An article in Reuters looks at the impact the war in Georgia had on the stock market, as a marker of what could potentially happen in the volatile post-Soviet region as a whole.  Fitch ratings has raised its forecast for the fall in Russia's GDP next from 0 to 7%, but the economy is likely to grow by 5%.  Russia's grain harvest may amount to 85 million metric tons in 2009 compared with 108 million metric tons last year, following droughts.  Regions that have suffered from droughts this year will receive up to $3.2 billion in state aid.  GM's opposition to Magna as a buyer for Opel is apparently wavering, as Chancellor Angela Merkel may intervene and step up the pressure to seal a deal.  Sberbank has said it has signed agreements with steel maker Evraz to ...

strongFinancial News/strongbr /br /Jason Corcoran br /br /emLetter from Moscow - January 4, 2009/embr /br /Letters to Father Frost, the Russian equivalent of Santa Claus, have been stacking up well ahead of the Orthodox Christmas Day on January 7.br /br /This year, the postal service in Moscow’s Kuzminki district reported an unusually high level of correspondence from adults who wish for a new job or help with meeting credit payments.br /br /However, grown-ups looking for personal bailouts may be better served popping a letter in the mail to Vnesheconombank, the state development bank, which has come to prominence during the financial crisis as the Kremlin’s main piggy bank.br /br /VEB, which traces its genesis back to the October 1917 revolution, was originally responsible for managing Soviet-era debt. It was transformed two years ago into a development agency to spearhead efforts to diversify Russia’s economy but has only recently come to ...

Financial NewsJason Corcoran in Moscow23 June 2008 Investment climate is steady as new leader continues reform agenda Russia’s equity markets are enjoying the country’s honeymoon period under its new leadership, but investors remain wary of how the power-sharing arrangement will evolve.The changing of the guard on May 7 saw Vladimir Putin hand over the presidential mantle to his protégé Dmitry Medvedev. Within hours, Medvedev had nominated his mentor Putin as Prime Minister.The smooth choreography proved to be a fillip for Russia’s main stock markets and sparked a buying spree by foreign funds.The MSCI Russia Index was the best performing emerging equity market last month, rising 15.7%, and outperforming the MSCI EM Emea index, which rose 7.3% in the same month. Inflows recorded in the third week of May of $542m (€350m) were the highest in Russia ...