From the Financial Times article on Dmitry Medvedev's ordering of a probe into state-owned corporations.

The president has positioned himself as more liberal than his predecessor, often vowing to cut red tape and limit Russia's vast bureaucracy in favour of boosting private business. But so far little has been done.

"Medvedev needs to look like he is doing something about the protests," said Roland Nash, chief strategist at Renaissance Capital, the Moscow investment bank.

Curbing the "massive inefficiencies across government and the state corporations would be a good place to start," said Mr Nash.

But he added that the probes could turn out be little more than window dressing. "He has said a lot in the past with very little coming out of it. We would need to see some proof before we can have faith in any big change."

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