“I emphasized the very high priority that President Obama attaches to doing everything that the U.S. can to help Russia achieve accession to the WTO and the graduation from Jackson-Vanik this year, 2011,” U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns told Interfax.

Russia and the E.U. are becoming connected to each other more and more, Barroso said, commenting on the results of a visit to Brussels by a delegation of the Russian government led by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

OAO Sberbank’s Deputy Chairman and Chief Financial Officer Anton Karamzin said the bank, Russia’s biggest, now expects higher profits this year than it had been forecasting, as it maintains its margins and grows corporate loans.

Chairman of Sberbank of Russia German Gref expects the Russian economy to grow rapidly. “I think that Russia has a unique opportunity for rapid growth in the middle and long term range,” Gref said at a Troika Dialog forum.

The Central Bank of Russia predicts inflation for this year will be 6-7 percent. “We figure 0.6 percent in March, but in general we think it is possible to keep within our range of 6-7  percent,” Central Bank of Russia Chairman Sergei Ignatyev said at a government presidium meeting.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and other top officials discussed a universal ID-payments card that will be issued from January 1, 2012 at an estimated cost of 135 billion – 165 billion roubles and will enable their users to pay for goods and services in Russia and abroad and possibly even vote.