Today in Russian Business – Jan 3, 2011

State-owned VTB Capital has warned that the new jail sentence handed to Mikhail Khodorkovsky could have ‘unintended repercussions’ for business in Russia.  Bloomberg reports that social networking giant Facebook has raised $500 million from Goldman Sachs Group and a Russian investor in a deal that values the company at $50 billion.  Ex-Anglo American executive Philip Baum is reportedly likely to head up the $4 billion flotation of the gold division of steelmaker Severstal, winning the position thanks to his knowledge of Africa.  ‘The government concedes that the race is on: either make qualitative changes in the nature of the economy while it is growing, or consign Russia to the boom-and-bust cycles of a commodity dependent economy’: a rocky future for Russia’s economy?