'Voices From Afghanistan' Exhibit Profiled In 'The Washington Post'

"The Post's" Style section highlights the exhibit at the Library of Congress, which showcases some of the thousands of handwritten scrolls and letters sent in by listeners to RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan. More

By Country / Russia

Russia Drafts Bill On Foreign Investment In Strategic Sectors

July 19, 2007

Russia's State Duma (file photo) (ITAR-TASS)

July 19, 2007 -- The Russian government has submitted to parliament a
bill regulating foreign investment in 39 "strategic sectors", including
arms, aviation, space, and nuclear energy.

Russian newspapers said under the bill, the Federal Security Service (FSB) has received the right to veto deals.

The bill has been delayed and revised repeatedly since President Vladimir Putin ordered its drafting in 2005.

It does not cover investment in the oil and gas sectors, as a separate law regulating them is still being worked out.

Meanwhile, the Japanese carmaker Toyota has announced plans to open a new production facility and a bank in Russia later this year.

The new production facility is expected to start operations in December near St. Petersburg.

A spokesman for Toyota KreditBank in Cologne said today that Russia has the potential to become one of the biggest automobile markets in Europe.

He said the Russian central bank has already issued a license for the new bank.

(AFP, "Kommersant," "Vedomosti," dpa)

About sharing

TEXT SIZE - +

The Post-Soviet Petrostate

The oil-export terminal at Primorsk, Russia (TASS)

WEALTH AND POWER. At an RFE/RL briefing in Washington on January 24, Freedom House Director of Studies Christopher Walker and RFE/RL regional analyst Daniel Kimmage argued that energy-sector wealth is preventing many former Soviet countries -- Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan -- from developing strong democratic institutions.