Today in Russian Business – Sept 1, 2010

Although he remains reluctant to mediate in its owners’ dispute which is apparently showing ‘some movement forward‘, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin drew Norilsk Nickel’s shareholders’ attention to the fact that the company paid dividends last year that represented 50% of income – a considerably higher percentage than other global miners.  The Kremlin is an agreement with Norilsk’s current owners that the company should not have any new shareholders. From Vladimir Potanin: ‘Why [add another shareholder]? To have more fun?‘  Putin promised that Norilsk would not meet the same fate as other single-industry towns such as Pikalyovo.  Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov’s $130 billion, ten-year modernization plan has been rejected by the presidential council: ‘Moscow can optimize its own spending on road construction and take most of it [the requested money] from its own budget,‘ according to a Finance Ministry official.  US senators are urging Russia to implement an agreement that would allow the resumption of US poultry exports.  Oleg Silchenko, an official implicated in the death of Sergei Magnitsky, has applied for a warrant to search the London home of a Hermitage Capital executive.  You can probably guess what President Dmitry Medvedev wants to do to Russia’s military-industrial complex…yes, modernize it.