Russia is exploring investment opportunities in Pakistan and a team of investors are scheduled to visit Islamabad and Karachi soon. Mr. Oleg Gorbulin, Chief Executive officer of the National Investment Agency made this announcement after meeting with the officials of the Sindh Board of Investment (SBI).

The recent showdown between Tokyo and Beijing and the tiff between Tokyo and Moscow over territorial claims seem to cast a shadow on the APEC summit meeting scheduled for Nov 13 and 14.

Starting November 2010 citizens of Germany will be required to produce additional documents when they apply for the Russian visa. The travellers will have to confirm their level of income and ability to return to Germany from Russia. In some cases bank statements may be requested.

The change, which applies to business travellers and tourists means German entrepreneurs will have to present an official application, an earnings certificate and a confirmation of the business purpose of their visit to Russia.

William Hague arrives in Moscow today as part of a 3 day visit to Moscow. Before setting off, the UK Foreign Secretary said "a door is open to better relations" and "we shall see if a door opens in return." His Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that Britain is expected to make the first move in patching up Russo-British relations.

2010 summer’s wildfires demonstrated inefficiency of Russia’s forestry sector legislation and management, Dmitry Medvedev pointed out at a meeting on forestry development in the Kremlin today.The President called for a thorough analysis of forestry legislation (the Government received this instruction in August) and performance of the agencies responsible for this sector.

The board of OAO Rosneft on Sunday appointed First Vice-President Eduard Khudainatov, a former Gazprom executive, as the head of Russia's state-controlled oil major as its profits grew 37%. The board took less than a day to approve Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's order to nominate Khudainatov to the post. He starts in his new position Monday replacing Sergei Bogdanchikov who only last week told reporters, "I will certainly not resign, I am a Rosneft shareholder, I am Rosneft president, a member of the board of directors, I feel devotion towards it."

By Patrick Armstrong

Corruption. I believe that the single greatest problem in Russia today is corruption. I wouldn’t try to estimate how great a proportion of GDP is “taxed” this way, but it is very large. (Others don’t hesitate: 40% or 50%. Surely too high: if that much went to corruption, the only industries left would be brothels and fast cars!). Reducing corruption is said to be a high priority of the government, but how effectively is it being done?

Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov will present three electric vehicle models in December for public approval, he said on Tuesday. "If they don't like them, they can say 'we don't want these cars.' We will hold a vote on the Internet," said Prokhorov, an active blogger.

Lukoil, Russia's second-largest oil producer, said this week that its second-quarter net profit dropped 16 percent from a year ago to $1.9 billion due to a rise in export duties and cost inflation but its cash-flow is good as sales rose to $25.8 billion from $20.1 billion a year earlier, driven by higher oil prices. Oil production remained flat at 24 million tons while total oil and gas output advanced 2 percent in January-June compared to a year ago. The total production growth was driven by an advance in Lukoil's gas projects in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, analysts at Swiss bank UBS said in a note.

The company will also benefit from a tax concession for its Caspian Sea fields and it is preparing to bid for the rights to exploit the giant Trebs and Titov oil fields in Russia's arctic Yamal Nenets region.

"Trebs and Titov are very interesting and we will take part in the auction," said the company's Vice President Leonid Fedun.

Fedun also said that the company does not plan to buy back the entire remaining 11.61 percent of its shares from current owner ConocoPhillips.

"We will not use the whole Conoco option," he said.

Lukoil agreed with ConocoPhillips to buyback 7.6 percent from the 20% stake they held for $3.4 billion, and included in the terms of the deal are a 60-day option to acquire more stock in the company held by Conoco.

Lukoil has recently secured $1.5 billion in financing from a consortium of six banks.

The banks involved in the financing are said to be  Citigroup Inc., Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd., ING Groep NV, Natixis, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and WestLB AG.

Vagit Alekperov, the chief executive of LUKoil, said Tuesday in an interview with Reuters, that the Russian government was ready to introduce tax breaks for oil extracted from its Korchagin fields in the Caspian Sea from Jan. 1.

Unlike greenfields in East Siberia being developed by competitors Rosneft and TNK-BP, LUKoil's Korchagin field does not currently benefit from tax breaks on export duties.

LUKoil has been lobbying for export duty breaks for its Korchagin field after launching production there in April and spending more than 40 billion rubles ($1.3 billion) over 15 years to get it commissioned.

"There was a meeting [in the Russian government], and there was a decision to introduce a tax break for the Korchagin field from Jan. 1," Alekperov said.

The field will produce 2.5 million metric tons of crude per year, or about 50,000 barrels per day, at peak production. This year, its crude output is expected to be 343,000 tons.

Alekperov told Reuters he expected tax breaks for Caspian Sea production to be the same as those for new East Siberian deposits, about 70 percent less than regular crude oil export duty.

Analysts say tax breaks on exports from the technically challenging and investment-heavy Caspian fields are crucial for the profitability of the company, whose oil production has been falling so far this year.

LUKoil plans to launch the largest of its Caspian deposits, the Vladimir Filanovsky field, in 2014 or 2015. Annual output there is expected to reach 10.5 million tons.

Russian companies will supply about 70 percent of the required oil at market prices for a joint refinery project involving China's CNPC and Russia's Rosneft, China's Energy Minister Zhang Guobao said on Tuesday.

"The issue is resolved following friendly talks," Guobao said after an energy cooperation subcommittee meeting between the two countries.