In his televised interview with three Russian TV channels, President Medvedev praised Russia’s emergence from the economic crisis as one of the country’s major achievements of 2010. The BBC‘s Tanya Beckett reports from Volgograd on how consumers and plant employees view this apparent rebound. Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich has said that the country will not join the Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan customs union in the near future as it would require changes to the constitution. Bloomberg reports that Russia has extended the list of investment banks that will consult it on its planned $59 billion state asset sale program over the next five years. Oleg Deripaska’s EN+ Group claims to have secured bank commitments to finance unit EuroSibEnergo’s $2 billion cash offer for the power-generating unit of Norilsk Nickel. Russia’s competition watchdog has reportedly offered initial approval of PepsiCo’s plan to buy juice and dairy company Wimm-Bill-Dann. How do caviar producers feel about the global monopoly on the luxury foodstuff?