The head of Russia's ailing state development bank Vnesheconombank (VEB) could be replaced soon by a senior banker from Sberbank, four sources familiar with the situation told Reuters on Wednesday. Three of the sources said the decision to replace VEB's Vladimir Dmitriev with Sberbank Deputy Chairman Sergei Gorkov could be announced as soon as Thursday. Government officials have been discussing for months how to rescue VEB, which finds itself saddled with toxic assets totalling over $12.6 billion and is at risk of failing to meet its debt repayments.

Russia's Gazprombank will receive Mechel's Elga coal project in exchange of paying off some of the coal and steel company's debt to Sberbank, according to preliminary debt restructuring deal, two banking sources told Reuters. The agreement is a part of a wider restructuring process, announced by Mechel this month, which involves Sberbank, Gazprombank, VTB and a consortium of international lenders. The restructuring process, if approved by Mechel's shareholders next month, will mark the end of two years of talks between the company and creditors.

Russian coal and steel producer Mechel has reached debt restructuring agreements with its major creditors after two years of negotiations on a debt pile it said had threatened the company's survival, Reuters reported. The mining company controlled by businessman Igor Zyuzin borrowed heavily before Russia's economic crisis and has struggled to keep up repayments as demand for its products weakened alongside tumbling coal and steel prices.

Conspicuous consumers helped some luxury brands report their best-ever results in Russia in 2015, even as overall retail sales dropped 10 percent, Bloomberg News reported. About half of Russians can barely afford purchases beyond food and other basics, according to national polls. Some global luxury brands are betting the trend will continue, opening new shops across the Russian capital. GUM, the ornate department store across Red square from the Kremlin, saw Bulgari and Jimmy Choo boutiques open late last year, while Hermes doubled its selling space, according to a GUM spokeswoman.

Russia is lining up seven major state companies, including Aeroflot, Alrosa, the diamond miner, and Rosneft, for potential privatisation as the Kremlin debates drastic options to replace dwindling oil revenues, the Financial Times reported. The decision to consider the first such comprehensive push in years comes as the latest slide in crude prices is expected to drive Russia into a second year of recession and has ripped a gaping hole in its budget.

Russia’s economy shrank 3.7 per cent in 2015, the worst drop since the depths of the global financial crisis, as the country struggled with a drop in the price of its oil exports and international sanctions, the state statistics service said Monday, The Globe and Mail reported. The decline is the sharpest for Russia since 2009, when the world economy was suffering from the effects of a credit crunch and financial crisis. It matched the most recent prediction from the IMF, which forecasts another fall of 1 per cent in 2016 before a return to 1 per cent growth next year.

Russian state defence company Rostec will provide additional capital to its subsidiary bank Novikombank due to revaluation of loans to companies that fell under Western sanctions, according to a Rostec statement, Reuters reported.

Russian state development bank VEB will need state funds in the second quarter of this year, its chairman Vladimir Dmitriev was quoted as saying on Friday, after the bank was granted an extension on some of its liabilities late last year, Reuters reported. Russian authorities had previously been considering a package of as much as 1.2 trillion roubles ($15.2 billion) to VEB over a couple of years, to help the state bank to deal with bad loans and pay off some of its debt.

Russia's central bank said on Thursday it had revoked the licence of Vneshprombank, a major mid-sized bank whose collapse is one of the a largest-ever in Russia, Reuters reported. The central bank said it had closed the bank, one of the top 40 by assets, after discovering it had a hole in its balance sheet estimated at 187.4 billion roubles ($2.3 billion). The move underscores the growing strain on the country's banking sector as an economic slump is exacerbated by plunging oil prices.

Russia will cut interest rates on the central bank's deposits in ailing state development bank Vnesheconombank (VEB), said Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, Reuters reported today. The proposal is part of measures aimed at helping the ailing bank, which has been hit by Western sanctions over Moscow's role in the Ukraine crisis and is facing bad loans and heavy external debt repayments. The ministry previously proposed to also extend the National Wealth Fund's (NWF) deposits in VEB for five years and to cut interest rate on these deposits.