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Photo twitter.com/gruppa_voina Activists of the unregistered Other Russia party blocked the entrance to the building of the Central Bank of Russia on Neglinnaya Street in the center of Moscow on Thursday afternoon, party spokesman Alexander Averin said in his blog on LiveJournal.

A criminal group of lawyers and realtors suspected of theft of more than 150 municipal apartments was detained in the Moscow region, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs reported on Thursday. The criminals acted for 3 years. The group included employees of legal and real estate firms. They were led by a former serviceman of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.

Photo by RIA Novosti Forbes asked Russian billionaires what they think about the situation in Cyprus Andrey Bokarev, Chairman of the Board of Directors of CJSC Transmashholding (No. 109 on the Russian list of billionaires, net worth $1.35 billion): — We don’t have any situation in Cyprus. The modern oligarch has all his money in Russia.

Deputy Head of the Ministry of Economic Development Andrei Klepach announced on Thursday a possible easing of Russia's monetary policy in April-May 2013, as inflation slows. “A certain easing of monetary policy in April-May is also likely as inflation declines, as Ignatiev (Central Bank Governor Sergei Ignatiev - Forbes) stated, there are conditions for this,” the Prime agency quotes Klepach .

First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Vyacheslav Volodin met with activists of 20 new non-parliamentary parties on Thursday, Interfax reports , citing a source in the Kremlin. According to the agency's interlocutor, the meeting lasted more than two hours. He noted that representatives of the parties “Cities of Russia”, “Labor Party of Russia”, Russian Ecological Party “Greens”, “Russian Party of Pensioners for Justice”, “Young Russia” and others took part in the meeting.

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades demanded that parliament adopt a new plan to save the country's economy at a meeting on Thursday, RIA Novosti reports citing the Cyprus News Agency. The Cypriot president said the government has more time and parliament should vote on the new plan on Thursday. At 9.30 am (11.30 GMT), Anastasiades will discuss the government's final proposals with political party leaders, and they will be presented to parliament for a vote in the afternoon.

The Central Bank of Cyprus on Thursday denied information that appeared in the media about its intention to close the second largest bank in the country, Cyprus Popular Bank (Laiki), which had previously been predicted for Russian investors, according to the website of the British newspaper The Guardian . Rumors about the upcoming closure of Laiki Bank appeared on Thursday in the Cypriot media.

The Eurogroup will hold an extraordinary meeting on Thursday evening to discuss a plan to stabilize the financial sector of Cyprus, Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on his microblog on Twitter . The meeting will begin at 19.00 Central European Time (22.00 Moscow time). Following the meeting, the Eurogroup will issue a statement, Dijsselbloem noted.

Vodka “Five Lakes”, produced by the Omsk enterprise “Alcoholic Siberian Group”, has become the best-selling vodka in Russia, replacing the permanent leader of recent years, “Green Mark” vodka, the Kommersant newspaper writes on Thursday, citing research from the Nielsen group. In total sales of strong alcohol for the period from December 2012 to January 2013, the share of Five Lakes vodka was 5.1%. Second place in the market was taken by Belenkaya vodka, produced by Synergy, with 4.8%.

The Cypriot authorities are not trying to obtain a new loan from Russia, but are discussing the possibility of attracting investment in banks and gas production projects, as well as easing the terms of repayment of the existing loan, Cypriot Finance Minister Michalis Sarris told Reuters on Thursday. "Unfortunately, credit is not going to help. We need to find ways in which we can collaborate across a number of sectors in a way that is an investment rather than a loan," Sarris said.

reported Thursday, Authorities in Cyprus are asking Russia to provide a new loan of 5 billion euros to stabilize the island nation's financial sector, Bloomberg citing three Russian officials who wished to remain anonymous. According to one of the agency’s interlocutors, in response to the loan, Nicosia is offering Moscow shares in energy and a number of other assets. According to a second source, Cyprus has offered Russian investors shares in its offshore gas fields.

Photo East News / AFP / ImageForum Russia should not expect that the money spent on saving Cyprus will be returned in the foreseeable future in the form of revenues from gas production The Cyprus crisis immediately focused attention on the future development of the country's recently discovered natural gas reserves offshore. The Cypriot authorities immediately began playing the gas card in negotiations to save the financial system, using the amounts of future export revenues.

The bailiff service has restricted the travel abroad of entrepreneurs from St. Petersburg Andrei Afanasyev and Yulia Zakharova due to their debt amounting to more than 3.5 billion rubles, Interfax reported on Thursday , citing sources in law enforcement agencies.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev expressed his sympathy for the French film actor Gerard Depardieu, but called on the heads of Russian regions not to give away apartments to celebrities who have received Russian citizenship. “I would recommend that some of our governors be more careful in donating apartments,” Medvedev said in an interview with Interfax and several European media outlets.