Yukos

Businessman Mikhail Sannikov loves the smell of Yukos in the morning. So much, in fact, that's he's launching a perfume named after Mikhail Khodorkovsky's former bankrupt oil firm, Vedomosti reports.
Although the green-and-yellow triangle is a trademark now owned by Rosneft, it is only registered for oil products - in theory making it possible to transfer the brand's essence.
Sannikov admits any Yukos perfume would be unlikely to come up smelling of roses in the competitive cosmetics markets, but would highlight his belief that former Khodorkovsky's oil firm sent a nasty niff through the Russian business world.
Chopped off
International politics is behind the delay in giving a Canadian firm a license to build the PW-127 helicopter engine in Russia, according to American military news site strategypage.com.
They claim the delay is part of US pressure on Russia not to sell anti-aircraft weapons to Iran. The proposed deal, the first of its kind since Britain licensed a Rolls Royce jet engine soon after World War II, would speed the delivery of Russia's new Mi-38 helicopter.
Now the new high-speed aircraft will be delayed until at least 2012, and will use a less efficient Russian engine.
Gas simmering
Ukraine has offered to accept a $5 billion advance payment from Russia for five years of gas transit - to enable the country to pay its own gas bill.
But the plan has not been well received. Pravda.ru calls it a "ridiculous offer", noting that Russia receives no guarantees of payment beyond 2010 and adding that Ukraine has no chance of Western financial support.
Meanwhile Komsomolskaya Pravda detects the "smell" of Europe in the plan, fearing the EU may be about to provoke another politically-motivated fuel dispute.
Budget cuts call
Kremlin aide Arkady Dvorkovich believes the government has a couple of months to cut budget spending in response to the crisis.
But he said "substantial state funds" would be invested in projects to help the economy recover in the future, even as the overall expenditure falls, RIA Novosti reports.
He added that Russia's reserves must be used carefully to ensure social payments were made.
People trade
Tajik workers suffer difficult working conditions and discrimination in Moscow, but Tajik Interior Minister chief Safiullo Devonayev has no plans to slow the exodus from Dushanbe.
At a meeting between migration service staff from Russia and Tajikstan and regional officials from Samara, Devonayev explained labour export was an important part of Tajik policy.
Raging bulls
Sky high value for Facebook
Internet group Digital Sky Technology has spent $200 million on a 1.96 per cent stake in social networking website Facebook. The Russian group, which already operates the similar Vkontakte site over here, concluded a deal which values Facebook at $10 billion, more than Starbucks coffee or Safeway supermarkets. Not bad for a popular office timewaster.
Shopping nation
British supermarket giant Sainsbury's is planning to make Russia its first overseas market, according to Kommersant. The business daily's sources claim the firm has held discussions with the X5 Retail group and other Russian supermarket operators with a view to entering the market in the autumn.
Toxic assets
GDP slump
President Dmitry Medvedev has warned that the economy will shrink faster than expected, after figures showed GDP dropped 23 per cent in the first quarter of 2009. AP reports that Medvedev didn't give a revised estimate but admitted a forecast budget deficit of 7 per cent was "optimistic". Meanwhile Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin has ruled out going to the IMF, but is considering borrowing up to $7 billion next year and $10 million the year after from overseas sources.
In bad nick
Norilsk Nickel, the world's biggest producer, posted a $449 million loss after a $4.7 billion writedown on its OGK-3 power generator and some non-Russian units, Bloomberg reports. The company also took a hit on the currency markets in 2008, losing $397 in foreign exchanges, and its year-end assets of $2 billion were 50 per cent down.