Today in Russian Business – Nov 8, 2011

Reuters reports that Russia has given a vote of no confidence in Europe’s handling of its debt crisis following the visit of IMF chief Christine Lagarde to Moscow.   Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has reportedly taken issue with the construction of the euro zone’s bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, and insisted that Russia and the rest of the BRICS would prefer to channel any aid via the IMF.   The Prime Minister assured Europeans that the decision to help the debt-stricken states is not connected to energy issues.  What Russia is looking for, as Masha Lipman points out in a video interview here, is a ‘significant increase’ in the clout of developing nations in the International Monetary Fund.  The Moscow Times reports that in the run up to the December elections, police may ease off on raids and checks on businesses.  Yelena Baturina, Russia’s richest woman and the wife of ousted Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov has apparently sold her cement plants in Russia’s south to Lev Kvetnoy, owner of the country’s second-largest cement producer Novoroscement, for about $557 million.  Reuters reports on Evraz’s first day of trading on the premium segment of the London Stock Exchange Shares.  The Guardian has an accurate and entertaining appraisal of what observers have gleaned so far from the Abramovich-Berezovsky trial.