Today in Russian Business – Nov 14, 2011

Sberbank’s 170th birthday party took crowdsourcing as its theme, and took the opportunity to ‘flaunt’ its data center, ‘the largest of its kind in Europe’.  Former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin has criticised defence spending proposals, saying that Russia is ‘approaching the allowable limit on expenditure’ and that new budgets are ‘not supported by additional funding’.  United Russia Chairman Boris Gryzlov wants Ukraine to join the Eurasian Economic Space.  Russian Helicopters signed a $1.2 billion contract with Ukraine’s Motor Sich to buy engines for Russian commercial helicopters; India is on the verge of finalising a second contract with Russia for 59 transport helicopters, worth almost $1 billion.  RusAl’s third-quarter profits have more than doubled, year-on-year, to $290 million.