The Russian Federation Government’s last meeting that is to be chaired by current Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov has been scheduled for May 6, 2008. The agenda of the meeting covers, among other things, the prices that are to be paid for the produce supplied by natural monopolies. According to the Deputy Minister for Economic Development Andrei Klepach, prices are expected to go up by 2 or 2.5 times over the next three years. The new tariffs will probably add .5% to 1.4% to the annual inflation rate in 2009-2011.


The Ministry for Economic Development suggests increasing the rates for domestic postal services by 15% to 20% a year; the telegraph connection efficiency can be supported by the annual price increase of 25%, while the price of introducing a landline connection in one’s household is to go down by 10%. As for the housing bills, these will probably be growing by 19% to 20% a year.