Today in Russian Business – Nov 24, 2010

President Dmitry Medvedev is predicting a disaster for Russian public utilities which have ‘outlived their service life‘, and is calling for a modernization of infrastructure.  Russia’s poultry import quota is to be halved next year to 350,000 tons, and the government wants farmers to increase their spring sowing by 25%, although many are baulking at the idea, possibly due to a lack of ‘faith in state support‘.  Russia’s drought meanwhile has caused Egypt to turn to neighboring Sudan for agricultural land to help meet its future grain requirements.  Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina says that some sale of Russian state assets could take place on foreign exchanges.  A group of 100 protesters have rallied in Barnaul in a bid to recover their investments in a failed Alfa construction project. Yandex research has identified 30 specific road ‘bottlenecks that cause Moscow’s rush hour traffic jams.  On the Health Ministry’s attempts to crack down on Russia’s 200,000 traditional healers.