Though in office only a short time, Governor Yurevich has changed the region’s business climate and, hence, its investment attractiveness. As a result, Chelyabinsk oblast has taken the lead in important aspects of Russia’s economic development.

The United States and Russia have agreed upon a procedure of issuing visas with three-year validity periods, valid for multiple entries, the U.S. Department of State said in a statement.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has called on the European Union and the U.S. to abandon the policy of sanctions and resume full-scale interaction.

External shocks do not pose a threat to Russia, but the crisis will last a long time and economic growth will be slow, a senior Central Bank official said.

Money transfers from Russia by individuals surged 40% in the first six months of 2011 compared to the same period of last year and reached RUR557bn ($18.6bn, or (EURO)13.1bn).

The Central Bank’s net sale (sale minus purchase) of U.S. dollars dropped 33% in October 2011 to $4.373bn. The net sale of euros was down 16.7% to (EURO)500.48mn, according to the information on the bank’s currency interventions.

Russia continues to have a higher inflation rate than other countries in the Group of Eight (G8), according to a report on comparative economic statistics for January-September issued by the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat).

Moscow insists not only on legal guarantees that the planned U.S. missile defense in Europe would not be a shield against Russian missiles, but also on technical evidence of this, Russia’s permanent envoy to NATO said.

The leaders of the countries, whose energy companies are participating in the project to build the Nord Stream gas pipeline, have released the symbolic valve to open the pipeline, along which Russian gas will be delivered to Europe, bypassing transit countries.

Russian gas giant Gazprom turned 303.7 billion roubles in net profits calculated to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in the second quarter of this year, 80% up from 169.7 billion roubles in Q2 2010, the company reported.

Russia-E.U. negotiations on changes in the E.U. Third Energy Package are at an impasse, Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said at the International Energy Week in Moscow on October 24.

U.S. company ExxonMobil offers Rosneft to extend their strategic cooperation by joining a number of its projects, ExxonMobil’s Russia president, Glenn Waller, told a news conference in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, capital of the Sakhalin region in Russia’s Far East.

The Export-Import Bank of the United States may play a part in financing the Nabucco gas pipeline project, the U.S. secretary of state’s special envoy for Eurasian energy matters, Richard Morningstar, has said.

Russia’s largest private oil producer Lukoil cannot say exactly when it will close the deals to buy new overseas production assets, even though it has already made some $1.8bn advance payments for these transactions, Lukoil Vice President Leonid Fedun told the media.

Despite Russia’s high wind power potential, the wind power industry development in the country is very weak, which analysts explain by the lack of government support.

OJSC Techsnabexport, a Russian exporter of nuclear materials, forecasts revenues from exports of uranium production to increase by 3% to $3.35 billion for this year, the company reported.

Russian oil and gas steel pipe producer TMK plans to invest $300mn in its U.S., Romanian, and Russian assets every year to 2020, said the company’s largest beneficiary, Dmitry Pumpyansky.

Evraz Group said its steel production volumes in the third quarter of 2011 increased 4% year-on-year due to demand recovery, to 4mn metric tons. At the same time, pig iron production fell 2.7%, to 2.9mn tons.

Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK), a leading LSE-listed Russian steel producer, has released a trading update for the third quarter of 2011.

Severstal North America has opened its $550mn Phase II expansion in Columbus, Mississippi. The expansion at Severstal Columbus has doubled the annual steelmaking capacity to 3.1mn metric tons, the company said in a news release.

Gunvor, the commodities trader founded by Gennady Timchenko and Torbjorn Tornqvist, has acquired a coal asset in the United States.

Kirov Plant and U.S. heavy equipment manufacturer and supplier Powerplus Group have signed an agreement to cooperate in assembling and subsequently manufacturing up to 50% of the U.S. company’s machinery at the production facilities of the St. Petersburg enterprise.

The Ford-Sollers joint venture will begin the production of the Ford Explorer sport utility vehicles in Russia next year, an official said.

Drug producer Cleveland BioLabs and RusNano have agreed to provide funding for Cleveland’s new subsidiary, Panacela Labs, which will develop a portfolio of new pre-clinical drugs.

State nanotechnology corporation RusNano has agreed to invest $35mn in improvement of a renewable fuel production technology provided by U.S. Joule Unlimited.

The Russian authorities may introduce import duties on navigation equipment not supporting the country’s Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS), but supporting its U.S. alternative Global Positioning System (GPS) at the beginning of next year in order to promote GLONASS-enabled devices.

A little-known Russian company plans to implement an ambitious project to build a Trans-Arctic main communications line to route transit traffic between Europe and Asia and has already obtained approval from a government commission.

The mobile content market in Russia is undergoing radical structural changes, both in terms of market participants and in terms of types of content.

Vimpelcom Ltd, a leading global provider of telecom services, has announced its operating and financial results for the third quarter of 2011.

Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), one of Russia’s top three mobile operators, has posted a U.S. GAAP net profit of $362mn in the third quarter of 2011, down almost 25% from $484mn in the same period of last year.

The foreign trade of the Lipetsk region increased 28.3% over nine months of 2011 to $4.6bn, year-on-year.

Foreign investment in the economy of the northwest Russian Pskov region shot up 90% in January through September 2011 year-on-year, to $51.29mn.