DiCaprio reportedly dating model Madalina Ghenea

The 36-year-old actor was spotted entertaining the Romanian-born model and actress over the weekend at his rented mansion in Sydney, where he is staying while filming ‘The Great Gatsby’.

Madalina appeared to enjoy herself paddleboarding on the harbour outside the waterfront property before changing in to a bikini to join Leonardo on the balcony, Australia’s Daily Telegraph newspaper have revealed.

However, she may have some competition as Leonardo has recently been linked to two other models since splitting with splitting from ‘Gossip Girl‘ actress Blake Lively – who he had been in a relationship with for five months.

As well as seeing ‘Australia’s Next Top Model‘ contestant Alyce Crawford, Leonardo is also said to have been working his charms on 20-year-old catwalk beauty Kendal Schuler – who recently separated from Australian ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ contestant Didier Cohen.

A friend of Kendal said: “Leo has told her she can visit any time she likes as long as she keeps it low key. She has taken him up on that opportunity already a couple of times.

“But she isn’t silly – she knows this isn’t serious and she is just enjoying the time with him.”

The renowned Hollywood lothario – who is currently in Sydney shooting Baz Luhrmann’s interpretation of ‘The Great Gatsby’ – is believed to have first met Kendal in Los Angeles and met her again recently when they ran into each other at Sydney nightclub Beach Haus.

The friend dating added: “They have been in contact since he got here and she has seen him three or four times. He has told her to be very discreet.”

Leonardo has been dating Alyce, 21, for a couple of weeks and has been seeing her during on weekdays after shooting on his new project has wrapped.

A source dating said: “He texts her when he wants to see her and they hook up a few times a week. They’ve mostly been meeting up during the week. He does other things on weekends.

“She’s been going to his hotel to visit but he is too smart to be seen with her in public.”

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Putin pitches to investors

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s pitch to investors at the VTB Capital “Russia Calling!” investment forum Thursday sounded more like the kind of rhetoric the country is used to hearing from President Dmitry Medvedev.

In a half-hour speech and rare question-and-answer session with foreign investors, Putin gave his best shot at persuading a fairly skeptical audience of some 500 business leaders what they probably wanted to hear – that Russia is following a path of modernization, privatization and diversification away from oil and gas.

“Our strategic line is that the state should gradually reduce its direct presence in the economy… privatize state-owned shares and introduced independent professionals to the boards of directors of state-owned companies,” Putin said.

Putin has traditionally taken a more cautious line on economic reform, while leaving investor-at-tracting rhetoric about modernization to Medvedev. This has caused analysts to predict an outflow of investment from the country when Putin returns to the presidency in March. However, this did not seem to be a worry facing many of the foreign investors at the event, who were cautiously optimistic about the country’s future.

I think Putin’s return is a good thing – stability is good for Russian politics and the Russian economy,” said Tarek Fawaz, managing partner at Swiss-based Rayan Capital Advisors. “If you look at how the market was behaving before the announcement, there was a flight of capital due to uncertainty of what was coming next. In the short-term at least, it is a positive development.”

Nevertheless, others cited the usual stumbling blocks still standing in the way of the country having an attractive investment climate, and Putin’s roundabout answers to the questions put to him about corruption and the fact that most Russians want to leave the country, will likely have done little to allays these fears.

Russia’s capital outflows reached an estimated $18.7 billion in the third quarter, bringing this year’s total to $49.3 billion, the Central Bank said in a statement Tuesday. Although part of this figure can be put down to investor uncertainty over who would run in the March elections, there are other factors at play.

“The current investment climate is better than it was but there is still a crying need for transparency in the courts, in the government and in the bureaucratic divisions. This process has been started, but it is only a start,” Clive Bode, a partner at the global private equity firm TPG Capital, told The Moscow News on the sidelines of Thursday’s event.

And the recent departure of Russia’s long-serving finance minister, Alexei Kudrin, may not help to calm investors’ nerves.

Kudrin, who still holds the role of chairman of the National Banking Council, was notable for his absence at the VTB event, after he was apparently struck off the program at the last minute.

Investors may have also picked up on the abundance of words such as “stability” and “continuity” in Putin’s speech, suggesting that the rhetoric about modernization may yield as little result as that spurted by Medvedev over the past 3 1/2 years.

Both Putin and Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina stressed the importance of the country’s privatization drive, a process which began earlier this year with the successful sale of a 10 percent stake in VTB. However, subsequent sell-offs have been repeatedly delayed due to a weakening ruble. Skeptics fear the much-needed process may have grounded to a halt.

Current concerns focus on the looming financial crisis. Russia’s dependence on oil and gas exports make the country particularly vulnerable to global instability. The Micex stock index has tumbled more than 25 percent since the start of August on snowballing concerns surrounding the European debt crisis and a potential economic slowdown in the United States and Europe.

Although Putin and other panel speakers attempted to brush off fears of the effects of the turbulence on the Russian economy, investors have already shown that they are worried by selling Russian stocks at a faster pace than any other emerging markets in recent months.

Medvedev delights satirists

Inevitably, everyone you know will join Facebook. While friend requests from your acquaintances, colleagues, and even parents have become an unfortunate part of life, your authority figures are also joining in, popping up in news feeds across the world. So when Russian President and noted technophile Dmitry Medvedev announced via Facebook that he would be writing in Facebook, the Russian blogosphere took it as cause for celebration and a chance to poke the president as well.

Medvedev’s Facebook page is nothing new, he just hasn’t been writing in it. The page has been active since June 2010 and has more than 200,000 followers. Until now, it’s been used as a clearing house for materials from other government Web sites, but the president, it seems, has decided to take up the task himself, writing:

“I have decided to also write in Facebook. Read it!” “I have decided to also write in Facebook, that I have also decided to write in Facebook. Read it!” retorted KermlinRussia, the fake Kremlin Twitter account.

In a monotonous political landscape, the Russian blogosphere is a breath of fresh air. On everything from Twitter and Facebook accounts to the aging LiveJournal platform, Russians post candid thoughts and also troll (insult) other users.

The president’s post has already garnered close to one and a half thousand responses. Many of them are supportive, telling the president they’ll continue to read him, and that they appreciate a more direct link to the Kremlin.

More, however, have been dismissive. Among them, user Anna Malina stated a fairly common response that said the problem was the dearth of information from the government, not places to post it: “The same messages will be put here as on the other sites, for example LiveJournal, Twitter and others, whereas it would be nice to have some real discussion,” she said.

Facebook is Medvedev’s fourth venture into social networks. He already posts on YouTube, uses Twitter and has a LiveJournal. Many shared the opinion that Medvedev has little more to do than increase his supposed exposure by expanding his range of online activities.

Dozhd television channel put out a series of polls concerning the president’s hazy statements about Facebook. “Isn’t Medvedev too engrossed with social networks and gadgets?” asked Dozhd. The majority of people responded: “Well you’ve got to relax somehow.”

Criticism, almost all satirical or sarcastic, came from other sources as well. Vkontakte founder Pavel Durov tweeted at Medvedev: “Your patriotism inspires the Russian Internet industry,” in an apparent reference to Medvedev’s decision to establish an account with the Palo Alto-based Facebook instead of developing a personal site on Vkontakte, a Russian Facebook clone.

There’s a sense that Medvedev’s preoccupation with Internet sites is a reflection of his weaknesses as a politician. One of Russia’s best known bloggers, exler, posted an anecdote today echoing that deeper seated criticism of Medvedev’s political activities: “Have you heard? Medvedev’s on Facebook. – At this rate he’ll be on World of Warcraft soon. – He’s already been playing for more than three years. It’s a local version called “Russian Federation.”

Sooner or later, the fun will come to an end. That will most likely happen in March, when Russia’s next and previous President Vladimir Putin will be elected by a large majority. Putin does not use social networks. Asked whether the next president would put out blogs similar to Medvedev’s in the future, press secretary Dmitry Peskov said no.

While Medvedev will likely take the backseat in the political arena, his major competition in the virtual world continue to be his detractors and satirists: “Medvedev and I already decided four years ago that I will be running this site” .

Sochi Grand Prix troubles denied

Despite concerns that the Russian Formula 1 Grand Prix could be delayed, organizers are insisting that preparations are going as planned – while others have said that by 2017, the race could move to the Moscow region.

Organizers insist that the race, set to take place in Sochi, must not miss the 2014 deadline. “Either the first race takes place in 2014, or we won’t have Formula 1 at all,” Alexander Ivanov, deputy chief of the Krasnodar region, which includes Sochi, told a news conference in Moscow on Wednesday. “However, we are confident, that [the track] will be built on time.”

The deal to bringing the race to Sochi from 2014 through 2020 was signed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Formula 1 chief Bernard Ecclestone a year ago.

The southern city of Sochi, situated by the Black Sea, will be home to the first-ever Formula 1 race on the territory of the Russian Federation. The track, which is to be built in the Imeretinsky plain, will be integrated into the coastal Olympic Park, a collection of sports arenas that will hold many of the 2014 Winter Games events.

Earlier this month, Sovietsky Sport reported that the Russian Grand Prix was in jeopardy as the project to build the track ran into challenges in trying to gather all of the necessary approvals at a federal level, all the while a company to promote the project had not been formed and contracts with future partners had not been signed.

However, government officials in charge of overseeing the project insisted that all preparations will be completed in time. According to Ivanov, most of the construction work will finish before the Games, which are scheduled to take place from February 7 to 23, 2014, but the tarmac on the track will only be laid in April 2014.

Ivanov put the preliminary cost of the project at 5.8 billion rubles ($190 million), less than the estimated $220 million allocated to build the venue in Austin, Texas, for next year’s U.S. Grand Prix. Ivanov added that the length of the circuit would be 5.9 kilometers, roughly the equivalent of Britain’s Silverstone.

According to Alexei Agafonov, another regional deputy, the Sochi track will have the capacity to welcome 80,000 spectators, which is about the same as the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit.

“According to our calculations, investments in the circuit will be recouped in three and a half to four years,” Agafonov said. “We expect that at least one third of the spectators will be foreigners, and that number could go up.”

He added that between races, one half of the track will serve as a regular road, while the other half could be used for go-kart and drag racing.

The Russian Grand Prix could later move to the Moscow region. Earlier this month, Sovietsky Sport quoted Igor Yermilin, first vice-president of the Russian Auto Racing Federation, as saying that the Moscow Raceway circuit near Volokolamsk could possibly host the event in the future.

“The Volokolamsk circuit is fully in line with Formula 1 safety requirements,” Yermilin was quoted as saying. “However, some additions to the infrastructure would be needed, particularly as far as the VIP [section] goes.”

“A [decision to] transfer the Russian Grand Prix will depend upon the commercial success of the race in Sochi,” Yermilin went on to say. “If the race is successful, there will be no talk of moving the race elsewhere. If not, it would be more profitable to hold [the race] in the Moscow region as of 2017 or 2018.”

Luzhkov throws allegations of corruption back at government

Watching the clock might help the authorities fight corruption, according to Moscow’s ex-mayor Yuri Luzhkov, recently called as witness in the Bank of Moscow fraud saga.

Instead of throwing allegations of ill-management and corruption at him, officials should better ask Vladimir Resin, the first deputy mayor who managed to stay in office after Luzhkov’s much publicized dismissal last year, about the watch he’s wearing, the former city boss said.

Time costs money

The cost of the watch in question is estimated at about $1 million by Vedomosti, but Luzhkov himself never asked his deputy about his Pieces d’Exception Pressy Grande Complication by DeWitt, widely discussed by the media.

“We’ve got a law enforcement system. They should be observing [officials’] integrity and seeing whether their actions comply with the law,” the ex-city chief said. “I’m not an investigator. I’m not a security policeman.”

Luzhkov’s interview came shortly after Sergei Naryshkin, the presidential administration head, said Luzhkov’s removal was due to his “extremely inefficient management of the city” and “off-the-scale level of corruption that Luzhkov and his people permitted.”

To conscience and the courts

“I’m going to leave that statement to Naryshkin’s conscience,” Luzhkov said in return. As for the allegation of corruption, however, the former mayor he had filed a case for slander. The demanding 1 million rubles compensation claim has been registered by Moscow’s Presnensky Court, Alexei Melnikov, Luzhkov’s lawyer, told RIA Novosti.

Luzhkov said the case of Bank of Moscow was politically motivated, but he was ready to come to Russia for questioning to “protect his honor.”

The bank, which was fully owned by Moscow’s City Hall while Luzhkov was in office, is suspected of granting illegal credit for land purchased from Yelena Baturina, the ex-mayor’s wife and the then owner of one of Russia’s largest development companies Inteko.

Husband and wife team

Baturina also said she was going to take the case to the court. “Either he has to prove that, or resign and apologize,” she said in an interview to TV channel Dozhd.

Baturina was the world’s third wealthiest self-made woman, according to Forbes, a few months before her husband was kicked out of office. After Luzhkov’s ignominious departure her fortune halved.

Shortly after that departure Baturina started looking to get rid of her assets, claiming she wanted to do business abroad. The recent sale of Inteko was due to pressure from the Kremlin, she said in the interview.

Laughable

But the Kremlin is not amused by the Luzhkovs’ “laughable” claims. “To talk about some kind of political hounding of the former mayor of Moscow is laughable,” Natalya Timakova, President Medvedev’s press-secretary.

“If Yury Luzhkov, relaxing on his pension abroad, considers himself to be guiltless he should not talk about this in interview but without question return to Moscow, return and give evidenced to investigators,” Interfax cited her as saying.

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