On January 30, the recently-launched Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) announced a joint bid to acquire two stakes in Moscow’s Micex-RTS stock exchange.

Jean Paul Bachy, Regional Council of Champagne-Ardenne

Jean Paul Bachy is president of the regional council of Champagne-Ardenne and a former member of the French and European Parliaments. The Champagne-Ardenne region, located in the northeast of France and famous for its history and sparkling wine, was represented at the 2011 Sochi Investment Forum – where authorities boasted of their partnership with the Oryol Oblast and other Russian regions. President Bachy explained the origins and successes of these partnerships to Modern Russia.

The North American International Auto Show in Detroit has been an important barometer for the global automotive industry for more than a century and this year was no exception. Thousands of industry executives, enthusiasts and experts poured into Detroit’s Cobo Center last week to hear industry leaders discuss and reveal the latest automotive trends and innovations.

Andrey Leonov, CEO of Incuron, LLC.

As part of the Russian government’s efforts to encourage breakthrough science and innovation, Incuron is proud to be one of the most recent recipients of a $5 million grant from the Skolkovo Fund. A government initiative aimed at encouraging breakthrough science and innovation in technology, Skolkovo not only invests in science-based projects, but also provides the non-monetary and organizational support required for research growth.

On January 12, President Medvedev ordered the creation of a working group that will develop the country’s first financial task force to fight money laundering, fiscal sponsorship of terrorism, tax evasion and customs duty fraud. The task force will be led by First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov, who was the head of Rosfinmonitoring, Russia’s financial monitoring agency, from 2004-2007.