Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minster, has reacted to news that bad debts have tripled to 6% since the beginning of 2009 with a request to increase lending by at least $16 billion.

State-controlled Russian lender, Sperbank, has announced that it expects to clear most of its current bad loan provision within four years.

Head of the Russian Central Bank, Sergei Ignatyev, says that a free float of the rouble within the coming two years is the Bank’s “main goal” for the transition period.

In a rescue move after being hit hard by the recession, Russian fixed-line telecoms operator, North-West Telecom (NWT), is to borrow up to $280 million in roubles this year.

Russia’s Central Bank has, again, cut its interest rates on news that the recession may be reaching its lowest point.

Workers in Moscow are being tempted out of the big city and into the country’s regions by the attraction of more jobs and a cheaper life.

Concerns are rising in Russia that the rouble’s value has been pushed too high by the recent oil price increase to more than US$65 per barrel.