Otkritie, the Russian brokerage firm, has made two senior appointments for the Russian and Commonwealth of Independent States markets, the firm said in a statement.

Howard Snell, the former UK chief executive of Troika Dialog, has joined Otkritie as a London-based director. He will be responsible for the firm’s UK business strategy. In addition, he will focus on corporate and investor relations.

Nicholas Richmond, meanwhile, has joined Otkritie as director and head of equity trading, based in Moscow.

Mr Snell made himself a name in the industry when he oversaw the launch of Troika’s UK and European business in 2003.

At Troika, the Russian bank, Mr Snell headed its UK subsidiary, which dealt with European equity and fixed income brokerage, private banking, asset management and corporate finance businesses.

Prior to joining Troika, Mr Snell was responsible for debt capital market origination for Russia and CIS countries at UBS.

Mr Richmond has held a number of senior roles focusing primarily on Russian trading. He was previously a vice president at JP Morgan and head of Russian trading. 

“We are delighted to have hired two of the Russian investment industry’s most respected and experienced practitioners. Their appointments are further evidence of the aggressive growth plans we have as a business,” said Roman Lokhov, the chief executive at Otkritie Securities.

“Building on the success of our Direct Market Access product, Howard and Nicholas will help propel us to the next level by further growing our market share and firmly establishing Otkritie at the forefront of Russian brokerage market,” he added.

So far this year, Otkritie has gained 100 new Russian and international institutional clients and has recruited 12 analysts from leading brokerages across Russia, the firm said in a statement. Its trading volumes doubled month on month for the first six months of 2009, with its total exchange traded volume reaching $6.5 billion.