VENTURE CAPITAL POST

For Boris Lisitsyn, Russia's financial crisis means less meat, cheese and sausage - hardships the 86-year-old says won't kill him anytime soon.

EU finance ministers agreed on Tuesday to loan Ukraine 1.8 billion euros ($2.0 billion) to help save it from bankruptcy, leaving open the option of increasing aid at a later stage.

Ratings agency S&P cut Russia's sovereign credit rating to junk status on Monday, bringing it below investment grade for the first time in a decade.

Russian banks with at least 25 billion roubles in capital and willing to increase lending to key sectors of the economy will be able to participate in a 1 trillion rouble ($15.65 billion) recapitalization plan, Russia announced on Friday.

Low borrowing costs, currency shifts and the hunt for both cost savings and growth opportunities will drive a steady flow of merger and acquisition deals this year despite geopolitical tensions, according to business leaders meeting this week.

Oil services giant Schlumberger plans to buy a 45.65 percent stake in Eurasia Drilling for about $1.7 billion, potentially paving the way for it to become the sole owner of Russia's most active oilfield services company.

German utility RWE will complete the sale of oil and gas unit DEA [RWEDE.UL] to Russian tycoon Mikhail Fridman by early March, it said on Friday, easing fears of a potential collapse.

Growing damage from Russia's financial crisis on neighboring former Soviet states could bury President Vladimir Putin's dream of creating an economic union to rival the United States and European Union.

Russia's credit rating looks set to tumble into junk for the first time in more than a decade, a move that would exclude its bonds from a couple of high-profile indexes and may set off another wave of capital outflows.

Russia's 2014 oil output hit a post-Soviet record high average of 10.58 million barrels per day (bpd), rising by 0.7 percent helped by small non-state producers, Energy Ministry data showed on Friday.

Russian authorities are facing some unpalatable options as they try to keep the economy afloat - unless they can persuade President Vladimir Putin to curb massive military spending.

Russia's economy shrank sharply in November and the rouble resumed its slide on Monday as Western sanctions and a slump in oil prices combined to inflict the first contraction in GDP since the global financial crisis.

Russia has agreed on a new deal to supply coal and electricity to Ukraine, which is struggling with a lack of raw fuel for power plants due to a separatist conflict in the industrial east, Russian officials said on Saturday.

Ukraine's parliament gave preliminary approval on Thursday to a law that would simplify tax legislation and impose additional duties on imports, in an effort to raise revenue amid economic crisis.

Geopolitics plague Lithuanians at this frozen Russian border post, where a return trip by car can mean 48 hours of queuing. It is a reminder for some of why the former Soviet republic will cement its move to the West by joining the euro zone next month.