Today in Russian Business – Jan 5, 2010

‘To be sure, issues remain in places such as China, Brazil, India and Russia, but their economic policies and financial structures proved surprisingly resilient and their growth prospects now look good’: a comment piece in Bloomberg envisages a booming future for the BRIC markets.  Bloomberg’s commentators are not alone – China, Brazil, Russia and South Africa are Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s preferred developing nations markets for 2010.  Jim O’Neill, Goldman Sachs’s chief economist, has voiced strong support for buying Russian stocks in an interview with Bloomberg, because of their ‘lower interest rates and higher oil prices’.  See the video here.  ‘Emerging markets are still the asset class of choice for this year’, says David Oakley in the FT.  Oleg Deripaska has sold oil company Russneft back to its founder, Mikhail Gutseriyev, for $600 million and for the repayment of outstanding debt totaling roughly $6 billion.  The Telegraph reports on the fleeing of businessman Vladimir Privalov to Britain and his fear of assassination by the FSB .