Putin’s return puts future in doubt

Article forms the lead and overview article in a FT: Special Report 'Onvesting in Russia 2011'. Now that uncertainty over the leadership of the country has been removed, attention has turned to the longer term.

Other features in this survey include;

+ FDI: The glass is full one day, empty the next
Charles Clover reports on the ups and downs of a high-risk country

+ Privatisation: Sell-offs may remain a distant prospect
Catherine Belton on excitement that may have been short-lived

+ Private equity: Fund hopes pinned on expert names
Courtney Weaver looks at efforts to coax in reluctant groups

+ Economy: Drivers of growth threaten to peter out

+ Stock exchange: Merger creates market less prone to squabbling
Rachel Morarjee on efforts to compete with London

+ Politics: ‘A lesson in unbridled cynicism’
Charles Clover reports on the stitch-up to end all stitch-ups

+ Transport: Last of Soviet behemoths moves into modern world. Isabel Gorst on plans to move rail infrastructure into the 21st century

+ Zvooq.ru: A ‘music discovery engine’ with applications elsewhere. Rachel Morarjee talks to operators of an online service

+ Space: Big effort to make money and stay in orbit
Paul Gould on a sector that is sole provider of flights to International Space Station

+ Tomsk: Take a look at a Kremlin experiment

+ Consumers: A new middle class that likes to shop

+ Drinking: Effort to re-engineer drinking habits

ESO: Background information: Putin to return as Russian president http://www.europeansources.info/record/putin-to-return-as-russian-president/

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