Today in Russian Business – Feb 19, 2010

On the decline of Rusal’s shares following its January IPO.  Efforts by the ‘Innovation Delegation‘ of officials and executives from the US to meet with Russian officials have suffered traffic delays and scheduling problems.  The New York Times focuses on Ashton Kutcher’s contribution to the innovation discussion.  The Federal Anti-monopoly Service is considering launching a probe into mobile call roaming fees charged by the top three operators MTS, Vimpelcom and MegaFon.  Counterfeit phones currently make up 2-3% of the Russian market; the Moscow Times takes a detailed look at this burgeoning problem and the reasons why authorities are having trouble combating it.  Prosecutors have launched criminal proceedings against Russia’s Torrents.ru filesharing website over breaches of intellectual property rights.  The central bank may resort to further interest-rate cuts after earlier measures failed to spur lending growth.