MOSCOW. Dec 26 (Interfax) – Growing production of shale oil and gas poses a significant risk to Russia’s economic security, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council has claimed. “Having increased its production of shale gas, the United States has reduced its imports of liquefied natural gas. So its exporters have switched over to Europe. In addition, in 2012 the United […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 25 (Interfax) – More than $1 trillion has been siphoned off from the Russian economy to offshore territories in the past 20 years, Russian Federation Council Chair Valentina Matviyenko said on Wednesday. “According to estimates by numerous experts, over $1 trillion worth of Russian capitals has been funneled to offshore jurisdictions in 20 years,” Matviyenko said in an […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 25 (Interfax) – Russia’s subsurface resource base allows the country to maintain oil production of 500 million tonnes a year for the next ten, given the current conditions, Natural Resources Minister Sergei Donskoi said during a meeting devoted to the ‘effectiveness of studying and developing raw hydrocarbons on Russia’s continental shelf.’ However, the minister said, if efforts are […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 25 (Interfax) – Consumer demand is the main driving force of a Russian economy that is slowing for internal reasons, Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said in an interview with the Rossiya 24 TV channel. “The main problems are our domestic ones. Low investment activity now complements export limitations. The only part of this engine that is in […]
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(RIA Novosti – December 23, 2013) Russia’s former Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Aleksey Kudrin has expressed concern that Ukraine may spend the funds provided by Russia only to cover its day-do-day expenses, in which case Kyiv will need more economic assistance in two years’ time. Kudrin was speaking at his end-of-year news conference at Russian state news agency […]
» Read more(Kremlin.ru – December 19, 2013) [DJ: Putin video http://eng.kremlin.ru/video/1680 with English interpretation] QUESTION: Jill Dougherty, CNN. Mr Putin, I worked in Russia in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and when I came back, I noticed that a lot of attention is being given to religion and moral values. I don’t remember it being like that. I would like to […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 20 (Interfax) – Russia needs to enact new measures to spur economic growth since the measures that have already been approved are insufficient, Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Klepach said at a briefing in Moscow on Thursday. “Those measures that have been approved are insufficient to accelerate growth. Therefore, I think that enactment of new measures is both […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Ben Aris in Moscow – December 20, 2013) [Full text with charts here http://www.bne.eu/story5634/OUTLOOK_2014_Russias_growth_model_runs_out_of_steam] bne: this report is in three parts. See the end of the page for links to the rest. Overview * Economic overview 2013 was a annus horribilis for Russia. Indeed, it was probably the worst year the country has been […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Nathan Gray – December 18, 2013) It was more than business that pulled banker Alexis Rodzianko to Russia in 1995. Eight decades earlier, his great-grandfather had chaired two sessions of the pre-Revolutionary Duma and conducted abdication negotiations with Tsar Nicholas II. Now Rodzianko had competing job offers between New York, London and Moscow. “The call […]
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MOSCOW, December 19 (RIA Novosti) Several top Russian companies have announced plans to reduce their use of offshore holding structures after President Vladimir Putin repeated calls for “deoffshorization” last week, according to a Russian newspaper report Thursday. Aluminum producer Rusal, telecoms giant MTS, truck maker Kamaz, state-owned hydroelectric conglomerate RusHydro and iron ore miner Metalloinvest have all made commitments […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, December 18, 2013) Russia’s banking sector has improved its financial indicators in 2013 and concerns over its stability are groundless, Elvira Nabiullina, chairwoman of the Central Bank of Russia, said on Wednesday [18 December] at a conference organized by the Association of Russian Banks. “Concerns over the stability of Russia’s banking sector are absolutely groundless,” she said. […]
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BRUSSELS. Dec 19 (Interfax) – High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, European Commission Vice President Catherine Ashton believes that the understandings between Ukraine and Russia reached in Moscow won’t hinder Kyiv’s further advancement along the road of European integration. At an extraordinary session of the European Parliament committee on foreign affairs in Brussels on Wednesday […]
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KYIV. Dec 18 (Interfax) – A Ukrainian opposition leader is concerned that President Viktor Yanukovych might have agreed with Russia on a $15-billion loan secured by Ukrainian strategic facilities. “According to some well-informed sources, a loan agreement for $15 billion secured by Ukrainian property has been signed,” opposition UDAR party leader Vitali Klitschko said at a demonstration on Tuesday. He […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Ben Aris in Moscow – December 18, 2013) Russian joke from the 1990s: Two Novy Russkis (New Russians) meet on the street. “Nice tie. How much did it cost?” the first asks the second. “Its Hermes. It cost a $100!” answers the second. “You’re crazy! I know where you can buy the same one […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin – December 18, 2013) Before Mayor Sergei Sobyanin came to power in 2010, Guram Bolkvadze, a businessman from Georgia, owned 24 kiosks at bus stops across Moscow. Then one day, he was given just a few hours to get his goods out of the shops before the bulldozers came in and leveled 18 […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Viktor Kuzmin, special to RBTH – December 18, 2013) The ruble’s value decreased 11 percent in 2013, making it a good time for foreign investors to invest or spend more money in Russia. With the Russian ruble devalued by 11 percent, experts say there are opportunities for foreign investors to earn money on […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anatoly Medetsky – December 18, 2013) Construction of a major pipeline kicked off Tuesday in an effort that will likely bring more oil from Siberia to China. Governor Lev Kuznetsov made a show at the starting ceremony in his Krasnoyarsk region, braving the rubber-bullet injury he suffered during a robbery of his southern French villa […]
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MOSCOW, December 18 (RIA Novosti) Russia is surprised by blatant attempts to pressure Ukraine into signing an association agreement with the European Union, Russia’s foreign minister said Wednesday. Sergei Lavrov said that pressure was continuing despite Kiev’s clear choice to develop closer ties with Moscow. He spoke a day after President Vladimir Putin agreed to cut the price of […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 18 (Interfax) – Russia’s Gazprom (MOEX: GAZP) and Naftogaz Ukraine, in the presence of the two countries’ presidents on Tuesday, signed addenda to January 19, 2009 contracts on the purchase-sale, delivery and transshipment of natural gas for 2009-2019. Discount President Vladimir Putin said after the signing that the documents would enable Gazprom to supply gas to Ukraine at […]
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(Kremlin.ru – December 17, 2013) Vladimir Putin met with President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych in the Kremlin. The meeting between the two heads of state was held prior to the session of the Russian-Ukrainian Interstate Commission. PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Mr Yanukovych, It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to Moscow. This is a regular meeting scheduled to […]
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(Kremlin.ru – December 17, 2013) PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Mr Yanukovych, colleagues, I have just had a very detailed discussion of practically all areas of our cooperation with President Yanukovych. Russia and Ukraine are strategic partners not on paper but in actual practice. We share a centuries-old friendship and the bond of having spent a long time living together […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Lilit Gevorgyan, IHS Global – December 18, 2013) Any form of aid is probably going to be a bandage on Ukraine’s economic troubles rather than a serious remedy. These troubles are a result of a toxic combination of domestic macroeconomic policy failures and unfavorable external demand for Ukrainian undiversified exports, which are heavily dependent […]
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BRUSSELS. Dec 17 (Interfax) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has denied that Russia pressed Ukraine to opt against signing a planned association agreement with the European Union. “We gave an honest warning, we didn’t blackmail anyone: the Commonwealth of Independent States treaty on the free trade zones has the reservation that, when a situation emerges that poses risks to […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – December 17, 2013) Below find the link to a new paper from academics Clifford G Gaddy and Barry W Ickes, the men that brought us the term “virtual economy” in the 1990s the defining idea of the Yeltsin-era. In this new paper the thesis is that Russia suffers from the oil curse, but the […]
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(Interfax – December 16, 2013) Russian presidential aide on economic issues Andrey Belousov has said that the efforts aimed at improving Russia’s business climate have so far not led to a breakthrough, the privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax reported on 16 December. “The euphoria we felt due to [Russia’s] advancement in the Doing Business ranking by almost 20 percentage points […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 17 (Interfax) – The reasons why measures to support economic growth are not working and why interest rates are not coming down need to be analyzed, Andrei Belousov, a Russian presidential aide, told reporters. “As regards [November] industrial output dynamics, the result is of course negative,” Belousov said. This is partly because the markets for metals, both ferrous […]
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(opendemocracy.net – December 14, 2013 – Ekaterina Loushnikova) Ekaterina Loushnikova is radio and print journalist based in the city of Kirov Over a century after Maksim Gorky’s famous play about homeless people ‘The Lower Depths’ Ekaterina Loushnikova has been looking around her home city of Kirov to see if anything has changed. The church porch I stood in […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – December 13, 2013) Chief Executive Officers from Russian companies are generally upbeat about the current state of Russia’s economy, but a large proportion have only moderate expectations for its future development prospects, a study conducted by executive search firm Stanton Chase International found. Over 85 percent of the survey’s participants assessed 2013 as successful, but […]
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KYIV. Dec 16 (Interfax) – Ukraine has made a final choice in its foreign policy vector – integration with Europe, Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said. “As we are told, the door to the European Union is open for us, same as the door of the Customs Union. That is very good, because we have a choice and we will […]
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(Interfax – December 16, 2013) Major foreign business has been recently concerned mostly about the psychological and political aspects in Russia, not with the business climate itself, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said on Monday when speaking at the conference “100 Steps Towards Favorable Investment Climates. Achievements and New Challenges” organized by the Vedomosti newspaper. “I have recently […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – December 16, 2013) Affordable housing remains a dream for most Russian families, whose average monthly income is not enough for a mortgage to buy even a half of a two-bedroom apartment, according to research conducted by Finexpertiza consulting firm. A survey by the Public Opinion Foundation, showed that a two-bedroom apartment is the “Russian dream,” […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin – December 16, 2013) The era of the brash New Russian has ended. Neither heavy gold chains nor massive Rolex watches enthrall the Russian consumer as they did at the dawn of capitalism in the 1990s, although quality is preferred and people are willing to pay for it, according to a survey released […]
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(Interfax – December 16, 2013) Russia has not yet managed to achieve a radical breakthrough on the issue of improving its business climate, the Russian president’s aide on economic issues, Andrei Belousov believes. “The euphoria from the nearly 20 percent advancement in the Doing Business rating passed about three hours after we found out the results,” Belousov said on Monday […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Alexandra Kulikova, special to RBTH – December 12, 2013) In early December Adam Smith Conferences held the 20th anniversary Russian Banking Forum in London aimed at looking at what the future holds for Russia’s banks. The timing of the Russian Banking Forum this year was perfect to have a feel of the expert […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 12 (Interfax) – Initiatives to “de-offshore” the Russian economy, as voiced in President Vladimir Putin’s annual address to the Federal Assembly on Thursday, will make it possible to secure additional budget revenue totaling “tens of billions of rubles,” Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said. “I think it will be tens of billions of rubles,” Siluanov told journalists on Thursday. […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 12 (Interfax) – The economic focus of the Russian president’s address to the Federal Assembly derives from the challenges faced by contemporary Russia and some of the presidential ideas will determine the national development vector for the next few years to come, State Duma deputy, United Russia General Council Deputy Secretary Olga Batalina said. “The address was largely […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – MOSCOW BLOG – December 13, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin gave his state of the nation speech on December 12 where he laid out his plans for the coming year. In a nutshell he called for decentralisation and for the regions to take more responsibility for promoting their local economies. These speeches are important […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber – December 13, 2013) President Vladimir Putin capped off a year of aggressively seeking to fill the government’s coffers by announcing Thursday that the government would begin to tax Russian offshore companies and no longer support foreign-registered enterprises. Praising Russia’s improving business environment, Putin also used his annual Constitution Day speech to highlight […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 12 (Interfax) – Former Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin agrees with President Vladimir Putin that the reasons for the economic slowdown in Russia are internal, rather than external in nature. “The president absolutely correctly noted that the reasons for our economic stagnation are internal,” Kudrin wrote on Twitter on Thursday. He also agreed with the view Putin stated […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 9 (Interfax) – The economic amnesty declared in Russia has been applied to almost 1,500 people already, Russian business commissioner Boris Titov said. “As of today, a total of 1,479 people have been amnestied,” Titov said during a conference in Moscow on Monday. The possibilities of the amnesty are not exhausted yet, Titov said. “We are not completing […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 9 (Interfax) – The Russian Ministry of Economic Development says it considers it wrong to give unrealistically upbeat forecasts, Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev told journalists in Moscow on Monday. Ulyukayev was commenting on a statement by presidential aide on economic issues Andrei Belousov that the Economic Development Ministry and Finance Ministry are not looking for additional reserves […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Yulia Ponomareva, RBTH – December 6, 2013) Foreign entrepreneurs talk about the pros and cons of working in Moscow. In an effort to find more ways to attract foreign investors to Russia’s capital, Moscow authorities asked several current expat businessmen to give their assessment of the pros and cons of starting a business […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Lena Smirnova – December 9, 2013) Moscow will get a new master plan by 2015 to reflect its forthcoming transformation into a polycentric city, in which peripheral areas become alternative hubs for work and cultural activities, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said at the third annual Moscow Urban Forum. Wrapping up on Saturday, the forum brought together […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anatoly Medetsky – December 6, 2013) President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said the government would have to improve the country’s economic performance in order to fulfill his campaign promises. He also complained that his tap water was sometimes brown from rusty pipes. Putin’s decrees from May last year, which seek to raise living standards, have […]
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KYIV. Dec 5 (Interfax) – Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has assured German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle that Ukraine is determined to continue its efforts on the path towards European integration, noting, however, that extremists and neo-Nazis are obstructing this process. Azarov and Westerwelle met during the 20th session of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Kyiv on Thursday, and the […]
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MOSCOW, December 6 (RIA Novosti) Russia’s Finance Ministry predicted serious difficulties Friday for the budget in 2016 and 2017 as slowing economic growth means there will be insufficient funds available to honor spending commitments. Short term and long term growth forecasts for the Russian economy have been cut repeatedly this year, with officials warning Russia is entering a period […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Marina Maksimova, special to RBTH – Deccember 5, 2013) The Russian Central Bank has revoked the license of several large banks as part of what it says is a fight against corruption and a shadow economy. Banking industry experts are worried that the Central Bank’s efforts to clean up Russia’s shadow economy could […]
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NOVO-OGARYOVO. Dec 4 (Interfax) – President Vladimir Putin ruled out the idea of boosting the tax burden on ordinary citizens in order to resolve problems facing entrepreneurs. The president criticized a proposal to collect additional budget funds to create infrastructure for housing construction, for example, by introducing an excise tax on soda pop. “Don’t do that. This means that a […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 5 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he is convinced that the targets set by his decrees issued in May 2012 can still be achieved despite today’s recession and a slow pace of economic growth. “I am certain that we can and should fulfill them,” Putin said at the Russian Popular Front’s conference. “These decrees are […]
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(Kremlin.ru – December 4, 2013) Vladimir Putin held a meeting of the Presidential Economic Council. PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon colleagues, Two years ago at the Business Russia congress, we launched the National Business Initiative. We set the goal then of creating a comfortable environment for doing business in the regions and in the country in general. We […]
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