The Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation has announced that it has launched the first peer-reviewed international journal on business and economics entitled the “Review of Business and Economics Studies”.

Despite reports that  Russia plans to delay its privatization programme and hold on to stakes in state companies such as Rosneft for longer, the country will push ahead with privatizations in 36 smaller companies but by auction, rather than by public share offering.In 2010 Russia announced plans to raise $50 billion in five years from reducing its stakes in the likes of oil major Rosneft and the country’s two biggest banks, Sberbank and VTB. The state will now auction stakes in 36 enterprises through the private Auction House of the Russian Federation. AHR has already sold £794 million worth of state assets including 100% of the National Hotel in Moscow for £97.6 mn and 44.2% of shares in Khanty Mansiisk Bank for £266.5mn.

The 36 companies the Russian state wi

In the first five months of this year Sheremetyevo International Airport increased its passenger throughput by 13.3% over 2012, reaching 10.5 million people. Passenger traffic on international routes in January-May 2013 increased by 12.8% and amounted to 6,683,000 passengers. On domestic flights, it increased by 14.2%, amounting to 3,825,000 air travelers

Sberbank Investment Research has published its third survey of the pan-Russian consumer, the Sberbank CIB Ivanov Consumer Confidence Tracker, the bi-monthly publication covering consumer spending, savings and confidence across the country. In addition to the consumer confidence index, this regular, proprietary publication provides a set of leading indicators for the most important trends across the fast-growth consumer sectors in Russia, including retail, banking, telecoms, media, IT, real estate and transportation.

President Vladimir Putin met with David Cameron in Down Street on his way to the G8 summit in Northern Ireland. The two leaders presented medals, respectively the Russian Ushakov Medal and the British Arctic Star to 20 veterans of the WWII Arctic Convoys’. The Arctic Convoys were special formations of transport and escort ships organised during World War II for the delivery of goods from North Atlantic ports to the northern ports of the Soviet Union (Arkhangelsk and Murmansk).

Recent media news bring rumours about a potential acquisition of GTS Central Europe (GTS CE) by Deutsche Telekom (DTAG),  Mario Fernandez of Frost & Sullivan comments. Although nothing has been confirmed yet, Frost & Sullivan believes DTAG might have some good reasons to proceed with the purchase. The sluggish growth in the European IT and telecom markets is forcing vendors and service providers to look for ways of building scale and growing inorganically.

Energy Select Committee Chair Tim Yeo MP told a meeting of the Westminster Russia Forum last night that mutual UK-Russian investment in the energy industry should be encouraged but that the creation of a predictable political and economic environment was central to this.  

Norton Rose will join forces with Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. on June 1, 2013, creating Norton Rose Fulbright, a global legal practice with significant depth of expertise across the USA, Europe, Asia, Australia, Canada, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Central Asia.

Much has been said in recent months about Britain’s export situation and the benefit exporting brings to the economy as a whole. Clearly the Eurozone crisis has had a significant dampening effect on the UK economy. Yet leading international payments specialist Smart Currency Business is quick to point out that it has not been without its share of positive side effects, most notably the rebalancing of British exports currently underway.

Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) will double flights from London to Ukraine’s capital – historic Kiev to twice a day starting from 18 June 2013. The airline is also offering BSR Russia readers who are passengers originating in the UK, a travel discount on selected flights by sending publication source reference (the URL of this article) to the e-mail address at the end of this article.