Today in Russian Business – Oct 25, 2010

‘One of the two sides has to leave‘: could Vladimir Potanin’s $9 billion bid to take RusAl’s stake be the end of the companies’ ongoing feud over Norilsk Nickel?  The Finance Ministry wants to have a voice in the potentially excessive loans and investments of state-controlled companies.  The Kremlin is running an academy that teaches government agencies the basics in combating corruption, and expects 500 officials to have completed the course by the end of the year.  HSBC Moscow says that expansions in the ruble’s trading corridor constitute ‘a mirage‘: ‘Reaching the fast-moving boundaries would be possible only in a situation of extremely high and persistent imbalances between foreign currency demand and supply.‘  Bloomberg’s interview with Novaya Gazeta editor Alexander Lebedev suggests that the billionaire’s media projects in the UK could be part of an image-boosting attempt ‘to avoid the fate of former Yukos Chief Executive Officer Mikhail Khodorkovsky‘. The BBC has video coverage of Moscow’s Millionaire Fair.