Russia hopes to sell government controlled assets to raise 5% of GDP to offset the predicted budget shortfall. But what’s on offer? not profit making parts of the economy like Gazprom, no what they want us to buy into is the parts of the economy that are currently lose makers areas that need massive investment and new technology to be competitive. On top of this Russia has done nothing to curtail the endemic corruption and bureaucracy that has seen investors look elsewhere. The world is coming out of a financial crises and the money Russia desperately needs is not there. Russia for any investor is a real financial gamble; safer options will be the order of the day Mr Putin is now trying to initiate a plan that should have put into place a decade ago. Too many of the Putin years were spent confronting the west leaving Russia as an economic basket case.

Please, do not privatize public services, and take a good look at the mess in the USA, before privatizing the banks and other resources. You need to take care of the "general good" first. Once it is given up, it is very hard to get back. I'm afraid it will be a very long time, before we get it back, here, in the USA.

R John, times have changed. This is a very shrewd move. Why put on sale profit making firms? They make a hefty profit for taxpayers, provide funds for reinvestment and good employment. However, the so called "losers" are going to be attractive. In the changed universe, investments in banking paper products have no appeal, and money will gravitate to the long-term real economy, that is, production. Already European countries are buying up aluminum scrap reprocessing plants, water recycling, etc. all over south-eastern Europe --- the kind of things nobody was buying before. This is a good time to move into privatization, as politically this will be more acceptable. However, the notion that Russia desperately needs the money, is nonsense. Russia, along with Brazil and China are snapping up IMF special drawing rights issue --- and that will translate into changed voting rights. Russia has been funding projects in many states --- from Belarus to Kyrgyzstan, and all over Africa and South America. This is a brand new tack on privatization, and no --- I do not think that Putin should have started this years ago. And where do you get the idea that Putin's years were spent "...confronting the west..." and "leaving Russian as an economic basket case"?? You are clearly not following the economic data. Russia still has vast currency reserves, in both the development fund, as well as contingency fund. In fact, both funds are not again growing, having been spent down quite a bit. Now, this is big difference from Western countries that have DEBTS and no reserves to speak off. Russia's foreign debt (government) is practically non-existent, and the State has been able to finance (bail out) private enterprises that were caught in an expansion during liquidity bust, as well as banks. This is actually a very comfy place to be in. Putin has built the Central Asian alliance, and Russia-China ties. I would not bet against him.

Bianca even the Russian media are saying that there is no more BRIC only I/C India and china the investment into Russia is the lowest of any of the old BRIC countries. I note you did not mention the corruption and bureaucracy that Putin never got to grip with. Sorry Bianca I think Russia has missed the boat experts are predicting that most new investment will go to the new wave of emerging economies Ukraine Vietnam UAE.We see how Russia does business look at the case of TNK/BP.A company registered in a hut somewhere in the Urals bought $40,000 worth of shares just enough to give them the right to ask the authorities to check that the highly skilled foreign workers visas were in order, low and behold they found problems this was just one part of a campaign to force BP out and get Gazprom in. BP threatened to remove all its skilled workers it then dawned on whoever was behind the campaign that the company could not function with out these people. And the visa problem miraculously disappeared. only time will tell; we will soon see if investors have the confidence to invest,