Today in Russian Business – June 8, 2012

The Wall Street Journal reports that Prime Minister Medvedev has approved a long-considered plan to sell stakes in a number of state-owned companies, among them oil major Rosneft.  In a presentation to corporate compliance officers, Yelena Panfilova, general director of Transparency International Russia, has highlighted a number of ways in which Russia is failing to address graft.  Russia’s budget deficit may reach 1.5% of gross domestic product by 2015, an increase on previous estimations.  Sberbank has apparently  bought Dexia’s Turkish unit Denizbank for about $3.6 billion.   Sergei Mavrodi’s MMM pyramid scheme has fallen foul of the authorities, twenty years after it first caused an uproar.  Russia may ban the advertising of alcoholic drinks on the Internet.  Following talks with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai in Beijing, President Putin has suggested that Russia is ready to increase economic aide to Afghanistan.  Alisher Usmanov’s Metalloinvest may soon acquire the 20% of its stock held by VTB Group.