Year-on-year, complaints about banks violating privacy laws have grown.  Rosneft’s banking unit is set to replace Alfa Bank as the sole payment center for utilities.  The Defense Ministry is canceling $1 billion worth of arms contracts.  Russia stands to lose a lot of business in Libya through its arms, infrastructure and energy contracts, with ‘all deliveries’ currently at a standstill.  The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service is proposing to amend the retail trade law to allow larger retailers to grow more (they are currently capped at capturing 25% of a given regional market).  Under a new scheme, pilots will have less training: unsurprisingly, ‘aviation experts fear that the new program might churn out poorly trained pilots and increase flight safety risks’.  Standard & Poor’s has upped its Russia rating to ‘positive’.  According to Vladimir Putin, authorities are trying to come up with ways of wooing back scientists who have left Russia to work abroad.