МДМ-Банк

In this issue . . .

* The RTS fell 0.42% to 1,480.90 on Monday, while MICEX fell 0.90% to 1,336.92 (see page 2).

* Rosneft wants to raise the capacity of Tuapse Refinery to 12 mn tons and persuade other oil companies to transfer crude destined for the Tuapse port for processing at the refinery (see page 2).

* Comments by Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko about the possible eventual merger of Surgutneftegaz and Rosneft appear to be little more than a trial balloon at this point (see page 3).

* Today''s Vedomosti reports that retailer Seventh Continent has acquired three and possibly as many as seven leases on stores currently operated by competitor Ramstore (see page 3).

* Rostelecom reportedly acquired Zebra Telecom, which provides IP telephony and Internet access services, in a move to get closer to end customers and buy back lost market share (see page 3).

* President Vladimir Putin signed into law a bill to introduce the Calling Party Pays (CPP) principle into Russia. This will add just 0.6% to regional operators'' revenues, but supports the longer-term potential of charging all local calls on a per-minute basis (see page 4).

* In a positive - and expected - development for minority shareholders in Irkut, the company''s former general director and current board chairman was named head of United Aircraft Company, the government-mandated industry consolidator (see page 5).

* Aeroflot presented the government with a proposal that it be allowed to merge with other state-controlled air carriers, Vedomosti reported (see page 5)

* Inflation hit 1.7% in February, with 2M06 inflation reaching 4.1% compared to 3.8% in the same period last year. The government''s target of 8.5% for 2006 looks unrealistic and we see inflation hitting 10% (see page 6).