POLITICS
President Vladimir Putin is expected to meet with the leaders of State Duma parties on November 28. The lower house’s deputies and senators from the upper house do not know yet when Putin will make his first address to the Federal Assembly after his return to the Kremlin. The address is likely to be followed by a large press conference.
(Kommersant)
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev instructed Vladislav Surkov, the chief of the government staff, to address the cabinet’s failure to enforce some of the Constitutional Court’s rulings.
(Kommersant)
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
A total of 100 large-scale projects worth 5 trillion rubles ($159.3 billion) need to be implemented to ensure the development of Russia’s Far East, according to a new Russian federal ministry established specifically for the purpose.
(Vedomosti)
Apple will have three direct sellers of iPhones in Russia: the VimpelCom and MTS cell phone operators and the Svyaznoy mobile phone retailer. Experts say a contract with Svyaznoy was signed after the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service ruled earlier that the two communications operators were involved in price fixing.
(Kommersant)
The authorities of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, which spreads out from its city limits, are playing up a newfound level of cooperation and talking about blurring the lines between them. Speaking at a recent intergovernmental meeting, St. Petersburg Governor Georgy Poltavchenko raised the idea of uniting the city and the entire region, which spreads out across the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga coastlines and surrounds St. Petersburg.
(The Moscow Times)
The European Union praised Russian appeals courts considering civil lawsuits.
(Kommersant)
The federal government is proposing to increase the minimum retail prices for hard alcohol, which may cause the price of vodka to skyrocket 36 percent starting January 1.
(The Moscow Times)
Moscow City Hall plans to announce the general contractor for the most expensive road construction contract worth 29.7 billion rubles ($946.2 million) on Tuesday.
(Kommersant)
SOCIETY
Traffic police plan to oblige pedestrians to wear reflective vests at night to increase visibility.
(Rossiiskaya Gazeta)
The government needs to do more to protect the rights of Russians abroad, including convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout, the head of the State Duma's International Affairs Committee, Alexei Pushkov, said.
(The Moscow Times)
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