Norilsk Nickel has been named as one of the most transparent major Russian enterprises, it has been announced.

Standard & Poor conducts research annually into the information transparency of Russian companies, examining the policies of 60 businesses.

Results this year were encouraging, as the rate of transparency among the businesses has risen from 34 per cent to 39 per cent, with Norilsk named specifically as one of the best performers.

This is largely due to the circumstances of this year's purchase by Norilsk of the American pgm firm Stillwater Mining.

US authorities could have blocked the deal, as secretive accounting threatened to prevent a reliable analysis of its implications for competition laws.

Much of the opacity of Russian industry can be seen as a hangover from the Soviet era, with many production and other records listed as state secrets.