Today in Russian Business – May 13, 2011

Jim O’Neill, chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, recommends the ‘controversial’ move of buying Russian stocks in a video interview with Bloomberg, with this ringing endorsement: ‘because they are cheap […] probably because everyone hates them’.  The high price of gold against a tumbling dollar has vindicated the recommendations made five years ago by Vladimir Putin to invest heavily in the metal, says the Moscow Times.  Vladimir Alyoshin, the main owner of the Luzhniki Olympic complex, is, according to this article, selling his stake in the company to the city of Moscow for a paltry $14.2 million.  Russian Helicopters, which had to cancel its initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange apparently plans to make another attempt next year.  Why search engine Yandex is so transparent about risk ahead of its IPO.  As Belarus slides into financial free fall, this article considers what Russia is hoping to gain from refusing to subsidize its neighbor and sometime ally.