Russian Riches Chase Seems To Be Over

Russian tax authorities have cut back tax claims against the second largest domestic mobile phone operator VimpelCom from $158 million to $17.6 million.
VimpelCom representatives said that it planned to pay the claims of 284.9 million rubles ($10.2 million) in back taxes for 2001 and 205 million rubles ($7.4 million) in fines and penalties.

The company?s CEO Alexander Izosimov said there had been a constructive dialogue between the tax authorities and the company. "We are grateful for the active role of several senior government officials," he said.