photo Kommersant/Oleg Kharseev Why and where are construction workers fleeing from Moscow? “Now representatives of inspection services flock as soon as they see the crane! Previously, there were a lot of construction projects, there was enough for everyone,” says the owner of a large Moscow construction company with indignation. “Over the past two months, not a single property has appeared in Moscow,” says Georgy Dzagurov, general director of Penny Lane Realty.

The Russian stock market in 2012 will grow by more than 20% - up to 1,700 points on the RTS index, analysts predict In the first trading week of January (and today the Russian stock exchange begins trading), one cannot expect any interesting news from the stock market. Most of the Russian and foreign investors are on vacation. There is an opportunity to talk about plans for the year. What awaits investors in Russian assets in the coming year?

Any danger on Earth, like any hope, comes from its 7 billion inhabitants. “Based on what principle,” Thomas Macaulay, a foreign correspondent for the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, once asked, “seeing nothing behind us but progress, should we (people) expect nothing but degradation ahead?” These words were spoken in the middle of the 19th century, but over the next 150 years the paradox formulated by the British historian has not gone away.

photo by Dmitry Ternovoy for Forbes Ronin Partners partner Vasily Fedorov has successfully followed a simple strategy for many years - investing only in bonds The courtyard of an old mansion in the center of Moscow is filled with Jaguars and Mercedes. On the grand staircase leading to the former ballroom, employees bustle with paperwork, not caring for the elaborate ceiling moldings—Ronin Partners manages $1.6 billion in investments.

How financial markets provide comfort to the middle class Russian society seems to have no doubt that today's political elite will rule the country not only today, but also tomorrow. It’s hard to argue with this - oil prices are high, today’s leaders are relatively young, love power and know how to fight for it. But sooner or later, after “tomorrow” the “day after tomorrow” will come. This series of columns is exactly about how the Russia after tomorrow will be structured.

The global gas market is changing. The Gazprom model with gas pipelines and long-term contracts will soon become completely obsolete A quick question: name a commodity whose market price in Europe, Asia and the USA differs by three and four times, respectively. Didn't you guess? This is natural gas - one of the foundations of the Russian economy.

photo Itar-TASS The main theater of the country put on a real show for the real bourgeoisie Igor Poroshin Creative producer of the TV channel "Russia-2" At the Bolshoi Theatre, now shining with the gilded gilt of a Turkish hotel, an extraordinary incident occurred. After a five-year reconstruction of the main stage, the premiere of “Ruslan and Lyudmila” was given. Already at about the 30th minute, the first cries of “shame” were heard in the hall.

How BASE jumping helps the rector of the Skolkovo School of Management and professional mountaineer Andrey Volkov find the meaning of life “I was very, very, very, very — I can repeat it as many times as I like — scared. I may have replayed the jump hundreds of times in my head. I had the best teacher in the world. I knew for sure that he could not advise me anything bad.

photo Itar-TASS A new redistribution has begun in the customs payments market worth 1 trillion rubles While the government, Sberbank and other large banks have been discussing the need to create a national payment system and a universal card since the early 2000s, two little-known companies, Customs Card and Customs Payment System (operating under the Green Corridor brand), created their own local systems. Each has a processing center to which counterparty banks are connected.

The most successful young Russian brands “Stolichnaya”, “Lada” and Tu-144 are a set of domestic brands that are familiar to everyone since childhood. But in Russia, despite the commodity economy that seems to be unsuitable for the creation of successful brands, they still know how to grow brands that gain popularity among hundreds of thousands and millions of consumers. We asked experts to name the most notable brands created in our country since 2005.

photo by Roman Shelomentsev for Forbes The infamous official and businessman Andrei Vavilov returns to politics The office of the innovative company “Superox” is located on Rublevo-Uspenskoye Highway, in its most expensive place. A three-story building of unusual architecture: a dark, almost black staircase seems to float in the air.

photo by Ilya Mordvinkin Myths about corruption that prevent you from fighting it Why does corruption become part of social relations in some countries, but not in others? Economics has long been trying to find answers to questions about the nature of corruption. However, in Russia, myths and stereotypes do not allow society to calmly assess this problem. The main one, oddly enough, is that we understand a lot about corruption.

The eurozone will not collapse, but the European currency will fall by a maximum of 10%. Why is it still worth getting rid of the euro? What will happen to the euro? This question is asked more often than any other now. Not a week goes by without one of the famous economists predicting the collapse of the eurozone and the collapse of the European currency. Investors are rushing to save their savings by selling the euro, and even the ruble seems to some of them to be a “safe haven”.

photo Itar-TASS In the January issue of Forbes, we talk about the threats that, according to the editors and the expert community, Russia may face in 2012 and in the next few years. Our goal is not to scare, but to predict. For example, options for raising taxes in one form or another are being discussed in the corridors of power. There are no other ways to solve budget problems, so the likelihood of the scenario coming true after the presidential elections is quite high.

photo Foto SA/Corbis Miguel Torres. The Spaniard who created the wine legend On the morning of November 11, 2011, residents of the Moscow office center “Red Hills” could see a lean man of about seventy running along the snow-covered embankment. The elderly athlete was Miguel Torres, the man who determined the vector of development of winemaking in two wine-making superpowers, Spain and Chile.