Today in Russian Business – September 23, 2010

A Reuters analysis wonders whether Vladimir Putin’s protectionist measures and defense of homegrown industrial heavyweights is somehow an attempt to jeopardize the country’s WTO bid.  The Moscow Times reports on how Avtovaz has found itself involved in the tomato-and-cucumber business, through one of its currently unsellable non-core assets, AvtovazAgro, which plans to build greenhouses in the city of Tolyatti.  An Abu Dhabi government-owned money manager, Invest AD, may purchase 10% of the Sochi Mountain Carousel ski resort which is being constructed for the 2014 Winter Olympics.  The BBC’s Russia business report wonders why the government has been reluctant to intervene in the Norlisk Nickel shareholder dispute, when it has previously capitalized on corporate disagreements:  a matter of trying to ‘improve Russia’s investment credentials’?  The latest victim of the rise in copper and nickel prices?  None other than the humble kopeck.