TODAY: Lavrov keeps eagle eye on Georgia; Netanyahu's fears about Russian rogue scientists; Chubais takes the fall for hydropower plant disaster.  Litvinenko widow despairs over apparent British moves towards rapprochement.  Luzhkov-Baturina to take Nemtsov to court. UN report pessimistic on Russia's demographic decline; Ban Ki-moon voices approval for ecological care.According to the Moscow Times, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says that Russia will survey shipping in the Black Sea to monitor Georgian 'provocations' which are a 'serious concern'.  Jorg Himmelreich in the International Herald Tribune suggests that much analysis of last year's Georgia-Russia conflict has overlooked the crucial matter of President Bush's Georgia policy.  Spokesman Andrei Nesterenko says that he believes that the ratification of the Lisbon treaty would benefit ...

Financial NewsJason Corcoran in Moscow28 Jul 2008 The Russian investment bank benefits from privatisations Andrei Sharonov, managing director and chairman of the board of directors at independent Russian investment bank Troika Dialog, knows more than most about the links between Russia’s public and private sectors. He served in the Government for a decade, including nine years as Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade.Troika’s status as, in observers’ eyes, the Kremlin’s preferred investment bank has been cemented by its leading role in the recent sale of a 25% stake in state-controlled carmaker AvtoVAZ to France’s Renault, its mandates from the break-up of the electricity monopoly UES and its involvement in the privatisation programme of the state-owned rail giant RZD.The deals have propelled Troika to the top of the Russian mergers and acquisitions league table for the first six ...