Vedomosti

Investors welcome in Moscow

The International Financial Center in Moscow needs a large-scale promotion campaign, according to Russia's Economic Development Ministry. A website should be developed to build contacts with Russian expats and share Russian success stories. Analysts suggest that officials get real.

Russia's Economic Development Ministry has had an idea about how to improve Russia's financial image. Foreigners don't have enough information about Russia, and their ideas are out of date. Russia's unimpressive performance in global rankings of preferred investment destinations, corruption levels and stability, only adds to the negative sentiment, the ministry said in its proposal to promote the Russia brand on international financial markets.

A promotion campaign to support the planned International Financial Center in Russia could add positive ideas. The ministry suggests using the international experience along with Soviet propaganda tools.

One of the key projects here is creating an IFC website, which would provide any user with information about the country, its investment and economic potential. The information should be initially posted in Russian, English, German and French. Versions in BRIC languages and Arabic will be added further down the line. The IFC website will also advertise financial services available in Russia, according to the ministry's plan.

An informal group will be organized to promote business opportunities in Russia and investment in Russian stock. It will include government officials, business executives, and academics. Russia's achievements should be associated with specific people and success stories, according to the ministry.

The Economic Development Ministry sees itself as the future program's coordinator; it plans to publish, jointly with the Russian mass media, materials on Russia's good business climate, and to monitor leading foreign media for publications about Russia.

The ministry has not estimated the program budget yet, said Dmitry Skripichnikov, a ministry official. A promotion campaign embracing the world's major economies (such as G8) usually costs several million dollars a year without direct advertising, said Yelena Fadeyeva, head of the Fleishman-Hillard Vanguard PR company.

But direct contacts are crucial to shape a country's international image, primarily through social networks - something this program lacks, Fadeyeva added. The target audiences for the IFC project include major business leaders and investors, and these people prefer interactive resources to media publications, said Alexei Volin, former deputy head of the government staff. Therefore, the program should emphasize forums and online conferences.

Nezavisimaya Gazeta

Moving the Kremlin

The environmental disaster in Moscow may force the country's top leadership to look for a new capital

The hot summer of 2010 is bringing fresh political surprises by the hour. One of them is that Moscow is beginning to lose its status as the capital of Russia.

According to Russian and international media reports, the environmental disaster outside Moscow, sparking peat bog and forest fires and a haze of smoke in the city, has sent foreign diplomatic missions fleeing from the Russian capital. The Germans were first to evacuate their diplomats. Its embassy in Russia, according to the Internet, is closed indefinitely. Bulgaria was the next to announce the evacuation of its embassy staff in Russia.

Aside from the Germans and Bulgarians, Austria, Poland and Canada are evacuating their nationals from Moscow, primarily women and children who are members of diplomatic families. Experts are trying to second-guess which other countries will want to save their diplomatic staff from the poisonous smog and recall them from Moscow. Perhaps the United States will join them, too. The U.S. Department of State has already recommended its citizens not to visit Russia, if possible, because it could pose a serious health risk. International media reports say that two hours spent outdoors in Moscow are equivalent to smoking two packets of cigarettes.

The heavy blanket of smoke that has descended on Moscow has made the Russian capital quite unfit for normal life. The concentration of carbon monoxide in the air is several times the maximum permissible level, while the smog hanging over the city day and night poses a direct threat to health. It is therefore very likely that the remaining diplomatic offices will also move out of Moscow.

National business leaders, the cultural elite and top ranking officials are also unlikely to stay, should foreign diplomatic missions make a mass exodus from Moscow. Even if the highest officials of the Russian state - the president and the prime minister - are not moving to the provinces, for fears of increasing the panic, it is clear that if this environmental disaster persists, the issue of moving the Russian capital elsewhere will certainly thrust itself to the center of the political stage.

Talk of such a move has been a recurring topic among the country's political elites for a long time now. Some experts believe there is a powerful lobby, keen to move the capital of Russia to St. Petersburg. It looks as though this lobby now has a unique opportunity to realize its plans.

Rossiiskaya Gazeta

Foreign aircraft fight wildfires in Russia

Rescuers from Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Italy and France are spraying water from air tankers on forests and peat bogs in Russia.

Yury Brazhnikov, director of the International Department at the Ministry of Civil Defence, Emergencies and Disaster Relief and head of the Russian National Corps of Emergency Humanitarian Response, said that the idea of helping to fight wildfires internationally was proposed in Europe following the disastrous forest fires in Greece and Portugal. Russia supported this decision immediately and took a leading role in the international firefighting team. States suffering from natural disasters have always asked for help. At that time the idea to create a "Euro Squadron" comprised of air groups from different countries, emerged.

According to the existing agreement, these international air teams come to the country where wildfires are raging and help to fight them. Russia immediately supplied its best Il-76 and Be-200 planes and Mi-26 helicopters in the international group.

The amphibious aircraft are stationed in their airfields and fly to a site of fire when needed. Sometimes the state that had asked for help pays for the operation of the aircraft, i.e. their fuel, landing, arrivals, daily work and the crew's lodging.

The Euro Squadron includes up to thirty aircraft. This is enough to maintain efforts to fight a natural disaster in any country. Exercises in Italy two years ago involved twelve aircraft which worked effectively together.

Two years ago, the Emergencies Ministry signed an administrative agreement with the European Union, according to which European countries ask for the Russian air group under certain conditions to implement their plans of using aviation to help people.

Nine European amphibious aircraft are now fighting wildfires in Russia. Five more aircraft will join them soon.

RBC Daily

Russia proposes ban on all gifts to government officials

Any presents to officials may prove out of legal bounds soon. A draft law to this effect has been submitted to the government for examination. Experts describe the rule as "absurd" and say that rather than fighting corruption it will only hit the lowest-paid public employees for whom expensive presents might actually mean something.

Alexander Anikin, head of the Prosecutor-General's Office department responsible for anti-corruption supervision, disclosed the fact that a draft law along these lines is being drawn up. Under the document, no presents could be made to officials of any rank, State Duma deputies, members of the Federation Council, election commissions or the Bank of Russia's staff. Official gifts received under protocol would be passed on to the body where the official concerned works. The Civil Code currently bans officials from receiving presents worth more than 3,000 rubles.

The new rule has taken experts aback. "I do not understand how this step can contribute to the fight against corruption," says Georgy Satarov, head of the Indem Foundation. "Corruption here has nothing to do with 3,000-ruble gifts."

The new rule will mainly affect doctors, teachers and police officers who cannot afford to buy themselves expensive things, says Kirill Kabanov, head of the National Anti-Corruption Committee. "They are not the sectors of society that form the market for corruption in this country," he said.

The president has given society a signal to combat corruption, but society has ignored it, Kabanov claims.

"It is a pity that a rule under which department heads must respond to media publications about their subordinates' illegal actions does not work," Kabanov says. He cites kickbacks from Daimler as an example when the Prosecutor-General's Office kept silent for two weeks following the reports.

Vzglyad

Heat wave: Who profits?

"In each sector of the economy we can find examples of entrepreneurs profiting from this abnormal heat," said Nikolai Smirnov of the National Institute for System Studies of Entrepreneurship. So, Russia's economy did not only suffer losses due to the heat wave.

For some this heat is a natural disaster while for others it is a great opportunity to turn a profit. For example, enterprising people standing by the metro station entrances are selling breathing masks for 50 rubles, although they only cost five rubles in a drug store.

The market for cooling devices is also doing well. Vzglyad newspaper found out that prices of air conditioners have increased by 300%. Ochakovo, a large producer of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, has set an all-time record in kvass sales, selling three-times more kvass in July than in the same period of last year. These are only a few examples.

Nikolai Smirnov, of the National Institute for System Studies of Entrepreneurship, told the newspaper which businesses managed to improve their finances thanks to the heat.

Smirnov is convinced that small businesses can find ways to profit from this abnormal heat in almost all sectors of the economy. One way or another, businesses are profiting from the heat wave. We can even find positive examples in agriculture.

Savvy small business owners managed to rescue their crops whereas large farmers failed to do so and suffered huge losses. Small farms gained and will now profit from increasing prices on agricultural products.

However, small farmers may find it difficult to sell their products since retailers and processing companies prefer working with large farmers. So, small farmers have the opportunity to profit but it will be the resellers, buying agricultural products from manufacturers and then reselling them, who will profit most.

The expert says that demand for cooling devices, including fans and air conditioners, traditionally increases during heat waves. Everyone working in this market has made a fortune since prices have risen by 100% to 200%. In addition, ice cream and soft drink vendors have also seen a sharp increase in sales.

Many people prefer to spend their free time outside Moscow where it is cooler. So, tourist agencies offering recreation destinations in the Moscow Region have made huge profits as well.

Moreover, sales of gasoline have also been on the rise as people would rather drive their air-conditioned cars than stay at home.

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MOSCOW, August 11 (RIA Novosti)