Moscow news
Expats eyeing local job opportunities
Job opportunities in Russia are becoming more lucrative for expats who are looking to flee crisis-struck Europe, recruiting experts have said.
But while the number of job seekers has been on the rise since 2011, career and salary ambitions seem to be waning in comparison to 2007, according to analysts.
“The main difference in today’s situations is expat’s willingness to take not only managerial positions, but also accept second- or third-rank occupations,” Artyom Ivakin, director with Page Personnel, told Kommersant.
Job applications triple
The number of job applicants from abroad has tripled since 2010, according to Page Personnel, while the number of expats who found jobs through the agency has been declining. In 2009, their numbers were already 30 percent less than in pre-crisis 2007.
In 2011, however, there was an 11 percent rise in new CVs submitted to the HeadHunter.ru website, according to the company’s president, Yury Virovets.
“The number of new expat CVs being submitted in 2011 was higher than in 2007,” he told Kommersant. The record of 2009, when the biggest number of foreign managers added their CVs to company’s online database, hasn’t been reached though, and 2012 is likely to see less new job seekers, according to Virovets.Read moreDuma set to create new offense of ‘gathering’
Russia's State Duma is set to toughen the country's law on public protests six days ahead of a mass anti-government rally planned for June 12, imposing draconian fines for organizers and participants of unauthorized rallies, and introducing a new offense of "gathering" without permission in a public place.
The changes were challenged Wednesday by opposition deputies in a second reading of the legislation, but are expected to be passed when the reading concludes June 5. New clauses are to be finalized June 1.
If passed, the bill will receive a formal third reading on June 6 and go to the largely rubber-stamp Federation Council for its approval. It could then be signed into law by President Vladimir Putin before the June 12 opposition rally, the website of ruling party United Russia reported Wednesday, citing the chairman of the State Duma Committee for Constitutional Legislation, Vladimir Pligin.Read moreDebates, songs and volunteers
When Occupy activists began setting up camps across the world last fall, there seemed little prospect of the movement spreading to Russia, where a no-nonsense police force and a weak and divided opposition – not to mention the weather – appeared to present insurmountable obstacles to any form of prolonged, public protest.
But making predictions here is a fool’s game and on Thursday night, some 2,000 anti-Putin activists gathered at a three-day old camp at a square in Chistiye Prudy, holding impromptu debates, strumming guitars and swapping stories from the protests that have continued in one form or another since May 6.
“We’re here because we care about the future of Russia and don’t want to see Putin in power for another 12 years,” said student Nikita Belov, as he perched on the low wall of the square’s pond.
Behind him, two young girls with acoustic guitars entertained the crowd with a song from the Soviet- era cartoon “The Bremen Town Musicians,” injecting new relevance into the animated film’s soundtrack, which reportedly infuriated Kremlin officials in the 1960s.Read more