The Russian Foreign Ministry reported that bank secrecy was violated against Russian diplomats accused in the United States of fraud, Interfax reports . This was stated by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergei Ryabkov on the air of the Voice of Russia radio station . According to Ryabkov, the US authorities violated a number of provisions of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and “simply ordinary norms of diplomatic politeness” in relation to Russian diplomats.

Daniil Antonov Author Ksenia Dokukina Author During the crisis, Evgeny Nepeyvoda created a company for the production and rental of mobile cinema complexes. How did he manage to diversify his business?

Investigators estimated the amount of the theft of budget funds allocated for the preparation of the APEC summit in Vladivostok in 2012 at 29 million rubles, which is more than three times less than the amount charged to the defendants in the case at the early stages of the investigation, writes the newspaper on Wednesday, December 25. Kommersant". The amount of 29 million rubles is indicated in the final version of the indictment, the publication writes.

The Georgian Embassy in Kiev has asked for official clarification from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry in connection with the ban on the entry of a number of Georgian citizens into the country, ITAR-TASS reports . Georgian Ambassador Mikheil Ukleba announced this on the TV channel "Ukraine" . “We have sent an official note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and are awaiting an official response,” the ambassador said.

Taiwanese authorities have fined the American company Apple $670,000 for interfering with the pricing policy of the island's three main operators for iPhone smartphones, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday . The fine was imposed by the Taiwan Fair Trade Commission. Its amount is 20 million New Taiwan dollars ($670,000). The Commission demanded that Apple stop interfering in the pricing policies of mobile operators and smartphone distributors.

The Syrian government and the Russian company Soyuzneftegaz signed an agreement on oil exploration on the country's shelf, RIA Novosti reports citing Manal Zeiti, press secretary of the Syrian Ministry of Oil and Mineral Resources. A representative of the department confirmed the information about the signing of the agreement, refusing further comments.

on his blog on Wednesday Opposition leader Alexei Navalny said that State Duma deputy from United Russia, head of the committee for legal support for the development of organizations of the military-industrial complex, Alexander Babakov, owns an undeclared estate in France worth about €11 million. According to the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), founded by Navalny, Babakov owns a 10.9-hectare plot and a house in the French commune of Saint-Léger-en-Yvelines, 37 km southwest of Versailles.

Cypriot Becounioco Holdings Ltd, which owned a 5.78% stake in Uralkali, withdrew from the capital of the potash company, ITAR-TASS reported on Wednesday with reference to a message from Uralkali. Becounioco Holdings Ltd became a shareholder of Uralkali in June 2010. The company was one of the buyers of the share of the former main owner of the company, Dmitry Rybolovlev (No. 14 in the ranking of the 200 richest businessmen in Russia according to Forbes , fortune - $9.1 billion).

The head of the Civil Society Development Foundation and former head of the internal policy department of the Kremlin administration, Konstantin Kostin, filed a lawsuit against opposition leader and blogger Alexei Navalny for the protection of honor and dignity, the RAPSI agency reported on Wednesday , citing the plaintiff’s lawyer Andrei Muratov.

The holding company O1 Group of Boris Mints (No. 120 on the list of the richest businessmen in Russia according to Forbes, fortune - $0.9 billion) announced the closing of a deal to acquire from structures owned by Alexey Mordashov (No. 11, fortune - $12.8 billion), a non-state pension fund "Stalfond", ITAR-TASS reports . The cost of the transaction was not disclosed.

The judge of the magistrate court district No. 418 of the Presnensky district of Moscow on Wednesday postponed the consideration of the claim of the president of Interros and the general director of Norilsk Nickel Vladimir Potanin (No. 7 in the ranking of the 200 richest businessmen in Russia according to Forbes , fortune - $14.3 billion) for divorce, reports RAPSI . Representatives of Potanin’s wife asked to postpone the meeting.

The Yekaterinburg prosecutor's office considers the call of the mayor of the city Evgeny Roizman to collect money from the City Without Drugs Foundation illegal, Interfax-Ural reports on Wednesday, December 25, citing the press service of the prosecutor's office of the Sverdlovsk region.

Ukraine supported the anti-Russian position of the European Commission on South Stream and will seek implementation of the third energy package, RIA Novosti reported on Wednesday with reference to the Ukrainian Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Eduard Stavitsky. The construction of the South Stream bypassing Ukraine is a very sensitive issue for Kyiv, Stavitsky noted. He explained that the new gas pipeline will affect the profitability of Ukraine’s budget from gas transit to the EU.

Senators approved on Wednesday, December 25, amendments to the law on extrajudicial restriction of access to sites containing calls for illegal actions, RIA Novosti reports .

Andrey Litvinov Forbes Editorial Board Nadezhda Ivanitskaya Author Forbes expert forecasts There are many reasons to expect bad economic news in 2014. Russia has frozen in place, hopes for sustainable economic growth are over, the latest forecast of the Ministry of Economic Development for 2013 is 1.4%, and then three equally dismal years. The government started talking about stagnation and a possible increase in unemployment. The banking system began to give alarming signals.