Putin 2.0: any different for investors?
The markets weren’t kind to Vladimir Putin as he was sworn in as Russia’s president. With investors worried about everything from China, oil, US jobs and the French elections, there was little...
View ArticleRussia: the protest credit card
You’d think that Alexei Navalny, would be too busy with politics to do anything else at the moment. But the Russian opposition activist has jumped on the recovery in retail lending with plans to team...
View ArticleRussian equities: return of the bear
Few emerging markets have escaped the storms emanating from the eurozone. But few have been hit as hard as Russian equities. On Thursday, the rouble-denominated Micex index entered bear territory,...
View ArticleReading the new Russian cabinet
Vladimir Putin has unveiled Russia’s new cabinet… and the make-up is largely as expected. Confirming rumours that have swirled around since Putin’s inauguration, we now know that Igor Shuvalov will...
View ArticleRussia: protest reaches the boardroom
Russia’s protest movement has reached the boardroom: Alexei Navalny, the anti-corruption campaigner who is in regular trouble with the police, was on Monday elected a director of Aeroflot. It is not a...
View ArticleGuest post: Kremlin’s planned internet ownership limits raise state control...
By Carroll Colley of Eurasia Group A draft proposal circulating in the Russian parliament would put Russia’s largest Internet companies under the auspices of its Strategic Investment Law – and give the...
View ArticleRussia: dispute over Sechin’s new job
Deep divisions have emerged once again this week over Igor Sechin’s bid to remain front and centre of the Russian energy industry. They offer more public evidence – as if any were needed – of the...
View ArticleMoscow punks found guilty
A Moscow court has found the three women members of the punk band Pussy Riot guilty on charges of hooliganism and inciting religious hatred in a trial in Moscow that has become a defining moment in a...
View ArticleRussia: Pussy Riot and the investor
On the face of it, there would appear to be little reason why foreign investors should worry much about Russia’s Pussy Riot court case. So what if three young female punks have been jailed for two...
View ArticleDvorkovich: should Sechin head both Rosneft and Rosneftegaz? Good question
Since Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev swapped jobs in May, some of the heat has gone out the power struggles between their allies. But the tensions between the warring factions have not gone away....
View ArticleRussia: a new oligarch court drama
Russia faces a new drama involving the authorities and a billionaire accused of a criminal offence who claims, in his defence, to be the victim of a political vendetta. The star of the show this time...
View ArticleRussia: Putin sacks defence minister after corruption probe
Is Vladimir Putin finally getting serious about corruption? The president on Tuesday dismissed defence minister Anatoly Serdyukov following an investigation into an alleged $95m fraud at his ministry....
View ArticleUS election view [3]: Russia – keep hitting the reset button
One of the candidates has called Russia the US’s “number one geopolitical foe”. The other has pushed for a “reset” and promised “more flexibility” on missile defence if he is granted a second term. Yet...
View ArticleRussia’s New Economic School: a big birthday for pioneers on the 17th floor
Sergei Guriev, rector, NES It’s not easy running an independent institution in Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Nevertheless, one of the country’s first private university-level academies has won a worldwide...
View ArticleKhodorkovsky: out sooner, but still fighting
Mikhail Khodorkovsky could walk free in 2014 following a decision by a Moscow court to reduce the tycoon’s jail sentence by two years. But Russia’s most famous prisoner is not going to kowtow to the...
View ArticleGazprom: is there life below $100bn?
By Ben Aris of bne It was only a few years ago that state-owned Gazprom was worth $350bn, making it the third most valuable company in the world. But as doubts have grown over the future of the Russian...
View ArticleRussia’s markets: the Kudrin card
As Russia’s economy slows, one name comes up more and more in conversations – that of Alexei Kudrin, the former finance minister who either resigned or was sacked, depending on whom you talk to, in...
View ArticleGuriev wins Sberbank AGM vote
By Ben Aris of bne There was high drama at Sberbank‘s AGM on Friday when celebrity economist Sergei Guriev was voted back on the board of the big Russian state-controlled bank despite having fled the...
View ArticleGuest post: Erdogan and Putin face similar challenge – a rising middle class
By Marcus Svedberg of East Capital One should be careful in drawing parallels between seemingly similar events in different countries. But there are a number of striking similarities between the...
View ArticleRussia: Guriev and the price of exile
It was in 1974 that Yuri Mamleev, a Moscow dissident author, finally decided he had had enough of being banned from publishing. He and his wife took a decision that was then increasingly common for...
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