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MOSCOW, April 17 (RIA Novosti) - Copyright...

MOSCOW, April 17 (RIA Novosti) - Copyright piracy in Russia which has been a major obstacle to the country joining the WTO dropped by 15% in 2007, year-on-year, the Russian Interior Ministry said on Thursday. Russia, the second-largest market for pirated products after China, has been strongly criticized for its failure to protect intellectual property rights. Over 4,000 people were arrested in 2007, and more than 800 people in January-March this year for breaching copyright laws, said Vladimir Lukyanov, a deputy head of the ministry"s economic security department. Almost 4 million counterfeit items, mainly computer software, DVDs and CDs, worth an estimated 182 million rubles ($8 million) were seized last year, the official added. In 2007, Russia introduced a new law prohibiting the sale of pirated goods on Russian streets, kiosks and retail outlets. However, a spokesman for the economic security department, Vladimir Tsvetkov, said unlicensed CDs were now available for sale online over the Internet, especially in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In 2006, Russia was ranked in the top 10 of the world"s worst offending countries for piracy according to a report by the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA). The issue was a major stumbling block in Russia"s World Trade Organization accession talks with the United States. The sides eventually signed a final agreement in 2006 after Moscow promised to get tough on intellectual property violations. The problem of unlicensed software in Russia has been highlighted by the case of school principal Alexander Ponosov, charged with copyright violation after he bought a set of computers for his school containing unlicensed Microsoft software.


Russian Olympic Committee President Leonid...

Russian Olympic Committee President Leonid Tyagachev resigned on Wednesday, two days after President Dmitry Medvedev said sports officials should quit over the country’s poor showing at the Vancouver Winter Olympics.


Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will meet...

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will meet with Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt on March 9 in Moscow, the Kremlin said Wednesday.

Business

Russia"s environmental regulator approved...

Germany, Russia"s key partner in the project to pump Russian natural gas to Europe, is expected to give its approval later this year.

Denmark was the first of five countries to approve the project in October 2009, and the governments of Finland and Sweden followed suit in early November.

"The granted authorizations were a major step that will make it possible to launch the gas pipeline construction in the spring of 2010," Nord Stream AG said in a statement.

Earlier reports said the construction could begin on April 1, 2010.

The $12 billion pipeline is designed to bypass the traditional transit nations of Ukraine, Poland and Belarus. It will pump some 56 billion cubic meters of gas annually from the northwest Russian port of Vyborg to the German port of Greifswald along a 1,200-kilometer (750-mile) route.

MOSCOW, December 18 (RIA Novosti)




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