After months of painstaking negotiations, GM has scrapped the Opel sale on the basis that it was 'no longer in the best interests of GM, now that the environment for car sales has started to improve', reports the Independent.  The decision comes just after Opel's labor force had agreed to contribute $390 million in annual savings.  'Management had planned a release saying that they will proceed with Magna, so there must have been a fundamental change of view within the board', the FT quotes an insider as saying.  The Russian government is planning to raise $1.87 billion to bail out ailing carmaker Avtovaz, most of which will be apparently allotted to bad debts, and some of which will be allocated to modernization and on job creation, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has reportedly announced.  Daimler Trucks will proceed ...

VEB, which holds a blocking state in Vimpelcom, will apparently agree to the merger of the mobile operator with Ukrainian company Kyivstar.  Car sales in Russia fell 52% in September year-on-year, a slight improvement on August's drop of 54%.  State-controlled VEB bank has extended loans for six companies, including Gazprom's oil unit Gazpromneft.  Reuters reports that Italian automaker Fiat is interested in launching its SUV in Russia.  Fiat SpA has said that its CNH unit has signed a letter of intent with truck-maker Kamaz for a joint agricultural and construction equipment project.  The government will provide around $170 million in financial assistance to state-controlled defense industry corporation Oboronprom and titanium producer Vsmpo-Avisma.  Russian Railways has reported that 2008 net income dropped 47% from a year earlier to $2.6 billion.  Russia has placed Hermitage Capital Management ...

The $300 Trillion “Money Bang” Keith Fitz-Gerald and his team have just produced a groundbreaking report that shows how this historic “Money Bang” is gaining steam. You’ll find out why China is investing $200 billion in one company – and why it’s expected to gain 356%… Why the Dept. of Energy is “backing” one solar company – and why it’s 506% revenue jump is a “smidgen”… And why one recently IPO’d water company is headed for a 600% run. Just go here for details.

It wasn’t long ago that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s decision to nationalize state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) resulted in a failed coup that very nearly cost him his post.

Now, Chavez’s aggressive economic policies are again being called into question, this time as the country slides into what could be a protracted period of stagflation, which is …

President Medvedev has ordered an investigation into the financial activities of state corporations such as VEB and Russian Technologies.  The move has been seen as an attempt to reconsider whether the Putin-sponsored powerhouses are really effective.  Out of the CIS nations, Russia is apparently one of the most poorly performing states in economic terms.  Russia's jobless figure has decreased by 6,000 to 2,140,000.  State defense purchases will grow 1.2% in 2010.  The Central Bank has announced a fifth interest rate cut in four months to propel the economy forward.  The IMF, which predicts that Russia's economy will shrink by 6.5% this year, is recommending that the state slash by half its fiscal stimulus and focus instead upon a road map and 'mandatory, bottom-up stress tests of larger banks'.  A recent poll has indicated that young ...

The Russian government looks set to raise oil duty by 39% on July 1.  Oil firm Lukoil has announced that VEB has bought up a stake in the company, though it has not specified when this transaction took place nor how big the stake is.   TNK-BP has announced that the two candidates proposed for the position of CEO have been appointed executive vice presidents.  Following the suspension of gas supplies during January's 'gas war', Europe's imports of LNG from Russia fell by 35%.  Apparently Total is hoping to develop more projects in Russia with Gazprom.  Bloomberg reports that Spain is attempting to build up reserves of gas that could reduce European dependence on Russian imports, but their plans are hindered by a lack of pipelines.  TNK-BP will hire a large number of foreign staff from ...

The number of unemployed in Russia has reached an eight-year high.  Vladimir Potanin has reduced his stake in Norilsk Nickel to 25%.  Potanin's Rosa Khutor Sochi ski resort development has borrowed $94 million from state bank VEB.  Chrome maker RosSpetsSplav is optimistic that output will revive after summer.  Gold miner Peter Hambro has announced a 53% increase in earnings.  Steel manufacturer Severstal says it expects demand for steel to fall by 25% on last year's rate.  Developer LSR Group lost $238 million last year.  Czech authorities have left Aeroflot out of a tender for Czech Airlines, due to what Russia called 'politicized and artificial' security issues.  VSMPO-Avisma has made a $4 billion deal to supply Airbus with titanium parts up until 2020.  Alfa Bank's profit dropped 9.2% last year, due to ...

The number of unemployed in Russia has reached an eight-year high.  Vladimir Potanin has reduced his stake in Norilsk Nickel to 25%.  Potanin's Rosa Khutor Sochi ski resort development has borrowed $94 million from state bank VEB.  Chrome maker RosSpetsSplav is optimistic that output will revive after summer.  Gold miner Peter Hambro has announced a 53% increase in earnings.  Steel manufacturer Severstal says it expects demand for steel to fall by 25% on last year's rate.  Developer LSR Group lost $238 million last year.  Czech authorities have left Aeroflot out of a tender for Czech Airlines, due to what Russia called 'politicized and artificial' security issues.  VSMPO-Avisma has made a $4 billion deal to supply Airbus with titanium parts up until 2020.  Alfa Bank's profit dropped 9.2% last year, due to ...

A 'stable and predictable' ruble will see Russia through the financial crisis, according to the head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, reports Bloomberg.  Moscow City Hall will help developers to complete delayed construction projects by allowing city-owned firms to co-invest.  Norilsk Nickel's plan to sell its treasury shares, reported yesterday, has apparently been suspended.  In the Moscow region property prices in rubles have remained fairly constant since October 2008; dollar prices have fallen.  State bank VEB will postpone its planned eurobond issue for one month, but will also double the amount it planned to raise to at least $2 billion.  Landline operator Southern Telecom is seeking a $90 million loan.  Despite rising sales, X5 Retail Group recorded a loss in the fourth quarter due to a goodwill impairment charge.  Kamaz stocks rose on ...

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 ...

These are tough times for the Russian economy - and those days when the political leadership was bragging about its easy liquidity and its status as a shelter during the storm seem quite distant indeed. Credit is tightening up, so major international banks and financial institutions are all calling for early repayment of their loans to big businesses, and Russia's many over-leveraged multi-billionaires are finding themselves hard pressed to come up with cash to keep the various companies and assets they have pledged as collateral. One need not worry about the fates of the country's numerous billionaire elite businessmen. Today trading surged on the Russian markets for the first time in weeks after the state bank VEB deployed the first measures of its rescue plan for Mikhail Fridman and Oleg Deripaska, and no doubt ...