PIK Group, one of Russia's largest homebuilders, said on Wednesday that it is to raise at least $150 million in a share offering priced at 62.50 rubles ($1.99) per share. The company, in which Suleiman Kerimov's investment vehicle Nafta Moskva owns a 38.3 percent stake, is raising the funds to reduce its debt, which stood at 37.1 billion rubles ($1.2 billion) at the end of last year. Sources previously said that PIK might raise about $300 million to $350 million via the offering.

Boris Kagarlitsky The number of political prisoners related to the "Bolotnoye affair" underscores the scope of the authorities' crackdown on the remnants of free political expression and the constitutional right to assembly in the country. Even more than a year after the original opposition protests on Bolotnaya Ploshchad, there are new arrests and searches across the country.

Russian hypermarket chain Lenta, part-owned by U.S. private equity firm TPG and Russia's VTB Capital, is talking to banks about a possible London listing which could raise at least $1 billion, sources familiar with the matter said. The move could produce a rare success story for a U.S. buyout firm in Russia, giving TPG the opportunity to exit an investment it made in 2009. Most U.S.

The identities of the driver and two male passengers of a Subaru WRX that flew down a crowded Leningradsky Prospekt at speeds approaching 200 km/h and eventually collided into cars stuck in a traffic jam have been determined, but only one of them will be fined, News.ru reported Wednesday. The video of the crash went viral and already has over 1 million views. It was uploaded onto YouTube on Monday by the two Subaru passengers: 24-year-old Roman Kalashnikov and 18-year-old Anton Bogorodsky.

A Red Army veteran was found to have been a Nazi collaborator by the Moscow region prosecutors office after obtaining materials from their Belorussian colleagues. Prosecutors said that the decorated veteran, Sergei Maslov, 90, assisted the German army after being captured in 1942 and took part in operations against members of the resistance movement, Moskovsky Komsomolets reported Tuesday. He was then captured by the U.S.

Despite spending 35 billion rubles ($1.1 billion) since 2006 to improve transportation infrastructure and increase the attractiveness of the country's transport network to foreign customers, not a single project has been completed, the Audit Chamber said in a statement Wednesday.

PARIS — The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development further cut its growth outlook for most of Central and Eastern Europe and Russia on Wednesday but said a moderate turnaround in the economies was on the way thanks to expected improvement in the eurozone. The club of the world's most developed countries said inflation in Russia has probably peaked and would return to the Central Bank's target range.

Bad loan provisions are up at the financial giant, which accounts for about one-third of all lending in the country. Vladimir Filonov Top lender Sberbank posted a 4 percent fall in first quarter profits as it set aside $1 billion to cover potential bad loans, the bank said on Wednesday, a sign that debtors may be struggling in a weakening economy.

Kommersant 1. Alexander Chernykh article headlined "Deputy to blame" says Education Minister Dmitry Livanov has accepted resignation of his deputy Igor Fedyukin, who used to be in charge of a probe into forged scientific degrees and said he could not work due to "huge psychological discomfort"; pp 1, 5 (956 words). 2. Viktor Khamrayev article headlined "Accompanying deputy" says Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has attended the Startup Village conference organized by the Skolkovo foundation.

Deputy Mayor for Social Development Leonid Pechatnikov said that although charging money to people who call an ambulance because they are hungover is a good idea, it would be difficult to implement. The proposal to make emergency medical assistance a paid service for some categories of patient is currently under consideration at the city administration, Interfax reported Wednesday. "This is a wonderful idea, but I do not know how it can be realized," Pechatnikov said.

Sea ice pressure ridges in the Beaufort Sea off the northern coast of Alaska. When the virtual hammer came down on the country's Arctic real estate last week, state-controlled Gazprom managed to get the largest slice. Gazprom vied with Rosneft and was awarded seven disputed areas in the Kara sea shelf and could split the eighth area, in the West Siberian sea, with the oil giant, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Sergei Donskoi told Interfax last week.

A U.S. congressional delegation is spending a week in Russia meeting with high-level government and security officials to investigate whether more could have been done to prevent the Boston Marathon bombings. Representative Dana Rohrabacher, the California Republican who is leading the delegation, said Wednesday: "We think there is some information that is vital for us to know that hasn't been made public yet." Russia warned the U.S.

A bus driver illegally transporting almost 3,000 rare tortoises was apprehended on his way from Kazakhstan to Altai region this week. The 43-year-old Kazakh citizen was bringing workers over from Kazakhstan to Russia when he was stopped at a check point, according to the Siberian customs website. During the routine check, border guards discovered boxes containing 2,709 small tortoises that belong to a rare Central Asian species. The batch is estimated to be worth 1.15 million rubles ($50,000).

Owner Pavel Vyakin playing with his bear Tima in a video clip that went viral this week. An online video starring an adorable brown bear named Tima performing with its Samara-based owner is drawing cheers across cyberspace. The video, uploaded to multiple YouTube pages over the last few days, has drawn hundreds of thousands of viewers impressed by Tima's human-like ability to sit on a chair, play a horn, swing a hula hoop and even make a rude gesture with its, um, shaggy arms.

A quarter of Internet users in Russia pay for services online, and 30 percent of them are from the Moscow region, according to an e-commerce market research sponsored by PayU Group. A study, conducted in collaboration with Data Insight agency, showed that to date in 2013, 50 percent of online payments were done with a credit card, with an average amount of 2,800 rubles ($89). 58 percent of such payments came from cities with over 300 thousand residents.