Today in Russian Business – May 28, 2009

Russia is willing to invest up to $10 billion from its reserves into the IMF’s first bond issue, in an apparent attempt to gain more clout in the organization.  Discreet businessman Gennady Timchenko has announced that he has built up an 18% stake in gas firm Novatek.  To learn more about the oil tycoon, look here.  According to Bloomberg, Angela Merkel will be under pressure to choose Magna as the buyer for Opel.  Sberbank could be set to enter the grocery business having acquired 250,000 square meters of space from the Alpi chain.  Whilst Putin has urged Russia to use innovation to diversify the economy, Medvedev is apparently skeptical about the potential of this sector.  Russia’s $22.5 billion lawsuit against Bank of New York Mellon may be started again from scratch if the case is not settled soon.  Reuters is perplexed by Facebook’s deal with Digital Sky Technologies, given that the company is behind a Russian rip-off of the social networking site.  The Russian Central Bank is apparently paying ‘very close attention’ to bad loans.  Bloomberg reports that Russia does not intend to repeat its 1990s flooding of the global diamond market.