The Russian state could wind up owning huge chunks of formerly private companies as a result of the bail-out measures it is implementing. A senior Russian policymaker said on Tuesday, 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.