Shares in Transneft, the Russian oil pipeline monopoly, were trading down over 2 per cent on Friday morning, having slipped close to 6 per cent on Thursday after the Kremlin confirmed it would not be included in its planned $60bn in asset sales. But investors hoping to buy some of the assets on sale shouldn’t be too disheartened.

While a Transneft share sale would have increased the liquidity of the company’s traded stock, and, in idealists’ minds, perhaps have improved the company’s transparency, its exclusion from the short list will lend more seriousness to the rest of the government’s asset sale plans.