Today in Russian Business – Nov 24, 2009

Russia may sell up to $3.5 billion of state assets per year in airports, ports, shipping companies and insurance, under its latest 2010 privatization plan.  Details of specific companies and the fourteen stakes offered for sale have been documented here.  Russian Post will cut 8% of its workforce next year. ‘[W]hat the Russian government should have done, is to have reformed Russian Post and other similar companies several years ago, when the employees had better chances of finding new jobs,‘ commented one analyst. The central bank is forecasting economic growth of 3-4% for 2010.  KamAZ will team up with Daimler on two joint ventures to boost truck production in the EU.  After winning a victory against the plan to raise base rate tax for car owners, the Federation of Russian Car Owners has decided to register as a political movement with the aim of ‘sack[ing] the bureaucrats who are guilty of wrongdoings‘.  A flood of cheap used cars from Belarus and Kazakhstan, anticipated for when borders are opened, could undermine efforts to boost Russian auto production.  On the collector’s desirability of Soviet-era cars.