Moscow City Hall has allocated $190 per month for every stray dog housed in its animal shelters in 2010. But a review of documents obtained by The Moscow Times found that stray dogs are part of a lucrative — and extremely murky — business that has helped enrich a relative of at least one senior city official.

The government is counting on foreign investors to help it privatize an estimated $29 billion in assets to reduce the state's "excessive" presence in the economy, Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina said.