Deutsche Bank has hired Ilya Yuzhanov, a former Russian anti-monopoly minister, as managing director for the former Soviet Union.  Despite IMF warnings to curb spending, the Federal Treasury has not yet spent its budget allocation for the year, and plans to boost government investments accordingly.  Gold and foreign exchange reserves lost $7.5 billion of their value this week.  Under a new proposed bill, the government would be allowed to set prices for certain goods in situations where prices significantly jump, but retailers say such measures would give unfair advantages to producers and suppliers.  ‘Hugely rich‘ Mikhail Prokhorov is in legal wranglings over a $70 million deposit that he paid a banking heiress for a $700 million mansion in the South of France. ‘One cannot shed tears for either over money but the law has to be applied,‘ his lawyer said. The Times praises the work of Yegor Gaidar on deregulation, privatization and financial stabilization in transforming Russia’s economy. ‘Few people make such a difference,’ says The Economist.