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development of the national system of domain names.
Sanctioned Russian tycoons Oleg Deripaska and Viktor Vekselberg, as well as the head of state-controlled bank VTB Andrei Kostin, will be attending the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos taking place in January 2019, despite previous reports that Russian delegation is snubbed. In November the Financial Times reminded how Deripaska's glitzy party has become a staple of the Swiss mountainside event and a sought-after invitation, while Vekselberg has significant business in Switzerland. Tass reported on November 11 that Deripaska did not intend to attend Davos in any case.
Billionaire Mikhail Gutseriev plans to open the first permanent Cirque du Soleil stage in Moscow's Skolkovo industrial park, with the first shows scheduled for 2019, but the extravagant Canadian circus has already drawn complaints from the cultural establishment. The head of the Moscow State Circus Edgard Zapashny has drawn the attention of the President Vladimir Putin at the seating of the Arts and Culture Council that such foreign projects would compete for local talents and artists, Vedomosti daily reported on December 14. The $1.2bn concert hall Anfion in the Skolkovo park is the project of Gutseriev's Safmar Group jointly with the US Anchutz Group, one of the leading arena operators in the world.
Damage caused by corruption-related crimes has exceeded RUB123bn ($2bn) over the past 7 years, Chairman of Russia’s Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin has stated during a conference in the All-Russian State University of Justice. The crackdown on corruption in Russia has picked up steam, the Investigative Committee’s press service quotes Bastrykin as saying. Within the last 7 years, over 71,000 corruption-related cases were forwarded to courts for hearing. The number of cases against corrupt organized groups and criminal communities, which were transferred to court, reached 453. Charges were brought against 78,000 people, who committed 166 corruption crimes in total, the Investigative Committee’s statement reads.
The US is still considering option of sanctioning Russian Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, the US Department of State Bureau of Energy Resources Assistant Secretary Francis Fannon said at a briefing on December 11, as cited by Tass. The ability of sanctioning Russian export energy pipelines still holds under section 232 the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), he said.
The US Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations, Ambassador Kurt Volker threatened that the United States and its Western allies would take the “nuclear option” of cutting Russia off from the SWIFT international payments system in retaliation for Russian aggression in the shared waters of the Sea of Azov on December 6. This is not the first time that the west has threatened to try and isolate Russia by cutting its payment system off from the international SWIFT payments system and Russia has already built its own Mir payment system in anticipation of the potential move. The first Mir payment cards were issued in December 2015. Cutting Russia off from SWIFT would represent a significant escalation in the war of words between Moscow and the West and is a nuclear option. The CBR is clearly taking the threat seriously and last week warned Russian bank to have a plan B for dealing with payments just in case.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to create an all-Russia recycling company, Vedomosti reported on January 14. The new company is designed to deal with municipal solid waste, to manage the recycling system, to stimulate investment and to implement one of the 12 national project
35 RUSSIA Country Report February 2019 www.intellinews.com