Crisis or not, companies in Russia are splashing out on advertising. Ad spend is expected to show a double digit growth of 16.5 percent in 2012, according to a survey by the UK-based WARC marketing information service. In 2011 about $10.4bn was spent on adverting in Russia and is expected to reach over $12.2bn by next year. This is a bigger increase than the projected 14% growth in India and 11.5% in China.

Tens of thousands of largely middle class protesters, warmly bundled up against -20 degree temperatures paraded through Moscow on Saturday calling for Putin to go. The main anti-government opposition march and demonstration in support of “Fair Elections” in Bolotnaya Square in Moscow attracted some 50,000 protestors whose main demands were the cancellation of the December Duma elections and the resignation of the Central Election Commission chief Vladimir Churov. They also called for the release of political prisoners. The rally was attended by billionaire presidential candidate Mikhail Prokhorov.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called an urgent meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin and deputy chairmen of Gazprom Management Committee Alexander Medvedev and Andrei Kruglov which concluded with the prime minister giving instructions to exert maximum efforts to satisfy foreign partners' demand while the top priority of the energy industry in general and Gazprom in particular is to meet demand inside the Russian Federation. Transcript of the meeting as provided by the Prime Minister's press service on the government web site:

After a brief introduction by Troika Dialogue chairman Ruben Vardanian, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin began his speech to the Russia Forum 2012 in Moscow by comparing the mood at the recent Davos conference with that in Moscow. He surmised that the mood in the Russian capital was much more optimistic and positive. Moscow has fought and overcome the 2008 crisis. Unemployment is just 1%, investment is growing at a healthy pace, average life expectancy has risen to 75, and the birth rate now exceeds the mortality rate. However, the ill effects of the European crisis are being felt in many sectors, especially the financial sector. The development strategy for Moscow is aimed at transforming the city into a global megapolis and a regional development center.

Participants of the panel discussion at the Russia Forum 2012 in Moscow, entitled “The Future of the Global Economy and Financial System” gave the Eurozone a disappointing diagnosis: geopolitical measures will not help correct the situation; immediate surgical intervention is necessary.

TexDrive announced the start of its first leading high-tech business acceleration programme in Eastern Europe and CIS to produce global and impactful companies from the best start-ups of the region following such examples as Yandex, IPG Photonics, Mail.ru Group, Skype, Kaspersky Labs and Badoo. For the first programme, TexDrive has selected seven high potential projects from over 500 applicants. The programme participants cover a wide range of industries including medical, Internet, software, energy and industrial automation.

Bankrupt Malev Airlines of Hungary suspended operations from 06.00 this morning and one of the many route casualties was Budapest - St. Petersburg in Russia for which the Hungarian airline operated a monopoly with four flights a week.

Transcript (from Prime Minister's web site)

Vladimir Putin’s address to the Russia Forum 2012:

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr Gref (German Gref, President and Chairman of Sberbank) said that we have some outstanding speakers here. I don’t consider myself to be one of them – there are better speakers in Russia. He also quoted a Chinese proverb, and I thought of another one: To see farther, you must sit higher. Considering my current position, I think I have the right to put forth the government’s view of processes that are taking place in the world, in the global economy, on what we consider Russia's place to be, and our economic policies.

While the ease of communication via social networks has facilitated the rapid spread of protest movements, the underlying cause is a failure of expectations and a loss of hope, especially among young people. Fixing that problem will take many years and will for a long time to come sustain the uncertainty that has affected global markets, according to speakers at the Troika Dialogue Russia Forum 2012 in Moscow.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at the opening of the Troika Dialogue Russia Forum 2012 made a bold pledge to liberalise the Russian economy, telling delegates that he if he's elected president in March, then his administration would push for Russia to rise from 120th place on the World Bank's "Doing Business" survey to 20th.