City Hall officials have apparently received $38.6 million in kickbacks from winners of state this year, according to the head of the Federal Financial Monitoring Service.  RFE/RL suggests that Kyrgyzstan would be unwise to join Russia’s customs union, because it is ‘already suffering from unfair trade competition‘, and because under the union’s customs tariff policy, the price of many of Kyrgyzstan’s imported goods would rise.  The Finance Ministry and the Central Bank have proposed an increase to the minimum capital requirement for banks; if the move goes ahead, the number of Russian lenders could be reduced by a third from 2015.  Steelmaker Severstal is reporting that third-quarter income is double the total of the previous quarter at $368 million, thanks to rising prices and increased production.