Rating important events in 2013 by Forbes Bashny.Net

January. Reports of the arrest in Cambodia businessman Sergei Polonsky

In early January, there were reports of detention in Cambodia Sergei Polonsky on a charge of causing bodily harm by local seamen. From that moment began a series of misadventures notorious businessman. In April, he was released from prison on bail and on his own recognizance. He fled to Israel, where he asked for citizenship. In August, quickly left Israel and returned to Cambodia, where in November, was arrested and imprisoned in Phnom Penh. The country's authorities are considering his extradition to Russia, where he is accused of stealing more than 5, 7 billion rubles from the holders of the residential complex "Kutuzov mile».





January. Gerard Depardieu Russian citizenship

3 January it became known that the French actor Gerard Depardieu has become a Russian citizen. Passport he was awarded for his contribution to the development of culture and cinematography of Russia, said a spokesman for President Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov. He immediately gave the apartment in Saransk and Grozny. In February, Depardieu received permanent registration in the capital of Mordovia.



February. Chelyabinsk meteorite

On February 15, the Chelyabinsk region has fallen meteorite. It was the most powerful explosion of a cosmic body is not above the ocean since the fall of the Tunguska meteorite. The residents of the Urals were impressed by the unusual phenomenon in the sky and filled the blogs reports of incomprehensible object, which flew right over the houses. As a result of the explosion and shock wave we have suffered more than 1,600 windows were broken in 7000 buildings. In the fall to the bottom of Lake Chebarkul got the largest fragment of the meteorite weighing 600 kg. Chelyabinsk decided to patent itself "meteorite capital of Russia».



March. The financial crisis in Cyprus

In March, the Cyprus financial crisis. The European Union has allocated in aid to Cyprus of € 10 billion. Cyprus in return restructured two largest banks - Bank of Cyprus and Cyprus Popular Bank (Laiki), at which the bank depositors whose deposits exceed € 100,000, have lost up to 60% of invested funds.

Services traditionally Cypriot banks actively used the Russian citizens and legal entities. The deposits on the island of Russians kept up to € 35 billion, and about € 20 billion accounted for deposits of companies and banks.



March. The death of Boris Berezovsky

Disgraced Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, died March 23, 2013 in the 68th year of life. His body was discovered by a security guard in a house in Berkshire near London. A spokesman for the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, said that shortly before his death, Berezovsky wrote a letter to Vladimir Putin, in which he asked for forgiveness for the mistakes and hopes to return to Russia.



April. The case of embezzlement in Skolkovo

In mid-April, the fund "Skolkovo" was searched and a criminal case against a senior vice president Alexei Beltyukova Fund (pictured left) for his article "embezzlement on a large scale." Before that, the fund audited information on the misuse of 3, 5 billion rubles allocated from the budget. Among the serious violations that revealed the supervisory authority, it has been the construction of the center without permits and unjustified Grant science. The case was questioned as a witness, the president of fund billionaire Viktor Vekselberg.



May. Surkov's resignation

May 8, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the resignation of Vladislav Surkov from the post of Deputy Prime Minister - Head of the Government with the formulation of their own accord. According to Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov, Surkov's resignation was related to the deficiencies in the performance of the May presidential decrees. September 20th Surkov was appointed Assistant to the President, he was instructed to oversee the development of bilateral relations with Abkhazia and South Ossetia.



May. IPO Qiwi

The company Qiwi, which owns one of Russia's largest network of payment terminals, held an IPO on Nasdaq. The company was valued at $ 884 million. The company's shareholders, including Mail.ru Group and Japan's Mitsui & Co, have been able to earn on the sale of its shares of $ 212, 5 million, most of the securities bought specialized investment funds from the United States.



June. Snowden flew into Sheremetyevo

June 23 US citizen Edward Snowden, who worked for the CIA and the NSA and transmitted to the media materials about secret programs used by US intelligence agencies to spy on Internet users, suddenly flew to Moscow. He spent five weeks at the airport "Sheremetyevo" and 1 August granted political asylum in Russia for a year. Since then he has been living in Russia. His lawyer Anatoly Kucherena in November reported that the American took a job at one of the major Russian Internet companies.



June. Divorce couple the Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his wife Lyudmila Putina announced their divorce June 6, 2013 in a joint interview after the ballet "Esmeralda". They stated that the decision to divorce - mutual. And the reason it was called - permanent employment, Vladimir Putin. Married couple Putins lived for almost 30 years. They have two daughters - Maria and Katerina.



September. Preventing a US military strike on Syria

In late August, Washington announced its readiness to strike at the forces of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. That was to be the US response to the use of chemical weapons in the suburbs of Damascus on August 21 in which the Western countries have accused Assad. Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Syria and took the initiative to convey the Syrian chemical weapons arsenal under the supervision of international observers. President Barack Obama has approved the idea and promised to postpone the attack on the Arab country if its government will offer Russian. Damascus agreed to the proposal.



July. The verdict Alexei Navalny

July 18 Lenin Kirov court sentenced Alexei Navalny to five years in prison and a businessman Peter Ofitserova - four on charges of stealing timber SUE "Kirovles" to 16 million rubles. Bulk and officers were taken into custody. But a day later, a preventive measure and bulk Ofitserova was changed on his own recognizance pending the entry into force of the court verdict. Bulk decided to still participate in the election of the mayor of Moscow. In October, the Kirov regional court changed the sentence on charges of defrauding the "Kirovlesa" with real on probation.



September. Early elections of the mayor of Moscow

In June 2013 the acting mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin decided to resign and hold early direct elections of the mayor. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on early retirement Sobyanin, and elections were held in a single voting day, September 8th. Sobyanin won them victory, gaining 51, 37% of the vote. His closest rival - opposition leader Alexei Navalny - received 27, 24% of the vote and subsequently tried unsuccessfully to challenge the election results in court.



September. The arrest in Minsk of the General Director of "BRIC»

August 26 general director of the Russian company "Uralkali" Vladislav Baumgertner was detained in Minsk after the meeting with Belarusian Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich, he was charged with abuse of power and authority. Another defendant in the case of "BRIC" became a senator and billionaire Suleiman Kerimov, owning company. It happened after the end of July "Uralkali" has announced the release of the Belarusian Potash Company (BPC), in which his partner was "Belaruskali". After that commodity prices have fallen sharply.

In late November, Baumgertner was extradited to Russia, where he first was held in a Moscow detention center, and was subsequently placed under house arrest. In December, the company replaced the principal owner. Group "Onexim" Mikhail Prokhorov bought from Kerimov his bag and gained control over 27% of shares of "BRIC." A company "URALCHEM", the main owner is Dmitry Mazepin, closed a deal to purchase 20% of "BRIC" from other shareholders. Baumgertner was dismissed from the post of director general. With the advent of the "Uralkali" the new owners of the company's cooperation with the CCB can be resumed, said President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko.



September. Reform of the Academy of Sciences

September 27, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the law on the reform of the Russian Academy of Sciences. As a result of the reform of the Academy of Medical (RAMS) and Agricultural Sciences (RAAS) are attached to the Russian Academy of Sciences. The main tasks assigned RAS scientific activity. And all the property and transferred to the jurisdiction of the Research Institute of the Federal Agency for Property Management Sciences. The proposed reform of the government provoked sharp criticism among academics, the newly elected head of the Academy of Sciences Vladimir Fortov met on this issue with Putin. As a result, the bill was amended.



Oct. Pogroms in Biryulyovo

On the night of October 10 in the area of ​​West Biryulyovo the south of Moscow was killed local resident Yegor Shcherbakov. Face killer fixed surveillance cameras, the story received wide publicity. Outraged crime people gathered at the gathering, demanding to find the killer and close ovoschebazah where he supposedly worked. The gathering ended with riots and pogroms. Two days later he was arrested a suspect in the crime - the visitor from Azerbaijan Orkhan Zeynalov.



Oct. The resignation Onishchenko

In October, he was dismissed and appointed assistant of the Prime Minister, Gennady Onishchenko, who is almost 10 years has been led by Rospotrebnadzor and chief sanitary doctor of Russia. Onishchenko famous irreconcilable struggle with bad habits of Russians and razlichnchmi epidemics, striking style of public speaking. Onishchenko fearlessly declared trade war - a ban on imports of Russian products from countries with which Moscow has escalated relations. The most striking example - a ban in 2006 on the import of Georgian mineral water "Borjomi", Georgian wine and brandy, which was filmed only this year.



November. The criminal case against ex-Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov

In late November, investigators have opened a criminal case under article "negligence" against the former Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov. He suspected that, as defense minister, he ordered the construction of the highway department by an elite recreation "Rye" in the Astrakhan region, owned by a sister's husband, Valery Serdyukov Puzikov. Serdyukov was dismissed from the post of minister of defense as a result of high-profile corruption scandal that broke out in October 2012 around the Defense Ministry subordinated holding "Oboronsersis».



November. Plane crash Boeing-737 of Kazan

November 17th passenger Boeing-737 crashed while landing at the airport of Kazan. Killing all aboard - six crew members and 44 passengers, including two children. Among the dead - the son of the president of Tatarstan Irek Minnikhanov and Head of the Federal Security Service in Tatarstan Alexander Antonov.



November. Euromaidan

On November 21 Maiani Square in Kiev began mass protest against the decision of the Ukrainian government to suspend the signing of an association agreement with the European Union. After a hard disperse protesters special unit "Berkut" during the night of 30 November, the participants euromaidan began to demand the resignation of the President and the Ukrainian government and early elections.



November. Home banking crisis - review the license of Master-Bank

The Central Bank of Russia November 20, revoked the license of Master-Bank of Moscow, which owns one of the largest ATM networks in the capital. Since then I started stripping banks. December 13 the Central Bank revoked the licenses of three banks - Bank of Smolensk, Investbank and FFT. December 24 licenses were revoked at the Bank "Askold" and the bank "Rublevsky».



November. Olympic Torch in Space

Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazan on November 9 carried the Olympic torch to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi from the International Space Station (ISS) into open space. From this Olympic torch will be lit in the main Olympic torch Sochi.



November. IPO Twitter

Initial public offering microblogging service Twitter has become one of the most anticipated events of the Internet market in 2013. November 7 by Twitter on Thursday entered the IPO, placing its shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The opening price of $ 45, one per security at the offering price of $ 26. In the first half hour of trading shares of Twitter rose by more than 90%, reaching $ 50, 9.



December. Reorganization RIA Novosti

December 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the Elimination of RIA Novosti and the creation on its base of international information agency "Russia today." The new agency was headed by leading TV channel "Russia-1" Dmitry Kiselev. The head of the Kremlin administration Sergei Ivanov told RIA reorganization for two reasons: the need for more rational use of budgetary funds allocated to the state information resources. And the need to "improve the efficiency of state-run media».



December. Pardon Khodorkovsky

December 19, Vladimir Putin after their traditional big press conference, told reporters that the former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky owned, serving a sentence for tax evasion and embezzlement, he filed a petition for clemency, in which he indicated that he had a sick mother. The next day, the president signed a decree to pardon Khodorkovsky. Several hours later, the former owner of Yukos was released and flew to Germany. Behind bars, Khodorkovsky has spent more than 10 years.



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