Rosneft to Invest $16 Bln in Venezuela

Russia’s largest state-owned oil company Rosneft and Corporation Venezolana del Petroleo (CVP), a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state oil and gas company PDVSA, have signed an agreement to establish a joint venture to develop the Carabobo 2 bloc in the southern Orinoco extra-heavy crude belt in Venezuela. The Russian company’s share will be 40 percent. The two companies also signed a memorandum of understanding, an agreement on Rosneft paying a bonus of $1.1 billion and a deal to issue a $1.5 billion loan to CVP for five years. The total amount of Rosneft's investments is expected to be $16 bln.

http://en.ria.ru/business/20120928/176272330.html
http://en.ria.ru/business/20120927/176262811.html

Chechen Court Bans "Innocence of Muslims"

A district court in Chechnya, acting upon a petition from the Chechen Ministry for ethnic policy and mass media, found the film Innocence of Muslims "extremist." This means the film is automatically banned throughout Russia. It is not immediately clear whether the judgment will result in blocking all of YouTube (which hosts the video) in Russia. In Chechnya and some other Russian regions YouTube has already been blocked.

http://www.lenta.ru/news/2012/09/28/innocence/

UPDATE:
Prosecutor: Chechen court decision is not final
http://www.lenta.ru/news/2012/09/28/temporary/

Deripaska, Cherney Settle £1 Bln Lawsuit

Russian tycoons Oleg Deripaska and Michael Cherney have settled their £1bn legal dispute just days before the case was due to restart at London's High Court. After six years and millions of pounds in legal fees, the case has been dropped.  Mr Cherney first started proceedings against Mr Deripaska, a man he claims was his former business partner. No details of the settlement have been released. Mr Cherney had been due to testify via a video feed from Israel. He was unable to appear in person in the UK as he is wanted for questioning by Interpol. The case promised to shed a light on business practices in Russia in the 1980s and 1990s. Mr Deripaska had claimed he was the victim of “krysha”, or protection money, extorted by Mr Cherney. This was rejected by Mr Cherney, who claimed the pair had a legitimate business relationship.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financial-crime/9572553/Oleg-Deripaska-and-Michael-Cherney-settle-1bn-legal-row.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/27/deripaska-cherney-surprise-deal
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-27/deripaska-settles-cherney-s-london-lawsuit-over-rusal-stake.html

Supreme Court: Russians Cannot Hit Back at Police

Russian citizens have no right to use force to defend themselves against illegal acts by the police, the country’s Supreme Court ruled on Thursday. The court rejected a proposed new instruction to lower courts that asserted the citizen's right to self-defense, citing the Russian Criminal Code. "Defense against the known illegal use of force by law enforcement agents is allowable; legitimate self-defense is the right of everyone, regardless of their professional or other preparation or their position," the draft instruction said. The Supreme Court ruled, however, that any action by a law enforcement officer on duty, even if it causes or threatens harm to a person, does not provide legal grounds for self-defense.

http://en.ria.ru/russia/20120927/176258173.html
http://rt.com/news/prime-time/citizens-force-against-police-152/ (video)

Germany Charges "Russian Spies"

German prosecutors say they have filed espionage charges against two alleged Russian agents whom they accuse of spying for information on European Union and NATO. The federal prosecutors' office alleged Thursday that the pair, who were arrested last October, worked in Germany for Russia's foreign intelligence service, or SVR, for more than 20 years. Prosecutors said they entered Germany in 1988 and 1990 claiming to be Austrian citizens of South American origin. Between 2008 and 2011, they allegedly handled another agent in the Dutch Foreign Ministry who gave them official documents on EU and NATO matters. Prosecutors say they were paid nearly €100,000 ($130,000) annually for their work in recent years.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/germany-charges-alleged-russian-spies-17338040
http://www.lenta.ru/news/2012/09/27/svr/

Head of FAS Aims for Improved Enforcement and Efficiency in Antimonopoly Laws

On the 24th of September 2012, the Head of Russia's Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (FAS), Igor Artemyev, speaking at the Third Russian-American Conference on “The Modern Antimonopoly Law and Judicial Practice in Russia and the U.S", announced that the third antimonopoly package had largely achieved the goal of improving enforcement and efficiency by the FAS.  “In the first six months of 2012 FAS and its regional bodies issued 603 warnings on violating the antimonopoly law. The companies executed 74% of the total number of the issued warnings on schedule”, said Artemyev. Urging reform of the system for procurement by natural monopolies and state-run companies, Artemyev added: “At the moment the system of state preferences is not regularized. It must be reformed because companies that are granted state preferences are in a more advantageous position in comparison with their competitors that were not granted such subsidies or other privileges.”
http://en.fas.gov.ru/news/news_32478.html

President Urges Tajiks to Store Food Reserves

Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon urged his countrymen to store two years' worth of food reserves (flour and grain) ahead of what is expected to be a harsh winter. Rakhmon said in a statement Wednesday that rising global commodity prices have made effective use of agricultural resources imperative. The World Bank estimates that three-quarters of Tajikistan's population is engaged in farming, but food scarcity still remains an acute problem. Hundreds of thousands of working-aged men have left the country for work, mainly in Russia, leaving behind a largely female rural workforce.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/tajiks-urged-to-store-food/468861.html
http://www.lenta.ru/news/2012/09/26/rahmon/

Russia May Boycott PACE Session

The speaker of Russia’s State Duma, Sergei Naryshkin, has decided not to travel to next week’s session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, where he was supposed to address PACE and answer questions from delegates. “We feel my strategic proposals are unlikely to receive a fair hearing from some PACE leaders and from some leaders of Russo-phobic delegations,” Naryshkin explained.  According to Russian media, the whole Russian delegation may boycott the session over the resolution on Russia which PACE is intending to adopt. The assembly is scheduled to examine the new report on Russia’s honoring of its PACE commitments. The report calls for continued monitoring of Russia’s commitments, citing the harsh sentences handed down to the all-female punk collective Pussy Riot and the slow pace of reform of the judicial system.  Welcoming some “very positive” steps by Russia, such as amendments to the law on political parties, changes in the electoral law and the re-introduction of direct elections of governors, the draft resolution says some other measures raise “serious concerns”. The de-legalisation of the Republican Party, the refusal to register some political parties, the systematic non-authorisation of peaceful demonstrations and the use of disproportionate force to disperse them, the creation of restrictive conditions for freedom of the media, especially the large and influential media, and harassment of the opposition, have all had negative effects on the state of democracy in Russia, according to the report.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20120927/176255888.html
http://www.lenta.ru/news/2012/09/27/pase/
http://assembly.coe.int/ASP/NewsManager/EMB_NewsManagerView.asp?ID=7903

Russian Billionaire Charged with Hooliganism

Alexander Lebedev, a billionaire and outspoken Kremlin critic, has been charged with hooliganism in connection with his on-air brawl with businessman Sergei Polonsky a little over a year ago.  The charge, which carries up to a five-year prison sentence, is for "hooliganism motivated by political, ideological, racial, ethnic or religious hatred or enmity" - the same charge that led to prison terms for three members of Pussy Riot last month.  In connection with the indictment, Lebedev was asked to give a written assurance that he would not leave the country, something that he refused to do in the past. Lebedev agreed that he would not go into hiding and would remain available to investigators. Lebedev's lawyer, Genri Reznik, criticized the charges against his client, saying that the Kremlin is truing to punish Lebedev for his exposure of government corruption, and publishing Novaya Gazeta, which supports the opposition leader and anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny. In addition to Novaya Gazeta, which Lebedev co-owns with former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, his other high-profile assets include Britain's The Independent and London's Evening Standard.  The next hearing of Lebedev's case is tentatively scheduled for October 2nd.
http://www.novayagazeta.ru/news/59848.html
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/billionaire-lebedev-charged-with-hooliganism/468825.html
http://youtu.be/YQb4kQCj-z0 (video)