Investment company Zoltav Resources Inc., 45% owned by Arkady Abramovich's ARA Capital fund, announced the purchase of control in CenGeo. The latter, through CJSC Siberian Geological Company, owns a license for the Koltogorskoye oil field (reserves of 35.5 million tons). The seller is Bandbear, a company controlled by Valentin Bukhtoyarov (one of the co-owners and vice president of finance of the Sibuglemet holding).

By 16:05, the MICEX index had added 0.42% to 1,464.39 points, the RTS index had added 0.22% to 1,492.6 points. The market is trading close to zero, but the mood at the trades is still better than in previous days. We see that the market is growing. Even on Wednesday, individual securities showed good growth, especially Sberbank. On Thursday, one of the leaders is Rostelecom.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed the government resolution "On approval of amendments to the Rules for the distribution and use of numbering resources of the unified telecommunications network of the Russian Federation." According to the press service of the Cabinet of Ministers, the resolution brings the numbering rules into line with the federal law on preserving the subscriber number when the client changes the mobile operator. It will come into force on December 1, 2013.

Instead of the Syrian port of Tartus, where the logistics center is located, Russian Navy ships will call at the Lebanese port of Beirut to replenish supplies. As a source in military-diplomatic circles told Interfax, this decision is connected with the escalation of the armed conflict in Syria and speculations around the calls of Russian ships to the Syrian port. All this has forced the military "to look for safer ports for their business calls."

March 21, 2013, 21:46 / Business The Transneft structure demands almost 400 million rubles from the Primorsky port. after the contract was broken Transneft Service considered the stevedoring company's requirement to pay for oil transshipment to be discriminatory, based on Milan Chelpanov's take or pay principle D.

A. Makhonin / Vedomosti The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) paid 2.913 billion rubles for 15.37% of the shares of Katren OJSC, according to the group's 2012 financial statements published yesterday. The bank paid exactly that amount, two sources familiar with the terms of the deal confirmed to Vedomosti. The EBRD announced the purchase of 15% of Katren OJSC in January 2012.

Activists from the unregistered party "Other Russia" have entered the building of the Bank of Russia on Neglinnaya Street. The "Other Russia" microblog on Twitter says that they have blocked the entrance to the building with a banner reading "Return Russian money to Russia!" and are demanding a meeting with the Chairman of the Central Bank Sergei Ignatyev. Their demand is to "prohibit the export of capital" from the country.

On Thursday, the Sverdlovsk Regional Court sentenced the deputy of the Yekaterinburg City Duma and the leader of the Sverdlovsk branch of the Yabloko party, Maksim Petlin. The press service of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Sverdlovsk Region reported that Petlin was found guilty under paragraph "g" of Part 2 of Article 163 of the Criminal Code (extortion on a large scale) and sentenced to three years in a general regime penal colony.

March 21, 2013, 17:42 / Finance The Bank of Russia is concerned about illegal banks on the Internet The Central Bank calls on citizens to check whether they have a banking license Olga Plotonova A. Makhonin / Vedomosti In recent months, there have been increasing cases of sites being identified on the Internet whose names contain the words “bank” or “bank”.

Cyprus is not asking Russia for a new loan but is negotiating investments in banking and natural gas because the loan will not help the island, Finance Minister Michalis Sarris, who remains in Moscow after yesterday's unsuccessful talks, told Reuters. "Unfortunately, the loan will not help. We need to find ways in which we can cooperate in a number of sectors so that it is investment and not loans," Sarris said. "There are no obstacles, there is work to be done...

The international rating agency Fitch has downgraded the long-term issuer default rating (IDR) of the largest Russian air carrier Aeroflot OJSC in foreign currency and national currency by two notches - to "BB-" from "BB+", the forecast is stable, the agency said. In addition, the agency confirmed the short-term issuer default rating at "B" and downgraded the national scale rating to "A+(rus)" from "AA(rus)".

Ilya Ponomarev / A. Astakhova / Vedomosti The Duma commission for monitoring the accuracy of information on deputies' incomes has decided to conduct an investigation into Ilya Ponomarev.

Fitch Ratings has withdrawn its ratings on MDM Bank OJSC as the bank has decided to stop participating in the rating process. The ratings have been withdrawn without confirmation as the bank has not provided the agency with sufficient information to make a decision on the appropriate rating level. Fitch no longer rates or reviews the bank.

Swans is loud / A. Danichev / ITAR-TASS Swans is usually written about in superlatives: the influence of her thirty years of work on many musical genres is difficult to overestimate, and her return to the stage after a long break turned out to be not a repetition of what had been done before, but the next step. Swans is probably the most architectural musical phenomenon. And the architectural aspect here is not a metaphor. The sound of Swans has much more to do with architecture than with music.

The initiative to establish parliamentary contacts between representatives of the American Senate and State Duma deputies came from Senator Benjamin Cardin, the head of the Duma commission for control over the income and property of deputies, former FSB director Nikolai Kovalev, told Interfax.