Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said he will deposit his salary in a shady bank targeted by western sanctions. The bank deals a lot with the Kremlin and Russian energy businesses, including Gazprom. “Little has been known about Bank Rossiya, which has risen to become the country’s 15th largest bank by assets last year from 54th in just six years. Kovalchuk, the largest shareholder in the St Petersburg-based bank is a close Putin ally. The friendship between the two dates back to the early 1990s, when Putin served as deputy mayor of St Petersburg.” [Reuters]

In case you missed it, the Wall Street Journal detailed the trials and tribulations of the giant Kashagan oil field development project in Kazakhstan. If you’ve been following the consortium’s efforts there is not much new in the story, but some of the historical details are interesting, and so is the fact that a leaky pipeline appears to be responsible for shutting the operation down, while the more technically complex components are reportedly functioning quite well. “While the sides negotiate fixes and penalties, Mr. Karabalin, the oil minister, said he is struck that companies brought in for their engineering prowess were thwarted by a plumbing failure. ‘It’s annoying that the simplest piece of equipment in the project is the one that failed,’ he said.” [Wall Street Journal]

The always outspoken David Crane – NRG CEO – took a shot at the aging US power grid in a statement announcing the company’s acquisition of one of the country’s largest residential solar companies. NRG is working hard to embrace distributed generation as part of its quest to be the “Apple” of the utility industry. “With residential solar sales expected to take off in the next few years, NRG wants and expects to meet the demand of Americans in every state who are seeking to benefit from the inexhaustible supply of clean energy provided by the sun while affording themselves greater independence from an increasingly less reliable electric grid,” said Crane. [Fuel Fix]