Following a flurry of accusation of being homophobic Putin cheerleaders including by the Guardian newspaper, the Conservative Friends of Russia have suspended their web site and rebranded as the Westminster Russia Forum severing links with the Conservative Party although some of their members remain Conservatives.

Their planned “Old” New Year’s Dinner in the Samarqand Restaurant is going ahead on the 14^th January with guest speaker, the immensely entertaining and controversial Craig Murray, the former UK Ambassador to Kazakhstan. Buy tickets (£35) here http://cfor3.eventbrite.com/# All profts are going to charity.

The Westminster Russia Forum is non politically aligned and does not have the party binding their hands.

New plant to clean air and cut greenhouse gases in major port near China border

A long-term RUB 4 billion (equivalent to EUR 100 million) EBRD loan will finance the first new power plant to be built in Russia’s Far East border region of Primorsk in the last 30 years, as well as cut coal pollution in the Pacific Ocean port of Vladivostok and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 700,000 tonnes of CO₂ a year.

By John Bonar

Two articles by Luke Harding in the Guardian on December 1 have incensed the Russian Embassy in London. Harding is the former Guardian Correspondent in Moscow who authored the immensely readable but biased and propaganda filled autobiographical book  “How one reporter became an enemy of the brutal new Russia Mafia State”.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has drafted a blacklist of US citizens Moscow suspects of violating human rights, State Duma International Affairs Committee Chairman Alexei Pushkov said in an interview with the web broadcaster Russian News Service radio on Friday. 

The US Congress has passed a bill to normalise trade with Russia, but which will also penalise Russian officials linked to human rights violations. The legislation passed by large majorities in the House and Senate.

The use of public sector money to support private sector enterprise is a controversial topic, but few, if any, other countries have committed to spend on the scale and with such ambition as the Russian Federation.
			  

Pepeliaev Group received an a\ward as one of the top Russian law firms providing advice in the private equity sector. The winners at the PREQVECA Awards-2012 for their achievements in private equity and venture capital were selected according to the votes of clients. The awards took place in Moscow at the IV Russian Private Equity Congress.

Statement by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov after his talks with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Lakhdar Brahimi on the sidelines of the OSCE’s ministerial meeting in Dublin

Moscow authorities have sold Radisson Slavyanskaya hotel and the land under it at the starting price of 5.27 billion rubles. The winner of the auction was Otel-Invest that belongs to businessmen Zakhar Iliyev and God Nisanov, who also owns the neighboring Yevropeisky Mall and Ukraina Hotel.

For a year now I have been on a journey with God. Last Wednesday was another milestone on that journey as I was baptised in the pool of Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church in London’s theatre land. The Certificate I was given says “This day, 05.12.12 is the first day of the rest of your life. Anyone who belongs to Christ is a ndew person. The past is forgotten, and everything is new. (2 Cor 5:17 CEV).