Russia 110111 Basic Political Developments

WebMoney promises vigilance over new Russian investment pyramid

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20110111/162096787.html

10:54 11/01/2011

A spokesperson for the WebMoney online payment system said the company would keep an eye on a recently unveiled financial pyramid to be launched by Russia's notorious mastermind of the 1990s financial scheme Sergei Mavrodi.

In his blog, Mavrodi, who was recently released from jail after serving a four-and-a-half-year sentence for fraud, said the new MMM-2011 project called "We Can Do A Lot" would be launched on January 11.

Mavrodi promised his new investors would receive 20% profits per month, while retirees and the disabled would get 30% profits. He suggested investors to open dollar accounts in electronic payment systems and to buy virtual tickets.

WebMoney will make every effort to prevent the illegal use of its e-wallets, the company's PR director, Ksenia Velikina, told Kommersant paper.

Russian Financial Ombudsman Pavel Medvedev has already announced plans to request the Prosecutor General's Office to initiate a probe into Mavrodi's new project.

The Interior Ministry said that an inspection into Mavrodi's activities could be launched only when claims against him appear.

The founder of the new pyramid calls his project a "financial social network" and claims that this system is "absolutely invulnerable, unsinkable and indestructible." He hopes to attract 100,000 investors this year and up to 1 million in 2012.

"All the operations will be carried out among the investors. I will not touch anything. I have no right to do that. I will only manage the process," Mavrodi said.

The MMM financial pyramid in the 1990s was the largest in Russia and one of the biggest in the world. It sold shares to the public, promising spectacular returns in an aggressive advertising campaign on national television.

MMM was established by Mavrodi and his brother in 1989 and declared bankruptcy in 1997. According to different assessments, between 2 million and 5 million people bought MMM shares, and lost as much as $1.5 billion.

Mavrodi was on the run until his arrest in Moscow in 2003. He served his four-and-a-half-year sentence in Matrosskaya Tishina Penitentiary and was released in May 2007.

In 2008, the courts released 18 million rubles belonging to Mavrodi. The money was shared among the investors. Court authorities also appropriated Mavrodi's rights for his book Temptation that he published in 2008.

MOSCOW, January 11 (RIA Novosti)

Khimki boss vows to clear his name over assault

http://themoscownews.com/local/20110111/188323552.html?referfrommn
by Andy Potts at 11/01/2011 11:00

A city official implicated in the beating of environmental activist Konstantin Fetisov has pledged to use video evidence to clear his name.

Andrei Chernyshev, head of Khimki’s municipal property management committee, stands accused of organising the vicious Nov. 4 attack which left Fetisov in a coma.

But his lawyer announced on Tuesday morning that there is footage which proves the crime was commissioned by others and City Hall had no hand in it.

Meeting today

Lyudmila Aivar, Chernyshev’s representative, hopes to meet with prosecutors on Tuesday to hand over the tape.

She told Kommersant newspaper that the images clearly identify the organiser and participants of the assault.

The video also makes it clear why Fetisov, an opposition politician and committed opponent of the proposed highway through Khimki Forest, was targeted.

Murky case

Activists trying to stop the destruction of the woodlands to the north of Moscow claim that violence and intimidation have been standard tactics of the authorities.

Local newspaper editor Mikhail Beketov recently won an appeal against Khimki’s mayor Vladimir Strelchenko after earlier being convicted of libeling the city chief.

Beketov said in a TV interview that he believed Strelchenko was behind a car bomb attack against him prior to a savage attack in Nov. 2008 which left him permanently confined to a wheelchair.

And Kommersant journalist Oleg Kashin was beaten up just hours after the attack on Fetisov – another incident which many have linked to his work covering the situation in Khimki.

While Aivar refused to give a detailed description of the contents of the recording, the lawyer made it clear that nobody involved was connected with the Khimki authorities.

“I can only say that the negotiators have no relationship with the administration of Khimki, but one of them is a good friend of the victim,” she told Kommersant.

Arrests

Chernyshev was arrested on Dec. 28 last year, along with two other Khimki residents, Andrei Kashirin and Vyacheslav Kovalev.

A fourth man, Denis Rostokin of Reutovo, had been arrested two days earlier. All four have been charged with GBH in an organised group, with Chernyshev identified as the leader.

Russian Press at a Glance, Tuesday, January 11, 2011

http://en.rian.ru/papers/20110111/162095427.html
08:30 11/01/2011

© RIA Novosti. Rybchinskiy

POLITICS

A senior Russian opposition activist accused the authorities of jailing Boris Nemtsov and five other opposition leaders over the New Year's holiday as a warning to the opposition not to rock the boat ahead of national elections

(The Moscow Times, Kommersant, Nezavisimaya Gazeta)

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who publicly scolded Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for declaring that Mikhail Khodorkovsky belonged in jail two weeks before the actual verdict, was left red-faced when the judge sided with Putin and delivered a guilty ruling

(The Moscow Times, Kommersant)

The political career of Senator Sergei Pugachyov was shattered over the holidays after Tuva's leader dismissed the flamboyant businessman as his representative in the Federation Council

(The Moscow Times, Vedomosti, Kommersant)

Alexander Lukashevich is expected to take the post of the official spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry this week. He is replacing Andrei Nesterenko, who served in this capacity since 2008

(Kommersant)

ECONOMY & BUSINESS

United Company RusAl rejected a bid by Norilsk Nickel to sell a 25 percent stake in the metallurgical giant for $12 billion, fueling the conflict with rival shareholder Interros
(The Moscow Times)

Sergei Mavrodi, the mastermind of the 1990s MMM pyramid scheme that robbed millions of Russians of their life savings, has unveiled his new financial project

(The Moscow Times, Vedomosti)

OIL & GAS

LUKoil is applying for permission to operate in Norway as the company looks to expand outside Russia, where high taxes and limited access to new fields have bogged down the oil industry
(The Moscow Times)

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said he wants a full investigation into allegations of a $4 billion fraud accusation during construction of an oil pipeline across East Siberia

(The Moscow Times)

The Dutch Supreme Court lifted the freeze on $1.2 billion of proceeds from the 2006 sale of a refinery by a former Dutch unit of Yukos Oil, once Russia’s largest oil producer

(Vedomosti, The Moscow Times)

SOCIETY

Power outages continued in the Moscow Region on Monday as companies struggled to restore reliable electricity supplies following a series of blackouts over the holiday period
(The Moscow Times, Rossiiskaya Gazeta)

A Finnish court has announced its decision to deny temporary custody to Russian national Rimma Salonen of her seven-year-old son

(Rossiiskaya Gazeta)

CRIME

Ten days of New Year holidays in the Russian North Caucasus republic of Dagestan saw a chain of special operations of law enforcement bodies against militants in the region

(Kommersant)

CULTURE

A media rating system will be launched to define content suitable for children, but journalistic publications will be exempt, calming fears that the new rules are targeting media freedoms - but not dispelling them altogether
(The Moscow Times)

Boney M singer Bobby Farrell, who was found dead Dec. 30 in his hotel room in St. Petersburg, where the group had come for a performance, was buried in the Dutch town of Amstelveen on Saturday

(The Moscow Times)