Business The Boomerang Effect By Bojan Soc A group of Russia's major food producers and retail chains signed an agreement on Wednesday that is designed to keep food prices in check amid rising inflation. The initiative, however, could ultimately have counterproductive effects, experts say.

News Estonia Denies Visas to Russian Television Crew By Kirill Bessonov Two journalists from the Russian English language TV channel Russia Today were denied Estonian visas one day before their planned trip to Tallinn. The reporters, according to an emailed press release distributed by the channel, were "investigating problems related to neo-Nazis activism in the former Baltic States."

News In Brief Seven Killed in Derelict Siberian Tungsten Mine, Corpse Found Near Moscow After Apparent Fall from Plane, Two Russian Muslims Held In Connection With August Train Explosion, Gas Explosion in Samara Destroys Apartment, Four People Injured

News No Common Ground after U.S. Proposals Combined Reports (Reuters, AFP, RIA) - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates spoke with his Russian counterpart Anatoly Serdyukov Thursday at a meeting of NATO defense ministers on the Dutch Coast, but Serdyukov said they had yet to work out a common position on the U.S. missile defense system in Eastern Europe.

News Envoy "Cautiously Optimistic" About Russia-EU Summit MOSCOW (RIA Novosti, MN) - One of Russia's leading presidential envoys expressed new hope for the Russia-EU partnership and cooperation agreement, saying it will be extended for a year, and talked of "cautious optimism" in negotiations with Poland, just ahead of the Russia-EU summit taking place Friday, October 26 in Mafra, Portugal.

News Crime Briefs Elderly Woman Slain in Moscow Region Church, Hooligans Attack Three In Southwest Moscow, Warrant Officer Kills Soldier at Urals Base, Hairdresser Killed By Client in Omsk

Local Elevator Nightmares By Sergey Dmitriyev Elevators in Moscow are a perennial problem of living in high-rise apartments, especially since so many lifts are old. But on October 10, the city authorities announced a general overhaul of housing in the Russian capital, which will include the modernization or replacement of old elevators.

Local Elderly Bonus By Tom Washington Much is said about Russia's declining birth rate and high mortality rate. Old age in Russia is not something that is looked forward to. Some view it as a period of poverty and inconsequence before they die, oftentimes earlier than their western counterparts. On Monday, was reminded that people can live for a long time in Russia and that senior years can be enjoyed. Vladimir Petrosyan, the head of Social Welfare in Moscow, announced that the capital has 120 people over the age of 100. These people will each receive a substantial increase in their pensions.

Local Power Grid Modernization Underway By Nathalie Cooper As the Moscow City Electric Grid Company (MGEsK) gets ready for the maximum winter peak period, the company has already begun modernizing its power distribution equipment. Over the past nine months MGEsK has rebuilt around 200 transformer and distributive substations, as well as 225 kilometers of cable lines and 26.5 kilometers of overhead transmission lines. Many of Moscow's electrical suppliers, including the Federal Grid Company of Unified Energy Systems - MES Tsentra, are conducting similar modernization operations.

Local "A Priceless Gift of Nature" By Phoebe Taiplin By the crystal clear spring near Pokrovsky Hills is an inscription that starts with a quotation from the Russian botanist, Kliment Arkadyevich Timiryazev to the effect that a spring is "a priceless gift of nature." Timiryazev provides a guiding spirit for this walk, a pilgrimage in two parts to this revered source of clean water, travelling by foot and tram through the falling leaves and wooden churches of Moscow's wild north-western parks, combining bracing woodland walks with rides on the historic trams where you can warm up and rest your feet.

Local Muscovites Fear Toy Store Remodeling By Conor Humphries Agence France Presse Russia's grandest toy store, a gift to Soviet children after the dark days of Stalin, is facing a capitalist makeover that critics fear will sap the soul from one of Moscow's most cherished sites.

Local Dandy Moscow By Tom Washington Nineteenth Century England saw some ostentatious fashions and bold statements. The virtues of revolutionary simplicity often gave way to burlesque and ornamentation. From this came the streamlined and understated style of Beau Brummell, one of the world's most famous dandies. In today's Moscow, whe­re fashions are conformist and colors are often grey and drear, a counter trend is emerging in the form of the modern day dandy.

News this week in russian history (October 26 - November 9) Compiled by Daria Chernyshova

Local Red October Chocolate Leaving Home By Nathalie Cooper If you have never visited the Krasny Oktyabr chocolate factory on Bolotny Island, now's the time to have a tour before the historical building gets converted into yet more luxury real estate.

Columnists Will George W. Bush Stay in Power after 2008? By Robert Bridge With so many political pundits in a nervous tizzy about the future political plans of Russian President Vladimir Putin, too few are scratching their thinking domes over a far more pertinent question: Will George W. Bush relinquish his presidential powers in 2008 as mandated by the U.S. Constitution, or will another national emergency, or constitutional change, keep him and his crazy corral of neoconservatives in power?