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VTB Head Blames Press for Political Worries

The concerns of foreign businesses regarding the political situation in Russia are mostly the result of reports in the the Western press, head of state-run bank VTB Andrei Kostin said Thursday, Interfax reported.

Investors "on the whole" are confident that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will win the upcoming presidential election and that Putin will institute reforms and modernize the economy, Kostin said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

But foreign businessmen "are worrying a little about political processes [in Russia]," he said.

"But I think that is largely created by media in the West, here they've laid it on thick," Kostin said, Interfax reported.

However, he said the attitude of foreign investors toward Russia was positive.

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