PRESS DIGEST - Russia - July 23

MOSCOW, July 23 (Reuters) - The following are some of the leading stories in Russia's newspapers on Wednesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

VEDOMOSTI

www.vedomosti.ru

- BP Plc. (BP.L) has withdrawn 60 remaining technical staff, but TNK-BP GEO Robert Dudley has not given up and plans to continue working in Russia, the daily says.

- Regardless of the warm atmosphere at meetings between Russian and Venezuela's leaders no arms contracts were signed, the daily says summing up the results of President Hugo Chavez visit to Moscow.

- Russian plane maker Sukhoi will start regular supplies of its Sukhoi-30MK fighters to Russia's air forces in the very near future, the director general of Sukhoi Mikhail Pogosyan says in an interview.

- Price for energy in Moscow could grow threefold by 2025 due to free market of energy in Russia, officials say.

KOMMERSANT

mmm.kommersant.ru

- Russia's Prosecutor-General has set up a structure to monitor price rises and monopolies.

- Tajikistan seems ready to resume talks with Russia to complete the construction of its Rogunskaya hydro-power plant, the daily says, adding that Russia could get full control over the plant in the end.

- BP has left Russia, the daily says commenting on the latest developments of the situation around BP's Russian venture TNK-BP.

ROSSIISKAYA GAZETA

www.rg.ru

- Scientists and public activists are warning Russia's leadership against privatization of geological companies as the state will lose its control over natural resources, an open latter addressed, to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, says.

- State controlled Vnesheconombank plans to invest 270 billion roubles this year in industry, mainly in agriculture and construction materials, according to a banking official.

GAZETA

www.gzt.ru

- Russia's former finance minister Sergei Storchak, waiting in jail for a trial on suspicion of trying to embezzle $423 million, believes his arrest was organised to damage Russia, according to his open latter published by the daily.

VREMYA NOVOSTEI

www.vremya.ru

- There are no visa problems only a confrontation between shareholders, the head of Russian migration agency Konstantin Romodanovsky says in an interview commenting on the situation with TNK-BP.