Russia’s current woes can be readily summed up in just one single variable – the value of the ruble – and this value, as we all know, is falling. Almost uncontrollably so.br /br /blockquoteThe bank’s target will be “very quickly” breached without more intervention, said Gaelle Blanchard of Societe Generale SA in London. “Right now the market is convinced it wants to see the ruble lower,” Blanchard said. “As long as the central bank gives these targets, then speculators are going to have something to aim for.”br /br //blockquoteblockquote“The market is testing whether the authorities see this band as something permanent or something that will move,” said Lars Rassmussen, an emerging markets analyst at Danske Bank A/S. “Our view is that they’ll move it because it’s not worth wasting the reserves for a band that is obviously not wide enough.”/blockquoteblockquoteFirst Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov expressed regret that the general …

Financial NewsJason Corcoran in Moscow16 June 2008 A dwindling stock of investment bankers and growing demand for talent is driving the latest hiring merry-go-round in Russia’s capital markets.Competition between bulge brackets and domestic banks has been exacerbated by Russia’s VTB moving into investment banking. The state-controlled bank has hired 60 bankers from Deutsche Bank and the German institution has in turn responded by hiring analysts and bankers from US and European banking rivals in Moscow, including Citigroup, UniCredit, UBS and ING.Dmitry Vinogradov, head of research, strategy and banking at Citigroup in Moscow, has moved to UBS and co-head of equity research Mikhail Selezenev and equity sales director Sergei Suverov have left to join Deutsche Bank. This follows the departure in February of Citigroup’s former Russia country head Stuart Harley, who set up the bank’s Russian business in ...

Financial NewsJason Corcoran in Moscow16 June 2008 A dwindling stock of investment bankers and growing demand for talent is driving the latest hiring merry-go-round in Russia’s capital markets.Competition between bulge brackets and domestic banks has been exacerbated by Russia’s VTB moving into investment banking. The state-controlled bank has hired 60 bankers from Deutsche Bank and the German institution has in turn responded by hiring analysts and bankers from US and European banking rivals in Moscow, including Citigroup, UniCredit, UBS and ING.Dmitry Vinogradov, head of research, strategy and banking at Citigroup in Moscow, has moved to UBS and co-head of equity research Mikhail Selezenev and equity sales director Sergei Suverov have left to join Deutsche Bank. This follows the departure in February of Citigroup’s former Russia country head Stuart Harley, who set up the bank’s Russian business in ...