Showing posts with label Russia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Russia. Show all posts

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Russia makes record bank bail-out

1 July 2011 Last updated at 22:04 GMT Man leaving branch of Bank of Moscow The bank's erstwhile head, Andrei Borodin, has fled the country Russia's fifth largest bank, Bank of Moscow, has been given the biggest bail-out in Russian history.

The $14bn rescue came after another bank, VTB, gained control through a hostile bid, only to uncover bad loans valued at $9bn - a third of the bank's assets.

Bank of Moscow's former head, Andrei Borodin, has fled the country, and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.

The bank was used by ex-Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov to fund property projects.

'Fraudulent lending'

Mr Luzhkov was sacked by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev last year.

In a statement issued in London, Mr Borodin said he was shocked at the size of the bail-out, and claimed that VTB's takeover of the bank was politically motivated.

VTB, for its part, accused Bank of Moscow of committing "fraudulent lending" under Mr Borodin's control, while Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin has called for a criminal investigation.

Under the rescue deal, the Russian central bank will provide a 295bn rouble ($10.6bn) 10-year loan at a negligible interest rate to Bank of Moscow.

Meanwhile, VTB will invest a further 100bn roubles to recapitalise the bank - taking its ownership share from 46% to 75%, enough to qualify for state aid.

VTB, Russia's second-biggest lender, had itself to be rescued by the Russian state to the tune of $6.4bn during the financial crisis.


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Sunday, July 3, 2011

Russia anger over French arms

30 June 2011 Last updated at 14:35 GMT Libyan rebels with a captured tank in Zintan, 25 June 2011 Libyan rebels have been battling government forces for months Russia has strongly criticised France for dropping weapons to Libyan rebels and demanded an explanation from Paris.

"If this is confirmed, it is a very crude violation of UN Security Council resolution 1970," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

The African Union has also criticised the move, saying it risks causing a "Somalia-sation" of Libya.

The French military says it has dropped arms to Berber tribal fighters in the mountains south-west of the capital.

Mr Lavrov said Russia had formally requested information from France about the move, to check that it "corresponds with reality".

Mr Lavrov is due to meet French counterpart Alain Juppe in Moscow on Friday.

'Somalia-sation'

Moscow abstained from the UN Security Council vote in March that authorised an international mission in Libya to protect civilians.

Russia and China have both criticised the Nato campaign in recent weeks, saying it had gone beyond the remit of UN resolution 1973.

Another resolution, 1970, had imposed an arms embargo on Libya.

But US and UK officials have argued that resolution 1973 could nonetheless allow weapons to be supplied to rebels fighting to topple Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

French officials have said the arms dropped to rebels earlier this month were supplied for the protection of civilians threatened at the time by pro-Gaddafi forces.

The French ambassador to the UN said they only included "self-defence weapons".

France is also said to have been concerned at the stalemate in the Libyan conflict, which began in February.

Libyan rebels have recently been making gains and hope to advance on Tripoli from the existing front line on the other side of the Nafusa mountains about 65km (40 miles) from the capital.

A report in Le Figaro newspaper said the French-supplied weapons included rocket launchers and anti-tank missiles, and that France had not informed its allies about the move.

Earlier, African Union chief Jean Ping listed a number of "problems" linked to France's decision to air-drop weapons to the rebels.

"The risk of civil war, risk of partition of the country, the risk of 'Somalia-sation' of the country, risk of having arms everywhere... with terrorism.

"These risks will concern the neighbouring countries," said Mr Ping, speaking at an African Union summit in Equatorial Guinea.


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Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Russia crash 'may be pilot error'

21 June 2011 Last updated at 11:36 GMT Footage shows the aftermath of the crash

Officials are investigating the cause of a plane crash in north-western Russia that killed 44 people.

Russian Deputy PM Sergey Ivanov said the crash, near the city of Petrozavodsk, was probably caused by pilot error in poor weather conditions.

The plane had veered away from the airport runway and attempted to land on a motorway but crashed and caught fire.

Eight people including a 10-year-old boy survived the crash with severe injuries.

His 14-year-old sister and a flight attendant were also rescued from the wreckage.

The RusAir Tupolev 134 plane, with 43 passengers and nine crew on board, was flying from the capital, Moscow, to Petrozavodsk, the main city in the Karelia region.

It just missed houses close to the motorway. One source told the Interfax news agency that bodies were strewn across the road.

A mobile phone video of the scene shortly afterwards showed flames from the wreckage soaring into the night sky.

'Power cut'

Mr Ivanov said the crash resembled one in April last year in which Polish President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others were killed as their Tu-154 plane attempted to land near the Russian city of Smolensk.

"I don't want to pre-empt the inquiry... but from the initial external data the pilot's mistake is clear - in bad weather conditions he veered to the right of the runway and in foggy conditions searched for the runway visually until the last minute [and] did not find it," he said.

Map of Russia

But the inter-state air commission, a body which investigates air accidents in the former USSR, was quoted by AFP news agency as saying it was premature to draw conclusions about the cause.

Mr Ivanov reiterated earlier reports that the aircraft hit a power line, causing a power cut that extinguished landing lights on the runway.

Other Russian officials have said back-up systems were then switched on, but too late to stop the aircraft from crashing.

The emergencies ministry has published a full list of the passengers and the names of the survivors. One Dutch and one Swedish national, two Ukrainians and a Russian family of four with dual US citizenship were all among the dead.

Interfax news agency said most of the senior management of Gidropress, a subsidiary of the Russian nuclear export agency Rosatom, were killed, as well as Russian premier league football referee Vladimir Pettay.

The survivors are said to be in critical condition and suffering from burns.

Most have been sent to Moscow for further treatment.

A rescuer told Russian TV he managed to pull four people out of the wreckage.

"I carried out a woman in my arms. Then we brought out a large man and two people from the mid-section. Then everything burst into flames and started exploding. It was impossible to go close," he said.

The flight recorders have been recovered and a team of accident investigators has flown to the scene from Moscow.

Prosecutors say an investigation into possible violations of air transport rules is under way.

RusAir is a privately-owned, Moscow-based airline that specialises in charter flights in western Russia and eastern Europe.

The twin-engined Tu-134 is one of the work-horses of the Russian aviation industry.

Karelia is a sparsely populated region of lakes and forests bordering Finland, and a popular summer destination for Russian tourists.

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