By Oksana Kobzeva and Megan Davies MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's second-largest bank VTB <VTBR.MM> was set to push ahead with a 100 billion rouble $3.2 billion (2 billion pounds) share sale in the coming weeks to bolster its capital, even as its shares languish after a series of strategic missteps.

Chelsea football club owner and superyacht enthusiast Roman Abramovich slipped out of the top 10 richest Russians in Forbes magazine's 2013 ranking published on Thursday. The flamboyant steel, mining, real estate and telecommunications tycoon has lost $1.9 billion of his fortune and is now worth just $10.2 billion, enough for 13th place, the Forbes list said. Forbes did not explain Abramovich's fall. He is noted for having one of the world's largest yachts that he uses to travel the world, and which recently docked in New York for the birth of his son.

Russia's economic ministry on Thursday slashed the country's 2013 growth forecast to 2.4 percent from 3.6 percent amid a slowdown in both industrial output and consumer demand. Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Klepach also lowered the direct investment growth outlook to 4.6 percent from 6.5 percent. Klepach attributed the downgrades to flat Russian export growth that analysts blame on stalling industries and slowing business investments.

Swedish telecoms operator Tele2 on Thursday announced it had agreed to sell its Russian subsidiary to Russian state bank VTB, but competitors said they could make a better offer. Tele2 said earlier it has agreed to sell Tele2 Russia, Russia's fourth mobile operator, to VTB in a cash transaction comprising $2.4 billion in equity value and $1.1 billion in net debt. It said the sale of Tele2 Russia is expected to close shortly but the Alfa group of Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman immediately contested the terms.