Today in Russian Business – March 21, 2011

Moscow’s investment banks ‘have called off their love affair‘ with the ruble, says William Mauldin, blaming the perceived risk on capital flight and a tepid investment climate.  The New York Times reports on the investigations that have been opened into the past 18 years worth of business deals involving former Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, amid recent accusations that he and his wife ‘us[ed] the city-controlled Bank of Moscow as a personal slush fund‘.  U.S. chemical giant Dow is sponsoring Russia’s Olympics with a view to doubling its Russian sales to $1.5 billion by 2012.  The governor of Ulyanovsk intends to propose that Dmitry Medvedev get rid of the tax breaks program in his region and replace it with a scheme under which private investors would be reimbursed for part of their startup costs.