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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MOSCOW. Dec 3 (Interfax) – Sberbank of Russia (MOEX: SBER) President and CEO German Gref has taken a seat on the public council of the Economic Development Ministry, the ministry he headed in 2000-2007. The makeup of the board is contained in an instruction from Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev. Deputy Economic Development Minister and State Secretary Oleg Fomichev will […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – December 3, 2013) Sberbank CEO German Gref has joined the Economic Development Ministry’s public council, returning to a ministry that he headed from 2000 to 2007. The council’s membership, ratified by current Minister Alexei Ulyukayev, includes magnates Viktor Vekselberg and Alexei Mordashov as representatives of large-scale private enterprise. The heads of the Russian Union of […]
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BALI. Dec 3 (Interfax) – The ninth WTO ministerial conference in Bali will not resolve all the problems of the Doha Round, but even if it ends in failure the World Trade Organization “will not disappear – if only because there is no alternative to it,” Russian Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said in an interview with Interfax before the […]
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BALI. Dec 3 (Interfax) – Russia’s Economic Development Ministry has lowered its forecast for economic growth this year from 1.8% to 1.4%, for 2014 from 3.0% to 2.5%, and for 2015 from 3.1% to 2.8%, Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev told the press on the sidelines of the WTO conference in Bali on Tuesday. Ulyukayev said he expects Q4 GDP […]
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(Interfax – Gorki, December 2, 2013) Stable economic growth still has not been achieved in Russia, Prime Minister Dmitriy Medvedev has said. “The task of providing for sustainable economic development, where the key factor is the growth of labour productivity and the modernization of existing capacities, the creation of high-efficiency jobs and personnel training that is up to modern standards, […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, December 2, 2013) By his actions over the past two weeks, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich has done something many in Ukraine thought impossible and many in Russia feared: he has given Ukraine a national idea and united Ukrainians of all nationalities behind it and against himself, according to a Russian nationalist theorist […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Gevorg Mirzayan, special to RBTH – December 2, 2013) Yanukovych declines a deal with the EU as economic realities hit home. President Viktor Yanukovych’s last-minute rejection of a planned Association Agreement with the European Union was unexpected and shocking for most of Ukraine’s public, who are imbued with the idea of European integration. […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Gleb Fedorov, RBTH – December 2, 2013) Under Russia’s leadership, the G20 achieved major agenda changes. The presidency passed to Australia on Dec. 1. Changing the G20 agenda from an anti-crisis to a strategic development one was a major achievement during the club’s Russian presidency, according to several Russians involved in the talks […]
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MOSCOW, December 2 (RIA Novosti) Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a landmark law breaking state-owned Gazprom’s monopoly on gas exports, according to a document published on a government site Monday. Gazprom will keep its export monopoly on gas carried through pipelines, but the new law will allow Russian producers to export liquefied natural gas, the super-cooled fuel increasingly […]
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KAZAN. Nov 29 (Interfax) – State Duma Chairman Sergei Naryshkin claims the West applied strong pressure on Ukraine to sign an association agreement with the European Union. “We all have witnessed unprecedented pressure on Ukraine on the part of Western countries and institutions: highest-ranking European bureaucrats in fact regularly attended not only Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada sessions but also sessions of […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anatoly Medetsky – November 29, 2013) For Ukraine’s Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, it was not pressure from Russia that provoked Ukraine’s flip-flop on the association deal with the European Union. Azarov has said he bowed to the strong sentiment within the country for making up with Moscow, as exports to that key market declined. “I […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – November 29, 2013) Russians will have racked up 10 trillion rubles ($300 billion) in debt by the end of this year, Vedomosti reported Friday, citing the Central Bank. Increasing consumer lending in Russia this year has created concern that the market may be overheating, with officials voicing concerns over possible financial volatility if the trend […]
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SOCHI. Nov 29 (Interfax) – The Russian state is spending huge money on modernizing its armed forces, and therefore all goals that have been set must be attained, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. “The overall volume of the [Defense] Ministry budget in 2003 was 600 billion rubles, and this year, following the last adjustment of the budget, the expenditures on […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 29 (Interfax) – The outflow of capital from funds focused on Russian equities continued for the fifth consecutive week and exceeded $130 million from November 21 through 27, about the same as a week earlier, Emerging Portfolio Fund Research (EPFR) reported. Exchange traded funds (ETF) focused on Russian equities lost $37 million from November 21 to November 27, […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Ola Cichowlas – November 28, 2013) Ola Cichowlas is a British-Polish freelance journalist. She covers Russian regional politics and the arts in provincial Russia. Russia’s industrial cities are more than a blot on the landscape. They are the source of appalling chemical pollution, a problem that neither the authorities nor the oligarch owners seem to have any interest […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, November 27, 2013) Few Russians believe that the economic situation in the country will improve in the next six months or that the government is capable of improving the situation in the country. At the same time, citizens differ on the acceptability of strikes to solve urgent problems, sociologists from the [independent pollster] Levada Centre have told […]
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MOSCOW, November 28 (RIA Novosti) Russia’s Economy Ministry said Thursday that the ruble could depreciate further in 2013, weakening the currency to levels not seen for more than four years. The slide has come despite high oil prices and the ongoing tax collection period, which would normally be expected to increase demand for the domestic currency as businesses pay […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 27 (Interfax) – Russia’s modest economic growth despite high oil prices means that the economy is barely growing at all, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said. “Given such high prices for energy resources, it must be acknowledged that we are not in fact growing,” Shuvalov said at a business conference on Wednesday. That circumstance makes the development […]
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(Interfax – Sochi, November 27, 2013) Whether or not Ukraine signs an association agreement with the EU is an internal matter to be addressed exclusively by Kiev, the Russian president’s press secretary, Dmitriy Peskov, said on Wednesday [27 November]. At the request of journalists, he was commenting on remarks by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who had said that during his […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – November 28, 2013) The stereotype of the profligate New Russian no longer applies according to a recent survey, which found that 80 percent of high-income Russians regularly save up with an eye to future purchases. These members of the economic elite try to put aside at least four rubles out of every 10 they earn, […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Kristian Magnus – November 28, 2013) Two customs officers halted the truck loaded with toy bricks at the border. Two millimeters. That was the extent of the error in the documents, causing the Lego truck to run into the brick wall of Russian bureaucracy. The truck was not granted entry into Russia until the documents […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 28 (Interfax) – Stimulus spending to promote economic growth in Russia is inadvisable, Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseyev said at a financial forum organized by business daily Vedomosti. He said world experience has shown that stimulus spending does not lead to a significant acceleration of economic growth, and has even led to problems in a number of countries. […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Guennadi Moukine – November 28, 2013) PERESLAVL-ZALESSKY, Yaroslavl Region Russia is lagging five and a half years behind the U.S. in supercomputing technology and closing the gap is essential for the competitiveness of the Russian economy, an Academy of Sciences computing expert said. Supercomputers, which are ranked according to their speed of calculation measured […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – December 2, 2013) The Russian economy’s conversion to a more competitive model will take from 7 to 15 years to achieve, former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said. The peak of the economic crisis is past, but systemic imbalances have still not been removed, Kudrin said, speaking at the Russian-German Chamber of Commerce, Vedomosti reported Friday. […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Pavel Vasiliadi, special to RBTH – November 27, 2013) Economist Pavel Vasiliadi discusses the benefits of buying undervalued Russian bonds. Pavel Vasiliadi is director of the analytics and risk-management department at the UFS Investment Company. Russia has long been an active player on the international debt market and in fact has strengthened […]
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(Interfax – November 27, 2013) Few Russians believe that the economic situation in Russia will improve and the government can improve the situation in the country in the next half year, and citizens are divided on whether strikes are an acceptable method of resolving vital problems, sociologists from Levada Center told Interfax. The poll was conducted in 130 populated areas […]
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KYIV. Nov 27 (Interfax) – The Ukrainian economy needs at least $20 billion a year in order to shift to European standards, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych said. “In all, approximately $160 billion are needed in the period until 2017,” the presidential press service quoted Yanukovych as telling Ukrainian television channels on Tuesday evening. “This [association agreement] does not mean Ukraine’s […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anatoly Medetsky – November 27, 2013) President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday told EU officials to refrain from strong language over Ukraine’s decision last week to freeze preparations for a trade agreement with Europe in favor of tighter ties with Russia. Russia and Ukraine are part of a free-trade zone, Putin said, and the lowering of […]
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MOSCOW, November 27 (RIA Novosti) A giant designer suitcase-shaped pavilion installed in the middle of Moscow’s Red Square is being dismantled, city authorities said Wednesday, following a wave of public outrage and numerous demands for its removal. The organizers of the Louis Vuitton-sponsored installation were preparing to take it down on Wednesday afternoon, the city’s media and advertizing department […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 25 (Interfax) – Russian federal executive authorities and the OECD should increase their work to complete the relevant work for Russia’s accession to the organization before the end of 2014, a Russian government presidium decision published on the government website on Monday shows. The Russian Economic Development, Natural Resources, Industry and Trade Ministries and other federal executive bodies […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Maria Levitov – November 26, 2013) Goldman Sachs Group Inc. recommended buying Chinese (SHCOMP) and Russian stocks as a pick up in growth in developed countries and government reforms boost prospects for the “least-expensive” emerging markets. Goldman upgraded equities in the two countries to overweight, the equivalent of buy, from market weight, saying Chinese banks and […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 25 (Interfax) – The business confidence index for the Russian extractive sector negative (-) was 3% in November, down from -2% in October and -1% in September and 4% for the five months prior to that, the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) said. In the manufacturing sector, the index was negative (-) 6% in November, down from -5% […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, November 26, 2013) With the retirement or death of “the last generations who received technical education in the USSR,” the Russian Federation now faces an increasingly severe shortage of qualified workers and “the total de-professionalization of the workforce,” according to Yevgeny Gontmakher. And that, far more than many other problems the Kremlin […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 22 (Interfax) – The percentage of Russians who have savings has hit its highest point in the past few years. The ruble remains the most popular currency of savings, but Russians do not want to abandon the dollar or euro either, sociologists said. Some 22% of the respondents said they had savings in fall 2008. The percentage grew […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 22 (Interfax) – Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Russia grew 51.6% year-on-year in January-September 2013 to $18.61 billion, the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) said. Overall foreign investment grew 15.7% year-on-year to $132.385 billion. FDI grew 4.6% in January-September last year. FDI in this year included $7.279 billion in equity investment, up 15.2%; $10.13 billion in loans from […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 22 (Interfax) – The level of poverty in Russia rose to 13.0% in the first half of 2013, from 12.5% a year previously, the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) said. Rosstat said 18.4 million Russians were living below the poverty line, up 0.7 million from the same period of last year. Rosstat estimates the subsistence threshold at 7,372 […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Daryna Krasnolutska – November 26, 2013) Ukraine’s president vowed to explain his snub of a European Union trade pact as Prime Minister Mykola Azarov denied a financing package had been completed with Russia, which opposed the accord. Viktor Yanukovych, who hasn’t spoken publicly since Ukraine decided last week to abandon plans to sign an EU association […]
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(Interfax – November 26, 2013) Ukraine might have had short-term losses from its association with the European Union but gained in the long-term, former Russian Finance Minister, head of the Committee for Civil Initiatives Alexei Kudrin said. “I think that the reasons mentioned by the Russian president and Ukrainian entrepreneurs are quite rational. Most probably, Ukraine will lose from entering […]
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KYIV. Nov 25 (Interfax) – Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych said economic problems are the most difficult issues in Ukraine’s European integration. “We have passed a long way and we have yet to go a long distance. Economic problems have been the most difficult issues on this road,” he said in an appeal to the nation, posted on his website. “But […]
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KYIV. Nov 22 (Interfax) – Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has said that the government’s decision to suspend preparations for the signing of an association agreement with the European Union is tactical and stems from the current economic situation in the country. “The decision to suspend the signing of the association agreement with the EU was difficult, but it is […]
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NOVO-OGARYOVO. Nov 21 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said he urged the government and experts to determine practical steps to ensure stable economic growth of the country. “The work on development tasks should be regular and systemic. Deep expert elaboration of our strategic guides, proposals on practice steps able to ensure stable development of the country and competiveness of […]
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(Institute of Modern Russia – imrussia.org – Sasha de Vogel, Managing editor of the Journal of Globalization and Development – November 19, 2013) [Charts and notes here http://www.imrussia.org/en/society/605-from-economic-crisis-to-political-crisis] During the 2011-2012 electoral cycle, Russia saw unprecedented mass protests by representatives of the country’s growing middle class calling for more democracy and less corruption. Political scientists point to the unraveling of an […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – November 21, 2013) Russia has risen eight points to rank 56th best country in the latest survey of taxation environment, which is part of the World Bank’s Doing Business effort. The improvement was thanks to a reduction of administrative red tape, but the survey of 189 countries found that it still cost Russian companies too […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – November 20, 2013) The United States may publish the extended version of the “Magnitsky list” as early as next month, while Europe is expected to pass a similar measure, Hermitage Capital investment fund president and bill supporter William Browder said. The Magnitsky Act, enacted by the U.S. Congress in December 2012 and named after late […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 19 (Interfax) – State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Alexei Pushkov has blamed frequent aircraft accidents in Russia on the antisocial type of capitalism that appeared in the country under the influence of a liberal economy. “Airplanes tend to crash in our country quite often because the liberal economy generated a special kind of capitalism in Russia that […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 19 (Interfax) – Most Russians describe the current economic status of the country and their families as mediocre and the number of negative opinions is rising, Levada Center told Interfax. Fifty-four percent of the 1,603 respondents polled in October said that the country’s economic status was mediocre, 32% said it was bad, and 11% claimed that the Russian […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, November 19, 2013) Russia’s regions are overwhelmingly in a deep crisis, the result of a confluence of factors that can be overcome only by ending “hyper-centralization,” restoring budgetary federalism, and somehow reversing the “degradation” and rapacity of the Moscow elite and its faith in gigantist projects, according to Natalya Zubarevich. In a […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Ben Aris in Moscow – November 19, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin is frustrated with the slow progress in his anti-corruption drive and struggling to take charge of the situation. Having ignored the problem for over a decade, the president has been forced to finally deal with the problem of graft, as Russia can […]
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