3000 people They will lay off workers at the liquidated Volgograd OJSC Khimprom, said acting deputy head of the state labor inspectorate in the Volgograd region Sergei Pedchenko. He called the situation at the enterprise difficult. "As of today, labor relations have been terminated with slightly more than 800 employees. In the near future, labor relations with the next batch of workers should be terminated. That is, the owner decided to split the situation over time," the official said.

February 12, 2015, 08:44 / Business / News The commander of the mine rescue squad is blamed for the death of the Raspadskaya miners - Interfax undefined Vedomosti The investigation considers the head of mine rescue operations, Alexander Apalkov, to be one of those responsible for the fact that there were many victims in the accident at the Raspadskaya mine in 2010.

Venezuelan and Ecuadorian Foreign Ministers Delcy Rodriguez and Ricardo Patiño called the talks with Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak, for which they came to Moscow today, positive. The meeting was also attended by the oil ministers of the two countries. "The talks were very positive," Rodriguez told reporters.

February 12, 2015, 23:36 / Finance / Society The number of mortgage loans issued in 2014 exceeded 1 million for the first time - Central Bank Vedomosti The number of mortgage loans issued by Russian banks in 2014 exceeded 1 million for the first time. Compared to 2013, 22.7% more loans were provided - 1.012 million. The debt of individuals on mortgage housing loans to financial organizations increased by 32.9% from 2.649 trillion to 3.520 trillion rubles, follows from the Central Bank data.

Football club SKVO In February, FC SKVO - Rostov-on-Don (as SKA has been called since 2013) will complete re-registration and return to its historical name, salaries for players and coaches for 2014 have been paid, and a budget of 30 million rubles has been formed for 2015, the press service of the Rostov Region government reported, citing the club's president - deputy governor Igor Guskov.

February 12, 2015, 07:48 / Business Costa Concordia captain sentenced to 16 years in prison undefined Vedomosti The captain of the cruise ship Costa Concordia, Francesco Schettino, was sentenced to 16 years in prison. According to the BBC, the Grosseto court found him guilty of the unintentional murder of several dozen people, leaving passengers and crew in danger and committing actions that led to the crash.

Societe Generale said that this year will be more difficult in Russia, where it had to write off the value of Rosbank's intangible assets by 525 million euros in 2014. However, overall the French bank managed to increase profits last year - read on FT.com A selection of the most interesting publications in the publications co-founders of Vedomosti dated February 12, 2015.

FANO, the agency that manages the property of the Academy of Sciences, estimated the losses of the library of the Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences (INION) after the fire at 5.42 million books. The difficult to restore part of the collection, according to preliminary estimates, is estimated at 15.7% of the total volume, or 2.32 million books.

February 12, 2015, 09:02 / Auto AvtoVAZ increased its annual loss more than threefold The company's net loss amounted to 25.4 billion rubles due to “non-operational factors” Natalya Raibman Denis Abramov / Vedomosti In 2014, AvtoVAZ's net loss according to RAS amounted to 25.4 billion rubles, the operating loss decreased to 5.7 billion rubles, and the negative operating margin was 3%, the company reported. The annual report according to RAS is published on the company’s website.

AFK Sistema  has bought another real estate asset from its “granddaughter” OJSC Moscow City Telephone Network ( MGTS ). ZAO Business-Real Estate, 100% owned by AFK, acquired 51% of shares of ZAO Rent-Real Estate from ZAO MGTS-Real Estate (a 100% subsidiary of MGTS). The deal amounted to 4.34 billion rubles, MGTS retained 49% of Rent-Real Estate, according to a statement from MTS (which owns 94% of MGTS).

The release of Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko could be an act of goodwill on the part of Russia, Russian Human Rights Commissioner Ella Pamfilova told Interfax on Thursday. “As for Savchenko’s release, if it happens after certain necessary procedures, then I will regard it as a humane act of goodwill on the part of Russia,” she said.

February 12, 2015, 23:56 / Politics Kerry: The US can ease sanctions against Russia Subject to compliance with all Minsk agreements Ilya Usov M. Stulov / Vedomosti US Secretary of State John Kerry said that Washington is ready to consider easing sanctions against Russia, subject to the implementation of the September Minsk agreements and the February agreements. The Secretary of State's words are posted on the White House website.

The sanctions imposed by the US and EU have significantly limited the access of Russian borrowers to the US and European capital markets. Although the sanctions prohibit US and EU financial institutions and banks from financing only a limited number of large Russian companies (primarily with state participation), all Russian borrowers have felt the negative impact of the sanctions on their financing transactions.

Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool / AP Despite all the difficulties, the participants of the Normandy Four summit in Minsk managed to agree on the main thing. This was reported to journalists in Minsk at noon by President Vladimir Putin. "This is not the best night of my life, but the morning, in my opinion, is good. Because, despite all the difficulties of the negotiation process, we still managed to agree on the main thing," the Russian president said.

Business trips will cost Tele2 subscribers a little more / E. Kuzmina / Vedomosti The Big Three operators - MTS , Megafon and VimpelCom - do not plan to change prices for services in Russia yet, their representatives say. Megafon and VimpelCom have raised tariffs in recent months, but only in foreign roaming.