The Russian government is setting up a $10bn fund to co-invest with leading international private equity firms in an effort to attract foreign capital to the country, and has asked Goldman Sachs informally to guide the project, according to people familiar with the matter.

Separately, Russia is also creating a committee to advise Dmitry Medvedev, Russian president, on transforming Moscow into an international financial centre. Members will include Goldman’s chief executive Lloyd Blankfein, Blackstone’s founder Steve Schwarzman, Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase and Brian Moynihan of Bank of America, as well as representatives from BNP Paribas and UniCredit among others.

The $10bn fund initiative comes directly from Mr Med-vedev, these people add. The firms that have been app-roached include Apollo Management, Blackstone and Carlyle among others and each is considering its response.