Russian Railways plans to raise at least £1bn with a sterling bond issue as Russia’s state-owned rail operator looks to raise money to finance the upgrade of its network ahead of the World Cup in 2018.

Vladimir Yakunin, chief executive of Russian Railways, said the company wanted to access the sterling bond market as part of its financing plans ahead of the tournament.

Russia needs to link up five of the 13 host cities for the World Cup, and according to comments from Alexander Novak, deputy finance minister, the country will spend Rb5.5 trillion (£116bn) on new high-speed rail links over the next seven years.

“As London is probably the world’s largest financial centre, there must be demand for Russian risk in British currency,” Dmitry Dudkin, head of fixed-income research at Russian broker UralSib in Moscow, told Bloomberg.

Russian Railways sold its first dollar-denominated bond last year, raising $1.5bn (£924m), as well as borrowing a further Rb30bn in the domestic rouble bond market.

Sterling-denominated bond issues by emerging market companies still remain relatively rare compared with dollar and euro bonds.

Less than £10bn of debt has been issue in sterling in the past decade by emerging market companies, compared with nearly £200bn in euro-denominated bonds and more than £700bn in dollar bonds.

Investor demand for any Russian Railway sterling bond is therefore likely to be muted and issue will likely prove to be largely illiquid, according to one debt fund manager quoted by Bloomberg.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/8341398/Russian-Railways-will-sell-sterling-debt-to-upgrade-network.html

Ukrainian officials have unveiled a plan to turn the remains of Hitler’ Eastern Front military headquarters into a tourist attraction.

The museum will be established by May 9, the anniversary of the Victory Day over Fascism.

The Wehrwolf headquarters, consisting of about 20 wooden cottages and barracks and three bunkers, are located some 12 km north of Vinnytsia in central Ukraine.

Construction started in September 1941 and was completed in April 1942. More than 10,000 Soviet war prisoners and some 1,000 local citizens participated in the works and some 2,000 of them died. Another 4,000 were shot dead.

The Nazis destroyed the site on abandoning the region. The underground parts of the complex were later sealed.

“It is time to make the Wehrwolf headquarters a tourist destination, a memorial to the victims of fascism,” said Mykola Djiga, head of the local administration of Vinnytsia.

“This museum should remind us about the time that our people endured, their sacrifices and heroism. It should also show the face of the fascist enemy. We must show what enemy we had defeated,” he said.

Source: Times of India (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/europe/Hitlers-headquarters-in-Ukraine-to-be-made-tourist-attraction-/articleshow/7394923.cms)

Russian Railways announced Friday that foreign investors will be invited in December to bid on contracts to develop new high-speed rail links in the country, which will host the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Extensive high-speed rail networks stretching throughout the European portion of Russia from the city of Samara to St. Petersburg will cost roughly 50 billion euros and will be built under a concession system that will run over the next three decades, the Moscow Times reports.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had previously told FIFA President Joseph Blatter at a meeting in St. Petersburg in late January that the Russian authorities were considering the idea of linking all cities to host the 2018 Soccer World Cup by a high-speed rail network, The Voice of Russia reported.

High-Speed Rail Lines, a subsidiary of Russian Railways that was created to handle the new project, will present potential bidders with its strategy for development in March and will open an international tender for the Moscow-St. Petersburg route in December.

Russia’s current high-speed train services, which include the routes from Moscow to St. Petersburg and from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod, was developed jointly by Russian Railways and Siemens and opened at the end of 2009. The trains, which are called “Sapsan” trains, travel at roughly 250 kilometers per hour and their service is Russian Railway’s only profitable enterprise in the passenger transport sector, reported Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

However, Russia Info-Center reports that since its opening, delays on the Sapsan train system have forced Russian Railways to pay 1.5 million rubles, or $50,000, in compensation. At the moment, the Sapsan line takes four-and-a-half hours to go from Moscow to St. Petersburg, but the new project hopes to cut that number to two-and-a-half hours.

Construction is expected to start in 2013, and the successful bidder must have the rail lines completed by 2017, one year before the World Cup games.

The state will shoulder up to 70 percent of construction costs, with the remainder coming from outside investors. Most of that money is likely to come from international financial institutions, including the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, said Denis Muratov, general director of High-Speed Rail Lines. Sberbank, VTB and VEB may also be interested.

The Moscow to St. Petersburg line is expected to cost “somewhere around” 10 billion to 15 billion euros, not including land purchases, Muratov said.

Source: Hurriyet Daily News (http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=russia-to-host-bids-for-high-speed-rail-networks-2011-01-31)

Wizz Air Ukraine – first Ukrainian low cost airline announced today, that it will move its Kiev Borispol (KBP) operations to Kiev Zhuliani (IEV) airport in Ukraine.

The move will be effective as of 27th of March. Affected routes from Kiev: Antalya (Turkey), Cologne, Dortmund, Hamburg-Lübeck, Memmingen (Germany), Katowice (Poland), London-Luton (UK), Oslo-Sandefjord Torp (Norway), Stockholm-Skavsta (Sweden), Simferopol, Treviso (Italy).

“The move will offer many advantages for passengers, as Zhuliani airport is located only 8 kilometers from the city center and is conveniently served by public transportation. The new airport will be less constrained and more efficient, allowing Wizz Air to continue offering truly affordable fares” – said John Stephenson, Executive Vice President Wizz Air.

Source: WizzAir (http://wizzair.com/about_us/news/#wizen069)

At present, the Polish city of Gdansk is a successful tourist destination. Together with it’s adjoining communities of Sopot and Gdynia, folks travel here to indulge in the seashores, ambiance and way of life. It’s position on the Baltic coast has meant that Gdansk being amongst the most important ports in Northern Europe.

In the past known as Danzig, the urban centre was the topic of dispute between Germany and Poland and it also had been here that the opening shots of World War II were fired as Nazi Germany officially annexed the metropolis and incorporated into Prussia.

Soon after World War II, Poland came under control of the Soviet Union and became a significant place in the Soviet ship construction programme. Gdansk was a very busy shipyard on the Baltic sea and it had been in the Lenin Shipyards where Lech Walesa’s Solidarity Union was formed in 1980. It was the very first union in any Warsaw Pact country which was not under the control of the Communist Party.

Under pressure from Moscow, the Polish authorities tried to curb Solidarity by arresting significant union people and imposing Martial Law. However, the Polish citizens were in no mood to be subdued and Solidarity evolved into a nation wide movement, gradually forcing the government into talks in 1989. The union was instrumental in the start of the decline of Communism and the tale of their actions can be found in the Solidarity Museum. There is also a memorial in Gdansk to the 45 shipyard workers who perished in the protests in opposition to the Communist regime in 1970.

Nowadays, Gdansk is a captivating city with ample heritage combined with the vibrant thrill of a modern metropolis. A lot of of the old properties demolished in the war have been rebuilt and there are a good amount of watering holes, dining establishments and dance clubs to relax thought the night. It has also been selected as a host city for the Euro 2012 Finals with the newly built PGE Arena planned to have 3 group matches and one quarterfinal match.

Kiev is the capital of Ukraine and will host the Euro 2012 Tournament final. In the course of the tournament, 1000s of fans will descend upon the metropolis from practically all areas of Europe to be part of the action.

Kiev is a wonderful metropolis and a great tourist holiday destination but it does suffer from a lack of hotel rooms. There are a few superb 5* hotels such as the Hyatt Regency, Radisson and Premier Palace in addition to several 3* and 4* hotels, some going back to Soviet times.

Even so, overall, they are unlikely to offer sufficient rooms for all the officals, media and supporters who will fly into Kiev in the summer of 2012. This will obviously be a challenge but there is a superb solution offered.

Throughout the metropolis are sufficient flats which are available for rent. There are a variety of rental agents offering studio apartments of different sizes and areas throughout the city. There are lots of advantages for choosing an apartment rather than a Kiev hotel.

Firstly, the service will be much more personal with a letting agent than with a accommodation. They are able to help you with all sorts of things such as airport taxis and excursions. Even the smallest flats will have a lot more space than a hotel room. Just about all have internet connection which is very useful for the people travelling with a laptop.

The flats also have fantastic locations near the Kiev metropolis centre. The city’s metro also helps you to get around very easily. There are a lot of small shops and supermarkets which means that food shopping is much cheaper than eating out every day as you’re able to prepare food in your apartments kitchen.

Flat prices will also work out a good deal lower priced than hotels so all in all, apartments should really be viewed as after planning your stay in Kiev in 2012.

At 1:23am on 26th April 1986, an explosion at the number 4 reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant blew the roof off and sent a cloud of radioactive debris into the air.

In recent times, organizations began running excursions to the area in the region of Chernobyl. The full day tours set out from Kiev somewhere around 9am and these have to be reserved in advance. Names of travellers on the trip must be submitted and you are required to take your passport. If you are not on the list or you don’t have your passports, the guards at the edge of the exclusion zone will not let you continue as two individuals on our bus found to their shock and had to hop off the bus. The checkpoint is just about 78km (49 miles) from Kiev and there is absolutely nothing to do there. From this point the bus makes its way into the exclusion zone and doesn’t come back for between 5-6 hours.

At the time of the tragedy, Chernobyl was home to 14,000 citizens and nowadays, many people still live inside the exclusion zone and many different people building work in the town for up to 4 days a week. The excursion started in Chernobyl for a conventional Ukraine meal. First stop is the fire station where there is a memorial to the bold fireman who struggled to contain the radiation a lot of of whom were to die of radiation sickness.

Next stop is the Chernobyl power plant where you get your initial sight of the empty structures. There are a number of stops close to the plant and you get to within a couple of hundred metres of the reactor. Today, it is really hard to think of what transpired here but the tour guides Geiger counter leaves you under no illusions that there is still a huge amount of background radiation in the area.

The last stop is at the ghost town of Pripyat which is situated less than 2 miles from the power plant. On the day of the tragedy it was a much bigger metropolis than Chernobyl with a population of approximately 50,000. Of course, police evacuated the population with no warning and it is an eerie place to go to. Books lie all over the class rooms, the fun fair which was due to be opened on 1st May 1986, is slowly and gradually rusting away and nature has began to reclaim the pavements, town square and buildings.

The trip departs Pripyat and heads back to the edge of the exclusion zone where everyone have got to pass through a scanner to confirm they haven’t been exposed to excessive quantities of radiation. When everyone is back on the bus has been given the all clear, it travels back to Kiev.

Just before 1.30am on 26 April 1986 nearly 60 miles north of Kiev, the number four reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant erupted spewing a blanket of radioactive dirt into the environment. Only a single individual was killed from the initial explosion but with time, it’s supposed close to half a million persons have perished because of the causes of fallout immediately following the disaster.

The tale of the terrible chain of events is documented in the Chernobyl Museum in Kiev that did not merely threaten folks in Ukraine but in addition Belarus, bits of the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and Scandinavia. In addition to showing the explanation for the melt down along with its horrific outcome, the Chernobyl museum also provides many different private objects from people that worked in the plant not to mention pilots and firemen that served contain the fallout and seal off the reactor. You will discover images of the power plant along with the people involved with the containment and cleanup process.

The museum is a little challenging to locate. The recommended way will be to take the metro (blue line) to Kontraktova Ploshchad and it is 1 or 2 streets away. The address is 1 Kharyvyj Pereulok and this street extends connecting Khoryva Street and Spaska Street. Left from the entry is a commemorative figurine and on the right are a selection of recovery vehicles. Access for the museum was 2UAH plus the rent of the audio commentary was a further 5UAH. Languages offered were English and German.

The visit in the museum just takes around sixty minutes and it is worthwhile a tour regardless if you are thinking about a trip out to Chernobyl or not. Using a street map of Kiev and a spot of scheduling, a visit to the museum can quite simply be a part of a day’s sightseeing round the urban centre.

On the 9th May 1945, the guns fell silent as the battle in Europe came to an end. The Western Allies and the Soviet forces had crushed the German military and every year, Russia marks the occasion with a victory parade.

2010 is the 65th anniversary and this year’s march in Moscow will be a bit diverse. Occasions began a few days earlier when twenty two British veterans from the Arctic convoys were awarded medals by the Russian envoy to the United Kingdom, Yury Fedotov. The veterans had helped ferry necessities to the northern Russian ports of Arkhangelsk and Murmansk. In total, approximately 1,400 ships help keep the Soviet Union supplied.

As part of the Victory Parade, there will be a fly past of roughly 130 airplanes and helicopters from many different periods of history. Through the years, Red Square has witnessed countless parades tailored to showcase the strength of the Soviet forces but this year, the parade will have a more international feel about it. Soldiers of the Welsh Regiment from the British Army, US 18th Infantry Regiment, pilots from the French Normandie-Nieman squadron and an honour guard from the Polish army will all parade with army units from Russia and other CIS nations.

As well as the Victory Parade in Moscow, there will also be celebrations in other cities too. In Ukraine, 75 Russian paratroopers will parade through Kiev as the country marks the end of World War II which was also well known as the Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union. The Russian unit was invited to take part by the Ukraine government.