Today in Russian Business – July 19, 2011

Automaker Fiat apparently hopes to build a plant in St. Petersburg after plans with GAZ Group to assemble cars in Nizhny Novgorod failed come to fruition.  Good news for General Motors Uzbekistan, which has witnessed a major increase in sales in Russia over the first half of this year.  Sberbank, it would seem, has grand plans for expansion into central Europe; see Bloomberg for details.  According to Reuters, VTB Capital has acquired a 4.35% stake in Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska’s En+ Group.  As Barclays prepares to sell off Expobank, the Russian retail bank it purchased in 2008, the company is expected to record major losses on the doomed investment.  See here a profile of Russia’s biggest media tycoon, Yury Kovalchuk.  Time magazine has an in-depth report on why a flood of young businesspeople are abandoning Russia.  How Hollywood has wooed Russian cinema-goers, to the detriment of its own film industry.