Today in Russian Business – July 15, 2009

IKEA may resume expansion in Russia after the Economic Development Ministry pledged to help resolve several important issues, including the completion of its Mega complex in the Samara region.  Getting a pen thrown at him and public castigation aside, Yulia Latynina suggests that the contract Oleg Deripaska signed in Pikalyovo ‘ended up being heavily in his favor’, as VTB were the ones financing the reopening of the oligarch’s troubled factories.  Profits at Russian banks could suffer in 2009 if bad loans rise to 10% of credit portfolios.  Sberbank has suggested that a July 15 deadline to seal a deal for Opel is not firm.  The OECD has said that the stability of the Russian banking system is of ‘prime importance‘.  The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said its board approved a $500 million,10-year loan for Russian Railways.  Regional authorities wish to pass a bill that imposes limits on how much livestock an individual may own; the bill’s detractors say that this kind of legislation harkens back to Soviet times and is the initiative of industrial farming firms.