Today in Russian Business – April 2, 2012

Rospil founder Alexei Navalny has joined the campaign to expose deputy prime minister Igor Shuvalov’s allegedly dubious business dealings, by posting on his blog scans of documents showing transfers of huge sums to the account of Shuvalov’s company from companies that Navalny alleges are owned by Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov.  ‘[W]e’re not all crooks’: Reuters has an interview with self-affirmed ‘serial entrepreneur’ Oleg Tinkov, who defends the somewhat dubious reputation of Russian businessmen.  Coal miner Raspadskaya has announced its net profit fell 44% in 2011 to $136 million from $244 million a year earlier.  State-run diamond company Alrosa is apparently looking for investors for its natural-gas assets after repurchasing them from VTB Group for $1.04 billion.  According to the Moscow Times, the gem miner sees investing in shares in diamond producers as the most effective way of profiting from rising prices of the precious stones.  Vladimir Putin has urged Sberbank not to neglect the ‘social aspect of its work’ as it gears up for a $6 billion privatization.  Unconfirmed reports that restaurant group Rosinter may have won the first-ever franchise to run McDonald’s restaurants in Russia has seen shares in the Russian eateries giant surge.  Workers at the Benteler plant in the city of Kaluga southwest of Moscow have ended their strike upon securing pledges of a new labor agreement and higher wages.    Find out here why Goldman Sachs believes that the biggest danger to Russia’s economy is that of ‘overheating’.