Today in Russian Business – June 15, 2009

Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin has said that he believes the dollar is in ‘good shape’ and does not need to be replaced as a global reserve currency.   Russia will not ‘significantly’ change the structure of its reserves, he added.  The Moscow Times examines the place of Russia within BRIC, as its economy falters and its lack of a ‘properly developed financial sector’ becomes problematic.  At the first formal summit of the BRIC nations, new global reserve currencies will not be discussed, but reforming international financial institutions will be.  Russia and Canada will support Germany’s deal to sell Opel to Magna.  China Development Bank has extended a $1 billion credit line to VEB.  Oleg Deripaska has invited two of Putin’s allies, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov and Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, to join the board of a paper mill that he owns in a conciliatory gesture towards the Prime Minister.  Bloomberg looks at Deripaska’s links to Putin, and how as ‘Russia’s largest non-state borrower’, the oligarch will manage to emerge from the crisis.