n September, 22, the senior negotiator with the World Trade Organization (WTO), the director for trade talks department of Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MEDT) Maxim Medvedkov and the head of the information bureau on Russia’s entry to the WTO Aleksey Portansky held the press conference devoted to the talks with the WTO. They have underlined that Russia has never lost contacts with the WTO, even after the August threats made by the US administration. Moreover, Mr. Medvedkov reported that his informal meetings with the members of the Working Group that were held in Geneva previous week on Russia’s entry to the WTO had a great success.

The financial crisis didn’t frighten the investors, since within two days of the VII International Investment Forum Sochi-2008, Russia’s regions managed to attract €14,4 billion. However, there are no any grounds to think that all problems are settled.

The large international institute has assessed the urgent measures undertaken by Russia’s authorities to back the country’s financial system. Standard & Poor’s Rating Agency has downgraded the forecast of Russia’s credit ratings because of “the escalating uncertainty concerning the economic policy” on the fight against the liquidity crisis.

The tariffs growth on the energy resources leads to the importance to invest in the technologies directed to the electricity savings, since the inaction is very expensive. Such are the conclusions of the report “The energy efficiency in Russia: the hidden reserve” presented on September, 17 by the World Bank and the International Financial Corporation (IFC).

It is the oil prices drop, rather than the collapse of the stock market and the lending problems, that has become the most severe consequence of the financial crisis for Russia’s budgetary system - on September, 16, the price for Urals crude fell to $85,3 per barrel. Vice Premier Aleksey Kudrin reported that if the oil prices continued falling, the budget parameters would be recalculated, since it had been calculated using the price of $78 per barrel, and at the price less than $70, the budget surplus would be replaced with the deficit.

The financial regulators try to ease the tension caused by the sharp shortage of facilities in Russia’s bank system. The Bank of Russia has provided the banks with RUR 326 million more within the auctions of the direct repo, and the Ministry of Finance has taken the decision to double the volume of the budgetary facilities’ inflow to the bank system. Thus, the rates of the interbank lending grew to 10-11% per annum. The initiatives undertaken by the authorities will not ease the tension, since not all organizations will have access to the budgetary facilities, and banks refuse to lend each other, the experts state

The Russian Ministry of Finance announced the deadline of submitting the applications for the exchange of the former USSR’s debt for the Eurobonds of Russia. It goes about the latest tranche of the Soviet Union’s commercial debt of nearly $600 million. The reconciliation of the debt of the commodities’ delivery to the soviet foreign trade organizations at the end of the 80th- the beginning of the 90th of the last century is being finished as well. Russia has to pay off about $1,5 billion more of the soviet debt to the Paris Club and $40 billion of its own debts as well.

Russia suggests the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to join forces targeted at the stabilization of prices at the world oil market. So, on Tuesday, September, 9, Russia’s Vice Premier Igor Sechin passed the project of OPEC-Russia memorandum to the Organization’s management within the 149th meeting held in Vienna. Russia’s Vice Premier sees definite prospects in the cooperation with OPEC on the fight against the international manipulation of oil prices, and the West is suggested to discuss the issue of energy security and assets’ exchange in the energy sector.

Recently, Standard & Poor’s published the report, where the rating agency assessed Russia’s bank system saying that “it became more stable, however, we should make a range of stipulations to state this fact”. Though, despite its “youth”, the Russian bank sector has experienced already three crises, in 1995, 1998 and 2004, and the agency warns that it is too early to speak about the significant changes within the sector. However, this statement doesn’t impede the Russian banks to solve successfully the problems, caused by the world liquidity crisis, due to the support of Russia’s government and the stockholders.

Russia’ government funds 15 large economic projects for RUR 82 billion. The majority of these projects will be implemented in the Urals. The regional development minister Dmitry Kozak declared about these plans within the economic forum held in Yakutsk. This city became a temporary Russia’s financial centre.