On December 21, the American President Barack Obama issued a proclamation extending non-discriminatory treatment, or normal trade relations status, to the products of the Russian Federation.

Rosneft entered into contracts for securing two loans in the amount of USD16.8 billion from a consortium of world banks to finance the company’s acquisition of a 50-percent stake in TNK-BP.

On December 24, 2012, the Gazprom board of directors addressed the preliminary results of the company’s performance in 2012, the forecast of the company’s investment program, the annual budget (or the financial plan), and the optimization program.

On December 24, Lukoil declined to buy a stake in the West Qurna-1 project in Iraq from ExxonMobil. The announcement was made on live television by Andrei Kuzyayev, the head of Lukoil Overseas, which is the holding company’s subsidiary for the development of oilfields outside of Russia.

The U.S.-based WorleyParsons company was awarded a lucrative contract from Lukoil Middle East to provide project management services for the West Qurna-2 oilfield development project in Iraq for a term of three year.

In early December, the focus of the Russian and the foreign business community and the media was aimed at the groundbreaking ceremony for the offshore section of the South Stream pipeline, which was attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

According to the assessment of the Ministry of Economic Development, the positive balance in foreign trade in November 2012 increased to USD15.2 billion, compared to USD14.5 billion in October. The trade balance increased by 4.8 percent.

In late December, the Belgian capital hosted the 30th E.U. Summit, which was attended by President Vladimir Putin and European leaders Herman Van Rompuy and Jose Manuel Barroso.

The President of Russia Vladimir Putin talked about the controversy surrounding the death of the Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky with the leaders of the E.U., Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on December 22, 2012.

Speaking in Baku, the U.S. Ambassador Richard Morningstar announced on December 19, 2012 that the United States has no interest in utilizing the Gabala radar, either as part of its missile defense program or for any other purpose.

RusHydro’s subsidiary RAO ES of the East will have 12 years to repay the loan amount of four billion roubles that the company took out for building the Vostochnaya gas thermal station. In addition, the loan will allow RAO ES of the East to refinance its outstanding debt.

The Russian electricity production sector today is among the best performing and most dynamic in the world and has many competitive benefits and partnership opportunities for foreign importers.

The Ministry of Economic Development and the Titanium Valley management company have agreed on the amount of budgetary financing for the first phase of a special economic zone in Verkhnyaya Salda, Sverdlovsk region in the amount of 7.67 billion roubles.

Metallurgical Plant UMMC-Steel in Tyumen continued the work on installing a section of a rolling mill to proceed with its plan to test the production line in the second quarter of 2013, the company said.

The decision on the re-organization and personnel changes in the management of Evraz was adopted in order to optimize the functions and improve the management over key product groups.

Stories of protection racket of gambling operations by Russia law enforcement agencies in the Moscow region, including high-ranking policemen and prosecutors, attracted great publicity not only in Russia but also in the other countries of the world.

The Ukrainian Justice Ministry through the courts brought evidence of Ms. Timoshenko’s forging and illegally amending government documents, as well as extortion, and blackmail of other members of the government.

The traditional Tyumen rug is one of the most remarkable and unique crafts of Siberia, whose history reaches back to the seventeenth century. In early eighteenth century, rug weaving became the most widespread artistic endeavor in the Tyumen region.

SodaStream International Ltd., a publically-listed producer of carbonation systems for beverages, will distribute its products on the Russian market by way of an exclusive partnership. In addition, the company will simultaneously enter the markets of Chile and Singapore.

In August 2012, a sharp slowdown took place within the transportation engineering sector. Compared to August of last year, growth was only 4.5 percent, the worst result for the industry in recent years.

Russia’s largest shipping company SCF signed a loan agreement worth USD160 million for a period of 12 years with Finnvera PLC, Finnish Export Credit Ltd., and the ING Bank, the press service of the company reported.

The Transportation Ministry published the draft of the government’s proposal to expand the boundaries of the sea port of Novorossiysk by adding to the port the land for the construction of a terminal for oil product exports with the capacity of 11 million tons per year.

On December 19, 2012, the Soyuz spacecraft with an international crew blasted off the launching pad at Baikonur at 4:12 Moscow time, separated from the booster rocket nine minutes later, and then reached its planned elliptical orbit.

From January to November 2012, the UTair airline transported 7.885 million passengers, 28.2 percent more than in the corresponding period of 2011, the company said.

With the implementation of the project completed, 74 judicial districts and 26 cities in Yugra can enjoy access to a unified network. The courts now have videoconferencing, IP telephony, and easy dialing.

Panacela Labs has joined Cleveland BioLabs in a venture to develop Xenomycins pursuant to a USD4.6 million contract from the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation. Xenomycins are compounds used as agents to fight against infections.

A large construction materials manufacturing facility with a total investment of about 500 million roubles will be opened in Kostroma in January 2013, according to Vadim Kozyrev, the representative of the investment company Kostroma Concrete-mixing Plant.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has assigned the Russian capital of Moscow the highest national scale rating of ruAAA. The credit rating of Moscow is at BBB, and the outlook is stable. These assessments were not affected by the increase in the national scale rating.

The top positions on the ratings list are as follows: Moscow, the Moscow region, St. Petersburg, the Krasnodar territory, and the republic of Tatarstan. All of these regions have rating levels of A.

In December, the management of BOSCH decided to place in the Samara region a new production facility for automobile technology.

Siemens Technology Gas Turbines (STGT) and YIT Lentek signed a major contract for the acquisition of land in the industrial park Greenstate in the Leningrad region to build a plant for the production of gas turbines.

Vnesheconombank entered into a loan agreement with Deutsche Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank (“DZ Bank AG”) for 49 million euros to finance the construction of an innovative technology park Kazbek in the Chechnya republic.