Two leading Western business magazines, BusinessWeek and The Economist, are set to launch Russian-language versions due to the West's increasing interest in the local market, Izvestia, a respected daily, said Thursday.

Alexei Volin, the president of the Rodionov publishing house that would publish the Russian version of BusinessWeek, said the house's another publication, Profil, had long been cooperating with BusinessWeek.

The Independent Media publishing house, which also publishes the Moscow Times English-language daily, would soon release the Russian-language version of The Economist, Izvestia said.

A number of leading Western publications already have their Russian-language editions, from Newsweek to Cosmopolitan and Vogue.

Publishing Expo 2005, the first professional exhibition of Russia's publishing sector, has been held in Moscow this week. The event gathered the leading Russian publishers and Western experts who exchanged experience during seminars on the future of the press in Russia.

"The West now is very interested in the new Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, who in the opinion of many foreign publications remains a very reserved and nonpublic person," one of the fair organizers said.