Merrill Lynch has made two new hires to boost its coverage of Russian equities. Erik Mielke was previously an oil and gas analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, while Alexander Gladyshev is the former head of investor relations at Yukos, the Russian energy group.

As part of the emerging Europe and South Africa team, Mielke and Gladyshev will work on emerging European oils, with a particular focus on Russia.