eBay has appointed Vladimir Dolgov, a former Google manager, to head the Russian arm of its marketplace business. President Vladimir Putin will have his work cut out for him at this week’s economic forum in St Petersburg; hedge fund manager Steven Dashevsky thinks investor patience is wearing thin: ‘Talk is cheap – there’s nothing they have done in terms of real market reforms or real liberalisations. There have been so many false starts and so many missteps and so many missed expectations’. Although not in the tech sector: online retailer KupiVIP has secured $38 million in funding from an Intel-led consortium. The burial market in Moscow is in the process of being privatised – cemeteries could be next. Film studio Glavkino aims to rent out its sound studios at low rates in a bid to attract Hollywood business.