Today in Russian Business – Aug 25, 2008

An initial report from Interfax, erroneously saying that Mikhail Khodorkovsky‘s parole request had been granted, fueled a 1.6% jump in the Russia market within 10 minutes – a rise of $12 billion in real terms. When Interfax posted a correction, the index surrendered two-thirds of the gain. Other than this brief gain, the markets continue to fall, apparently for some reasons separate to the Georgia conflict. Russia is quickly overtaking European countries to become the biggest car market. A lawyer representing Hermitage Capital Management and Bill Browder says his office was raided in an attempt to link him to tax fraud. “They are trying to tie me, as Browder’s lawyer, to the extortion of $232 million from the state budget,” he said. Rostekhnologia is blaming the recent crisis at AiRUnion on the management of Russia’s aviation alliance, saying that the airlines are unable to manage their debts.