Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky’s palaces in France, private aircraft, jewels for his girlfriends and paintings from Sotheby's cost his fellow oligarch, Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea football club, £1.3 bn which he viewed as a ‘debt of honour’ his lawyer Jonathan Sumption told the High Court in London today. Mr Abramovich claims that the 65-year-old Berezovsky kept demanding more after brokering the deal for him to get control of Russian oil giant Sibneft. The payments totalled "at least $2 billion between 1995 and 2002".

By John Bonar

Alexander Fedotov, General Director of the Sakha Republic’s (Yakutia) Republic Investment Company (RIC) told a meeting at the London Stock Exchange at the end of September, and repeated it to over 100 businessmen in the Royal Society of Chemistry, that “Investing in Yakutia will let you participate in the economic growth of the Asia-Pacific Ocean, and first of all China”.

JSC VTB Bank has granted a RUB 3.3 billion to JSC Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant. Part of the funds will be channeled into the ongoing operations. JSC UAZ is a part of SOLLERS Group whose facilities produce Russian UAZ SUVs and Korean SsangYong SUVs, as well as petrol and diesel ZMZ engines.

Today is the best time to invest in Yakutia, General Director of JSC "Republican investment company" (RIC) Alexander Fedotov, has said upon return to Yakutsk from a five day business trip to London in the delegation led by the country's president, Yegor Borisov.

After the presentations in London to a number of industrial and financial corporations, "some UK companies expressed their desire to co-operate with the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and with our company. For us it is important both in gaining good experience, and as an illustrative example for other investors from around the world.," Mr. Fedotov said.

This may look like a winter wonderland, but with temperatures plunging to minus 70 degrees Celsius (-94 Fahrenheit) your eyelashes frost over if you stand and stare at it for too long. RT's Close Up welcomes you in the coldest town on earth.

The spine-chilling world record of minus 71 degrees Celsius (-96 Fahrenheit) was measured in the republic in 1926, and placed the town of Oymyakon firmly in the Guinness Book of Records, as the coldest inhabited settlement in the world.

Life is tough in Yakutia - hardly surprising for a place which is arguably the coldest inhabited area on Earth. For the residents of this remote eastern Siberian region it means they need to turn the landscape's frozen features to their advantage.

Extreme weather conditions call for extreme modes of transportation, so for people living in this harsh climate, traveling by dogsled is nothing out of the ordinary.

The canines are remarkably adapted to local environment, being able to withstand average winter temperatures ranging from -50 to -60 degrees Celsius with strong winds and very hot summer temperatures from +30 to +40 degrees Celsius.

By John Bonar

The President of the Russian Republic of Sakha, more popularly called Yakutia, invited British businessmen and bankers at presentations in central London to invest in his Republic. The resource-rich republic, the largest region of the Russian Federation with 40% of its territory within the Arctic Circle is relatively unknown in London and is seeking to invest $154.8 bn.in infrastructure, new diversified economic projects including integrated projects in a number of industries from oil and gas development to timber processing in a bid to grow GRP by 2.8 times to 2020 compared to 2005.

Russian silver and gold miner, Polymetal, will swap its London listed GDR’s and Russian shares for London listed shares, in a move which could see the company became part of the FTSE 100 index, as well as commit to a free float of more than 50%.

In a Friday announcement St Petersburg based Polymetal said that a wholly owned subsidiary, listed in Jersey is offering to swap Russian listed ordinary shares and London listed GDR’s of the parent company, for London listed shares, ahead of seeking premium listing in the United Kingdom and admission to the London Stock Exchange.

VTB Group has increased its stake in Bank of Moscow to 80.57% as VTB Debt Center, a 100% subsidiary of VTB Group acquired additional shares from Bank of Moscow minority shareholders.

The transaction was done in accordance with the General Agreement on measures for financial support of Bank of Moscow, which was signed in July 2011 by Bank of Moscow, the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) and VTB Group companies – VTB Debt Center and VTB Pension Administrator. According to the General Agreement, after VTB Group consolidates BoM shares up to at least 75%, the DIA is to grant a 10 year loan of up to RUB 295 billion to BoM at a below market interest rate. The proceeds of the loan will be invested into government securities of the Russian Federation. The transaction will allow the Bank of Moscow to book a profit with an economic effect of RUB 150 billion under IFRS.

Transaero has expanded its Moscow Domodedovo (DME) network with two new routes in the past week. On 22 September, the Russian airline connected its hub at the Russian capital with the capital of Spain, Madrid (MAD).

The route is serves three times weekly with 122-seat 737-300s, competing with Iberia’s 16 flights a week and the Spanish airline’s Russian oneworld partner S7’s also three weekly flights. Indirect competition also comes from Aeroflot’s daily flights from Moscow Sheremetyevo.

Two days later, on 24 September, Transaero launched a weekly service to Amman (AMM), the capital of Jordan, from Domodedovo. The route, which competes with Royal Jordanian’s three weekly flights, is operated interchangeably with 101-seat 737-500s and 122-seat 737-300s.

(Air Anna)