The Russians have a term for boorish behavior, nyekulturny, uncultured. And the word fits the behavior of the new international Russian oligarchs and friends of Putin.

New York Medicaid, a program for the poor, was used by Russian diplomats from the UN Delegation, the Consulate-General, and the trade delegation to avoid having to pay for prenatal care and delivery of their babies. The NYC Attorney-General is trying to claw back the costs from diplomats who also spent wildly on luxury goods from Prada and Cartier with some of the money they cheated the city out of.

In London meanwhile, Russians took over the Royal Albert Hall. The Cromwell Road was full of Bentleys dropping off gorgeously gowned and bejewelled debs coming to the fete celebrating the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Romanoff dynasty. They were welcomed by a blessing from a Russian Orthodox Archimandrite in gorgeous vestments and by a speech from the Russian ambassador. Then the lovelies and their selected escorts bowed and curtsied before some contendor before dancing the night away and swilling champagne just as if Lenin had never removed the decadent Tsars. Our reporter on the event called it bizarre. I call it nyekulturny.

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*Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS), AKA Scotiabank, the last big lender to report on Q4 (to Oct. 31, a traditional close-of-fiscal-year date for Canadian and German banks), said profits rose 12% thanks to its takeover of ING Groep’s Canadian business which led to record earnings in consumer loans to Canadians. It also gained from money management business. Net BNS income for the fiscal climbed to C$1.7 bn (cUS$1.6 bn), or C$1.30 a share, from C$1.52 bn, or C$1.18, a year earlier, missing by a loony penny. However, adjusted earnings, excluding some items, met the C$1.31 average estimate of 13 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

ING, an online bank (bought in Nov. 2012) added about 1.8 mn customers and will now be renamed "Tangerine", saving money because ING used orange as its identifier color. Earnings from Scotiabank’s wealth-management unit jumped 9.7% from higher mutual-fund and insurance revenue and because rising equity markets increased assets.

BNS initially fell 0.6% but recovered. It is up 9.6% YTD, vs the 13% of the Standard & Poor’s/TSX Commercial Banks Index. Scotiabank set aside C$329 mn for bad loans, up marginally from last year's Q4. Profit from Canadian consumer banking surged 23% to C$593 mn.

However, earnings from international banking gained only 3% to C$467 mn. Earnings from global banking and markets fell 13% to C$344 mn, as underwriting and advisory fees fell 7.6%. BNS operates in over 55 countries with a focus on Latin America (and Thailand) and investment banking. Our main reason for owning Scotiabank is its foreign (rather than US) focus.

Revenues rose 11% in the quarter to C$5.4 bn. Net income from wealth management and insurance rose to C$329 mn. New CEO Brian Porter who took over from Richard Waugh has not yet been able to change BNS's business model. He said: “Existing businesses performed very well with an increased margin, lower loan-loss provisions and strong asset growth.” The dividend was kept flat.

*Dundee Corp CEO Ned Goodman, agreed to join the board of directors of Barrick Gold (ABX). "I am delighted to have been invited to join the board of Barrick at this time, and I look forward to working with management and the board to return the company to, once again, being the biggest and best gold mining corporation in the world," Mr. Goodman, a powerful voice for Bay Street, said. I expect conflict.

"We are distinctly positioned over the next decade or two, if we can execute, to take what's been built and not only extend it as the world's leading gold miner, but also to take a very serious look at copper, which we are in and possibly minerals beyond that too," new Chairman John Thornton said after founder Peter Munk was ousted as co-Chairman. He is known for his ambition to turn Barrick into a diversified miner like Rio Tinto or BHP Billiton. Thornton is also a financial engineer and likely to seek to use sale of participations (to China as has been bruited) or the forward sale of gold to ease ABX's capital shortfalls.

*Y Franco se va paseo? The Spanish govt may use 5 bn euros ($6.7 bn) to take over the debt of 585 kilometers of roads which are not collecting enough tolls to repay the banks, Bloomberg reports. Said Jose Garcia Montalvo, an economics professor at Pompeu Fabra U (Barcelona): “You don’t need to worry if something goes wrong, the government will come to the rescue.”

While the road companies are controlled by main Spanish rich families like the Del Pino, Florentino Perez, and Koplowitz clans the rescue is not an attempt to win their favor. It is required under a law dating from 1972 during the rule of Generalisimmo Francisco Franco. It stipulates that when a private highway goes bust, the state has to repay its owners for the cost of the land and the construction.

The bailout will be structured into a new company to avoid increasing Madrid's budget deficit. The ultimate beneficiaries will be the banks which lent to the oligarchs, including Santander. SAN and other banks will extend the highway loan maturities by up to 20 years on the euros 3.75 bn owed and top it up with the 5 bn.

*Meanwhile our other Spaniard, Telefonica (TEF), won concessionary terms compared to other holders when Telecom Italia converted some bonds. This is also an unsurprising relic of fascism.

*Ecopetrol (EC) will boost oil production to 25,000 bbls/day at its new, promising and, wholly-ownded Eastern Caño Sur oil block as part of its efforts to boost production by 30% to 1 mn barrels/d by 2015. The govt controlled oil firm will invest $656 mn and bring on some 135 new wells.

*Am Bev merged its common and pref shares and split them 5:1 but depositary Bank of NY Mellon is unaware of this. It reports on its website that ABEV has lost 80% of its value YTD.

*Coverage of Nokia (NOK) was started at Overweight by JPMorgan.

*Hadasit shares are up 16.3% in US trading today. This stock, from the biotech startup funding entity of Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospitals, is very nilliquid. It is more likely to move on a Friday (when Tel Aviv is closed). Do not sell into this market even to take a loss. HADSY.

*JF China Region Fund decided to include the JPMorgan branding in its name, given that Jardine Fleming's brand no longer exists. From tomorrow the fund will change its name to JPMorgan China Region Fund, and will trade under its new name starting Friday the 13th which is okay under Chinese feng shui, with the same ticker symbol. Its website address will become www.jpmchinaregion.com at some point. There is no commitment to improve how it reports net asset value, however.