Central & Eastern Europe Archives

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Emerging & Frontier Markets

Milestones : Russia Writes Off $12 Billion Iraqi Debt

RUSSIA/IRAQ Talabani: Russia's decision is a historic turning point. Russia agreed in February to write off $12 billion of Iraqi debt in an apparent effort to help Russian companies including Lukoil to win contracts in Iraq. The debt ...

Emerging & Frontier Markets

Emerging Markets : Putins Political Future Becomes Clearer

Russia Putin: Maintains a tight grip on Russian politics. After months of uncertainty, the Russian political landscape began to take shape in December. After being anointed by president Vladimir Putin as his successor early ...

Country Report

Features : Power Play

COUNTRY REPORT / RUSSIA Having hand picked his successor as Russian president, Vladimir Putin has assured the country there will be a smooth transition of power. How much power he will retain remains in question. Oil has filled Russia's ...

Emerging & Frontier Markets

Emerging Markets : Plus Ça Change…

RUSSIA Putin: Backing his friend Dmitry Medvedev's election bid. As widely anticipated, Russian president Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party won the country’s parliamentary elections on December 2, with 63% of the vote. In the weeks running up ...

Emerging & Frontier Markets

Emerging Markets : Putin Continues Political Maneuvering

RUSSIA Strife on the borders: Georgia’s president called for early elections and accused Russia of stirring up unrest. Afew weeks after Russian president Vladimir Putin announced that he would lead the ticket for the country’s dominant political party, ...

Country Report

Features : The Wild East

RUSSIA Russia’s greatest strength could also turn out to be its biggest weakness. Skyscrapers go up as some of Russia’s surplus is invested in infrastructure projects Oil has been kind to Russia. In the past few years, as world ...

Emerging & Frontier Markets

Emerging Markets : Putin Unveils His Power Play

RUSSIA Putin’s deft maneuvering will almost certainly see him retaining power In the second political bombshell in three weeks—following the surprise mid-September appointment of the obscure Victor Zubkov to replace prime minister Mikhail Fradkov—Russian president Vladimir Putin in ...

News

Milestones : Challenges Grow In Run-Up To New Payment Rules

EUROPE Europe's payments landscape is set to change dramatically with market reforms. Banks and companies in other parts of the world are watching with interest as the deadline for radical transformation of the UK and Europe’s cross-border payments ...

Emerging & Frontier Markets

Emerging Markets : Putins Choice For PM Baffles Observers

RUSSIA Zubkov: Putin's surprise favorite to take over as prime minister. In a long-overdue cabinet shuffle, Russian prime minister Mikhail Fradkov submitted his resignation on September 12. Hours later president Vladimir Putin nominated the relatively unknown head of ...

Emerging & Frontier Markets

Emerging Markets : Russias Power Utility Spins Off Generators

DR NEWS Russia’s national power utility OAO Unified Energy System has completed the spin-off of two power-generation units, OGK-5 and TGK-5, completing the first part of the government’s plan to break up the company. UES, the former power monopoly, also ...

News

Milestones : Sepa Rollout Faces More Hurdles

EUROPE Desmares: Corporates cool on SEPA. Businesses and public sector organizations operating in Europe have until 2010 to abandon existing national payment instruments and adopt new pan-European credit transfer and direct debits. At least that is the ...

News

Newsmakers : Trichet Urges Better Risk Control

EUROPE Trichet: Questions investors' reliance on credit ratings. The subprime mortgage crisis in the US has forced the president of the European Central Bank (ECB) to speak out about the new sources of risk being created by the ...