The Russian state could wind up owning huge chunks of formerly private companies as a result of bail-out measures currently being implemented. A senior Russian policymaker said yesterday, however, that the government had no plans to "nationalise" these forfeited shares, but would seek to sell them as soon as market conditions improved.

As a result of Russia's financial turmoil, many of the country's oligarchs are in dire financial straits, and $50bn (€38bn, £30bn) of aid has been made available to finance their external debts - part of a $200bn-plus Kremlin plan for national economic bail-out measures.