The Russian government has decided to disinvest its stakes from will sell stakes in two of its biggest state-owned banks in February 2007. The government expects to raise a total of about $12 billion through the stake sale in Sberbank and VTB.

As Russia's economic and business growth is attracting investors, the government has been divesting its stakes in some of its largest state enterprises. Among the prominent sales this year was its divestment of $10.4 billion worth of shares in energy its firm Rosneft.

The government's stake sale from from Sberbank, Russias's largest bank, is expected to raise $7.6 billion, while the second the second largest bank, VTB, would try to raise the remainder.

Moreover, Russia's economy has been expanding steadily boosted by the rising oil and natural gas and also and metals and commodities, which has led to higher consumers incomes. This has also led to growing investor interest in Russian enterprises.

However, after Shell having been forced to sell half its stake in the $22-billion Sakhlin 11 oil and gas project to the Russian government, investors have been expressing concern over protection to their investments.(See: )