Salans has boosted its Russian IT practice with the hire of a partner from Beiten Burkhardt.

Victor Naumov, who headed up the St Petersburg IT team at Beiten, left the German independent last week and is accompanied to Salans by four associates. He will lead Salans' intellectual property (IP), IT and telecoms practice in Russia.

Naumov, who focuses on areas including the internet and intellectual property, is co-chairman of the IT committee of the American Chamber of Trade & Commerce in St Petersburg and is a member of the Russian Government's IP protection council.

The news comes after Salans, which has done IP work in Russia since launching in the country in 1991, last month opened a German desk in its Hungary office. The desk was launched with the hire of Noerr Stiefenhofer Lutz partner Andreas Koehler in Budapest, where he will join the firm's real estate and employment practice group.

The move comes as part of a push by Salans to increase cross-selling between the firm's German and Hungarian client bases, with investment flows between the countries particularly strong in the M&A mid-market.