Today in Russian Business – Feb 2, 2011

Cisco CEO John Chambers, whose company has just allotted $1 billion in investment to Skolkovo, tells BeyondBrics that, despite the manifest ‘challenges’, he has a positive outlook on investing in Russia, comparing investment conditions to those of 1990s China.  RFE/RL’s Transmission features a TV producer’s discouraging insights into working conditions in Russia: ‘Taxes…were just a way for bureaucrats to buy themselves holidays in Thailand’.  General Motors will apparently assemble 30,000 of its Chevrolet cars at GAZ’s plant to augment its local presence in the lucrative market.  Is the clock ticking for Russia’s wave of IPOs?  Micex and RTS, Russia’s two main stock exchanges, have signed a non-binding deal to merge as part of the government’s attempts to brand Moscow an international finance hub.  Oleg Deripaska’s En+ Group Ltd., Russian Railways and Japanese trading companies are bidding for the Tavan Tolgoi coalfield in Mongolia, one of the largest untapped deposits of the steelmaking element in the world.  Silvinit minority shareholder Acron has taken legal action to block the merger between potash producers Uralkali and Silvinit, the Moscow Times reports.