Russia beats Germany in ice hockey world tournament.

BERLIN, May 16 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia beat Germany 3-2 in the
qualification round at the 2010 world ice hockey championship late on
Saturday.
The first game of group E was played in Germany's Gologne.
Russian team's captain Ilya Kovalchuk opened the score in the first
period (14:20 min). The second goal was scored by Nikolai Kulemin in the
second period (26:10 min). But Germany's Christian Ehrhoff scored in
exchange on the last second of the period.
Russia's Alexander Ovechkin scored his fourth goal in the championship
ten minutes before the game end. In several minutes, Alexander Barta
pulled the Germans to within 3-2.

.Russia to decide on foreign borrowings in autumn - Pankin.

ZAGREB, May 16 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian will decide whether to enter
international loans markets this year in the fall, Russia's Deputy
Minister of Finance Dmitry Pankin said on Saturday.
"We will have to consider the situation with the budget, its deficit,
if there are any extra revenues, as well as the situation on the domestic
loan market. Afterwards, most likely in the autumn, we will decide if we
re-enter international markets this year or not. It is quite probable that
we will not make foreign borrowings this year," Pankin told journalists in
lobby interviews in the framework of the annual shareholder meeting of the
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
The Russian Finance Ministry will soon complete a new budgetary
forecast for 2010, Pankin said, although refused to provide details on
possible deficit amendments.
According to Pankin, Russian companies are recommended for a couple of
weeks to refrain from foreign loans over the unstable situation in the
world financial markets caused by the situation in Greece, Portugal, and
Italy.

.Luzhkov asks Putin to sanction Vnukovo runway extension.

MOSCOW, May 16 (Itar-Tass) -- Mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov on Saturday
asked Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to sanction the extension of a runway
at Moscow's Vnukovo airport.
"Big aircraft need a longer runway. Now it is 3,200 meters, and it
should be about 4 kilometers," Luzhkov said at a meeting with the prime
minister.
Although Vnukovo's runway is long enough for Russia's biggest Il-96,
experts say that a longer runway is needed in cases of emergency, Luzhkov
said.
"I will instruct the minister of transport," Putin promised. "Runways
are in federal property. We shall see."
According to the mayor of Moscow, construction of Russia's biggest air
terminal of 250,000 square meters in area at the Vnukovo airport is
practically completed. "It will be commissioned within a month," he said,
adding that the terminal is expected to handle up to 20 million passengers
a year.

.EU countries' state debt to reach 100% of GDP in 3-4 years - Kudrin.

ST. PETERSBURG, May 16 (Itar-Tass) -- The European Union countries'
state debts might reach 100 percent of GDP in the next three to four
years, if the European governments take no steps to cut expenditure and
reduce the budgetary deficit, Russian Finance Minster Alexei Kudrin said
on Saturday.
If in early 1980s France's public debt was 20 percent of GDP, now it
has reached 77 percent. Similar situation is in Germany and other European
Union countries, the majority of which have exceeded the safe level of 60
percent of GDP. "Even in case the governments take steps to reduce their
budgetary deficits, the European Union countries' debt will reach 100
percent of GDP in three to four years," Kudrin told students of the St.
Petersburg State University's economic department.
The United States has a similar situation with its budgetary deficit,
which has reached 10.5 percent of GDP, the highest level after WWII.
According to Kudrin, the situation is caused by high consumption in
Western countries in the recent decades. Year after year, banks issued
more and more loans hoping the tendency would go on. Now US economists
believe consumption level should be brought down, Kudrin said. Thus, the
United States has set a task to bring its budgetary deficit down to four
percent of GDP by 2014, and further down to three percent by 2015. The
European Union is also planning deficit-cutting measures from 2011.
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