Columnists New deal Russian way By Marina Pustilnik This week the Minister of Regional Development Viktor Basargin announced that his agency plans to accelerate the use of money accumulated in the fund for reform of the housing and utilities sector in order to create a lot of new jobs.

Business International media’s new face By Marina Pustilnik The French Arbitration court has allowed Russian businessman Alexander Pugachev to acquire France-Soir, a popular tabloid. The young and wealthy Russian has already said that he plans to transform the paper into a respectable publication.

Columnists Transit Troubles By Marina Pustilnik Every year, on the 31st of December, my friends and I go to the banya...

Columnists This is the end, my friend By Marina Pustilnik This is my fifth annual year-end wrap-up column.

Columnists The folly of protectionism By Marina Pustilnik The Russian government recently announced that starting on January 1 2009, the size of customs tariffs on imports of used cars will increase - in many cases by as much as two fold. The announcement has already led to extra-long lines of used cars at the customs point in western Kaliningrad, as their owners are trying to get the vehicles into Russia ahead of time.

Columnists How real is the real estate crunch? By Marina Pustilnik As the major economic indicators, including dollar-ruble exchange rate, oil prices and company share prices, have been tumbling down in Russia, real estate seemed to be the one last bastion of hope.

Columnists Crisis Chronicles By Marina Pustilnik Reading the news these days is an exercise in self-restraint. One has to literally restrain himself from panicking when reading the chronicles of the crisis. As I am writing this piece, the following stories have made headlines.

Columnists Concept-2020 By Marina Pustilnik This week, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin approved Concept-2020 - a macroeconomic document that lists the priorities of our country's socio-economic development between now and 2020.

Business Glass half full or half empty? By Marina Pustilnik Today, I read two opposing forecasts on the development of the financial crisis and how it will affect Russia. One was published by the World Bank - it was full of cautious optimism and conservative praise for the Russian government. The other was published by Raiffaisen Bank and warned of recession.

Columnists Better Banking? By Marina Pustilnik I read this week that the global banking system is going through a period of massive layoffs. The Financial Times reported that up to 70,000 people may lose their jobs on Wall Street.

Columnists FAS for Us By Marina Pustilnik Last week brought the news that the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (FAS) has accused the state-controlled Rosneft and Russia's largest private oil company Lukoil of abusing their monopoly position in the oil products market.

Columnists Living with crisis By Marina Pustilnik I was reading the news this morning and it felt like a body count. The global financial losses from the crisis are close to $3 trillion. Russian citizens have withdrawn 90 billion rubles from the banks.

Columnists Big Gas Troika By Marina Pustilnik We are sitting on the edge of a new world order these days. The possibility, which for several years has been a subject of fears, gossip and speculation, is finally becoming reality.

Columnists Upbeat news – for a change By Marina Pustilnik Today, when the global economic crisis seems to be the only topic du jour, when the stock markets in Russia get closed several times a day because the indices are either falling or growing too fast (mostly falling, of course) and Vedomosti has daily updates of companies that are laying off their workers, a little bit of good news goes a long way.

Columnists Iceland seeks Russian comfort By Marina Pustilnik Remember the crisis of 1998 when the ruble went from being 6 rubles to a dollar, to 10 rubles, and on and on until it quickly reached previously unimagined levels? Well, now this nasty experience has been played out for somebody else.