By the end of 2007 Google became the second search engine (after Yandex) in Russia with 17.2% share of search traffic in December, according to LiveInternet stats. In addition Google was the sole search engine that showed traffic growth (20,1% share) during the first week of 2008, when Russia was on New Year holidays.

Russian Ministry of Finance approved RUR 3 bln financing from state budget for software on school computers. 1,9 bln from that would be spent on patented software, like Microsoft's and Adobe's products (developers are to bid in August). It is planned to complete this level by the year's end. Another 50 mln would be involved in the developers' contest to create a 'school' version of Linux and its applications. Before this awaited program becomes real, more school workers take risk of being prosecuted for copyright infrigement to add to Aleksandr Ponosov's lawsuit.

Troika Capital Partners invest fund was hired by Gameland publishing house on Sept, 2006 to seek $12m investment. This week Troika announces it's acquiring a share itself, its anonymous employee said to Kommersant.ru on Monday. Troika's Partner Valery Doronin admitted they are regarding the deal, without disclosing its amount and terms.

Gamelands major shareholder and CEO Dmitry Agarunov sold 20% share to Mint Capital for $2m in 2004. The investment they seek now would be directed to cable TV launch, opening new magazines and Gameland's regional expansion.

Kommersant's source close with Mint Capital supposed Troika might be acquiring the share for third party's interests. Experts estimate Gameland for $30m (with $15m turnover in 2006), therefore $12m amount to 40% share.

OAO Armada (RTS, MICEX: ARMD) has fixed the price of the additional share issue at RUR380 (about $14,9). The shares will be offered to a wide range of investors at an open subscription simultaneously on MICEX and RTS on July 31, 2007. According to Vedomosti, additional share issuance amounts to 16,7% of revaluated capital of the company. ZAO Aton Broker acts as the lead manager of the offering.

Armada is traded on MICEX since May,23. The price of its share grew 1,5 times since then, from $10. FINAM analysts estimate one share for $10.4-16.4 and recommend not to buy it for more than $13,4.

OAO Armada provides information technology services, divested from RBC (RTS, MICEX: RBCI) by the end of April 2007. RBC's major holders - German Kaplun, Aleksandr Morgulchik and Dmitry Belik - are holding 49% of Armada. The company is not present on Russian Top-10 IT-companies with highest revenues (Merlion is 1st with $1.376 bln year revenue).

The head of Orthodox web-studio Obetovanie.ru Ilya Drozdikhin said his team would fight "non-professional" online-projects devoted to Orthodox church. Obetovanie.ru was "blessed by patriarch Aleksy II of Moscow and All Russia" and mostly develops design for Orthodox web-sites. According to its leader, many "fake Orthodox online-services" arisen recently, which are used for money laundry concealed by charity and all kinds of fraud. Drozdikhin is also eager "to fight" Orthodox web-sites that look ugly and lack budgeting - and ruin church's reputation on the Web, he believes. He didn't explain how Obetovanie.ru is going to fight it, but announced the launch of an Orthodox Content Management System and online seminars for Orthodox site developers.

State prosecutors of Primorsky region disclosed a bunch of violations that took place in national educational project. The project includes providing all Russian schools with PCs and Internet connection. In fact there were lots of schools in this region where the project was formally finished but children haven't got access to computer study. Besides supplier contest cheating, many PCs financed from federal and municipal budgets didn't get to classes for they sinked in principal's offices. After this examination only two cases turned into lawsuits, all the other violators got only administrative warnings.

Gazprom-media is the most possible buyer of Russian videosharing site RuTube. According to RuTube owners they recieved few offers, one more from Mangrove Capital Partners, but they treat Gazprom's negotiations as most serious. Oleg Volobuev and Mikhail Paulkin, who launched RuTube in Nov,2006, are considering offers from $5-10 mln. Gazprom-media, which owns Kommersant.ru and Gazeta.ru, was a bit too slow entering web market, so it could be eager to overpay for RuTube, analysts suggest. Company's CEO Nikolai Senkevich said, they are interested in 90% share of the project. Next year Gazprom-media plans to spend $100 mln on purchases on the web.

Police department of Moscow region disclosed another two cases of using unlicensed Windows on 37 computers at 2 schools. Despite the precedent of Aleksandr Ponosov's lawsuit this crime wouldn't be of school staff's responsibility. Investigators found that illegal software was uploaded on school computers by third party according to a contract. In Ponosov's case the same thing wasn't an obstacle to find him guilty. However the village school principal keeps fighting in next level courts.

Administration of 66th St.Petersburg's city district launched a website opeka66.ru with a photo gallery of children waiting for adoption in district's orphanages.

Usually people looking for a child to adopt from Russia could get access to municipal database only after they hand a written application and a pile of required documents. Not only photos are listed on opeka66.ru, it also gives a description of kids' personal qualities. However, the service is addressed only to Russian citizens and lists only children under 4.

After Reuters released its FACTBOX-Russian companies planning share issues a rumor about Yandex preparing for IPO on the NASDAQ quickly spreaded in major Russian media. But neither Yandex nor Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank hired for consultancy did confirm the news.

The head of Yandex press-service Mikhail Ushakov commented that the company 'is considering two future strategies - to go public or to continue as as private company'. Yandex's private status is quite formal though. Its 50% share was distributed between Ru-Net Holdings, Baring Vostok Capital Partners and Tiger Technologies funds. Another 20% are owned by managers and minority shareholders. Searching investment - public or not - means that company's founders (they own 30% share) are ready to drop control interest in Yandex.