March 31, 2015, 10:54 pm / Business The Ministry of Agriculture has set prices for the purchase of grain in 2015/16. Vedomosti The Ministry of Agriculture has determined the minimum prices for the purchase of grain from the 2015 harvest through the mechanism of government interventions. The order of the Ministry of Agriculture will come into force on July 1, 2015 and will be valid until July 1, 2016, the department’s press service reported.

In the Kaliningrad region, the private company of former Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov, LLC Private Stud Farm Weedern, will produce buckwheat, reports Interfax , citing the press service of the regional administration. In 2014, this company grew about 600 tons of buckwheat. Regional Governor Nikolai Tsukanov asked Luzhkov not to sell grain for export and to organize its processing in the region. “And we were already ready to send this buckwheat, especially since it’s simple.

March 31, 2015, 11:25 / Economics The National Bank of Ukraine has worsened its forecast for the country's GDP decline in 2015 Vedomosti The National Bank of Ukraine has worsened its forecasts for 2015. At the end of the year, it now expects a fall in GDP of 7.5% and inflation of 03%. As UNIAN reminds , in February the NBU predicted a decline in the country's GDP in 2015 by 4-5% with inflation of 25-26%.

March 31, 2015, 16:11 / Business Gazprom officially replaced the auditor PwC with the Russian FBK Vedomosti FBK was recognized as the auditor of Gazprom's financial statements under IFRS for 2015, FBK said in a statement.

March 31, 2015, 14:50 / Finance Gold prices could rise in 2015 even with Fed rate hikes - Bank of America Vedomosti Gold prices could rise in 2015 after two years of decline, even if the US Federal Reserve starts raising interest rates, analysts at Standard Chartered and Bank of America predict.

March 31, 2015, 20:02 / Auto Swedish automaker Scania will not freeze production in Russia Vedomosti It was also reported that Volvo Vostok CJSC (manages Volvo factories in Russia) suspended the production of trucks at the Volvo Group Trucks plant in Kaluga from February 11 and laid off a third of its staff due to an unfavorable market situation and a prolonged decline in demand for commercial vehicles. The Swedish automaker Scania does not plan to freeze production at its plant in St.

Yuri Sapronov / E. Novozhenina / RIA Novosti "Yuri Sapronov increased his stake in Russian World Studios (RWS) from 49% to 70% of shares, AFK Sistema now directly owns 30% of this production company. Previously, Vladimir Yevtushenkov's holding controlled RWS through its subsidiary Sistema Mass Media (SMM), which reported the restructuring. Sapronov confirmed this information to Vedomosti. This is a cashless deal that requires approval from the Federal Antimonopoly Service to complete.

Alexander Reimer, former director of the Federal Penitentiary Service / V. Melnikov / RIA Novosti Former FSIN director Alexander Reimer has been detained, Interfax reports. According to a Vedomosti source in law enforcement agencies, a criminal case against the former official was opened on the facts of theft during the purchase of security systems, control and other means necessary for the FSIN during his leadership of the federal service.

Mikhail Fridman / A. Makhonin / Vedomosti Turkey's Cukurova Holding has filed a lawsuit in London's International Arbitration Court against Alfa Telecom Turkey (ATT), a subsidiary of the LetterOne investment group owned by Mikhail Fridman, German Khan and Alexey Kuzmichev, demanding that it be given the opportunity to buy out ATT's stake in the country's largest mobile operator, Turkcell, whose shares are traded on the Istanbul and New York stock exchanges.

Ivan Melnikov “Let’s ask ourselves: do people, especially in difficult times of crisis, want to know how much the heads of key state-owned companies receive?” The First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation is confident that Russians want to know this, “because a sense of justice is a genetic trait of our people.” (Interfax) Vladimir Putin "Our duty is not just to recreate everything that was good before, but to raise this work to a higher level of

Filaret Galchev / D. Grishkin / Vedomosti Holcim's second-largest shareholder, Eurocement (which holds 10.8 percent of the shares), plans to vote against the merger of Holcim and Lafarge at a shareholders' meeting on May 8, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and the Swiss Sonntagszeitung reported. Representatives of Eurocement, Holcim and Lafarge declined to comment.

March 31, 2015, 12:52 pm / Business Russian Railways suffered a loss of 44 billion rubles in 2014 The economic slowdown and devaluation negatively affected the company's results Vedomosti The decline in economic growth negatively affected the results of Russian Railways / D. Abramov / Vedomosti The amount of Sberbank loans in 2014 remained almost unchanged, remaining at the level of 10 billion rubles. (during the year, 20.3 billion rubles were received and repaid).

The highest salary in Europe is in Denmark, claim the authors of The Independent, citing Eurostat data for 2014. Remuneration in Denmark averaged 40.3 euros per hour. The lowest hourly wage in the European Union is in Bulgaria (3.8 euros, which is 6.5 times lower than the average European level (24.6 euros). The top five countries with the highest salaries, apart from Denmark, were Belgium (EUR 39.1), Sweden (EUR 37.4), Luxembourg (EUR 35.9) and France (EUR 34.6).

March 30, 2015, 10:47 pm / Politics The first person accused under the “separatist” article of the Criminal Code complained to the Strasbourg court Krasnodar activist is charged with calling for violation of the integrity of the Russian Federation Anastasia Kornya Polyudova has been charged with promoting extremism and separatism for posts on the social network VKontakte / freeimages.com The organizer of the failed “March for the federalization of Kuban”, Daria Polyudova, who became the first

March 31, 2015, 14:32 / Business Yandex has launched a service for searching for tours abroad and in Russia Yandex.Travel is designed to “rejuvenate” the audience of tour operators through online sales Natalya Ishchenko Maria Kunle Irina Skrynnik Russian resorts report an increase in tourist flow / D. Abramov / Vedomosti Yandex has launched the Yandex.Travel service, the company announced. The service selects tours based on many different parameters in Russia and abroad.