Russia

Personal loans in Russia have reached almost $275bn during the past two years as people take up to 5 loans per person. Some Russian cities see 100% of the economically active population taking out loans, RT.com reported. Russia risks seeing a retail credit default, business daily Vedomosti quotes research by Svyaznoj Bank that examined data from the country’s two biggest credit agencies NBCH and Equifax. The bank studied the credit history of people applying for loans and called the results of the study "depressing", Vedomosti quotes the bank representative.

Russia’s Sukhoi Civil Aircraft company – the maker of the Sukhoi Superjet (SSJ) – has accumulated $2 bn in debt and failed to meet its credit obligations. The problem needs to be settled by the year end, otherwise the company will default, RT.com reported. Sukhoi Civil Aircraft is now more than $600 million in debt to the State Corporation Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs (Vnesheconombank), with an additional $300 million unsettled to related parties, Kommersant daily reports.

Moscow Commercial Court has extended the receivership at AMT Bank for another six months, thus supporting the receiver's request, RAPSI reported from the courtroom. The Deposit Insurance Agency requested an extension because it has failed to complete all the necessary procedures. The next hearing is scheduled for December 17. The Moscow Commercial Court declared AMT Bank bankrupt on June 20, 2012 after the Deposit Insurance Agency filed for the bank's bankruptcy. The agency was appointed as the bank's receiver in October 2011.

A bankruptcy court on Monday approved Central European Distribution Corp's bankruptcy exit plan, putting Russian billionaire Roustam Tariko on the verge of adding one of the world's largest vodka producers to his stable of companies, Thomson Reuters News & Insight reported. Under the plan, green lighted in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Tariko will receive all of the Polish company's newly issued stock in return for $277 million he is providing for the benefit of its creditors.

Russia wants to play a bigger part in talks over solving Cyprus' financial problems but will only restructure its loan to the island if its interests here, especially those related to VTB Bank, are protected, Moscow's finance minister said, CyprusMail reported. Russian banks and companies have poured money into Cyprus since the 1990s, taking advantage of low taxes and relaxed business regulations.

A Russian depositor has filed suit for the seizure of all assets in Russia belonging to Laiki Bank of Cyprus, including its controlling stake in Russia’s Rosprombank, which may now hamper a Cypriot plan to sell off the shares, RT.com reported. Presnensky Court in Moscow has received a lawsuit from ‘Y. G. Borisov’ against Laiki Bank – which operates in Russia under the Cyprus Popular Bank brand – and Rosprombank, in which Cyprus owns a 50.4 percent stake. Borisov has demanded the repayment of money that was seized from his account with the Cypriot bank; the exact sum was not disclosed.

Russia's largest banks said Thursday their clients' exposure to losses in Cyprus so far appears modest, while there were few other signs of immediate fallout for Russian business, executives and analysts said, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Kremlin's angry public attacks last week on a planned tax on bank deposits in a tax haven long favored by Russians led many observers to suspect Russians' exposure to Cyprus's troubled banks was substantial. Estimates ran as high as €20 billion ($26 billion) in Russian money said to be at risk.

A unit of Russia's Alfa Group said on Thursday it had withdrawn its proposal to acquire Central European Distribution Corp, one of the world's largest vodka producers, through a restructuring of CEDC's finances. Alfa Group unit A1 said in a two-sentence statement to Reuters that it had officially withdrawn its non-binding offer to restructure CEDC. It also said the two other members of its consortium, CEDC investor Mark Kaufman and SPI Group, which owns Stolichnaya Vodka, had been informed of its decision.

Cyprus has thrown its international reputation as an offshore banking hub into peril after considering a bold plan to levy a one-time tax on deposits, The Wall Street Journal reported. The proposed tax—which would have helped Cyprus raise funds as part of a €10 billion ($13 billion) bailout deal from the European Union and International Monetary Fund—was rejected by Cyprus's Parliament on Tuesday. Cyprus is now scrambling to find other ways to raise the funds. Still, much of the damage appears to have been done. The tax proposal provoked outrage in Moscow.

Boeing Co has sued its Russian and Ukrainian partners in satellite launch service Sea Launch, saying they refused to pay it more than $350 million following the joint-venture's bankruptcy filing in 2009, Reuters reported. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Friday, targeted RSC Energia, a company partially owned by the Russian government, and two Ukrainian state-owned companies, PO Yuzhnoye Mashinostroitelny Zavod and KB Yuzhnoye.