Gazprom has expressed an interest in acquiring a U.S. shale-gas producer, to access the know-how to develop similar resources domestically, says the Moscow Times.  GDF Suez has said it has discussed a 10-20% increase in its Russian gas supply with Gazprom, as part of broader negotiations to usher the French company into the Nord Stream gas project.  Electricite de France may acquire a stake in Gazprom's South Stream pipeline to supply its increasing number of power plants.  Turkey's government has apparently approved geological exploration work for South Stream in its Black Sea economic zone.  The partnership behind the Nabucco pipeline project is, says Bloomberg, 'confident' it will have enough fuel, including gas from the Azeri Shah Deniz field.  Russian oil and petrochemical exporters reported a 45% decrease in revenue in the first nine months of 2009 to ...

Kafkaesque. The former Russian oil tycoon, who stood up to Putin, is back before his judges. Here is the story. [The following is a translation of an article published in the French publication Le Point.]

Le Point, October 15, 2009

Accused Khodorkovsky, Stand Up!

From our special envoy Marc Nexon

He stands up, opens his spiral notebook and pulls out 3 sheets of paper he has scribbled with his fine handwriting. He pats the microphone installed in his glass cage. "Can you hear me?" he asks, addressing the judge. Then he starts with a clear voice: "I know that in his eyes I embody absolute evil, but I would like to ask quietly a few questions to the witness of the prosecution..."

...

The Financial Times profiles the new Russian owner of 2% of Facebook.

Mr Milner's story, like his growing portfolio, combines American ideas with Russian opportunities. The son of an economist and a doctor, he studied particle physics at Moscow State University and worked as a researcher at the Soviet Union's prestigious Academy of Sciences.

As the transformation of the country accelerated in 1990, "instead of sticking around and doing useful stuff like privatising oil companies, I went to the US to study," Mr Milner jokes. He became the first Russian graduate of the Wharton School of Business, after which he spent three years at the World Bank working on Russia's emerging financial sector. He then joined Menatep, the bank founded and formerly owned by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the oil tycoon arrested in 2003. Mr Milner set up

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Russia is willing to invest up to $10 billion from its reserves into the IMF's first bond issue, in an apparent attempt to gain more clout in the organization Discreet businessman Gennady Timchenko has announced that he has built up an 18% stake in gas firm Novatek.  To learn more about the oil tycoon, look here.  According to Bloomberg, Angela Merkel will be under pressure to choose Magna as the buyer for Opel.  Sberbank could be set to enter the grocery business having acquired 250,000 square meters of space from the Alpi chain.  Whilst Putin has urged Russia to use innovation to diversify the economy, Medvedev is apparently skeptical about the potential of this sector.  Russia's $22.5 billion lawsuit against Bank of New York Mellon may be started again from scratch if the case ...

Mikhail Khodorkovsky has granted an extensive written interview to the Moscow Times in which he criticized the social responsibility practices and anti-crisis efforts of Russia's business elite.  Keep your eyes peeled on the official MBK site for more on this story."No matter what the propaganda says today, our generation, including me, managed to do a lot to recreate Russian industry on a new economic foundation despite the deterioration of management systems and the utter degradation of industrial capacities," he said. "If Russia seriously decides to develop an innovative economy, we will see the same situation in many sectors of the industry. There is a huge field to work on." Khodorkovsky said he wasn't sure what Russia would look like after the crisis. "It depends on the business elite," he said. ...

Takeover Targets: 3 Steps To Finding Them & 3 Stocks For Any Portfolio

by Louis Basenese, Advisory Panelist Senior Analyst, The Oxford Club

I promise. Alexander Green and I are not in cahoots about the coming boom in corporate takeovers…

We both researched the possibility separately. Unprompted, I might add. And yet, armed with different evidence, we arrived at the same conclusion.

If you ask me, such a convergence of analysis in a narrow space of time shouldn’t be ignored. So today, let’s move on from why a takeover boom is imminent and focus exclusively on three takeover targets you can profit from…

Identifying The Market’s Next Takeover Targets

The task of identifying the market’s next takeover targets can be daunting. Literally thousands of potential targets exist, which is probably why most investors liken it to a crapshoot and in turn, shun such a strategy altogether.

But that’s a

...

The Associated Press has a story running today about the release of a new human rights report by Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin, which focuses on the 28,000 complaints filed for alleged misconduct by the police.  On the one hand, it is very interesting to see the Russian government attempt to walk the line between recognizing its own human rights issues while still claiming progress, while on the other hand, one can sense that the conclusions of the report appear to be directly targeted at addressing only the most pressing concerns of the widest public (corruption by the police) while ignoring the major cases of political prisoners.  Not to mention that it is difficult to treat the report with any sincerity given its avoidance of the Stanislav Markelov ...

The following is an exclusive English translation of an article from Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung, published on April 3, 2009. Demonstrations of Power for Putin The show trial against Khodorkovsky is advantageous for the Moscow Security Forces By Stefan Scholl

Moscow. Franz Kafka could have thought up these charges too, but no, these come not from a literary genius but from a lawyer - Russia's Attorney General Juri Chaika. He is accusing the ex-oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Anton Lebedev of having embezzled 350 million tons of crude oil from their subsidiary from 1998 until 2003, almost double Russia's crude oil exports at that time. In addition, they are accused of having legalized half a trillion illegal rubles and 7.5 billion black

...

Oil is still one of the best bets for long-term gains says Greg Guenthner. In the midst of blind market panic, investors are forgetting that crude is a finite resource facing unquenchable demand. It will rise to record highs again. And when it does, oil stocks will soar.

This from The Rude Awakening:

During times like these, it’s all too easy to become caught up in the moment. Fear is a powerful emotion. As the markets continue to crumble, many investors lose sight of their goals. They sell positions indiscriminately; they become irrational.

The sell-off we’re experiencing right now is global. And no stock or commodity has escaped the devastation. That’s why we’re looking at a scarce and valuable resource for steady long-term gains: oil.

One energy guru recently made a big bet on oil. He repurchased shares of Exxon (NYSE:XOM), ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP), Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD), BP (NYSE:

...

Oil is still one of the best bets for long-term gains says Greg Guenthner. In the midst of blind market panic, investors are forgetting that crude is a finite resource facing unquenchable demand. It will rise to record highs again. And when it does, oil stocks will soar.

This from The Rude Awakening:

During times like these, it’s all too easy to become caught up in the moment. Fear is a powerful emotion. As the markets continue to crumble, many investors lose sight of their goals. They sell positions indiscriminately; they become irrational.

The sell-off we’re experiencing right now is global. And no stock or commodity has escaped the devastation. That’s why we’re looking at a scarce and valuable resource for steady long-term gains: oil.

One energy guru recently made a big bet on oil. He repurchased shares of Exxon (NYSE:XOM), ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP), Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD), BP (NYSE:

...