DAVOS-UPDATE 1-Russia VTB will seek Norilsk board seat-CEO

* VTB bank seeks seat on Norilsk Nickel board

* Bank's exposure to Norilsk shares "high"

* CEO expects shareholder backing for Norilsk seat

(Adds details, background)

By Guy Faulconbridge

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 28 (Reuters) - VTB (VTBR.MM), Russia's second-largest bank, will seek a seat on the board of Norilsk Nickel (GMKN.MM) to back its large exposure to the world's top nickel miner, the bank's head said on Wednesday.

"We hope to receive one seat (on the board of Norilsk), since our bank's exposure to Norilsk and its shares is high," VTB President and Chief Executive Andrei Kostin told Reuters.

"I think the main shareholders will support us," he said.

State-controlled Russian banks have bailed out several steel and metal companies, which have been overwhelmed by debts taken out in more prosperous times, after the global economic slowdown hit demand for their products and forced them to cut output.

State-controlled VTB has taken a stake in Norilsk, Russia's largest mining company, as collateral on a loan, Russian media have reported.

Vedomosti business daily reported on Monday that VTB extended a $3.2 billion loan to Vladimir Potanin, the billionaire who owns the largest financial interest in Norilsk, on condition that the bank receive a seat on the board.

Neither VTB nor Potanin has independently confirmed this.

State influence is already growing at Norilsk, a company built on the Arctic labour camps of Soviet leader Josef Stalin that has evolved to supply one-fifth of the world's nickel.

Kremlin deal-broker Alexander Voloshin, chief of staff to late President Boris Yeltsin, became chairman last month after another large shareholder, aluminium firm United Company RUSAL, put its stake up as collateral on a $4.5 billion loan from state bank VEB.

Potanin and Deripaska, UC RUSAL's majority owner and chief executive, have also proposed pooling their metals assets with those of other Russian miners to create a huge entity that would be part-owned by the Kremlin and wipe out their debts. [ID:nLJ564569]

The government has insisted it will not use collateralised assets to increase long-term control of the economy.