Today in Russian Business

Russia’s VTB Bank says that Swiss trading company Noga has won a French court order against it to freeze company accounts. Moscow’s Foreign Ministry has issued a formal complaint to France as a result. A lawyer for the Bank of New York Mellon asked a Moscow court on Monday to dismiss a $22.5 billion money-laundering case against the bank “on a technicality.” Chrysler is the latest carmaker to express an interest in selling in Russia to cash in on its booming automobile market. Luxury armored cars made by Rolls Royce have seen a 50% jump in Russian sales. A new survey of Russian companies, taken by Deloitte, reveals that many firms are delaying company IPOs in order to leverage maximum media coverage.

Russian and foreign companies whose activities are deemed by the authorities to pose serious environmental threats will be targeted by Russia’s environmental watchdog, despite the resignation of its chief. President Vladimir Putin has approved the purchase by Italian company Alenia Aeronautica of a 25% stake in Sukhoi Civil Aircraft. Alenia is to help the Russian plane maker develop the Superjet airliner. IMS Health, the world’s second largest research company, has bought RMBC, Russia’s top pharmaceutical consulting company, giving it “approximately 40% of that market”. Russia is tightening controls over financial transactions by foreign officials as part of a new law on “combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism”.