News

Wednesday, Marina Kovtun re-starts discussions with a Moscow-based investor which is about to develop a passengers’ terminal in the Murmansk port.

Murmansk authorities and ZAO Olympic City are revising investment options for the project that involves contribution of both state and private funds.

An annual show initiated by the former governor is cancelled this year for financial reasons.

Arctic International Economic forum goes off schedule 2012 due to its enormous costs. Marina Kovtun promises other Arctic-related events to fill the sudden gap.

Today, a newly-recruited Murmansk governor Marina Kovtun and a Chairman of Finnmark Council Runar Sjåstad held an introductory meeting in Murmansk.

Main topic on the discussion agenda is a visa-free travel between the neighbouring areas.

Prompted by masterminds of the local web community, citizens of Murmansk are debating over reasons to love the city and to live “at the end of the earth”.

So far the discussion has brought about 200 feedbacks within a month and is still counting. The results will be published in a dedicated e-book.

In April 2012, volumes of the capital withdrawn from Russia reached $8 billion. The outflow of money will expectedly continue in May.

In Q1 2012, there has been withdrawn $35 billion out of the country. “This is more than we had expected”, says the deputy Economic Minister Andrey Klepatch.

A real spy story is firing up in Yekaterinburg. An employee of the closed-access enterprise is accused of having shared Bulava secrets with foreign intelligence services.

Reportedly, a suspect has allegedly given away sensitive information on control system of the Bulava missile. Investigation is underway.

Costs of the Shtokman projects need to be resized by “definitely more than 10%”, says a Statoil VEP Peter Mellbye.

Mellbye says if the project is downgraded to LNG only, then this solution in gas transportation should help prove feasibility of the project.

Share of people infected with entrepreneurial spirit in Russia is relatively low. Particularly, the Russian North does not bring optimistic figures either.

According to the entrepreneurship study 2011 by GEM, Russia’s zeal for business is lagging behind multitude of developed and developing countries. What is also disappointing is that number of businessmen is growing at a slower pace than in other countries.

Head of Russian Rosselkhoznadzor Sergey Dankvert and Norway’s Ambassador Knut Hauge held a meeting to find the solution and lift the ban recently imposed on the imports of Norwegian chilled fish.

Through discussions of obstacles that pose a risk for the fish imports, Russia was suggested to inspect 25 fishery companies of Norway.

RusHydro abandons the plan to construct a tidal power station in the Murmansk region in 2012.

-    Construction will not start this year, said the company’s representative.