D. Grishkin Several market participants told Vedomosti that Samsung and LG are planning to switch to direct deliveries of handsets. The press service of LG denied this information. Manager of the telecommunications department of Samsung Dmitry Kuznetsov is sure that sooner or later all manufacturers will come to direct deliveries, this is a more civilized form, but he says that Samsung has not yet thought about the timing.

Although the Dutch Royal Dutch and the British Shell have worked together for almost 100 years, they merged into one company for the first time only last year. Its first head was the Dutchman Jeroen van der Veer. British journalists like to make fun of his English speech, but van der Veer seems to understand perfectly well that his task is not to speak beautifully.

Yesterday, Baltinvestbank opened a 24-hour additional office on Nevsky Prospekt, the bank’s press service reported. At night, the bank will provide currency exchange and money transfer services. “We conducted research on the demand for these services and decided to launch a trial version in the summer,” Igor Kirillovykh, Chairman of the Board of Baltinvestbank, told Vedomosti, adding that if the results are positive, the bank will open new 24-hour additional offices.

Rosneft has held the largest IPO among Russian companies. On Friday, it sold 14.8% of its shares for $10.4 billion, almost at the upper limit of the price corridor ($7.55). The state-owned company boasted that it had overtaken Russia's largest oil company in terms of reserves and revenue, Lukoil , in terms of capitalization. True, Rosneft calculates its capitalization taking into account future consolidation - $79.8 billion at the time of the placement.

Gazprombank has not yet responded to the accusations against its treasury chief / S. Porter But Gazprombank has recently joined this company. On July 13, a new chapter was added to the lawsuit, alleging that Gazprombank allegedly used insider information when trading YUKOS shares more than two years ago.

In October 2003, Interros bought the OVK group for $200 million to strengthen and develop Rosbank's retail business. Rosbank Chairman of the Board Alexander Popov called this deal "one of the most successful deals in the history of the Russian banking industry" in an interview with Vedomosti at the end of March 2006.

Ruben Vardanyan, president of the Troika Dialog group of companies, was also the CEO of Rosgosstrakh for two years. He told Vedomosti that he worked to the limit of his ability at the time, with his workday starting at 8 a.m. and ending at midnight. “I spent several days a week working on Troika, several days on Rosgosstrakh, and in order to get everything done, I delegated some of my responsibilities to my deputies and only dealt with key issues,” Vardanyan recalls.

The famous American artist, the founder of pop art Andy Warhol once said that in the 21st century everyone will get their 15 minutes of fame. And this has already come true, not least thanks to the Internet. If television, which makes reality show participants famous, selects people, giving the opportunity to become famous only to a few, then the Internet gives everyone almost equal chances. The site “15 x 15” (www.15x15.org) positions itself as one of the ways to become famous via the Internet.

Last week, Rossvyaznadzor ordered MTU-Intel to eliminate a “violation of communications legislation.” The supervisory authority found that the company was providing paid television broadcasting services without a license. Officials demanded that MTU-Intel urgently obtain a license to provide communications services for cable broadcasting purposes, promising to submit a report on the violation to court.

Until now, economists believed that rising global oil prices would not slow the U.S. economy. But last week, the Dow Jones fell 3.2%, almost back to the level of early 2006, the yield on long-term U.S. Treasury bonds fell below the yield on short-term bonds (a phenomenon that often signals an approaching recession), the U.S. consumer confidence index fell, and retail sales in June fell 0.1% from May. At the same time, sales of cars and auto components fell 1.4%.

A strange story happened to us with the WTO. Literally on the eve of the summit, it seemed like we had settled our own and other people's wishes, exchanged branches of foreign banks for branches of insurance companies, and suddenly American pigs were unexpectedly discovered, looking more like an ambush regiment than the vanguard of the fight for free trade.

The article “Not for the Sake of Selfishness” (No. 128 of 14.07.2006, p. B1) incorrectly states the amount of the fee due to cellular operators for arranging a call from a landline to a mobile phone. It should read: “The Federal Tariff Service and Rossvyaznadzor have set the fee for calls from a landline to a mobile phone at 1.5 rubles per minute, of which the cellular operator will receive 95 kopecks.”

If three weeks ago a ton of fourth-class wheat (the main export product) in the southern regions could be bought for 2,800 rubles, and feed wheat for 2,500 rubles, then yesterday a ton of fourth-class grain cost 3,100 rubles, and feed wheat for 2,850 rubles, says Sergey Kamenetsky, Director of Communications at Yug Rusi.

Several months ago, the management of the Komsomolskaya Pravda publishing house received an order from the Moscow Labor Inspectorate to ensure that its employees undergo mandatory medical examinations. It would seem that there is nothing surprising about this. According to the “Hygienic Requirements for Personal Electronic Computers and Organization of Work” (approved by the Chief Russian Sanitary Doctor on May 30, 2003), employees must undergo such examinations every year.

Deputy Sergei Ivanov (LDPR) believes that it is unfair to impose the same administrative fines on citizens of different incomes. He introduced amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses to the State Duma, which allow the fine to be set depending on the financial status of the citizen. It is proposed to multiply the standard fine by a coefficient calculated as the offender's income for the previous year divided by the average Russian subsistence minimum.