POLITICS

The State Duma's ethics commission suggested that opposition-supporting lawmaker Dmitry Gudkov step down following a speech he gave in the United States in which he requested US senators’ help in identifying Russian officials' foreign property. However, the Duma has no legal mechanism of forcing a lawmaker to resign.

(Kommersant, Rossiiskaya Gazeta)

Xi Jinping will arrive in Moscow on Tuesday on his first foreign visit after being elected president.

(Vedomosti)

ECONOMY

Talks about possible financial aid to Cyprus began in Moscow on Wednesday. The talks have yet to produce results. An European Union delegation will join the talks on Thursday.

(Kommersant, Vedomosti, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Izvestia)

OIL & GAS

An announcement about one of the world’s largest ever deals - the sale of a 100-percent stake in TNK-BP to Russia’s state-owned Rosneft for $56 billion - is expected on Thursday. The deal will make Rosneft the world’s largest oil producer.

(Vedomosti)

Zoltav Resources, part-owned by Roman Abramovich's eldest son Arkady, has acquired an oil field in Siberia.

(Kommersant, Vedomosti)

AEROSPACE

Launch failures of Proton-M rockets with Briz boosters pushed down prices for Russian launches on the international market. The president of International Launch Services (ILS), Phil Slack, said the company had to bring down launch prices because clients have to pay higher insurance costs.

(Izvestia)

BANKING & FINANCE

Russia’s largest lender Sberbank will pay the largest dividends in its history this year: 17 percent of its net profit, or 58.6 billion rubles ($1.9 billion).

(Vedomosti)

SOCIETY

A regional court in Russia’s northern Arkhangelsk Region denied early release for Platon Lebedev, business partner of jailed Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

(Kommersant, Rossiiskaya Gazeta)

The Moscow City Court has resumed hearings into the case of Chechen resident Yusup Temirkhanov, charged with the 2011 murder of Colonel Yury Budanov. Budanov was jailed in 2003 for the torture and murder of a Chechen woman.

(Kommersant, Rossiiskaya Gazeta)

According to a survey by state-run pollster VTsIOM, Russians see city buses, trams and trolleybuses as the safest means of public transport, while minibuses, the subway and suburban trains are widely seen as unsafe.

(Rossiiskaya Gazeta)

The city of Chebarkul in the Chelyabinsk Region is set to use the recent media boom over the meteor blast to promote the to promote its tourist industry.

(Izvestia)

SPORT

The FA has ordered Terek to play its next home game, against Zenit on March 31, at a neutral venue as punishment for Chechen leader and Terek's honorary president Ramzan Kadyrov confronting the referee on Sunday. The FA also imposed a fine of 200,000 rubles (about $7,000).

(Kommersant, Moskovskie Novosti)

Most Russian national teams in winter Olympic sports, except for figure skating and hockey, are trained by foreign coaches.

(Moskovskie Novosti)

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