The country's second-largest mobile phone operator, VimpelCom, has offered to buy fixed-line operator Golden Telecom for $100 per share, a source familiar with the talks said.

Inflation is expected to top 11% in Russia this year. Food prices are particularly vulnerable to inflationary pressure, giving domestic retailers and supermarkets a major headache.

The United Arab Emirates, Russia and Hong Kong are the states with the minimal income tax for individuals, Mercer concluded past week in its tax policy outlook. The United States and Britain are in the middle, and the people of Hungary, Denmark and Belgium suffer from the heaviest tax burden, yielding roughly a half of their income to the state.

Chief of Federal Customs Service (FCS) Andrei Belyaninov confirmed the intention to develop the Custom Code’s provisions granting preference to bona fide exporters and importers. Federal-run ROSTEK is the first candidate for the benefits. Exactly this unitary company could be used as a foundation to create partnership of the government and the business for reorganizing the close-to-customs area.

The Russian vegetable oil market has caught the attention of one of the world's leading producers and traders of palm oil. The Singaporean Wilmar International Ltd. and the Nizhny Novgorod Oil and Fat Combine group of companies may form a joint venture with equal shares to produce industrial lipids from palm oil.

Chinese oil company CNPC and Gazprom have agreed a gas pricing deal that should unlock a major pipeline plan, but it may come at a higher cost than Beijing wanted.