Speculation that Barack Obama's presidency will boost the country's relations with the US has helped Russian stocks to rally for their sixth day in a row. Vneshekonombank is to act as an agent for $6.41 billion of National Welfare Fund money as part of the government’s economy rescue plan. British-Russian miner Aricom is fighting to cut costs for external projects as it struggles to deal with a share price drop of 90%. Two government representatives are to be appointed to the board of Norilsk Nickel.

Economic crisis, what economic crisis? Montenegro is booming with suitcases full of Russian cash. Heck, 14 percent of the country's GDP is controlled by Oleg Deripaska, but production at his aluminum plant might be reduced by 10 percent. At home, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov says Russian banks are sufficiently liquid for settlements and crediting, while the Audit Chamber will oversee Vneshekonombank's $4.5 billion loan to United Company RusAl. He also promised Russia would prevent banks from using their emergency loans to sell rubles. One bright spot: the economic crisis has put corruption under the microscope.

The financial crisis is making itself felt in job losses. The Kremlin is trying to limit the amount of foreign debt taken on by its oligarchs in an attempt to prevent Russian companies from ending up in foreign hands. United Company RusAl will receive a massive $4.5 billion bailout fund - almost half of the total loans allocated - from state-run Vneshekonombank, to help it refinance a Western loan. The UK’s Business Secretary, Peter Mandelson, spoke highly of Russia’s financial prospects as he reached the end of his visit to Moscow, saying that the crisis had boosted diplomatic relations between the two countries. A share buyback for Norilsk Nickel was so oversubscribed that shareholders will only be able to sell 7% of the shares tendered - provided the court injunction to freeze them is lifted. The UK’s Vodafone ...

It was one of those rare moments that one of Vladimir Putin's people humiliated him in public. It was on May 23, 2007, when Putin "suggested studying the possibility of investing funds received from sales of Russian energy in Russian blue chip stocks, in light of the stock market's stagnation during the first quarter of 2007." At the time, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin could barely hide his shock, and immediately expressed his strong disagreement with Putin's suggestion, arguing that such investments would hike inflation and trigger stock market speculation. Kudrin has come under fire several times now over the management of the stabilization fund, and it is interesting to see the following announcement in light of the recent release of his #2 man Sergei Storchak. And low and behold, today Forbes reports... Russia's National Wealth Fund will invest $6.9 billion, or nearly a seventh of its ...

A delegation of British business leaders will visit Russia this week. The trip, led by Business secretary Lord Mandelson, is being billed a sign of Britain's willingness to maintain robust trade relations, "a demonstration that there is a very clear intention on both sides to have good business-to-business relations despite the misunderstandings we have in other, political areas,” namely the ongoing spat over whether to extradite Andrei Lugovoi. Troubled Bank Globex will be bought out by Vneshekonombank, making it the fourth of Russia's 50 biggest banks to have been nationalized in recent weeks. A summarization of Russia's current economic woes: big banks lending big bucks to big spenders. One of these big spenders, aluminum baron Oleg Deripaska, has until the end of the month to repay nearly half of a $4.5 billion loan with western banks, or else forfeit a 25 percent stake in Norilsk Nickel.

First, Russia's energy companies successfully lobbied for a bailout, now it is the airline industry. Amid economic woes, Sibir Energy announced it was moving beyond oil into real estate and leisure. Dmitry Medvedev has told his cabinet that their most urgent task was to repair "trust between creditor and debtor," as the RTS dropped 9.52% and Micex slipped 9.11% due to continuing capital flight. Some lending is still happening: Avtovaz, one of the country's largest automotive companies, is concluding negotiations with Vneshekonombank for a credit of $1 billion. In mining, Metalloinvest has ended merger talks with Kazakhmys, which could have created a $40bn (£20bn) metals group before commodities prices drove down the stock price by 25%. Alexei Kudrin announced that capital flight reached $33 billion for August.

Financial News Jason Corcoran21 July 2008 Letter from MoscowMarathon queues, stony-faced immigration officials, lost baggage and creaking infrastructure may soon be a thing of the past at Moscow’s main international airport, Sheremetyevo.The airport, which hasn’t altered much since the Soviet era, is sprucing itself up and trying to improve its image as it prepares for a possible flotation.Travellers no longer have to face up to three hours snarled in traffic on the Leningradsky highway into the city following the introduction last month of a direct rail link.State-run Russian railway operator RZD invested more than $200m in the project, an amount matched by private investors. The public-private partnership is thought to be the biggest of its kind in Russia. The shuttle train into central Moscow will depart from the new business district know as Moscow City, ...