Today in Russian Business – Feb 9, 2012

Rostelecom says it has completed the installation of 15,000 web cameras in polling stations in preparation for next month’s presidential elections.  Moscow’s streets will be equipped with surveillance cameras this year, according to Mayor Sergei Sobyanin.  The regeneration of Sheremetyevo airport has paid off, with 150% profit jumps confirming the management’s attempt to ‘win over the Moscow aviation hub market’.  Edelman’s latest Trust Barometer shows Russian confidence in government and authority ‘17% below the world average’.  The volume of imports into Russian from non-CIS countries grew 26.7%, year-on-year, to $15.3 billion last month.  VTB will buy back shares from small investors to compensate them for losses incurred since its 2007 IPO.  The bank’s head has called for Russian business to support the authorities in the run-up to next month’s elections: ‘I want to remind that you that Savva Morozov supported the Bolsheviks and made his contribution in 1917, then went mad and killed himself.