Russia Loses a Vital Cabinet Member

For foreign companies doing business in Russia, figuring out what’s going on in the Kremlin is never easy, and Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin’s expected resumption of the presidency next May has made it even harder. When Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin was forced to quit by President Dmitry A. Medvedev on Sept. 26, it added tothe uncertainty.

The departure of Kudrin, an economist respected by the West, spooked currency traders who drove the ruble to a two-year low against the dollar. Sergey Dergachev, who helps manage $8.5 billion of emerging-market debt at Union Investment Group in Frankfurt, says he’s cutting his exposure to Russian bonds because Kudrin’s exit “creates additional uncertainty on future budget and monetary policies.” Yet some big companies have grown to expect a little turmoil on the tundra. The day of Kudrin’s departure, Coca-Cola announced $3 billion of new projects in Russia. “It’s a big market, they see huge potential there,” says oligarch Alexander Lebedev, who owns part of Aeroflot and various media properties.