PepsiCo has just announced a massive $1 billion dollar Russian investment over a three-year time frame.

The new $1 billion investment brings Pepsi’s total investment in Russia to $4 billion, according to a statement released by Pepsi today.

Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi said today, “This investment reflects very clearly our great confidence in Russia and our long-term commitment to this very important market,”

Read the full story

RIM will begin selling its BlackBerry device for the first time directly in Russia with OAO Mobile TeleSystems, Russia’s biggest telecom. Reportedly, the BlackBerry Curve will be offered for 20,000 rubles (about US $500) and will be available in two weeks from now. OAO Mobile TeleSystems says the BlackBerry service it will provide will be the same as any other country. The device will be locked to the carrier. According to the Kommersant, a Russian news agency, mobile phone sales were down to $819 million in Q1 this year, the lowest level in five years in the same period.

Update: President Obama rejected the claims of replacing the dollar as the global reserve currency. Obama said that the United States is considered “the strongest economy in the world with the most stable political system,” and described the dollar as “extraordinarily strong”.

Zhou Xiaochuan, the governor of the Chinese Central Bank, is calling to replace the dollar as the main global reserve currency, citing the dangers of the current economic crisis on heavily relying on one currency essentially controlled by the west.

Zhou said, “A super-sovereign reserve currency managed by a global institution could be used to both create and control global liquidity.” Read the full story

Russian Prime Minister Putin has just threatened to cut natural gas supplies to Ukraine and Europe if Ukraine does not pay outstanding payments to Russia by Saturday. The threat was made during a television cabinet meeting. Russia has been in a long-standing dispute with Ukraine, alleging the country owes Russia millions.

Ukraine says it is unable to make payments after Gazprom, the Russian owned energy company, doubled the price to Ukraine over 2008 and 2007 to about $100 per 1,000 cubic meters of energy. Russia subsequently blocked gas supplies to the country and parts of Europe during the cold January winter.

Russia and china have just inked an energy deal in Beijing. Under the plan, Russia will provide 300,000 barrels of oil per day for the next 20 years to China. China in return will provide loans to two Russian companies. Russian oil producer Rosneft will get $15 billion in loans, while the Russian energy company Transneft will get $10 billion in capital. Both of the Russian companies have been struggling to gain access to capital and continue to underperform from slumping prices.

Russia said today it saw the biggest drop in more than 15 years in industrial production, which was down 16% in January 2009 compared to January 2008. Gas production was also down 10% during the same period. Russia’s auto industry also took a big hit, with production down 79.7% YoY in January 2009. Russia is also under fire for its protectionist car plan that would subsidize domestic made cars by covering shipping costs to make them readily accessible across Russia.

Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin announced today Russia would pump $40 billion into its troubled domestic banks, part of the funds going to Russia’s biggest bank VTB. Kudrin said, “We’re facing some very difficult challenges. So certainly the forecast for Russia at the moment is worse now than at the end of 2008…” Rating agencies including Fitch have downgraded Russia’s sovereign ratings as well too BBB.

Gazprom Energy Company has ceased providing natural gas to Ukraine after the country stopped gas payments. Gazprom has a perfect monopoly in the Russian natural gas market. Gazprom doubled the price to Ukraine over 2008 and 2007 to about $100 per 1,000 cubic meters of energy. Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller said “Gazprom will continue supplying gas for its consumers in Europe at full volume,” and Europe supply will not be affected. Until this dispute is resolved, Ukraine says the country will use its own supplies to ensure everyone is covered during the cold Ukrainian winter. Ukraine says they simply cannot afford the new price. The White House does not support the blockage and would like to see this issue resolved.

Russian PM Putin today in Naberezhniye announced Russia’s plan to encourage sales of Russian made vehicles to help its domestic troubled car makers. Under the proposed plan, the Russian government wants its people to only purchase domestic cars, and would fully cover the costs to ship domestic cars across Russia to make them readily accessible. Under the plan, the government would also subsidize loans on cars less than USD $13,000. The plan has been criticized as the plan is too expensive and it simply doesn’t make economic sense to move vehicles across all of Russia. There are also concerns about the heavy government involvement in people’s lives. According to a recent report by Pricewaterhouse Coopers, less than 50% of cars sold in Russia were domestically made. Recently, the Russian government also introduced prohibitive tariffs on imported cars which have resulted in many protests. Aggregately, car sales in Russia are expected to drop by as much as almost 50% in 2009 because of the economic crisis and high unemployment.