Russia’s Duma approves $86 bln of crisis measures

Russia's lower house of parliament, the Duma, on Friday approved two anti-crisis packages worth a total of $86 billion at the third and final reading. The packages include making available $50 billion of state money to banks and companies who need to refinance foreign debt, and giving 950 billion roubles ($36.31 billion) to Russia's key banks in subordinated loans.