with Kommersant published Wednesday. Her statement comes amid worldwide public...

WASHINGTON — Data technology developed by Russia is fighting Cold War suspicions to compete in U.S. markets, amid mushrooming revelations about secret U.S. government data surveillance programs. But that drive to win contracts has no motives other than making money in a free market and is not rooted in Russia's track record of monitoring the communications of its own citizens, as critics are starting to accuse the U.S. government of doing, developers involved in the effort said. "We're a 22-year-old independent company formed by individuals who quit their day jobs and started a new company from scratch," said Alexey Khitrov...