Boris Kagarlitsky If there was even one point on which the candidates in the Sept. 8 Moscow mayoral race were in agreement, it was on the question of migrant workers. They unanimously described migrants as an evil practically on par with criminals and tried to outdo each other with statements about how they would deal with this blight. Who exactly were the candidates referring to when they spoke of migrant workers?

Workers in the regions often have to pinch the pennies to get by. Yekaterina Kuzmina Moscow jobs pay 40 percent more compared to similar positions in regional centers, but wage growth has remained stagnant in the last five years across all regions in the country, according to findings from international consulting firm Hay Group.

Opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his supporters plan to field candidates in Moscow's 2014 City Duma elections, bringing further political diversity to a contest that is set to see billionaire politician Mikhail Prokhorov's Civil Platform party make its own bid for influence in the capital.

As fears about the Syrian conflict recede, equity fund flows have increased to most emerging markets, excluding Russia, Emerging Portfolio Fund Research, or EPFR, said in a report. According to EPFR, investors channeled $2.6 billion to emerging markets last week, a weekly maximum since February, but pulled $235 million out of Russia, Kommersant reported Monday. The largest amount, over $757 million, went to Brazil, whose economy is frequently compared to Russia's due to its similar size.

VIENNA — Iran's new atomic energy chief pledged increased cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog on Monday, delivering a conciliatory message ahead of talks between the two sides this month over Tehran's disputed atomic activities.

Russia's second-largest bank, VTB, has called off the purchase of Petrokommerce, an important financial institution for the oil giant LUKoil. VTB was going to pay for Petrokommerce with the oil company Tekhneftinvest that it had earlier acquired for overdue debts, but the sides could not agree on the price, a source in VTB told Vedomosti. Petrokommerce had capital of about $940 million at the end of 2012 and is valued at $400 million to $500 million, analysts said.

Kommersant 1. Yelena Chernenko article headlined "Chemistry and peace" comments on a historic breakthrough in resolving the Syrian problem reached by Russia and the United States. Russia is to finance some of the work to scrap the Syrian chemical weapons that will not be brought to Russia; pp 1, 8 (965 words). 2.

Drivers whose cars are hauled away because they are illegally parked are now being charged 3,000 rubles ($90) for that service. The city began charging the fee starting this Sunday, Autorambler.ru reported. It was supposed to have been implemented on July 1. Car owners will not be charged for the first 24 hours a vehicle remains on the tow yard's parking lot. After that, the fee will be 1,000 rubles for each 24 hours.

Two deer herders have died and four were missing after their vehicle sank while crossing the Apuka River in the far eastern Kamchatka region. Regional investigators said that the SUV stalled and started to drift before filling with water and sinking with eight people inside, Interfax reported Monday. The driver and at least one of the passengers survived, said a spokeswoman for the regional police department.

The state companies Rosneftegas and Rosneft, headed by Igor Sechin, could be interested in the potash producer Uralkali's assets, a news report said Monday. A source close to businessman Suleiman Kerimov said that the billionaire's fund was prepared to sell its stake in Uralkali for a price that would value the whole company at $20 billion, Vedomosti reported.

The Tomsk nuclear submarine. A fire broke out Monday morning on a nuclear-powered submarine docked for repairs in a town near Vladivostok, temporarily sparking fears that radioactive material could leak out. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the fire was a reminder of the need to increase oversight at facilities carrying out repairs on naval ships, and President Vladimir Putin ordered Shoigu to prepare a report on how to avoid such incidents in the future.

Commodities trader Gunvor, partly owned by Russian businessman Gennady Timchenko, has received a syndicated loan amounting to more than $675 million to be invested in its oil product transshipment terminal in Ust Luga on the Baltic Sea. The loan was organized and provided by the leading international and Russian banks, such as Gazprombank, Raiffeisenbank, Bank of China, ABN AMRO and VTB.

James’ series “A Beautiful Announcement of Death” re-enacts the Paul Delaroche painting “Death of a Martyr.” Alexander James Alexander James is not a photographer. Though best known for photographic works, James creates finely crafted sculptural scenes immersed in tanks of purified water.

Technical work on the Moscow metro's purple line made riders blue in the face on Monday morning, causing increased intervals between trains and holding up commuters. The city's transport department apologized and urged Muscovites to seek alternatives to the Tagansko-Krasnopresenskaya line, saying that maintenance work could cause delays throughout the day, Interfax reported. A metro spokesperson said that faults were detected between the Ulitsa 1905 Goda and Begovaya stations at around 7 a.m.

An argument over the theories of 18th-century philosopher Immanuel Kant ended in a man being shot in a grocery store in southern Russia. Police in the city of Rostov-on-Don said a fight broke out between two men as they argued over Kant, the German author of "Critique of Pure Reason," without giving details of their debate.