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FSB gives nod to BlackBerry

MOSCOW - Russian mobile operators MTS and VimpelCom (trading as Beeline) recently got the go-ahead from federal security services to begin importing and selling BlackBerry smartphones. The decision to allow import and sale of the phones ended a long-standing deadlock, in which the FSB required that it be supplied with proprietary source code used by the BlackBerry servers.
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Nightmare-2009: Single Property Tax

The Ministry of Finance (MinFin) is preparing a project called the "Main Directions of Budget and Tax Policy for 2008-2010". The basic novelty potentially expected by Russians in 2009 is the introduction of a single property tax based not on the property cost assessment of the Bureau of Technical Inventory (BTI) but on the market price of the residence.
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Petersburg bomb wounds 6

At 8:30 pm Moscow Standard Time, a small explosion occurred at the central region McDonald's on Nevskyy Prospect in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Six people were wounded, including 2 children and a German citizen.
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Russian Prices: Part 2 of an economic review of life in Russia

Lately, people have been pointing out that it is cheaper to live in the United States than in Russia. Honestly, I thought they must be joking. I know that where I come from, most all prices are lower, but I lived in a little backwoods area where most people were farmers, oil workers, or real estate agents.
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Russian Prices: An economic review of life in Russia

This task was pretty simple. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics keeps up an ongoing project on the web, called the Consumer Price Index.It lists a lot of goods sold in the US and gives an average cost.
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Ford braces for Russian autoworker strike

It's that time of year again and Russians are looking at price increases across the board that haven’t even occurred this year yet--except my rent. Of course, everyone knows it coming.
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Kremlin lightens up on Georgia

President Vladimir Putin announced yesterday that he would be sending Russian Ambassador Vyacheslav Kovalenko back to Tbilisi, Georgia. Putin has decided to normalize relations between the two countries by returning his ambassador, making energy agreements, and for starters normalizing postal and transportation links between the two countries.
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Kremlin cracks down on immigrants

Russian xenophobia has shocked the world in the past few years. Beatings and murders in the streets of cities and villages alike--usually labeled 'hooliganism'. Now, the Russian government is trying to limit these problems by removing those foreigners and regulating them more carefully--exactly what the racist groups have been calling for in their Metro fliers and posters.
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The Red Crystal Cometh

The 'Red Crystal' symbol has now officially become a symbol of aid workers for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and accepted into the Geneva Convetion.
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Belarus vs Russia: Oil supply turn off

Belarus has turned off Russian crude supplies to Europe. Russia says that Belarus has been siphoning off supplies and will have to pay duties. According to RIA Novosti, Russia and Belarus have been embroiled in an energy dispute since Moscow doubled the gas price for Belarus to $100 per 1,000 cubic meters as of January 1.
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