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Russia's dependence on energy exports - and high energy prices - is growing. The government wants to play a bigger part in fostering this golden goose and seems to have found a subtle way of doing so without renationalization. Ben Aris reports.

The days when unselective punts on the Moscow bourse could bring triple-digit returns are probably over. Analysts now point to more modest gains from cautious trawls of smaller companies, private-equity funds and real estate. Ben Aris reports.

Delayed and inadequate reforms mean that Romania faces the prospect of failing to meet its 2007 deadline for entry into the EU. Guy Norton reports.

Liquidity poll April 2004

With increasing competition in the covered bond market, Pfandbrief issuers are working hard to retain their pre-eminence. But as the Landesbanken prepare to lose their state guarantees, Pfandbriefe are becoming a crucial financing tool. Mark Brown reports.

CEO and founder, Lightyear Capital

Investors in European high-yield bonds have fought hard for structural security. Issuers that bypass it will have to pay a premium.

As BNP Paribas and Exane were preparing to unveil their joint venture plans, Crédit Agricole was deciding what to do with the equities businesses it had picked up along with Crédit Lyonnais last year. Crédit Agricole already had a strong brokerage business in the form of CAI Cheuvreux, which has the highest-ranked (13) pan-European research of any French broker, according to the July 2003 Thomson Extel Focus France Survey. Merging Chevreux with Crédit Lyonnais' weaker European brokerage business would have made little sense, as the overlap would have been too great. One French analyst says: "A good merger is one in which one plus one is more than two; Chevreux plus Crédit Lyonnais would probably be worth less than one."

When Coutts Bank decided to make the move from in-house investment management to external investment management, it did so in one year. "If you have a large gap to cross, you don't do it with two small steps," explains Andrew Hutton, the bank's head of investment management and group investment management.

As Putin's rule becomes more established, the political trend in Russia is firmly authoritarian and centralist. But that is not necessarily a barrier to liberal economic reforms.As Putin's rule becomes more established, the political trend in Russia is firmly authoritarian and centralist. But that is not necessarily a barrier to liberal economic reforms. Ben Aris reports.

To attract investors, smaller drugs developers need to show that they have products close to regulatory approval. But to reach that stage requires vast investments of high-risk capital. There are no easy ways to plug the gap but alliances with big pharma and forward sales of royalties can help. Mark Brown reports.

Madrid has returned quickly to some kind of normality following the terrorist attack last month. There is still a steady flow of mourners to the sea of candles that commemorate the victims, but elsewhere in Atocha Station commuters were streaming from the platforms within a week of the attack, just as they did before. The market has responded in a similar fashion. Although the Ibex 35 dipped sharply following the attack and the election that came quickly after, within a week it was moving broadly in line with the other major world markets. The main reason for this is that despite the shock of the Socialist Party (PSOE) election victory and the animosity between the two main political parties, the country's political divisions are more about the war in Iraq and the style of the outgoing government than economic philosophy.