Today in Russian Business

Shareholders of the former Menatep Group (now called GML), including Leonid Nevzlin and Platon Lebedev, have won a “major victory” in their attempts to get a share of bankrupt Yukos’ assets, after a Dutch court ordered a Dutch subsidiary of Yukos to hand over $850 million, part of the proceeds of a 2006 sale. The head of Eventica, the company organizing the Russian Investment Forum in London next month, says “politics is getting in the way” of the event, which last year saw many participants pulling out over claims that the Kremlin was against it. Billionaire Mikhail Fridman’s Alfa Group wants to sell its stake in MegaFon, Russia’s third-largest cellular operator. BNP Paribas could begin considering acquisitions in Russia to expand in an economy “growing faster than that of France”. Russia’s largest supermarket chain, X5 Retail Group, has borrowed $1.1 billion from a group of banks to refinance existing loans. Dmitry Medvedev says that red tape and excessive control of small business is stopping Russians from starting their own enterprises. Costa Coffee has opened its first branch in Moscow. Nestle forecast a 19% gain in annual sales from Russia, and said that “due to its size”, the country could be the biggest contributor to the company’s sales in Europe. Alexei Kudrin says Russia’s state-controlled VTB could become an asset manager for Russia’s $32 billion National Wealth Fund.