Putin urged to get tough on market economy

A group of state-owned and other leading Russian companies has urged President Vladimir Putin to exert tougher control over the market economy, tame the appetites of private metallurgical companies and effectively fix steel prices in the interest of domestic producers. In a collective letter reminiscent of the Soviet era, the heads of oil companies including Lukoil, Rosneft, TNK-BP and Transneft, the pipeline monopoly, accuse Russian steel producers of acting in the interest of foreign states.